Digital Alaska News

40 Under 40:Taking A Leadership Role In The Nonprofit Health Field https://digitalalaskanews.com/40-under-40taking-a-leadership-role-in-the-nonprofit-health-field/ Significant professional accomplishment: Founding a successful charity organization; Bates College Harward Center 2022 Community Partner Award for Outstanding New Initiatives; helping found the AK Collaborative. Passion project: The “Outspoken Allies of the Immigrant” and BIPOC community awards, which honor professionals and social service agencies who provide exceptional support to the most disadvantaged members of our Lewiston and Auburn community. Audacious goal: To grow the nonprofit, pay it forward and leave a legacy for the community. Favorite quote: “A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.” — Nelson Mandela Influential book: “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” This book is special to me because as I was learning how to read my mother would read it to me every evening after school. Favorite TV shows: “Friends,” “Lost,” “Game of Thrones,” “Breaking Bad” How do you recharge: Finding a new challenge and running, running, running. Read More Here

Svante Pääbo Wins Nobel Prize For Medicine After Sequencing First Neanderthal Genome | CNN https://digitalalaskanews.com/svante-paabo-wins-nobel-prize-for-medicine-after-sequencing-first-neanderthal-genome-cnn/ 01:05 – Source: CNN What you should know about the Nobel Prize London CNN  —  Svante Pääbo has won the Nobel Prize for medicine for “his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution,” it has been announced. The Nobel Committee said Monday that Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist, “accomplished something seemingly impossible” when he sequenced the first neanderthal genome and discovered that Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals. The evidence for his discovery first emerged in 2010, after Pääbo pioneered methods to extract, sequence and analyze ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones. Thanks to his work, scientists can compare Neanderthal genomes with the genetic records of living humans today. “Pääbo’s seminal research gave rise to an entirely new scientific discipline; paleogenomics,” the committee said. “By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.” When he first unveiled his findings in 2010, Pääbo said that “having a first version of the Neanderthal genome fulfills a longstanding dream.” Pääbo has worked as the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany since 1997, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at London’s Natural History Museum. “His major contribution is being a pioneer in recovering ancient DNA and that has been extremely important in the study of human evolution.” Chris Stringer, research lead in human evolution at that museum, told CNN on Monday. In addition to the Neanderthal genome, he also “discovered the Denisovans – a completely new kind of human,” Stringer said. Denisovan DNA lives on in some humans today because, once our Homo sapien ancestors encountered the Denisovans, they had sex with them and gave birth – something geneticists call admixture. “I think the Neanderthal genome was his biggest single contribution. It revealed that Neanderthals interbred with us. That was disputed for many years, including by me. But he showed that most of us have ancient DNA (from Neanderthals and or Denisovans). That DNA may also be medically important,” Stringer added. Read More Here

Oil Jumps Nearly $4 As OPEC+ Weighs Biggest Output Cut Since 2020 https://digitalalaskanews.com/oil-jumps-nearly-4-as-opec-weighs-biggest-output-cut-since-2020/ OPEC+ considers cut of more than 1 mln bpd -sources Interest rate hikes, strong dollar weigh on markets EU ban on Russian maritime oil trader due for Dec. 5 LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Oil prices jumped almost $4 on Monday as OPEC+ considers reducing output by more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to buttress prices with what would be its biggest cut since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brent crude futures rebounded $3.46, or 4.1%, to $88.60 a barrel by 0915 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 4.3%, or $3.39, at $82.88. Oil prices have tumbled for four straight months since June, as COVID-19 lockdowns in top energy consumer China hurt demand while rising interest rates and a surging U.S. dollar weighed on global financial markets. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com To support prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known collectively as OPEC+, is considering an output cut of more than 1 million bpd ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, OPEC+ sources told Reuters. read more If agreed, it will be the group’s second consecutive monthly cut after reducing output by 100,000 bpd last month. “The backdrop for this week’s meeting is precarious, but the fundamentals of oil are relatively healthy,” said Peter McNally, global lead for energy at investment research firm Third Bridge. “The two biggest question marks are the demand outlook (especially in China) and what happens to Russian supply after the EU ban goes into effect on Dec. 5.” OPEC+ missed its production targets by nearly 3 million bpd in July, two sources from the producer group said, as sanctions on some members and low investment by others stymied its ability to raise output. read more While prompt Brent prices could strengthen further in the immediate short term, concerns over a global recession are likely to limit the upside, consultancy FGE said. “If OPEC+ does decide to cut output in the near term, the resultant increase in OPEC+ spare capacity will likely put more downward pressure on long-dated prices,” it said in a note on Friday. The dollar index fell for a fourth consecutive day on Monday after touching its highest in two decades. A cheaper dollar could bolster oil demand and support prices. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Noah Browning Additional reporting by Florence Tan and Muyu Xu Editing by David Goodman Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Trump Staffers Not Returning White House Records, National Archives Says https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-staffers-not-returning-white-house-records-national-archives-says-2/ WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump’s administration has not turned over all presidential records and the National Archives will consult with the Justice Department on whether to move to get them back, the agency has told Congress. A congressional panel on Sept. 13 sought an urgent review by the National Archives and Records Administration after agency staff members acknowledged that they did not know if all presidential records from Trump’s White House had been turned over. “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” acting Archivist Debra Wall said in a letter Friday to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The Archives knows some White House staffers conducted official business on personal electronic messaging accounts that were that were not copied or forwarded to their official accounts, in violation of the Presidential Records Act, Wall said. “NARA has been able to obtain such records from a number of former officials and will continue to pursue the return of similar types of presidential records from former officials,” Wall said in the letter, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. She said the Archives, the federal agency charged with preserving government records, would consult with the Department of Justice on “whether to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed.” The Oversight Committee’s chairwoman, representative Carolyn Maloney, said in a statement she would do everything in her power to ensure the return of all records and prevent future abuses. “Former President Trump and his senior staff have shown an utter disregard for the rule of law and our national security by failing to return presidential records as the law requires,” Maloney, whose committee shared a copy of the letter with Reuters, said in a statement. Representatives for Trump did not return a request for comment on the matter. Trump is facing a criminal investigation by the Justice Department for retaining government records – some marked as highly classified, including “top secret” – at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021. The FBI seized more than 11,000 records, including about 100 documents marked as classified, in a court-approved Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers have been locked in a legal battle over how the records are handled. Government lawyers have been granted access to the classified documents but on Friday asked an appeals court to expedite its ability to access the non-classified documents seized in Florida. Read more: Trump was sued by New York’s attorney general. What legal woes does he face? Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Daniel Wallis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Juan Williams: Kevin McCarthy Would Be A Weak, Disastrous Speaker https://digitalalaskanews.com/juan-williams-kevin-mccarthy-would-be-a-weak-disastrous-speaker/ As House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) chases dreams of leading a GOP majority next year, he might consider this quote from a French Revolution leader:  “There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.” In the language of today’s Twitter zingers, that’s saying a leader with no followers is just a guy taking a walk.  McCarthy’s approach to possibly being the next Speaker looks unsteady, like a man who fears he is walking his party and his country off a cliff.  McCarthy’s trouble begins with polling that favors a GOP House majority after the midterms but by a narrow margin – perhaps fewer than 10 seats. That will make McCarthy less a leader than a puppet being controlled by the loudest Republicans on his far-right in the House and even louder voices ginning up outrage outside Washington on talk radio. Already there are screams for McCarthy to drag the party into fiery hearings to impeach President Biden as retribution for House Democrats twice impeaching former President Trump.  The reality that Trump committed acts worthy of impeachment — such as inciting a riot at the Capitol — while Biden has done no such thing is less important to a future GOP majority in the House than staging a payback circus. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month that there is pressure on House Republicans to immediately introduce articles of impeachment against Biden if they gain majority control. McCarthy will also face calls from extreme voices to defund the FBI in retaliation for agents raiding Trump’s Florida mansion to recover classified government papers. The biggest challenge for McCarthy will come from calls among his members for a government shutdown to protest a range of grievances. That includes Congress’s own failure, stemming largely from Republican opposition, to pass immigration reform for the last 30 years. A preview of those tactics came last month. “We should not fund a government that is continuing to allow open borders to endanger the American people,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said on the House floor in September.  Roy signed a letter with 41 other House Republicans stating they would oppose a stoppgap government funding bill.  Admittedly, they argued that their objection was to a bill being passed “in the remaining months of this Democrat-led Congress” — and they were defeated, for now, when Congress passed just such a continuing resolution late last week. But the point seems clear. Roy and his fellow right-wingers will be just as willing to wield the threat of a government shutdown over McCarthy, if they take the majority, as they are now with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) still holding the gavel. According to Moody’s, the last government shutdown under GOP congressional leadership but a Democratic president, in 2013, took more than $20 billion out of the economy. With fear of recession and inflation still hurting American families, a government shutdown would make economic matters even worse. As the New York Times put it last month: “It could also mean that the government will struggle to perform such mundane tasks as keeping itself from defaulting on its debt and plunging the global financial system into chaos.” McCarthy does have a successful model in managing a slim majority. The current slim Democratic majority managed to pass a COVID-19 relief bill to keep the economy going during the latter stages of the pandemic; a spending plan to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure; and Biden’s bill to lower prescription drug prices and deal with climate change. Key to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) success was support from the left, despite progressives’ desire for more aggressive support of social safety net programs. Can McCarthy emulate Pelosi?  “I think it’ll be very difficult,” Jacob Rubashkin, an analyst with the nonpartisan publication Inside Elections, told The New York Times. “It’s been remarkable to see Nancy Pelosi handle a narrow majority. So, it is possible to pass bills with only a couple of votes to spare… [but] Kevin McCarthy is not Nancy Pelosi.” Unease about the future of House GOP leadership could be why so many Republican donors are keeping their money on the sidelines this year.  As Newsweek reported last week: “Democrats appear to be flush with cash with less than two months until crucial midterm elections while Republican candidates show signs of struggling to raise funds.” Business leaders know that in the last 20 years, things rarely end well for the top person in House Republican leadership.  Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), once the golden boy of the GOP, was thwarted by Trump. Before him, former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), a lifelong conservative, was hounded out of office by extreme Tea Party-inspired members for being too willing to make deals to keep the government working. And long before him, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), the architect of the 1994 Republican Revolution, barely survived a coup from his own members for mismanaging the impeachment of President Clinton. All of this is to say that intramural squabbling resulting in failed leaders is nothing new for House Republican politics.  But Kevin McCarthy’s ascent to leadership may mark a low point. Never has a potential House majority GOP had its potential leader boxed in by having most of his members more loyal to an outsider, Trump. Trump’s showmanship and social media edicts for attacking Democrats will led to endless congressional investigations.  McCarthy had trouble with just this scenario when he was the frontrunner to succeed Boehner in 2015. He was derailed because of a cringeworthy admission that the GOP’s breathless Benghazi investigation had nothing to do with protecting troops but was staged to drive down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers.  Does anyone really think McCarthy is up to the job? Juan Williams is an author, and a political analyst for Fox News Channel. Read More Here

AP News Summary At 5:11 A.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-511-a-m-edt/ Russia smuggling Ukrainian grain to help pay for Putin’s war BEIRUT (AP) — An investigation by The Associated Press and the PBS series “Frontline” has documented a sophisticated Russian-run smuggling operation that has used falsified manifests and seaborne subterfuge to steal Ukrainian grain worth at least $530 million. The AP and “Frontline” used satellite imagery and marine radio transponder data to track three dozen ships making more than 50 voyages carrying grain from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to ports in the Middle East. The ongoing theft is being carried out by wealthy businessmen and state-owned companies in Russia and Syria. Some of them already face financial sanctions from the United States and European Union. Legal experts say the theft is a potential war crime. Relatives mourn those crushed at Indonesia soccer match JEMBER, Indonesia (AP) — Families and friends of some of the 125 people who died in a crush set off by police tear gas after an Indonesia soccer match wailed in grief as the bodies of the victims were returned home. Seventeen children were among the dead. Police said 18 officers responsible for firing tear gas as well as security managers were being investigated and mobile phones owned by victims were being examined to identify suspected vandals inside and outside the stadium.  The distraught family members were struggling to comprehend their losses. The premier soccer league suspended until safety is reevaluated, and the home team Arema was banned from hosting soccer matches for the rest of the season. UK scraps tax cut for wealthy that sparked market turmoil BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — The British government has dropped plans to cut income tax for top earners. The move was part of a package of unfunded cuts that sparked turmoil on financial markets and sent the pound to record lows. Treasury chief Kwasi Kwarteng said Monday he would abandon plans to scrap the top 45% rate of income tax paid on earnings above 150,000 pounds ($167,000) a year. The announcement comes as more lawmakers from the governing Conservative Party turn on government tax plans. The announcement of 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) in tax cuts sent the pound tumbling to a record low against the dollar. The Bank of England had to step in to stabilize the bond markets. Ukrainian troops continue offensive, claim new gains KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops have continued to push on with their offensive that has embarrassed Moscow, with Kyiv officials and foreign observers hinting at new gains in the southern strategic region of Kherson. The area has been one of the toughest battlefields for the Ukrainians, with slower progress when compared to Kyiv’s breakout offensive around Kharkiv that began last month. Ukrainian media outlets also highlighted an image of Ukrainian troops displaying flags at a marker for the village of Khreshchenivka, which is in the same area of Kherson where troops apparently have broken through Russian lines. Russian military bloggers have increasingly acknowledged Ukrainian superiority of manpower in the area. Nobel panel to announce winner of medicine prize STOCKHOLM (AP) — The winner, or winners, of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine will be announced Monday at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Among the researchers who may be honored this year are those who were instrumental in the development of the mRNA technology that went into COVID-19 vaccines, which saved millions of lives across the world. Last year’s recipients were David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch. The medicine prize kicks off a week of Nobel Prize announcements. It continues Tuesday with the physics prize, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct. 10. Brazil’s Bolsonaro and the right outperform, defying polls RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Jair Bolsonaro considerably outperformed expectations in Brazil’s presidential election, proving that the far-right wave he rode to the presidency remains a force and providing the world with yet another example of polls missing the mark. The most-trusted opinion polls had indicated leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was far out front, and potentially even clinching a first-round victory. In the end, Bolsonaro surprised to the upside and came within just 5 percentage points – less than half the margin several surveys showed before the election. He will face da Silva in a high-stakes Oct. 30 presidential runoff. In Hurricane Ian’s wake, dangers persist, worsen in parts FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Days after Hurricane Ian carved a path of destruction from Florida to the Carolinas, the dangers persisted, and even worsened in some places. And it was clear the road to recovery from the monster storm will be long and painful. And Ian still is not done. The storm doused Virginia with rain Sunday. It was dissipating as it moved offshore, but officials warned there still was the potential of severe flooding along Virginia’s coast, beginning overnight Monday. Ian was one of the strongest storms to make landfall in the United States. ‘We’re with you,’ Biden tells Puerto Rico ahead of visit WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says the U.S. government will be with Puerto Rico for the long haul as it cleans up and rebuilds after Hurricane Fiona. Biden was flying to the U.S. territory on Monday to survey some of the damage after the Category 1 hurricane hit on Sept. 18. Fiona caused catastrophic flooding, tore apart roads and bridges, and unleashed more than 100 landslides. Biden will visit amid widespread anger and frustration over continued power outages. Tens of thousands of people continue to struggle without power and water two weeks after the storm. Jurors to begin hearing Jan. 6 Oath Keepers sedition case WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors are preparing to lay out their case against the founder of the Oath Keepers’ extremist group and four associates. They are charged in the most serious case to reach trial yet in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack. Opening statements are expected Monday in Washington’s federal court in the trial of Stewart Rhodes and others charged with seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors allege a weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power from Republican Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. The Oath Keepers are the first to stand trial for seditious conspiracy, which carries up to 20 years behind bars. Black representation in Alabama tested before Supreme Court MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Congressional districts that a federal court panel said were unconstitutional because they dilute representation for Black voters in Alabama are nevertheless being used for the November election after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed them. The high court hears arguments in the case on Tuesday. The packing of Black voters into just one of the state’s seven congressional districts leaves many of them without a voice and gives Republicans one more seat than they should have based on the state’s demographics and voting patterns. Gerrymandering has reduced the influence of Black voters for decades in a state that is synonymous with the civil rights movement. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. For Related Stories: Hurricane Ian Read More Here

The 10 Senate Seats Most Likely To Flip In 2022 – KVIA https://digitalalaskanews.com/the-10-senate-seats-most-likely-to-flip-in-2022-kvia/ By Simone Pathe, CNN The race for the Senate is in the eye of the beholder less than six weeks from Election Day, with ads about abortion, crime and inflation dominating the airwaves in key states as campaigns test the theory of the 2022 election. The cycle started out as a referendum on President Joe Biden — an easy target for Republicans, who need a net gain of just one seat to flip the evenly divided chamber. Then the US Supreme Court’s late June decision overturning Roe v. Wade gave Democrats the opportunity to paint a contrast as Republicans struggled to explain their support for an abortion ruling that the majority of the country opposes. Former President Donald Trump’s omnipresence in the headlines gave Democrats another foil. But the optimism some Democrats felt toward the end of the summer, on the heels of Biden’s legislative wins and the galvanizing high court decision, has been tempered slightly by the much anticipated tightening of some key races as political advertising ramps up on TV and voters tune in after Labor Day. Republicans, who have midterm history on their side as the party out of the White House, have hammered Biden and Democrats for supporting policies they argue exacerbate inflation. Biden’s approval rating stands at 41% with 54% disapproving in the latest CNN Poll of Polls, which tracks the average of recent surveys. And with some prices inching back up after a brief hiatus, the economy and inflation — which Americans across the country identify as their top concern in multiple polls — are likely to play a crucial role in deciding voters’ preferences. But there’s been a steady increase in ads about crime too as the GOP returns to a familiar criticism, depicting Democrats as weak on public safety. Cops have been ubiquitous in TV ads this cycle — candidates from both sides of the aisle have found law enforcement officers to testify on camera to their pro-police credentials. Democratic ads also feature women talking about the threat of a national abortion ban should the Senate fall into GOP hands, while Republicans have spent comparatively less trying to portray Democrats as the extremists on the topic. While the issue sets have fluctuated, the Senate map hasn’t changed. Republicans’ top pickup opportunities have always been Nevada, Georgia, Arizona and New Hampshire — all states that Biden carried in 2020. In two of those states, however, the GOP has significant problems, although the states themselves keep the races competitive. Arizona nominee Blake Masters is now without the support of the party’s major super PAC, which thinks its money can be better spent elsewhere, including in New Hampshire, where retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc is far from the nominee the national GOP had wanted. But this is the time of year when poor fundraising can really become evident since TV ad rates favor candidates and a super PAC gets much less bang for its buck. The race for Senate control may come down to three states: Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, all of which are rated as “Toss-up” races by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales. As Republicans look to flip the Senate, which Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has called a “50-50 proposition,” they’re trying to pick up the first two and hold on to the latter. Senate Democrats’ path to holding their majority lies with defending their incumbents. Picking off a GOP-held seat like Pennsylvania — still the most likely to flip in CNN’s ranking — would help mitigate any losses. Wisconsin, where GOP Sen. Ron Johnson is vying for a third term, looks like Democrats’ next best pickup opportunity, but that race drops in the rankings this month as Republican attacks take a toll on the Democratic nominee in the polls. These rankings are based on CNN’s reporting, fundraising and advertising data, and polling, as well as historical data about how states and candidates have performed. It will be updated one more time before Election Day. 1. Pennsylvania Incumbent: Republican Pat Toomey (retiring) The most consistent thing about CNN’s rankings, dating back to 2021, has been Pennsylvania’s spot in first place. But the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey has tightened since the primaries in May, when Republican Mehmet Oz emerged badly bruised from a nasty intraparty contest. In a CNN Poll of Polls average of recent surveys in the state, Democrat John Fetterman, the state lieutenant governor, had the support of 50% of likely voters to Oz’s 45%. (The Poll of Polls is an average of the four most recent nonpartisan surveys of likely voters that meet CNN’s standards.) Fetterman is still overperforming Biden, who narrowly carried Pennsylvania in 2020. Fetterman’s favorability ratings are also consistently higher than Oz’s. One potential trouble spot for the Democrat: More voters in a late September Franklin and Marshall College Poll viewed Oz has having policies that would improve voters’ economic circumstances, with the economy and inflation remaining the top concern for voters across a range of surveys. But nearly five months after the primary, the celebrity surgeon still seems to have residual issues with his base. A higher percentage of Democrats were backing Fetterman than Republicans were backing Oz in a recent Fox News survey, for example, with much of that attributable to lower support from GOP women than men. Fetterman supporters were also much more enthusiastic about their candidate than Oz supporters. Republicans have been hammering Fetterman on crime, specifically his tenure on the state Board of Pardons: An ad from the Senate Leadership Fund features a Bucks County sheriff saying, “Protect your family. Don’t vote Fetterman.” But the lieutenant governor is also using sheriffs on camera to defend his record. And with suburban voters being a crucial demographic, Democratic advertising is also leaning into abortion, like this Senate Majority PAC ad that features a female doctor as narrator and plays Oz’s comments from during the primary about abortion being “murder.” Oz’s campaign has said that he supports exceptions for “the life of the mother, rape and incest” and that “he’d want to make sure that the federal government is not involved in interfering with the state’s decisions on the topic.” 2. Nevada Incumbent: Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto Republicans have four main pickup opportunities — and right now, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s seat looks like one of their best shots. Biden carried Nevada by a slightly larger margin than two of those other GOP-targeted states, but the Silver State’s large transient population adds a degree of uncertainty to this contest. Republicans have tried to tie the first-term senator to Washington spending and inflation, which may be particularly resonant in a place where average gas prices are now back up to over $5 a gallon. Democrats are zeroing in on abortion rights and raising the threat that a GOP-controlled Senate could pass a national abortion ban. Former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt — the rare GOP nominee to have united McConnell and Trump early on — called the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling a “joke” before the Supreme Court overturned the decision in June. Democrats have been all too happy to use that comment against him, but Laxalt has tried to get around those attacks by saying he does not support a national ban and pointing out that the right to an abortion is settled law in Nevada. 3. Georgia Incumbent: Democrat Raphael Warnock The closer we get to Election Day, the more we need to talk about the Georgia Senate race going over the wire. If neither candidate receives a majority of the vote in November, the contest will go to a December runoff. There was no clear leader in a recent Marist poll that had Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who’s running for a full six-year term, and Republican challenger Herschel Walker both under 50% among those who say they definitely plan to vote. Warnock’s edge from earlier this cycle has narrowed, which bumps this seat up one spot on the rankings. The good news for Warnock is that he’s still overperforming Biden’s approval numbers in a state that the President flipped in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes. And so far, he seems to be keeping the Senate race closer than the gubernatorial contest, for which several polls have shown GOP Gov. Brian Kemp ahead. Warnock’s trying to project a bipartisan image that he thinks will help him hold on in what had until recently been a reliably red state. Standing waist-deep in peanuts in one recent ad, he touts his work with Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville to “eliminate the regulations,” never mentioning his own party. But Republicans have continued to try to tie the senator to his party — specifically for voting for measures in Washington that they claim have exacerbated inflation. Democrats are hoping that enough Georgians won’t see voting for Walker as an option — even if they do back Kemp. Democrats have amped up their attacks on domestic violence allegations against the former football star and unflattering headlines about his business record. And all eyes will be on the mid-October debate to see how Walker, who has a history of making controversial and illogical comments, handles himself onstage against the more polished incumbent. 4. Wisconsin Incumbent: Republican Ron Johnson Sen. Ron Johnson is the only Republican running for reelection in a state Biden won in 2020 — in fact, he broke his own term limits pledge to run a third time, saying he believed America was “in peril.” And although Johnson has had low approval numbers for much of the cycle, Democrats have underestimated him before. This contest moves down one spot on the ranking as Johnson’s race against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has tightened, putting the senator in a better position. Bar...

AM Prep-Cooler Copy https://digitalalaskanews.com/am-prep-cooler-copy/ DEATH TOLL, NUMBER OF PEOPLE W/O POWER FROM HURRICANE IAN BOTH RISE FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — With the death toll from Hurricane Ian rising and hundreds of thousands of people without power in Florida and the Carolinas, U.S. officials are vowing to provide a huge amount of federal disaster aid. Meanwhile crews continue efforts to rescue those stranded by the storm. Even as the storm passed north after tearing through Florida and the Carolinas, water levels continued to rise in some flooded areas. Storm water has inundated homes and streets that were passable just a day or two earlier. Yesterday, fewer than 700,000 homes and businesses in Florida were still without electricity, down from a peak of 2.6 million. SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES MAY SLOW REBUILD EFFORT IN FLORIDA AFTER IAN UNDATED (AP) — Crews are beginning to repair — and in some cases, rebuild — Florida’s power grid after the state was pummeled by Hurricane Ian. Florida Power & Light says it has enough poles, generators and wire to get juice flowing again to those affected by the storm. But power industry officials warn that kinks in the nation’s supply chain could slow the process. They fear if damage from Ian along the Atlantic coast is worse than expected — or if another natural disaster strikes elsewhere in the U.S. — recovery efforts in Florida could be delayed. COMBATANTS FOR NEVADA’S GOVERNOR’S RACE DEBATE RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Joe Lombardo, sought in a debate yesterday to distance himself from former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. But Lombardo said Trump’s policies were better than those of President Joe Biden, which he blames for a rise in inflation and rising interest rates. Lombardo’s decision to back away from Trump’s false election claims is likely to produce an awkward meeting next weekend, when Trump is to campaign for Lombardo in Nevada. 3 DIE WHEN PLANE CRASHES INTO HOUSE IN MINNESOTA HERMANTOWN, Minn. (AP) — Three people aboard a small airplane died when it crashed into a house near a northern Minnesota airport. But the two people sleeping inside the house — and their cat — were unhurt. Police in the town of Hermantown say a Cessna 172 hit the second floor of the house late Saturday — and ended up in the backyard. Jason Hoffman tells Minnesota Public Radio he and his wife were asleep when the plane tore through their roof. Hoffman says after grabbing a flashlight, he and and his wife saw an airplane wheel at the end of their bed. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. For Related Stories: Hurricane Ian Read More Here

Federal Efforts To Boost Voting Access “better Than Nothing” https://digitalalaskanews.com/federal-efforts-to-boost-voting-access-better-than-nothing/ Advocacy groups and researchers are expecting high voter turnout among college students during the midterm elections this fall, but they will still have to overcome skepticism among younger voters who question the impact of their vote and who face a series of logistical hurdles imposed by several Republican-led states. College students turned out en masse during the 2020 election, voting at record levels. As Election Day, Nov. 8, approaches, advocacy groups on campuses nationwide and college officials are working to register students to vote and boost turnout during what’s historically an election cycle with lower turnout. In the 2018 midterms, nearly 40 percent of college-aged adults voted, while 66 percent voted in 2020. The midterms come as the Biden administration has worked to make voting more accessible to eligible Americans, while Republican-led states across the country are putting limits on how people can vote and where. A spate of recently passed laws in Florida, Georgia, Texas and several other states impose additional requirements on early voting sites, shorten the time frame in which voters can request and mail in absentee ballots, and restrict the availability of ballot drop boxes—all of which can make it harder for college students to vote. Some of the states are facing lawsuits over the new restrictions, preventing them from going into effect. “Students are generally younger, and a lot of them are the newest members of our democracy,” said Mike Burns, national director of the Campus Vote Project, a student-focused division of the nonpartisan Fair Elections Center. “They’ve maybe never voted before, or this might be, like, their second election, so it’s really a lot easier for them to get derailed by missing a voter registration deadline … There’s a lot of opportunities for something to go wrong.” Burns said student voters often aren’t a priority for local and state election administrators despite being a large population with specific needs. “There’s some amazing places where we’ve seen the institutions and the local election officials build great partnerships,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of places where it’s, you know, almost antagonistic.” For example, Texas A&M University won’t have an early voting location on campus this year despite students’ effort to restore the site, The Texas Tribune reported. The Brazos County Commissioners Court decided over the summer to remove the polling location in part because of concerns about low voter turnout and complaints from nonstudent voters about navigating the campus. The university will still have a voting site on Election Day. Congressional Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to pass a national voting rights act over the last two years, which would set standards for voter registration and expand the role of higher ed institutions and organizations in the voting process, among other changes aimed at addressing the challenges facing college students who want to vote. In lieu of congressional action, President Biden signed an executive order in March 2021 to promote voting access. Changes from that order include making it easier to register to vote, designating two tribal colleges run by the federal government as a voter registration agency and providing resources in many different languages about voting laws for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Because of that order, the U.S. Department of Education sent colleges and universities a Dear Colleague letter in April outlining the requirements in the Higher Education Act of 1965 with regards to voting, including that institutions have to “make a good faith effort” to distribute voter registration forms to students. The department also encouraged colleges and universities to work with local officials to set up drop-box locations and polling places on campuses. Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, said that the department hadn’t sent a letter like that in some time. “We were really excited that the Department of Education released a Dear Colleague letter to campuses in April reminding them of their responsibility to do nonpartisan voter registration efforts and that they can use federal work-study dollars to support students doing on-campus, nonpartisan voter registration,” she said. “We’ve definitely leaned into that and [have] used the information in that Dear Colleague letter to remind campuses of their responsibilities.”’ The ALL IN challenge works with more than 930 colleges and universities to improve civic learning, political engagement and voter participation. That effort includes creating campus action plans that outline goals and strategies to register students to vote and then remind them to actually turn out to vote. But in a country where elections are run by the states, the federal government can only do so much. Domagal-Goldman said the varying state laws for voting can pose an obstacle to those goals. Since 2020, she said, 19 states have passed 34 laws restricting access to voting. In the 2021 legislative session, more than 440 bills were introduced in 49 states that would have restricted access in some way. In Florida, ballot drop boxes must be supervised in person and voters have to request mail-in ballots more regularly, under new laws adopted last year. Georgia’s Election Integrity Act of 2021 shortened the time frame in which a voter can request a mail-in ballot and moved up the deadline as well as prohibited the use of mobile polling sites. The federal government sued Georgia over its new voting laws. “We know that in states that have increased early voting or same-day voter registration … they get more voters and more younger voters to register and turn out,” Domagal-Goldman said. “We know, therefore, the opposite is the case—that you don’t see as high turnout in states that don’t have some of those pieces.” ALL IN and other voter advocacy organizations are participating in National Voter Education Week this week, during which they’ll try to make sure students understand the rules to vote in their respective states. Burns, who praised the Education Department’s letter when it was sent, said campuses tend to have newer and more accessible facilities that could serve as polling locations, but “we see that really be underutilized across the country.” A study of campus voting access from the Campus Vote Project, Duke University and the MTV Entertainment Group conducted earlier this year found that in 2020, 74 percent of colleges in 45 states with the available data did not have an on-campus polling location either on Election Day or during early voting. ‘Better Than Nothing’ The Biden administration’s efforts are “certainly better than nothing, and it’s certainly better than working to actively suppress voting rights,” said Adam Gismondi, the director of impact for the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University. The Institute for Democracy & Higher Education runs the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, which started about a decade ago and is considered to be the best measure of whether students vote. The study also highlights colleges and universities with high voter turnouts to share strategies and tactics. Gismondi said he’ll be watching this fall to see if the uptick in turnout in 2018 and 2020 will become a trend or a temporary increase. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, racial equity concerns and other factors motivating younger voters, he’s expecting voter turnout to be high even without former president Trump directly involved. “He’s not technically on the ballot this time, but a lot of divisive political figures are on the ballot this election season,” Gismondi said. “There’s also a lot of heated discussions happening on campus and off campus. The question is, is that dialogue sustained? We generally suspect that it is.” Gismondi is also concerned about states’ efforts to limit voter access. “What you don’t want is that in 2020, we opened up voter access and made it more equitable and more of a democratic system, and then in 2022, students find that it’s harder to vote,” he said. “We do not want that, and I think we as a society should not want that.” Any effort to boost turnout has to overcome a “healthy dose of skepticism” from younger adults who don’t think their vote will make a difference, said Burns with the Campus Vote Project. That skepticism makes it more important to help students overcome logistical barriers associated with voting in addition to the motivation barrier, said Burns, who added that turnout rates could “go either way.” “We’re really making sure that we are out there and doing everything we can to remove both of those barriers: that we’re helping students get through all that logistical information but also helping them see especially the amount of impact that it did have collectively when we saw such high student and youth turnout in 2018 and in 2020,” Burns said. Lack of Education Teresa Cornacchione, civic engagement coordinator for the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida, is working to sign up new voters and educate them about the process before Election Day. Contests among student organizations to register students and between students at the University of Florida and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville have helped to boost interest in the election. Success in those contests is gauged by the number of students who sign up in TurboVote to receive election reminders. TurboVote is an online service used by colleges and universities to help students vote by providing information about registration and sending text reminders. “We really focused on the election reminders portion, because there are studies in political science tha...

European Stocks Slump, Following Gloomy Sentiment In Asia-Pacific https://digitalalaskanews.com/european-stocks-slump-following-gloomy-sentiment-in-asia-pacific/ European stocks fell on Monday as markets enter the last quarter of the year. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index dropped 1% in early trade, with financial services stocks shedding 1.9% to lead losses as all sectors slid into the red except oil and gas, which gained 0.9%. The lower open in Europe comes after a gloomy trading session in Asia-Pacific markets, with sharp moves in the price of oil. Brent crude futures and West Texas Intermediate futures jumped after reports that OPEC+ is considering an oil output cut of more than a million barrels per day, citing sources. Such a move would be the biggest taken by the organization to address weakness in global demand. British pound jumps on reports UK government will U-turn on cut to top tax rate The British pound jumped on Monday morning on reports that the U.K. government will reverse plans to scrap the top rate of income tax. Sterling gained 0.8% against the dollar to trade at around $1.1250 shortly after 7 a.m. London time, taking the pound back to the level seen before Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng’s announcement of a raft of widely criticized tax cuts on Sept. 23. – Elliot Smith ANZ sees significant chance of an OPEC+ cut as large as 1 million barrels per day Ahead of an OPEC+ meeting on Oct. 5, ANZ sees a “significant chance of a cut” as large as 1 million barrels per day, analysts at the firm said in a note. That move is likely to be made “to counteract the excessive bearishness in the market.” The note added that any production cuts below 500,000 barrels per day, however, would be “shrugged off by the market.” –Jihye Lee CNBC Pro: Investment pro says ETFs are a $10 trillion opportunity — and reveals areas of ‘tremendous’ value Exchange-traded funds offer the benefit of diversification, says Jon Maier, chief investment officer at Global X ETFs. He said the ETF market is “growing exponentially” and estimates it to be worth $10 trillion. He names several opportunities for ETF investors in this volatile market. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Oil prices jump on reports of OPEC+ mulling production cut Fri, Sep 30 20229:06 AM EDT CNBC Pro: The five global stocks experiencing the de-globalisation trend, according to HSBC New research from HSBC says supply chains, geopolitical tensions, and worsening financial conditions have forced many global companies to “substantially” turn inward in search of resilient revenue and growth. In a tough economic environment with recessionary pressures, the bank said turning inwards is “probably helpful” for these stocks. The report titled ‘A de-globalisation wave?’ said European firms’ foreign sales dipped below 50% in 2021, the lowest level in the last five years. Wed, Aug 17 202212:29 AM EDT European markets: Here are the opening calls European stocks are expected to open in negative territory on Wednesday as investors react to the latest U.S. inflation data. The U.K.’s FTSE index is expected to open 47 points lower at 7,341, Germany’s DAX 86 points lower at 13,106, France’s CAC 40 down 28 points and Italy’s FTSE MIB 132 points lower at 22,010, according to data from IG. Global markets have pulled back following a higher-than-expected U.S. consumer price index report for August which showed prices rose by 0.1% for the month and 8.3% annually in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, defying economist expectations that headline inflation would fall 0.1% month-on-month. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.6% from July and 6.3% from August 2021. U.K. inflation figures for August are due and euro zone industrial production for July will be published. — Holly Ellyatt Read More Here

Trump: ‘King’ To Some In Pennsylvania, But Will It Help GOP? – Associated Press | Prescott ENews https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-king-to-some-in-pennsylvania-but-will-it-help-gop-associated-press-prescott-enews/ The Trump-Pence sign still hangs on the older building off Main Street in this historic town, a lasting vestige of the campaign fervor that roused voters, including many who still believe the falsehood that the former president didn’t lose in 2020 and hope he’ll run in 2024. The enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s unique brand of nationalist populism has cut into traditional Democratic strongholds like Monongahela, about 25 miles south of Pittsburgh, where brick storefronts and a Slovak fellowship hall dot Main Street and church bells mark the hours of the day. Republicans are counting on political nostalgia for the Trump era as they battle Democrats this fall in Pennsylvania in races for governor, the U.S. Senate and control of Congress. “Trump just came along and filled the empty space,” said Matti Gruzs, who stitches old blue jeans into tote bags, place mats and other creations she sells at the weekly Farmer’s Market downtown. “He’s still the king, and the kingmaker.” Against the backdrop of this picturesque place, House Republicans recently released their campaign agenda, hoping their “Commitment to America” can tap into the same political sentiment Trump used to attract not just Republican but independent and former Democratic voters. But it’s unclear whether the support that propelled Trump to the White House will be there on Election Day, Nov. 8. Perhaps even more challenging for the GOP is whether Trump’s false claims of voter fraud will cost the party if people believe, as the defeated president claims without evidence, the elections are rigged. Some may just decide to sit out the election. “It started out as a low-enthusiasm race,” said Dave Ball, the Republican Party chairman in Washington County, which includes much of western Pennsylvania. Ball said enthusiasm has been “building rapidly” — his main metric for voter interest in the elections is the demand for lawn signs. “We were wondering, at one point, you know, we were going to see any,” he said. “Right now, I can’t get my hands on enough.” But Amy Michalic, who was born and raised in Monongahela and works the polls during elections, said she hears skepticism from some voters, particularly Trump supporters, “who think my vote doesn’t count.” Trump’s claims of fraud have no basis in fact. Dozens of court cases filed by Trump and his supporters have been dismissed or rejected by judges across the nation, but he continues to challenge Joe Biden’s victory. In every state, officials have attested to the accuracy of their elections, and Trump’s own attorney general at the time, Bill Barr, said in 2020 there was no voter fraud on a scale to change the outcome. Michalic reminds skeptical voters in her hometown of the importance of voting and notes that in 2016, no one thought Trump could win. “Look what he did, he took Pennsylvania,” she said. At the Farmer’s Market on a recent afternoon, voters shared concerns that many people in the United States voice this election year — about the high prices of everything, about finding workers and good-paying jobs, about the culture wars. “Where do you start?” said Michelle DeHosse, wearing an American flag shirt as she helped vendors set up stands. DeHosse, who runs a custom-screen print and embroidery shop on Main Street, said she has had trouble hiring employees since the pandemic. While she said just cannot afford the $20 an hour and health care benefits many applicants demand, she understands that many workers need both. “It’s the economy that’s the biggest concern,” she said. Democrats were sparse among the voters, who didn’t seem to have strong feelings for their choices this fall for either of the Senate candidates, Democrat John Fetterman or the Trump-backed Republican Mehmet Oz. Several said they probably would vote party line. “I don’t like either one of them,” said Carolyn McCuen, 84, a Republican enjoying sunset with friends and McDonald’s coffee at a picnic table by the river. “Me either,” said another Republican, Sam Reo, 76, a retired mechanical engineer, playing oldies from the portable speaker he sets up for the group. Both still plan to vote. Support for the GOP candidate for governor, Doug Mastriano, who was outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, can be seen in the giant signs along Lincoln Highway, an east-west route across the state. Mastriano is a “folk hero around here,” said Gruzs, who recalled his regular updates broadcast during the pandemic. A history buff who home-schooled her children, Gruzs hasn’t missed a vote since she cast her first presidential ballot for Ronald Reagan. The same goes for her husband, Sam, a plumber. They moved here two decades ago from Baltimore, for a better life. Now a grandmother, she spends her days working on her crafts and listening to far-right broadcasts – Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk and others. She is not a fan of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. and isn’t convinced he has the toughness needed to push the party’s ideas forward. But she did attend the event at a nearby manufacturing facility where lawmakers outlined the GOP agenda. She was heartened to see far-right Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene at the event with McCarthy, and made sure to shake Greene’s hand. “If she’s behind him,” she said, trailing off. “It looked today he had enough behind him, pushing him.” Trump remains popular, and the sign hanging on the building off Main Street from his 2020 campaign was far from the only one still visible in the state, two years since that election. Several of the voters dismissed the investigations against Trump as nothing more than a “witch hunt” designed to keep him from running again office, despite the potentially serious charges being raised in state and federal inquiries. Some voters said they didn’t believe the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection, despite the violence waged by pro-Trump supporters trying to overturn Biden’s election. Those views stand in contrast to the hard facts of Jan. 6: More than 850 people have been arrested and charged in the insurrection, some given lengthy sentences by the courts for their involvement. Hours before the siege, Trump told a rally crowd to “fight like hell” for his presidency. Loyalists soon broke into the Capitol, fighting in hand-to-hand combat with police, interrupting Congress as it was certifying the election results. Five people, including a Trump supporter shot by police, died in the immediate aftermath. And if Trump runs again? “I wish he would,” said McCuen, a retired church secretary. “But I don’t know if he will.” —- Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics Read More Here

UK Government Abolishes Plan To Cut Tax On High Earners In Major U-Turn https://digitalalaskanews.com/uk-government-abolishes-plan-to-cut-tax-on-high-earners-in-major-u-turn/ “It is clear that the abolition of the 45p tax rate has become a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our economy,” Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said in a statement. Rob Pinney | Getty Images News | Getty Images LONDON — The U.K. government on Monday reversed a planned scrapping of the top rate of income tax, after a public backlash and major market turbulence. “It is clear that the abolition of the 45p tax rate has become a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our economy,” Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said in a statement. “As a result, I’m announcing we are not proceeding with the abolition of the 45p tax rate. We get it, and we have listened.” The cuts were poorly received by financial markets and a scrapping of the 45% tax paid on incomes over £150,000 ($166,770) was seen as politically toxic as Brits deal with a cost-of-living crisis. In the days following their announcement, the pound dropped to an all-time low, mortgage deals were pulled from the market and U.K. government bonds began to sell-off at a historic rate, causing the Bank of England to begin a temporary purchase program to calm volatility. Pound briefly jumps The British pound rose sharply Monday morning on reports that the U.K. government would announce the U-turn. Sterling was 0.8% higher against the dollar at one stage, but dipped to $1.1212 by 7:30 a.m. London time after the formal announcement. It takes it back to the level it was at before Kwarteng unveiled a raft of tax cuts on Sept. 23. With the ruling Conservative Party plunging in opinion polls since the so-called “mini budget,” which was also criticized by the International Monetary Fund in a rare move, several of its own politicians have spoken out against the proposals. Major U-turn Grant Shapps, the former transport secretary, said in a BBC interview Monday morning the reversal in the top rate tax cut was a “sensible response” because a tax cut for “the people who need them least … jarred for people in a way which was unsustainable.” It represents a major and humiliating U-turn for new Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was insisting as recently as Sunday she was “absolutely committed” to the cut. She also revealed the decision was taken by Kwarteng and had not been announced to her whole cabinet. The plan would have delivered an average £10,000 annual benefit to the country’s 660,000 top earners, the Treasury had said. Truss said in a tweet Monday: “The abolition of the 45pc rate had become a distraction from our mission to get Britain moving.” “Our focus now is on building a high growth economy that funds world-class public services, boosts wages, and creates opportunities across the country.” Read More Here

Florida Faces An 'emotional Roller Coaster' As The Search For Survivors Of Hurricane Ian Continues And The Death Toll Rises | CNN https://digitalalaskanews.com/florida-faces-an-emotional-roller-coaster-as-the-search-for-survivors-of-hurricane-ian-continues-and-the-death-toll-rises-cnn/ CNN  —  Days after Hurricane Ian tore through Florida, wiping out neighborhoods and turning streets into rivers, rescue crews searching for survivors are reporting more deaths as recovery efforts continue. Officials confirmed Ian has killed at least 76 people in Florida after it made landfall last week as a Category 4 storm, decimating coastal towns, flooding homes, collapsing roofs, flinging boats into buildings and sending cars floating. Four other people died in storm-related incidents as Ian churned into North Carolina. More than 1,600 people have been rescued from Hurricane Ian’s path in parts of southwest and central Florida since last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said Sunday. Now, as blue skies return, Floridians who took shelter while the hurricane raged have emerged to find unrecognizable communities and face the daunting task of rebuilding; many of them still without power or clean drinking water. More than 689,000 homes, businesses and other customers in Florida still did not have power as of Sunday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. Many are without clean tap water, with well over 100 boil-water advisories in places around the state, according to Florida Health Department data. In Naples, Hank DeWolf’s 4,000-pound boat dock was carried through a condo complex by the powerful hurricane, landing in his neighbor’s yard. And the water brought someone’s car into his own backyard. He doesn’t know who it belongs to or how to remove it. As crews in Naples comb through the wreckage to make sure no one is still trapped, residents are experiencing an “emotional roller coaster” as they face the enormous task ahead to clean up and restore the city, Jay Boodheshwar, city manager of Naples told CNN. “People need to take care of their emotional and mental health, because we’re really going to need to work together on this,” Boodheshwar acknowledged. Naples received record-high storm surge, when the hurricane sent rising ocean water flooding into the city’s streets and tearing through its infrastructure. “The amount of water that we received and the height of the surge affected a lot of the infrastructure,” Boodheshwar explained. “So there are transformers that are fried. It is not simply rehanging lines. There are things that may need to be replaced.” Similar scenes are playing out in other communities. Hurricane Ian – expected to be the most expensive storm in Florida’s history – devastated neighborhoods from the state’s western coast to inland cities like Orlando. In some cases, emergency workers out searching for signs of life are at the same time contending with losing their own homes. “Some of the guys on Pine Island, they lost everything, but they’re doing what they can,” said emergency physician Dr. Ben Abo, who was preparing to join first responders on a rescue mission Sunday near decimated Sanibel Island and Pine Island. And the flooding isn’t over yet. Seminole County continues to experience significant flooding in certain neighborhoods, with families being rescued from waist-high waters over the weekend. Days after the hurricane left, flooding continues to increase in areas near the St. Johns River, Lake Monroe, and Lake Harney, with an additional 100 homes suffering floodwater damage over the last 24 hours, Seminole County emergency management officials told CNN affiliate WESH. FEMA alone cannot rebuild and provide assistance to all the communities impacted by Hurricane Ian, former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate told CNN Sunday. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development, otherwise known as HUD, can provide grants to communities impacted by hurricanes and other natural disasters to help people get back on their feet, Fugate added. “It’s just not the coast of Florida that’s been impacted. We’ve got impacts all the way through Orlando, up to the East Coast. Places like St. Augustine had devastating flooding,” Fugate stressed. Hurricane Ian wiped away parts of the Sanibel Causeway, which connects Sanibel Island to the mainland, stranding residents as their only link became impassable. Responders were going door-to-door searching properties for anyone who may need to be evacuated. About 400 people evacuated from Sanibel Island over the weekend, City Manager Dana Souza reported Sunday evening, adding authorities will begin turning their attention to providing medical services to the people who are choosing to stay on the island, rather than evacuations. Abo told CNN he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the death toll significantly increases as rescue and recovery efforts continue on Sanibel Island. US Coast Guard Commander Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson offered a stark assessment of the damage to Sanibel Island. “That area is going to be out of commission for some time,” McPherson remarked. “It was hit very hard, it does not have water, it doesn’t have the basic infrastructure.” Amy Lynn was at her friend’s home on Sanibel Island when Ian hit, forcing her to hide in a closet with seven dogs, praying and holding the door shut as the hurricane roared outside. When she came out, the home had been badly damaged, with walls blown off, video showed. “I prayed for 6 solid hours and came to peace that it may be my time to go. It wasn’t. God is good. We made it out alive,” Lynn wrote on Facebook. “We lost everything. My car is gone. I haven’t seen my home on Sanibel, i’ve been told it’s destroyed.” Lynn said she was thankful to be alive, but wrote, “This is so much more than devastating. The heart of the swfl coast is forever changed.” Many of the Ian-related deaths – 42 fatalities – have been reported in southwestern Florida’s Lee County, which includes Fort Myers and Sanibel Island. Lee County officials have been facing criticism about why the first mandatory evacuations weren’t ordered until a day before Ian’s landfall, despite an emergency plan which suggests evacuations should have happened earlier. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Lee County officials acted appropriately when they issued their first mandatory evacuations on Tuesday, less than 24 hours before Hurricane Ian made landfall on the state, and a day after several neighboring counties issued their orders. Lee County Commissioner Kevin Ruane also defended the timing of the orders, calling reports about a possible delay in issuing a mandatory evacuation “inaccurate.” “As soon as we saw the model shift northeast, we did exactly what we could to encourage people to” evacuate, Ruane said Sunday. Ruane added people became “complacent” and many didn’t evacuate to shelters. “I think the most important thing that most people need to understand is we opened up 15 shelters. During Irma there were 60,000 people in our shelters. There’s 4,000 people in the shelters right now,” Ruane said. In addition to the 42 deaths in Lee County, Hurricane Ian also contributed to the deaths of 12 people in Charlotte County, eight in Collier County, five in Volusia County, three in Sarasota County, two in Manatee County, and one each in Polk, Lake, Hendry and Hillsborough counties, officials said. Around 65% of all power outages in Florida from the storm had been restored as of early Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. But some residents and businesses in storm-damaged counties may not be back on the grid for “weeks or months” because of the structural damage caused by the hurricane, said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of Florida Power & Light Company. In Cape Coral, just southwest of Fort Myers, 98% of the city’s power structure was “obliterated” and will need complete reconstruction, Fire Department Chief and Emergency Management Director Ryan Lamb told CNN’s Jim Acosta. Florida is also working with Elon Musk and Starlink satellite to help restore communication in the state, according to DeSantis. “They’re positioning those Starlink satellites to provide good coverage in Southwest Florida and other affected areas,” DeSantis said. Read More Here

Supreme Court’s Top Cases For New Term https://digitalalaskanews.com/supreme-courts-top-cases-for-new-term/ The Supreme Court opens its new term Monday, hearing arguments for the first time after a summer break and with new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Already the court has said it will decide cases on a range of major issues including affirmative action, voting rights and the rights of LGBTQ people. The justices will add more cases to their docket in coming months. A look at some of the cases the court has already agreed to hear. The justices are expected to decide each of the cases before taking a summer break at the end of June: Affirmative action In cases from Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, the court could end any consideration of race in college admissions. If this seems familiar, it’s because the high court has been asked repeatedly over the past 20 years to end affirmative action in higher education. In previous cases from Michigan and Texas, the court reaffirmed the validity of considering college applicants’ race among many factors. Voting rights The court could further reduce protections for minority voters in its third major consideration in 10 years of the landmark Voting Rights Act, which was enacted to combat enduring racial discrimination in voting. The case the justices are hearing involves Alabama, where just one of the state’s seven congressional districts has a Black majority. That’s even though 27% of the state’s residents are Black. A three-judge panel that included two appointees of President Donald Trump agreed that the state should have to create a second district with a Black majority, but the Supreme Court stopped any changes and said it would hear the case. A ruling for the state could wipe away all but the most obvious cases of intentional discrimination on the basis of race. Elections Republicans are asking the justices to embrace a novel legal concept that would limit state courts’ oversight of elections for Congress. North Carolina’s top court threw out the state’s congressional map that gave Republicans a lopsided advantage in a closely divided state and eventually came up with a map that basically evenly divided the state’s 14 congressional districts between Democrats and Republicans. Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox Read More Here

Donald Trump-Kim Jong-Un Personal Letters Published – Armenia News https://digitalalaskanews.com/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-personal-letters-published-armenia-news/ Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un personal letters published  Armenia News Read More Here

Trump: 'King' To Some In Pennsylvania, But Will It Help GOP? https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-king-to-some-in-pennsylvania-but-will-it-help-gop-2/ Monday, October 3, 2022 By LISA MASCARO ~ Associated Press MONONGAHELA, Pa. — The Trump-Pence sign still hangs on the older building off Main Street in this historic town, a lasting vestige of the campaign fervor that roused voters, including many who still believe the falsehood that the former president didn’t lose in 2020 and hope he’ll run in 2024. Subscribe below or log in with your password here. For more than 115 years, the Southeast Missourian has written the first draft of local history. We have aspired to enrich, entertain, educate and inform. Our core values have remained firm: truth, service, quality, integrity and community. Support our mission. Join today Note: Special discounts available to new subscribers only. Print subscriptions may include up to 13 Premium Issues per year, which include special magazines. For each Premium Issue, your account balance will be charged an additional fee in the billing period when the section publishes. This will result in shortening the length of your billing period. Read More Here

Asia-Pacific Markets Mixed, Hang Seng Index At Lowest Levels In 11 Years; Oil Rises https://digitalalaskanews.com/asia-pacific-markets-mixed-hang-seng-index-at-lowest-levels-in-11-years-oil-rises/ Pedestrians cross a road in front of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), operated by Japan Exchange Group Inc. (JPX), in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg via Getty Images Shares in the Asia-Pacific mostly fell on Monday as markets enter the last quarter of the year. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 1.19% down, reaching the lowest levels since October 2011, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave up early gains to fall 0.12%. The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell more than 1% in early trade, but recovered slightly and was last up 0.5%, while the Topix index was 0.1% higher. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.8%. Brent crude futures and West Texas Intermediate futures jumped on reports of a possible OPEC+ supply cut. Later in the week, Australia’s central bank will announce its interest rate decision, while several countries in Asia will report inflation data. China markets are closed for the Golden Week holiday, and South Korea’s market is also closed. ANZ sees significant chance of an OPEC+ cut as large as 1 million barrels per day Ahead of an OPEC+ meeting on Oct. 5, ANZ sees a “significant chance of a cut” as large as 1 million barrels per day, analysts at the firm said in a note. That move is likely to be made “to counteract the excessive bearishness in the market.” The note added that any production cuts below 500,000 barrels per day, however, would be “shrugged off by the market.” –Jihye Lee CNBC Pro: Investment pro says ETFs are a $10 trillion opportunity — and reveals areas of ‘tremendous’ value Exchange-traded funds offer the benefit of diversification, says Jon Maier, chief investment officer at Global X ETFs. He said the ETF market is “growing exponentially” and estimates it to be worth $10 trillion. He names several opportunities for ETF investors in this volatile market. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Business confidence of Japan’s large manufacturers worsens Sentiment of Japan’s large manufacturers worsened in the July-to-September quarter, according to the Bank of Japan’s latest quarterly tankan business sentiment survey. The headline index for large manufacturers’ sentiment came in at 8, a decline from the previous quarter’s reading of 9. Economists polled by Reuters expected a print of 11. “Our expectation and market expectations were for the manufacturing reading to pick up — supply conditions had improved, you’ve seen fading supply impact from zero-Covid policies in China, commodity prices came down a little bit,” said Stefan Angrick, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics. “The fact that the manufacturing side of the economy isn’t doing so well certainly isn’t great for the outlook,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.” But the non-manufacturing index ticked up slightly, which could mean Japan’s late Covid recovery is getting underway, he added. — Abigail Ng Fri, Sep 30 20229:06 AM EDT CNBC Pro: The five global stocks experiencing the de-globalisation trend, according to HSBC New research from HSBC says supply chains, geopolitical tensions, and worsening financial conditions have forced many global companies to “substantially” turn inward in search of resilient revenue and growth. In a tough economic environment with recessionary pressures, the bank said turning inwards is “probably helpful” for these stocks. The report titled ‘A de-globalisation wave?’ said European firms’ foreign sales dipped below 50% in 2021, the lowest level in the last five years. Oil prices jump on reports of OPEC+ mulling production cut CNBC Pro: Should investors flee stocks? Strategists give their take — and reveal how to trade the volatility With monetary policy set to tighten further in the months ahead, and Wall Street mired in the depths of a bear market abyss, many investors are beginning to wonder if now’s the time to exit the stock market and put their money in other asset classes. CNBC Pro spoke to market watchers and scoured through research from investment banks to find out what the pros think. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Read More Here

The Story Behind DeSantis’s Migrant Flights To Martha’s Vineyard https://digitalalaskanews.com/the-story-behind-desantiss-migrant-flights-to-marthas-vineyard/ Asylum seekers in Texas were recruited for the flights by a woman who appeared to be a former Army counterintelligence agent. “We were tricked,” one migrant said. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. A group of men from Venezuela outside the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio on Sept. 15.Credit…Matthew Busch for The New York Times Published Oct. 2, 2022Updated Oct. 3, 2022, 12:18 a.m. ET SAN ANTONIO — In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a budget that set aside $12 million to create a program for transporting unauthorized migrants out of Florida. He touted it as the highlight of the state’s new spending when it came to immigration. But just three months later, the money was being used in a place far from Florida, in a very different way: rounding up Venezuelan asylum seekers on the streets of San Antonio and shipping them on private planes to Massachusetts. The flights last month, carrying 48 migrants, attracted international attention and drew condemnation from Democrats as well as several legal challenges. Mr. DeSantis immediately claimed credit for what appeared to be a political maneuver — dumping dozens of asylum seekers on the doorstep of Northeastern Democrats who have resisted calls to clamp down on immigration. Florida officials have provided little information about the program or how it was engineered. But details have begun to emerge of the clandestine mission that was carried out without the knowledge of even the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican: flights paid for with state money in possible violation of the state law that allocated the money; a charter airline company with political ties to the Florida governor. And, in the middle of it all, a woman with a background in military counterintelligence who investigators believe was sent to Texas from Tampa in order to fill the planes. Image A migrant mother and daughter looked out across the water as they journeyed by ferry from Vineyard Haven to Woods Hole in Massachusetts.Credit…Matt Cosby for The New York Times Until now, little has been known about the woman whom migrants said identified herself only by her first name, “Perla,” when she solicited them to join the flights. A person briefed on the San Antonio sheriff’s office investigation into the matter told The New York Times that the person being looked at in connection with the operation is a woman named Perla Huerta. Ms. Huerta, a former combat medic and counterintelligence agent, was discharged in August after two decades in the U.S. Army that included several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to military records. A Venezuelan migrant who was working with Ms. Huerta to recruit migrants confirmed her identity, and a migrant in San Antonio whom Ms. Huerta had unsuccessfully sought to sign up identified a photo of her in an interview with The Times. Several of the migrants on Martha’s Vineyard photographed her during the recruitment process in San Antonio, according to Rachel Self, a lawyer representing the migrants. Lawyers working with them were able to match those photos with others online and in social media belonging to a woman named Perla Huerta. Efforts to reach Ms. Huerta by phone and at her home in Tampa were unsuccessful. The man who said he worked with her to help sign up other migrants agreed to speak on the condition that his name not be used because the events are under investigation. He said he first met Ms. Huerta on Sept. 10 outside the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio. Understand the Migrant Drop-Offs in Martha’s Vineyard Card 1 of 5 Where were the migrants from? The 48 migrants who were taken from a shelter in San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard in mid-September are Venezuelans who had crossed the southwest border without authorization and had turned themselves in to border officials; many likely planned to claim asylum. After being taken into custody, they had been released to face future proceedings. What happened to the migrants after they arrived on the land? Volunteers and officials in Martha’s Vineyard welcomed the migrants with food and clothing and gave them shelter at a local church. A few days later, the migrants boarded buses for a temporary shelter at Joint Base Cape Cod. Are the drop-offs legal? Once migrants have been released and served documents to appear in court, they are free to travel within the United States; it is not illegal for a state government to pay for that travel. But on Sept. 20, the migrants taken to Martha’s Vineyard filed a lawsuit against Mr. DeSantis and other state officials, accusing them of engaging in a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” by lying about where they were being taken. Are the claims being investigated? Yes. A county sheriff in Texas has opened a criminal investigation into the drop-offs, saying that it was clear that many of the migrants had been misled and lured away from Texas to score political points. The sheriff, who has been a critic of the Republican handling of illegal immigration, added that his decision to open the investigation was not politically motivated. She asked him to help her recruit other migrants like him from Venezuela. But he said he felt betrayed, because she never mentioned working on behalf of the Florida government. “I was also lied to,” he said. “If I had known, I would not have gotten involved.” All he was told, he said, was that “she wanted to help people head up north.” The effort to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard appeared to have been far less organized than the more sweeping program created by Mr. Abbott in Texas that already had bused more than 11,000 migrants from the state to three northern, Democratic-run cities — Washington, New York and Chicago. But the goal for both governors was the same: draw attention to the large number of unauthorized migrants arriving daily at the southern border and force Democrats to deal with the migrants whom they profess a desire to welcome. In the case of the flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Florida state records show that an airline charter company, Vertol Systems, was paid $615,000 on Sept. 8 and $950,000 less than two weeks later. The first payment was for “project 1” and the second payment for “projects two and three.” So far, Florida officials have acknowledged only the initial flights and have not spoken of plans for others. The money to fly migrants came from a special $12 million appropriation in the state’s last budget, a brief item that gave funds to the state’s Department of Transportation to create a program “to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.” The program was conceived as a means for Florida to push back on the number of unauthorized migrants being flown into the state by the federal government. As of August, Mr. DeSantis said the funds had yet to be used, because the additional large groups of migrants that had been expected had failed to materialize. He set his sights on the place where most migrants were initially arriving — Texas. Several Democratic state lawmakers raised objections. “They crafted this bill, they set the rules of the game, and they can’t even comply with it,” State Senator Jason Pizzo, a Democrat, said of the DeSantis administration. Mr. Pizzo filed suit in Florida state court hoping to stop the state from spending any more money on similar flights. No state contracts detailing the spending have been made public, and little has been said by the DeSantis administration about the role played by state transportation officials in arranging or coordinating the flights. “I have been doing this long enough to know that the State of Florida is being deliberately opaque about this incident,” said Michael Barfield, director of public access at the Florida Center for Government Accountability. “I do believe there is a misuse of state funds.” Image A migrant trying on a new pair of sneakers in front of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Martha’s Vineyard.Credit…Matt Cosby for The New York Times Vertol Systems, which was founded in the mid-1990s, offers aviation maintenance and training services, and does work for the U.S. government. Over the years, the company has increasingly networked with Republican power brokers in Florida. In litigation, court records show, Vertol was once represented by Matt Gaetz, now a Republican member of Congress and a close ally of Mr. DeSantis. Another lawyer whom the company used for a series of lawsuits, according to information first reported by NBC News, was Larry Keefe. Mr. Keefe is now serving as Mr. Desantis’s public safety czar, leading efforts to confront immigration issues. Vertol and its leader, James Montgomerie, have also donated to Republican legislators, including Mr. Gaetz and Representative Jay Trumbull, who led the Florida House Appropriations Committee this year as lawmakers earmarked the money for a program initially intended to relocate migrants from Florida. Mr. Montgomerie did not respond to messages seeking comment. The story of how the migrants were recruited for the flights was recounted by dozens of migrants in interviews with lawyers and journalists after arriving, mystified, on what they realized was a remote resort island with few resources. A woman named Perla, most of them said, had approached them in San Antonio about a free flight to Massachusetts. There were jobs there, they were told, and people to help them. The woman provided the mostly destitute migrants with free meals at McDonald’s and a place to stay at a nearby La Quinta Inn before the flight. The migrants each received a red folder containing a map of the United States, with an arrow stretching from Texas to Massachusetts. Another map in the shape of Martha’s Vin...

Retd College Teachers Of Guru Nanak Dev University Seek Leave Encashment Benefits https://digitalalaskanews.com/retd-college-teachers-of-guru-nanak-dev-university-seek-leave-encashment-benefits/ Tribune News Service Aparna Banerji Jalandhar, October 2 Thousands of non-government retired teachers of Guru Nanak Dev University (who retired before January 1, 2012) are being denied their unutilised earned leave encashment benefits causing grave financial distress in the twilight of their lives. Notably, of the hundreds of non-government colleges in Doaba, majority are affilaited to the GNDU, Amritsar. Many teachers have also died waiting for these benefits over the years. Even though their association— Voice of Retired Teachers of Non-Government Colleges (VORT) —have taken up the issue repeatedly with subsequent Chief Ministers, the issue has remained unaddressed so far. The retired teachers’’ association also wrote to Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Higher Education Minister, in the present AAP government on the issue on August 22 this year. Teachers said the issue had also been taken up with all former CMs from Parkash Singh Badal to Capt Amarinder Singh and Charanjit Singh Channi. Collectively, leave encashment benefits (in crores of rupees) of these retired teachers remains unpaid. Retired teachers of Panjab, Punjabi and Guru Nanak Dev Universities, all government colleges of the state, all non-government colleges affiliated to Panjab and Punjabi Universities, have been getting their unutilised earned leave encashment at the time of their retirement since January 1990 (vide Punjab government notification No 10/36/89-4 FPI/2033 dated 8-3-1990). Copies of the notification were also endorsed to all three affiliating universities of the state namely—Panjab, Punjabi and Guru Nanak Dev University—for necessary amendments in their respective calendars. However, Guru Nanak Dev University has allowed this benefit with effect ffrom 1-1-1990 to only those non-government colleges’ teachers, who retired after Jan 1, 2012. This is the only university of the state which has denied this benefit to those non-government college teachers who retired before 31-12-2011, as well as all the librarians, irrespective of their date of retirement. Prof (retd) AK Chugh, convevner, VORT, who retired from post of associate professor, DAV College, Amritsar, said, “The teachers of hundreds of these colleges, include those affected primarily in Doaba and Majha region. This is an injustice to these regions. About 100 teachers have died waiting for their benefits, their legal heirs are petitioners in their cases. In the twilight of their lives, the university by denying them benefits, is like denying these teachers their fundamental right to live with dignity in old age. Many teachers are steeped in penury. We have written to all governments but to no avail.” Prof Chugh added, “Many teachers got meagre amounts as provident fund and gratuity at the time of their retirement, most of us exhausted that amount long time back and are passing through severe economic hardships. Universities do not have autonomy in financial matters, also they cannot have ordinances which are violative of fundamental rights or override the mandatory guidelines of UGC, MHRD and Punjab Government.” Prof Rashmi Johri, retired from HMV College, Jalandhar, said, “This is a grave injustice to those who retired before Decemeber 31, 2011. If teachers who retired in 2012 have got benefits why are ours being denied. We already fighting for our right to pension and our hard earned right of leave encashment is also been denied.” #Doaba #Guru Nanak Dev University GNDU Read More Here

“ https://digitalalaskanews.com/16926-2/ Warren, Mich. — For the first seven minutes of his Michigan rally Saturday, former President Donald Trump stuck to two familiar issues Republicans are running on this November: inflation and the rising cost of living under President Biden, and immigration and the southern border.  Then, he turned to a topic that’s been occupying him since November 2020: that the presidential election had been “stolen” from him.  He claimed John James, now a congressional candidate for Michigan’s 10th District, had won his last race for U.S. Senate in 2020. He did not. James lost to Sen. Gary Peters by over 92,000 votes. Trump accused Democrats of obliterating “election integrity.” He said America is a “third world country” because of how ballots are counted, and he praised France for using paper ballots. WARREN, MI – OCTOBER 01: Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Save America rally on October 1, 2022 in Warren, Michigan. EMILY ELCONIN / Getty Images Trump did not acknowledge a Michigan investigation led by a panel of state Republicans that found no evidence of widespread fraud. And then he urged the crowd crammed into the arena in Macomb County, where he won by 8 points in 2020, to turn out in November so that they can overtake Democrats. “Michigan patriots have to shatter every record, because they cheat like hell, these people,” Trump said, implying that Republican voters have to run up the margins so Democrats “can’t rig it.” Republican voters in the state — and at the rally — also believe Trump was cheated in 2020. “Absolutely,” the election was stolen, said Deborah Brown, a retired telecommunications worker and longtime Republican.  Over half Republican politicians in the state, too, agree with Trump that the election was stolen.  Nine of the 17 statewide and federal GOP congressional nominees in Michigan have expressed doubt about President Joe Biden’s victory, even though his margin in the state exceeded 154,000 votes, according to a CBS News analysis. Three of those nine are incumbent members of Congress who voted to object to the electoral college results in Arizona and Pennsylvania on Jan. 6, 2021. They were all recognized by Trump during his rally.  This is happening in all of the states that Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020: in Arizona, 11 out of their 13 candidates are considered “election deniers.” In Wisconsin it’s 5 out of 13 candidates, in Georgia 10 out of 19 candidates deny Mr. Biden won the election, and in Pennsylvania, it’s 9 out of 20 who believe this is the case. “How pervasive the fraud was, that’s a secondary issue,” Michigan Republican candidate for secretary of state Kristina Karamo told CBS News before Trump’s remarks. “Some people just don’t know how big of a problem it is, but when you start to lay out the evidence, it’s horrible.”  Karamo cited wireless modems being used in some of the state’s election machines, falsely claimed they were hacked in 2020 and suggested they invite fraud in future elections. While there’s been no instances of fraud in these systems, some have moved away from using modems according to The Detroit News. In response to a question on whether she believes the upcoming election will be credible, Karamo declined to answer and instead said she “can’t believe” Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s warnings that election officials have been threatened with violence. “I think that is so grossly irresponsible of an election official to say that. I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life, I’ve never seen anything like that ever,” Karamo said.  In early September, Benson said on “Face the Nation” that many secretaries of state and election officials are worried about “violence and disruption on Election Day… and in the days surrounding the election.” A Brennan Center survey of election officials in March found that 1 in 6 officials have “experienced threats.”  Republicans including Shane Hernandez, GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, are calling for voter ID laws and closer monitoring of drop boxes. He said that state Republicans want to replicate Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s poll-watching measures on Election Day.  “We need to make sure we have the team on the ground to make sure people are comfortable,” he said.  The GOP nominee for Michigan governor, Tudor Dixon, signaled she agrees with the falsehood that Trump won the 2020 election, raising her hand at a primary debate when asked if candidates believe it was stolen, though she didn’t bring it up at the Trump rally Saturday. A Trafalgar Poll released last week found Dixon is trailing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by about 5 points. No poll in the state has shown Dixon leading in the past month. The unfounded belief that the election was stolen — “that’s why so many people are here now, and we expect to get [Trump] back. There’s a lot of Christians like myself here, and we’re praying that [Trump] gets back in here in 2024,” Brown, the retired communications worker said as she waited in line for the rally. She said she’d like to hear GOP candidates say more about the 2020 election and “election integrity,” too, a sentiment shared by other rallygoers. Michigan pollster Steve Mitchell says most Michigan GOP voters think Mr. Biden “is an illegally elected president.” “If you’re going to run as a Republican and you find yourself denying that, you’re not going to get support from Republicans,” Mitchell said.  The source of their belief in this is Trump. “The voters believe him,” Mitchell said. “There’s nothing that anyone can do to dissuade them from the fact that the election was not indeed stolen in Michigan.”  Ronald Dwyer, who’s running for Oakland County commissioner, is the rare GOP candidate in the state who isn’t sure there was enough fraud to turn the election against Trump, but he still thinks it’s time to move on.  “We’re halfway through the current term; we just got to move forward,” he said.  A CBS News poll in September found that 63% of Republicans believe there was “widespread fraud” in the 2020 election, primarily in Democratic and urban areas. Another poll found that if they lose midterm elections, 64% of Republicans said they should accept the results and look to 2024, while the remainder said they should challenge places where Democrats won.  Who controls the statewide positions in Michigan and other battleground states could play an outsized role when it comes to certifying the winner of the next presidential election, in 2024.  Whitmer, who was taunted by chants of “Lock her up!” from a GOP-heavy crowd Saturday, has argued she’s the “last line of defense” against what she characterizes as GOP efforts to weaken democracy, according to Bridge Michigan.  Carl Marlinga, the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s 10th District, said a central reason for his campaign is to help ensure Michigan Democrats are the majority in the congressional delegation — in case the Electoral College results are tied in 2024 and the state’s congressional delegations become the final arbiters of the presidential election.  “I want to be there in January of 2025– I want to be at least one of the 435 to say whatever the reality is, whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican, I want to make sure the real winner gets certified,” he said.  While Trump says he doesn’t think there will ever be a “fair election” again, he’s hoping the candidates he supports this November will pass more restrictive election laws.   “Everywhere the Republican party has a chance, we must pass critical election integrity reforms,” he said.  The Michigan GOP-led Legislature is already trying to do this. In 2021, the state senate introduced 39 election-related bills — to require photo IDs to vote and others to curb access to absentee ballot applications, according to the Detroit Free Press. Whitmer has vetoed several of these bills, calling them part of a “a coordinated, national attack on voting rights that is designed to undermine confidence in our election system.” In Michigan’s August primary, the number of absentee ballots issued and returned was nearly double the amount in 2018, after the state dropped its requirement for voters to have an excuse in order to obtain a mail ballot. Last Thursday, Michigan began making absentee ballots available to be picked up.  In: Joe Biden Donald Trump Michigan Aaron Navarro Aaron Navarro is an associate producer for the political unit at CBS News, focusing on House and gubernatorial campaigns as well as the census and redistricting. Read More Here

Today In History: October 3, MLB https://digitalalaskanews.com/today-in-history-october-3-mlb/ Today is Monday, Oct. 3, the 276th day of 2022. There are 89 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Oct. 3, 1995, the jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles found the former football star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later found liable for damages in a civil trial). On this date: In 1941, Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been “broken” and would “never rise again.” In 1944, during World War II, U.S. Army troops cracked the Siegfried Line north of Aachen, Germany. In 1951, the New York Giants captured the National League pennant by a score of 5-4 as Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the “shot heard ’round the world.” In 1961, “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” also starring Mary Tyler Moore, made its debut on CBS. In 1970, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was established under the Department of Commerce. In 1974, Frank Robinson was named major league baseball’s first Black manager as he was placed in charge of the Cleveland Indians. In 1981, Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended seven months of hunger strikes that had claimed 10 lives. In 1990, West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a reunified country. In 2001, the Senate approved an agreement normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam. In 2003, a tiger attacked magician Roy Horn of duo “Siegfried & Roy” during a performance in Las Vegas, leaving the superstar illusionist in critical condition on his 59th birthday. In 2008, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Simpson was later sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was granted parole in July 2017 and released from prison in October of that year.) In 2011, an Italian appeals court freed Amanda Knox of Seattle after four years in prison, tossing murder convictions against Knox and an ex-boyfriend in the stabbing of their British roommate, Meredith Kercher. Ten years ago: An aggressive Mitt Romney sparred with President Barack Obama on the economy and domestic issues in their first campaign debate. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised a full and transparent probe of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. Five years ago: President Donald Trump, visiting Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, congratulated the U.S. island territory for escaping the higher death toll of what he called “a real catastrophe like Katrina”; at a church used to distribute supplies, Trump handed out flashlights and tossed rolls of paper towels into the friendly crowd. The United States expelled 15 of Cuba’s diplomats to protest Cuba’s failure to protect Americans from unexplained attacks in Havana. Yahoo announced that the largest data breach in history had affected all 3 billion accounts on its service, not the 1 billion it had revealed earlier. One year ago: A report from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found that hundreds of world leaders, politicians, billionaires, religious leaders and drug dealers had been hiding investments in mansions, beachfront property, yachts and other assets for decades, using shell companies and offshore accounts to keep trillions of dollars out of government treasuries; those identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. An EgyptAir jet landed in Tel Aviv, making the first official direct flight by the Egyptian national carrier since the two countries signed a 1979 peace treaty. Tom Brady rallied the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 19-17 victory over the Patriots on a rainy Sunday night in his return to New England. Today’s Birthdays: Composer Steve Reich is 86. Rock and roll star Chubby Checker is 81. Actor Alan Rachins is 80. Former Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is 79. Singer Lindsey Buckingham is 73. Jazz musician Ronnie Laws is 72. Blues singer Keb’ Mo’ is 71. Former astronaut Kathryn Sullivan is 71. Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield is 71. Baseball Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley is 68. Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is 68. Actor Hart Bochner is 66. Actor Peter Frechette is 66. World Golf Hall of Famer Fred Couples is 63. Actor-comedian Greg Proops is 63. Actor Jack Wagner is 63. Actor/musician Marcus Giamatti is 61. Rock musician Tommy Lee is 60. Actor Clive Owen is 58. Actor Janel Moloney is 53. Singer Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) is 53. Pop singer Kevin Richardson is 51. Rock singer G. Love is 50. Actor Keiko Agena is 49. Actor Neve Campbell is 49. Actor Lena Headey is 49. Singer India.Arie is 47. Rapper Talib Kweli is 47. Actor Alanna Ubach is 47. Actor Seann (cq) William Scott is 46. Actor Shannyn Sossamon is 44. Rock musician Josh Klinghoffer (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 43. Actor Seth Gabel is 41. Rock musician Mark King (Hinder) is 40. Actor Erik Von Detten is 40. Actor Tessa Thompson is 39. Country singer Drake White is 39. Actor Meagan Holder is 38. Actor Christopher Marquette is 38. Actor-singer Ashlee Simpson is 38. Rapper A$AP Rocky is 34. Actor Alicia Vikander is 34. Actor Noah Schnapp (TV: “Stranger Things”) is 18. Read More Here

Trump Staffers Not Returning White House Records, National Archives Says https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-staffers-not-returning-white-house-records-national-archives-says/  A detailed property inventory of documents and other items seized from former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate shows the seizure of dozens of empty folders marked “Classified” or marked that they were to be returned to the president’s staff assistant or military aide after the inventory was released to the public by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. September 2, 2022. REUTERS FILE PHOTO WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s administration has not turned over all presidential records and the National Archives will consult with the Justice Department on whether to move to get them back, the agency has told Congress. A congressional panel on Sept. 13 sought an urgent review by the National Archives and Records Administration after agency staff members acknowledged that they did not know if all presidential records from Trump’s White House had been turned over. “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” acting Archivist Debra Wall said in a letter Friday to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The Archives knows some White House staffers conducted official business on personal electronic messaging accounts that were that were not copied or forwarded to their official accounts, in violation of the Presidential Records Act, Wall said. “NARA has been able to obtain such records from a number of former officials and will continue to pursue the return of similar types of presidential records from former officials,” Wall said in the letter, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. She said the Archives, the federal agency charged with preserving government records, would consult with the Department of Justice on “whether to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed.” The Oversight Committee’s chairwoman, representative Carolyn Maloney, said in a statement she would do everything in her power to ensure the return of all records and prevent future abuses. “Former President Trump and his senior staff have shown an utter disregard for the rule of law and our national security by failing to return presidential records as the law requires,” Maloney, whose committee shared a copy of the letter with Reuters, said in a statement. Representatives for Trump did not return a request for comment on the matter. Trump is facing a criminal investigation by the Justice Department for retaining government records – some marked as highly classified, including “top secret” – at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021. The FBI seized more than 11,000 records, including about 100 documents marked as classified, in a court-approved Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers have been locked in a legal battle over how the records are handled. Government lawyers have been granted access to the classified documents but on Friday asked an appeals court to expedite its ability to access the non-classified documents seized in Florida. Read more: Trump was sued by New York’s attorney general. What legal woes does he face? RELATED STORIES As Trump departed the White House, aides rushed to pack documents US judge does not require Trump to attest that FBI’s list of seized records is accurate Read Next Don’t miss out on the latest news and information. Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000. For feedback, complaints, or inquiries, contact us. Disclaimer: Comments do not represent the views of INQUIRER.net. We reserve the right to exclude comments which are inconsistent with our editorial standards. FULL DISCLAIMER We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. To find out more, please click this link. Read More Here

Zelensky Hails Advances As Open Recriminations Intensify In Russian Media https://digitalalaskanews.com/zelensky-hails-advances-as-open-recriminations-intensify-in-russian-media/ KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the full recovery of a strategic town in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as a public brawl intensified in Russia over responsibility for the latest setback to the Kremlin’s goal of conquering wide swaths of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Kyiv’s Western backers hailed the advance of Ukrainian forces into areas Moscow has declared will soon constitute part of Russia. Zelensky said the town of Lyman, which Russian troops used as a key logistics hub in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region since their arrival this spring, was completely “cleared of the Russian occupiers” as of midday local time, the Defense Ministry said on Twitter. The president’s statement came a day after the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged it had been forced to withdraw troops from Lyman “to more advantageous lines.” The cementing of Ukrainian control of the town, following other gains those forces have made since launching a major counteroffensive last month, offered a sharp contrast to Russia’s advancing steps to officially incorporate Donetsk and three other eastern regions into Russia following a series of staged referendums there last week, which Kyiv and its Western supporters have denounced as illegal and illegitimate. Zelensky referred derisively to Putin’s attempt to declare Russian authority by fiat over areas now being taken back by Ukrainian troops. “This, you know, is the trend,” he said later in his nightly video address. “Recently, someone somewhere held pseudo-referendums, and when the Ukrainian flag is returned, no one remembers the Russian farce with some pieces of paper and some annexations.” The continued advance into Russian-held areas heightens the stakes of repeated threats that President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have made in recent days, suggesting that Moscow could go so far as using nuclear weapons to defend territory it considers part of Russia, including annexed areas of Ukraine. Putin made reference to America’s use of atomic bombs against Japan in 1945 during a fiery speech Friday, in which the Russian leader cast the annexation of vast swaths of Ukraine as a fulfillment of Russians’ destiny. Ukraine’s supporters in the West, like leaders in Kyiv, have insisted they won’t bow to Russian intimidation. On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cautioned Russia against following through with any escalatory retaliation linked to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. “Again it’s an illegal claim; it’s an irresponsible statement,” he said in an interview with CNN. “Nuclear sabre-rattling is not the kind of thing that we would expect to hear from leaders of large countries with capability.” Austin said he expected Ukrainian forces to continue offensive operations aimed at recapturing all Russian-held territory, despite Putin’s recent order to mobilize 300,000 additional troops to bolster the fight in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces are also trying to push deeper into Russian-controlled areas of southern Ukraine, toward the city of Kherson. “I don’t think that’s going to stop, and we will continue to support them in their efforts,” he said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described the recapture of Lyman as an example of the progress Ukrainian forces were making “because of their bravery and skills, but, of course, also because of the advanced weapons that the United States and other allies are providing.” He noted that countries including Norway and Germany were stepping up their aid to Ukraine. “This is making a difference on the battlefield every day,” he told NBC. The recent string of battlefield reversals may indicate that Russia’s military is reaching a “breaking point,” said H.R. McMaster, a retired three-star general who served as national security adviser during the Trump administration. “What we might be at here is really at the precipice of really the collapse of the Russian army in Ukraine. A moral collapse,” he told CBS. But U.S. officials have cautioned that despite Russia’s failure to achieve the initial goals of Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion, including the capture of Kyiv, the ongoing mobilization may still present a formidable challenge to Ukraine. Even with larger sums of Western aid, Ukraine’s military is dwarfed in size and weaponry by Russia’s. The leaders of nine Eastern and Central European nations on Sunday condemned Putin’s annexation, which will be formalized by Russia’s parliament Monday and Tuesday, saying they could not “stay silent in the face of the blatant violation of international law.” “We do not recognize and will never recognize Russian attempts to annex any Ukrainian territory,” the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovakia said in a joint statement. As Russian forces attempted to set a new line of defense after their retreat from Lyman, a torrent of public recriminations and bickering on who was to blame for Moscow’s recent setbacks poured forth on hard-line pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. In open conflict that underscored the disarray in Russian ranks, two powerful figures with their own armed forces fighting Ukraine launched scathing attacks on Russian Defense Ministry commanders. It began with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s criticisms on Saturday of Russian military commanders, and his call to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Then in rare public remarks, Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, founder of mercenary group Wagner, added his own blunt attack. “Kadyrov’s expressive statement, of course, is not entirely in my style,” he said, according to a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel. “But I think that we should send all these bastards barefoot to the front with machine guns,” he said in an apparent reference to top Russian military commanders. Elena Panina, a former lawmaker and director of Russtrat, a pro-Kremlin think tank, called the public attacks on top Russian military figures “unprecedented” before piling on with her own criticisms, complaining about the lack of any tough military retaliation to punish Ukraine for the forced Russian retreat. She called Ukraine’s recapture of Lyman “a direct act of aggression against Russia,” in reference to Russia’s illegal move to annex the region. Panina said the criticisms of Russia’s military command came “in the midst of military failures and to the delight of the enemy.” But sweeping Russia’s failures under the carpet was a path “fraught with real disaster,” she said. In what appeared to be a call to dismiss top military officials, she called for “qualitative changes in personnel, of an organizational and operational nature, up to and including emergency measures.” “According to numerous estimates, Russia is facing an enemy that is more numerous, better armed, better prepared and better motivated,” Panina said, adding that it would take a “superhuman effort” to win. Pro-Kremlin Telegram news outlet Readovka described the public airing of recriminations as “worse than betrayal” and called for an end to the public accusations by “hot heads” and “turbo-patriots,” in a commentary on its Telegram channel. Ukraine continued on Sunday to push for the release of an official overseeing its Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant who authorities said has been detained by Russia. Fighting in the area around the facility, which is under Russian control but operated by Ukrainian engineers, has triggered concerns about a nuclear accident. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had spoken with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, who had told him the IAEA was working to secure the release of Ihor Murashov, the plant’s director. “I stressed Russia must withdraw troops and military equipment from the station,” Kuleba said in a tweet. Morgunov reported from Kyiv. Dixon reported from Riga, Lativa. War in Ukraine: What you need to know The latest: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees Friday to annex four occupied regions of Ukraine, following staged referendums that were widely denounced as illegal. Follow our live updates here. The response: The Biden administration on Friday announced a new round of sanctions on Russia, in response to the annexations, targeting government officials and family members, Russian and Belarusian military officials and defense procurement networks. President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Friday that Ukraine is applying for “accelerated ascension” into NATO, in an apparent answer to the annexations. In Russia: Putin declared a military mobilization on Sept. 21 to call up as many as 300,000 reservists in a dramatic bid to reverse setbacks in his war on Ukraine. The announcement led to an exodus of more than 180,000 people, mostly men who were subject to service, and renewed protests and other acts of defiance against the war. The fight: Ukraine mounted a successful counteroffensive that forced a major Russian retreat in the northeastern Kharkiv region in early September, as troops fled cities and villages they had occupied since the early days of the war and abandoned large amounts of military equipment. Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground from the beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work. How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating. Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video. Read More Here

Hackers Release Stolen LAUSD Data After District Refuses To Pay Ransom https://digitalalaskanews.com/hackers-release-stolen-lausd-data-after-district-refuses-to-pay-ransom/ LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Hackers have released data stolen in a cyberattack against the Los Angeles Unified School District, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho confirmed Sunday. “Unfortunately, as expected, data was recently released by a criminal organization,” Carvalho said in a statement. “In partnership with law enforcement, our experts are analyzing the full extent of this data release.” The data was released Saturday — two days before a deadline previously given by the hackers — after Carvalho’s stated refusal to pay ransom to an international hacking syndicate. The group claiming responsibility for the cyberattack had previously set a Monday deadline for the district pay a ransom to the organization. In a dark web post detected and reprinted by Brett Callow of the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, the hacking syndicate Vice Society listed the LAUSD as one of “our partners,” and stated, “The papers will be published by London time on October 4, 2022 at 12:00 a.m.” The post did not give any indication about what information had been obtained or what would be published. Carvalho previously acknowledged that the district received a ransom demand from the group responsible for the Labor Day weekend hack — which he declined to name. “We can acknowledge … that there has been communication from this actor (hacker) and we have been responsive without engaging in any type of negotiations,” he told reporters. “With that said, we can acknowledge at this point … that a financial demand has been made by this entity. We have not responded to that demand.” He did not provide specifics about the demand. Carvalho told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that the district would not pay the ransom demand or negotiate with the hackers. “What I can tell you is that the demand — any demand — would be absurd,” he told the Times. “But this level of demand was, quite frankly, insulting. And we’re not about to enter into negotiations with that type of entity.” A hotline will be available starting Monday at 6:00 a.m. “This hotline will assist those from our school communities who may have questions or need additional support,” Carvalho said. The telephone number for the incident response hotline is (855) 926-1129. Hours of operation will be 6:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding major U.S. holidays. City News Service contributed to this report. Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Asia-Pacific Markets Fall; Oil Up More Than 2% On Reports Of A Possible OPEC+ Supply Cut https://digitalalaskanews.com/asia-pacific-markets-fall-oil-up-more-than-2-on-reports-of-a-possible-opec-supply-cut/ Pedestrians cross a road in front of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), operated by Japan Exchange Group Inc. (JPX), in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg via Getty Images Shares in the Asia-Pacific mostly fell on Monday as markets enter the last quarter of the year. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.8% lower in early trade. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave up early gains to fall 0.4%. The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell more than 1% in early trade, but recovered slightly and was last up 0.18%, while the Topix index was fractionally lower. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.32%. Brent crude futures and West Texas Intermediate futures jumped on reports of a possible OPEC+ supply cut. Later in the week, Australia’s central bank will announce its interest rate decision, while several countries in Asia will report inflation data. China markets are closed for the Golden Week holiday, and South Korea’s market is also closed. ANZ sees significant chance of an OPEC+ cut as large as 1 million barrels per day Ahead of an OPEC+ meeting on Oct. 5, ANZ sees a “significant chance of a cut” as large as 1 million barrels per day, analysts at the firm said in a note. That move is likely to be made “to counteract the excessive bearishness in the market.” The note added that any production cuts below 500,000 barrels per day, however, would be “shrugged off by the market.” –Jihye Lee CNBC Pro: Investment pro says ETFs are a $10 trillion opportunity — and reveals areas of ‘tremendous’ value Exchange-traded funds offer the benefit of diversification, says Jon Maier, chief investment officer at Global X ETFs. He said the ETF market is “growing exponentially” and estimates it to be worth $10 trillion. He names several opportunities for ETF investors in this volatile market. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Business confidence of Japan’s large manufacturers worsens Sentiment of Japan’s large manufacturers worsened in the July-to-September quarter, according to the Bank of Japan’s latest quarterly tankan business sentiment survey. The headline index for large manufacturers’ sentiment came in at 8, a decline from the previous quarter’s reading of 9. Economists polled by Reuters expected a print of 11. “Our expectation and market expectations were for the manufacturing reading to pick up — supply conditions had improved, you’ve seen fading supply impact from zero-Covid policies in China, commodity prices came down a little bit,” said Stefan Angrick, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics. “The fact that the manufacturing side of the economy isn’t doing so well certainly isn’t great for the outlook,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.” But the non-manufacturing index ticked up slightly, which could mean Japan’s late Covid recovery is getting underway, he added. — Abigail Ng Fri, Sep 30 20229:06 AM EDT CNBC Pro: The five global stocks experiencing the de-globalisation trend, according to HSBC New research from HSBC says supply chains, geopolitical tensions, and worsening financial conditions have forced many global companies to “substantially” turn inward in search of resilient revenue and growth. In a tough economic environment with recessionary pressures, the bank said turning inwards is “probably helpful” for these stocks. The report titled ‘A de-globalisation wave?’ said European firms’ foreign sales dipped below 50% in 2021, the lowest level in the last five years. Oil prices jump on reports of OPEC+ mulling production cut CNBC Pro: Should investors flee stocks? Strategists give their take — and reveal how to trade the volatility With monetary policy set to tighten further in the months ahead, and Wall Street mired in the depths of a bear market abyss, many investors are beginning to wonder if now’s the time to exit the stock market and put their money in other asset classes. CNBC Pro spoke to market watchers and scoured through research from investment banks to find out what the pros think. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Read More Here

C https://digitalalaskanews.com/c-4/ We are here for you to provide the important Recent and Latest Current Affairs 2 & 3 October 2022, which have unique updates of Latest Current Affairs 2022 events from all newspapers such as The Hindu, The Economic Times, PIB, Times of India, PTI, Indian Express, Business Standard and all Government official websites. Our Current Affairs September 2022 events will help you to get more marks in Banking, Insurance, SSC, Railways, UPSC, CLAT and all State Government Exams. Also, try our Latest Current Affairs Quiz and Monthly Current Affairs 2022 PDF which will be a pedestrian to crack your exams. Read Current Affairs in CareersCloud APP, Course Name – Learn Current Affairs – Free Course – Click Here to Download the APP We are Hiring – Subject Matter Expert | CA Video Creator | Content Developers(Pondicherry) Click here for Current Affairs 1 September 2022 NATIONAL AFFAIRS DPSUs Project a Cumulative Sales Target of Around Rs. 17,000 Crore for FY 2022-23Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Ministry of Defence (MOD), appraised the work of the seven new Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) to mark the completion of one year of operations at a meeting held in New Delhi, Delhi on September 30, 2022. The seven new DPSUs, which were formed from the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), have projected cumulative sales targets of around 17,000 crore for the financial year 2022–2023 (FY23). The companies began operations on October 1, 2021, and were dedicated to the country on the occasion of ‘Vijayadashami’ on October 15, 2021, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Seven DPSUs Carved Out of the OFB Munitions India Limited (MIL) Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVANI) Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWE India) Troop Comforts Limited (TCL) India Optel Limited (IOL) Yantra India Limited (YIL) Gliders India Limited (GIL) Key Points: i.During the FY 2021–2022 & FY 2022–2023, Rs. 2,953 crore in the form of equity was released to these companies for modernization. ii.An additional Rs 6,270 crore is anticipated to be allocated to these companies for capital expenditures, up until 2026–2027. iii.Further, an Emergency Authorization Fund of Rs. 3,750 crore has been allocated for these enterprises. iv.The MOD has a target of Rs. 1.75 lakh crore in aerospace and defence goods and services turnover by 2025, including Rs. 35,000 crore in exports. PM lays foundation stone and dedicates various development projects to the nation worth over Rs 7200cr in Ambaji, Gujarati.On September 29-30, 2022, The Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi was on two day state visit to Gujarat where he lays foundation stone and dedicates various development projects to the nation worth over Rs 7200 crores. ii.PM dedicated and laid the foundation stone of over 45,000 houses built under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). iii.He dedicated the 62 Km long New Palanpur-New Mahesana section of the Western Freight Dedicated Corridor and the 13 Km long New Palanpur-New Chatodar Section (Palanpur bypass line). About Gujarat: Chief Minister– Bhupendrabhai Patel Stadium– Bilakhia Stadium, CB Patel International Cricket Stadium, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Stadium Dance– Tippani, Hudo, Padhar Read Full News Centre extends AFSPA in 9 districts of Nagaland till March 30, 2023The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has extended the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 in nine districts of Nagaland including Dimapur, Niuland, Chumoukedima, Mon, Kiphire, Noklak, Phek, Peren and Zunheboto w.e.f. October 1, 2022 to March 30, 2023. These districts are declared as disturbed area under Section 3 of AFSPA, 1958. Key Points: i.In addition, the Government of India (GoI) has also extended AFSPA in the areas falling within the jurisdiction of 16 police stations in four districts of Nagaland. These include five police stations in Kohima district; six police stations in Mokokchung district; Yanglok police station in Longleng district; and four police stations in Wokha district. ii.Earlier, the Central Government had declared these nine districts and 16 Police Stations in four other districts of Nagaland as disturbed area for a period of six months from April 1 to September 30, 2022. iii.The AFSPA empowers security forces to arrest a person without a warrant, enter or search premises without a warrant, and perform other actions. About Nagaland: Capital– Kohima Governor– Prof Jagdish Mukhi Chief Minister– Neiphiu Rio Bayer CropScience Partners with SFAC to Form 50 FPOsThe Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) and Bayer CropScience Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to form and promote 50 specialised Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). In collaboration with SFAC, Bayer will set up 50 FPOs and it already has recognized clusters in 10 states that helps the smallholder farmers in enterprise planning, identification of key enablers, creation of market linkages and data switch. Key highlights: i.This MoU is aligned in the direction of attaining the objective of the Central Sector Scheme (CSS) launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of forming and selling 10,000 FPOs The FPOs help farmers in addressing productivity issues, collective farming and emanating from small farm sizes which also results in additional employment generation. ii.SFAC mainly emphases on the importance of collectivisation and FPOs play a key role in building the socio-economic resilience of the farmers, leveraging economies of scale in production and marketing. iii.The FPOs will improve farmers’ income and also builds a robust food value chain network to support India’s food security, food quality improvements and export potential. About Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC): SFAC is an autonomous society promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, registered under Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860. Managing Director (MD) – Maninder Kaur Dwivedi Establishment – 18 January, 1994 IAF Retires Srinagar Based MiG-21 Squadron ‘Sword Arms’ in SeptemberOn 30th September 2022 the Indian Air Force (IAF) retired the No. 51 ‘swordarms’ MiG-21 fighter Squadron based in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), which had stopped its flying operations from 30th June 2022 Currently, IAF has 3 MiG-21 Bison squadrons, which shall retire in the next 3 years. Background: The No. 51 Squadron or ‘Sword Arms’ was raised in Chandigarh on 1st February 1985 under the command of Wing Commander V.K. Chawla and then moved to Srinagar on 1st May 1986. It was initially equipped with MiG-21 Type 75 aircraft and then converted to the upgraded MiG-21 Bison in January 2004. Highlights: i.The primary role of the Squadron is air defence of the Kashmir Valley and swordarms was the only fighter Squadron in the Valley and was titled, guardians of the valley. The crest of the squadron depicts the motto ‘Vijaya Prakrama’ which means ‘Valour for Victory’. ii.The Squadron was tested in the 1987 Operation Brasstacks when it carried out intensive valley flying and manned operational readiness platforms from both Srinagar and Awantipur over a 3-month period. iii.The swordarms had also participated in Operation Safed Sagar in the 1999 Kargil conflict. Achievements: It was conferred with 1 Vayu Sena Medal and 3 Mention-in-Dispatches for its effective contribution and was also awarded the President’s Standards in 2018 for its meritorious and glorious service to the nation, since its inception. AGEL Commissions 660 MW World’s Largest Wind-Solar Hybrid Power Plant Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) has commissioned the world’s largest wind-solar power plant of 600 MW capacity in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The power plant has a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) at Rs 2.69 per kilowatt hour (kwh) for 25 years. About the project: i.This project consists of 600 MW solar plant and 150 MW wind plants which helps in optimal utilisation of transmission network and also reduces intermittency of renewable energy power. The Solar plant uses technologically superior Bifacial PV modules and employs Horizontal Single-Axis Tracker (HSAT) technology to capture maximum energy from the sun. ii.This 600 MW hybrid plant is commissioned in 2 AGEL subsidiaries, Adani Hybrid Energy Jaisalmer Two Limited (AHEJ2L) and Adani Hybrid Energy Jaisalmer Three Limited (AHEJ3L). iii.With this commissioning, AGEL has a total operational generation capacity of 6.7 GW, including operational hybrid power generation capacity of 1 GW. Note – In May 2022, AGEL operationalised India’s 1st hybrid power plant with a capacity of 390 MW in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. About Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL): Parent Organisation – Adani Groups Managing Director (MD) & CEO – Vneet S. Jaain Headquarters – Ahmedabad, Gujarat CBI launches ‘Operation Garuda’ against illicit drug trafficking The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launched a multi-phase ‘Operation Garuda against illicit drug trafficking network, registering 127 new cases, arresting 175 people and seizing huge quantities of narcotics drugs. The operation aims to degrade and dismantle drug networks with international linkages through the rapid exchange of criminal intelligence on drug trafficking and coordinated law enforcement actions across international jurisdictions through Interpol. This global operation was initiated in close coordination with Interpol and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), for combating the smuggling of illicit drugs and psychotropic substances, with a special focus on the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). During the special operation several state police forces including from Punjab, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Maharashtra, and NCB participated in the operation. 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Trump Hasn't Handed Over All White House Records, Says National Archives | World https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-hasnt-handed-over-all-white-house-records-says-national-archives-world/ Washington: Former US President Donald Trump has not handed over all the records from the White House and some remain outstanding, the National Archives has told the House Oversight Committee. “Certain presidential records from the Trump administration remain outstanding, citing information that some White House staff used non-official electronic systems to conduct official business,” it said, reported CNN. In a Friday letter to the panel’s chairwoman, New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said it had been unable to obtain records from a number of former officials and will continue to pursue the return of similar types of Presidential records from former officials. But, “while there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should”, it said. Last month, Maloney requested in a letter that NARA seek “personal certification” from former President Trump that he has turned over all presidential records he “illegally removed” from the White House. The Archives letter is the latest development in the years-long pursuit from NARA to reclaim all records that belong to the federal government that were created during the Trump administration, CNN said. NARA’s back-and-forth with Trump and his liaisons led earlier this year to the return by former administration officials and lawyers of boxes and envelopes full of records. NARA’s findings in one of those collections prompted a Justice Department investigation into the mishandling of classified records and a search in August at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida beach club. In its letter to Maloney, NARA cited a lawsuit filed last summer by the Justice Department asking a judge to order former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro to return federal records the DOJ says he wrongfully kept after leaving the administration. The DOJ said Navarro used a private mail account for presidential business, “such as the need for ventilators, the creation and deployment of National-Guard based rapid response teams, and the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid”, the DOJ filing said. According to the lawsuit, the National Archives learned of Navarro’s private account from the House committee investigating the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. “It is outrageous that these records remain unaccounted for 20 months after former President Trump left office,” Maloney said in a statement on Saturday. “Former President Trump and his senior staff have shown an utter disregard for the rule of law and our national security by failing to return presidential records as the law requires,” she said. (IANS) Read More Here

In Utah, Independent Evan McMullin Poses A Challenge For Trump-Backed Sen. Mike Lee https://digitalalaskanews.com/in-utah-independent-evan-mcmullin-poses-a-challenge-for-trump-backed-sen-mike-lee/ The Utah Senate race is tight, like so many this year. Incumbent Sen. Mike Lee faces a credible threat from independent Evan McMullin after Lee strongly aligned himself with former President Trump. Transcript AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: Utah is a true Republican stronghold. It’s been more than 25 years since a Democrat won statewide office there. Now an independent candidate has a shot at unseating Republican Senator Mike Lee. Lee does have the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. It’s yet another key race in the Senate that’s up for grabs come midterms. Sean Higgins is a politics reporter at member station KUER in Salt Lake City. Hi, Sean. SEAN HIGGINS, BYLINE: Great to be here, Ayesha. RASCOE: So the independent candidate, Evan McMullin – he was actually very much a Republican until Donald Trump came along, right? HIGGINS: Yes. McMullin calls himself a conservative. He’s a former CIA officer, and for a while he served as the chief policy director for the House GOP. But he says he realized he could no longer back where the party was going as Trump was campaigning in the Republican primary in 2016. McMullin says he was at a party meeting that year where Trump spoke and gave an answer to a question that made it clear to him that Trump did not know or respect the Constitution. EVAN MCMULLIN: That was a moment that, for me, confirmed that he was someone who, like others I had seen during my CIA service abroad, who wanted to pursue power at the expense of people. He wanted to be a dictator in America. RASCOE: And McMullin didn’t just leave the Republican Party. Like, he ran for president against Trump in 2016 as an independent, right? HIGGINS: That’s right. He was only on the ballot in a handful of states but actually won 21% of the vote here in Utah. And Senator Mike Lee, who he’s running against right now, actually voted for him and not Trump. RASCOE: So Senator Lee did not vote for Trump in 2016, but Trump is actually still endorsing Lee in this election? HIGGINS: You’re right. Even though Utah is a very Republican state, many conservatives here have long had issues with Trump. Senator Mitt Romney has very famously stood against him. But as Trump ascended to the White House, some Utah Republicans switched to embracing him. And that includes Mike Lee. We’ve been trying to ask him about that, but he’s not talking much to the media in this race. The state GOP, though, is firmly behind Lee. They’re attacking McMullin as not conservative as he claims to be. They point out that he convinced Utah Democrats to not run a candidate against Lee this year. Here’s Utah GOP Chairman Carson Jorgensen. CARSON JORGENSEN: Nobody really knows where this guy stands ’cause it changes from day to day. HIGGINS: Just to be super clear, the Dems have actually endorsed McMullin in this race – part of why Politico has called this the strangest Senate race in America. RASCOE: So how close is this race? HIGGINS: The most recent polling shows the race pretty neck and neck, with a large number of voters still undecided. And there are about a half million active voters in Utah who are not registered with any political party. That’s about 28% of the electorate. Now, a lot of those independent voters usually end up voting for Republicans. I talked to University of Utah political science professor James Curry, and he says the voters who identify as independent present both an opportunity and a challenge for McMullin. JAMES CURRY: It would take McMullin being able to do enough to really galvanize voters of all stripes who have any hesitancy about Mike Lee or Donald Trump. All of them would need to show up, and Mike Lee would probably have to make some missteps. HIGGINS: So far, we have not seen many missteps from Lee. In addition to getting Trump’s endorsement this spring, just last week, he was also endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence. That being said, it has been revealed that Lee was in contact with the Trump White House following the 2020 election and was actually encouraging plans to overturn the election. He later reversed course and voted to certify the election on January 6. RASCOE: Sean Higgins covers politics at KUER in Salt Lake City. Thank you so much. HIGGINS: Thank you. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. Correction The original headline of this story mistakenly said former President Donald Trump had backed Evan McMullin. In fact, Trump has backed Mike Lee. Read More Here

US Encounters Record Illegal Migrant Influx At Southern Border; ‘new Normal’ https://digitalalaskanews.com/us-encounters-record-illegal-migrant-influx-at-southern-border-new-normal/ The US has encountered a record level of illegal immigrant influx via its Southern border with Mexico, the new data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accessed by Washington Free Beacon, indicated. Last month, September, was recorded as the worst in history in illegal migrant crossings since the Biden administration assumed office. An estimated 7,300 and 7,500 migrants each day infiltrated the US illegally, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed. A total of 219,000 and 225,000 migrants crossed the border from Mexico into the US in September alone. This enormous figure shattered the record of last year when approximately 192,000 illegal crossings were recorded.  “These record-breaking numbers we’re seeing at the border have become the new normal,” a senior DHS official told the Washington Free Beacon on Friday.  The DHS official questioned the Biden administration’s border policies, saying how long would the situation be allowed to deteriorate before robust action was taken. Since Democrats came into power in the US, illegal drug trafficking broke records across the US-Mexico border with 12,000 pounds of fentanyl confiscated by the CBP, according to a Senate memo. Ernesto Renteria of Chula Vista was sentenced in federal court today to 71 months in custody for distributing more than 100 pounds of deadly fentanyl plus fentanyl analogues, cocaine and methamphetamine. The seizure of fentanyl is yet another example of drug cartels pushing huge quantities into the US via vulnerable borders.  US to ‘fully resume’ immigrant visa processing in Cuba in 2023 Democrats also planned to overturn Trump’s Cold War-era border restrictions on Havana effective 2023. Washington plans to “fully resume” immigrant visa processing at its embassy in Cuba in the year ahead. Following a lengthy policy review of the Trump administration since Joe Biden assumed office as the president, the White House managed to lift some of the stringent limits on travel and remittances for the Cubans and now intends to boost visa processing in Havana to discourage illegal immigration at the Southern border. Washington also allowed charter and commercial flights to airports outside Havana, as well as restarted the educational travel on general license but is yet to restore the “people-to-people” education travel. Biden administration will continue to uphold the human rights, fair treatment of political prisoners and labour rights in Cuba, as well as “empower the Cuban people to determine their own future,” an official had earlier stated at a presser, whilst the administration implemented the policy change.  Read More Here

Supreme Court To Hear Case That Could Have Massive Impact On US Water Quality https://digitalalaskanews.com/supreme-court-to-hear-case-that-could-have-massive-impact-on-us-water-quality/ (The Hill) – The Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a case between Idaho landowners and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a dispute that could redefine the scope of the country’s clean water regulations.   The first case of the justices’ new term, landing just ahead of the Clean Water Act’s 50th anniversary, will feature arguments about wetlands and when they can or cannot be regulated by the federal government.   Although technical in nature, the legal dispute could have broad implications for the country’s water quality if the 6-3 conservative majority court uses the case to narrow the EPA’s regulatory reach.   “If that’s what the Supreme Court should decide, we’re basically rolling back the clock 50 years,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who chairs a House panel on water resources and the environment. “That would remove 50 percent of our critical wetlands, and 70 percent of our rivers and streams from federal protection.”  The case began in 2007 when Michael and Chantell Sackett were told they needed a federal permit to build a home on land they owned because it contained wetlands, prompting the Sacketts to sue.   A federal court, siding with the U.S. government, ruled that the wetlands on the Sacketts’ property contained a “significant nexus” with other regulated waters, meaning the couple would need authorization to build there.   The Sacketts are now urging the Supreme Court to discard the “significant nexus” threshold. Instead, their petition favors a separate test from former Justice Antonin Scalia that called for the waters to have a “continuous surface water connection” — a higher threshold that would apply to fewer wetlands.  The stakes of this case, however, go far beyond one property dispute. It attracted briefs from environmental groups, which argue that it would hamper the government’s ability to keep people safe from pollution, as well as industries like farming, mining, construction and oil and gas, which support the deregulatory effort.   “This is a very, very, big deal for the Clean Water Act. It will determine, likely, whether the Clean Water Act can protect half of the water bodies in the country, and if it can’t, meeting the water quality goals of the law that we all count on will be virtually impossible,” said Jon Devine, who leads the Natural Resources Defense Council’s federal water policy team.  The case appears to mirror regulatory differences between the Trump administration’s efforts to limit regulations to just wetlands with continuous surface water connections to other regulated waters, and the Obama administration’s regulations, which applied the significant nexus test.   A total of 51 percent of the country’s wetlands would not be protected under the Trump-era rule, according to a slideshow obtained by E&E News.  The Biden administration has proposed to regulate some wetlands that meet the significant nexus standard.   And while the Sacketts’ petition to the court appears to be in support of the continuous surface water test, in their opening court brief, they propose a separate test.  They say that a wetland should be “inseparably bound up” with another regulated water and also subject to Congress’s authority over interstate waters.   Damien Schiff, a lawyer representing the Sacketts said that abiding by the Clean Water Act can be significantly burdensome, both in the application process itself and in the requirements to mitigate environmental damage.   “Whenever the Clean Water Act applies, it does add a significant financial burden, not just because there is a lot of costs involved in the application process … but also just simply the cost of compensatory mitigation,” said Schiff, a senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation.   He said that the Army Corps of Engineers “might very well issue a permit, but typically not only is the permit issued for a much smaller project than was originally requested but it’s always accompanied by a pretty significant compensatory mitigation obligation and that can run into the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.”  A looser test would be expected to apply to fewer wetlands, allowing individuals and corporations to act there without EPA oversight.   Under the current system, many polluters are also not necessarily blocked from carrying out activities in regulated waters.   Instead, they may need to either apply for a permit that contains stipulations that they follow environmental safeguards or follow existing stipulations in a “general permit” that gives a blanket waiver to certain activities.   But environmentalists say that while pollution still occurs when permits are in place, the stipulations they offer are important for averting the worst damages.   “This case is not about prohibiting construction or development, it’s about what safeguards are in place when someone does so,” Devine said.   Environmentalists say that this pollution may end up in America’s drinking water and also harm fish that people catch for consumption. And while many public water systems are treated to prevent pollution, some people get their water from private wells, which may not get the same level of treatment.   “Drinking water does have standards, but that doesn’t mean that all those standards are perfect and the pollution that comes in through those sources means more cost of treatment. It means that people who live on wells or in areas where the water treatment systems aren’t as big or fancy or as expensive are going to suffer,” said Sam Sankar, senior vice president of programs at Earthjustice.   Sankar said his organization has 18 tribes as clients, and many of them will face “direct impacts.”  The court began its work Monday after an epochal term in which the six Republican-appointed justices advanced an aggressive conservative legal agenda.   The case will be the first that is heard by Ketanji Brown Jackson in her tenure as a Supreme Court justice.   Although overshadowed by the court’s overruling of Roe v. Wade, last term saw the court vote 6-3 to pare back federal agency power in West Virginia v. EPA, a case that reined in the government’s authority to regulate carbon emissions from power plants.  Court watchers believe the conservative majority court will continue its rightward trajectory this term.  “There’s no reason to think this coming term, or any term in the foreseeable future, will be any different,” Irv Gornstein, executive director of Georgetown Law’s Supreme Court Institute said recently. “On things that matter most, get ready for a lot of 6-3s.”  Read More Here