Kinzinger Opens The Door To Granting Trump's Demand To Testify Live The Bharat Express News
Kinzinger Opens The Door To Granting Trump's Demand To Testify Live – The Bharat Express News https://digitalalaskanews.com/kinzinger-opens-the-door-to-granting-trumps-demand-to-testify-live-the-bharat-express-news/
Has Trump Finally Started Eating His Own Tail? Is he the dog that caught the car? Are there ten million more clichés implying that Trump’s ego has finally fueled the “self-destruct” process? Yes, it seems so, as Trump casually dismissed the idea of answering the subpoena if he could testify live. The man who believes his life is a television show and that ratings are more important than facts wants to go “Super Bowl” to testify live before the committee. Only the committee was not really allowed to say yes. Somewhere deep in Trump’s mind, he certainly counted on the Committee to be the adults who say “no.” Instead, the Committee could ripely hold him to account by granting his wish:
From TBEN News Adam Kinzinger drops a bombshell:
The Jan. 6 House Committee investigating last year’s Capitol riots would have to negotiate with former President Donald Trump if he offered to testify live in response to the panel’s subpoena, Rep. Adam Kinzinger Sunday.
“I think that will be a negotiation”Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the committee, told TBEN “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.I’ll only go into that when we’re sure the president has tried to come in and talk to us live.”
Sounds like an open door, yes?
Kinzinger’s video:
Having already noted that Trump could seal his own demise by convicting himself on a dozen charges in his opening statement (he will go off-script in 20 seconds), there are reasons for the committee to be cautious, and that’s what Kinzinger means when he says “negotiations”.
There will be no judge in charge of the chamber, no one to silence Trump, nor anyone to say, “The witness will answer the question…” threatening to throw him in contempt to jail if he doesn’t. Trump could completely ignore the questions and start spewing on unrelated topics. Admittedly, he’ll likely sentence himself to another two dozen crimes in the process, but he’ll certainly dodge questions. There is a known cure for such a hostile witness. One asks a very simple question, and when Trump takes two hours or whatever to do something other than answer the question, the attorney or representative completely ignores the answer and calmly asks the question again, using the same words and the same tone. , and continue doing this for 20 minutes and then say, “I see you can’t answer the question.” If Trump testifies live, the investigation should be done by a highly experienced trial attorney, not the representatives themselves. Any question is too valuable and should go through someone who does this twice a month for high stakes.
But ultimately, as long as Trump is on a clock, the Committee has a lot more to gain than Trump.
Trump is not smart. He is not well trained. He will not see the problems coming with certain questions. His arrogance is boundless. His belief that he can convince anyone of anything is one of his most dangerous traits. He is furious, more than furious. He has no control and will intervene to gain some control over the process… all this amounts to the worst nightmare a lawyer could have and most damns any “defendant” even if he doesn’t know it.
Since the Committee is made up of nine sober members, all of whom are more centered, more fully developed, intellectual and educated, not there for their own glory and devoted to a noble cause, let one be assured that what the risks (which are real ) they are negated by the dream opportunity presented by the spotlight on the world’s most prolific and horrific liar.
It’s all in the negotiations. Buy a clock to limit each answer to two minutes or one. Thirty seconds. It is the basic negotiation. Oh! And try to do it before the election, please? The more the country is covered by a Trump-ignited greasefire, the better for Democrats.
@JasonMiciak believes that a day without learning is a day wasted. He is a political writer, features writer, author and lawyer. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teenage and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He is now enjoying life as a single father to a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He enjoys making his flower pots, cooking, and is currently studying philosophy of science, religion and non-mathematical principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Feel free to contact us for speaking engagements or questions.
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FBI Officials Blocked Investigation Into Dossier Source With Russian Links: Testimony
FBI Officials Blocked Investigation Into Dossier Source With Russian Links: Testimony https://digitalalaskanews.com/fbi-officials-blocked-investigation-into-dossier-source-with-russian-links-testimony/
ALEXANDRIA, Va.—An FBI supervisory agent and former bureau analyst both say they were prevented from opening an investigation into a longtime Democratic operative’s relationships with Russians and key players in assembling the anti-Donald Trump dossier authored by former British spy Christopher Steele.
FBI special agent Amy Anderson and former FBI counterintelligence expert Brittany Hertzog wanted to probe Charles Dolan, a longtime Clinton family associate who did business for years with top Russian officials and also provided information to Igor Danchenko, a key source for Steele’s dossier.
But special agent Joe Nelson, Anderson’s boss, blocked her efforts, Anderson testified.
Hertzog said she was blocked by Brian Auten, another official, who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Anderson and Hertzog testified on Oct. 14 during the trial of Russian business analyst Igor Danchenko before U.S. Eastern District of Virginia Judge Anthony Trenga.
Danchenko, a Russian national and Virginia resident, is charged with five counts of making false statements to FBI investigators during three January 2017 interviews. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which could carry a 25-year prison sentence if convicted.
Danchenko was the primary sub-source in funneling salacious accusations in 2016 about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who went on to compile a dossier while being paid by Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, Trump’s rival for the presidency.
Dolan
Danchenko was charged with lying about his contact with Dolan, a longtime Democratic operative, Clinton family associate, and billionaire founder who is now senior vice president of a Virginia-based public relations firm, though the charge was tossed on Friday.
Dolan himself testified Oct. 13 that he worked for Ketchum PR for 13 years and was frequently in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia working with the company’s clients.
Among those clients was the government of the Russian Federation and among those he worked most closely with was Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, who Hertzog described as overseeing Russian propaganda and misinformation.
Dolan in his testimony acknowledged that he had a close working relationship with Peskov as well as Olga Galkina, who came from the same town as Danchenko in Russia and was living in Cyprus.
Through Dolan’s decade-long connections with Danchenko, Dolan was able to secure a public relations contract with her employer, service.com.
Dolan and Danchenko also were in Moscow together in June and October 2016. The latter visit was for a business conference they helped organize.
Dolan and Galkina are among those suspected of helping Danchenko compile most of the information contained in the dossier written and published in 17 reports by Steele. Galkina denies she was involved, but FBI agents and Danchenko say she was.
Drew Attention
The connectivity between the three drew the attention of FBI investigators involved in the Crossfire Hurricane probe of the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russian officials that in the spring of 2017 morphed into the Mueller investigation.
Anderson, a specialist in Russian counterintelligence who has been with the agency for 12 years, was involved in the investigation from April 2017 to January 2018 and was attempting to either verify the reports or determine they were not accurate.
In the course of that research, she became aware of the active connection between Danchenko, Dolan, and Galkina.
When asked by prosecutor Brittany Shaw if she believed further steps needed to be taken to investigate Dolan, Anderson said, “I did.”
“I wanted to look into him,” she said, lobbying for the agency to explore the Dolan–Peskov connection.
“Anyone who had access to the Kremlin would be important to look into,” she said, maintaining looking into Dolan’s activities was imperative in validating or debunking the dossier.
Anderson said it would be important for Russian actors like Peskov to know someone was looking for rumors and allegations against a presidential candidate and that it “would be of interest to investigators” to ascertain links between those seeking the information and officials in Russia.
In August 2017, Anderson and FBI supervisory counterintelligence analyst Auten went to Cyprus to speak with Galkina, a meeting arranged by Danchenko.
Over the span of the three days, “she seemed mostly forthcoming” but “was hesitant in talking to us about Dolan,” Anderson said.
On the last day, Anderson said, she directly asked Galkina if Dolan was involved in the dossier and other activities related to their investigation.
“We were in a car and she asked me to remove my sunglasses so she could look me in the eye and say, ‘Yes,’” Anderson recounted.
That comment induced objections from Danchenko’s defense team that Trenga sustained, advising the jury to disregard everything after Anderson said, she removed her sunglasses.
Attempts to Investigate
On the return flight, Anderson said she wrote a type of report the FBI uses to open investigations and submitted it to her supervisor, special agent Joe Nelson.
The report “sat for approximately three, four weeks,” she said, before her supervisor, special agent Joe Nelson, told her to close it.
Hertzog, a Russian counterintelligence specialist for 11 years before leaving the agency in 2019, under questioning from prosecutor Michael Keilty, recounted how Dolan was making multiple trips to Moscow and numerous trips to Cyprus in 2018.
Dolan’s “connectivity” to Galkina “was important,” she said, “especially considering his relationship with Peskov.”
“I was concerned,” Hertzog said. She “wanted to take investigatory steps against Dolan,” noting both Anderson and Auten shared her concerns.
She prepared a report that outlined Dolan’s connections with the Russian government, Danchenko, and Galkina and “serialized” it to three case files.
“I wanted others to see it,” especially the agency’s inspector general division, Hertzog said, because she wanted the FBI to act on the gathered intelligence.
“I believed further action was needed for Dolan,” Hertzog said.
However, she said, she was instructed by Auten “not to take further action relative to Dolan.”
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John Haughey has been a working journalist since 1978 with an extensive background in local government, state legislatures, and growth and development. A graduate of the University of Wyoming, he is a Navy veteran who fought fires at sea during three deployments aboard USS Constellation. He’s been a reporter for daily newspapers in California, Washington, Wyoming, New York, and Florida; a staff writer for Manhattan-based business trade publications.
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Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news for The Epoch Times. He is based in Maryland.
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Elon Musk Reverses Course Says SpaceX Will Keep Funding Ukraine Starlink Service For Free | CNN Business
Elon Musk Reverses Course, Says SpaceX Will Keep Funding Ukraine Starlink Service For Free | CNN Business https://digitalalaskanews.com/elon-musk-reverses-course-says-spacex-will-keep-funding-ukraine-starlink-service-for-free-cnn-business/
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CNN —
US billionaire Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that SpaceX will continue funding Starlink internet service in war-torn Ukraine, apparently reversing course after SpaceX asked the United States military to pick up the tab.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet services have been a vital source of communication for the country’s military during the war with Russia, but as CNN exclusively reported earlier this week, SpaceX warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month, according to documents obtained by CNN.
The letter also requested that the Pentagon take over funding for Ukraine’s government and military use of Starlink, which SpaceX claims would cost more than $120 million for the rest of the year and could cost close to $400 million for the next 12 months. The report elicited a torrent of tweets from social media users both defending and criticizing the move.
A tweet from Musk’s verified account posted Saturday said, “The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”
Since they first started arriving in Ukraine last spring, the Starlink satellite internet terminals made by Musk’s SpaceX have allowed Ukraine’s military to fight and stay connected even as cellular phone and internet networks have been destroyed in its war with Russia.
A Pentagon spokesperson said Friday afternoon that it had been in communication with SpaceX about the funding of the Starlink satellite communication product as well as other topics.
In response Saturday to a follower who replied to Musk’s tweet, “No good deed goes unpunished,” Musk said, “Even so, we should still do good deeds.”
Musk on Friday had doubled down on SpaceX’s request to the Pentagon in a series of tweets.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable,” read one post from Musk’s verified account.
He also said that in asking the Pentagon to pick up the bill for Starlink in Ukraine, he was following the advice of a Ukrainian diplomat who responded to Musk’s Ukraine peace plan earlier this month, before the letter was sent to the Pentagon, with: “F*** off.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, responded earlier this month to Musk’s claimed peace plan for Russia’s Ukraine war by saying: “F*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk.”
SpaceX’s suggestion that it would stop funding Starlink also came amid rising concern in Ukraine over Musk’s allegiance. Musk recently tweeted a controversial peace plan that would have Ukraine give up Crimea and control over the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the question of who Musk sides with, he responded that he “still very much support[s] Ukraine” but fears “massive escalation.”
One Ukrainian official, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, appeared to extend an olive branch in a tweet posted Friday, writing, “Let’s be honest. Like it or not, @elonmusk helped us survive the most critical moments of war.”
“Business has the right to its own strategies,” Podolyak’s tweet read. “(We) will find a solution to keep #Starlink working. We expect that the company will provide stable connection till the end of negotiations.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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Stock Futures Rise Slightly After A Rollercoaster Week
Stock Futures Rise Slightly After A Rollercoaster Week https://digitalalaskanews.com/stock-futures-rise-slightly-after-a-rollercoaster-week/
Traders on the floor of the NYSE, Aug. 4, 2022.
Source: NYSE
Stock futures edged higher in overnight trading Sunday as investors awaited big earnings reports to roll in.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 50 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both inched 0.3% higher.
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.
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.
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Provocations: The Ultimate Get-Trump Plan (DAVID NEESE COLUMN)
Provocations: The Ultimate Get-Trump Plan (DAVID NEESE COLUMN) https://digitalalaskanews.com/provocations-the-ultimate-get-trump-plan-david-neese-column/
President Joe Biden isn’t alone in being a little long in the tooth. Donald Trump, born in 1946, is getting up there in years too.
The grim actuarial reality is that Trump just might check out before he can be declared guilty of this or that malseveration.
And so, it would be prudent to make arrangements for Trump to receive the Pope Formosus treatment. About which, a quick history review.
In the year of our Lord 897, Formosus, then well-deceased, was exhumed and put on trial for crimes against the Church.
His successor and archenemy, Pope Stephen VI, summoned a Vatican synod to try the dead pope, whose corpse was propped up on the papal throne and found guilty as all get-out, exactly as charged.
Formosus’ three boney fingers on his right hand were then cut off, lest he attempt to bestow postmortem benedictions, and his remains were disposed of in Rome’s Tiber River.
Given the glacial pace of our jurisprudence these days, and given the evident difficulty of making a case that sticks against the wily, evasive Trump, preparations surely need to be made for Trump’s posthumous prosecution.
Just in case. Otherwise, he might escape “justice” by shuffling off his mortal coil.
It may take a while longer yet to find an offense on which Trump can finally be nailed. Previous attempts, which looked promising at first, fizzled. Two impeachment efforts collapsed due to flimsy and/or doctored evidence.
A third, current attempt to collar Trump for the death-penalty offense of treason — based on alleged technical violations of record-keeping regulations — looks to have doubtful legal footing.
So does an endless, on-going effort to indict him as the mastermind of the Jan. 6 “insurrection.”
And myriad private and governmental civil lawsuits pending against Trump grind on and on, in slow motion.
In any event these cases will, at best, result in fines, which he’d likely keep at bay through endless appeals. Or maybe he’d evade the fines altogether through bankruptcy maneuvers, at which he proved adept during his Atlantic City casino days.
Arrangements for the posthumous prosecution of Trump would acknowledge an undeniable truth: Trump is the best darn thing that ever happened to the modern Democratic Party. He has become, for Democrats, the Essential Distraction.
If Trump didn’t exist, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, not to mention the View and the Washington Post, would have to invent him.
All misfortunes and catastrophes, it turns out, have a handy, one-word explanation: Trump!
— Tsunamic crime surges? Trump!
— Plunging stock market? Trump!
— Skyrocketing gas, oil and food prices? Trump!
— Global warming? Trump!
— Fentanyl crisis? Trump!
— Bungled Covid pandemic? Trump!
— Illegal alien stampede at southern border? Trump!
— All forms of bigotry including rampant, systemic, omnipresent white supremacy? Trump!
— Plunging educational achievement scores? Trump!
— Soaring public debt and depleting retirement accounts? Trump!
— Socially and economically deteriorating, one-party cities? Trump!
— Disastrous military meddling in foreign quagmires? Trump!
— Acid reflux heartburn, joint pain, constipation and warts?
Trump, Trump, Trump and Trump!
Here’s news that Trump’s insatiable ego should welcome: America needs Donald Trump now more than ever.
Without him, who’re we gonna blame?
We’re gonna need Trump even after he’s gone. Thus the urgency of arranging, as with Formosus, for Trump’s posthumous prosecution.
There is, however, an unsettling historical footnote to Pope Stephen’s prosecution of the dead Formosus.
Stephen didn’t have long to savor the guilty verdict over his archenemy. Soon thereafter Stephen’s adversaries gained the upper hand. They dispatched him by strangulation.
Such seems to be the nature of vengeful, give-no-quarter politics.
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AP News In Brief At 6:04 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-in-brief-at-604-p-m-edt-5/
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.
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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.
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China’s 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.
___
GOP hopefuls turn to Pence to broaden appeal before election
NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021.
By refusing to go along with the then-president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles.
But the final weeks of this year’s intensely competitive midterm elections suggest that the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential 2024 White House campaign. The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand draw for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting his election lies.
Pence has traveled the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees.
For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That’s the case in Arizona, with a critical Senate race this year and where the 2024 presidential campaign will be hotly contested. Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary and win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents.
___
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.
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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 Sunda...
AP News In Brief At 6:04 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-in-brief-at-604-p-m-edt-6/
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 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.
GOP hopefuls turn to Pence to broaden appeal before election
NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021.
By refusing to go along with the then-president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles.
But the final weeks of this year’s intensely competitive midterm elections suggest that the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential 2024 White House campaign. The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand draw for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting his election lies.
Pence has traveled the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees.
For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That’s the case in Arizona, with a critical Senate race this year and where the 2024 presidential campaign will be hotly contested. Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary and win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents.
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 Ber...
U.S. Jewish Orgs Slam Trump For Warning American Jews To 'get Their Act Together'
U.S. Jewish Orgs Slam Trump For Warning American Jews To 'get Their Act Together' https://digitalalaskanews.com/u-s-jewish-orgs-slam-trump-for-warning-american-jews-to-get-their-act-together/
WASHINGTON – U.S. Jewish organizations on Sunday sharply criticized former U.S. President Donald Trump after he warned American Jews to “get their act together.”
The former president decried American Jews’ failure to appreciate him as evangelical Christians or Israelis do, posting on Truth Social that “U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel. Before it is too late.”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt slammed Trump, who alienated the vast majority of American Jews by empowering white supremacy during his presidency, saying “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,” he said.
Trump has used his unprecedented support for Israel as a deflection against accusations of antisemitism, all while invoking dual loyalty tropes and deeming Jews who vote for Democrats as “very disloyal” to Israel. Trump’s opinions of American Jews, however, have deteriorated into stereotypes for decades, touching on tropes of wealth, power and status.
Why being a ‘Bad Jew’ is no longer bad for Jewish Americans
AIPAC vs. American Jews: The toxic victories of the ‘pro-Israel’ lobby
U.S. Jewish groups face major dilemma as Israeli far right gains in election polls
The American Jewish Committee noted that “support for the Jewish state never gives one license to lecture American Jews, nor does it ever give the right to draw baseless judgments about the ties between U.S. Jews and Israel. And to be clear, those ties are strong and enduring.”
Trump’s post comes one month after the annual non-partisan Jewish Electorate Institute survey found that 70 percent of Jewish voters support Biden – a seven-percent increase from a similar poll taken earlier this year – while only 19 percent of Jewish voters hold a favorable opinion of Trump.
“American Jews got ‘their act together’ in 2020, when 77 percent supported Biden. This won’t change because Jews view Trump and MAGA candidates as extremist-aligned threats to our security, democracy & values, as epitomized by this antisemitic screed. This has nothing to do with Israel,” said Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer.
Republican lawmakers and the Republican Jewish Coalition did not respond to requests for comment — a silence not lost on Democratic members of Congress.
“The GOP sat silently when Trump bragged about sexual assault. They sat silently when he attacked our democracy. Today they sit silently in the face of his antisemitism. Either they agree with him, or they are cowards,” said Rep. Sean Casten. “In either case, they are not fit to lead.”
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Roger Stone Is Fed Up With Trump And Uses Threats Of Violence To Make That Very Clear
Roger Stone Is Fed Up With Trump And Uses Threats Of Violence To Make That Very Clear https://digitalalaskanews.com/roger-stone-is-fed-up-with-trump-and-uses-threats-of-violence-to-make-that-very-clear/
“Run again, you’ll get your f**king brains beat in,” Stone says about Trump in a clip that circulated this weekend
Published October 16, 2022 4:14PM (EDT)
Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser and friend to former President Donald Trump, speaks before signing copies of his book “The Making of the President 2016” at the Boca Raton Marriott on March 21, 2017 in Boca Raton, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Roger Stone, one-time friend and mentor to Trump, is not holding back when it comes to expressing his current feelings towards the former president.
On Saturday, a clip from a 2021 documentary by Christoffer Guldbrandsen called “A Storm Foretold” began to circulate in which Stone is heard saying “He has to go, he has to go . . . “Run again, you’ll get your f**king brains beat in.”
“I’m done with this president,” Stone says in the clip. “I’m going to go public supporting impeachment. I have no choice.”
This latest clip comes on the heels of earlier footage which circulated on Friday in which Stone focuses his anger on Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“Jared Kushner has an IQ of 70,” Stone says in the earlier clip. “He’s coming to Miami. We will eject him from Miami very quickly. He’ll be leaving very quickly. He has 100 security guards, I’ll have 5,000 security guards.”
Hands visibly shaking while yelling into his cell phone, Stone steers towards violence once again.
“You wanna fight? Let’s fight. F**k you. F**k you and your abortionist b***h daughter.”
Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.
The heat behind Stone’s turn against Trump is seemingly due to his being denied a pardon in relation to his involvement with the events of Jan. 6. According to The New York Times, Stone “started texting with a lawyer representing Trump in his second impeachment trial, seeking a pardon.” Things did not shake out as he’d hoped.
The expletive ridden phone call featured in the two documentary clips took place the day of President Biden’s inauguration, at which point Trump no longer had the authority to pardon anyone.
“Yet another video where my lips can actually not be seen but illogically insisting that I attacked Trump when in fact I was talking about Joe Biden,” Stone said today via Truth Social, disputing the legitimacy of the clips.
In a statement made earlier today on Truth Social, Stone quotes the Bible’s Revelation 2:17.
“Jesus said, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”
Kelly McClure is a journalist and fiction writer who lives in New Orleans. She is Salon’s Nights and Weekends editor, and her work has been featured in Vulture, The A.V. Club, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Nylon, Vice, and elsewhere. She is the author of Something is Always Happening Somewhere
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T https://digitalalaskanews.com/t-17/
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump attacked American Jews on Sunday for not giving him enough political contributions and again suggested, falsely, that they have dual loyalties to the United States and Israel.
Jews need to “get their act together” and appreciate what they have in Israel “before it is too late,” Trump said in a social media post, unexplained comments that many took as a threat against political opponents.
Political commentator David Rothkopf likened Trump to a “mob boss” seeking to “shake down” Jewish donors – or else.
“We’ve been menaced by fascists before, you two-bit goon,” Rothkopf tweeted at Trump. “We recognize the the threat you represent from the darkest pages of our history. That’s why we’ll never submit to your threats.”
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Jewish Democrats:Trump: Jews voting for Democrats show ‘great disloyalty’
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said, “we don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and anti-Semites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship. It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests.”
He added: “This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting.”
Trump’s unexplained post
In a Sunday post on the Truth Social website, Trump said, “No President has done more for Israel than I have,” but “our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” He did laud his support in Israel, and claimed he could be prime minister of that country.
Trump closed his message by saying: “U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – Before it is too late!”
Trump did not explain what he meant by the phrase “too late,” but many interpreted it as a warning.
“If that’s not an antisemitic threat, I don’t know what to call it,” tweeted Laurence Tribe, law professor emeritus at Harvard.
Alex Holder, a filmmaker who made a documentary on Trump, called the outburst irresponsible and dangerous. “As a Jew,” Holder said on Twitter, “I experienced this language firsthand while interviewing Trump.”
The Trump post came just says after a sometimes ally – the musician Ye, also known as Kanye West – was locked out of Twitter and Instagram accounts for antisemitic rants.
Trump’s previous comments on Jewish people
This is not the first time that Trump has attacked Jews for not supporting him politically, and that they should back him over policies toward Israel.
A year before his failed reelection bid in 2020, Trump said: “I think any Jewish people who would vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”
During a White House Hanukkah party in 2018, Trump told guests that Vice President Mike Pence and wife Karen Pence had great affection for Israel: “And they go there and they love your country. They love your country. And they love this country. That’s a good combination, right?”
Stereotypes:‘Vile and bigoted remarks’: Left-leaning Jewish groups accuse Trump of antisemitic stereotypes
In light of Sunday’s post, Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East adviser under Democratic and Republican administrations, said Trump’s policies have not been good for Jews anywhere.
“He has enabled forces of extremism fueling anti-semitism in this Republic,” tweeted Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “and pursued a policy that has politicized US-Israel relations undermining key source of relationship’s strength – bipartisanship.”
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: The Semiconductor Industry Is Near The Limit
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: ‘The Semiconductor Industry Is Near The Limit’ https://digitalalaskanews.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-the-semiconductor-industry-is-near-the-limit/
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Trump Attacks American Jews Posting They Must get Their Act Together On Israel
Trump Attacks American Jews, Posting They Must ‘get Their Act Together’ On Israel https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-attacks-american-jews-posting-they-must-get-their-act-together-on-israel/
Former president Donald Trump attacked American Jews in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, saying Jews in the United States must “get their act together” and show more appreciation for the state of Israel “before it is too late.”
American Jews have long been accused of holding secret loyalty to Israel rather than the United States, and Trump’s post leaned on that antisemitic trope, suggesting that by virtue of their religion, American Jews should show more appreciation to Israel.
Trump also complained in the post that “no president” had done more for Israel than he had but that Christian evangelicals are “far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.”
It was not the first time that Trump has suggested that American Jews, who traditionally have more often aligned with the Democratic Party on domestic policies, should be more supportive of him because of how he dealt with Israel.
“Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough. Does that make sense to you?” he said in an interview last year with an Orthodox Jewish magazine, adding that it seemed “strange” to him that he did not have more Jewish support.
At a Hanukkah event at the White House in 2018, he drew criticism for referring to Israel as “your country” while speaking to American Jews. He was also rebuked when he said during an Oval Office meeting in 2019 that “any Jewish people who would vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”
Trump’s latest diatribe about Jews came as Republican candidates have made overt appeals to racial animus and resentments in the closing weeks of the midterm election campaign.
It also comes as leading Republican figures have failed to disavow musician and sometime-Trump supporter Ye, the rapper and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West. Ye earlier this month tweeted that he wanted to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to Defcon, the U.S. military defense readiness system. Instagram and Twitter removed posts by the artist, who had been featured on conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show.
Trump has long been frustrated that he has not drawn more support from American Jews, particularly when as president, he moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, helped negotiate new treaties between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors.
In Sunday’s post, Trump wrote that his support among people living in Israel is “a different story.” “Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.!” he wrote, contrasting his popularity in the foreign country with his support among American Jews.
Trump’s post drew quick criticism.
“We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship,” Anti-Defamation League chief executive and national director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting.”
On her personal Twitter account, Neera Tanden, a senior adviser to President Biden, wrote, “We should all stand against what feels like a growing chorus of anti-Semitism. There should be no quarter for it in our politics or culture.”
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Elon Musk Says SpaceX Will Continue To Cover Starlink Costs In Ukraine
Elon Musk Says SpaceX Will Continue To Cover Starlink Costs In Ukraine https://digitalalaskanews.com/elon-musk-says-spacex-will-continue-to-cover-starlink-costs-in-ukraine/
By
Matthew Luxmoore
Updated Oct. 16, 2022 3:13 pm ET
KYIV, Ukraine—Elon Musk backtracked on his complaints over the cost of funding Starlink internet terminals in Ukraine and said his company would continue to pay for them, as explosions rocked the Russian-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday.
Mr. Musk, the billionaire chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, pledged to continue funding the Starlink service for Ukraine just a day after he said SpaceX couldn’t finance the service indefinitely on its own.
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Cougar Notes: WNCC Volleyball Sweeps Lamar https://digitalalaskanews.com/cougar-notes-wncc-volleyball-sweeps-lamar/
News
The 5th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team made short work of Lamar Community College Saturday in a Region IX South Sub-Region conference contest.
LAMAR, Colo. – The 5th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team made short work of Lamar Community College Saturday in a Region IX South Sub-Region conference contest as the Cougars improved to 26-3 on the season with a 25-10, 25-11, 25-14 over the Lopes.
The Cougars captured the win in a little over an hour as everyone got a chance to play and put up some sort of statistic.
Eleven different players picked up a kill in the win while another 11 had at least one service point.
Erica Fava paced the offense with 10 kills while also tallying three digs and just one point. Ale Meoni and Jenna Curtis each had six kills while Emmalei Mapu had five kills. Meoni also had two digs while Curtis had five digs.
Shanelle Martinez finished with 12 points with nine digs, two kills, and 34 set assists, while AK Chavez had 10 points with three aces, and six digs. Megan Bewley also tallied seven points, while Alex Hernandez and Charli Blackman each had four points.
The match was one where WNCC trailed just once in the contest and that was 1-0 after a missed serve to start the set. Other than that, WNCC led 99.9% of the time with just three ties, two in the second set at 1-1 and 2-2 and once in the third at 1-1.
The first set saw Martinez start the match with two points with two kills from Fava for a 3-0 lead. WNCC led 11-4 after two Hernandez points and then led 16-6 on two Martinez points.
WNCC went up 21-7 on four Chavez points and won the first set 25-11 as Curtis tattooed a kill for the set winner.
The second set was back and forth to start as Lamar led 1-0 and trailed just 5-4 and later 7-5. That was when WNCC started heating up as Hernandez had two service points followed by three points from Blackman for a 14-6 lead. WNCC kept going as Martinez added six points for a 21-8 lead and Jayla Brehmer served the final point for the 25-10 win.
The third set started out at 1-1 before Chavez added two points for a 4-1 lead and then Bewley had six points to push the score to 13-4. WNCC just kept going as the Cougars controlled the pace of the game. WNCC won the match as Blackman hammered down a kill and then Blackman served the final point while Angel Nahinu got the final kill.
Other players in the contest with good performances saw Blackman finish with two kills and four points; Maya Angelova had two kills; Paige Nakanelua had three digs; and Nahinu had two kills.
WNCC 26-3, will be back at home next week for a big conference showdown with Northeastern Junior College on Friday at 7 p.m. The winner of that contest will earn the top seed from the South for the Region IX tournament that begins in November.
Friday’s contest is also Homecoming as well as PAWzitively Pink Breast Cancer Awareness night.
WNCC, Trinidad men settle for tie
TRINIDAD, Colo. – The men’s soccer teams from Western Nebraska Community College and Trinidad State College had a very competitive match as the two teams couldn’t decide a winner in the conference game.
In the final game of the regular season, the Cougars and Trojans settled for a 1-1 double-overtime score as both teams get ready for the postseason next weekend.
The men finish the regular season at 4-6-1 and could play Laramie County Community College next weekend but that is depending on the outcome of the LCCC and Otero game that was played Saturday evening.
Trinidad State led 1-0 at halftime as the Trojan’s Rafael Hashimoto scored to go up 1-0.
The second half saw the Cougars get the tying goal as Matheus Nascimento scored off an assist from Alex Alarcon.
Neither team scored again forcing overtime. The first overtime saw neither team score and that set up the second 10-minute overtime, which resulted in no score.
WNCC head coach Todd Rasnic said the men’s team dominated play but just couldn’t get enough balls into the back of the net for the win.
WNCC and Trinidad were practically equal in shots with WNCC tallying 10 shots with six on frame, while Trinidad had nine shots and four on frame.
The Cougars were led in the shot category by Pablo Dominguez with four shots and three on frame followed by Nascimento who was a perfect two of two in shots.
WNCC dominated on offense in another area as the Cougars tallied 10 corner kicks to zero for Trinidad.
TRINIDAD, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team got back on the winning track with an impressive win over Trinidad State College in the 3-2 win.
WNCC finishes the regular season at 7-6 as they enter the Region IX tournament postseason next weekend and WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said the women more than likely will face Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, next weekend.
The Cougar women started slow in the contest with Trinidad as the Trojans’ Yaddelis Alderete got things going first with a goal for the 1-0 lead.
WNCC scored the equalizer when Andrea Jimenez took a pass from Aileen Perez and found the back of the net. The goal by Jimenez was the first goal for the Cougars in two weeks. The two teams were knotted at 1-1 at intermission.
The second half started as the Cougars’ Vicky Granda made it 2-1 as Granda sent the penalty kick into the net for the lead.
The lead was short-lived as Trinidad came back and tied the match as Alderete scored her second goal.
The game stayed tied until WNCC went ahead for good as Lesley Vasquez scored off an assist from Tania Razo with about 10 minutes to play and then they kept the Trojans at bay the rest of the contest.
WNCC was dominant on the offensive end with 28 shots in the contest with 13 on goal. Trinidad had just 10 shots with six on frame.
Perez had four shots with all on frame, while Vasquez had seven shots and two on frame. Jimenez had six shots with two on goal, while Granda was two of three shots on frame.
WNCC also controlled the corner kicks with seven compared to just one for Trinidad.
The two teams were also physical as WNCC committed 21 fouls while Trinidad had 18.
There were also plenty of cards issued as Trinidad was issued three yellows while WNCC had two yellows. The Cougars also had two red cards issued.
WNCC women pick up seventh win topping Trinidad
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GOP Hopefuls Turn To Pence To Broaden Appeal Before Election
GOP Hopefuls Turn To Pence To Broaden Appeal Before Election https://digitalalaskanews.com/gop-hopefuls-turn-to-pence-to-broaden-appeal-before-election-3/
NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021.
By refusing to go along with the former president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles.
But the final weeks of the intensely competitive 2022 election suggest the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential campaign for the White House in 2024.
The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand surrogate for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting Trump’s election lies.
Pence has been traveling the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees.
For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That includes Arizona, with a key Senate race on Nov. 8 and what is expected to be a hotly contested stop in the 2024 presidential campaign.
Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary to win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents.
“He takes a little bit of the edge off Masters with a lot of voters,” veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed said. “You know Masters is new to this, first time candidate, said some silly things he probably regrets during the campaign.”
Yet the endorsements can seem jarring given that Pence has spent much of the past year pushing back on Trump’s election lies, which spurred the violent mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while Pence was trying to preside over the formal congressional certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Pence and members of his family had to be rushed to safety and held for hours in an underground loading dock as the marauders roamed the hallways, some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a makeshift gallows outside.
Masters, during the primary, baselessly denied the 2020 results, recording a video in which he said he thought Trump had won. Masters claimed on his website that, “if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today.”
Trump said when he endorsed Masters in June: “Blake knows that the “Crime of the Century” took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.”
Pence made no mention of that in Phoenix on Tuesday.
“What I came here to Arizona to say is not only is Blake Masters the right choice for the United States Senate, the people of Arizona deserve to know Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the Senate,” Pence said.
Pence, along with Masters and Gov. Doug Ducey, took just three questions, two of them from conservative websites. When a local television reporter tried to ask Masters whether Pence was right to move forward with certifying Biden’s victory, he was quickly cut off by a Masters spokesman.
Masters is not the only election denier Pence has endorsed or assisted.
Two days after the Masters event, Pence was in Georgia headlining a fundraiser for Burt Jones, the nominee for lieutenant governor. Jones not only embraced Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and called for a statewide investigation into the 2020 race, but also signed on to be one of his state’s fake alternate electors — a scheme that is now under criminal investigation.
Last month, Pence campaigned in New Hampshire for Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who also spent his primary campaign telling voters the 2020 race was stolen from Trump.
Marc Short, a longtime Pence adviser, declined to set a red line for candidates Pence would and would not endorse.
“It’s more about making sure that he’s being a team player where he needs to be,” he said. “I think as a lot of these candidates look to solidify the party behind them, Pence can be helpful.”
There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, underscored by repeated audits, court cases and the conclusions of Trump’s own Department of Justice. Still, support of false election claims run deep among GOP candidates this year.
Short said Pence was happy to support candidates who had moved past 2020, as he has urged the party to do.
“If people sort of acknowledged a mistaken position before, he certainly wants to reward that,” said Short. “I think he wants to help conservatives first and foremost, but if people who were elected are now adopting new position about the events of Jan. 6,” he said, “then that’s a positive.”
Reed, the Republican strategist, said he wasn’t surprised by the candidates Pence had chosen to back.
“He’s a big picture party guy. And it doesn’t surprised me that he’s hustling as hard as he is for people who may not be 100% Pencers,” Reed said. “By doing these kinds of events,” he added, “they’re going to take another look at him if he decides to run.”
___
Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics
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AP News Summary At 2:14 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-214-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.
China’s Xi calls for military growth as party congress opens
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has 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 at the start of a party meeting Sunday that was closely watched by companies, governments and the Chinese public for signs of its future economic and political direction. It comes amid a painful economic slump and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. 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 party leader.
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.
GOP hopefuls turn to Pence to broaden appeal before election
NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, his Vice President Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. That was the day when Pence refused to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost. And that was the day of the Capitol riot. Pence’s decision made him a prime target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But in the final weeks of the 2022 election, Pence has emerged as an in-demand draw for Republican candidates. That includes some candidates who are trying to make moderate appeals after spending much of the primary season courting Trump and parroting his lie that his 2020 race was stolen.
In Wisconsin, voters shrug off GOP candidate’s Jan. 6 tie
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Republicans see a chance to pick up a House seat in southwestern Wisconsin where retired Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden nearly won two years ago against Democratic incumbent Ron Kind. Now, with the long-time congressman retiring, there’s a path for Van Orden, who has a big money edge over Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff. Van Orden has had to weather questions about his presence at the Washington rally held by then-President Donald Trump just before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Van Orden has said he took no part in the subsequent storming of the building. Some voters in the district say they’re more concerned with economic issues than with what happened on Jan. 6.
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’s City Council president has laid bare the tensions over political power that have been quietly simmering between the Latino and Black communities. Concerns among the African American community have been growing in recent years as the Latino share of the population has grown and as Hispanic politicians have started assuming more leadership roles. Latino leaders around the U.S. have denounced the recorded remarks and called for the resignations of those involved.
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.
Religious polarization in India seeping into US diaspora
Clashes in India between Hindu nationalists and minority religious groups, particularly Muslims, have sparked tensions online and in person in the Indian American diaspora. Many say communal disharmony back home has strained relationships between Hindu and Muslim expatriates. It has also caused polarization within the Hindu American community. Some Hindu Americans believe the political ideology espoused by Hindu nationalists goes against the philosophy of Hinduism, which recognizes the divinity and oneness of all. Others interpret the cry against Hindu nationalism and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party as “anti-Hindu” or “anti-India” sentiment. Some Hindus and Muslims in the diaspora are working to foster interfaith dialogue to prevent an escalation in tensions.
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.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Fact-Checking Trump Claims On Bush Records: Sorting Papers & Facts In An Ex-Bowling Alley
Fact-Checking Trump Claims On Bush Records: Sorting Papers & Facts In An Ex-Bowling Alley https://digitalalaskanews.com/fact-checking-trump-claims-on-bush-records-sorting-papers-facts-in-an-ex-bowling-alley/
At a recent rally for Nevada Republicans, former President Donald Trump argued against the federal probe into the storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate by falsely suggesting that past presidents did the same thing.
Trump claimed at the event earlier this month that Barack Obama moved “truckloads” of documents to a former furniture store in Chicago, that Bill Clinton carted records “from the White House to a former car dealership in Arkansas,” and that George H.W. Bush “took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant where they combined them.”
In reality, National Archives and Records Administration staff, not the former presidents, transported presidential records to these facilities for temporary sorting and storage, following security protocols in the process, NARA statements and Associated Press reporting show. The agency leased the buildings from the General Services Administration, it said in a statement Tuesday.
“All such temporary facilities met strict archival and security standards, and have been managed and staffed exclusively by NARA employees,” NARA’s emailed statement read. “Reports that indicate or imply that those Presidential records were in the possession of the former Presidents or their representatives, after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading.”
That’s very different from Trump harboring classified documents from his own presidency in various storage areas at his Florida estate, said Timothy Naftali, a professor of public service and history at New York University.
“Obviously, it takes time to build a presidential library. During that period of time, the National Archives has to put these presidential records somewhere safe,” Naftali said. “They are not put in closets in public clubs.”
A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
College Station bowling alley
TRUMP: Bush “took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant where they combined them. So they’re in a bowling alley slash Chinese restaurant.”
THE FACTS: While the idea of the elder Bush sneaking documents to a combination bowling alley and Chinese restaurant inspired colorful internet reactions, it’s not accurate.
NARA archivists, not Bush, transported the documents to what had once been Chimney Hill Bowl in College Station, where the late president’s presidential library is located at Texas A&M, according to AP reporting at the time. They converted it into a warehouse, swapping bowling lanes for shelved storage where they could store the boxes of documents. To fit everything, they also co-opted a former Chinese restaurant next door.
Under the Presidential Records Act, NARA has custody of all presidential records from former administrations. The agency is responsible for sorting through the documents and storing them securely until a presidential library can be built to house them.
In the case of Bush’s documents, the temporary storage facility NARA archivists used was protected by guards, television monitors and electronic detectors while documents were sorted, the AP reported at the time. They were later moved to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, where they reside today.
Trump’s comments aimed to diminish the fact that he held classified documents in Mar-a-Lago by saying Bush held his own documents in an old bowling alley, Naftali said.
“But that’s complete nonsense,” he said. “These are buildings National Archives took over, renovated to meet archival standards and security, and then they put the materials there.”
Benjamin Hufbauer, a professor at the University of Louisville who researches presidential libraries, agreed Trump’s claim was not correct. “It’s really an apples to oranges kind of thing,” he said.
President Barack Obama, and former presidents, from second from left, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter arrive for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Thursday, April 25, 2013, in Dallas. The late George H.W. Bush was back in the news in October, 2022, after Donald Trump used factually incorrect background in talking about how former presidents handled presidential papers upon leaving office. (Tom Fox – Staff Photographer)
Arkansas car dealership
TRUMP: Clinton “took millions of documents from the White House to a former car dealership in Arkansas.”
THE FACTS: Clinton didn’t take documents to an ex-car dealership, NARA did.
NARA announced in May 2000 that it would be transporting documents from Clinton’s presidency to a Little Rock, Arkansas, storage facility that used to be the Balch Motor Company. The facility, which NARA rented, was less than 2 miles from what later became the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, where the documents are stored today.
Chicago furniture store
TRUMP: Obama “moved more than 20 truckloads, over 33 million pages of documents, both classified and unclassified, to a poorly-built and totally unsafe former furniture store located in a rather bad neighborhood in Chicago with no security, by the way.”
THE FACTS: Again, NARA, not Obama, transported these documents — and followed its own storage standards in the process, the agency said.
Roughly 30 million unclassified Obama administration documents reside in a Chicago-area building that at one point belonged to the Plunkett furniture company, according to county and local government records.
These documents are stored in accordance with the agency’s archival storage standards, according to NARA. Those standards include things like fire safety, pest management and security guidelines for certain types of documents.
Comments a NARA official gave to the city’s zoning commission prior to the end of Obama’s term also stipulated that the facility would be guarded overnight.
The administration’s classified documents are stored in separate secure locations in the Washington, D.C., area.
___
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
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Trump Endorses Lee Zeldin In New York Governor's Race
Trump Endorses Lee Zeldin In New York Governor's Race https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-endorses-lee-zeldin-in-new-york-governors-race/
Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin received the “Total & Complete Endorsement” of former President Donald Trump on Sunday in the race for governor of New York.
Trump, in a post on his social media site Truth Social, wrote that Zeldin is “a great and brilliant lawyer” and holds strong positions on the military, veterans, crime and the border.
“Lee Zeldin is a winner who got things done,” Trump wrote in the post.
The endorsement from Trump is not wholly a surprise. Zeldin’s campaign has held at least one fundraiser at Trump’s New Jersey resort. Zeldin has not said directly if he would campaign with the former president who remains broadly unpopular in New York, but retains loyalty with the Republican base in the state and nationally.
Trump did not issue an endorsement during the four-candidate Republican primary for governor.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign in a statement knocked the endorsement, calling it a sign Zeldin is out of step with most voters.
“With an endorsement from Trump himself, Lee Zeldin now has a formal stamp of approval as the most extreme and dangerous candidate to ever run for governor in New York State history,” said spokesman Jerrel Harvey. “While Trump’s endorsement doesn’t come as a surprise, becoming the former president’s handpicked choice for governor proves Zeldin’s full embrace of the MAGA agenda and shows just how out of touch he is with New York voters.”
Hochul, seeking a full term this year, led Zeldin among registered voters in a Marist College poll released last week by 10 percentage points. The lead shrinks to 8 percentage points among voters who definitely expect to cast ballots.
The first round of early voting in New York is set to begin next week.
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AP News Summary At 1:14 P.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-114-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.
China’s Xi calls for military growth as party congress opens
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has 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 at the start of a party meeting Sunday that was closely watched by companies, governments and the Chinese public for signs of its future economic and political direction. It comes amid a painful economic slump and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. 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 party leader.
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.
GOP hopefuls turn to Pence to broaden appeal before election
NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, his Vice President Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. That was the day when Pence refused to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost. And that was the day of the Capitol riot. Pence’s decision made him a prime target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But in the final weeks of the 2022 election, Pence has emerged as an in-demand draw for Republican candidates. That includes some candidates who are trying to make moderate appeals after spending much of the primary season courting Trump and parroting his lie that his 2020 race was stolen.
In Wisconsin, voters shrug off GOP candidate’s Jan. 6 tie
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Republicans see a chance to pick up a House seat in southwestern Wisconsin where retired Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden nearly won two years ago against Democratic incumbent Ron Kind. Now, with the long-time congressman retiring, there’s a path for Van Orden, who has a big money edge over Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff. Van Orden has had to weather questions about his presence at the Washington rally held by then-President Donald Trump just before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Van Orden has said he took no part in the subsequent storming of the building. Some voters in the district say they’re more concerned with economic issues than with what happened on Jan. 6.
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’s City Council president has laid bare the tensions over political power that have been quietly simmering between the Latino and Black communities. Concerns among the African American community have been growing in recent years as the Latino share of the population has grown and as Hispanic politicians have started assuming more leadership roles. Latino leaders around the U.S. have denounced the recorded remarks and called for the resignations of those involved.
Religious polarization in India seeping into US diaspora
Clashes in India between Hindu nationalists and minority religious groups, particularly Muslims, have sparked tensions online and in person in the Indian American diaspora. Many say communal disharmony back home has strained relationships between Hindu and Muslim expatriates. It has also caused polarization within the Hindu American community. Some Hindu Americans believe the political ideology espoused by Hindu nationalists goes against the philosophy of Hinduism, which recognizes the divinity and oneness of all. Others interpret the cry against Hindu nationalism and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party as “anti-Hindu” or “anti-India” sentiment. Some Hindus and Muslims in the diaspora are working to foster interfaith dialogue to prevent an escalation in tensions.
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.
‘Halloween Ends’ wins box office but renews streaming debate
No matter how you look at the numbers, “Halloween Ends” had a good opening weekend. Touted as the final showdown between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, the slasher pic earned $41.3 million in ticket sales from 3,901 theaters in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. It’s the first film to open higher than $40 million since “Nope” debuted in July and it surpassed its production budget. Including international showings, it boasts a global total of $58.4 million. But some in Hollywood are wondering whether it could have been even bigger if it hadn’t debuted simultaneously on Peacock, NBC Universal’s streaming service.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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GOP Hopefuls Turn To Pence To Broaden Appeal Before Election
GOP Hopefuls Turn To Pence To Broaden Appeal Before Election https://digitalalaskanews.com/gop-hopefuls-turn-to-pence-to-broaden-appeal-before-election-2/
NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021.
By refusing to go along with the then-president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles.
But the final weeks of this year’s intensely competitive midterm elections suggest that the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential 2024 White House campaign. The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand draw for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting his election lies.
Pence has traveled the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees.
For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That’s the case in Arizona, with a critical Senate race this year and where the 2024 presidential campaign will be hotly contested. Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary and win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents.
“He takes a little bit of the edge off Masters with a lot of voters,” veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed said. “You know Masters is new to this, first-time candidate, said some silly things he probably regrets during the campaign. But now it’s all about undecided voters in Maricopa County. There’s not a lot more science behind this.”
The endorsements can seem jarring given that Pence has spent much of the past year pushing back on Trump’s election lies, which spurred the violent mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6 while Pence was trying to preside over the formal congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Pence and members of his family had to be rushed to safety and were held for hours in an underground loading dock as the marauders roamed the building’s hallways. Some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a makeshift gallows outside.
Pence agreed to endorse Masters even though Masters, during the primary, baselessly denied the 2020 election results. Masters recorded a video in which he said he thought Trump had won and claimed on his website that “if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today.” Trump endorsed Masters in June, saying in a statement: “Blake knows that the “Crime of the Century” took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.”
Pence made no mention of that in Phoenix on Tuesday.
“What I came here to Arizona to say is not only is Blake Masters the right choice for the United States Senate, the people of Arizona deserve to know Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the Senate,” Pence said.
The former vice president, along with Masters and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, took just three questions, two of them from conservative websites. When a television reporter tried to ask Masters if Pence was right to move forward with certifying Biden’s victory, the candidate was quickly cut off by a Masters spokesman.
Masters is not the only election denier Pence has endorsed or assisted.
Two days after the Masters event, Pence was in Georgia headlining a fundraiser for Burt Jones, the nominee for lieutenant governor. Jones not only embraced Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and called for a statewide investigation into the 2020 race, but he also signed on to be one of his state’s fake alternate electors — a scheme now under criminal investigation.
Last month, Pence was in New Hampshire for Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who also spent his primary campaign telling voters the race was stolen from Trump.
Marc Short, a longtime Pence adviser, declined to set a red line for candidates Pence would and would not endorse.
“It’s more about making sure that he’s being a team player where he needs to be,” Short said. “I think as a lot of these candidates look to solidify the party behind them, Pence can be helpful.”
There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, underscored by repeated audits, court cases and the conclusions of Trump’s own Department of Justice. Still, support of false election claims run deep among GOP candidates this year.
The Masters endorsement notably came days after a debate in which he made headlines for seeming to have shifted from his most outrageous rigged election claims. Masters instead blamed Trump’s loss on “big tech,” “big media” and the FBI, and under repeated questioning, acknowledged he hadn’t seen evidence the vote count or results were manipulated, as Trump has claimed. (After the Pence visit, Masters told Fox News he stood by what he had said on his now-modified website, adding: “I think if everyone followed the law, President Trump would be in the Oval Office.”)
Short said Pence was happy to support candidates who had moved past 2020, as the former vice president has urged the party to do.
“If people sort of acknowledged a mistaken position before, he certainly wants to reward that,” Short said. “I think he wants to help conservatives first and foremost, but if people who were elected are now adopting new position about the events of Jan. 6,” Short said, “then that’s a positive.”
Jones and Bolduc have also tried to distance themselves from their previous statements.
In interviews, Jones has tried to play down the fake elector slate as a “procedural move,” while noting that voters rarely mention the 2020 race.
“Look he’s been consistent that he does not believe the 2020 election was rigged. He said that Joe Biden is president,” said Jones campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson, who noted that Pence and Jones have a long-standing relationship and, like Masters, share former Pence staff.
“For us, it was sort of a no-brainer because the vice president’s still very well liked in Georgia, very well received. And we’re in that final stretch where any Republican coming to raise money, support, is a value add,” he said.
“I think it’s certainly a nod to more mainstream kind of moderate Republicans. I think that’s a fair assessment,” he said.
Bolduc claimed throughout the primary race that the 2020 election had been stolen. During a debate, he proclaimed that “Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by” and adding, “I’m not switching horses, baby.”
But right after the GOP primary — and a day after appearing with Pence — he told Fox News it was time to move on. “You know, we live and learn, right? And I’ve done a lot of research on this and I’ve spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party. And I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive on this: The election was not stolen,” Bolduc said. He described Biden as “the legitimate president of this country.”
(Earlier this month Bolduc changed his position again, saying he wasn’t sure what happened with the election. “I can’t say that it was stolen or not. I don’t have enough information.”)
Reed, the party strategist, said he understood the rationale behind Pence’s endorsements.
“He’s a big picture party guy. And it doesn’t surprised me that he’s hustling as hard as he is for people who may not be 100% Pencers,” he said. “By doing these kinds of events,” he added, “they’re going to take another look at him if he decides to run.”
Pence’s political future is an open question. Trump, who is widely expected to run again, remains deeply popular with Republican primary voters and would almost certainly be an early front-runner for the 2024 nomination. Pence has said his own decision about running will not be influenced by Trump, though allies often voice skepticism that Trump ultimately will end up on the ballot.
Beyond his endorsements, Pence has spent his time since leaving office performing a careful balancing act. He has distanced himself from Trump’s most corrosive statements while promoting what he calls the Trump-Pence agenda. Pence, like generations of could-be candidates, has used the primaries as an opportunity to forge new relationships and build goodwill, and continues to align himself with conservative causes. His trips often include college visits and speeches before anti-abortion groups.
Other potential 2024 candidates have campaigned for the Republican cause, including Texas Sen. Ted Cuz, who is on a monthlong, 17-state “Take Back America” bus tour. Trump has held rallies and finally begun spending a small part of his vast political fortune to help his favored candidates.
“I think he and all these guys are out there really helping the Republicans to win back the House and win back the Senate. It’s an effort that everybody needs to contribute to,” said David McIntosh, president of the influential Club for Growth, who has joined Pence at several events.
McIntosh, who has been at odds with Trump in recent months, said he believes the electorate is “moving on” from 2020 “to what’s on the ballot this election.” He said candidates such as Masters “want to show that they’ve got support from all different types of Republicans, everyone that’s out there, so there’s a unity theme.”
“It’s always been my view,” he added, “that leaders like that help themselves by helping.”
But being popular enough that candidates want to campaign with you is very different from being popular enough to be competitive in a presidential primary, and right now, Pence routinely polls in t...
Social Security COLA 2023 Live Online Today: Increase Benefits And Adjustment | SSA Latest News
Social Security COLA 2023, Live Online Today: Increase, Benefits And Adjustment | SSA Latest News https://digitalalaskanews.com/social-security-cola-2023-live-online-today-increase-benefits-and-adjustment-ssa-latest-news-4/
Update: October 16th, 2022 11:56 EDT
“The higher-than-expected COLA costs could have long term implications for Social Security solvency, and could potentially move the insolvency date, currently around 2034, forward.”
SOCIAL SECURITY
At what age is Social Security no longer taxed in the US?
The Social Security Administration announced the 2023 COLA on 13 October and the boost was a doozy. Great news for those that are finding their monthly checks not going as far in the face of rising prices. Bad news for those that will break the income thresholds where a portion of their benefits are liable to taxation.
Before 1984, Social Security benefits were not taxed. However, to keep the Trust Fund that supports the program solvent, bipartisan legislation was passed totax a portion of payments to seniors citizens, surviving spouses, and the disabled if they had income above certain thresholds.
Social Security and Medicare on the ballot in November
Social Security and Medicare are both facing financial shortfalls that will push them to insolvency if nothing is done. This year’s report on the health of the Medicare fund gave it an additional two years before it runs out of money which is now predicted to be in 2028.
Prior to the 8.7% COLA increase to benefits the trustees of the Social Security funds determined the combined funds will run dry by 2035, just the retirement fund one year earlier. The outsized boost to benefits was more than double the increase used to calculate the prediction which could move the insolvency date up by a whole calendar year.
Both programs need reform but what that looks like will be shaped by the results of Midterm Elections in November. Legislation has been proposed in the House by Democrats to expand Social Security and boost funding. On the other side of the aisle Republicans are talking about making the programs discretionary spending with sunset clauses meaning that they would need to reapproved every five years.
Will 8.7% boost Dems in election?
With tens of millions of Americans getting a financial leg up in the coming months thanks to the Democratic party, some on the other side are trying to argue that it will not help them in the upcoming elections. What do you think?
President Biden talks social security and medicare
The president, in Portland for a two-day trip to campaign for Democrats ahead of the 8 November general election, delivers a speech in which he discusses the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as his plan to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security.
You can watch and listen.
Only three COLAs have been larger than in 2023
Thursday’s cost-of-living adjustment is the fourth largest since the Social Security Administration began implementing the annual mechanism nearly half a century ago.
Since 1975, the only increases that have been greater than the 8.7% hike for 2023 came in a three-year period at the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s.
In 1979, the COLA was 9.9%. In 1980, it then rose to a record 14.3%, before 12 months later it was 11.2%.
COLA 2023 official announcement
If you like to hear your communications straight from the financial benefits horse’s mouth, then here you go…
Welcome to AS USA 2023 COLA increase updates
Hello and welcome to AS USA’s live blog on the 2023 Social Security COLA increase for Sunday, 16 October.
The Social Security Adminstration announced the 2023 Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for social security benefits, for programs like Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance. Other government pension and benefits programs will also be affected by the 8.7% increase.
The COLA offered for next year is historic in size after inflation has plagued markets for basic commodities consumed by most households, including food, shelter, utilities, and gasoline.
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Seguridad Social
Inflación
Estados Unidos
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Discapacidad
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Iran Prison Fire Kills Four Injures 61 As Protests Persist
Iran Prison Fire Kills Four, Injures 61 As Protests Persist https://digitalalaskanews.com/iran-prison-fire-kills-four-injures-61-as-protests-persist/
Iranian judiciary says those killed died of smoke inhalation
Iran says calm returns to Evin prison after fire, airs footage
Fire comes amid widespread protests, brutal crackdown
Iran accuses Biden of interfering in state affairs
Protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death enter second month
DUBAI, Oct 16 (Reuters) – A fire at Iran’s Evin prison late on Saturday killed four detainees and injured 61, state media reported, as anti-government protests sparked by a woman’s death in police custody continued on Sunday, including at several universities.
Iranian authorities said on Saturday that a prison workshop had been set on fire “after a fight among a number of prisoners convicted of financial crimes and theft”. Evin also holds many detainees facing security charges, including Iranians with dual nationality.
Iran’s judiciary said four of those injured in Saturday’s fire were in critical condition and that those killed had died of smoke inhalation, Iranian state media reported.
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Protests sparked by 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death on Sept. 16 have turned into one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution, with protesters calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, even if the unrest does not seem close to toppling the system.
Demonstrations continued at several universities on Sunday, including in the cities of Tabriz and Rasht, to a heavy deployment of riot police. Videos posted on social media showed students at a Tehran university chanting: “Iran has turned into a big prison. Evin prison has become a slaughterhouse.”
Reuters could not independently verify the footage.
Families of some political detainees took to social media to call on the authorities to ensure their safety at Evin prison, which in 2018 was blacklisted by the U.S. government for “serious human rights abuses”.
Footage of the prison aired on state television hours after the fire apparently showed that calm had returned to the facility with inmates asleep in their wards. It also showed firefighters inspecting a workshop with fire damage to the roof.
Atena Daemi, a human rights activist, said that relatives of prisoners in the women’s section had gone to Evin for visiting hours, but authorities denied them access, resulting in a standoff. Prisoners were “fine, but the phones are broken”, they were told, according to Daemi. She later tweeted that some women prisoners had called their families.
The husband of Iranian journalist Niloofar Hamedi, who broke the news of Amini’s hospitalisation and was arrested last month, also wrote on Twitter that she had telephoned him on Sunday.
A lawyer representing an American Iranian held at Evin, Siamak Namazi, imprisoned for nearly seven years on espionage-related charges rejected by Washington as baseless, said on Sunday that Namazi had contacted his relatives.
A view of smoke rising from Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, October 15, 2022 in this still image take from a video obtained by Reuters.
“SiamakNamazi has now spoken to his family. He is safe and has been moved to a secure area of Evin Prison. We have no further details,” lawyer Jared Genser said in a tweet.
Several other dual national Iranians and foreign citizens are held in Evin prison mostly for security-related charges. Some Twitter posts by their friends and relatives said they had contacted their families on Sunday.
VIOLENT CRACKDOWN
Asked about the prison fire, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday he was surprised by the courage of Iranian protesters. He earlier called on Iran “to end the violence against its own citizens simply exercising their fundamental rights”.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Biden was inciting “chaos, terror, and destruction… (and) should be reminded of the eternal words of the founder of the Islamic Republic who called America the great satan,” referring to Iran’s late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
France said on Sunday it was following with the utmost attention the situation at Evin prison, “where several French nationals are being arbitrarily detained”.
“France once again reminds the Iranian authorities that they are responsible for the safety and health of our compatriots detained in Iran,” a French foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement, repeating a call for their immediate release.
Protests have been met with a brutal state crackdown. Rights groups said at least 240 protesters had been killed, including 32 minors. Over 8,000 people had been arrested in 111 cities and towns, Iranian activist news agency HRANA said on Saturday. The authorities have not published a death toll.
Among the casualties have been teenage girls whose deaths have become a rallying cry for more demonstrations across the country.
Iran, which has blamed the violence on enemies at home and abroad, denies security forces have killed protesters. State media said on Saturday at least 26 members of the security forces had been killed by “rioters”.
The clampdown on protests has attracted international condemnation, with the United States, Canada and some European countries imposing sanctions on Iranian officials and organisations they accuse of being involved.
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Additional reporting by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris Writing by Parisa Hafezi Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Alexandra Hudson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Does UConn Men https://digitalalaskanews.com/does-uconn-men/
Oct. 16, 2022
With Adama Sanogo back in the fold, the UConn men’s basketball team could find itself in the preseason AP Top 25 poll on Monday (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
Mitchell Layton / Getty Images
The 2022-23 preseason AP Top 25 poll will be released on Monday at noon, and it will be interesting to see if the UConn men’s basketball team makes an appearance.
We are happy once again to be Connecticut’s representative as an Associated Press men’s basketball Top 25 voter this season. We are happy to take all the slings and arrows on social media, as well as appearances as College Poll Tracker’s lowest-rated (or highest-rated) ballot throughout the season. It’s all good, really.
Here’s what we look for from teams in submitting our preseason Top 25: 1.) How many key returnees do you have coming back? 2.) Do you have a superstar, a true All-America candidate, returning? 3.) If you’re bringing in transfers, does it feel like they’ll mesh (or mess) with their new team? 4.) Are you bringing in any national top-30 recruits who can and should help the team right away?
In that order. We value roster continuity and experience over all else. Particularly talented experience. Yes, most teams are bringing in numerous transfers, including UConn. But not all. Not North Carolina, which brings back just about everyone from its national runner-up team. Not TCU, Virginia or Dayton, which bring back all five starters from 20-plus win teams.
On the flip side, we see a lot of preseason love for teams like Arkansas and Tennessee from the national pundits. Both teams lost all or nearly all of their entire starting fives, and while they may have replaced them with talent, we’d like to see them prove it a bit first (though we caved and snuck the Volunteers in at No. 25).
UConn? Not a lot of roster continuity, with four of its top five scorers gone (including leading scorer R.J. Cole and the Big East’s only 2022 NBA draft pick, Tyrese Martin). But having likely Big East preseason Player of the Year Adama Sanogo back is a nice start. We’re banking on big upticks from Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson, and that at least a couple of the transfers fit in smoothly.
So, No. 22 feels fair, one spot behind Xavier, which simply has more proven talent returning as well as a big improvement at head coach with Sean Miller replacing Travis Steele. Creighton is clearly the class of the Big East, checking all of our boxes — including perhaps the most perfect transfer acquisition in the nation in 6-foot-9 shooter Baylor Scheierman.
As for Villanova? We’re a little skittish on the health of Justin Moore and now potential lottery pick freshman Cam Whitmore. But even if those guys end up playing most of the season, it’s hard to underestimate the retirement of Jay Wright. The Hall of Fame coach (along with ageless point guard Collin Gillespie) had that offense (and entire program) running like a fine-tuned machine. Now, Wright is cheering on the Phillies at Citizen Bank Park and Gillespie is trying to latch on with the Denver Nuggets.
Kyle Neptune may have done a nice job in his one season at the helm at Fordham, but let’s see how he handles his return to ‘Nova before we assume the Wildcats are a top Big East team again.
Here’s our preseason AP Top 25 ballot:
North Carolina: Defending national runners-up return everybody but Brady Manek, and should replace him nicely with Pete Nance.
Kentucky: We’re erring on the side that Oscar Tshiebwe’s “minor” knee surgery isn’t that big a deal.
Gonzaga: Drops a few spots after backing out of game vs. Yale (just kidding … Zags will probably be No. 1 at some point this season).
Creighton: Bluejays are the class of the Big East, but can UConn finally beat them this season?
Baylor: Anyone notice the Big 12 has won the last two national championships?
Indiana: Anyone notice the Big 10 hasn’t won a national championship in 22 years? Still, I’m high on Hoosiers.
Houston: Love Kelvin Sampson, but not as high on the Cougars as many others seem to be.
UCLA: Still not convinced Mick Cronin is Him.
Duke: Year 1 AK, Jon Scheyer’s still roping in high-level recruiting classes.
Virginia: Always liked Jayden Gardner, even back in his ECU days. We like Cavs more than most.
Kansas: Jayhawks likely won’t repeat; maybe a good time to take a Self-induced postseason ban?
TCU: Yeah, Jamie Dixon … but Horned Frogs have all five starters back from a 21-win team.
Michigan: Have Hunter Dickinson, will be ranked pretty high.
Texas: Marcus Carr, Timmy Allen can play; Chris Beard can coach.
Miami: It pays to play at Coral Gables. Just ask Nigel Pack.
Oregon: Unlike in 2016, Ducks will be a formidable, first-round PK85 matchup for UConn.
Texas A&M: No more whining from Buzz Williams this season. Please?
Purdue: Zach Edey manning the middle is enough for me.
Wyoming: I like (Graham) Ike. And Hunter Maldonado.
Dayton: All five starters back from team that beat eventual national-champion Kansas on neutral floor.
Xavier: It’ll be interesting to see if New Haven’s Desmond Claude can win starting PG job as frosh.
UConn: So much depends on if Jordan Hawkins can be a 12-15 ppg scorer, and how the transfers mesh.
Florida: Colin Castleton, Gators will be tough battle for Huskies on Dec. 7 in Gainesville.
San Diego State: Return four of five starters from 21-win team ranked 2nd in KenPom adjusted defense.
Tennessee: Lots of people see Vols as top 10-15 team, but they’ve lost a lot of talent.
david.borges@hearstmediact.com @DaveBorges
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Governor Mourns The Passing Of Former Senate President Chancy Croft Alaska Native News
Governor Mourns The Passing Of Former Senate President Chancy Croft – Alaska Native News https://digitalalaskanews.com/governor-mourns-the-passing-of-former-senate-president-chancy-croft-alaska-native-news/
October 14, 2022 (Anchorage, AK) – Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and First Lady Rose Dunleavy send their condolences to the family and loved ones of former Senate President Leland “Chancy” Croft, who passed away on August 30, 2022. Croft served in the Alaska State Legislature for a decade, from 1968 to 1978.
“The First Lady and I express our deepest sympathies to the family of former Senate President and UA Regent Chancy Croft,” said Governor Dunleavy. “While originally from Texas, Chancy was a true Alaskan from the moment he arrived almost exactly 60 years ago, where he and his wife, Toni, planted deep roots and grew their family. Chancy had a lasting impact on our state through his years of public service and played a key role in building the foundation for the Alaska Permanent Fund.”
Croft served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1968 to 1970 and in the Alaska Senate from 1970 to 1978. He was an early proponent of the Permanent Fund, sponsoring the Senate version of the original bill with Rep. Hugh Malone. As Senate President from 1974 to 1976, Croft managed the passage of many of the foundational laws that form the legal basis of Alaska today. After his candidacy in the 1978 Governor’s race, Croft retired from politics but continued to be an active public servant, including serving from 1995 to 2003 on the UA Board of Regents and as Chair from 2002 to 2003.
With Toni, his wife of almost 60 years, and their three children, Eric, Kymber, and Lee, he rafted many of Alaska’s wild rivers in the 1980s and 1990s. With no prior agricultural experience, he bought an Oregon cherry orchard and turned it into Croft Vineyards, one of the finest organic grape producers in Oregon. Later, he and Toni enjoyed traveling with their seven grandchildren. Toni passed away on June 8, 2022, just 12 weeks prior to Chancy.
Governor Dunleavy has ordered that Alaska and the United States flags fly at half-staff sunrise to sunset on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, in honor of former Senate President Chancy Croft.
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Suspected Stockton Serial Killer Arrested Was On A 'mission To Kill'
Suspected Stockton Serial Killer Arrested, Was On A 'mission To Kill' https://digitalalaskanews.com/suspected-stockton-serial-killer-arrested-was-on-a-mission-to-kill/
A suspected serial killer in the California city of Stockton was arrested Saturday and police say they believe he was “out hunting” when he was nabbed.
“We are sure we stopped another killing,” Chief Stanley McFadden, of the Stockton Police Department, said at a news conference Saturday.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested in connection with six unprovoked murders of men ages 21 to 54 over the last few months. He was booked on a homicide charge Saturday.
Police said that surveillance teams followed Brownlee while he was driving, and stopped in area of Village Green Drive and Winslow Avenue around 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested and charged with homicide Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. Authorities believe he is connected to a series of killings in Stockton, Calif.
Stockton Police Department
“Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving. We watched his patterns and determined early this morning; he was on a mission to kill. He was out hunting,” McFadden said.
McFadden added, “As officers made contact with him, he was wearing dark clothing and a mask around his neck. He was also armed with a firearm when he was taken into custody.”
Brown will be arraigned Tuesday and more charges are likely, police said.
The San Joaquin County’s Office of the Medical Examiner identified the victims. Paul Yaw, 35, was killed on July 8; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, died on Aug. 11; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, was killed on Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, was the Sept. 21 victim; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, was slain on Sept. 27.
The men were alone at the time when they were fatally shot, officials said. All of the killings took place at night or in the early morning hours, police said.
Another shooting, of a 46-year-old Black woman at Park Street and Union Street in Stockton at 3:20 a.m. on April 16, 2021, was also linked to the investigation, police said earlier this month. The woman survived her injuries in that shooting, they said.
Police said that a motive is not known for the killings but it is believed to have been intentional.
ABC News’ Mark Osborne and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
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AP News Summary At 11:57 A.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1157-a-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.
China’s Xi calls for military growth as party congress opens
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has 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 at the start of a party meeting Sunday that was closely watched by companies, governments and the Chinese public for signs of its future economic and political direction. It comes amid a painful economic slump and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. 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 party leader.
Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in occupied Donetsk
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials have blamed 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, injuring six people. Late Saturday, a Washington-based think tank late accused Moscow of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing. The attacks on both sides came as Russia has lost ground in the nearly seven weeks since Ukraine’s armed forces opened their southern counteroffensive.
UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks
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The Democrats’ Playbook: Deny, Deny, Deny https://digitalalaskanews.com/the-democrats-playbook-deny-deny-deny/
OPINION:
Last Wednesday, Maryland’s gubernatorial candidates squared off in a debate. It was a microcosm of the national election.
Republican Dan Cox recited the Democrats’ mismanagement of everything that matters. The Democrat, Wes Moore, attacked Mr. Cox as “an extremist election denier.”
Mr. Moore also professed to be anti-crime and a tireless defender of abortion. These are the cards Democrats are playing all over the nation: We are really moderates, except on abortion, which we love immoderately. Our opponents are a “danger to democracy.”
Democrats are desperate to distract voters from the mess the nation is in. The Jan. 6 Committee of Miscreants has even issued a subpoena to former President Donald Trump.
But it won’t wash. They own the crime wave, the open border, fentanyl overdoses, ruinous inflation, a transgender and racist blitzkrieg at schoolchildren, foreign policy disasters and the political weaponization of the FBI and Justice Department.
They hope that vote fraud, name-calling and aborting more unborn children will win the day. As for the rest — deny, deny, deny.
Speaking of denial, the media says that asking any questions whatsoever about 2020 makes one an “election denier.” But millions of people harbor doubt for good reasons, and not just because of the “Russian collusion” hoax and COVID-19 lockdowns.
Between 2016 and 2020, Republicans scored major gains in voter registration, especially in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which Mr. Trump carried in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
In Pennsylvania, Republicans increased registrations by 242,000, contrasted with only 12,000 more Democratic registrations. In fact, 60 of 67 counties trended more Republican than when Mr. Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Yet President Biden somehow finished with 140,000 more votes. Nineteen bellwether counties have picked the winner in every presidential election since 1980. Mr. Trump carried 18 of 19.
Whoever wins Florida, Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio wins the presidency. In fact, “When won together, Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina have a perfect record identifying the national presidential winner since 1896,” wrote Patrick Basham in Chronicles of Culture. Mr. Trump won them all.
Since 1892, no president has gained more votes over his previous total and lost reelection. Mr. Trump got 12.1 million more votes and still lost.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, poured $400 million into mostly Democratic districts. Activists turned election offices into Democratic get-out-the-vote operations. The scheme was exposed in a Citizens United documentary, “Rigged: The Zuckerberg Funded Plot to Defeat Donald Trump.”
Citing COVID-19 and using outdated registration rolls, officials mailed out millions of unrequested ballots. Worse, they deployed unmanned drop boxes. Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary “2000 Mules” depicts how TruetheVote.org used cellphone pinging data to track how paid “mules” visited drop boxes multiple times between stops at Democratic-affiliated organizations.
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all inexplicably stopped counting around midnight. “I actually took screen shots before I went to bed,” wrote Wayne Allyn Root, a political analyst. “Trump was winning Michigan by over 300,000 votes when they stopped counting. He was up in Wisconsin by over 100,000. In Pennsylvania he was up almost 700,000 votes. But in the wee hours of the morning I took a new screenshot. Suddenly Biden was up by 9,000 in Wisconsin and 30,000 in Michigan. How’d that happen? I thought they stopped counting?”
Mr. Trump doubled his share of the Black vote with 12%, the highest any Republican has gotten since Vice President Richard Nixon in 1960. He also got 38% of the Hispanic vote, 10 points higher than his 28% in 2016. Yet Mr. Biden somehow outperformed candidate Barack Obama among minority voters and by 12 million more votes overall than Mr. Obama got in 2008.
In several states, including Arizona and Pennsylvania, courts or election officials overrode constitutionally established election procedures. Courts — including the Supreme Court — dismissed many challenges on technicalities.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube suppressed conservatives while elevating liberals. Harvard-trained researcher Robert Epstein, a Hillary Clinton supporter, told Congress that Big Tech algorithms are steering literally millions of votes to Democrats.
Fifty national security experts lied to the American people. They suggested in a letter that the New York Post’s factual account of Hunter Biden’s laptop with details about his addictions and Biden family corruption in Ukraine, China and Russia was “Russian disinformation.” Big Tech and the media ruthlessly censored the Post story.
A Media Research Center survey in seven swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) found that 45.1% of Biden voters polled said they were “unaware of the financial scandal enveloping Biden and his son, Hunter.” At least 9% said they would not have voted for Mr. Biden had they known.
All this said, we are stuck with Mr. Biden and need to look forward. Virginia Republican congressional candidate Hung Cao was asked if he thought Mr. Biden had been fairly elected. He didn’t take the bait, instead responding: “Sir, Joe Biden is the president of the United States. If you don’t believe me, go to your gas pumps or go to your grocery stores, and that’ll tell you who is.”
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His new book, “Crooked: What Really Happened in the 2020 Election and How to Stop the Fraud” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, September 2022), is available at his website, roberthknight.com, and at djkm.org/crooked.
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US Justice Department Asks Appeals Court To End Special Master Review Of Trump Documents
US Justice Department Asks Appeals Court To End Special Master Review Of Trump Documents https://digitalalaskanews.com/us-justice-department-asks-appeals-court-to-end-special-master-review-of-trump-documents/
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Friday asked the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to end a special master review of thousands of documents that the FBI seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. The request argues that Judge Aileen Cannon was wrong to grant a special master review at Trump’s request because there was no indication of malfeasance or infringement of Trump’s rights in connection with the search. The DOJ believes that the special master review process is unwarranted as to executive privilege and as to the government records.
The DOJ first argues that district court erred in exercising equitable jurisdiction because the “plaintiff failed to establish the ‘foremost’ factor needed for the exercise of jurisdiction” and that “the remaining Richey factors weigh further against the exercise of jurisdiction.”
Second, the request states that even if the district court properly exercised equitable jurisdiction, Trump has no plausible claim of executive privilege to warrant special master review. The DOJ also said that Trump lacks a plausible claim of attorney-client privilege. Consequently, the DOJ believes “there are no disputes that could possibly entitle the plaintiff to enjoin the government’s review and use of the seized records pending the special-master review because none of the disputes raised by plaintiff is relevant to potential claims of an executive or attorney-client privilege.” The DOJ requests that the court instruct the district court to dismiss the action and reverse the district court’s requirement that the government must submit the seized records for special master review.
During an August search of Trump’s residence, the FBI seized 103 documents with classification markings and about 11,000 other documents and photographs. Following the seizure, Trump requested a special master review. Judge Aileen Cannon granted Trump’s request and named Raymond Dearie as special master. If the special master review is maintained, Drearie will review all the documents and write a report by mid-December recommending how Cannon should rule on any privilege claims.
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AP News Summary At 11:12 A.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1112-a-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.
China’s Xi calls for military growth as party congress opens
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has 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 at the start of a party meeting Sunday that was closely watched by companies, governments and the Chinese public for signs of its future economic and political direction. It comes amid a painful economic slump and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. 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 party leader.
Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in separatist Donetsk
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials have blamed 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, injuring six people. Late Saturday, a Washington-based think tank late accused Moscow of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing. The attacks on both sides came as Russia has lost ground in the nearly seven weeks since Ukraine’s armed forces opened their southern counteroffensive.
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.
GOP hopefuls turn to Pence to broaden appeal before election
NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, his Vice President Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. That was the day when Pence refused to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost. And that was the day of the Capitol riot. Pence’s decision made him a prime target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But in the final weeks of the 2022 election, Pence has emerged as an in-demand draw for Republican candidates. That includes some candidates who are trying to make moderate appeals after spending much of the primary season courting Trump and parroting his lie that his 2020 race was stolen.
Family mourns miner’s death in Turkey, demanding punishment
AMASRA, Turkey (AP) — A mother cried at a cemetery beside a freshly-laid mound of earth. She couldn’t process the death of her 33-year-old son Selcuk Ayvaz who was killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey. Friday’s explosion at the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise’s mine in the Black Sea town of Amasra killed 41 miners and injured 11. The energy minister said preliminary assessments indicated the tragedy was caused by a firedamp explosion when methane mixes with air and fire. But Ayvaz’s mother Habibe wasn’t appeased. The 63-year-old said she heard there was a gas leak in the mine and questioned why her son was sent into at all. She said “it’s a massacre outright, a massacre.”
Iranian officials say Tehran prison blaze killed 4 inmates
CAIRO (AP) — Iranian media say a towering blaze at a notorious prison housing political prisoners and anti-government activists in Iran’s capital killed four inmates. That’s according to the country’s judiciary Sunday. Saturday’s fire at Evin Prison in Tehran was extinguished after several hours and no detainees escaped, other state media said. In online videos, gunshots and explosions were heard in the area of Evin. The fire raged as nationwide protests triggered by the death of a young woman in police custody entered a fifth week. Iranian rights activists have challenged state media claims over the cause of the fire and apparent explosions at the prison.
In Wisconsin, voters shrug off GOP candidate’s Jan. 6 tie
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Republicans see a chance to pick up a House seat in southwestern Wisconsin where retired Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden nearly won two years ago against Democratic incumbent Ron Kind. Now, with the long-time congressman retiring, there’s a path for Van Orden, who has a big money edge over Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff. Van Orden has had to weather questions about his presence at the Washington rally held by then-President Donald Trump just before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Van Orden has said he took no part in the subsequent storming of the building. Some voters in the district say they’re more concerned with economic issues than with what happened on Jan. 6.
Religious polarization in India seeping into US diaspora
Clashes in India between Hindu nationalists and minority religious groups, particularly Muslims, have sparked tensions online and in person in the Indian American diaspora. Many say communal disharmony back home has strained relationships between Hindu and Muslim expatriates. It has also caused polarization within the Hindu American community. Some Hindu Americans believe the political ideology espoused by Hindu nationalists goes against the philosophy of Hinduism, which recognizes the divinity and oneness of all. Others interpret the cry against Hindu nationalism and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party as “anti-Hindu” or “anti-India” sentiment. Some Hindus and Muslims in the diaspora are working to foster interfaith dialogue to prevent an escalation in tensions.
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.
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