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For Biden And Trump, 2022 Is 2020 Sequel — And 2024 Preview? – KESQ https://digitalalaskanews.com/for-biden-and-trump-2022-is-2020-sequel-and-2024-preview-kesq/ By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — This year’s midterm elections are playing out as a strange continuation of the last presidential race — and a potential preview of the next one. Donald Trump, who refused to exit the stage after his defeat, has spent months raging against Joe Biden, reshaping downballot campaigns that normally function as a straightforward referendum on the incumbent president. The result is an episode of political shadowboxing with little precedent, as the current president and his immediate predecessor — and possible future challenger — crisscross the country in support of their party’s candidates. Trump has been holding raucous rallies in battleground states, where he alternates between touting his handpicked candidates and denouncing his enemies. He belittles and excoriates Biden while lying, as he did in Ohio last month, that “we didn’t lose” the last election. Biden has so far steered clear of some of the tightest midterm races, instead focusing on fundraisers and official events where he draws contrasts between Democratic and Republican policy agendas. He often avoids direct references to “the last guy,” but on Saturday in Oregon, Biden warned that “Trump controls the Republican Party.” Sometimes the two men travel to the same places, such as when they visited Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, within days of each other, a reflection of the narrow political map that will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. “It’s remarkably unusual,” said Jeffrey Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, who strained to think of any comparison in previous election cycles. “Without exception, since the Great Depression” — Republican Herbert Hoover tried to plot a path back to power despite losing to Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932 — “we have not had a former president who believed they still had a viable political career ahead of them,” he said. Neither Trump nor Biden has formally announced they will run again. Trump has come close to declaring his candidacy, and Biden has said he intends to seek a second term. If they face off again, the competition between them could become one of the longest and impactful political duels in American history, spanning several years and multiple elections. Voters seem to have little appetite for a rematch. A recent AP-NORC poll shows only about 3 in 10 Americans want either Biden or Trump to run for president in two years. Just 5 in 10 Democrats want Biden to seek a second term, while 6 out of 10 Republicans hope to see Trump seek the presidency again. Engel said another battle between Biden and Trump would likely prove dispiriting. “What that fundamentally means is our country is not moving forward,” he said. “I have not met anybody who relishes that campaign.” However, it’s clear that both men see their fortunes tied to the other. When CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Biden whether he’s the only one who could fend off his predecessor in another campaign, the president sidestepped the question but expressed confidence about his chances. “I believe I can beat Donald Trump again,” he said. Trump would take issue with the use of the word “again” — he continues to spread the lie that Biden only took office through voter fraud. It’s an integral part of Trump’s political message, and he never fails to bring it up at rallies for Republican candidates who have endorsed his false views on the last election. Sometimes the rhetoric dives even deeper into conspiracies, a reminder that another campaign could represent an even sharper break with reality. In Arizona, during his most recent rally, Trump darkly suggested that Biden is surrounded by “vicious, very smart people” who are “pulling strings.” “No one thought this could happen in our country, and it all happened because of a rigged and stolen election,” he said. The former president has also tightened his embrace of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which portrays Trump as battling sinister, hidden forces. Using his Truth Social platform, Trump shared an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming,” referencing his eventual victory over opponents who would be tried — or even executed — on live television. People close to Trump have said they believe a strong performance by Republicans in November will further encourage Trump to run again in two years, as he has been openly teasing for months. In addition to his rallies, which earn candidates local media attention and fire up the Republican base, Trump has been helping candidates in other ways, holding fundraisers and tele-rally calls on their behalf. Most significantly, last week, his new super PAC, MAGA Inc., reserved nearly $5 million in airtime for ads in key states attacking the opponents of his favored candidates. The first round of ads from the group notably do not feature Trump or even mention his name. Republicans have expressed frustration that Trump was hoarding small-dollar donations for himself and refusing to help the candidates he had pushed voters to nominate, despite sitting on an enormous war chest. But Mike DuHaime, a longtime Republican strategist, isn’t sure the outcome of the midterms will make a difference in Trump’s plans for the next presidential race. “He’ll take credit for every win and deflect blame for every loss,” he said. Trump has claimed, as he did in Pennsylvania last month, that the midterms are “a referendum on the corruption and extremism of Joe Biden and the radical Democrat party.” But DuHaime said Trump has prevented that from happening by injecting himself into this year’s races, providing a boost to Biden, whose poll numbers remain underwater as voters express concerns about the economy. “Trump is no ordinary president, nor did he really seem to care about the party,” he said. “He seems to care about himself more than the party that put him in office.” Biden’s circle has a similar view. An adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, said those around Biden see the midterms as having become more of a choice than a referendum. Trump’s presence on the trail, the adviser said, is seen as helping make Democratic points for them. Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, said the only thing more helpful would be if Trump announced another presidential campaign. “He’s getting dangerously close to that,” she said. Biden has deferred any announcement about his own candidacy until after Election Day, keeping his focus on the midterms. Like other incumbent presidents in an election year, Biden has blended his political and governmental duties as voting begins. He stopped in Colorado on Wednesday to designate the first national monument of his administration, fulfilling the wishes of the state’s senior Democratic senator, Michael Bennett, who is seeking reelection this year. Although Bennett is favored to win, he’s facing a concerted challenge from Joe O’Dea, a Republican businessman. ___ Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report. ___ For more information on the midterm elections, go to: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections Read More Here

China’s Xi Calls For Military Growth As Party Congress Opens https://digitalalaskanews.com/chinas-xi-calls-for-military-growth-as-party-congress-opens/ BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Sunday called for faster military development and announced no change in policies that have strained relations with Washington and tightened the ruling Communist Party’s control over society and the economy. China’s most influential figure in decades spoke as the party opened a congress that was closely watched by companies, governments and the public for signs of official direction. It comes amid a painful slump in the world’s second-largest economy and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. Party plans call for creating a prosperous society by mid-century and restoring China to its historic role as a political, economic and cultural leader. Beijing has expanded its presence abroad including a multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative to build ports and other infrastructure across Asia and Africa, but economists warn reversing market-style reform could hamper growth. “The next five years will be crucial,” Xi said in a televised speech of one hour and 45 minutes to some 2,000 delegates in the cavernous Great Hall of the People. He repeatedly invoked his slogan of the “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” which includes reviving the party’s role as economic and social leader in a throwback to what Xi regards as a golden age after it took power in 1949. The congress will install leaders for the next five years. Xi, 69, is expected to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as general secretary and promote allies who share his enthusiasm for party dominance. The party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, needs to “safeguard China’s dignity and core interests,” Xi said, referring to a list of territorial claims and other issues over which Beijing says it is ready to go to war. China, with the world’s second-largest military budget after the United States, is trying to extend its reach by developing ballistic missiles, aircraft carriers and overseas outposts. “We will work faster to modernize military theory, personnel and weapons,” Xi said. “We will enhance the military’s strategic capabilities.” Xi cited his government’s severe “zero-COVID” strategy, which has shut down major cities and disrupted travel and business, as a success. He gave no indication of a possible change despite public frustration with its rising cost. The congress will name a Standing Committee, the ruling inner circle of power. The lineup will indicate who is likely to succeed Premier Li Keqiang as the top economic official and take other posts when China’s ceremonial legislature meets next year. Analysts are watching whether a slump that saw economic growth fall to below half of the official 5.5% annual target might force Xi to compromise and include supporters of market-style reform and entrepreneurs who generate wealth and jobs. Xi gave no indication when he might step down. During his decade in power, Xi’s government has pursued an increasingly assertive foreign policy while tightening control at home on information and dissent. Beijing is feuding with Japan, India and Southeast Asian governments over conflicting claims to the South China and East China Seas and a section of the Himalayas. The United States, Japan, Australia and India have formed a strategic group dubbed the Quad in response. The party has increased the dominance of state-owned industry and poured money into strategic initiatives aimed at nurturing Chinese creators of renewable energy, electric car, computer chip, aerospace and other technologies. Its tactics have prompted complaints that Beijing improperly protects and subsidizes its fledgling creators and led then-President Donald Trump to hike tariffs on Chinese imports in 2019, setting off a trade war that jolted the global economy. Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has kept those penalties in place and this month increased restrictions on Chinese access to U.S. chip technology. The party has tightened control over private sector leaders including e-commerce giant Alibaba Group by launching anti-monopoly, data security and other crackdowns. Under political pressure, they are diverting billions of dollars into chip development and other party initiatives. Their share prices on foreign exchanges have plunged due to uncertainty about their future. The party has stepped up censorship of media and the internet, increased public surveillance and tightened control over private life through its “social credit” initiative that tracks individuals and punishes infractions ranging from fraud to littering. Last week, banners criticizing Xi and “zero COVID” were hung from an elevated roadway over a major Beijing thoroughfare in a rare protest. Photos of the event were deleted from social media, and the popular WeChat messaging app shut down accounts that forwarded them. Xi said the party would build “self-reliance and strength” in technology by improving China’s education system and attracting foreign experts. The president appeared to double down on technology self-reliance and “zero COVID” at a time when other countries are easing travel restrictions and rely on more free-flowing supply chains, said Willy Lam, a politics specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Xi was joined on stage by party leaders including his predecessor as party leader, Hu Jintao, former Premier Wen Jiabao and Song Ping, a 105-year-old party veteran who sponsored Xi’s early career. There was no sign of 96-year-old former President Jiang Zemin, who was party leader until 2002. The presence of previous leaders shows Xi faces no serious opposition, said Lam. “Xi is making it very clear he intends to hold onto power for as long as his health allows him to,” he said. Xi made no mention of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Beijing refuses to criticize. He defended a crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, saying the party helped the former British colony “enter a new stage in which it has restored order and is set to thrive.” Xi’s government also faces criticism over mass detentions and other abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic groups and the jailing of government critics. Amnesty International warned that extending Xi’s time in power will be a “disaster for human rights.” In addition to conditions within China, it pointed to Beijing’s efforts to “redefine the very meaning of human rights” at the United Nations. Xi said Beijing refuses to renounce the possible use of force against Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy the Communist Party claims as its territory. The two sides split in 1949 after a civil war. Beijing has stepped up efforts to intimidate Taiwanese by flying fighter jets and bombers toward the island. That campaign intensified further after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August became the highest-ranked U.S. official to visit Taiwan in a quarter-century. “We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification,” Xi said. “But we will never promise to renounce the use of force. And we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary.” Taiwan’s government responded that its 23 million people had the right to determine their own future and would not accept Beijing’s demands. A government statement called on China to “abandon the imposition of a political framework and the use of military force and coercion.” The Communist Party leadership agreed in the 1990s to limit the general secretary to two five-year terms in an effort to prevent a repeat of power struggles from earlier decades. That leader also becomes chairman of the commission that controls the military and holds the ceremonial title of national president. Xi made his intentions clear in 2018 when he had a two-term limit on the presidency removed from China’s Constitution. Officials said that allowed Xi to stay if needed to carry out reforms. The party is expected to amend its charter this week to raise Xi’s status as leader after adding his personal ideology, Xi Jinping Thought, at the previous congress in 2017. The spokesperson for the congress, Sun Yeli, said Saturday the changes would “meet new requirements for advancing the party’s development” but gave no details. Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox Read More Here

What’s On Your Mind? https://digitalalaskanews.com/whats-on-your-mind/ Steven Sveine of New Ulm: “The first snow is coming Nov. 4.” Shawn McCann of Crystal, MN: “Two weeks because it’s warming up over the next few days.” Cassandra Cano of New Ulm: “Twenty-ninth of October. It won’t be a blizzard, but there will be snow.” Gunner Volk of New Ulm: “Nov. 2.” Lee Webber of New Ulm: “Nov. 1.” Alisson Almos from Andover, MN: “Nov. 10.” With snow already falling in the Twin Cities metro area, how long until the New Ulm region sees its first significant snowfall of the season? Photos, interviews by Clay Schuldt Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox With snow already falling in the Twin Cities metro area, how long until the New Ulm region sees its first … What do you like most about Oktoberfest? Photos, interviews by Fritz Busch in downtown New Ulm, Oct. 8 Dear Heloise: I just returned from my grandson’s lovely wedding. His clever bride arranged a unique … For every Donald Trump, would that there were 100 Anika Collier Navarolis, the Twitter whistleblower who testified … The New York Times recently ran a story about Russia’s powerful internet regulator, Roskmnadzor, whose collection … Dear Annie: I had a cousin who was dating an actress. On her biography, she listed people she had dated but did not … Read More Here

Sanders: Democrats Shouldn’t Court Far-Right ‘racist, Sexist, Homophobic’ Voters https://digitalalaskanews.com/sanders-democrats-shouldnt-court-far-right-racist-sexist-homophobic-voters/ Democrats should give up trying to appeal to racist, sexist or homophobic voters on the far right even as their party tries to preserve thin majorities in both congressional chambers, the progressive US senator Bernie Sanders said on Sunday. Sanders’ remarks came during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press after host Chuck Todd asked a question about attempting to woo over supporters of Donald Trump, which include white nationalists who helped stage the deadly January 6 Capitol attack on the day that Congress certified the former Republican president’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Todd said Sanders “made a big deal about wanting to court Trump voters” in both the 2016 election that Trump won as well as the 2020 race that he lost and wondered if the Vermont senator still felt they were worth that. “There are some extreme rightwing voters who are racists, who are sexists, who are homophobes – xenophobes,” Sanders said. “No, I don’t think you’re ever going to get them.” Sanders nonetheless said Democrats should sympathize with “millions of … working-class people” who can’t afford healthcare, college tuition for their children or their prescription drugs. And he said one way to appeal to undecided voters is to have the political resolve to punish corporate greed from insurance firms, drug companies and Wall Street traders. “Some of those people – I’m not saying all – will say, ‘You know what, I’m going to stand with the Democratic party because on these economic issues, they’re far preferable to right-wing Republicans,” Sanders told Todd. Sanders is an independent but votes in line with the Democrats’ agenda on Capitol Hill. He recently wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian that warned Democrats should not only focus on protecting abortion rights in the closing phases of this midterm election cycle but also needed to communicate a plan for the economic woes facing Americans that Republicans as a party purport to care more about. Sanders said his voting record starkly illustrates his opposition to the US supreme court’s decision in June to eliminate federal protections for abortion, which a majority of voters believe should be legal in most cases, according to some polling. The supreme court’s ruling overturning the nationwide abortion rights established by the 1973 Roe v Wade case has led to fears that the justices could also target the elimination of same-sex marriage. But Sanders said his party should also be concerned about how six in 10 Americans live paycheck to paycheck. And he has said Democrats should be more vocal about how they have better ideas than Republicans on rectifying that reality, including through methods such as ending tax breaks, raising the federal minimum wage and even providing universal healthcare. The Democrats go into the midterms with an eight-seat advantage in the House. The Senate is split evenly but Biden’s Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris currently gives their party a tiebreaker. Read More Here

Iraqi Politician Announces New Government To Sue Trump – Iraqi News https://digitalalaskanews.com/iraqi-politician-announces-new-government-to-sue-trump-iraqi-news/ Former US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Member of the Iraqi Fatah Alliance (Conquest Alliance), Hamid Al-Musawi, confirmed on Saturday that the new government headed by Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani will follow up on the assassination issue of deputy chief of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, according to a statement cited by Alsumaria News. Al-Musawi mentioned that the new Iraqi government will follow up the issue of the assassination of Al-Muhandis with the American judiciary. Al-Musawi indicated that the new government is seeking to sue former US President Donald Trump for this crime. Al-Muhandis, along with the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, were killed in a US raid near Baghdad airport in January 2020. Regarding the approach of the new government, Al-Musawi said that it seeks to complete what Abdul-Mahdi’s government has accomplished and search for sources of funding other than oil. Last Thursday, the new Iraqi President, Abdul Latif Rashid, commissioned Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani, to form the new government. Read More Here

Kyiv Rocked By Explosions From Iranian ‘Kamikaze’ Drones https://digitalalaskanews.com/kyiv-rocked-by-explosions-from-iranian-kamikaze-drones/ Updated  Oct. 17, 2022, 12:42 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2022, 12:42 a.m. ET KYIV, Ukraine — Kyiv was hit by drone strikes on Monday morning, a Ukrainian official said, with two loud explosions echoing through the center of the city, in a continuation of Russia’s bombardment of Ukrainian cities that intensified last week. The explosions were the loudest in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, since a flurry of strikes on Oct. 10 were launched in retaliation for an explosion on a strategic bridge and in response to Ukraine’s battlefield gains in a counteroffensive. “The Russians think that this will help them but these actions look more like agony,” said Andriy Yermak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s president. The Russian attack one week ago was one of the broadest in months, which President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said intentionally targeted civilians and power infrastructure. Missiles hit cities across the country in the Oct. 10 strikes, killing at least 19 people. The latest attack on Kyiv came as many people were preparing for work and children were just waking up for their school day, as education has returned to in-person classes this autumn. Instead of heading to classrooms, the children of the capital city, some already dressed in their school uniforms, made their way to basement shelters to wait out the threat. The humming noise of an engine passed relatively slowly over the city in the still of the morning between the blasts, a telltale sign of a drone arriving in the capital. Air raid sirens went off about 10 minutes before the attacks. In streets near the site of one strike, an acrid smoke wafted about. The upper stories of an office building were burning and debris, broken glass and documents littered the pavement nearby. The building appeared to have been empty when it was hit shortly after 6 a.m. Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, in a post on Telegram, confirmed that a strike had hit the central Shevchenko district, the same part of central Kyiv targeted one week ago. He urged residents to stay in shelters. Austin Ramzy contributed reporting. Oct. 17, 2022, 1:07 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2022, 1:07 a.m. ET Michael Schwirtz Reporting from Kyiv Russia attacked Kyiv on Monday with Iranian supplied explosive drones, hitting the headquarters of Ukraine’s national energy utility among other targets, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said. No injuries or deaths have been reported, he said. Oct. 17, 2022, 1:01 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2022, 1:01 a.m. ET Megan Specia Reporting from Kyiv At least one strike appears to have directly hit a building just around the corner from the site of one of the missile strikes last Monday, in the heart of the capital near the central train station. Oct. 17, 2022, 12:49 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2022, 12:49 a.m. ET Megan Specia Reporting from Kyiv The first explosions were heard in Kyiv around 6:45 a.m. on Monday, nearly 90 minutes earlier than the strikes one week ago, in the same area. Oct. 17, 2022, 12:44 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2022, 12:44 a.m. ET Austin Ramzy Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said in a post on Telegram that one building was burning in the Shevchenkiv district and several residential buildings were damaged. The authorities were still trying to determine whether there were any casualties, he added. Oct. 17, 2022, 12:37 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2022, 12:37 a.m. ET Megan Specia Reporting from Kyiv Residents of Kyiv were preparing for work and children were just waking up for school as the explosions hit Kyiv. Instead of heading to classrooms, the children of the capital city, some already dressed in their uniforms, made their way to basement shelters. Oct. 16, 2022, 4:18 p.m. ET Oct. 16, 2022, 4:18 p.m. ET Image President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, last week.Credit…Didor Sadulloev/Reuters Russian troops and military planes have started to arrive in Belarus in preparation for the formation of a new joint Russia-Belarus force, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said on Sunday. Belarus is Ukraine’s neighbor to the north and a close ally of Russia, from whose territory Moscow launched an abortive attack on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, in February. On Monday, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus announced that Russian troops would return to his country in large numbers, a replay of the military buildup there that preceded Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “This won’t be just a thousand troops,” Mr. Lukashenko told senior military and security officials in Minsk, the Belarusian capital. The Belarusian Defense Ministry said Sunday on Telegram that the “aviation component” of the new force, whose exact purpose has not been spelled out, had started arriving from Russia. Mr. Lukashenko has repeatedly said that he does not want his military to join Russia’s fight in Ukraine, but analysts note that he emphatically denied Russia would attack Ukraine from his territory just days before the invasion started. A renewed Russian offensive in northern Ukraine from Belarus would further expand a conflict that Russia initially expected to last just a few days but has now raged for more than seven months. The establishment of a joint force with Russia will most likely reinforce the view in Ukraine that Belarus is clearly a “co-aggressor,” a label that Mr. Lukashenko has rejected but took on new force on Monday after a barrage of Russian missile attacks on Kyiv and elsewhere, some of them launched from Belarusian territory, according to Ukrainian officials. Oct. 16, 2022, 5:26 a.m. ET Oct. 16, 2022, 5:26 a.m. ET Image Explosions in Donetsk on Sunday hit a building used by the Russian-occupied city’s puppet local government.Credit…Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters At least one person was killed and a local administration building in the Russian-occupied eastern city of Donetsk was significantly damaged after an explosion Sunday morning, according to Russian reports citing local pro-Russian authorities. The Russian state-run news agency Tass reported that one man was killed and two others injured when Ukrainian shelling struck the building. Images and videos from the scene showed extensive damage. “This morning a series of explosions has rocked the temporarily occupied city of Donetsk, and a local administration building has caught fire,” the Ukrainian armed forces said in a post on one of its Telegram channels on Sunday, but did not claim responsibility for the attack. Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news outlet also said that the premises of the city administration had been hit by an attack on Sunday, blaming “shelling by Ukrainian troops.” It said some people had been hospitalized, without offering details. Images and videos posted on social media appeared to show debris scattered throughout the building, smoke pouring from broken windows and cars on fire in the parking lot. The footage could not be immediately verified. The city has been occupied by pro-Russian forces since the conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014. Since then, a Russian puppet administration that calls itself the Donetsk People’s Republic has been governing the city and parts of the wider Donetsk region. Last month, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said he was formally annexing all of the Donetsk region and three other areas of Ukraine where his forces claim partial control — a move widely condemned as illegal. Ukrainian troops have been gaining ground in most of those areas, including in Donetsk, where they recently reclaimed the strategic railway hub of Lyman. Read More Here

Biden Turning To Trump-Era Rule To Expel Venezuelan Migrants https://digitalalaskanews.com/biden-turning-to-trump-era-rule-to-expel-venezuelan-migrants-3/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S. The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds. “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels. “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S. Why the turnaround? For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers. Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere. After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S. Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings. But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials. A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year. By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage. So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42. It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.” Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico. The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S. “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.” A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless. “People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt. Long reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of immigration at https://apnews.com/hub/immigration Copyright 2022 KMVT. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Stock Futures Rise After A Rollercoaster Week, Investors Await Earnings Reports Ahead https://digitalalaskanews.com/stock-futures-rise-after-a-rollercoaster-week-investors-await-earnings-reports-ahead/ Traders on the floor of the NYSE, Aug. 4, 2022. Source: NYSE Stock futures traded higher early on Monday as investors awaited big earnings reports to roll in. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 111 points or 0.37%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures inched 0.37% and 0.33% higher, respectively. The S&P 500 just came off its fourth negative week in five with a 1.6% loss last week. A hotter-than-expected inflation reading stoked wild price swings in the markets as investors readjusted their expectations for the Federal Reserve’s coming rate hikes. “As inflation remains elevated for longer and the Fed hikes further, the risk increases that the cumulative effect of policy tightening pushes the U.S. economy into recession, undermining the outlook for corporate earnings,” Mark Haefele, CIO at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note. Meanwhile, the third-quarter earnings season has kicked off. Investors are monitoring if corporate America will have any significant downward revisions to their outlooks in the face of stubbornly high inflation and the economic slowdown. Bank of America is slated to report Monday before the bell, while Goldman Sachs will release numbers Tuesday morning. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo reported solid results last week, while Morgan Stanley’s equity trading revenue disappointed. Many notable technology names are also reporting this week, including Netflix, Tesla and IBM. Johnson & Johnson, United Airlines, AT&T, Verizon and Procter & Gamble are other big companies on investors’ radar. British pound strengthens after policy reversals Sterling rose on Monday morning in Asia following more policy reversals by the U.K. government late last week. The pound was last 0.56% higher at $1.1233. CNBC Pro: As market volatility persists, Wall Street analysts say to sell these stocks Stocks worldwide have taken a beating this year, and major indexes remain deep in negative territory. As investors weigh whether to sell or stay invested, CNBC Pro screened almost 1,500 large and mid-cap global stocks and found a number of major companies with sell or underweight ratings. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Ganesh Rao CNBC Pro: Nearing retirement? How to allocate your portfolio right now, according to the pros Despite the volatility in markets, asset managers say it’s important to remain invested if you’re nearing retirement. But how should one allocate funds, bearing in mind unsettled markets, a shorter investing horizon and the need for retirees to have some liquidity? CNBC Pro asks the experts for their views. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Weizhen Tan CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson flags a key risk to earnings — and names the stocks to avoid Morgan Stanley’s U.S. equity team, led by Michelle Weaver and Mike Wilson, says there’s a key risk to earnings on the horizon. The investment bank named several stocks it believes will be most impacted in the next 3-6 months, and which could see downside to their share prices in the same period. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong A relief rally could be close? Last Thursday, the market pulled off a historic intraday reversal that saw the S&P 500 end the day up 2.6% after losing more than 2% earlier. It marked the fifth largest intraday reversal from a low in the history of the S&P 500, and it was the fourth largest for the Nasdaq Composite, according to SentimenTrader. The dramatic rebound gave some investors confidence that a more lasting comeback could be on the horizon. “Markets have attempted a rally several times in recent weeks with no success, though the impressive reversal on Thursday is an indication that a relief rally may be near given the excess degree of pessimism priced into markets,” said Mark Hackett, Nationwide’s chief of investment research. Hackett noted that institutional investors have remained on the sidelines, while retail investors continued to be in buy-the-dip mode, with positive fund flows in seven-consecutive weeks. Read More Here

Classes Canceled In 2 Mass. Cities With Teachers Strikes Expected https://digitalalaskanews.com/classes-canceled-in-2-mass-cities-with-teachers-strikes-expected-2/ School officials in Haverhill and Malden have canceled classes on Monday with teachers strikes expected to start in both Massachusetts cities.The president of the Malden Education Association, Deb Gesualdo, said that teachers will be on strike Monday after spending nearly 11 hours at the negotiating table with the Malden School Committee on Sunday alone.Gesualdo said both sides went back and forth on salary and that the union came down on their demands and felt close to a deal before the School Committee’s negotiating subcommittee called for a mediator and walked out for the night.Because of the threat of a teachers strike, Malden Public Schools officials canceled Monday’s classes. Although there is no school for students, the school district said all union and non-union employees will be required to report to work on Monday in schools and central offices.”The School Committee’s negotiating team and the MEA had an incredibly productive day of bargaining that ended in the committee making a significant number of agreements and a very competitive and unprecedented salary and benefits offer,” Malden Public School Superintendent Ligia Noriega-Murphy said in a statement. “Considering how much movement was made today, we would have hoped the bargaining could have continued at our next regularly scheduled meeting, and that no avoidable disruption to the education of our students and routine of our families would occur.”The news out of Malden came just hours after the Haverhill School Committee announced Monday’s classes are canceled after it was not able to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Haverhill Education Association, paving the way for a teachers strike.The School Committee said it spent hours at the negotiating table with the teachers union over the weekend in the hopes of avoiding a strike after HEA members overwhelmingly voted in favor of authorizing a strike on Friday. Malden educators also overwhelmingly approved an authorization to strike in a vote held Friday afternoon.In their contract negotiations, Haverhill and Malden educators have said they are seeking higher pay, smaller class sizes and safer school environments.While the school will be closed to students on Monday, the School Committee said buildings will be open and all employees are expected to report to work.Teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts since state law prohibits strikes by public employees, which makes them exceptionally rare in the commonwealth.”If they come to the table with a good deal, our team will sign it. I hope it’s tonight,” said Barry Davis, 1st vice president of the Haverhill Education Association. “But if we have to be on the (picket) line tomorrow, we will be.”Members of the Haverhill School Committee said they have offered teachers the biggest raise city educators have had in 20 years, but added that the Massachusetts Teachers Association wants the teachers to go on strike.”While some progress was made over the last few days, we are extremely disappointed that union leadership and the Massachusetts Teachers Association has encouraged our teachers to take this illegal action,” reads a statement from the Haverhill Negotiations Subcommittee.The school committee said that it, along with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Board, is asking a Salem Superior Court judge to issue a junction against the Haverhill Education Association for its strike.Negotiations will pick up at 8 a.m. Monday, according to the Haverhill School Committee.Haverhill students who have access to a free school lunch on Monday and free breakfast on Tuesday can get food at the following locations from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.:The Haverhill YMCA, 81 Winter St.The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill, 55 Emerson St.Swasey Field Park, 59 Blaisdell St.Haverhill Stadium, Lincoln and NettletonHaverhill Public Works Department – Parking Lot, 500 Primrose St.Winnekenni Castle – Tennis courts – 347 Kenoza Ave.Bradford CommonsCashman’s Park on Hilldale Ave.In addition, the Haverhill YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill will be open Monday for children who are presently enrolled in their programs.Parents of children who are registered for before-school or after-school programs at the YMCA will receive an email directly from the YMCA regarding childcare operations, including a full-day program from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.Parents of children who are not registered for YMCA programs but are enrolled in grades K-4 can sign up for a drop-in program at the Plaistow Community YMCA in New Hampshire from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Preregistration is required in advance.Haverhill students who are members of the local Boys and Girls Club are welcome to drop in at any time Monday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.Malden Public Schools officials said all before- and after-school programs, athletic practices and games, and other extracurricular activities scheduled for Monday have been canceled. There will also be no school bus transportation, except for a small number of Malden students who attend special education programs in schools outside the district. HAVERHILL, Mass. — School officials in Haverhill and Malden have canceled classes on Monday with teachers strikes expected to start in both Massachusetts cities. The president of the Malden Education Association, Deb Gesualdo, said that teachers will be on strike Monday after spending nearly 11 hours at the negotiating table with the Malden School Committee on Sunday alone. Gesualdo said both sides went back and forth on salary and that the union came down on their demands and felt close to a deal before the School Committee’s negotiating subcommittee called for a mediator and walked out for the night. Because of the threat of a teachers strike, Malden Public Schools officials canceled Monday’s classes. Although there is no school for students, the school district said all union and non-union employees will be required to report to work on Monday in schools and central offices. “The School Committee’s negotiating team and the MEA had an incredibly productive day of bargaining that ended in the committee making a significant number of agreements and a very competitive and unprecedented salary and benefits offer,” Malden Public School Superintendent Ligia Noriega-Murphy said in a statement. “Considering how much movement was made today, we would have hoped the bargaining could have continued at our next regularly scheduled meeting, and that no avoidable disruption to the education of our students and routine of our families would occur.” The news out of Malden came just hours after the Haverhill School Committee announced Monday’s classes are canceled after it was not able to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Haverhill Education Association, paving the way for a teachers strike. The School Committee said it spent hours at the negotiating table with the teachers union over the weekend in the hopes of avoiding a strike after HEA members overwhelmingly voted in favor of authorizing a strike on Friday. Malden educators also overwhelmingly approved an authorization to strike in a vote held Friday afternoon. In their contract negotiations, Haverhill and Malden educators have said they are seeking higher pay, smaller class sizes and safer school environments. While the school will be closed to students on Monday, the School Committee said buildings will be open and all employees are expected to report to work. Teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts since state law prohibits strikes by public employees, which makes them exceptionally rare in the commonwealth. “If they come to the table with a good deal, our team will sign it. I hope it’s tonight,” said Barry Davis, 1st vice president of the Haverhill Education Association. “But if we have to be on the (picket) line tomorrow, we will be.” Members of the Haverhill School Committee said they have offered teachers the biggest raise city educators have had in 20 years, but added that the Massachusetts Teachers Association wants the teachers to go on strike. “While some progress was made over the last few days, we are extremely disappointed that union leadership and the Massachusetts Teachers Association has encouraged our teachers to take this illegal action,” reads a statement from the Haverhill Negotiations Subcommittee. The school committee said that it, along with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Board, is asking a Salem Superior Court judge to issue a junction against the Haverhill Education Association for its strike. Negotiations will pick up at 8 a.m. Monday, according to the Haverhill School Committee. Haverhill students who have access to a free school lunch on Monday and free breakfast on Tuesday can get food at the following locations from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.: The Haverhill YMCA, 81 Winter St. The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill, 55 Emerson St. Swasey Field Park, 59 Blaisdell St. Haverhill Stadium, Lincoln and Nettleton Haverhill Public Works Department – Parking Lot, 500 Primrose St. Winnekenni Castle – Tennis courts – 347 Kenoza Ave. Bradford Commons Cashman’s Park on Hilldale Ave. In addition, the Haverhill YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill will be open Monday for children who are presently enrolled in their programs. Parents of children who are registered for before-school or after-school programs at the YMCA will receive an email directly from the YMCA regarding childcare operations, including a full-day program from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Parents of children who are not registered for YMCA programs but are enrolled in grades K-4 can sign up for a drop-in program at the Plaistow Community YMCA in New Hampshire from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Preregistration is required in advance. Haverhill students who are members of the loc...

AP News In Brief At 11:09 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-in-brief-at-1109-p-m-edt/ Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in occupied Donetsk KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials on Sunday blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in Donetsk, a city controlled by the separatists, while Ukrainian officials said Russian rocket strikes hit a town across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, among other targets. The attacks came as Russia’s war in Ukraine nears the eight-month mark. Kyiv also reported holding the line in continued fierce fighting around Bakhmut, where Russian forces have claimed some gains amid a seven-week Ukrainian counteroffensive that has led Russian troops to retreat in some other areas. On the front line, “the key hotspots in Donbas are (neighboring towns) Soledar and Bakhmut, where extremely heavy fighting continues,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Sunday. Those towns and Donetsk are in the industrialized Donbas region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv since 2014. The Donetsk region is among four that were illegally annexed by Russia last month. Zelenskyy accused Russia of including convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops in return for pay and amnesty — something Western intelligence officials have also asserted. UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks LONDON (AP) — When Liz Truss was running to lead Britain this summer, an ally predicted her first weeks in office would be turbulent. But few were prepared for the scale of the sound and fury -– least of all Truss herself. In just six weeks, the prime minister’s libertarian economic policies have triggered a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention, multiple U-turns and the firing of her Treasury chief. Now Truss faces a mutiny inside the governing Conservative Party that leaves her leadership hanging by a thread. Conservative lawmaker Robert Halfon fumed on Sunday that the last few weeks had brought “one horror story after another.” “The government has looked like libertarian jihadists and treated the whole country as kind of laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free-market experiments,” he told Sky News. China’s party congress promises continuity, not change BEIJING (AP) — The overarching theme emerging from China’s ongoing Communist Party congress is one of continuity, not change. The weeklong meeting, which opened Sunday, is expected to reappoint Xi Jinping as leader, reaffirm a commitment to his policies for the next five years and possibly elevate his status even further as one of the most powerful leaders in China’s modern history. A look at what’s happened so far, and what’s to come: MORE OF THE SAME This is not an inflection point for the party. That happened 10 years ago when it named Xi as leader, though it wasn’t evident at the time. Warnock answers Libertarian wildcard in Ga.; Walker skips ATLANTA (AP) — Libertarian Chase Oliver isn’t going to win Georgia’s pivotal U.S. Senate race. But the 37-year-old Atlanta businessman could help determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate over the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term. Oliver is the third name on the ballot in the marquee matchup between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. In most states, that make would Oliver an afterthought. But Georgia law requires an outright majority to win statewide office. With polls suggesting a tight contest between Warnock and Walker, it may not take a considerable share of the vote for Oliver to force a runoff, potentially repeating the 2020 scenario when Georgia’s two runoffs helped Democrats secure narrow control on Capitol Hill. “I don’t have any interest in partisan bickering. I owe no allegiance to either party. I only owe allegiance to you, the voter,” Oliver said Sunday night on an Atlanta debate stage, as he urged Georgia voters to “send a message” to the two major parties by denying both Warnock and Walker a first-round victory. The Atlanta Press Club debate was likely Oliver’s lone opportunity in the spotlight. He shared the stage with Warnock. An empty podium stood between them to represent Walker, who declined the Press Club’s invitation. California city rests easier after serial killings arrest STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Residents of Stockton, California, were able to rest easier following the weekend arrest of a man suspected of killing six men and wounding a woman in a series of shootings over a period of three months in Northern California, the city’s mayor said Sunday. Mayor Kevin Lincoln said he shed tears of relief when he was informed that the suspect who police believe had terrorized Stockton since July was taken into custody around 2 a.m. Saturday. Wesley Brownlee was dressed in black, wore a mask around his neck, had a handgun and “was out hunting” for another possible victim when he was arrested while driving around the Central Valley city, where five of the shootings took place, Police Chief Stanley McFadden said at a Saturday news conference. “The city was able to sleep a little bit better last night,” Lincoln said Sunday morning. “No resident of this city should have to walk around town looking over their shoulder in fear.” The mayor credited residents of Stockton who called in hundreds of tips to investigators that eventually led to the arrest of the 43-year-old suspect. Radioactive waste found at Missouri elementary school FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) — There is significant radioactive contamination at an elementary school in suburban St. Louis where nuclear weapons were produced during World War II, according to a new report by environmental investigation consultants. The report by Boston Chemical Data Corp. confirmed fears about contamination at Jana Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District in Florissant raised by a previous Army Corps of Engineers study. The new report is based on samples taken in August from the school, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boston Chemical did not say who or what requested and funded the report. “I was heartbroken,” said Ashley Bernaugh, president of the Jana parent-teacher association who has a son at the school. “It sounds so cliché, but it takes your breath from you.” The school sits in the flood plain of Coldwater Creek, which was contaminated by nuclear waste from weapons production during World War II. The waste was dumped at sites near the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, next to the creek that flows to the Missouri River. The Corps has been cleaning up the creek for more than 20 years. Postal worker holdup leads to muscle car theft ring arrests DETROIT (AP) — Thieves are using cloned key fobs to steal Dodge muscle cars and other high-powered vehicles directly from dealerships and even automakers in Michigan, then selling them for tens of thousands of dollars less than their value, according to authorities and court records. For one Ohio-based theft ring, it all came crashing down after a January holdup of a U.S. postal worker led authorities to connect several men to brazen car thefts in the Detroit area, long home to the country’s biggest automakers, including Dodge, which is now owned by international conglomerate Stellantis. Investigators then discovered that new Chargers, Challengers, Durangos and Ram pickups worth $50,000 to $100,000 were turning up in Ohio, Indianapolis and East Coast shipping ports after being sold on the street for $3,500 to $15,000, according to a criminal complaint. Thieves in the Detroit area are primarily going after Dodge vehicles with Hellcat engines, including Chargers and Challengers — “the fast ones,” Sgt. Jerry Hanna with the Macomb Auto Theft Squad said. “If a patrol car gets them, they are not stopping and they’re faster than patrol cars. They’re 150 mph all day,” he said. AP Top 25: Tennessee up to No. 3, ‘Bama’s top-5 streak ends Tennessee moved to No. 3 in The Associated Press college football poll behind No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Ohio State after knocking off Alabama. The Crimson Tide was one of five unbeaten teams to fall during a wild weekend and dropped three places to No. 6 in the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank. Alabama swapped places with the Vols after losing to them 52-49 on a field goal as time expired Saturday. Georgia remained No. 1 and received 31 first-place votes and Ohio State had 17 first-place votes. The Vols received 15 first-place votes and have their best ranking since starting the 2005 season ...

AP News Summary At 11:09 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1109-p-m-edt/ Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants WASHINGTON (AP) — When Joe Biden was running for the White House, he denounced then-President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Biden said Trump’s approach inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden has turned to an unlikely source for an election-year solution, taking a page from Trump’s own immigration playbook. Biden has invoked a Trump-era rule that Biden’s Justice Department is fighting in court. Biden wants to deny Venezuelans who are fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in occupied Donetsk KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials are blaming Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in a key Ukrainian city controlled by the separatists. The municipal building in Donetsk was seriously damaged by the rocket attack. Separately, Ukrainian officials said Russian rockets struck a city across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Kyiv also reported holding the line in fierce fighting around the town of Bakhmut. The fighting comes seven weeks into a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and east. Late Saturday, a Washington-based think tank accused Moscow of forcibly deporting Ukrainians to Russia and said it likely amounted to ethnic cleansing. UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss has only been in office for six weeks. But already her libertarian economic policies have triggered a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention, multiple U-turns and the firing of her Treasury chief. Now Truss faces a mutiny inside the governing Conservative Party that leaves her leadership hanging by a thread. Conservative lawmaker Robert Halfon accused the government Sunday of treating the country like “laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free-market experiments.” Conservatives are mulling whether to try to force out their leader. Truss, meanwhile, has appointed a new Treasury chief, Jeremy Hunt, who plans to rip up much of her economic plan when he makes a budget statement Oct. 31. China’s party congress promises continuity, not change BEIJING (AP) — The overarching theme emerging from China’s ongoing Communist Party congress is one of continuity, not change. The weeklong meeting is expected to reappoint Xi Jinping as leader, reaffirm a commitment to his policies for the next five years and possibly elevate his status even further as one of the most powerful leaders in China’s modern history. For many Chinese, weary of pandemic restrictions, the more immediate question is whether there will there be any easing of “zero COVID” after the party congress. The answer is probably not immediately, and changes when they do come will most likely be gradual. Warnock answers Libertarian wildcard in Ga.; Walker skips ATLANTA (AP) — Libertarian Chase Oliver isn’t going to win Georgia’s pivotal Senate race. But the 37-year-old Atlanta businessman could help determine which major party controls the Senate during the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term. Oliver is the third name on the ballot in the marquee matchup between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. Georgia law requires a majority for candidates to win statewide office. Even a small share of votes for Oliver could force a second round between Warnock and Walker. Oliver used his lone shot on a debate stage Sunday to urge voters to send a message to the two-party structure by supporting him in the general election. Postal worker holdup leads to muscle car theft ring arrests DETROIT (AP) — Cloned key fobs, high-powered Hellcats and thieves daring police and risking arrest are part of a trend in which vehicles are being stolen from factory lots and dealer showrooms only to be later sold on the street for tens of thousands of dollars less than their worth. A federal complaint says the muscle cars, SUVs and pickups worth $50,000 to more than $100,000 are sold on the street for $3,500 to $15,000. One Ohio-based theft ring came crashing down in June, when an investigation into the holdup of a postal worker led authorities to connect four Cleveland-area men to brazen vehicle thefts in the Detroit area. Radioactive waste found at Missouri elementary school FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) — Environmental investigation consultants have found significant radioactive contamination at an elementary school in suburban St. Louis where nuclear weapons were produced during World War II. The report by Boston Chemical Data Corp. has confirmed fears about contamination at Jana Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District in Florissant. The report is expected to be a major topic at Tuesday’s school board meeting. Parents want the district to make sure the radioactive waste is cleaned up. Boston Chemical says inhaling or ingesting the radioactive materials can cause significant injury and recommends remedial action “to bring conditions at the school in line with expectations.” Brazil’s da Silva, Bolsonaro clash in 1st one-on-one debate SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and incumbent Jair Bolsonaro have clashed in their first one-on-one debate, two weeks before the presidential election’s runoff. Debates in the election’s first round featured several other candidates, none of whom garnered more than 5% of the Oct. 2 vote. They were largely distractions from the two obvious frontrunners in previous debates. Earlier this month, da Silva, who is universally known as Lula, won the election’s first round with 48% of the vote compared to Bolsonaro’s 43%. Polls indicate the leftist former president, who governed between 2003-2010, remains the frontrunner, though his lead has shrunk. AP Top 25: Tennessee up to No. 3, ‘Bama’s top-5 streak ends Tennessee has moved to No. 3 in The Associated Press college football poll behind No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Ohio State. It comes after the Volunteers knocked off Alabama, one of five unbeaten teams to fall during a wild weekend. The Crimson Tide dropped three to No. 6 and swapped places with the Vols after Tennessee kicked a field goal as time expired Saturday. Alabama is out of the top-five for the first time since 2019. Georgia is still No. 1 and received 31 first-place votes and No. 2 Ohio State had 17 first-place votes. Bills rally to beat Chiefs 24-20 in playoff rematch KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Josh Allen threw for 329 yards and three touchdowns, including the go-ahead toss to Dawson Knox with 1:04 left in the game, and the Buffalo Bills beat the Kansas City Chiefs 24-20 on Sunday to exact a small measure of revenge for their epic overtime loss in last year’s playoffs. Stefon Diggs had 10 catches for 148 yards and a touchdown, and Gabe Davis also had a TD catch after torching Kansas City for four of them in January, as the Bills finally walked out of Arrowhead Stadium a winner. Patrick Mahomes threw for 338 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, including one in the final minute as the Chiefs tried to rally for the win. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More Here

AP News Summary At 11:09 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1109-p-m-edt-2/ Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants WASHINGTON (AP) — When Joe Biden was running for the White House, he denounced then-President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Biden said Trump’s approach inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden has turned to an unlikely source for an election-year solution, taking a page from Trump’s own immigration playbook. Biden has invoked a Trump-era rule that Biden’s Justice Department is fighting in court. Biden wants to deny Venezuelans who are fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in occupied Donetsk KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials are blaming Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in a key Ukrainian city controlled by the separatists. The municipal building in Donetsk was seriously damaged by the rocket attack. Separately, Ukrainian officials said Russian rockets struck a city across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Kyiv also reported holding the line in fierce fighting around the town of Bakhmut. The fighting comes seven weeks into a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and east. Late Saturday, a Washington-based think tank accused Moscow of forcibly deporting Ukrainians to Russia and said it likely amounted to ethnic cleansing. UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss has only been in office for six weeks. But already her libertarian economic policies have triggered a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention, multiple U-turns and the firing of her Treasury chief. Now Truss faces a mutiny inside the governing Conservative Party that leaves her leadership hanging by a thread. Conservative lawmaker Robert Halfon accused the government Sunday of treating the country like “laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free-market experiments.” Conservatives are mulling whether to try to force out their leader. Truss, meanwhile, has appointed a new Treasury chief, Jeremy Hunt, who plans to rip up much of her economic plan when he makes a budget statement Oct. 31. China’s party congress promises continuity, not change Read More Here

Trump Complains American Jews Don't Appreciate His Moves On Israel, Drawing Criticism | CNN Politics https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-complains-american-jews-dont-appreciate-his-moves-on-israel-drawing-criticism-cnn-politics/ Washington CNN  —  Former President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized American Jews for what he argued was their insufficient praise of his policies toward Israel, warning that they need to “get their act together” before “it is too late!” The suggestion, made on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, plays into the antisemitic trope that US Jews have dual loyalties to the US and to Israel, and it drew immediate condemnation. “No President has done more for Israel than I have,” Trump wrote before saying it was somewhat surprising that “our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” The head of the American Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt accused Trump of “Jewsplaining.” “We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship. It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting,” he wrote. The Jewish Democratic Council of America similarly lambasted Trump’s remarks. “His threat to Jewish Americans and his continued use of the antisemitic dual loyalty trope fuels hatred against Jews,” the group tweeted. “We will not be threatened by Donald Trump and Jewish Americans will reject GOP bigotry this November.” Trump’s comments echo an argument he has made before. In an interview last December, the former President argued that Jewish Americans “either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel,” and also repeated his claim that evangelicals “love Israel more than the Jews in this country.” A Pew Research survey released in 2021 found that 45% of Jewish adults in the US viewed caring about Israel as “essential” to what being Jewish means, with an additional 37% saying it was “important, but not essential.” Only 16% said caring about Israel was “not important.” During his first campaign for president, Trump delivered a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition that was rife with antisemitic stereotypes. Read More Here

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Massive Fire Breaks Out In Iran’s Notorious Evin Prison https://digitalalaskanews.com/massive-fire-breaks-out-in-irans-notorious-evin-prison/ BEIRUT — A massive fire broke out Saturday night in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, which holds hundreds of dissidents and has detained hundreds more during the past month of street protests. Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that eight people were injured in the fire and that it was under control by Sunday morning, while citing officials who insisted there was no link between the blaze and the recent demonstrations. Later on Sunday, Mizan, the judiciary channel, said four prisoners from the financial crimes ward had died of asphyxiation from smoke in Ward 7 and that 61 were injured. Ten were taken to the hospital, of whom four were in dire condition, Mizan reported. Videos shared on social media showed large plumes of smoke rising from the facility, which sits at the foot of the Alborz Mountains in the capital, Tehran. The sound of automatic gunfire could be heard in some of the videos, while others showed a nearby highway filled with cars unleashing an unrelenting thrum of horns, seemingly in protest. Iran’s semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported that the unrest began when prisoners convicted of financial crimes in two sections, Wards 6 and 7, got into an altercation, leading other prisoners to take advantage of the disarray and set fire to a workshop and a warehouse full of clothes. Fars reported that a number of prisoners had prepared weapons to take on guards, indicating that the fire was planned. The agency said that in the midst of the chaos, some prisoners attempted to escape, entering a minefield north of the prison, which led to explosions. Tasnim aired footage of one of its reporters touring the prison, purportedly after the fire had broken out, to prove that order had been restored. He pauses in front of a clock and points at the time, 2:06, presumably in the morning, as apparent proof that the flames were contained not long after they started. Evin has been the site of some of the worst abuses of the Islamic Republic, with many prisoners detailing extensive psychological and physical torture inside. At least one wing of the prison is controlled by the intelligence branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and another wing is run by the Intelligence Ministry. Families of inmates outside the prison were tear-gassed earlier in the day Saturday, and roads heading there were blocked by nightfall, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group. An ambulance and bus were sent to Evin to transfer wounded prisoners to a hospital, the group reported. Among the prisoners at Evin are Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American businessman who was arrested in 2015, as well as journalists and political prisoners. “We are following reports from Evin Prison with urgency,” State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted Saturday. “We are in contact with the Swiss as our protecting power. Iran is fully responsible for the safety of our wrongfully detained citizens, who should be released immediately.” Videos posted online showed people in neighborhoods around Evin chanting “Death to the dictator,” while others showed riot police on motorcycles heading to the prison. On Sunday, Namazi’s lawyer Jared Genser tweeted that Namazi was safe and has contacted his family. After the fire broke out, Genser had on Saturday appealed to President Biden to “bring American hostages home.” Genser also said that Namazi was placed in solitary confinement after riots, purportedly “for his own safety.” For Namazi to be “back w/the #IRGC in solitary is a living nightmare,” Genser added, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “He spent 2 years being tortured there.” The government has cracked down against protesters since demonstrations swept the country nearly a month ago. Internet in the region has been severely disrupted in the past two weeks, along with the cellular network, leaving many in the dark and people abroad scrambling to piece together how violence is unfolding. The protests were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, in the custody of the “morality police” on Sept. 16. The Iranian government’s response was quick and deadly: An order issued by the country’s highest military body on Sept. 21 gave directions to “severely confront troublemakers and anti-revolutionaries,” according to a leaked document obtained by Amnesty International and reviewed by The Washington Post. Dehghanpisheh reported from Phoenix. Read More Here

Trump Criticized For 'insulting And Disgusting' Truth Social Post About American Jews https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-criticized-for-insulting-and-disgusting-truth-social-post-about-american-jews/ Donald Trump. Mario Tama/Getty Images On his Truth Social platform, former President Donald Trump on Sunday applauded himself and evangelical Christians for supporting Israel and stated that American Jews need to “get their act together” and “appreciate” Israel “before it is too late.” In his post, Trump claimed that “no president has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S. Those living in Israel, though, are a different story — highest approval rating in the world, could easily be P.M.!” It’s unclear what prompted Trump to make these remarks. They were similar to comments he made in 2021, when he told an Israel journalist that “the Jewish people in the United States either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel. … I’ll tell you, the evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country.” The American Jewish Congress spoke out against Trump’s remarks, saying he was repeating “radioactive antisemitic tropes” about Jewish people having dual loyalties to the United States and Israel. In response to Trump’s Truth Social post, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted on Sunday, “We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the U.S.-Israel relationship. It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting.” You may also like 5 cartoons about Alex Jones’ billion-dollar penalty Harvard’s record endowment shrinks for 1st time since 2016 Climate protesters throw tomato soup on Van Gogh painting Read More Here

County https://digitalalaskanews.com/county/ Georgiana Vines  |  News Sentinel Knox County’s newest criminal court judge comes into the job having lived in a homeless shelter for single moms with children and in a public housing project before eventually serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and then getting college degrees. Criminal Court Judge Hector Ian Sanchez, who’s 38, has another distinction: He is the first Hispanic trial court judge in Tennessee after being appointed by Gov. Bill Lee and being sworn into the office by Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee last month. The Republican succeeds Kyle A. Hixson, whom Lee appointed to the Eastern section of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Prior to his appointment, Sanchez was an assistant district attorney in the 6th Judicial District, which is Knox County, where he has had experience prosecuting drug cases and felonies, including robberies and murders. “I’ve always had a dream of becoming a judge. My adult life has been rooted in public service,” Sanchez said in a phone interview Wednesday. Sanchez was born in Dumas, Texas, but left at age 2 with his mother, Nancy, and sibling to go to Beverly, Massachusetts, where his mother’s support system was. He said he had an abusive father and his mother left the situation. Beverly is where the family lived in the shelter and public housing until he was 13. At that point his mother met and married David Faul. With his step-father, “life took a different direction,” Sanchez said. The family moved to Knoxville in 2003 after he completed high school because his step-father, a physicist, was transferred through his employer, Siemens Corp. Sanchez has always worked since he was able and often was juggling work and schooling. While still in high school, he worked as a cook for Maria’s Pizza for three years. Then when the family moved to Knoxville, he was employed at Bill Cox Furniture, where he loaded delivery trucks and assembled furniture. That’s when he decided to “broaden” his opportunities and went into the Marine Corps so he could eventually go to college, he said. He has an associate of arts degree in liberal arts from Saint Leo University in Norfolk, Virginia; a B.S. in criminal justice from Old Dominion University in Norfolk; and a J.D. degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law. During law school, he was an intern in the now-defunct Repeat Offender Prosecution Unit; those cases are now handled by the Career Criminal/Gang Unit within the Knox County District Attorney’s office. Sanchez said he asked Justice Lee, generally considered a Democrat, to give him the oath of office after meeting her during the process of being selected by the governor. When he became one of three people nominated by a judicial commission, she reached out to congratulate him, he said. Also nominated were Emily Faye Abbott, a Knox County resident who is an assistant district attorney in Anderson County, and lawyer Wesley D. Stone. “She offered to talk with me and we formed a friendship,” he said. Among those at the ceremony was his wife of four years, Kimberley. With the marriage, he gained a step-son, Ethan. ∎ A FORMAL INVESTITURE: It’s taken awhile because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but U.S. District Court Judge Katherine “Katie” Crytzer had her ceremonial investiture on Sept. 30 with Judge Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis, Missouri, swearing her into office. Eight other district judges, five magistrate judges and four Bankruptcy Court judges in the Eastern District from Greeneville to Chattanooga attended the ceremony at the Howard H. Baker Jr. United States Courthouse in Knoxville. Crytzer’s husband, lawyer Joseph R. Oliveri, assisted with the ceremony. Crytzer was nominated by President Donald Trump in the waning months of his administration and approved by the U.S. Senate with a 48-47 vote on Dec. 16, 2020. She is one of the youngest federal judges in the country and succeeded the late Chief Judge Pamela Reeves. She grew up in Knoxville and was a U.S. Department of Justice manager when tapped to be a judge. Crytzer was featured in this column on Sept. 19, 2021. Gruender was nominated by then-President George W. Bush for the court in 2004. His name also was on a list of potential Supreme Court nominees to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy for Trump in 2018. ∎ CAMPAIGN TIME IN DISTRICT 2: U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville, continues his streak of conservatism in voting patterns and amendment attempts and ignores opportunities to meet head on with a Democratic challenger, Mark Harmon, a University of Tennessee professor of journalism and electronic media. On Sept. 30, Burchett tried to introduce an amendment to the short-term government funding bill that would prevent federal tax dollars from funding gender-transition surgeries for children under 18 years old – a topic of interest in Tennessee after videos surfaced on social media of a doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center saying gender-affirming procedures are “huge money makers.” Burchett, in a press release, called the procedures “barbaric.” His amendment was blocked in the continuing resolution that would fund the government through Dec. 16. Burchett said Thursday in an interview that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would not allow the amendment on the floor to be discussed, which is one of the reasons he ended up opposing the continuing resolution. “It is different in Tennessee. Whether a Democrat or a Republican is running the House, every bill gets heard. There is no transparency in Washington,” said Burchett, who served in the state House and Senate. He also was Knox County mayor for eight years. Burchett voted against the continuing resolution in the House on Sept. 30. He said the House should take its authority to hold the “power of the purse” seriously by passing “a responsible appropriations package on time instead of a frantic last-minute stopgap bill.” He said that approach has not been taken in 20 years. He said issues like border security are not addressed in the continuing resolution. The Senate also approved the continuing appropriations for the fiscal year on Sept. 30 by a 65-35 vote. Both of Tennessee’s U.S. senators, Republicans Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, voted “nay.” Harmon, who previously ran unsuccessfully for Congress when he lived in Texas, called Burchett’s attempt to amend the budget amendment to prevent tax money from being used on gender-transition surgeries for children under 18 “hypocritical.” He said Burchett has complained about unrelated amendments being attached to spending bills but then tried to add such an amendment. “He is grandstanding in a way that is repugnant. He is taking advantage of people and families at a difficult time in their life. This is no place for government to act,” Harmon said. He said the surgery decision is “part and parcel to the whole abortion question – imposing government where it doesn’t belong.” Every since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade, which recognized a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, in June, Democrats and Republicans generally have been divided on the role of the state in whether to allow abortions and under what circumstances. In August in Tennessee, a “trigger” law went into effect making abortions a felony. Harmon said he takes advantage of every opportunity to make the case for his candidacy despite Burchett declining invitations from the League of Women Voters and TV stations to have a debate. He said among the reasons that he chose to run against Burchett was his vote on Jan. 6, 2021, to delay “the peaceful transfer of power after the invaders at the Capitol.” His lack of recognizing what he did is “wrong,” Harmon said. Burchett was among 147 Republicans in the House and Senate to vote against the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden, a New York Times compilation shows. Burchett was asked Thursday if he believes Trump lost the election in 2020. “Joe Biden is our president. Donald Trump won Tennessee,” he said, adding, “Twenty million conservatives stayed home that day.” He said he voted the way he did at the time because “all I wanted was a discussion.” ∎ AMENDMENT 3: In a rare move, the bishops of the three Episcopal dioceses across Tennessee have endorsed the passage of Amendment 3 in the Nov. 3 election as an important step in righting a historical wrong. The wording changes a section of the Tennessee Constitution regarding slavery. “In the Episcopal Church, whenever we baptize new believers or renew our own baptismal vows, we promise to ‘seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving [our] neighbor as [ourselves]’ and ‘to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being,’ ” the bishops said. “It is our Christian faith that motivates us to support Amendment 3, believing that slavery and involuntary servitude have no place in our state. We invite the members of our Episcopal parish churches across the state to join us in supporting Amendment 3,” they said. The statement was announced in a news release signed by the Rt. Rev. Brian L. Cole, bishop of East Tennessee, based in Knoxville; the Rt. Rev. Phoebe Roaf, bishop of West Tennessee, based in Memphis; and the Rt. Rev. John Bauerschmidt, bishop of Tennessee, based in Nashville. A “yes” vote supports amending the state constitution to remove language that allows the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments and replace it with the statement: “Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited.” A “no” vote opposes amending the constitution. “The three bishops of the state of Tennessee each have distinct sets of diverse values and priorities for their dioceses. However, the call to support the removal of slavery from our state constitution spoke to each of them as a common cause in this year’s cycle of voting,” said Brother Andrew A...

What Voters In Swing States Are Saying Three Weeks Before Midterms https://digitalalaskanews.com/what-voters-in-swing-states-are-saying-three-weeks-before-midterms/ 2022 midterm elections are now three weeks away, with control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate — along with three dozen gubernatorial races — at stake.”The 2022 midterm elections are now three weeks away, with control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate — along with three dozen gubernatorial races — at stake. To get a sense for which issues are most important for prospective voters ahead of casting their ballots this November, The Washington Post dispatched reporters to NFL stadiums across the country Sunday. While some fans considered their pregame rituals too sacred to sully by talking politics, the tailgate lots proved to be a fertile ground for finding voters willing to share their opinions. Here’s what likely voters in Miami, Atlanta, Cleveland and Pittsburgh had to say. Staying connected in the field Journalists used 5G technology and a custom-built mobile app to upload video interviews from the field directly to the newsroom. This story was reported, written and created by The Washington Post. AT&T provided technical support and had no role in the content. Technology supported by Florida Number of House races: 28 Senate race: Val Demings (D) vs. Marco Rubio (R) Governor’s race: Charlie Crist (D) vs. Ron DeSantis (R) In the warm, teal-tinted shadow of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, several prospective Florida voters discussed topics reflective of the state’s always-sizable role in national politics — including the potential 2024 presidential hopes of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is on the ballot for reelection this November, and the recovery efforts following Hurricane Ian. Almost unanimously, they resisted the caricature of the “Florida Man” and insisted that no matter their personal views, they held nuanced opinions about the most pressing issues in the state. “A lot of people around the country like to be like, ‘Eff Florida, Florida sucks.’ They do the meme of Florida being cut off [from the rest of the country],” said Josh Zele, 25, who added that he hadn’t decided how he would vote. “But there’s a lot of good people in this state who aren’t just like super MAGA or super left. There’s a lot of good people.” [Build a personalized democracy toolkit to get ready for the midterms] Spectrum News-Siena College poll of likely Florida voters. In that survey, which asked voters to select from a list of issues and name which one would be most important in determining their vote in November, 39 percent selected economic issues (including inflation and cost of living), 16 percent chose threats to democracy and 11 percent cited abortion.”While the people interviewed Sunday most commonly cited crime and climate change as the issues important to them, other topics outranked those in a Spectrum News-Siena College poll of likely Florida voters. In that survey, which asked voters to select from a list of issues and name which one would be most important in determining their vote in November, 39 percent selected economic issues (including inflation and cost of living), 16 percent chose threats to democracy and 11 percent cited abortion. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Georgia Number of House races: 14 Senate race: Herschel Walker (R) vs. Raphael G. Warnock (D) Governor’s race: Stacey Abrams (D) vs. Brian Kemp (R) Videos by Michael Schwarz paid for an abortion for the mother of one of Walker’s children that she says he wanted her to have. (Walker has denied doing so, including during the debate this past week.) But of the people interviewed outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium before Sunday’s Falcons-49ers game in Atlanta, none said the report had changed their minds about who they plan to vote for.”The closely contested Senate race between Herschel Walker (R) and incumbent Raphael G. Warnock (D) has received national headlines following a news report that Walker, who has said he is pro-life, paid for an abortion for the mother of one of Walker’s children that she says he wanted her to have. (Walker has denied doing so, including during the debate this past week.) But of the people interviewed outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium before Sunday’s Falcons-49ers game in Atlanta, none said the report had changed their minds about who they plan to vote for. [Analysis: The Herschel Walker abortion report doesn’t seem to have changed much] Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.”Several interviewees did cite candidates’ values as being a deciding factor, however. “You shouldn’t worry about Democrat or Republican, you just need to listen to the views of people running and decide who is the best representative for Georgia,” said Laurice Brown, 44, of Dawson. Brown said she planned to support Warnock and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D); the most important issue to her in this election is abortion rights, in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Fox News poll conducted in late September. That survey asked likely Georgia voters to choose from a number of issues which would be most important in determining their vote in the Senate race. Coming in first was inflation and higher prices at 25 percent, while 18 percent named the preservation of American democracy and 13 percent identified abortion as being most important.”The prospective voters cited the economy, abortion and the preservation of democracy as being important issues to them, which was similar to results from a Fox News poll conducted in late September. That survey asked likely Georgia voters to choose from a number of issues which would be most important in determining their vote in the Senate race. Coming in first was inflation and higher prices at 25 percent, while 18 percent named the preservation of American democracy and 13 percent identified abortion as being most important. Ohio Number of House races: 15 Senate race: Tim Ryan (D) vs. J.D. Vance (R) Governor’s race: Mike DeWine (R) vs. Nan Whaley (D) The responses of prospective Ohio voters outside FirstEnergy Stadium before Sunday’s Browns-Patriots game were reflective of its status as a swing state. After Ohio went for Donald Trump in the past two elections, this year’s Senate race is expected to be close between Tim Ryan (D) and J.D. Vance (R), who has received support from Trump. “I can’t trust J.D.,” said Mark Haas, 64, of Richmond Heights. “If he’s associated with Trump, I don’t want any part of it.” [A majority of GOP nominees deny or question the 2020 election results] “I voted in the 2020 election for Joe Biden,” said Cleveland resident Zak Baris, 34. “I’m no longer a fan. I will be voting Republican in this election.” Marist College poll conducted in mid-September asked Ohio voters to choose from a list of five issues and identify which was “top of mind” heading into the election. Over a third, 36 percent, chose inflation, 28 percent said preserving democracy, 18 percent said abortion, 11 percent said health care and 6 percent said immigration.”Voters cited inflation, abortion and immigration as the issues that would be most critical to their decisions. A Marist College poll conducted in mid-September asked Ohio voters to choose from a list of five issues and identify which was “top of mind” heading into the election. Over a third, 36 percent, chose inflation, 28 percent said preserving democracy, 18 percent said abortion, 11 percent said health care and 6 percent said immigration. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Pennsylvania Number of House races: 17 Senate race: John Fetterman (D) vs. Mehmet Oz (R) Governor’s race: Doug Mastriano (R) vs. Josh Shapiro (D) Outside Acrisure Stadium ahead of the Steelers-Buccaneers game, political opinions generally fell along geographic lines: Pittsburghers said they would side with Democrats, while suburbanites and rural voters favored Republicans. Steve Bland, a 63-year-old city resident who was setting out grilled mini-burritos and waiting for his friends to arrive, said he planned to vote for “whoever is running in the Democratic Party and believes the 2020 election was fair.” “We have a certain faction of our society that believes the 2020 election wasn’t fair,” he said, “and they are not abiding by the rule of law.” [John Fetterman’s health sparks contentious debate in final stretch] Bob Smith, 55, who lives in the suburb of White Oak, said he plans to vote for every Republican running this year, adding that his opposition to the Democratic Party has hardened since the 2020 election and citing rising costs as one reason. “Inflation, gas prices, everything is going up,” he said. a Fox News poll from late September, which asked likely Pennsylvania voters to choose which issue would be most important to them in the Senate race. There was a tie at the top, with 21 percent choosing inflation and higher prices and another 21 percent naming the preservation of American democracy. Abortion was the third-most-cited issue, at 15 percent.”Those two answers reflected the results of a Fox News poll from late September, which asked likely Pennsylvania voters to choose which issue would be most important to them in the Senate race. There was a tie at the top, with 21 percent choosing inflation and higher prices and another 21 percent naming the preservation of American democracy. Abortion was the third-most-cited issue, at 15 percent. About this story Reporting by Sam Fortier, Michael Schwarz, Kyle Melnick and Nick Keppler. Additional reporting by Scott Clement and Emily Guskin. Design and development by Rekha Tenjarla and Matt Callahan. Video editing by Leila Barghouty, Nicki DeMarco and Sarah Parnass. Instagram video by Casey Silvestri. Editing by Jeff Dooley. Copy editing by Paola Ruano. Project editing by Marian Chia-Ming Liu. Read More Here

AP News In Brief At 9:04 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-in-brief-at-904-p-m-edt-13/ Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in occupied Donetsk KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials on Sunday blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in Donetsk, a city controlled by the separatists, while Ukrainian officials said Russian rocket strikes hit a town across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, among other targets. The attacks came as Russia’s war in Ukraine nears the eight-month mark. Kyiv also reported holding the line in continued fierce fighting around Bakhmut, where Russian forces have claimed some gains amid a seven-week Ukrainian counteroffensive that has led Russian troops to retreat in some other areas. On the front line, “the key hotspots in Donbas are (neighboring towns) Soledar and Bakhmut, where extremely heavy fighting continues,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Sunday. Those towns and Donetsk are in the industrialized Donbas region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv since 2014. The Donetsk region is among four that were illegally annexed by Russia last month. Zelenskyy accused Russia of including convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops in return for pay and amnesty — something Western intelligence officials have also asserted. UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks LONDON (AP) — When Liz Truss was running to lead Britain this summer, an ally predicted her first weeks in office would be turbulent. But few were prepared for the scale of the sound and fury -– least of all Truss herself. In just six weeks, the prime minister’s libertarian economic policies have triggered a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention, multiple U-turns and the firing of her Treasury chief. Now Truss faces a mutiny inside the governing Conservative Party that leaves her leadership hanging by a thread. Conservative lawmaker Robert Halfon fumed on Sunday that the last few weeks had brought “one horror story after another.” “The government has looked like libertarian jihadists and treated the whole country as kind of laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free-market experiments,” he told Sky News. China’s party congress promises continuity, not change BEIJING (AP) — The overarching theme emerging from China’s ongoing Communist Party congress is one of continuity, not change. The weeklong meeting, which opened Sunday, is expected to reappoint Xi Jinping as leader, reaffirm a commitment to his policies for the next five years and possibly elevate his status even further as one of the most powerful leaders in China’s modern history. A look at what’s happened so far, and what’s to come: MORE OF THE SAME This is not an inflection point for the party. That happened 10 years ago when it named Xi as leader, though it wasn’t evident at the time. LA’s Black-Latino tensions bared in City Council scandal Cross-cultural coalitions have ruled Los Angeles politics for decades, helping elect both Black and Latino politicians to top leadership roles in the huge racially and ethnically diverse city. But a shocking recording of racist comments by the City Council president has laid bare the tensions over political power that have been quietly simmering between the Latino and Black communities. Nury Martinez, the first Latina elected president of the Los Angeles City Council, resigned from her leadership role last week, then from the council altogether, after a leaked recording surfaced of her making racist remarks and other coarse comments in discussion with other Hispanic leaders. Martinez said in the recorded conversation, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, that white Councilmember Mike Bonin handled his young Black son as if he were an “accessory,” and described the son as behaving “parece changuito,” or like a monkey. She also made denigrating comments about other groups, including Indigenous Mexicans from the southern state of Oaxaca, who she termed “feos,” or ugly. The recording, released anonymously a year after it was made, stunned and hurt many in the Black community, which makes up a little less than 9% of the city’s roughly four million residents. Concerns inside that group, which has long counted on council seats and other city posts in heavily African American neighborhoods, have been growing in recent years as the Latino share of the population has swollen to nearly half and Hispanic politicians have started assuming more high-ranking roles. AP Top 25: Tennessee up to No. 3, ‘Bama’s top-5 streak ends Tennessee moved to No. 3 in The Associated Press college football poll behind No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Ohio State after knocking off Alabama. The Crimson Tide was one of five unbeaten teams to fall during a wild weekend and dropped three places to No. 6 in the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank. Alabama swapped places with the Vols after losing to them 52-49 on a field goal as time expired Saturday. Georgia remained No. 1 and received 31 first-place votes and Ohio State had 17 first-place votes. The Vols received 15 first-place votes and have their best ranking since starting the 2005 season at No. 3. The last time Tennessee was ranked this highly in the second half of the season was 2001, reaching the top 10 in late October and headed into the SEC championship at No. 2. No. 4 Michigan moved up a spot Sunday, switching places with No. 5 Clemson after the Wolverines blew out now-No. 16 Penn State. Gates Foundation pledges $1.2B to eradicate polio globally BERLIN (AP) — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says it will commit $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide. The money will be used to help implement the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026. The initiative is trying to end the polio virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries, the foundation said in a statement Sunday. The money also will be used to stop outbreaks of new variants of the virus. The announcement was made Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin. The foundation says in a statement on its website that it has contributed nearly $5 billion to the polio eradication initiative. The initiative is trying to integrate polio campaigns into broader health services, while it scales up use of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2. The group also is working to make national health systems stronger so countries are better prepared for future health threats, the statement said. California city rests easier after serial killings arrest STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Residents of Stockton, California, were able to rest easier following the weekend arrest of a man suspected of killing six men and wounding a woman in a series of shootings over a period of three months in Northern California, the city’s mayor said Sunday. Mayor Kevin Lincoln said he shed tears of relief when he was informed that the suspect who police believe had terrorized Stockton since July was taken into custody around 2 a.m. Saturday. Wesley Brownlee was dressed in black, wore a mask around his neck, had a handgun and “was out hunting” for another possible victim when he was arrested while driving around the Central Valley city, where five of the shootings took place, Police Chief Stanley McFadden said at a Saturday news conference. “The city was able to sleep a little bit better last night,” Lincoln said Sunday morning. “No resident of this city should have to walk around town looking over their shoulder in fear.” The mayor credited residents of Stockton who called in hundreds of tips to investigators that eventually led to the arrest of the 43-year-old suspect. Postal worker holdup leads to muscle car theft ring arrests DETROIT (AP) — Thieves are using cloned key fobs to steal Dodge muscle cars and other high-powered vehicles directly from dealerships and even automakers in Michigan, then selling them for tens of thousands of dollars less than their value, according to authorities and court records. For one Ohio-based theft ring, it all came crashing down after a January holdup of a U.S. postal worker led authorities to connect several men to brazen car thefts in the Detroit area, long home to the country’s biggest automakers, including Dodge, which is now owned by international conglomerate Stellantis. Investigators then discovered that new Chargers, Challengers, Durangos and Ram pickups worth $50,000 to $100,000 were turning up in Ohio, Indianapolis and East Cost shipping ports after being sold on the street f...

Your Turn, Oct. 17: Saudis Cutting Oil Production Too Close To Election Day https://digitalalaskanews.com/your-turn-oct-17-saudis-cutting-oil-production-too-close-to-election-day/ Democrats, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, discuss legislation that would temporarily halt U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Blumenthal and Khanna say the legislation is a reaction to Saudi Arabia agreeing with other OPEC countries to cut production of oil. A letter writer wonders if the Saudis’ action will hurt Democrats in the midterm U.S. elections. Chip Somodevilla, Staff / Getty Images Suspicious timing I normally consider conspiracy theories a political technique promoting false information designed to invoke anger, fear or just plain confusion in people that limit themselves to a single source of information. But I think OPEC’s timing of its reduction in oil production weeks prior to our midterm election represents a real conspiracy. Both Russia and Saudi Arabia have shown a preference in dealing with former President Donald Trump and would definitely prefer to see Republicans back in control. The obvious gas price increase will have more people running scared and screaming about inflation. The Russians want to see a reduction in support of Ukraine and sanctions that the Republicans have hinted at, while Saudi Arabia wants to ensure continued military support and a lessening of talk about human rights violations that the Republicans would support. I think they are responding to Trump’s thought waves that can declassify without him having to shout it out on TV like he did during the 2016 campaign when he wanted Russia to find the missing emails. Ted Sincoff, Converse Restrict parking For 26 years I have lived two houses off the St. Mary’s Strip. The nightlife, restaurants, neighbors and old houses (mine will turn 100 next year), all make this a great place to live. But, of course, there are problems. One of the biggest is parking. In a nutshell, here it is: People park their cars in front of our houses and go to the bars. Fine, no problem. While in the bars, some of them become intoxicated. They then return to their cars, doing all the things that intoxicated people do. That’s the problem. How can this problem be fixed unless parking is restricted? I have not heard of any other practical solution. If someone has a better solution, please tell us about it. George Rice Read More Here

January 6 Committee Member Says Panel Will Ask Former Secret Service Agent To Testify Again – Local News 8 https://digitalalaskanews.com/january-6-committee-member-says-panel-will-ask-former-secret-service-agent-to-testify-again-local-news-8/ By Paul LeBlanc and Christian Sierra, CNN Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, told CNN on Sunday the panel will ask former Secret Service Assistant Director Tony Ornato to testify again. “We’re in a position in the very near future to call the witnesses from the Secret Service back in for a few additional questions,” the California Democrat told CNN’s Pamela Brown on “CNN Newsroom,” explaining that the panel had wanted to “get through all the documentary evidence … over a million documents,” which they’ve now done. The House select committee has made clear it believes Ornato was a central figure who could provide valuable information about former President Donald Trump’s movements and intentions leading up to and on January 6. Not only did Ornato once run Trump’s detail, but he also made the unprecedented move of joining White House staff as the deputy chief of staff in December 2019 on a temporary assignment and eventually returned to the Secret Service to run its training program. To this point, Ornato has met with the panel on two occasions — in January and March — as part of its investigation. It’s not clear whether Ornato will end up testifying related to the claims from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson specifically testified that Ornato had told her about Trump lashing out in anger and lunging at a member of his protective detail as he demanded to be taken to the Capitol on January 6. Asked Sunday who else from the Secret Service would be called back to testify, Lofgren also mentioned the head of Trump’s Secret Service detail, Robert Engel, “and a few others,” but did not specify whom. “We want to make sure that we’re getting the straight story. Some of the testimony received doesn’t seem to align with some of the documents, so we have a need to understand that better from them,” she said. The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Classes Canceled In 2 Mass. Cities With Teachers Strikes Expected https://digitalalaskanews.com/classes-canceled-in-2-mass-cities-with-teachers-strikes-expected/ School officials in Haverhill and Malden have canceled classes on Monday with teachers strikes expected to start in both Massachusetts cities.The president of the Malden Education Association, Deb Gesualdo, said Sunday night that teachers will be on strike Monday after spending nearly 24 hours at the negotiating table with the Malden School Committee.Gesualdo said both sides went back and forth on salary and that the union came down on their demands and felt close to a deal before the School Committee’s negotiating subcommittee called for a mediator and walked out for the night.Because of the threat of a teachers strike, Malden Public Schools officials canceled Monday’s classes. Although there is no school for students, the school district said all union and non-union employees will be required to report to work on Monday in schools and central offices.”The School Committee’s negotiating team and the MEA had an incredibly productive day of bargaining that ended in the committee making a significant number of agreements and a very competitive and unprecedented salary and benefits offer,” Malden Public School Superintendent Ligia Noriega-Murphy said in a statement. “Considering how much movement was made today, we would have hoped the bargaining could have continued at our next regularly scheduled meeting, and that no avoidable disruption to the education of our students and routine of our families would occur.”The news out of Malden came just hours after the Haverhill School Committee announced Monday’s classes are canceled after it was not able to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Haverhill Education Association, paving the way for a teachers strike.The School Committee said it spent hours at the negotiating table with the teachers union over the weekend in the hopes of avoiding a strike after HEA members overwhelmingly voted in favor of authorizing a strike on Friday. Malden educators also overwhelmingly approved an authorization to strike in a vote held Friday afternoon.In their contract negotiations, Haverhill and Malden educators have said they are seeking higher pay, smaller class sizes and safer school environments.While the school will be closed to students on Monday, the School Committee said buildings will be open and all employees are expected to report to work.Teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts since state law prohibits strikes by public employees, which makes them exceptionally rare in the commonwealth.”If they come to the table with a good deal, our team will sign it. I hope it’s tonight,” said Barry Davis, 1st vice president of the Haverhill Education Association. “But if we have to be on the (picket) line tomorrow, we will be.”Members of the Haverhill School Committee said they have offered teachers the biggest raise city educators have had in 20 years, but added that the Massachusetts Teachers Association wants the teachers to go on strike.”While some progress was made over the last few days, we are extremely disappointed that union leadership and the Massachusetts Teachers Association has encouraged our teachers to take this illegal action,” reads a statement from the Haverhill Negotiations Subcommittee.The school committee said that it, along with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Board, is asking a Salem Superior Court judge to issue a junction against the Haverhill Education Association for its strike.Negotiations will pick up at 8 a.m. Monday, according to the Haverhill School Committee.Haverhill students who have access to a free school lunch on Monday and free breakfast on Tuesday can get food at the following locations from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.:The Haverhill YMCA, 81 Winter St.The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill, 55 Emerson St.Swasey Field Park, 59 Blaisdell St.Haverhill Stadium, Lincoln and NettletonHaverhill Public Works Department – Parking Lot, 500 Primrose St.Winnekenni Castle – Tennis courts – 347 Kenoza Ave.Bradford CommonsCashman’s Park on Hilldale Ave.In addition, the Haverhill YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill will be open Monday for children who are presently enrolled in their programs.Parents of children who are registered for before-school or after-school programs at the YMCA will receive an email directly from the YMCA regarding childcare operations, including a full-day program from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.Parents of children who are not registered for YMCA programs but are enrolled in grades K-4 can sign up for a drop-in program at the Plaistow Community YMCA in New Hampshire from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Preregistration is required in advance.Haverhill students who are members of the local Boys and Girls Club are welcome to drop in at any time Monday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.Malden Public Schools officials said all before- and after-school programs, athletic practices and games, and other extracurricular activities scheduled for Monday have been canceled. There will also be no school bus transportation, except for a small number of Malden students who attend special education programs in schools outside the district. HAVERHILL, Mass. — School officials in Haverhill and Malden have canceled classes on Monday with teachers strikes expected to start in both Massachusetts cities. The president of the Malden Education Association, Deb Gesualdo, said Sunday night that teachers will be on strike Monday after spending nearly 24 hours at the negotiating table with the Malden School Committee. Gesualdo said both sides went back and forth on salary and that the union came down on their demands and felt close to a deal before the School Committee’s negotiating subcommittee called for a mediator and walked out for the night. Because of the threat of a teachers strike, Malden Public Schools officials canceled Monday’s classes. Although there is no school for students, the school district said all union and non-union employees will be required to report to work on Monday in schools and central offices. “The School Committee’s negotiating team and the MEA had an incredibly productive day of bargaining that ended in the committee making a significant number of agreements and a very competitive and unprecedented salary and benefits offer,” Malden Public School Superintendent Ligia Noriega-Murphy said in a statement. “Considering how much movement was made today, we would have hoped the bargaining could have continued at our next regularly scheduled meeting, and that no avoidable disruption to the education of our students and routine of our families would occur.” The news out of Malden came just hours after the Haverhill School Committee announced Monday’s classes are canceled after it was not able to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Haverhill Education Association, paving the way for a teachers strike. The School Committee said it spent hours at the negotiating table with the teachers union over the weekend in the hopes of avoiding a strike after HEA members overwhelmingly voted in favor of authorizing a strike on Friday. Malden educators also overwhelmingly approved an authorization to strike in a vote held Friday afternoon. In their contract negotiations, Haverhill and Malden educators have said they are seeking higher pay, smaller class sizes and safer school environments. While the school will be closed to students on Monday, the School Committee said buildings will be open and all employees are expected to report to work. Teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts since state law prohibits strikes by public employees, which makes them exceptionally rare in the commonwealth. “If they come to the table with a good deal, our team will sign it. I hope it’s tonight,” said Barry Davis, 1st vice president of the Haverhill Education Association. “But if we have to be on the (picket) line tomorrow, we will be.” Members of the Haverhill School Committee said they have offered teachers the biggest raise city educators have had in 20 years, but added that the Massachusetts Teachers Association wants the teachers to go on strike. “While some progress was made over the last few days, we are extremely disappointed that union leadership and the Massachusetts Teachers Association has encouraged our teachers to take this illegal action,” reads a statement from the Haverhill Negotiations Subcommittee. The school committee said that it, along with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Board, is asking a Salem Superior Court judge to issue a junction against the Haverhill Education Association for its strike. Negotiations will pick up at 8 a.m. Monday, according to the Haverhill School Committee. Haverhill students who have access to a free school lunch on Monday and free breakfast on Tuesday can get food at the following locations from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.: The Haverhill YMCA, 81 Winter St. The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill, 55 Emerson St. Swasey Field Park, 59 Blaisdell St. Haverhill Stadium, Lincoln and Nettleton Haverhill Public Works Department – Parking Lot, 500 Primrose St. Winnekenni Castle – Tennis courts – 347 Kenoza Ave. Bradford Commons Cashman’s Park on Hilldale Ave. In addition, the Haverhill YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Haverhill will be open Monday for children who are presently enrolled in their programs. Parents of children who are registered for before-school or after-school programs at the YMCA will receive an email directly from the YMCA regarding childcare operations, including a full-day program from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Parents of children who are not registered for YMCA programs but are enrolled in grades K-4 can sign up for a drop-in program at the Plaistow Community YMCA in New Hampshire from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Preregistration is required in advance. Haverhill students who are members of the local Boys ...

Congress To Elect Non-Gandhi Chief After 24 Years https://digitalalaskanews.com/congress-to-elect-non-gandhi-chief-after-24-years/ Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor. PTI Photos Tribune News Service Aditi Tandon New Delhi, October 16 The Congress will vote on Monday to elect the first non-Gandhi president in 24 years, as the party gears for the fifth major election in its 137-year-old history and only the first such election in the past 20 years. Will fight BJP-RSS It’s my duty to strengthen the organisation & fight vindictive policies of the BJP-RSS. M Kharge Against status quo No problem with our ideology, but I want to bring a change in our way of working. Shashi Tharoor 9,300 delegates | result on Oct 19 Nearly 9,300 PCC delegates to vote through secret ballot Rahul to vote at ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ campsite in Karnataka Sonia and Priyanka at polling booth at AICC headquarters Electors to put a tick mark against name of their choice Ballot boxes to reach Delhi on Oct 18, result on Oct 19 5th major poll 1939: Subhas Chandra Bose defeats Pattabhi Sitaramayya 1950: Purushottam Das Tandon beats JB Kripalani 1997: Sitaram Kesri defeats Sharad Pawar & Rajesh Pilot 2000: Sonia Gandhi defeats Jitendra Prasad (For most part in-between party chief was nominee of PM (also from party) A ballot box at the AICC headquarters Tomorrow’s election will see a direct contest between 80-year-old Karnataka veteran Mallikarjun Kharge and 66-year-old former UN diplomat-turned-politician Shashi Tharoor. The result will be declared on October 19. The last election for the post was held in 2000 when Sonia Gandhi defeated Jitendra Prasad, winning 7,448 votes against the latter’s 94. Though incumbent party president Sonia has pledged neutrality in the election and the Congress has maintained that there is no official candidate, Kharge is clearly poised to win with all Gandhi loyalists on his list of proposers — AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Ashok Gehlot, Abhishek Singhvi, Digvijay Singh, Salman Khurshid and Ajay Maken to name a few. Kharge also has the backing of pro-reform group G23 of which Tharoor is a part. Kharge has, however, said the G23 “does not exist any longer as everyone is backing him”. Tharoor, who faces an uphill task tomorrow, has complained of the absence of a level-playing field in the campaign, and is banking on the “promise of change” versus Kharge’s “status quo”. The sitting Thiruvananthapuram MP ignored calls from G23 colleagues like Manish Tewari to settle for a consensus in favour of Kharge and argued that “an election would strengthen the organisation”. All top leaders, Kharge included, attempted hard to forge consensus on the Congress President’s post with Kharge even stating that he had urged Tharoor to reach an agreement but the latter declined.AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh even today reiterated the worth of consensus with the majority of Congress leaders describing “Kharge’s victory a foregone conclusion”. But there are apprehensions that Kharge, a professed Sonia loyalist, would be “remote-controlled” by the Gandhis. Although Sonia and Rahul have dismissed the insinuations as “insulting to both candidates“, the latent view in the party is that Kharge is an establishment face and was promoted because he would not rock the Gandhi boat. Nearly 9,300 Pradesh Congress Committee delegates, who form the electoral college, will vote in the election through a secret ballot at 65 polling booths across states and Union Territories tomorrow. Rahul will vote at “Bharat Jodo Yatra” campsite in Karnataka’s Sanganakallu, Ballari, alongside 40 yatris who are also PCC delegates. A polling booth has also been set up at AICC headquarters where Sonia and Priyanka and members of the Congress Working Committee are expected to vote. Read More Here

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China's Xi Opens Party Congress With Speech Tackling Taiwan, Hong Kong And Zero-Covid | CNN https://digitalalaskanews.com/chinas-xi-opens-party-congress-with-speech-tackling-taiwan-hong-kong-and-zero-covid-cnn/ Hong Kong CNN  —  Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Sunday vowed to steer China through grave challenges toward national rejuvenation, advancing a nationalistic vision that has put it on a collision path with the West. Speaking at the opening of the 20th Party Congress, where he is poised to secure a norm-breaking third term in power, Xi struck a confident tone, highlighting China’s growing strength and rising influence under his first decade in power. But he also repeatedly underscored the risks and challenges the country faces. Describing the past five years as “highly unusual and extraordinary,” Xi said the ruling Communist Party has led China through “a grim and complex international situation” and “huge risks and challenges that came one after another.” The very first challenges Xi listed were the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong and Taiwan — all of which he claimed China had come away from victorious. The Chinese government, Xi said, had “protected people’s lives and health” from Covid, turned Hong Kong from “chaos to governance,” and carried out “major struggles” against “independence forces” in the island of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing claims as its own territory despite having never controlled it. Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australia National University’s Taiwan Studies Program, said Xi’s decision to flag the Taiwan issue early on in his speech was a departure from previous speeches and conveys a “newfound urgency on making progress on the Taiwan issue.” Xi won the loudest and longest applause from the nearly 2,300 handpicked delegates inside the Great Hall of the People when he spoke about Taiwan again later in the speech. He said China would “strive for peaceful reunification” — but then gave a grim warning, saying “we will never promise to renounce the use of force and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary.” “The wheels of history are rolling on towards China’s reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Complete reunification of our country must be realized,” Xi said to thundering applause. Xi also underscored the “rapid changes in the international situation” — a thinly veiled reference to the fraying ties between China and the West, which have been further strained by Beijing’s tacit support for Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said China has “taken a clear-cut stance against hegemonism and power politics” and “never wavered” in opposition to unilateralism and “bullying” — in an apparent jab at what Beijing views as a US-led world order that needs to be dismantled. Laying out broad directions for the next five years, Xi said China would focus on “high quality education” and innovation to “renew growth” in the country’s crisis-hit economy. China will “speed up efforts to achieve greater self-reliance in science and technology,” he said, in comments that come just months after his damaging crackdown on the country’s private sector and major tech companies. Xi also vowed to speed up efforts to build the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a “world-class military,” pledging to improve the PLA’s ability to safeguard national sovereignty and build strategic deterrence. He also urged the PLA to strengthen its training and improve its “ability to win.” Xi’s speech was peppered with the Chinese term for “security” — which was mentioned about 50 times. He called national security the “foundation of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” and urged enhancing security in military, economy and “all aspects,” both at home and abroad. Another point of focus was Marxism and ideology. “I don’t think there will be any relaxation of the ideological atmosphere in the coming five years,” said Victor Shih, an expert on elite Chinese politics at the University of California. Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, said the directions laid out in Xi’s opening speech were a continuation of his previous policies. By emphasizing the challenges and struggles, he said, it justifies “the need for a strong party and its great leader.” The week-long congress kicked off on Sunday morning amid heightened security, escalated zero-Covid restrictions and a frenzy of propaganda and censorship. The Communist Party’s most consequential meeting in decades, the congress is set to cement Xi’s status as the China’s most powerful leader since late Chairman Mao Zedong, who ruled until his death aged 82. It will also have a profound impact on the world, as Xi doubles down on an assertive foreign policy to boost China’s international clout and rewrite the US-led global order. The meetings will be mostly held behind close doors throughout the week. When delegates reemerge at the end of the congress next Saturday, they will conduct a ceremonial vote to rubber stamp Xi’s work report and approve changes made to the party constitution — which might bestow Xi with new titles to further strengthen his power. The delegates will also select the party’s new Central Committee, which will hold its first meeting the next day to appoint the party’s top leadership — the Politburo and its Standing Committee, following decisions already hashed out behind the scenes by party leaders before the congress. The congress will be a major moment of political triumph for Xi, but it also comes during a period of potential crisis. Xi’s insistence on an uncompromising zero-Covid policy has fueled mounting public frustration and crippled economic growth. Meanwhile, diplomatically, his “no-limits” friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has further strained Beijing’s ties with the West following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Here’s why Xi’s subtle gestures during speech worries people 01:17 – Source: CNN In the lead-up to the congress, officials across China drastically ramped up restrictions to prevent even minor Covid outbreaks, imposing sweeping lockdowns and increasingly frequent mass Covid tests over a handful of cases. Yet infections caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant have continued to flare. On Saturday, China reported nearly 1,200 infections, including 14 in Beijing. Public anger toward zero-Covid came to the fore Thursday in an exceptionally rare protest against Xi in Beijing. Online photos showed two banners were unfurled on a busy overpass denouncing Xi and his policies, before being taken down by police. “Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” one banner reads. “Go on strike, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping,” read the other. The Chinese public have paid little attention to the party’s congresses in the past – they have no say in the country’s leadership reshuffle, or the making of major policies. But this year, many have pinned their hopes on the congress to be a turning point for China to relax its Covid policy. A series of recent articles in the party’s mouthpiece, however, suggest that could be wishful thinking. The People’s Daily hailed zero-Covid as the “best choice” for the country, insisting it is “sustainable and must be followed.” On Sunday, Xi defended his highly contentious and economically damaging zero-Covid policy. “In responding to the sudden outbreak of Covid-19, we prioritized the people and their lives above all else, and tenaciously pursued dynamic zero-Covid policy in launching all-out people’s war against the virus,” he said. Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said Xi’s words signaled it is “impossible for China to change the zero-Covid strategy in the near future.” Read More Here

Biden Turning To Trump-Era Rule To Expel Venezuelan Migrants https://digitalalaskanews.com/biden-turning-to-trump-era-rule-to-expel-venezuelan-migrants-2/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S. The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds. “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels. “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S. Why the turnaround? For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers. Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere. After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S. Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings. But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials. A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year. By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage. So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42. It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.” Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico. The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S. “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.” A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless. “People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt. Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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Will Trump Comply? Next Steps For Jan. 6 Panel https://digitalalaskanews.com/will-trump-comply-next-steps-for-jan-6-panel/ Sarah D. Wire  |  Los Angeles Times (TNS) WASHINGTON — After closing out what could be the final installment in a series of high-profile hearings, the House’s Jan. 6 select committee is left with decisions to make in its remaining weeks that could have profound effects for years to come. The committee will need to square whether it will play a role in the Justice Department’s investigation and determine how the raw information it has collected will be preserved and disseminated. But ultimately the panel’s largest decisions will be about what recommendations to make and what information its final report should contain. Republican leaders had fought the creation of an independent commission to review the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and what led to it. The House panel is the only government entity tasked with the inquiry, and is compiling what is expected to be the definitive historical record of what led to the insurrection. What the committee produces is likely to become the bedrock evidence in criminal and civil cases, and will be examined by historians and studied in schools much like the 9/11 commission report has been, said Grant Tudor, a policy advocate for Protect Democracy. “These types of evidence-gathering and truth-telling exercises have ramifications for other accountability efforts long after they’re done,” Tudor said. Prosecutors, journalists and government watchdog groups are clamoring for access to the more than 1,000 depositions, hundreds of hours of video and hundreds of thousands of pages of documents collected in the investigation. The committee has been guarded about how much material might be made public. “While we’re obviously anticipating this final report, that’s not the same as anticipating access to the vast body of evidence that’s gathered and the analysis of that evidence,” Tudor said. “It seems really likely that it’s going to take a pretty intentional editing hand in deciding what to include and what not to include. The committee has collected this staggering volume of records and troves of witness testimonies.” The report is all but certain to provide more detail than was possible in a hearing format. Despite early signals of what the panel intended to scrutinize, such as who was behind fundraising for the rally where then-President Donald Trump spoke before the attack, the committee ultimately focused on Trump’s role in the events and his mindset around Jan. 6, pushing some issues to the back burner. Topics raised in hearings were often not completely followed. The committee’s hearings barely touched on information it had gathered on several topics key to understanding the events on and around Jan. 6, including what failures in law enforcement intelligence gathering allowed the insurrection to happen, who funded efforts to find evidence of fraud in the election, and who paid for some Trump supporters to travel to Washington to march on the Capitol. “There is potentially a huge wealth of evidence that could be coming,” Debra Perlin, policy director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told reporters Friday. Along with an account of the plans to keep Trump in power that led to the violence on Jan. 6, the report is expected to include recommendations for legislation or action by federal agencies, and possibly by state and local governments. But the potential outcome most are watching for is whether the committee will recommend criminal charges against Trump or others. Its members have been divided on whether it is appropriate to recommend criminal charges to the Justice Department, or whether the panel should refrain from doing so to prevent the potential appearance of politicizing a decision that the department is supposed to make based on facts alone. The panel has so far held itself apart from the efforts of prosecutors, including refusing requests to share depositions and other evidence with them. “We think we very, very much proved the case in a compelling way by the end of that hearing series,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told Politico. “And now, frankly, on the criminal side, because we’re not the criminal committee, it’s up to the [Justice Department]. … They have the torch, and we’ll see where they go with it.” Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said at Thursday’s hearing that criminal referrals for multiple individuals were likely, but did not elaborate. In the spring and summer, members of the House committee publicly criticized U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, saying he was moving tentatively compared with their proceedings. But the Justice Department made increasingly aggressive moves over the summer, and appears to be conducting multiple investigations at once. Agents have seized cellphones, brought dozens of high-ranking Trump confidants before a grand jury and conducted court-approved searches of private homes, including executing a warrant at the home of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, whom they left handcuffed outside without pants. The department has been careful not to indicate whether indictments are coming, and traditionally it doesn’t make moves in the weeks before an election so as not to potentially influence the outcome. Many legal experts have expressed confidence that charges will come after the midterm elections next month. Duke University professor Asher Hildebrand, a former high-ranking Capitol Hill staffer, said regardless of whether a criminal referral comes from the committee, the hearings show the panel has done its job. “It does feel like the Jan. 6 committee’s contribution to the broader consideration of what happened on Jan. 6, and leading up to it, what crimes were committed by the president … that contribution is sort of secure. And that, at this point, is really a question of whether, when and how the Justice Department and other law enforcement authorities act on all of this information,” he said. As the report is poised to assume center stage, the committee’s investigation is ongoing. On Thursday, its members voted unanimously to subpoena Trump for documents and testimony, saying he has an obligation to answer for his actions. In a rambling 14-page response Friday, Trump didn’t commit to an interview or to sharing documents. Instead he reiterated baseless claims of election fraud and shared photos of the crowd at his rally that day. “You have not gone after the people that created the fraud, but rather great American patriots who questioned it, as is their constitutional right,” he wrote. “These people have had their lives ruined as your committee sits back and basks in the glow.” Trump is likely to fight the subpoena, or ignore it completely. With just more than two months left before the committee is set to disband, it will need to decide how much time to spend pushing for Trump to comply, or whether to consider the subpoena to be largely symbolic. The panel will also need to determine which ongoing fights for records and testimony are still worth pursuing. More than a dozen witnesses have sued to block the committee from gaining access to cellphone or email records, and others are fighting subpoenas to testify in court. Some of the cases have been ongoing for more than a year, in part because the committee has sought more time to craft a strategy. How the committee will present its final report is unclear. All that is required to issue it is a vote of its members, but after nine carefully orchestrated hearings this year, a visual presentation of some kind is expected. “It seems unlikely that it will just drop a large bound book and not say anything about it or not use it as a public platform to also make a series of closing arguments,” Tudor said. “Even if it’s out of the context of a formal hearing.” ——— ©2022 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Read More Here

The Jan. 6 Committee Votes To Subpoena Donald Trump As The Midterm Elections Approach—Yikes! https://digitalalaskanews.com/the-jan-6-committee-votes-to-subpoena-donald-trump-as-the-midterm-elections-approach-yikes/ This article was posted on 07/30/22 titled: More Bombshells About Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 Speech Were Just Dropped During The Committee Hearing The January 6 committee has revealed more lines that former president Donald Trump allegedly removed from his ‘National Healing’ speech on the day after the infamous Capitol riots. On the evening of January 7, 2021 (just a day after Trump dubbed the violent rioters “very special” and told them “we love you” but also “go home”), the twice-impeached president gave another speech from The White House. Last week, Rep. Elaine Luria noted during a televised hearing that the billionaire was reluctant to even give a second speech. He changed his mind, however, Luria said, when advisors warned him of “concerns he might be removed from power under the 25th Amendment or by impeachment.” Luria also showed outtakes from the video in which Trump refused to say the following line, “This election is now over.” It took more than 24 hours for President Trump to address the nation again after his Rose Garden video on January 6th in which he affectionately told his followers to go home in peace. There were more things he was unwilling to say. pic.twitter.com/cJBIX5ROxs — Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) July 25, 2022 Earlier this week, Luria shared another video online of Trump and prefaced it by saying, “There were more things he was unwilling to say.” The video also depicts an annotated document labeled, ‘Remarks on National Healing’ admit witness testimony gathered during the committee’s investigation. Ivanka Trump, (his daughter and former White House advisor) also notably told the panel that the document “looks like a copy of a draft of the remarks for that day” and that black lines which crossed out some words and added others “looks like my father’s handwriting.” When Donald J. Trump finally sent his supporters attacking the Capitol a message, it was not one of condemnation. Instead, it was his newest version of “Stand Back and Stand By.” pic.twitter.com/D14LGp60ed — Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) July 22, 2022 If Trump had followed the original script seen in the video Luria posted on Twitter, he would have said, “I am directing the Department of Justice to ensure all lawbreakers are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We must send a clear message — not with mercy but with JUSTICE. Legal consequences must be swift and firm.” However, these lines were crossed out in black pen. And it didn’t stop there, as the following lines were also changed and left out of his script: “I want to be very clear: you do not represent me. You do not represent our movement.” Instead, the following was left in the script, “You do not represent our country.” Trump also allegedly decided to change the following line, “And if you broke the law, you belong in jail.” According to the black pen scribbles, this was edited to, “And if you broke the law, you will pay.” Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew the Capitol was besieged and under attack. But from 1:25 until after 4:00, the President stayed in his dining room off the Oval Office. Witnesses confirmed that Trump was in the dining room watching TV. pic.twitter.com/DlLZQBO1Av — January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) July 23, 2022 He also reportedly shortened the following line, as it originally appeared, “Like all Americans, I am outraged and sickened by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem,” but it instead was changed to, “I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem.” Jared Kushner, (Trump’s son-in-law and former advisor) also gave testimony about this very Jan. 7 speech. He said, referring directly to the draft remarks that were prepared for the president, “We felt like it was important to further call for de-escalation.” In the video, an investigator asks Kushner why Trump would have crossed out the line about “lawbreakers” being “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”  Kushner replied, “I don’t know.” The 100+ Best Beauty Launches Of 2022 Splash News This article was updated on 10/16/22 with the information below: On Thursday, October 13th, The House January. 6 select committee agreed that Donald Trump *should* be held accountable for the Capitol attack, as they voted unanimously to subpoena the twice-impeached former president. The committee members said they wanted Trump to “answer for his actions,” adding that the panel needs to hear from him in a way that goes “beyond” the fact-finding. And there it is. The January 6 Committee votes unanimously to subpoena Trump to testify under oath. — Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) October 13, 2022 “This is a question about accountability to the American people. He must be accountable,” committee chair Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said. “He is required to answer for his actions. He is required to answer to those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy. He is required to answer to those millions of Americans whose votes he wanted to throw out as part of his scheme to remain in power and whatever is underway to ensure this accountability under law.” “He is required to answer for his actions” — Bennie Thompson We have left no doubt, none, that Donald Trump led an effort to upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6th. Trump is not above the law! pic.twitter.com/dOD8FRhrGy — Bennie G. Thompson (@BennieGThompson) October 14, 2022 Thompson added: “This committee will demand a full accounting to every American person of the event of January 6. So it is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony.” Liz Cheney says: “Every American is entitled to those answers” Vice-chair Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, who is one of two Republicans on the select committee, said that the panel may go on to make criminal referrals, but for the time being, getting answers from Trump is the main goal! “At some point, the Department of Justice may well unearth the facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing,” she said. “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers.” Trump update 10/13/2022..Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? https://t.co/C5t04XeBmD https://t.co/89zLedIpX0 — dog (@dogcicle) October 14, 2022 Donald Trump’s defiance Trump, as expected, had many thoughts about the committee’s decision, and took to social media to share his opinions. “Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago?” he asked. “Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country.” Read More Here

Vibe Check: US House Candidates’ Campaign Headquarters https://digitalalaskanews.com/vibe-check-us-house-candidates-campaign-headquarters/ We often judge political campaigns by the money they raise and the image they project in their ads. We thought up another measure: What’s the ambience at their campaign headquarters? Channeling Architectural Digest, we went to check out the vibe at the Anchorage headquarters of the three main U.S. House candidates — Mary Peltola, Nick Begich and Sarah Palin. Mary Peltola campaign, Spenard Road Architecture: 1980s strip mall Nearest neighbor: Pet supply shop, in next storefront We dropped in without notice and were greeted at the front desk by Fletcher Harris, who appears in Peltola campaign videos as the guy who delivers yard signs. Upon learning that the guest is a reporter, Organizing Director Rene Martin stepped in. The office is mostly empty. “On a day with blue skies this is actually very good news, because it means everyone is out knocking doors,” Martin said. This is a huge limitation of judging a campaign by its headquarters: So much of the work doesn’t take place here. But some of the campaign energy and and character comes through, so we carry on with our vibe check and challenge Martin to describe the decor. “Oh boy,” he said, searching his brain for interior design terms. “Campaign casual?” The room behind the front desk is large and haphazardly furnished, with mismatched chairs and desks in no particular alignment. A large dog toy — a half-chewed rope — is on the floor. “Yeah, our campaign mascot is Rainy,” Martin said. “He’s on loan to us from our digital consultants.” The dog, like almost everyone else, was out that afternoon. The Peltola campaign didn’t have its own offices until after she found out she’d won the special election. Martin said the organization has been rapidly growing. He is an experienced campaign hand from Cleveland, one of several non-Alaskans working here. Nick Begich III campaign, Northern Lights Boulevard Architecture: 1980s strip mall. Nearest neighbors: A wig store and a private motor vehicle licensing office. On our first attempt to visit the door was locked. We called for an appointment and, the next morning, the candidate greeted us at the entrance of his impressive headquarters. “Yeah, it’s spacious,” he said. It’s more than spacious. It’s unusually put-together for a campaign office. The walls have a designer color scheme — chartreuse, teal and coral pink. Even the cubicle dividers look cool, with a bold red graphic design. Begich said he rented it furnished, and it looked like this when he got it. “It was a turnkey space,” he said. A previous tenant sold office furniture. Begich figures it was set up to show off the wares. A small team sits around a conference table, quietly putting rubber bands on campaign leaflets. Begich shows me the small upstairs, where his desk is. It’s a Zoom-ready space, with innocuous framed art as a backdrop. Out of camera range are more personal items. “I have an ironing board — I do iron my own shirts if I need to — and a pillow,” Begich said. “Because I work sometimes 16-hour days. And sometimes I’ll just have to crash for about 30 minutes.” He has been campaigning for the seat for about a year. He worked out of his house for months, and now here. “And I go full-time on this, like it’s a start-up.” Start-up — that’s what the vibe is here: Tech start up. Sarah Palin campaign, aka Ward Realty, Old Seward Highway Architecture: Low-slung commercial space, built in 1960s and painted blue Nearest neighbor: Judy’s Cafe, across the parking lot The door is unlocked on a sunny afternoon. Campaign volunteer and building owner Margaret Ward greeted an unexpected drop-in warmly from a little table by the window. She’s quick to laugh. We barely started chatting before her husband arrived. “Oh, here’s Jerry!” she said. Palin senior campaign advisor Jerry Ward said he’d been out checking on six volunteers who were knocking on doors nearby. Ward was Donald Trump’s main campaign guy in Alaska and helped arrange the Trump rally in Anchorage in July. The room, along with huge “Sarah for Alaska” signs, has colored strip lights, tinsel and crepe paper streamers. “My grandkids did this and this is beautiful. Red, white and blue,” Ward said. “And there’s a balloon over there, too.” Yes, just one. It’s blue, with stars on it. If it was ever lighter than air, it’s not now. It dangles from its tether on the wall. Back at the little table by the window, the Wards talk about their grandchildren and their long Alaska heritage. In the center of the table is a bible, with a custom cover that’s inscribed with family names. Jerry Ward said he brought it from home so he could do on-the-spot research. “People will come in and quote the Bible to me and I have to look it up,” he said. “I don’t know it by heart.” Who comes in and quotes Bible verses at him? “Different people have done it,” he said. “Not everyone. Some people just want a button or a sticker, or they want to know how they can get a picture with Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.” This headquarters is more of a reflection of the Wards. But it does share elements that Palin projects — It’s homey, personality-driven, and has Trump’s seal of approval. Read More Here

Nakia Creek Fire Breaks Through Containment Lines, Evacuation Areas Cover Much Of East Clark County https://digitalalaskanews.com/nakia-creek-fire-breaks-through-containment-lines-evacuation-areas-cover-much-of-east-clark-county/ Authorities warn of a ‘very dynamic situation’ and urge anyone near the fire area to take precautions to evacuate Published: October 16, 2022, 4:00pm Updated: October 16, 2022, 4:07pm 2 Photos Photo Gallery The Nakia Creek Fire in east Clark County has doubled in size on Sunday, prompting a significant expansion of mandatory evacuation zones affecting about 1,000 residences in the rural outskirts of Camas and Washougal and warning zones extending as far as Hockinson and east Vancouver. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office reported around 2:30 p.m. that the fire had broken through containment lines and is aggressively moving to the west and southwest. The fire has grown from 156 acres to about 350 acres, according to the Department of Natural Resources A large smoke plume, blowing generally east to west, became visible throughout the metro area late Sunday morning as fire activity picked up.  “This is highly dynamic, wind-driven fire with long-distance spotting,” DNR spokeswoman Trina Contreras said Sunday afternoon before a 3:30 p.m. press conference at Grove Field in Camas. She said emergency warnings have been sent to about 3,000 residents using the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency’s alert system. Contreras said the fire had remained contained until high winds whipped up Sunday morning, driving the blaze to the west and southwest. “The winds up there were really gusting, and we got some significant growth,” Contreras said. Those high winds prevented the use of an air tanker on the fire earlier in the day, but Contreras said conditions had improved Sunday afternoon and the tanker was being used again. The fire activity has increased as the area remained under a red flag warning for wind and low humidity levels through 6 p.m. Sunday. Southeast winds of 10-20 mph were forecast in the area of the fire, with gusts up to 30 mph and humidity as low as 22 percent. The National Weather Service reported that an air quality alert remains in effect for the area through 5 p.m. Monday. The AirNow.gov website shows air quality in the moderate to unhealthy in parts of Southwest Washington due to wildfire smoke. The Nakia Creek Fire started on Oct. 9 in an extremely steep area covered with a mix of brush, medium logging slash and timber. Prior to the fire’s expansion Sunday containment was estimated at 20 percent. The fire had been smoldering and creeping with some torching observed and short-range spotting. Fire managers said the potential for fire growth remains, and containment lines are being put in place. Contreras said there are 110 personnel working the fire with one spotter plane and one air tanker. A larger Type 2 team has been called in and will assist in the effort, she said. Evacuation sites open Evacuation zones have expanded repeatedly throughout the day and may expand more, officials warned. Updated fire and evacuation information will be posted at www.cresa911.org. A shelter location has been opened by the American Red Cross at Camas Church of Nazarene, 2204 N.E. Birch St, Camas. ilani has opened up parking lots 10 and 11 for evacuees. Those using the lots are asked to put a sign in their window saying “Fire Evacuee.” No RV services are available, and gray water will need to be dumped at the Gee Creek Rest Area. For livestock shelter, call  360-607-2535 for assistance. Livestock can be taken to Clark County Fairgrounds, 17402 N.E. Delfel Road, Ridgefield. Level 3 “Go Now” mandatory evacuation area has expanded to include the Larch Mountain Corrections Center and outlying areas in Camas and Washougal, including the Bear Prairie and the Ireland area near Livingston Mountain. Contreras said that as of Sunday afternoon, Larch staff and inmates were sheltering in place. Level 2 “Get Set” voluntary evacuation area now expands into Hockinson and north Camas and Washougal. Level 1 “Get Ready” warnings extend throughout Camas and Washougal and as far west as Northeast 182nd Avenue and as far north and Northeast Sunset Falls Road. Those in “Level 3 Go Now” should evacuate to the south toward Washougal River Road into Washougal. “Please understand that this is a very dynamic situation and if you are anywhere near this area, you should take precautions to evacuate,” a bulletin from CRESA said. Staying safe The American Red Cross offered these wildfire safety tips for those in the fire area: Be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice and obey all evacuation orders from officials. Back your car into the garage or park it outside, facing the direction of your evacuation route. Keep your pets in one room, so you can find them if you need to evacuate quickly. Limit exposure to smoke and dust. Keep indoor air clean by closing windows and doors to prevent outside smoke from getting in. Don’t use anything that burns, such as candles, fireplaces and gas stoves. If you’re trapped outdoors, crouch in a pond, river or pool. Don’t put wet clothing or bandanas over your mouth or nose, as moist air can cause more damage to your airway than dry air at the same temperature. If there is no body of water, look for shelter in a cleared area or among a bed of rocks. Lie flat, face-down and cover your body with soil. Breathe the air close to the ground to avoid scorching your lungs or inhaling smoke. Don’t return home until officials say it’s safe to do so. Inspect the roof immediately and extinguish any sparks or embers. Wildfires may have left embers that could reignite. Check your home for embers that could cause fires. Look for signs of a fire including smoke or sparks. Avoid damaged or downed power lines, poles and wires. Keep a close eye on your animals. Hidden embers and hot spots could burn them. Wet down debris to minimize breathing in dust particles. Wear work gloves and shoes with heavy soles. Throw out any food that has been exposed to heat, smoke or soot. Download the Red Cross Emergency app for real-time alerts, open Red Cross shelter locations and expert advice on wildfires. The Emergency app includes an “I’m Safe” feature that help people check on loved ones. Search “American Red Cross” in app stores, or go to redcross.org/apps. This story will be updated. Read More Here