EXCLUSIVE NATO Chief Says Putin Won't Win In Ukraine Despite 'reckless' Escalation
EXCLUSIVE NATO Chief Says Putin Won't Win In Ukraine Despite 'reckless' Escalation https://digitalalaskanews.com/exclusive-nato-chief-says-putin-wont-win-in-ukraine-despite-reckless-escalation/
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NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin will not win the war in Ukraine despite his order to mobilize thousands of extra troops, the secretary general of NATO said on Wednesday, calling the Russian leader’s threat to use nuclear weapons “dangerous and reckless rhetoric.”
Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview that Russia’s first mobilization since World War Two would escalate the conflict and cost more lives, but the move was evidence that Putin had miscalculated since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
In an address to Russians earlier, Putin announced he would call up 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine and backed a plan to annex parts of the country, hinting to the West he was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. read more
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“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will use all available means to protect our people – this is not a bluff,” Putin said.
Russia possesses “lots of weapons to reply,” Putin added.
Stoltenberg, speaking to Reuters Editor in Chief Alessandra Galloni in New York, said the 30-nation Western defense alliance will stay calm and “not engage in that same kind of reckless and dangerous nuclear rhetoric as President Putin.”
“The speech of President Putin demonstrates that the war is not going according to President Putin’s plans. He has made a big miscalculation,” Stoltenberg said.
Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni interviews NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Reuters office in New York City, U.S., September 21, 2022. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
“More troops will escalate the conflict. That will mean more suffering, more loss of lives – Ukrainian lives, but also Russian lives,” Stoltenberg added.
Putin’s speech followed mounting casualties and battlefield setbacks for Russian forces, who have been driven from areas they had captured in northeast Ukraine in a Ukrainian counter-offensive this month and are bogged down in the south.
Stoltenberg said that although Russian troops were ill-equipped and lacked proper command and control, it was hard see the conflict ending in the short term as long as Russia does not accept that Ukraine is a sovereign, independent nation.
“The only way to end this war is to prove that President Putin will not win on the battlefield. When he realizes that, he has to sit down and negotiate a reasonable agreement with Ukraine,” said Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister.
Stoltenberg added that members of the alliance have provided unprecedented support to Ukraine and that the NATO allies now need to replenish their stocks of weapons and ammunition.
As NATO was prepared for a “long haul” in dealing with Putin, it was now in close dialogue with the defense industry to build back its stocks of materiel, Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg said China is among the security challenges that NATO needs to face up to but does not see China as an adversary. Stoltenberg also noted China’s “coercive behavior” in the South China Sea and against its neighbors as well as “the way they violate basic human rights.”
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Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in New York and John Chalmers in Brussels; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Will Dunham
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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AP News Summary At 11:11 A.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1111-a-m-edt-2/
Biden at UN to call Russian war an affront to body’s charter
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Joe Biden is making the U.S. case to world leaders at the United Nations that Russia’s “naked aggression” in Ukraine is an affront to the heart of what the international body stands for. He’s looking on Wednesday to rally allies to stand firm in backing the Ukrainian resistance. He’s also announcing $2.9 billion in global food security aid to address shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the effects of climate change. Biden also plans to meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly with new British Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Putin orders partial military call-up, risking protests
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia, effective immediately. He risks a deeply unpopular step that follows humiliating setbacks for his troops nearly seven months after invading Ukraine. It’s the first mobilization in Russia since World War II. Western backers of Ukraine derided the move as an act of weakness. The Russian leader also warned the West on Wednesday he isn’t bluffing over using everything at his disposal to protect Russian territory, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to his nuclear arsenal. The partial mobilization came a day after Russian-occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine said they would hold votes on becoming part of Russia.
Iran’s president says he’s serious about reviving nuke deal
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran’s president insists that his country was serious about reviving a deal to put curbs on its nuclear program but questioned whether it could trust America’s commitment to any eventual accord. Former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a deal brokered by the Obama administration. That has led Tehran to abandon over time every limitation the accord imposed on its nuclear enrichment. Ebrahim Raisi addressed the U.N. General Assembly as talks to revive the nuclear deal approached a take-it-or-leave-it moment.
Ex-cop Lane gets 3 years in plea deal for aiding Floyd death
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Florida Republicans Prefer Ron DeSantis For President Over Donald Trump In 2024 Poll Shows
Florida Republicans Prefer Ron DeSantis For President Over Donald Trump In 2024, Poll Shows https://digitalalaskanews.com/florida-republicans-prefer-ron-desantis-for-president-over-donald-trump-in-2024-poll-shows/
Republicans in Florida would prefer DeSantis over Trump for a 2024 White House ticket.
That’s a reversal from a similar poll in January.
The findings are part of a USA Today/Suffolk University poll.
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Republicans in Florida have a new favorite Florida man they want at the top of the next White House ticket.
According to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll published Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis leads former President Donald Trump 48% to 40% in a hypothetical 2024 presidential primary.
That’s a reversal from a similar poll in January, in which Trump bested DeSantis 47% to 40%.
“Donald Trump trailing in a contest with another Republican is a sea change,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said in a statement.
Wednesday’s findings are significant given that during the 2016 primary, Trump easily defeated Sen. Marco Rubio on his home turf, landing at 46% to 27%, Paleologos said.
The results are just for one state, but inject additional heat into one of the most talked about topics in US politics: Whether DeSantis would enter a presidential race against Trump, the man who rocketed him to the top of the gubernatorial primary in Florida in 2018.
DeSantis has not said whether he has the White House in his sights and is up for reelection in Florida on November 8. He’ll be facing off against Democrat Charlie Crist, who recently resigned from Congress and used to be governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011, when he was a Republican.
That race appears to be promising for DeSantis. The USA Today/Suffolk University poll projected DeSantis would win reelection by a 7-point lead of 48% to 41%.
The poll found a strong lead for DeSantis despite respondents reporting that they feel economic conditions in Florida have worsened — just 37% of voters said Florida’s economy was “excellent” or “good,” down 10 points from January.
Half of voters said they were “worse off” than four years ago, though the poll didn’t assess whether voters blamed the DeSantis or Biden administrations for their economic struggles. It did find DeSantis had a higher approval rating than Biden in Florida, of 53% to 42%.
Should DeSantis hold a big lead against Crist, it would be a huge turnaround for the GOP governor. Just four years ago he squeaked into the governor’s mansion by just half a percentage point against Democratic challenger Andrew Gillum, the former mayor of Tallahassee.
Former President Donald Trump.
AP Photo/Joe Maiorana, File
Trump support is dropping in his new home state
The poll shows that Trump’s support may be waning, at least in the Sunshine State. Researchers conducted the poll over the phone from September 15 to 18, surveying 500 voters.
Trump calls Florida his permanent home, though — as is his custom — he spent the summer at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course, and at Trump Tower in New York City.
The FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, in August and uncovered classified documents that Department of Justice officials said Trump was not allowed to have. On Sunday evening, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he’d arrived at Mar-a-Lago to “check out the scene.”
While Trump’s legal troubles have kept him in the news, DeSantis also frequently lands national headlines. The latest was last week when he directed state resources to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
The move appears to have caught the attention of Trump, who made immigration restrictions one of his signature issues as president. On Saturday, Trump shared an Insider interview on Truth Social with GOP operative John Thomas, who said DeSantis would tank his political career if he were to run against Trump.
DeSantis’ frequent national headlines, massive fundraising, and regular run-ins with the Biden administration have plenty of political operatives speculating that he’ll run for the White House. Still, the conventional wisdom is that Trump would become the nominee if he were to mount another White House campaign, something he’s been teasing for more than a year.
Trump did have an edge among certain Florida voters, the poll found. He led DeSantis 53% to 36% among voters earning less than $50,000 a year, and 57% to 27% among voters who didn’t go to college.
It’s not clear Trump could win against President Joe Biden nationally, though the poll found Floridians still prefer him over the current president.
The USA Today/Suffolk University poll found Trump would beat Biden in Florida 47% to 44% in a hypothetical matchup. The margins were even wider if DeSantis were to face off against Biden, at 52% to 44%.
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Dollar Soars To Two-Decade High As Putin Shakes FX Market Ahead Of Fed
Dollar Soars To Two-Decade High As Putin Shakes FX Market Ahead Of Fed https://digitalalaskanews.com/dollar-soars-to-two-decade-high-as-putin-shakes-fx-market-ahead-of-fed/
Woman holds U.S. dollar banknotes in this illustration taken May 30, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
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Dollar index at two-decade high
Euro slides back toward two-decade lows
Putin announces partial troop mobilization for Ukraine
Markets gauging Fed hawkishness in Powell briefing
LONDON/NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) – The dollar surged to a new two-decade high on Wednesday just ahead of another expected aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hike, as investors fled for safety after a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to mobilize more troops for the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin on Wednesday called up 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine and said Moscow would respond with the might of all its vast arsenal if the West pursued what he called its “nuclear blackmail” over the conflict there. read more
The news propelled the dollar index, which measures the greenback’s value against six major currencies, to 110.87 =USD, its strongest level since 2002.
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The dollar index is up almost 16% this year and set for its biggest annual surge since 1981. It was last trading at 110.71, up about 0.5% on the day.
“Most of the dollar moves today are Putin-related,” said Steven Englander, head of global G10 FX research and North America macro strategy at Standard Chartered in New York..
“When I look at my table, the five worst performing currencies are the Swedish crown, Polish zloty, Czech koruna, Hungarian forint and the euro. That’s more a Putin worry because of hints that Russia might escalate the conflict in Ukraine and on what limits he puts on the weapons they use.”
Dollar index at two-decade high ahead of Fed
European currencies bore the brunt of selling in foreign exchange markets as Putin’s comments exacerbated concern about the economic outlook for a region already hit hard by Russia’s squeeze on gas supplies to Europe.
The euro fell to a two-week low of $0.9885 , within sight of two-decade lows touched earlier this month. It was last down 0.7% at $0.9901.
Sterling fell to a fresh 37-year low of $1.1304 and was last down 0.5% at $1.1335
Later on Wednesday, the Fed is expected to lift interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for a third straight time and signal how much further and how fast borrowing costs may need to rise to tame inflation. read more
The policy decision, due at 1800 GMT, will mark the latest move in a synchronized policy shift by global central banks that is testing the resilience of the world economy and the ability of countries to manage exchange rate shocks as the value of the dollar soars.
“What the market is looking for is whether (Fed Chair Jerome) Powell says the Fed does not know how far they have to go and they’ll go as far as they need to go,” said Standard Chartered’s Englander.
“If someone asks him whether he sees rates going to 5% and he says he doesn’t see it, but doesn’t rule it out if that’s needed to get inflation down, then that would be really hawkish and means they’re opening up rates to an even higher range than what the market anticipates.”
The Australian and New Zealand dollars meanwhile plumbed multi-year lows. The Aussie dollar hit a trough of US$0.6655, its lowest since June 2020, while the New Zealand currency fell to US$0.5873, its lowest since April 2020.
Against the battered yen, the dollar was up 0.2% at 143.97, holding off recent 24-year peaks
“It was interesting to me that dollar/yen dipped on the news of the announcement, potentially indicating a return of the yen’s safe-haven credentials which have been absent for much of the year,” said Colin Asher, a senior economist at Mizuho Corporate Bank.
========================================================
Currency bid prices at 10:42AM (1442 GMT)
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Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Additional reporting by Lucy Raitano; Editing by Edwina Gibbs, Catherine Evans and Mark Heinrich
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Credello: These Are The Cities And States With The Most Credit Card Debt
Credello: These Are The Cities And States With The Most Credit Card Debt https://digitalalaskanews.com/credello-these-are-the-cities-and-states-with-the-most-credit-card-debt/
Press Release – Sep 21, 2022 11:00 EDT
NEW YORK, September 21, 2022 (Newswire.com) – It’s no secret that many are struggling with credit card debt, but does living in a particular city make you more prone to being in debt? A survey done by WalletHub found that there are some locations in the U.S. where residents statistically carry more debt than others. So if you’re considering a move, you may want to see if your potential home is on this list. Otherwise, you might use a personal loan to pay off credit card debt sooner than you think.
The top cities in the U.S. for credit card debt
WalletHub surveyed residents in 182 cities around the U.S. and found these 10 carry the most debt overall.
1. Pearl City, HI
Total credit card debt held by residents: $222.6 million
Average credit card debt per household: $15,709
2. New York, NY
Total credit card debt held by residents: $49.3 billion
Average credit card debt per household: $15,433
3. Santa Clarita, CA
Total credit card debt held by residents: $1 billion
Average credit card debt per household: $14,937
4. Chula Vista, CA
Total credit card debt held by residents: $1.2 billion
Average credit card debt per household: $14,861
5. Chesapeake, VA
Total credit card debt held by residents: $1.3 billion
Average credit card debt per household: $14,576
6. Oxnard, CA
Total credit card debt held by residents: $712 million
Average credit card debt per household: $13,956
7. Anchorage, AK
Total credit card debt held by residents: $1.5 billion
Average credit card debt per household: $13,925
8. Santa Ana, CA
Total credit card debt held by residents: $1.1 billion
Average credit card debt per household: $13,892
9. Virginia Beach, VA
Total credit card debt held by residents: $2.4 billion
Average credit card debt per household: $13,709
10. Scottsdale, AZ
Total credit card debt held by residents: $1.6 billion
Average credit card debt per household: $13,623
What we can take from this survey
There are a few correlations where it makes sense that residents in these towns would have high debt. Most cities on this list are either:
In highly sought-after areas
Far away from central distribution hubs for goods and services
Require high incomes to maintain a high quality of life
What to do if you’re planning to move to one of these cities
If you live, or are planning to live, in one of these cities and don’t want to fall victim to credit card debt, there are a few things you can do:
1. Research community resources available to residents. Many cities have resources available for low- and no-income residents, such as free or discounted groceries, discounted rates for gyms and recreational activities, and other conveniences.
2. Make sure you know the credit score requirements to get a good loan or mortgage in your area. In most cases, having a high credit score will help you qualify for a lower interest rate on a loan or mortgage.
3. Educate yourself on responsible spending and budgeting techniques. Learning how to save money each month can go a long way in avoiding debt traps down the road.
4. If you’re considering buying a house in one of these cities, be sure to read up on mortgage rates so you’re not hit with an unexpected cost down the road.
5. Create multiple income streams for more flexibility in case of an unexpected expense. If you have a side hustle, for example, you can use that income to cover unexpected costs.
6. Speak to a financial advisor about what steps you can take to manage your debt and stay on track. A qualified professional will be able to help you develop a Debt Reduction Plan tailored specifically to your situation and financial goals.
The bottom line
Just because your city is on this list doesn’t mean you’re doomed to stay in debt forever. By taking some simple steps to manage your finances, you can have the best of both worlds: living in the city you want while living a debt-free life.
Source: Credello
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Nurses https://digitalalaskanews.com/nurses/
Introduction
A tracheostomy is a well-established and frequently used procedure across all age groups to overcome upper airway obstruction, facilitate mechanical ventilatory support, and/or removal of tracheobronchial secretions.1
The incidence of tracheostomy has increased over the last few decades. The procedure is mostly performed on pediatric intensive care patients who are dependent on chronic ventilatory support, prior to transfer to extended care facilities with a long-term acute care service or admission to a non-critical area such as a step-down unit. The management of a tracheostomy is a complex activity with several potential complications if the nurse lacks the essential knowledge and skills to provide appropriate care.2,3
A systematic review conducted in 2020, reported that the most common complications of the surgical operation were cutaneous lesions and granulomas at the tracheostomy site.4 Mortality related to the procedure was as high as 6% in children and was mainly associated with cannula obstruction or accidental decannulation.4 The largest prospective series of tracheostomy patients demonstrated a four-fold higher mortality in pediatric patients with hemorrhage versus those without hemorrhage (P0.001).5 Higher mortality rates were also evident in neonates, children aged 1–5 months, and those aged greater than 10 years compared to children 1–3 years of age.5 Post-operative complications such as tube occlusion, infection of the stoma site, aspiration, hemorrhage, or excessive granulation of the trachea may occur. Compromised breathing following the removal of a tracheostomy is described as a late complication.6
At the International Extended Care Center (IECC), about 75% of the admitted pediatric patients are tracheostomized and ventilator dependent and require continuous monitoring and rigorous multidisciplinary care. Nurses are considered front-line health-care providers hence, proper knowledge of tracheostomy care and skills are critical to ensure patients’ stability and safety. Expert, well-coordinated care reduces the incidence of unwanted complications such as laryngeal injuries and mechanical obstruction, accelerates weaning from the ventilator, and concurrently reduces the potential risk of malpractice litigation.7,8
The main objective of this study is to assess nurses’ knowledge and comfort level with tracheostomy care of pediatric patients at the IECC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Materials and Methods
Study Design
We conducted a cross-sectional, retrospective cohort survey in September 2021 at the IECC. The IECC is one of the largest centers in the entire western province of Saudi Arabia, with more than a 150-bed capacity, accommodating both adult and pediatric patients. The center provides an optimal level of long-term and acute care services and care for chronic ventilated patients. The study was designed to evaluate the knowledge, skills, and emergency response in tracheostomy care using a questionnaire with key items extrapolated from the published literature.9–11 Participants provided informed consent to join the study, and data collection for analysis was accrued after full agreement by the participants. The project was approved by the IECC Institutional Review Board (IECC IRB) Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Population
The questionnaire was distributed to all the 43-nursing staff at the IECC involved in the long-term care of tracheostomized pediatric patients. Medical records of the recruited subjects were reviewed, and pertinent demographic characteristics were assembled.
Assessment Tool
A two-part questionnaire was utilized for the study. The first section included demographic data of both the patients and nurses. The second section comprised 3 main domains: First, a composite of 20 true and false questions assessing tracheal care knowledge;9 second, ten multiple-choice questions to assess tracheal care skills;10,11 last, two scenarios assessed background knowledge in emergency tracheostomy care. A written response to three additional open-ended questions following the two case scenarios, sought general knowledge about the contents of the tracheostomy kit, indications for suctioning the tracheostomy and the meaning of the mnemonic HME (heat, moisture, exchanger) and its function. Each of the correct responses to ten multiple choice questions on tracheal skills was awarded a score of 2 points with a total score of 20. Similarly, each affirmative and correct response to the questions in the case scenarios was allotted a score of 2 points for a total score of 20. The questionnaire was reviewed for content validity by four expert intensivists other than the authors of the study. Finally, we asked the nurses about their comfort level working with tracheostomized pediatric patients who required ventilator assistance.10
Statistical Analysis
We conducted a descriptive analysis of the assembled data; Frequencies are reported for categorical data. Mean, and median indicate measures of central tendency. Responses were designed to measure confidence and comfort in the management of a tracheostomy during routine care and emergency situations. A four-point Likert scale (from 1- very comfortable, 2 – comfortable, 3 – uncomfortable, 4 – completely uncomfortable) was used for the question that assessed the subjective comfort level of nurses with tracheostomy care.12 Data analysis was performed using the SPSS 21.0 software package, and a P -value ≤ 0.05, calculated by t-test, was considered significant.
Results
Demographic Data
Table 1 presents the general characteristics of the surveyed nurses. All 43 pediatric nurses who participated in this study completed the survey (100%); 40 (93%) were female, and 3 (7%) were male. The mean (± standard deviation) age of the respondents was 32.5 years (6.52). Regarding the level of education, the majority, 27 (62.8%), had a bachelor’s degree. Forty-two nurses (97.7%) procured their nursing qualification outside the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, apart from one nurse (2.3%). Regarding experience, there was almost an equal distribution of nurses with less than one year (n=14; 32.6%) and more than 5 years’ experience (n=17; 39.5%). All the nurses had attended a basic life support (BLS) course, more than half had participated in either a pediatric advanced life support (PALS) or combined BLS and PALS courses, while 6 (13.9%) were trained in BLS, PALS, and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS). Skills in all the life support courses were acquired internationally. Nurses are mandated to attend the annual tracheostomy care competency learning program (TCCLP) at the local center. Program attendance ranged from one (n=14, 32.6%) to greater than five times (n=17; 39.5%; Table 1).
Table 1 Demographic Data of the Nurses (n=43) and the Relationship Between the Variables and Total Correct Answers
The demographic characteristics of the tracheostomized patients are outlined in Table 2. Among the enrolled subjects, the sex distribution was similar. The primary diagnosis in most patients was neurologic (n=35; 76%) and all the patients in this category required prolonged mechanical ventilation. Overall, 89.1% (41/46) of the subjects who required a tracheostomy had acquired their primary illness at birth and the duration of the tracheostomy ranged from less than one year to greater than 5 years.
Table 2 Demographic Characteristics and Outcome Data for Pediatric Tracheostomized Patients (n=46)
Knowledge
A true and false section was designed to assess tracheal care knowledge. Eleven of the 20 questions (55%) were answered correctly by all the nurses. Overall, the true and false responses ranged from 27.9% −100% and 39.5% −100% respectively. The other responses of the respondents are summarized and compared in Table 3.
Table 3 Tracheal Care Knowledge Among the Study Participants (n=43)
Skills
Nursing tracheal skills were assessed by multiple choice questions and the findings are depicted in Table 4. Five (11.6%) nurses provided all the correct answers, and the total group scores for majority of the nurses ranged between 14–18 out of 20. Thirty (69.8%) erroneously stated that a tracheostomy is usually performed between the 3rd and 4th tracheal ring. Of note, only eleven nurses (25.6%) did not know all the information that should be included as part of the hand-off of a patient with a tracheostomy tube to another nurse.
Background Knowledge in Emergency Tracheostomy Care
Two case scenarios (Table 5) evaluated nurses’ responses in emergency cases. Only one nurse got all the answers correct (2.3%), and the overall scores ranged between 9–20 (median:14). Sixty-five percent of the nurses (n=28) did not know what to do with an introducer or obturator. Although 81% – 94% of the nurses had experienced the respective acute scenarios in their clinical practice, disappointingly only 13 (30%) were comfortable dealing with such emergencies if they arose.
Table 5 Scenarios to Assess Knowledge of the Emergency Care of a Tracheostomy (n=43)
Responses to the Open-Ended Questions
Of the three open-ended questions, none of the nurses were able to identify the entire contents of the tracheostomy kit. Among the indications for tracheostomy suction, 9 nurses (20.9%) would execute the procedure for excessive secretions, 11 (25.6%) for respiratory distress or desaturation and 23 (53.5%) for any combination thereof. Thirty-four nurses (79%) did not understand what HME implied or its function. Moreover only 12 (28%) appreciated the meaning and implications of displacement or obstruction of the endotracheal tube, pneumothorax, and ventilator or equipment failure (DOPE).
Subjective Comfort Level
At the end of the questionnaire, we asked the nurses if they were well updated and felt comfortable working with tracheostomized pediatric patients requiring ventilator assistance or not. To assess the level of confidence, we compared their answers to ...
Former Officer Who Held Down George Floyd's Legs Gets 3 Years In Prison For Aiding And Abetting Manslaughter
Former Officer Who Held Down George Floyd's Legs Gets 3 Years In Prison For Aiding And Abetting Manslaughter https://digitalalaskanews.com/former-officer-who-held-down-george-floyds-legs-gets-3-years-in-prison-for-aiding-and-abetting-manslaughter/
(CNN)The former Minneapolis Police officer who held down George Floyd’s legs in May 2020 was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday on a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
Thomas Lane, who is currently in federal prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights during his fatal restraint, appeared to the hearing remotely wearing beige prison clothing. He began his federal 2.5-year sentence in a Bureau of Prisons facility in Colorado late last month.
The former officer did not address the court Wednesday. Lane received credit for 31 days already served. Prosecutors did not ask for restitution as part of the sentence.
Lane was one of three former officers to face state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder related to Floyd’s death. In June, Lane pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge as part of a plea deal in which state and defense attorneys jointly recommended a sentence of three years to be served concurrently with his federal time, according to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office.
A victim impact statement was read by prosecutors Wednesday on behalf of Floyd’s family. “We want everyone here today to know we will never move on,” prosecutor Matthew Frank read. “You will always show up for George Floyd, but never move on.”
The sentence comes more than two years after former officers Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng were first arrested for their actions — or lack thereof — in May 2020 as their colleague Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the neck and back of Floyd, who was handcuffed and lying on his stomach, for more than nine minutes.
Lane, a rookie officer in his fourth day on the job, held down Floyd’s legs during the arrest, while Kueng restrained his torso and Thao stood nearby and held back a crowd of upset bystanders.
An ambulance eventually arrived and first responders lifted Floyd, who was limp at that point, into the vehicle. Lane joined them in the ambulance and performed CPR on Floyd.
Defense attorney Earl Gray said Lane agreed to plead guilty to the state charge because he faced a mandatory 12-year sentence if he were to be convicted of the most serious murder charge. He also noted that Minnesota law allows defendants to be released from custody after serving two-thirds of a sentence.
“My client did not want to risk losing the murder case so he decided to plead guilty to manslaughter with a 3-year sentence, to be released in 2 years, and the murder case dismissed,” Gray said in June. “The sentence will be concurrent with his federal sentence and he will serve his time in a federal institution. He has a newborn baby and did not want to risk not being part of the child’s life.”
What has happened with the other former officers
Harrowing video taken by a bystander showed Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, desperately pleading for them to let him breathe and calling for his mother before he lost consciousness and died. Outrage over the incident led to an international protest movement against the ways that police treat Black citizens. All four officers were fired and charged after Floyd’s death.
The city of Minneapolis agreed to pay Floyd’s estate $27 million after the city council in March 2021 voted to settle a lawsuit with his family.
In federal court earlier this year, Lane testified that he asked Chauvin twice to reposition Floyd while restraining him but was denied both times.
Lane, Thao and Kueng were each convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights during the fatal restraint. Thao and Kueng were also found guilty of an additional federal charge earlier this year for failing to intervene to stop Chauvin. Thao and Kueng were sentenced to 3.5 years and 3 years in federal prison, respectively.
Thao and Kueng still face a state trial that is slated for late October on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. They have pleaded not guilty.
Chauvin was convicted in state court last year of murder in Floyd’s death and was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison. As part of a plea agreement, Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to federal civil rights charges related to Floyd’s death and the restraint of a teenager in a separate incident.
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Iran's President: U.S. 'trampled Upon' Nuclear Accord
Iran's President: U.S. 'trampled Upon' Nuclear Accord https://digitalalaskanews.com/irans-president-u-s-trampled-upon-nuclear-accord/
Iran’s president said Wednesday that the U.S. “trampled upon” Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers in a speech to world leaders at the United Nations.
Ebrahim Raisi addressed the UN General Assembly as talks to revive the nuclear deal approached a take-it-or-leave-it moment. Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal in 2018 has led Tehran to abandon over time every limitation the accord imposed on its nuclear enrichment.
“America trampled upon the nuclear accord,” said Raisi, who was sworn-in as president only a year ago. His speech marks the first time he has taken the podium at the U.N. in his role as president. Last year, he delivered remarks to the assembly virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Raisi also called for former President Trump to “face justice” for the assassination of the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force Qasem Soleimani in January 2020.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, is boycotting the Iranian President’s speech, following his comments earlier this week questioning the Holocaust.
In nuclear talks, Iran is walking a very fine line
Israel’s ‘better Iran deal’ is the Loch Ness Monster of diplomacy
Israel takes credit for Iran nuke deal impasse. The credit belongs elsewhere
In 2019, Raisi was sanctioned by the United States in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, a little over a decade after the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the country’s shah and ushered in its current theocratic-led system.
Wearing a traditional black turban identified with Shiite clerics, Raisi also told the gathered leaders that Iran wants to have “extensive relations with all our neighbors” — an apparent reference to foe Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries in the region.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have held a number of direct talks since U.S. President Joe Biden took office, though tensions remain high between the two. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates recent reopened its embassy in Tehran and sent an ambassador there.
Jonathan Lis contributed to this report.
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Trump And Biden's Pandemic Stimulus Helped Americans Get Wealthier At The Fastest Rate This Century
Trump And Biden's Pandemic Stimulus Helped Americans Get Wealthier At The Fastest Rate This Century https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-and-bidens-pandemic-stimulus-helped-americans-get-wealthier-at-the-fastest-rate-this-century/
Global wealth increased at its fastest rate this century last year.
Wealth in the US grew the fastest, likely due to the impact of pandemic stimulus under Trump and Biden.
Wealth among minorities shot up in particular, mostly concentrated in housing.
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Pandemic aid over the past two years helped buoy many Americans who were struggling to pay their bills — and overall, stimulus funding has given them the biggest boost they’ve gotten, likely ever.
That’s according to Credit Suisse’s new Global Wealth Report, which found that both financial wealth — liquid cash ready to be spent — and non-financial wealth — assets such as housing — grew by record highs worldwide in 2021. When year-on-year exchange rate movements are accounted for, average wealth grew by 11.3%, the researchers found, and total global wealth grew by 12.7% in 2021. It’s the fastest rate achieved this century, the report said, and “almost certainly the fastest rate recorded at any time in history.”
Those numbers are even higher for Americans and Canadians, who clocked the highest change in wealth out of all the regions documented, seeing about a 14.7% increase in wealth per adult.
The US has been gaining ground fairly regularly, the researchers said, and exceeded expectations in 2021 by adding $19.5 trillion to its household wealth — well above China in second place at $11.2 trillion and Canada in third at $1.8 trillion.
Democrats approved the $1.9 trillion stimulus law without any Republican support in March 2021. It pumped cash into nearly every sector of the economy ranging from individuals, health providers and state and local governments. In particular, it distributed $1,400 direct payments for most Americans in conjunction with a $300 federal boost to unemployment insurance. That’s in addition to the stimulus funding implemented under former President Donald Trump, which included a $900 billion bipartisan package in late 2020. That rescue package contained $600 stimulus checks, federal unemployment aid, food and rental assistance.
The report noted that unemployment hits at the beginning of the pandemic mostly impacted women, young adults, and minorities, but that employment rates and labor earnings have mostly recovered in high and middle-income countries, such as the US.
And people of color in particular saw a surge in wealth between 2019 and 2021. The 2021 growth was much higher for Black Americans and Hispanics at 22.2% and 19.9%, respectively, than for non-Hispanic Caucasians at 12.7%. The researchers said this is due to increases in non-financial wealth, particularly real estate.
“The general wealth picture has been positive, even for disadvantaged subgroups,” the researchers said.
The report comes on the heels of other data from the past few years showing that stimulus aid has had a huge influence on the savings Americans have been able to accrue during the pandemic. Even those who struggled to find work or keep their businesses from going under were able to rely on government benefits to get by and, in some cases, get ahead. The poverty rate fell to 7.8% in 2021, the lowest level on record, for instance. That’s largely due to federal assistance last year, according to a recent report from the Census Bureau.
But that’s likely to be the most help Americans will be getting in a while, the report notes.
“The massive business and income support programs undertaken in response to the macroeconomic setbacks, together with extra health-related expenditures, drove public debt up to record levels outside of wartime,” the researchers said. “Future government actions aimed at redressing this situation may well affect wealth creation.”
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President Biden Pledges $2.9B In Food Security Aid Amid Ukraine War
President Biden Pledges $2.9B In Food Security Aid Amid Ukraine War https://digitalalaskanews.com/president-biden-pledges-2-9b-in-food-security-aid-amid-ukraine-war/
Sep 21, 2022, 2:09pmUpdated 11m ago
By: Associated Press
President Joe Biden on Wednesday is announcing $2.9 billion in global food security aid to address shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the effects of climate change.
The White House says Biden will use his speech at the U.N. General Assembly to announce the funding, which includes $2 billion in direct humanitarian assistance through the United States Agency for International Development. The balance of the money will go to global development projects meant to boost the efficiency and resilience of the global food supply.
“This new announcement of $2.9 billion will save lives through emergency interventions and invest in medium to long term food security assistance in order to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations from the escalating global food security crisis,” the White House said.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) – President Joe Biden is ready to make the case to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly that Russia’s “naked aggression” in Ukraine is an affront to the heart of what the international body stands for as he looks to rally allies to stand firm in backing the Ukrainian resistance.
Biden, during his time at the U.N. General Assembly, also planned to meet Wednesday with new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, announce a global food security initiative and press allies to meet an $18 billion target to replenish the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
But White House officials say the crux of the president’s visit to the U.N. this year would be a full-throated condemnation of Russia as its brutal war nears the seven-month mark.
“He’ll offer a firm rebuke of Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine and make a call to the world to continue to stand against the naked aggression that we’ve seen these past several months,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in previewing the president’s address. “He will underscore the importance of strengthening the United Nations and reaffirm core tenets of its charter at a time when a permanent member of the Security Council has struck at the very heart of the charter by challenging the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
The address comes as Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine have announced plans to hold Kremllin-backed referendums in days ahead on becoming part of Russia and as Moscow is losing ground in the invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced a partial mobilization to call up 300,000 reservists and accused the West of engaging in “nuclear blackmail.”
Biden is confronting no shortage of difficult issues as leaders gather this year.
In addition to the Russian war in Ukraine, European fears that a recession could be just around the corner are heightened. Administration concerns grow by the day that time is running short to revive the Iran nuclear deal and over China’s saber-rattling on Taiwan.
When he addressed last year’s General Assembly, Biden focused on broad themes of global partnership, urging world leaders to act with haste against the coronavirus, climate change and human rights abuses. And he offered assurances that his presidency marked a return of American leadership to international institutions following Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
But one year later, global dynamics have dramatically changed.
Stewart Patrick, senior fellow and director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Washington think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in an analysis that Biden’s task this year is “immense” compared to his first address to the U.N. as president.
“Last year, the U.S. leader won easy plaudits as the ‘anti-Trump,’ pledging that ‘America was back,’” Patrick said. “This year demands more. The liberal, rules-based international system is reeling, battered by Russian aggression, Chinese ambitions, authoritarian assaults, a halting pandemic recovery, quickening climate change, skepticism of the U.N.’s relevance, and gnawing doubts about American staying power.”
Beyond diplomacy, the president is also doing some politicking. This year’s gathering comes less than seven weeks before pivotal midterm elections in the United States. Shortly after arriving in Manhattan on Tuesday night, Biden spoke at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser for about 100 participants that raised nearly $2 million, and he’s set to hold another fundraiser on Thursday before heading back to Washington.
His Wednesday address comes on the heels of Ukrainian forces retaking control of large stretches of territory near Kharkiv. But even as Ukrainian forces have racked up battlefield wins, much of Europe is feeling painful blowback from economic sanctions levied against Russia. A vast reduction in Russian oil and gas has led to a sharp jump in energy prices, skyrocketing inflation and growing risk of Europe slipping into a recession.
Biden’s visit to the U.N. also comes as his administration’s efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal appears stalled.
The deal brokered by the Obama administration – and scrapped by Trump in 2018 – provided billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for Iran’s agreement to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to extensive international inspection.
Sullivan said no breakthrough with Iran is expected during the General Assembly but Biden would make clear in his speech that a deal can still be done “if Iran is prepared to be serious about its obligations.” He added that administration officials would be consulting with fellow signatories of the 2015 deal on the sidelines of this week’s meetings.
This year’s U.N. gathering is back to being a full-scale, in-person event after two years of curtailed activity due to the pandemic. In 2020, the in-person gathering was canceled and leaders instead delivered prerecorded speeches; last year was a mix of in-person and prerecorded speeches. Biden and first lady Jill Biden were set to host a leaders’ reception on Wednesday evening.
China’s President Xi Jinping opted not to attend this year’s U.N. gathering, but his country’s conduct and intentions will loom large during the leaders’ talks.
Last month, the U.N. human rights office raised concerns about possible “crimes against humanity” in China’s western region against Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic groups. Beijing has vowed to suspend cooperation with the office and blasted what it described as a Western plot to undermine China’s rise.
Meanwhile, China’s government on Monday said Biden’s statement in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that American forces would defend Taiwan if Beijing tried to invade the self-ruled island was a violation of U.S. commitments on the matter, but it gave no indication of possible retaliation.
The White House said after the interview that there has been no change in U.S. policy on Taiwan, which China claims as its own. That policy says Washington wants to see Taiwan’s status resolved peacefully but doesn’t say whether U.S. forces might be sent in response to a Chinese attack.
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Louisiana Federal Judge Blocks Biden COVID Vaccine Mandate For Head Start Program
Louisiana Federal Judge Blocks Biden COVID Vaccine Mandate For Head Start Program https://digitalalaskanews.com/louisiana-federal-judge-blocks-biden-covid-vaccine-mandate-for-head-start-program/
A Louisiana federal judge Wednesday blocked President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for the Head Start program in 24 states with a permanent injunction.
Louisiana Western District Judge Terry Doughty initially issued a temporary injunction in January, but Wednesday’s ruling was on the merits of the case. The Biden administration can appeal the ruling.
Doughty’s ruling said the Biden Administration doesn’t have the power to issue the mandate without Congress, that it violates the administrative procedures act without proper notice and public comment and that it violates the 10th Amendment by infringing on states’ powers.
Head Start programs provide children ages 3 to 5 and their families at or below the federal poverty level with early childhood education and resources.
The Biden Administration’s order would require teachers, contractors and volunteers in Head Start programs to be fully vaccinated.
Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry filed the lawsuit on Dec. 21, saying the Head Start mandate is “beyond the Executive Branch’s authority, contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”
Doughty, who was appointed by President Trump, quoted founder James Madison in his ruling: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elected may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
“Courts are protectors of the United States Constitution and its delegated powers,” Doughty went on to say in his ruling. “The separation of powers keeps the three branches equal. If one branch attempts to exceed its constitutional powers it is the judicial branch’s duty to stop it.
More:What we know about Judge Terry Doughty, who blocked Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate and drilling ban
Other states in the lawsuit include: Alabama; Alaska; Arkansas; Arizona; Florida; Georgia; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Mississippi; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; North Dakota; Ohio; Oklahoma; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Utah; Wyoming; and West Virginia.
Doughty has also previously blocked a Biden vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that ruling and sided with Biden.
The judge also drew national attention when he lifted the Biden administration’s moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal land and waters in 2021.
More:Barksdale Airman Faith Crocker files lawsuit against COVID military vaccine mandate
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
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Florida GOP Voters Backing Gov. Ron DeSantis Over Trump: Poll
Florida GOP Voters Backing Gov. Ron DeSantis Over Trump: Poll https://digitalalaskanews.com/florida-gop-voters-backing-gov-ron-desantis-over-trump-poll/
Florida voters prefer Gov. Ron DeSantis over former President Donald Trump by an 8-percentage-point margin in a hypothetical 2024 GOP primary, according to a new poll that shows Mr. Trump’s support in his adopted state has slipped since the start of the year.
The USA Today/Suffolk Poll said Republican voters in Florida prefer Mr. DeSantis, 48%-40%, over Mr. Trump — a stark reversal from the 47%-40% lead that Mr. Trump enjoyed in a similar poll in January.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean DeSantis would lead in any other GOP primary state,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, told USA Today. “But it is one data point suggesting a shift in preferences from GOP voters away from Trump and toward DeSantis from Republicans who know both potential combatants quite well.”
Both men lead President Biden in a hypothetical 2024 matchup, though Mr. DeSantis enjoys a 52%-44% margin compared to the 47%-44% lead for Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump, a longtime New Yorker, officially declared himself a Florida resident during his presidency. In recent months, his Mar-a-Lago home has been the focus of a federal investigation of sensitive government documents that were discovered at the estate.
Mr. DeSantis, meanwhile, has raised his profile during a reelection bid this year by sparring with the media and recently flying 50 Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, saying Northeast “sanctuary” sites should absorb some of the influx.
The governor is viewed by many in GOP circles as the most likely alternative to Mr. Trump. Mr. DeSantis’ blunt style is in the same mold as Mr. Trump’s, but the governor isn’t dogged by the type of investigations that surround the ex-president.
Beyond the documents probe, Mr. Trump has been battered by inquiries into his post-2020 election actions and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. DeSantis leads Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist in the governor’s race, 48%-41%, — a slight shift from his 49%-43% lead over Mr. Crist at the start of the year, before Mr. Crist won the nomination.
In the Senate race, pollsters said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, leads Rep. Val Demings, a Democrat, by 45% to 41%, meaning Mr. Rubio’s support has dropped 4 percentage points since January while Ms. Demings’ level of support has remained the same.
The poll of 500 likely midterm voters was taken by phone Thursday through Sunday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
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How I Spent My Summer Vac- Sitka Alaska- 49th Great State 9-21-22 The Village
How I Spent My Summer Vac- Sitka, Alaska- 49th Great State 9-21-22 The Village https://digitalalaskanews.com/how-i-spent-my-summer-vac-sitka-alaska-49th-great-state-9-21-22-the-village/
Harbor view in Sitka, AK
Some of my favorite things in Sitka, AK
After spending 2 years going absolutely nowhere, this summer I visited in Northern CA with two college friends I hadn’t seen in 40 years. They are brilliant & I had a fabulous time. Then I flew north to Alaska to visit a friend I haven’t seen in 20 years. More brilliance & excellence. Many have been to CA, so I’m focusing on Alaska. I had the privilege of living in Southeastern AK for 3 years on Prince of Wales Island in Hydaburg while in my 20s. Extraordinary experience. Now I was back to play.
AK is huge. More than twice as big as TX. Flying over it, you see land, land, land, little group of people, land, land, land, little group of people, seemingly ad infinitum.
Southeast AK is water, water, islands, little group of people, and so on.
And It Is Gorgeous.
Tongass National Forest, channels of water, and 85 mountains run through it.
Sitka sits on the shore of Baranof Island, an island slightly larger than the state of Delaware. The Tlingit people have lived there for at least 10,000 years, establishing a rich culture based around the abundant natural resources of the region. The ocean is rich in fish and shellfish, the forest grows massive Sitka spruce and other trees, suppling wood for homes, canoes and other materials. The forest is rich in wildlife, providing another source of food and hides for clothing and shelter. Because of the stable and beneficent resources, the Tlingit people established strong families and communities, with traditional music, dance and art.
The abundant resources also attracted European settlers beginning in the late 1700s. Russians in search of fur pelts dominated the region for much of the century, establishing the city of Archangel (later Sitka) as their primary trading and administrative hub. The Tlingits fought back against this colonization, notably in two battles, in 1802 and 1804, that the national park commemorates. Although the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, the Russia heritage of the region continued—and Sitka now contains two of only four Russian-built structures in the Western hemisphere, one in the national park.
The combination of rich Tlingit, Russian and American heritage led early Alaskan leaders to create a local historic park dedicated both to the individual cultures and their fusion. todayinconservation.com/…
Remembering history and honoring cultures–
Sitka National Historical Park
Carving shed with re-creation by Master Carver Tommy Joseph & interns
“Sitka National Historical Park is Alaska’s smallest national historical park, but it’s big on Alaska history and scenic beauty.
The 113-acre park was established in 1890 and is the oldest federally designated park in Alaska.
Located within easy walking distance of downtown Sitka, the park is an important site for Tlingit and Russian history and is home to authentic Tlingit and Haida totem poles nestled in a rainforest of giant Sitka spruce trees.” www.travelalaska.com/…
For more on Tlingit Master Carver Tommy Joseph, Naal’xák’w, here are two great interviews.
Part 1- Becoming a Traditional Wood Carver
www.nps.gov/…
In Part 2, Tommy Joseph talks about how it has been carving the Waasgo Legend Pole so far, as well as the legend behind the pole and some of its history.
www.nps.gov/…
Southeast Alaska is one of the most lush areas in the US
“The Sitka National Historical Park Visitor Center displays Russian and Tlingit artifacts and has a theater that shows a video about the area’s history.
During the summer, the visitor center hosts the Demonstrating Artists Program, housing three art studios where Alaska Native artists demonstrate woodworking, beading, weaving, and metal engraving.
The Totem Trail is a mile-long path through Sitka spruce and western hemlock trees that showcases 18 Tlingit and Haida totems.
From a footbridge over the Indian River, the trail connects to the Russian Memorial Trail, leading to the historic grounds of the Battle of Sitka, where Russian colonists fought with local Tlingit peoples, eventually leading to the establishment of Russia’s settlement in Alaska.
Visitors can explore the trails as a self-guided tour or join a ranger-led walk.” www.travelalaska.com/…
Signs also remind you that “Bears Happen” and to be mindful of your surroundings.
Fortress of the Bear
“Bears ruled Alaska long before fishermen, gold miners, or cruise ships arrived. As their territory
This is Toby. She’s all heart. And a lot of fish.
has diminished, more and more bear cubs have become orphaned and sick. The state of Alaska has no bear rehabilitation program in place, and unfortunately orphaned cubs are routinely shot by the Department of Fish and Game for lack of an alternative. Until now. At Fortress of the Bear, our mission is to rescue cubs, bring them back to health and provide a long life full of enrichment.
Our rescue center opened in 2007, and now houses 8 bears. More than 20,000 visitors per year come to experience the majesty of these amazing creatures. We’ve sent bears to the Bronx Zoo, Montana Grizzly Encounter and the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary in Boyd, Texas. Our goal is to work with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game to someday release rehabbed bears back into the wild.” www.fortressofthebear.org/…
Stories behind some of the bears—
“Toby is our lone female brown bear, also known as a sow. Toby and her brothers found us when they were 1½ years old after their mother died from ingesting plastic bags found in a garbage can.
Although Toby will never have children of her own, since there is no captive breeding allowed in Alaska, she has taken on the role of mother when it comes to her brothers, Balloo & Lucky…
Toby was our first bear to pick up the concept of signing for more food, by putting her paws together in front of her chest…
We noticed that Lucky had an injured rear paw and a severe limp. We’re not sure what caused this; perhaps he had a fight with a big bear, or he may have been hit by a car. Regardless of the cause of his injuries, we don’t feel he would have survived on his own considering his inability to keep up with his siblings…
Now that has all changed! After some physiotherapy training with his keepers, such as getting him to stretch up tall, he is strong with no visible signs of his injured back paw… www.fortressofthebear.org/…
Eagles at the Alaska Raptor Center
“The Alaska Raptor Center provides medical treatment to over 200 injured birds each year.
Although we specialize in raptors, we will aid any wild bird in need. We strive to heal, rehabilitate and release all of our avian patients, however, some are injured too severely to fully recover and survive in the wild.
These non-releasable birds may join our Raptors-in-Residence team, helping us teach the public and schoolchildren about the wonders of raptor natural history and the habitats in which they live!
The mission of the Alaska Raptor Center is to promote and enhance wild populations of raptors and other avian species through rehabilitation, education, and research. “ alaskaraptor.org/…
The Sitka Sound Science Center
–Pro Fish & Fish Hatchery (Not Farmed Fish)
Circle of Life- A Fishy Story
“The Sitka Sound Science Center is uniquely qualified to provide unparalleled access for research and education programs in the Gulf of Alaska, Eastern Pacific Ocean, and North American Coastal Temperate Rainforests.
The Science Center builds upon Sitka’s legacy as a research and educational community. Sitka has a maritime tradition and commercial, charter, sport, and subsistence fishing all still play vital roles in the economy and culture of the community. Sitka also has ample opportunities for outreach and education. In addition to offering local K-12 and university education, Sitka is visited by approximately
Traffic jam as Pink Humpy Salmon come home to spawn
200,000 tourists every summer. “ sitkascience.org/…
HISTORY
“In 1972, Sheldon Jackson College formed a two year program to train people in aquaculture, fisheries science and fisheries management. The school received the first state-issued salmon hatchery permit in Alaska and the students built a hatchery.
Over the years the hatchery reared all five species of salmon and trained hundreds of students that went on to become leaders in natural resource management in Alaska. The Sage Building was the scientific classrooms and laboratories for the school…
[In 2007 ] The Sheldon Jackson College closed its doors. Volunteers from the community helped keep the hatchery operational. Once that was stabilized, the University of Alaska organized a meeting in Sitka of state and federal agencies such as the Department of Fish and Game, NOAA, University of Alaska, representatives from aquaculture and science education and researchers from across the State. The meeting was held to determine how Sheldon Jackson College’s legacy of providing science education and quality research for the state could be maintained. The Sitka Sound Science Center was formed as a nonprofit with the goal of improving understanding of the marine and terrestrial ecosystems in Alaska through scientific education and research.” sitkascience.org/…
Find the Seals (Easy)
2 Seals on a buoy
Find the Eagle (Medium)
1 Eagle in a man-made tree-like structure
Find the Bear (Harder)
1 Bear barely there
Keep Mary Peltola in the US House Representing AK!!!!!!!
peltola.house.gov
Poll
3 votes Show Results
Only 3 choices:
3 votes Vote Now!
Only 3 choices:
I’ve been to Alaska & loved it.
I’ve never been to Alaska, but I’d love to go.
I live in Alaska. It’s you who are outside. (I jokes)
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Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against DeSantis On Behalf Of Migrants Brought To Mass.
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against DeSantis On Behalf Of Migrants Brought To Mass. https://digitalalaskanews.com/class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-desantis-on-behalf-of-migrants-brought-to-mass/
A group says it is suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others over what it is calling a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to transport nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard without shelter or resources in place.The organization Lawyers for Civil Rights announced Tuesday that a federal civil rights class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of a class of affected immigrants, including the dozens flown to Martha’s Vineyard, and Alianza Americas, a network of migrant-led organizations supporting immigrants across the United States.According to Lawyers for Civil Rights, the group of migrants in San Antonio were targeted and induced to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretenses.In addition to DeSantis, Lawyers for Civil Rights said it is suing Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, the state of Florida, and their accomplices.”No human being should be used as a political pawn in the nation’s highly polarized debate over immigration,” Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said in a statement.“It is opportunistic that activists would use illegal immigrants for political theater,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communication director, in a statement late Tuesday.The lawsuit alleges that the defendants pretended to be good samaritans offering help and gave the migrants $10 gift certificates for McDonald’s while they were in Texas.”After luring Plaintiffs by exploiting their most basic needs, the Doe Defendants then made false promises and false representations that if Plaintiffs and class members were willing to board airplanes to other states, they would receive employment, housing, educational opportunities, and other like assistance upon their arrival,” the lawsuit states.The migrants were temporarily housed in a Texas hotel, where their attorneys said they were “sequestered away from the migrant center.” The migrants then procured and paid $615,000 for the private planes that took them to Martha’s Vineyard. According to the lawsuit, the defendants spent $12,300 per passenger aboard the flights. The lawsuit claims that the migrants were told they were going to Boston or Washington, D.C., “which was completely false.”Helena Olea, associate director for programs at Alianza Americas, said the migrants were given brochures that claimed to provide job placement, housing assistance, food assistance, English learning and eight months of cash assistance for income-eligible refugees.”The persons who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard were deceived, were misinformed,” Olea said. “They are asylum seekers. They do not have access to those services.” Click here to read the entire lawsuit filed on behalf of the migrants.The class action lawsuit comes a day after a sheriff in Texas announced he is launching a criminal investigation into the people responsible for transporting the group of migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard.Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar announced Monday that, to his office’s understanding, a Venezuelan migrant was paid to recruit the migrants from the area surrounding the city of San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center. “They feel they were lied to. They feel that they were deceived in being taken from Bexar County — from San Antonio, Texas — to where they eventually ended up,” Salazar said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. “They feel like that was done through deceptive means. That could be a crime here in Texas and we will handle it as such.” Salazar, an elected Democrat, railed against the flights that took off in his city as political posturing. But he said investigators had so far only spoken to attorneys representing some of the migrants and did not name any potential suspects who might face charges.”I am very glad that the sheriff chose to open an investigation, I think that’s the right thing to do,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday.The group of migrants landed in Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday and were eventually brought to Joint Base Cape Cod on Friday.DeSantis said he paid for the flights from a state fund because those migrants were planning to travel to his state.Salazar did not mention DeSantis in a news conference that appeared to mark the first time a law enforcement official has said they would look into the flights.“I believe there is some criminal activity involved here,” Salazar said Monday. “But at present, we are trying to keep an open mind and we are going to investigate to find out what exact laws were broken if that does turn out to be the case.”Baker said he has not spoken to DeSantis, but the Florida governor said Tuesday — before the class action lawsuit was announced — that allegations the migrants were transported to Massachusetts under false pretenses are false.”It was volunteer-offered transport to sanctuary jurisdictions,” DeSantis said.On Sunday, Baker announced that he has activated up to 125 members of the Massachusetts National Guard to help the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in its relief efforts for the group of Venezuelan migrants, who are currently housed in a dormitory-style space at JBCC. Julio Henriquez, an attorney who met with several migrants, said the migrants were told they were going to Boston and “had no idea of where they were going or where they were.”He said a Latina woman approached migrants at a city-run shelter in San Antonio and put them up at a nearby La Quinta Inn, where she visited daily with food and gift cards. She promised jobs and three months of housing in Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, according to Henriquez.Salazar said the migrants had been “preyed upon” and “hoodwinked.”State Rep. Dylan Fernandes and state Sen. Julian Cyr, who both represent Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, met with the migrants on Monday and called for a federal investigation into the matter.”Not only is this morally criminal, I think there are real implications here around human trafficking; around fraud, at a bare minimum; deprivation of liberty; kidnapping,” Fernandes said.”Not a single one of them are in violation of immigration law,” Cyr said. “They presented as asylum seekers. These are Venezuelans who are escaping a communist dictatorship.”Some Democrats have urged the Justice Department to investigate the flights, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose district includes San Antonio.Guesswork was rampant among government officials, advocates and journalists Tuesday about DeSantis’ next move, consistent with the element of surprise that he and another Republican governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, have sought to achieve by busing and flying migrants across the country to Democratic strongholds with little or no notice.Asked Tuesday about speculation that DeSantis may send migrants to his home state of Delaware, President Joe Biden said: “He should come visit. We have a beautiful shoreline.”DeSantis declined to confirm the speculation, based on flight-tracking software, that more migrants were on the move.MEMA continues to lead coordination efforts among state and local officials to ensure access to food, shelter and essential services for the migrants, according to the governor’s office. The state is also offering to help individuals travel to their ultimate destination.Since the group of 49 people arrived, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services has raised approximately $269,000 to help and another $50,000 through a community foundation.Baker’s office said those interested in supporting the emergency relief effort for the migrants should send an email to the Massachusetts Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters at MAVOAD@gmail.com.In a statement, Bourne Public Schools Superintendent Kerri Anne Quinlan-Zhoe said the school district is ready and willing to provide an education to the six migrant children who were brought to Joint Base Cape Cod.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
BOSTON —
A group says it is suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others over what it is calling a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to transport nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard without shelter or resources in place.
The organization Lawyers for Civil Rights announced Tuesday that a federal civil rights class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of a class of affected immigrants, including the dozens flown to Martha’s Vineyard, and Alianza Americas, a network of migrant-led organizations supporting immigrants across the United States.
According to Lawyers for Civil Rights, the group of migrants in San Antonio were targeted and induced to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretenses.
In addition to DeSantis, Lawyers for Civil Rights said it is suing Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, the state of Florida, and their accomplices.
“No human being should be used as a political pawn in the nation’s highly polarized debate over immigration,” Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said in a statement.
“It is opportunistic that activists would use illegal immigrants for political theater,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communication director, in a statement late Tuesday.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants pretended to be good samaritans offering help and gave the migrants $10 gift certificates for McDonald’s while they were in Texas.
“After luring Plaintiffs by exploiting their most basic needs, the Doe Defendants then made false promises and false representations that if Plaintiffs and class members were willing to board airplanes to other states, they would receive employment, ...
Post Politics Now: Biden To Offer firm Rebuke Of Russias War On Ukraine During Address To U.N.
Post Politics Now: Biden To Offer ‘firm Rebuke’ Of Russia’s War On Ukraine During Address To U.N. https://digitalalaskanews.com/post-politics-now-biden-to-offer-firm-rebuke-of-russias-war-on-ukraine-during-address-to-u-n/
Today, President Biden will deliver a “firm rebuke” of Russia for its “unjust war” on Ukraine during an annual address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, according to a preview of the speech offered to reporters by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Biden is expected to urge other world leaders “to continue to stand against the naked aggression” by a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, Sullivan said.
The morning speech is part of a busy day in New York for Biden. His schedule also includes meetings with new British Prime Minister Liz Truss and U.N. Secretary General António Guterres.
Your daily dashboard
10:35 a.m. Eastern: Biden delivers remarks before the 77th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Watch live here.
11:45 a.m. Eastern: Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Guterres.
1:15 p.m. Eastern: Biden hosts a bilateral meeting with Truss.
4 p.m. Eastern: Biden delivers remarks at the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York. Watch live here.
7 p.m. Eastern: Biden hosts a reception for world leaders in New York.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
On our radar: Biden expected to touch on pandemic preparation in U.N. speech
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In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, President Biden is expected to urge fellow world leaders to be better prepared for the next pandemic.
“One of the core things that the president wants to communicate when it comes to global health is that from the point of view of dealing with pandemics, what covid-19 should teach all of us is that we darn well better be much better prepared for the next one,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Tuesday in previewing Biden’s speech.
Our our radar: Biden to deliver ‘firm rebuke of Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine’
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President Biden will deliver “a firm rebuke of Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine” when he speaks Wednesday at the United Nations, and he will encourage world leaders to continue their opposition to Russia’s “naked aggression,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
Biden will highlight that Russia, “a permanent member of the Security Council” of the United Nations, “has struck at the very heart” of the U.N. charter “by challenging the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
The latest: U.N. chief says world is ‘gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction’
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U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Tuesday that a breakdown in global cooperation amid Russia’s war in Ukraine is exacerbating the top threats to human existence, including food insecurity and climate change.
Guterres said problems such as poverty, indebtedness, online hate and harassment, and a loss of biodiversity are resulting from the international system’s failure to function, The Post’s John Hudson, Missy Ryan and Yasmeen Abutaleb report.
Per our colleagues:
“Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider. Challenges are spreading farther,” Guterres said at the annual gathering of leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“We have a duty to act. And yet we are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction,” he said.
The diagnosis was echoed by some of the more than 100 leaders attending the week-long event, but very little consensus emerged over how to bridge divides among nations deeply conflicted about how to respond to the war in Ukraine.
President Biden is scheduled to address the gathering in New York on Wednesday.
Noted: Garland meets Ukraine’s prosecutor general amid new signs of Russian atrocities
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Attorney General Merrick Garland and his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Kostin, signed an agreement Tuesday aimed at formalizing cooperation over joint efforts to prosecute alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in the war in Ukraine.
The Post’s David Nakamura reports that the two men signed the memorandum of understanding after meeting at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, a show of partnership to step up international pressure amid evidence of new mass atrocities discovered after Ukrainian forces took back wide swaths of territory in recent weeks. Per our colleague:
The latest: GOP attorneys general back Trump in court fight over Mar-a-Lago documents
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Texas’s Ken Paxton and 10 other GOP state attorneys general came to the defense of former president Donald Trump on Tuesday in his legal fight over documents seized by the FBI last month, filing an amicus brief in a federal appellate court that argued the Biden administration could not be trusted.
The Post’s Andrew Jeong and Amy B Wang report that in a 21-page document that repeated numerous right-wing talking points but that experts said broke little new legal ground, the officials accused the Biden administration of “ransacking” Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of the former president, during an Aug. 8 court-authorized FBI raid and of politicizing the Justice Department. Per our colleagues:
McConnell-linked super PAC pulls out of Senate race in Arizona
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A super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has canceled nearly $10 million it had reserved for television ads in Arizona, an official with the group said Tuesday, pulling out of a battleground state where Republican challenger Blake Masters trails Sen. Mark Kelly (D) in the polls.
The Post’s Hannah Knowles and Azi Paybarah report that the spending cuts — which slash all of the super PAC’s remaining ad investments in Arizona — are another blow to a GOP candidate who has been significantly outraised by his Democratic opponent and outmatched on the airwaves. Per our colleagues:
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Columnist Who Accused Trump Of 90s Rape Plans New Lawsuit Under New York
Columnist Who Accused Trump Of 90s Rape Plans New Lawsuit Under New York https://digitalalaskanews.com/columnist-who-accused-trump-of-90s-rape-plans-new-lawsuit-under-new-york/
Larry Neumeister | The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A writer who accused former President Donald Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room intends to file another lawsuit against him under a new New York law letting sexual assault victims sue over attacks that happened decades ago.
A lawyer for the columnist, E. Jean Carroll, notified a federal judge of her intent to sue in an August letter entered in the public record Tuesday. The suit would allege sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In the letter, the lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, also said she plans to depose Trump in the defamation case that Carroll already had pending against the former president. The deposition would have to occur by Oct. 19, when discovery in the case must be completed for a planned February trial.
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an Aug. 11 letter to the court that was also posted in the public file Tuesday, she objected to the new lawsuit.
For subscribers: The lawsuits, investigations and legal troubles a 2024 Trump candidacy faces, explained
Habba wrote that letting Carroll file the new claim now “would be extraordinarily prejudicial” to Trump, given the looming trial deadlines in the defamation case.
“To permit Plaintiff to drastically alter the scope and subject matter of this case at such time would severely prejudice Defendant’s rights. Therefore, Plaintiff’s request must be disregarded in its entirety,” Habba said.
Kaplan declined to comment.
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, wrote in a 2019 book that Trump raped her during a chance encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s. Trump denied it and questioned Carroll’s credibility and motivations.
Because the alleged attack happened so long ago, Carroll would ordinarily have missed legal deadlines to sue Trump. So she initially sued him instead for defamation, saying he smeared her reputation while denying the rape allegation.
Last spring, however, New York lawmakers passed the Adult Survivor’s Act, which provides a one-year “look back” that enables adult survivors of sexual attacks to bring civil claims when they otherwise would be barred.
More: 19 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Here’s what their stories have in common.
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The law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May, was modeled after the Child Victims Act, which provided a similar window to bring lawsuits for people who had been sexually assaulted when they were children. That law expired a year ago.
A deposition would require Trump to answer questions from Carroll’s lawyers under oath about her allegations. Carroll’s legal team in February had said they were willing to skip a deposition in order to get the lawsuit to trial more quickly. Kaplan, in her letter to the court, said she now needed to question Trump because his lawyers had turned over so few documents relevant to the case.
In her letter to the court, Habba made no mention of the plans to depose Trump, but she did complain that Kaplan’s letter was “filled with misrepresentations and inflammatory statements.”
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org/online and receive confidential support.
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GOP Attorneys General Back Trump In Court Fight Over Mar-A-Lago Documents
GOP Attorneys General Back Trump In Court Fight Over Mar-A-Lago Documents https://digitalalaskanews.com/gop-attorneys-general-back-trump-in-court-fight-over-mar-a-lago-documents/
Texas’s Ken Paxton and 10 other GOP state attorneys general came to the defense of former president Donald Trump on Tuesday in his legal fight over documents the FBI seized last month, filing an amicus brief in a federal appellate court that argued the Biden administration could not be trusted.
In a 21-page document that repeated numerous right-wing talking points but that experts said advanced little new legal ground, the officials accused the Biden administration of “ransacking” Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of the former president, during an Aug. 8 court-authorized FBI raid and of politicizing the Justice Department.
The search, which stemmed from an investigation into whether Trump and his associates improperly took and held on to secret government papers, resulted in the discovery of numerous sensitive documents. Trump’s attorneys then asked for a special master to examine some 100 documents and exclude those that may be covered by attorney-client or executive privilege. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon agreed to the request and barred criminal investigators from using the material until the review is completed. The Justice Department contested parts of Cannon’s decision and asked the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to override her.
The amicus brief urges the appellate court to deny the appeal. “Given Biden’s track record, combined with his rhetoric demonizing anyone he disagrees with, the courts must be on high alert to the ways in which [the Justice Department] may abuse its power to punish President Donald Trump,” Paxton, whose office led the effort, said in a statement Tuesday.
The Utah Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the state had joined the amicus brief but declined to comment further. Representatives for the other attorneys general did not respond to requests for comment.
Officials at the Department of Justice could not be immediately reached late Tuesday.
Amicus briefs are documents filed by parties not directly involved in a legal contest to inform judges of additional, relevant information. But the one filed by the attorneys general reads more like a political document than a legal brief, legal experts said.
The attorneys general from Texas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia do not elaborate on the core legal issues Trump is contesting — executive privilege and whether the documents found at his Florida estate were actually classified — according to John Yoo, a legal expert on executive privilege who reviewed the brief at The Washington Post’s request.
The term “executive privilege” is mentioned only once in the filing, and the text doesn’t provide new information that could help determine whether the government documents found at Trump’s property are classified. The privilege is usually invoked to shield executive branch communications from Congress or the courts, not from an agency within the branch itself, such as the Justice Department.
Instead, the GOP officials list a wide array of grievances against the Biden administration, including how it handled immigration law enforcement and its response to the coronavirus pandemic, that do not appear directly related to the case. They argue that the administration’s “questionable conduct” in policymaking and litigation means courts should treat the Justice Department’s appeal with caution.
The officials who signed the brief are “really good lawyers,” said Yoo, who worked in the George W. Bush administration’s Justice Department. But the brief is a political document that “just doesn’t address any of the issues at stake,” he said.
Paxton has previously used his office to intervene in courts on behalf of Trump and other right-wing causes. In 2020, Texas attempted to sue Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania over the 2020 presidential election, in a long-shot attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. The Supreme Court dismissed that case.
The brief is “of course a political stunt,” said Jon D. Michaels, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who studies presidential powers. “The officials are playing to the fierce MAGA bases in their states,” he said.
Paxton’s office could not be immediately reached for comment late Tuesday.
Perry Stein and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
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Putin Mobilizes More Troops For Ukraine Threatens West With Nuclear Retaliation
Putin Mobilizes More Troops For Ukraine, Threatens West With Nuclear Retaliation https://digitalalaskanews.com/putin-mobilizes-more-troops-for-ukraine-threatens-west-with-nuclear-retaliation/
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilization of his country’s military Wednesday, calling up reservists in a significant escalation of his war in Ukraine after battlefield setbacks left the Kremlin facing growing pressure to act.
In a rare national address, the Russian leader also backed plans for Russia to annex occupied areas of southern and eastern Ukraine, appearing to threaten nuclear retaliation if Kyiv continues its efforts to reclaim that land.
It came just a day after after four Russian-controlled areas announced they would stage votes this week on breaking away from Ukraine and joining Russia, in a plan Kyiv and its Western allies dismissed as a desperate “sham” aimed at deterring a successful counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops.
Vowing that Russia would use all the means at its disposal to protect what it considers its territory, Putin accused the West of nuclear blackmail and warned: “This is not a bluff.”
Speaking after Putin, defense minister Sergei Shoigu said an initial 300,000 reservists would be called up.
Only those with relevant combat and service experience will be mobilized, Shoigu said. Another clause in the decree, which came into effect immediately, prevents most professional soldiers from terminating their contracts and leaving service until the partial mobilization is no longer in place.
Bridget Brink, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said in response: “Sham referenda and mobilization are signs of weakness, of Russian failure.”
“The United States will never recognize Russia’s claim to purportedly annexed Ukrainian territory, and we will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” she said.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace described Putin’s mobilization announcement as “an admission that his invasion is failing.”
“He and his defense minister have sent tens of thousands of their own citizens to their deaths, ill-equipped and badly led,” Wallace said in a statement. “No amount of threats and propaganda can hide the fact that Ukraine is winning this war, the international community are united and Russia is becoming a global pariah.”
Putin has resisted calls from nationalist supporters and pro-military bloggers for a general mobilization since launching his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
On Wednesday, the Russian leader stopped short of that step — which could have significantly boosted his ailing forces, but would likely take time and could also have proven unpopular with a public the Kremlin has sought to insulate from the effects of the war.
It remains to be seen whether the partial mobilization will spare him those same concerns.
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MHT CET Counselling 2022 Schedule Registration Seat Allotment
MHT CET Counselling 2022 Schedule Registration Seat Allotment https://digitalalaskanews.com/mht-cet-counselling-2022-schedule-registration-seat-allotment/
MHT CET Counselling 2022: State Common Entrance Test Cell, Government of Maharashtra will start the MHT CET counselling soon after announcing the MH CET Result 2022. MHT CET 2022 counselling for admission of selected candidates to various UG programs in the field of engineering, technology, pharmacy, agriculture, etc. will commence as per the schedule.
Through this counselling process, candidates will be allotted admission to various government and private universities/ colleges in Maharashtra State. Maharashtra CET counselling will be conducted online mode through a single window admission system known as the Centralized Admission Process (CAP).
MHT CET Counselling 2022
In order to get admission, candidates who have been listed on merit have to register online for the process of counselling. The direct link for registration will also be shared on this page. No offline application for counselling will be considered. Only registered candidates will be considered for seat allotment and further admission process.
In this given article, candidates are going to get full information on MHT CET 2022 counselling such as admission schedule, counselling procedure, seat allotment, important documents, etc.
MHT CET 2022 counselling for academic sessions 2022 will be released soon. Once the registration window will get activated candidates can start applying. Online registration and submitting choices are important in order to participate in online counselling.
MHT CET 2022 counselling will consist of various processes like online registration, document verification, option filling, seat allotment, reporting,
MHT CET 2022– Quick Overview
Name of the Exam
State Common Entrance Test (MHT CET) 2022
Article Category
Counselling
Conducting University
State Common Entrance Test Cell, Government of Maharashtra
Exam type
State level entrance test
State
Maharashtra
Course offered
UG programs
Academic session
2022
Mode of counselling
Online
Official website
http://cetcell.mahacet.org/
MHT CET Counselling 2022 – Important Dates for Engineering Programs
Activity/ Events
Dates
Online registration for counselling and uploading of documents
TBA
Document verification and confirmation of application
TBA
Display of the provisional merit list for Maharashtra State/All India/J & K Migrant candidates
TBA
Submission of grievance, if any, for all type of Candidates at FC
TBA
Display of the final merit lists of Maharashtra State/All India/J & K Migrant candidates
TBA
Display of Provisional Category wise Seats (Seat Matrix) for CAP Round I
TBA
Online Submission & Confirmation of Option Form of CAP Round-I through candidate’s Login by the Candidate
TBA
Display of Provisional Allotment of CAP Round-I
TBA
Reporting to the Admission Reporting Centre (ARC) as per Allotment of CAP Round I
TBA
Display of Provisional Vacant Seats for CAP Round-II
TBA
Online Submission & Confirmation of Option Form of CAP Round-II through candidate’s Login by the Candidate
TBA
Display of Provisional Allotment of CAP Round-II
TBA
MHT CET 2022 Counseling Procedure
Online Registration
The initial step for admission is the online registration for CAP. Candidates have to register themselves by providing all the necessary information. The registration process is explained through the easy steps shared below-
Visit the official website of MHT CET 2022.
Click on the registration link and the registration form will appear.
Enter personal details
Fill details on the type of candidature
Enter qualification and exam details
Upload scanned images of the required documents
Make a payment of counselling fee.
Lastly, take a printout of the registration form.
Counselling fee to be submitted by candidates from various categories-
Category
Counseling fee
General category, Outside Maharashtra State candidates and Children of Indian workers in Gulf Countries
Rs.800/-
Reserved category candidates and PWD candidates from the state of Maharashtra
Rs.600/-
Children of NRI / OCI / PIO, Foreign National
Rs.5000/-
Document Verification
After successful registration, candidates will be called for document verification. They must have all the required documents ready with them in original as well as two sets of photocopies of each. They can visit any of the Facilitation Centre (FC) for verification.
After successful verification of the application form and other documents at the facilitation centre, candidates will be issued a Receipt cum Acknowledgement of the Application Form.
Candidates not visiting FC on the specified date & time or failing to produce relevant documents will be disqualified.
Documents Required
Candidates have to produce the following documents at the verification centre-
MHT CET 2022 scorecard
MHT CET 2022 hall ticket
Class 10th/ HSC marks memo
SSC/ Equivalent mark sheets
Domicile certificate
Category/ caste certificate
Migration certificate from the institution last attended
School Leaving Certificate
Character certificate
Identity card
Passport size photograph
Other relevant documents
The proforma caste certificate, domicile certificate, and similar certificates will be made available online. Candidates have to download it from the official website.
Display of Merit list
After the verification of documents, a merit list of finally shortlisted candidates for CAP will be published online. These candidates will be eligible to proceed further.
Choice Filling
The shortlisted candidates whose names will appear on the merit list have to submit choices for their preferred course and college. They have to log in first and have to fill in choices as per their preferences. They can fill as many choices.
Allotment of Seats
After the completion of choice filling, candidates will be allotted seats. The seat allotment list will also be displayed online. Allotment of seats will be based on the availability of seats, merit, choices filled and other factors.
Reporting at ARC
Candidates who will be allotted seats have to report at the Admission Reporting Centre (ARC). They have to be present at the respective ARC on specified date and time to confirm the seat in the allotted college.
Candidates failing to report at ARC on schedule time will lose the allotted seat and will also not be able to take part in further CAP rounds.
Reporting at Allotted college
After reporting at ARC, candidates finally have to report to the allotted college to confirm their admission. They have to carry all the documents with them and have to pay the requisite application fee.
As soon as the counselling schedule will be released and registration will start we will update the same information here. Therefore, readers can bookmark this page for all the latest updates regarding MHT CET 2022 admissions.
Hope the information shared in this article was helpful. For more updates on MHT CET 2022 counselling keep visiting this page.
Contact details
State Common Entrance Test Cell,
Maharashtra State, Mumbai 8th Floor,
New Excelsior Building, A.K. Nayak Marg,
Fort, Mumbai-400001
Phone No.- 022-22016157/59/53/34/19/28
Email- maharashtra.cetcell@gmail.com
If you have, any queries related to MHT CET Counselling 2022, then comment below and we will reply to you in a fast period.
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Treasury Yields Fall Ahead Of Federal Reserve Interest Rate Decision
Treasury Yields Fall Ahead Of Federal Reserve Interest Rate Decision https://digitalalaskanews.com/treasury-yields-fall-ahead-of-federal-reserve-interest-rate-decision/
Treasury yields stumbled on Wednesday, coming off recent highs as traders await the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rate hikes.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was last at 3.536%, down by 3 basis points. Meanwhile, the policy-sensitive 2-year Treasury declined by about 2basis points and was last at 3.948%. Both Treasury notes had reached highs on Tuesday, rising to levels last seen in 2011 and 2007 respectively.
related investing news
Yields and prices move in opposite directions and one basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.
The Federal Reserve is expected to announce interest rate hikes aiming to control inflation on Wednesday as its September meeting comes to a close. Analysts are broadly expecting a 75 basis point hike, but some think the central bank will go beyond this to 100 basis points. That would mark the largest interest rate hike in 40 years.
But even that may not be enough, Michael Schumacher, head of macro strategy at Wells Fargo Securities, told CNBC’s “Fast Money,” explaining that while he is expecting a 75 basis point hike, he would argue for a 150 basis point hike as he believes rates are headed higher still.
Treasurys could also be a source of safety for investors, he added. “Relative safety I would look at the front-end of the U.S. Treasury curve. You’ve got the 2-year treasury yielding just about 4%. It’s gone up enormously,” he said. “If you think about the real yield, which a lot of people in the bond market focus on, it’s probably not a bad place to hide out.”
Before investors and traders hear from the Fed, they will get further insights into the housing market as home sales data for August is due to be released.
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AP News Summary At 6:09 A.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-609-a-m-edt/
Putin sets partial military call-up, won’t ‘bluff’ on nukes
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia. It’s the first mobilization in Russia since World War II. The measure appeared to be an admission that Moscow’s war against Ukraine is not going according to plan after nearly seven months of fighting and amid recent battlefield losses for the Kremlin’s forces. The Russian leader also warned the West that he is not bluffing over using all the means at his disposal to protect Russia’s territory, in what apparently was a veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear capability. Officials said the number of reservists to be called up is around 300,000.
Biden at UN to call Russian war an affront to body’s charter
NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden is ready to make the case at the U.N. General Assembly that Russia’s “naked aggression” in Ukraine is an affront to the heart of what the international body stands. In his address Wednesday morning, the American president is looking to rally allies to continue to back the Ukrainian resistance. Biden also plans to meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly with new British Prime Minister Liz Truss and announce a global food security initiative. But White House officials say the crux of Biden’s visit to the U.N. this year will be a full-throated condemnation of Russia as its brutal war nears the seven-month mark.
US, Iran to speak at UN; Zelenskyy to appear from Ukraine
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Iran President Ebrahim Raisi are among those taking the spotlight on the second day of the world body’s first fully in-person meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began. But perhaps one of the biggest draws on Wednesday will be Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskky, who will be heard but not seen in the flesh. The 193-member assembly voted last week to allow Zelenskky to deliver a pre-recorded address because of his need to deal with Russia’s invasion, making an exception to its requirement that all leaders speak in person. Unsurprisingly, Ukraine has been the center of attention at the U.N. assembly, with world leader after world leader condemning Russia for attacking a sovereign nation.
EXPLAINER: What kept Iran protests going after first spark?
Protests have erupted across Iran in recent days after a 22-year-old woman died while being held by the morality police for violating the country’s strictly enforced Islamic dress code. The young woman had been picked up by Iran’s morality police for her allegedly loose headscarf, or hijab. Many Iranians, particularly the young, have come to see her death as part of the Islamic Republic’s heavy-handed policing of dissent and the morality police’s increasingly violent treatment of young women. This has led to daring displays of defiance, in the face of beatings and possible arrest. In street protests, some women tore off their mandatory headscarves, demonstratively twirling them in the air, or burned them.
High inflation in sight, Fed to signal more rate hikes ahead
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise its key short-term rate by a substantial three-quarters of a point for the third consecutive time. Many Fed watchers will be paying particular attention to Chairman Jerome Powell’s remarks at a news conference afterward. When Powell spoke at an economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, last month he issued a blunt warning. He said the Fed’s drive to curb inflation by aggressively raising interest rates, he said, would “bring some pain” for Americans. Americans will likely get a better idea of how much pain could be in store.
Fiona threatens to become Category 4 storm headed to Bermuda
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is threatening to strengthen into a Category 4 storm as it lashes the Turks and Caicos Islands and was forecast to squeeze past Bermuda later this week. The storm was blamed for causing at least four direct deaths in its march through the Caribbean, where it unleashed torrential rain in Puerto Rico, leaving a majority without power or water as hundreds of thousands of people scraped mud out of their homes following what authorities described as “historic” flooding. Power company officials initially said it would take a couple of days for electricity to be fully restored but then appeared to backtrack late Tuesday night.
House to vote on election law overhaul in response to Jan. 6
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is preparing to vote on an overhaul of a centuries-old election law in an effort to prevent future presidential candidates from trying to subvert the popular will. The legislation under consideration Wednesday is a direct response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to find a way around the Electoral Count Act. That arcane 19th century law governs, along with the U.S. Constitution, how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential election winners. Trump and a group of his aides and lawyers tried to exploit loopholes in the law to overturn his defeat.
At UN, hope peeks through the gloom despite a global morass
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Hope can be hard to find anywhere these days. That goes double for the people who walk the floors of the United Nations, where shouldering the weight of the world is a core part of the job description. And when world leaders are trying to solve some of humanity’s thorniest problems, it’s easy to lose sight of hope. And yet at the U.N. General Assembly this year, while there is lots of misery and pessimism, there are also signs of brightness poking through like clovers in the sidewalk cracks. The U.N. secretary-general says hope is an increasingly rare commodity, but he also says it persists.
Some 230 whales beached in Tasmania; rescue efforts underway
HOBART, Australia (AP) — About 230 whales are stranded on Tasmania’s west coast, just two days after 14 sperm whales were found beached on a nearby island. The pod stranded on Ocean Beach appears to be pilot whales. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said Wednesday that at least half of them are presumed to still be alive. It says a team is assembling whale rescue gear and heading to the area. Two years ago, about 470 long-finned pilot whales were found beached on Tasmania’s west coast in the largest mass-stranding on record in Australia. The pilot whale is notorious for stranding in mass numbers, for reasons that are not entirely understood.
The Muscogee get their say in national park plan for Georgia
MACON, Ga. (AP) — Hundreds of Native Americans returned to their historic capital in Macon, Georgia, this weekend for the 30th annual Ocmulgee Indigenous Celebration. Nearly 200 years after the last Creek Indians were forcibly removed to Oklahoma to make way for slave labor in the Deep South, citizens of the Muscogee Creek Nation are celebrating their survival. They’re also supporting an initiative to put the National Park Service in charge of protecting the heart of the Creek Confederacy. A federal review is nearly complete, meaning Interior Secretary Deb Haaland could soon ask Congress to create the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Information Cant Keep Up With Misinformation About NC Voting Machines
Information Can’t Keep Up With Misinformation About NC Voting Machines https://digitalalaskanews.com/information-cant-keep-up-with-misinformation-about-nc-voting-machines/
The northwestern North Carolina county on the Virginia border is probably best known as the home of Mount Airy, the birthplace of Andy Griffith and the inspiration for Mayberry in his eponymous television show from the 1960s.
This year, Surry County has been a stop on the circuit for prominent election deniers who falsely maintain that votes were engineered to have President Joe Biden win in 2020.
The county devoted nearly an entire May meeting to election deniers that featured David Clements, a former assistant professor at New Mexico State University who travels the country preaching about fraud. Clements, who lost his university job last year because he refused to wear a mask in class, urged Surry to hand-count ballots.
At the meeting’s end, Surry board chairman Bill Goins told the crowd that commissioners were reviewing residents’ recommendations, but concerns about fraud should go to the local and state boards of elections. Someone in the crowd yelled, “Pontius Pilate.”
Goins could not be reached by telephone this week.
The state Board of Elections runs a feature on its website and social media accounts called “Mythbuster Mondays” that took on the question about electronic tampering back in April.
“North Carolina voting equipment does not contain modem chips, and state law prohibits voting machines from being connected wirelessly to any other device,” says this myth-buster answer.
That didn’t end the rumors.
David H. Diamont, a former state house member from Surry, said the search for election fraud reflects a deep distrust in government.
“They just don’t trust government anymore,” Diamont said in an interview this week. “It’s a disease. It’s scary. It is so different from what it was when I was in politics.”
Most North Carolina voters mark paper ballots that are fed into tabulators. With former president Donald Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud came assertions of tabulator tampering via internet connections. These beliefs have taken hold even in places like Surry, where Trump won 75 percent of the vote.
Dominion Voting Systems is suing former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for her wild claims about its machines. In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Powell’s lawyers wrote last year that “no reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact.”
No North Carolina county uses Dominion equipment, yet Republicans have demanded to look inside the machines that get deployed to voting sites to search for modems or chips.
In the counties, demands to scrap machines for hand-counting are intersecting with the distrust of voting equipment.
Surry County GOP chairman Keith Senter told the Surry elections director she would lose her job or have her pay cut after she refused demands for access to voting equipment, Reuters reported.
Senter did not return phone calls this week, but he’s a regular at “open forum” portions of commissioners’ meetings.
“Were the machines in Surry County connected to the internet, or do they have cell or internet capability?” he asked in April, invoking the names of nationally known election deniers, including ardent Trump backer My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell.
“The only way you will know is to do a forensic analysis of the machines,” Senter said.
Senter’s appearances at commissioners’ meetings to rail about elections continued through the summer.
Among the pages on the state Board of Elections website about cybersecurity, elections security, and misinformation is a page on voting machine security that attempts to knock down rumors about modem-embedded machines. It includes a statement from Trump himself released ahead of a trip to North Carolina last summer praising his victory in the state “without a fraudulent outcome.”
Election deniers have champions in the state legislature.
Members of the far-right Freedom Caucus in the North Carolina House announced at a press conference last October that they intended to inspect Durham County voting machines for devices that would enable internet connections. That investigation didn’t happen after the state Board of Elections director said unauthorized people can’t have access to voting machines.
In the lead-up to October, correspondence between the office of Rep. Keith Kidwell (R—79th District), chairman of the Freedom Caucus, and the Board of Elections in the summer of 2021 shows that caucus members had been trying to find a way to open active machines months before they announced they were going into Durham. Elections board staff had been meeting with caucus members about elections processes and trying to convince them that none of the machines used in North Carolina can access the internet.
“There are no mechanisms in place to send or receive data to or from any modem on certified voting equipment,” elections board spokesman Patrick Gannon told Kidwell in a June 8, 2021, email in answer to a question about modem capabilities.
“And state law prohibits any county from using a modem connection in voting equipment,” Gannon added.
The correspondence was obtained through a public records request.
A “Trusted Elections” tour that plans to stop in each of the state’s 14 congressional districts devotes time in each 90-minute town hall for an explanation on how voting machines work.
In addition to computer experts, the meetings feature county elections directors, Democratic and Republican elections lawyers, and Democratic and Republican members of county elections boards. The Carter Center, a nonprofit based in Atlanta, is sponsoring the tour. Bob Orr, a former Republican NC Supreme Court justice, and former Charlotte mayor Jennifer Roberts are leading the effort.
At the Johnston County courthouse on August 31, Brad Reaves, an expert in computer system privacy at NC State University, told the audience that none of the state’s voting machines can be hacked because they’re never connected to a network.
Mitch Kokai, senior political analyst at the John Locke Foundation, moderated the session and asked panelists questions the audience submitted. The local elections officials got the challenging ones.
Among the questions: Why can’t a county hand-count if that’s what the community wants to do?
Johnston County elections board chairman Gordon Woodruff said there are far too many ballots to count by hand. About 111,000 people voted in Johnston County in 2020.
Recent recounts have found errors of one or two votes, representing a tiny fraction of 1 percent, he said. And the hand-eye audits that the state requires for selected precincts confirm the machines’ accuracy, he said.
“The machines are so good, it’s really not a major issue,” Woodruff said.
Nonetheless, interest in hand-counting is taking root. It’s become a theme for the half dozen or so people who regularly attended Surry commissioners’ meetings this summer to complain about elections.
One resident told Surry commissioners that schoolchildren should be given the task of counting ballots as part of civics instruction starting in sixth grade.
In an interview this week, Orr said elections officials have appreciated the chance to talk about what they do. Participants aren’t there to challenge people’s beliefs, he said, but to let audiences hear from the local people who run elections about how it all works.
Some of the same questions get asked at every stop, Orr said. He thinks members of groups challenging the elections go to the town halls to raise them.
The only real “vocal pushback” so far came in New Bern, where a video substituted for a live election security expert. People in the audience called it “propaganda” and “lies,” Orr said.
“It’s lack of information, or understanding, or confidence in technology,” Orr said. “I don’t know what you do about that, but we’re trying.”
This story was originally published online at NC Policy Watch. This story is part of a project called Democracy Day, in which newsrooms across the country are shining a light on threats to democracy.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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Georgia Video, Testimony At Odds https://digitalalaskanews.com/georgia-video-testimony-at-odds/
This Jan. 7, 2021, image taken from Coffee County, Ga., security video, appears to show Cathy Latham (center, long turquoise top), introducing members of a computer forensic team to local election officials. Latham was the county Republican Party chair at the time. The computer forensics team was at the county elections office in Douglas, Ga., to make copies of voting equipment in an effort that documents show was arranged by Sidney Powell and others allied with then-President Donald Trump. (Coffee County, Georgia via AP)
ATLANTA — A woman identified by a prosecutor as one of Georgia’s fake electors for former President Donald Trump can be seen on a video released Tuesday spending hours with a group of computer analysts after she welcomed them into the Coffee County elections office to copy nonpublic election data on Jan. 7, 2021.
The video appears to contradict sworn statements by Cathy Latham, a member of the Georgia Republican Party’s executive committee at the time, according to a court filing in an election security lawsuit. Latham said in a deposition last month that she didn’t remember much of what happened or who was there that day, and she repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The filing comes in response to Latham’s attorneys’ attempt to quash subpoenas for her personal electronic devices, including any cellphones, computers and storage devices.
Video from inside the elections office is further evidence that Trump supporters and computer analysts penetrated an election server, voter check-in computers, ballot scanners and other voting equipment in Coffee County, a rural area 200 miles south of Atlanta where Trump received 70% of the vote.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the secretary of state’s office are investigating, and a Fulton County special grand jury looking into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election is seeking information about the Coffee County incident.
The video was made public Tuesday after it was disclosed by Coffee County’s government Friday in response to the lawsuit. It supplements previously released security video that showed the outside of the elections office.
Latham was one of 16 Republicans who attempted to award Georgia’s electoral votes to Trump on Dec. 14, 2020, and then less than a month later escorted the tech experts into the Coffee elections office. They worked for the Atlanta firm SullivanStrickler, which billed Trump attorney Sidney Powell $26,000 for the job, according to subpoenaed documents.
“These new facts — which Latham pretends do not exist — refute her unsubstantiated insistence that she did not ‘participate in whatever SullivanStrickler and others were allegedly doing,'” according to a court filing late Monday by plaintiffs seeking documents from Latham. “She literally directed them on what to collect in the office.”
An attorney for Latham, Bob Cheeley, said in a statement Tuesday she has not acted improperly or illegally. Because Latham, the county’s Republican Party chairwoman at the time, wasn’t an elections employee, she couldn’t have authorized computer imaging or ballot scanning, he said.
“She has never denied that she went to the Coffee County elections office on Jan. 7, 2021; instead, she affirmatively testified that she was there,” Cheeley said. “While Mrs. Latham does not pretend to remember the details of all that occurred on that specific date more than a year and a half ago, she does remember going to the elections office after teaching school on Jan. 7, 2021, to check in on some voter review panels from the runoff election, and she truthfully testified to those facts.”
The video shows Latham making introductions, looking at computers and taking selfies on her cellphone with one of the tech experts in an office room. Video images don’t include the election server room, located further within the elections office, that was supposed to be kept secure.
Latham said in a deposition last month that she moved to Texas over the summer. In January 2021, she was chair of the Coffee County Republican Party and was the state party caucus chair for more than 125 of Georgia’s smaller counties.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat who’s leading the investigation into Trump’s efforts to change election results, has notified Latham and the other fake electors that they could face criminal charges.
An attorney for SullivanStrickler has said Latham was a “primary point of contact” in coordinating the computer analysts’ visit to Coffee County.
The copying of software and files from equipment made by Dominion Voting Systems came the day after the Capitol riot in Washington as Congress was preparing to accept presidential electoral votes. The 2020 election results have been upheld by recounts, court cases and investigations. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump, a Republican, in Georgia by about 12,000 votes.
The video also shows Jeffrey Lenberg, a computer analyst, in the Coffee elections office later in the month. Lenberg, a skeptic of the 2020 election results, is under investigation in connection with intrusions of voting equipment in Michigan.
While Lenberg was working in the Coffee elections office on Jan. 26, 2021, an elections investigator for the Georgia secretary of state’s office arrived but didn’t appear to recognize Lenberg or suspect wrongdoing.
The investigator was working on a case involving absentee ballots that was unrelated to an investigation of unauthorized access, said Mike Hassinger, spokesman for the secretary of state’s office. The state investigation into the incident wasn’t opened until last March.
The investigator “didn’t know who Jeff Lenberg even was, let alone well enough to recognize him, or what he may have been up to,” Hassinger said. “The secretary of state’s office does not look over the shoulders of every elections office in the state on a daily basis. We respond to allegations when they are raised, but at every stage, information about unauthorized access to Coffee County’s election equipment has been kept hidden.”
Plaintiffs in the election security lawsuit, which include the Coalition for Good Governance and several voters, are opposing an attempt to quash subpoenas for her personal electronic devices, including any cellphones, computers and storage devices.
A judge in the election security lawsuit recently granted the plaintiffs’ request to subpoena documents from Lenberg and former Coffee Elections Board Chairman Ed Voyles, who was in the Coffee elections office on the day data was copied.
Additional records are being sought from other individuals involved, including former Coffee Elections Director Misty Hampton, who made a YouTube video claiming she could change votes; Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who met the tech experts in Coffee; and Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, who also visited Coffee County in January 2021 and later conducted a ballot review in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Latham’s “data likely will reveal additional details about the work performed and information obtained in the breach, what was done with the compromised software and data, and the people involved in planning and orchestrating the breach, which puts voters and future elections at enormous risk,” the filing says.
An exhibit attached to the Monday filing juxtaposes quotes from Latham’s deposition with images pulled from security camera footage that appear to directly contradict her statements.
Latham said that she went to her job as a high school teacher and stopped by the election office briefly that afternoon. But the video image shows her arriving at 11:37 a.m., and time stamps on other images show her there throughout much of the day. She also said she didn’t see specific people and saw others only briefly, but the video images show otherwise.
The lawsuit that includes the fight over Latham’s personal electronic devices was originally filed several years before the 2020 election by individual voters and the Coalition for Good Governance, an election security advocacy group. It alleges that Georgia’s touchscreen voting machines are not secure and seeks to have them replaced by hand-marked paper ballots.
The Monday filing said the plaintiffs have identified multiple documents that Latham failed to produce in response to a previous subpoena. It seeks to have a third party make a temporary forensic copy of her devices and search for responsive documents.
Information for this article was contributed by Mark Niesse of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS) and by Kate Brumback of The Associated Press.
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AP News Summary At 4:11 A.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-411-a-m-edt/
Putin sets partial military call-up, won’t ‘bluff’ on nukes
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a partial mobilization in Russia. The measure appeared to be an admission that Moscow’s war against Ukraine is not going according to plan after nearly seven months of fighting and amid recent battlefield losses for the Kremlin’s forces. The Russian leader also warned the West that he is not bluffing over using all the means at his disposal to protect Russia’s territory, in what apparently was a veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear capability. Putin has previously warned the West not to back Russia against the wall. Officials said the number of reservists to be called up is around 300,000.
Biden at UN to call Russian war an affront to body’s charter
NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden is ready to make the case at the U.N. General Assembly that Russia’s “naked aggression” in Ukraine is an affront to the heart of what the international body stands. In his address Wednesday morning, the American president is looking to rally allies to continue to back the Ukrainian resistance. Biden also plans to meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly with new British Prime Minister Liz Truss and announce a global food security initiative. But White House officials say the crux of Biden’s visit to the U.N. this year will be a full-throated condemnation of Russia as its brutal war nears the seven-month mark.
US, Iran to speak at UN; Zelenskyy to appear from Ukraine
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Iran President Ebrahim Raisi are among those taking the spotlight on the second day of the world body’s first fully in-person meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began. But perhaps one of the biggest draws on Wednesday will be Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskky, who will be heard but not seen in the flesh. The 193-member assembly voted last week to allow Zelenskky to deliver a pre-recorded address because of his need to deal with Russia’s invasion, making an exception to its requirement that all leaders speak in person. Unsurprisingly, Ukraine has been the center of attention at the U.N. assembly, with world leader after world leader condemning Russia for attacking a sovereign nation.
Man sets himself on fire in apparent protest of Abe funeral
TOKYO (AP) — A man has set himself on fire near the Japanese prime minister’s office in Tokyo in apparent protest of the state funeral for former leader Shinzo Abe. Kyodo News agency reported the man sustained burns but told police he set himself on fire with oil and a note found with him proclaimed his opposition to the Abe state funeral. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly meeting. The planned state funeral for Abe has become increasingly unpopular among Japanese as more details emerge about the ruling party’s and Abe’s links to the Unification Church, which built close ties with ruling party lawmakers over their shared interests in conservative causes.
EXPLAINER: What kept Iran protests going after first spark?
Protests have erupted across Iran in recent days after a 22-year-old woman died while being held by the morality police for violating the country’s strictly enforced Islamic dress code. The young woman had been picked up by Iran’s morality police for her allegedly loose headscarf, or hijab. Many Iranians, particularly the young, have come to see her death as part of the Islamic Republic’s heavy-handed policing of dissent and the morality police’s increasingly violent treatment of young women. This has led to daring displays of defiance, in the face of beatings and possible arrest. In street protests, some women tore off their mandatory headscarves, demonstratively twirling them in the air, or burned them.
Fiona threatens to become Category 4 storm headed to Bermuda
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is threatening to strengthen into a Category 4 storm as it lashes the Turks and Caicos Islands and was forecast to squeeze past Bermuda later this week. The storm was blamed for causing at least four direct deaths in its march through the Caribbean, where it unleashed torrential rain in Puerto Rico, leaving a majority without power or water as hundreds of thousands of people scraped mud out of their homes following what authorities described as “historic” flooding. Power company officials initially said it would take a couple of days for electricity to be fully restored but then appeared to backtrack late Tuesday night.
House to vote on election law overhaul in response to Jan. 6
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is preparing to vote on an overhaul of a centuries-old election law in an effort to prevent future presidential candidates from trying to subvert the popular will. The legislation under consideration Wednesday is a direct response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to find a way around the Electoral Count Act. That arcane 19th century law governs, along with the U.S. Constitution, how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential election winners. Trump and a group of his aides and lawyers tried to exploit loopholes in the law to overturn his defeat.
At UN, hope peeks through the gloom despite a global morass
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Hope can be hard to find anywhere these days. That goes double for the people who walk the floors of the United Nations, where shouldering the weight of the world is a core part of the job description. And when world leaders are trying to solve some of humanity’s thorniest problems, it’s easy to lose sight of hope. And yet at the U.N. General Assembly this year, while there is lots of misery and pessimism, there are also signs of brightness poking through like clovers in the sidewalk cracks. The U.N. secretary-general says hope is an increasingly rare commodity, but he also says it persists.
Some 230 whales beached in Tasmania; rescue efforts underway
HOBART, Australia (AP) — About 230 whales are stranded on Tasmania’s west coast, just two days after 14 sperm whales were found beached on an island nearby. The pod stranded on Ocean Beach appears to be pilot whales. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said Wednesday that at least half of them are presumed to still be alive. The department says a team was assembling whale rescue gear and heading to the area. Two years ago, about 470 long-finned pilot whales were found beached on Tasmania’s west coast in the largest mass-stranding on record in Australia. The pilot whale is notorious for stranding in mass numbers, for reasons that are not entirely understood.
The Muscogee get their say in national park plan for Georgia
MACON, Ga. (AP) — Hundreds of Native Americans returned to their historic capital in Macon, Georgia, this weekend for the 30th annual Ocmulgee Indigenous Celebration. Nearly 200 years after the last Creek Indians were forcibly removed to Oklahoma to make way for slave labor in the Deep South, citizens of the Muscogee Creek Nation are celebrating their survival. They’re also supporting an initiative to put the National Park Service in charge of protecting the heart of the Creek Confederacy. A federal review is nearly complete, meaning Interior Secretary Deb Haaland could soon ask Congress to create the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Woman Who Accused Donald Trump Of Sexual Assault To File Another Lawsuit
Woman Who Accused Donald Trump Of Sexual Assault To File Another Lawsuit https://digitalalaskanews.com/woman-who-accused-donald-trump-of-sexual-assault-to-file-another-lawsuit/
NEW YORK — A writer who accused former President Donald Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room intends to file another lawsuit against him under a new New York law letting sexual assault victims sue over attacks that happened decades ago.
A lawyer for the columnist, E. Jean Carroll, notified a federal judge of her intent to sue in an August letter entered in the public record Tuesday. The suit would allege sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In the letter, the lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, also said she plans to depose Trump in the defamation case that Carroll already had pending against the former president. The deposition would have to occur by Oct. 19, when discovery in the case must be completed for a planned February trial.
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an Aug. 11 letter to the court that was also posted in the public file Tuesday, she objected to the new lawsuit.
Habba wrote that letting Carroll file the new claim now “would be extraordinarily prejudicial” to Trump, given the looming trial deadlines in the defamation case.
“To permit Plaintiff to drastically alter the scope and subject matter of this case at such time would severely prejudice Defendant’s rights. Therefore, Plaintiff’s request must be disregarded in its entirety,” Habba said.
Kaplan declined to comment.
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, wrote in a 2019 book that Trump raped her during a chance encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s. Trump denied it and questioned Carroll’s credibility and motivations.
Because the alleged attack happened so long ago, Carroll would ordinarily have missed legal deadlines to sue Trump. So she initially sued him instead for defamation, saying he smeared her reputation while denying the rape allegation.
Last spring, however, New York lawmakers passed the Adult Survivor’s Act, which provides a one-year “look back” that enables adult survivors of sexual attacks to bring civil claims when they otherwise would be barred.
The law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May, was modeled after the Child Victims Act, which provided a similar window to bring lawsuits for people who had been sexually assaulted when they were children. That law expired a year ago.
A deposition would require Trump to answer questions from Carroll’s lawyers under oath about her allegations. Carroll’s legal team in February had said they were willing to skip a deposition in order to get the lawsuit to trial more quickly. Kaplan, in her letter to the court, said she now needed to question Trump because his lawyers had turned over so few documents relevant to the case.
In her letter to the court, Habba made no mention of the plans to depose Trump, but she did complain that Kaplan’s letter was “filled with misrepresentations and inflammatory statements.”
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How To Watch Letitia James https://digitalalaskanews.com/how-to-watch-letitia-james/
Letitia James, the New York Attorney General who has been investigating the Trump Organization over the past three years over possible fraud, is due to make a “major announcement” at 10.30 a.m. Eastern Time.
This will take place at the Office of the Attorney General on 28 Liberty Street in Manhattan, with the media invited to attend. Details on exactly what the announcement relates to have not been provided.
Members of the public can watch the press conference live on the NY Attorney General website.
In previous court fillings James said her investigation found evidence of potential fraud by the Trump Organization.
Specifically, there are claims the company altered the value of its assets fraudulently, in order to claim tax breaks and secure lucrative loans.
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaking at a press conference to discuss the charges against Steve Bannon in New York on September 8, 2022. James has also been investigating the Trump Organization over possible fraud. ALEX KENT/AFP/GETTY
The New York Times reports James rejected at least one settlement offer from Trump’s legal team earlier this month.
During a six-hour deposition in New York last month Trump pleaded the Fifth Amendment, his constitutional right against self-incrimination, at least 440 times.
Trump said James, a Democrat, is “openly campaigning on a policy of destroying me” and branded the probe a “witch hunt.”
In a statement Trump said: “I once asked, ‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?’ Now I know the answer to that question.
“When your family, your company and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors and the Fake News Media, you have no choice.
“Accordingly, under the advice of my counsel and for all of the above reasons, I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.”
Trump is currently locked in a number of legal battles, including criminal inquiries.
The former president is being investigated over alleged breaches of several federal laws, including the Espionage Act, after the FBI recovered classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago Florida residence during a raid in August.
If convicted under the Espionage Act, Trump could face up to ten years in prison, a fine or both.
Separately, the Justice Department has charged more than 830 people in its investigation into the January 6, 2021 storming of Congress by Trump supporters, aiming to stop the 2020 presidential election result being certified.
It is unclear to what extent this inquiry will focus on Trump personally, but legal experts have suggested he could be investigated for obstructing Congressional business and conspiring to defraud the United States, both criminal offenses.
A grand jury in Georgia is also investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden‘s election win in that state, including a notorious January 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who Trump asked to “find 11,780 votes.”
Donald Trump has been contacted for comment.
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