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Letters To The Editor: Postcard On Gainesville Mayoral Candidate Ed Bielarski Is Deceptive https://digitalarizonanews.com/letters-to-the-editor-postcard-on-gainesville-mayoral-candidate-ed-bielarski-is-deceptive/ Letters to the editor present the opinions of readers on news stories and other pieces published by The Sun. Deceptive postcard  The Democrats sent out a deceptive postcard against Ed Bielarski during the August non-partisan mayoral campaign. Checking their references, one finds it actually highlighted Bielarski’s accomplishments and integrity as a human being. Here are their claims vs. the facts:   Taking “Right-Wing PAC money”: Bielarski received $500 from a PAC but donated it to a charity for needy Gainesville Regional Utilities customers, matching it with his own money.   “Raised your GRU bills”: The City Commission (Harvey Ward) votes on and approves the GRU rates. Bielarski helped lower base rates by eliminating the $2.1 billion biomass non-purchase contract in exchange for the $750 million purchase.   “Opposing rooftop solar”: GRU limits individual solar installations to 2 MW (300 times typical residential rooftop solar array), protecting our electrical grid.   “Dumping toxic coal ash”: This harkens back to late 1990s when Bielarski was winning awards from the Environmental Protection Agency for creative solutions to handling coal-fired plant effluents.   “Fighting the city’s Covid vaccine push and spreading right-wing misinformation”: Bielarski simply did his job, informing the commission that a vaccine mandate would (and did) have dire consequences to providing essential services, resulting in high staff vacancy rates at the Gainesville Police Department, Gainesville Fire Rescue and the line crews at GRU.     Thanks, Dems!  Gary Ihas, Gainesville  More letters to the editor: Hurricane Ian showed ‘mind boggling’ GOP hypocrisy on climate change New solutions needed for Gainesville’s massive cat population Single-member districts could make officials earn votes in district Contrast in character  In this time of unprecedented destruction and devastation in Florida we should remember that our governor, Ron DeSantis, one day after taking his congressional seat in 2013, voted against aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy calling the bill “fiscally irresponsible.”  The bill passed in a 354 to 67 vote, which included scores of reasonable and empathetic Republicans. DeSantis wasn’t one of them.  Now he comes calling for Democratic President Joe Biden for help. He’ll get it from one of the most empathetic and caring presidents the country has ever had. What a contrast in character.    Hal Cohen, High Springs  Foolish decisions  I have always thought our government was incompetent at all levels. But it never ceases to amaze me that some of the same people who brought you the biomass plant and have drained the life blood out of GRU for years are still in power.    I wonder if all those complaining about the cost of utilities are the same ones that voted for these politicians. I give some blame to the media. The Sun should have taken a stronger stand against the reelection of these politicians   It is small consolation to learn that western Europe is managed by the same incompetents. Here is a triangle of foolish decisions made recently.     They outlawed fracking, cut down on oil exploration and refused to build liquified gas terminals. They went off the deep end by spending millions on green energy and driving up the cost of electricity to near unbearable is some areas, Worst of all, against all advice, they decided to buy Russian energy. Of course, they had to decide between two unreliable suppliers of energy: the USA and Russia. After Joe Biden’s election, Europe probably is thinking it wouldn’t have made a difference which provider they choose.  Jonathan Berger, Gainesville  Sanctuary hypocrisy   “A place of refuge or protection” is Webster’s definition of the word “sanctuary.” A number of American cities/states have declared themselves to be official sanctuaries for immigrants who enter our country without permission. Yet it seems as though the leaders of these sanctuaries are far from thrilled when they find a number of these non-Americans have actually arrived in their hometowns.   Instead of instantly providing for the needs of these surprise visitors, these “leaders” scream and yell about the way in which these individuals have come to be where they are, as though that really matters. Perhaps these places are sanctuaries in name only.   Claiming compassion does make for good “advertising.” Or, perhaps it’s more about a different Webster definition: “a pretending to be what one is not.” You know — hypocrisy. (There seems to be a lot of that going around. Perhaps a vaccine is called for.)  Leonard C. Young, Keystone Heights  Popular president  According to Nate Silver’s 538’s average of the latest polls of registered voters, President Biden’s popularity stands at 43.5%. It is logical to assume that Trump’s base, estimated at 20% of the U.S. population over 18 years of age, automatically answer “disapprove” when asked in a survey if they approve or disapprove of Biden. This means 80% of that population produced the 43.5% Biden approval rating.   If we divide 43.5% by 80.0%, we get 54.3% as the Biden approval rating non-Trump base members had to vote to offset Trump’s base’s disapproval vote.   Conclusion: President Biden’s approval rating among non-Trump base registered voters is higher than he gets credit for. He is a popular president among the majority of registered voters Larry Jaffe, Gainesville Join the conversation Share your opinions by sending a letter to the editor (up to 200 words) to letters@gainesville.com. Letters must include the writer’s full name and city of residence. Additional guidelines for submitting letters and longer guest columns can be found at bit.ly/sunopinionguidelines. Journalism matters. Your support matters. Get a digital subscription to the Gainesville Sun. Includes must-see content on Gainesville.com and Gatorsports.com, breaking news and updates on all your devices, and access to the eEdition. Visit www.gainesville.com/subscribenow to sign up. Read More Here

In Speedy Embrace Of Herschel Walker, Republicans Make Familiar Political Bargain https://digitalarizonanews.com/in-speedy-embrace-of-herschel-walker-republicans-make-familiar-political-bargain-2/ While the Georgia Senate candidate denied a report that he paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion, his Republican allies looked past the claims toward November. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. This article is part of our Midterms 2022 Daily Briefing National Republican leaders signaled on Tuesday that they planned to stand by Herschel Walker after a report that he had paid for a girlfriend’s abortion in 2009.Credit…Nicole Craine for The New York Times Oct. 4, 2022Updated 10:35 p.m. ET Herschel Walker walked into the First Baptist Church of Atlanta on Tuesday with his Senate campaign in turmoil. A day earlier, an ex-girlfriend said he had paid for her to have an abortion, despite his public opposition to the procedure. His son slammed him on social media as a liar. Mr. Walker had flatly denied the claim. And any question of whether the Republican Party, its grass-roots activists and evangelicals would break with him seemed quickly put to rest. The audience in the church did not wait to render a verdict: He was greeted with a standing ovation. From the closed-door confines of that church in Atlanta to the corridors of power in Washington, Republicans raced to close ranks behind Mr. Walker on Tuesday, fearing that any break with the former football star could cost the party a seat that is widely seen as central to the Republican Party’s chances to take control of the Senate in 2022. “Full speed ahead in Georgia,” declared Steven Law, the president of the Senate Leadership Fund. The group, the leading Senate Republican super PAC, is aligned with Senator Mitch McConnell and has booked more than $34 million in television ads in the state. “Republicans stand with him,” added Senator Rick Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The quick consolidation behind Mr. Walker, less than 24 hours after The Daily Beast reported on the abortion claim on Monday, exposed a Republican Party that has become increasingly conditioned to discount questions about personal behavior in pursuit of political victories. While some Republicans said they didn’t believe the report, nearly all party leaders, elected officials and activists dismissed the abortion story as secondary to larger policy goals. “I have faith and confidence that Herschel will vote the right way,” said Debbie Dooley, a conservative activist in Atlanta who attended the church event specifically to support Mr. Walker, a former football star and first-time candidate. It’s a trade-off that has paid remarkable dividends in recent years. Social conservatives embraced Donald J. Trump despite his history as a brash former Democrat who once supported abortion rights. He rewarded the movement by appointing three conservatives to the Supreme Court, justices who delivered the long-sought decision to overturn federal abortion rights. At stake in 2022 could be no less than control of a United States Senate now divided 50-50 between the two parties. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, the Democratic incumbent who won the seat in a runoff election in January 2021, is seeking a full six-year term and is widely seen as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the nation. Abortion has emerged as a key issue in the race. Mr. Walker is a staunch opponent, without exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother. “There’s no exception in my mind,” Mr. Walker told reporters in May. The State of the 2022 Midterm Elections With the primaries over, both parties are shifting their focus to the general election on Nov. 8. Trouble for Nevada Democrats: The state has long been vital to the party’s hold on the West. Now, Democrats are facing potential losses up and down the ballot. Democrats’ House Chances: Democrats are not favored to win the House, but the notion of retaining the chamber is not as far-fetched as it once was, ​​writes Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst. Latino Voters: A recent Times/Siena poll found Democrats faring far worse than they have in the past with Hispanic voters. “The Daily” looks at what the poll reveals about this key voting bloc. Michigan Governor’s Race: Tudor Dixon, the G.O.P. nominee who has ground to make up in her contest against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, is pursuing a hazardous strategy in the narrowly divided swing state: embracing former President Donald J. Trump. As abortion energizes Democratic voters this year, particularly in crucial suburban counties, the charges of hypocrisy on abortion, coming even from a son, could threaten Mr. Walker’s chances to make inroads with the independents and women who pushed Georgia into the Democratic column in the 2020 cycle. While local activists and national party figures attacked the news media and publicly rallied behind Mr. Walker on Tuesday, Republican strategists privately fretted about what might come next, with one answering a reporter’s question about the episode by sending an animated GIF of the Titanic sinking. The Walker Senate campaign has already been rocked by a series of revelations about his tumultuous personal history, including the existence of three children whom he had not mentioned publicly. The New York Times has not independently confirmed The Daily Beast’s reporting, which quoted an unidentified woman saying she and Mr. Walker had conceived a child in 2009 and decided to end the pregnancy. The woman produced a receipt from the abortion clinic and a deposit receipt with an image of a $700 check said to be from Mr. Walker, dated days later, that she said had covered the cost of the procedure, the outlet said. It also published a “get well” card that the woman said had been signed by Mr. Walker. Mr. Walker denied the account outright. “I never asked anyone to get an abortion, I never paid for an abortion,” he said on Fox News on Monday night. In a statement, he said he would sue The Daily Beast for defamation on Tuesday. His campaign and lawyer did not respond to questions about whether a lawsuit had been filed. Image Christian Walker, left, at a Los Angeles event in support of Donald J. Trump in 2020, has denounced his father, Herschel Walker, on social media.Credit…Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock Adding to the drama was the response from Mr. Walker’s son Christian Walker. A TikTok star known for his unfiltered political posts, the younger Mr. Walker had largely been quiet about his father’s campaign. But in two videos posted on Tuesday he lashed out at his father as a liar who had committed “atrocities” against him and his mother. His mother, Cindy Grossman, has already been featured in weeks of bruising Democratic ads using old footage of her describing how Mr. Walker once held a gun to her head and threatened to pull the trigger. Mr. Walker has not denied that accusation and has said he once struggled with mental illness. How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Christian Walker said on Twitter on Monday that “every member” of the family had urged his father not to run for Senate and in a follow-up video on Tuesday, he said conservatives who continued to back his father’s campaign were hypocrites. “Family values, people?” Christian Walker said. “He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them. He was out having sex with other women.” Mr. Walker responded simply on Twitter on Monday: “I LOVE my son no matter what.” Mr. Walker’s allies drew comparisons to the “Access Hollywood” recording that threatened to derail Mr. Trump in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign — noting Mr. Trump won that race. Image Ralph Reed, a social conservative leader in Georgia, likened the Daily Beast report to the “Access Hollywood” recording that shook the 2016 presidential campaign.Credit…Nicole Craine for The New York Times “We’ve seen this movie before,” said Ralph Reed, the prominent social conservative leader based in Georgia, adding that he “100 percent” expected evangelical Christians would stick with Mr. Walker. He even argued that the latest report could lift Republican turnout by rallying social conservatives to defend Mr. Walker. Per one attendee’s account, as he greeted the audience in the church on Tuesday, Mr. Walker called himself a “sinner saved by grace.” And, before leaving, he gathered the group around him to lay hands and pray, according to attendees. Reporters were not allowed in the event. Some Republicans lining up behind Mr. Walker questioned the latest allegations. Some didn’t seem to care either way. “If y’all find a perfect candidate that has never had challenges in their life, I want you to bring them to me and let me meet him or her,” said Dominic LaRiccia, a Republican state representative backing Mr. Walker. Marci McCarthy, the Republican chair of DeKalb County in the metro Atlanta area, said, “Ultimately Georgia’s voters will put their own lives and livelihoods first because, in either case, they are not voting for fathers and husbands of the year.” Notably, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a Republican who has been leading his race for re-election, has kept his distance from Mr. Walker. The two have yet to hold a campaign event together this year. Asked about the episode on Tuesday, a spokesman for Mr. Kemp, Cody Hall, did not mention Mr. Walker and said only that the governor was “laser focused” on fund-raising and voter turnout in the final weeks of the campaign. Mr. Walker has...

In Speedy Embrace Of Herschel Walker, Republicans Make Familiar Political Bargain https://digitalarizonanews.com/in-speedy-embrace-of-herschel-walker-republicans-make-familiar-political-bargain/ While the Georgia Senate candidate denied a report that he paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion, his Republican allies looked past the claims toward November. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. This article is part of our Midterms 2022 Daily Briefing National Republican leaders signaled on Tuesday that they planned to stand by Herschel Walker after a report that he had paid for a girlfriend’s abortion in 2009.Credit…Nicole Craine for The New York Times Oct. 4, 2022Updated 10:35 p.m. ET Herschel Walker walked into the First Baptist Church of Atlanta on Tuesday with his Senate campaign in turmoil. A day earlier, an ex-girlfriend said he had paid for her to have an abortion, despite his public opposition to the procedure. His son slammed him on social media as a liar. Mr. Walker had flatly denied the claim. And any question of whether the Republican Party, its grass-roots activists and evangelicals would break with him seemed quickly put to rest. The audience in the church did not wait to render a verdict: He was greeted with a standing ovation. From the closed-door confines of that church in Atlanta to the corridors of power in Washington, Republicans raced to close ranks behind Mr. Walker on Tuesday, fearing that any break with the former football star could cost the party a seat that is widely seen as central to the Republican Party’s chances to take control of the Senate in 2022. “Full speed ahead in Georgia,” declared Steven Law, the president of the Senate Leadership Fund. The group, the leading Senate Republican super PAC, is aligned with Senator Mitch McConnell and has booked more than $34 million in television ads in the state. “Republicans stand with him,” added Senator Rick Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The quick consolidation behind Mr. Walker, less than 24 hours after The Daily Beast reported on the abortion claim on Monday, exposed a Republican Party that has become increasingly conditioned to discount questions about personal behavior in pursuit of political victories. While some Republicans said they didn’t believe the report, nearly all party leaders, elected officials and activists dismissed the abortion story as secondary to larger policy goals. “I have faith and confidence that Herschel will vote the right way,” said Debbie Dooley, a conservative activist in Atlanta who attended the church event specifically to support Mr. Walker, a former football star and first-time candidate. It’s a trade-off that has paid remarkable dividends in recent years. Social conservatives embraced Donald J. Trump despite his history as a brash former Democrat who once supported abortion rights. He rewarded the movement by appointing three conservatives to the Supreme Court, justices who delivered the long-sought decision to overturn federal abortion rights. At stake in 2022 could be no less than control of a United States Senate now divided 50-50 between the two parties. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, the Democratic incumbent who won the seat in a runoff election in January 2021, is seeking a full six-year term and is widely seen as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the nation. Abortion has emerged as a key issue in the race. Mr. Walker is a staunch opponent, without exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother. “There’s no exception in my mind,” Mr. Walker told reporters in May. The State of the 2022 Midterm Elections With the primaries over, both parties are shifting their focus to the general election on Nov. 8. Trouble for Nevada Democrats: The state has long been vital to the party’s hold on the West. Now, Democrats are facing potential losses up and down the ballot. Democrats’ House Chances: Democrats are not favored to win the House, but the notion of retaining the chamber is not as far-fetched as it once was, ​​writes Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst. Latino Voters: A recent Times/Siena poll found Democrats faring far worse than they have in the past with Hispanic voters. “The Daily” looks at what the poll reveals about this key voting bloc. Michigan Governor’s Race: Tudor Dixon, the G.O.P. nominee who has ground to make up in her contest against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, is pursuing a hazardous strategy in the narrowly divided swing state: embracing former President Donald J. Trump. As abortion energizes Democratic voters this year, particularly in crucial suburban counties, the charges of hypocrisy on abortion, coming even from a son, could threaten Mr. Walker’s chances to make inroads with the independents and women who pushed Georgia into the Democratic column in the 2020 cycle. While local activists and national party figures attacked the news media and publicly rallied behind Mr. Walker on Tuesday, Republican strategists privately fretted about what might come next, with one answering a reporter’s question about the episode by sending an animated GIF of the Titanic sinking. The Walker Senate campaign has already been rocked by a series of revelations about his tumultuous personal history, including the existence of three children whom he had not mentioned publicly. The New York Times has not independently confirmed The Daily Beast’s reporting, which quoted an unidentified woman saying she and Mr. Walker had conceived a child in 2009 and decided to end the pregnancy. The woman produced a receipt from the abortion clinic and a deposit receipt with an image of a $700 check said to be from Mr. Walker, dated days later, that she said had covered the cost of the procedure, the outlet said. It also published a “get well” card that the woman said had been signed by Mr. Walker. Mr. Walker denied the account outright. “I never asked anyone to get an abortion, I never paid for an abortion,” he said on Fox News on Monday night. In a statement, he said he would sue The Daily Beast for defamation on Tuesday. His campaign and lawyer did not respond to questions about whether a lawsuit had been filed. Image Christian Walker, left, at a Los Angeles event in support of Donald J. Trump in 2020, has denounced his father, Herschel Walker, on social media.Credit…Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock Adding to the drama was the response from Mr. Walker’s son Christian Walker. A TikTok star known for his unfiltered political posts, the younger Mr. Walker had largely been quiet about his father’s campaign. But in two videos posted on Tuesday he lashed out at his father as a liar who had committed “atrocities” against him and his mother. His mother, Cindy Grossman, has already been featured in weeks of bruising Democratic ads using old footage of her describing how Mr. Walker once held a gun to her head and threatened to pull the trigger. Mr. Walker has not denied that accusation and has said he once struggled with mental illness. How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Christian Walker said on Twitter on Monday that “every member” of the family had urged his father not to run for Senate and in a follow-up video on Tuesday, he said conservatives who continued to back his father’s campaign were hypocrites. “Family values, people?” Christian Walker said. “He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them. He was out having sex with other women.” Mr. Walker responded simply on Twitter on Monday: “I LOVE my son no matter what.” Mr. Walker’s allies drew comparisons to the “Access Hollywood” recording that threatened to derail Mr. Trump in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign — noting Mr. Trump won that race. Image Ralph Reed, a social conservative leader in Georgia, likened the Daily Beast report to the “Access Hollywood” recording that shook the 2016 presidential campaign.Credit…Nicole Craine for The New York Times “We’ve seen this movie before,” said Ralph Reed, the prominent social conservative leader based in Georgia, adding that he “100 percent” expected evangelical Christians would stick with Mr. Walker. He even argued that the latest report could lift Republican turnout by rallying social conservatives to defend Mr. Walker. Per one attendee’s account, as he greeted the audience in the church on Tuesday, Mr. Walker called himself a “sinner saved by grace.” And, before leaving, he gathered the group around him to lay hands and pray, according to attendees. Reporters were not allowed in the event. Some Republicans lining up behind Mr. Walker questioned the latest allegations. Some didn’t seem to care either way. “If y’all find a perfect candidate that has never had challenges in their life, I want you to bring them to me and let me meet him or her,” said Dominic LaRiccia, a Republican state representative backing Mr. Walker. Marci McCarthy, the Republican chair of DeKalb County in the metro Atlanta area, said, “Ultimately Georgia’s voters will put their own lives and livelihoods first because, in either case, they are not voting for fathers and husbands of the year.” Notably, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a Republican who has been leading his race for re-election, has kept his distance from Mr. Walker. The two have yet to hold a campaign event together this year. Asked about the episode on Tuesday, a spokesman for Mr. Kemp, Cody Hall, did not mention Mr. Walker and said only that the governor was “laser focused” on fund-raising and voter turnout in the final weeks of the campaign. Mr. Walker has b...

North Korea Fired A Missile Over Japan For The First Time In Five Years. Here's What You Need To Know | CNN https://digitalarizonanews.com/north-korea-fired-a-missile-over-japan-for-the-first-time-in-five-years-heres-what-you-need-to-know-cnn/ Seoul, South Korea CNN  —  North Korea fired a ballistic missile without warning over Japan on Tuesday for the first time in five years, a highly provocative and reckless act that marks a significant escalation in its weapons testing program. The missile traveled over northern Japan early in the morning, and is believed to have landed in the Pacific Ocean. The last time North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan was in 2017. This marks North Korea’s 23rd missile launch this year, including the most ballistic missiles fired in a single year since leader Kim Jong Un took power in 2012. By comparison, Pyongyang conducted four tests in 2020 and eight in 2021. Here’s what you need to know about North Korea’s missile tests. Tuesday’s missile flew a distance of about 4,600 kilometers (2,858 miles), with an altitude of some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) and a top speed reaching Mach 17 – meaning 17 times the speed of sound, according to Japanese officials. By way of comparison, the US island territory of Guam is just 3,380 kilometers (2,100 miles) from North Korea. Two experts told CNN these flight details suggest the missile fired was likely a Hwasong-12 – an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) last tested in January. “This is a missile that North Korea started testing in 2017 … So it’s not really a new missile,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at CNS. But, he added, its launch is significant because of the distance it can travel. “North Korea has a bunch of missiles that are shorter range, and that wouldn’t go over Japan – but they have a small number of missiles that could make that journey,” he said. North Korea usually fires its missiles into waters off the coast of the Korean Peninsula – making this flight over Japan considerably more provocative, for both practical and symbolic reasons. This kind of unannounced launch could pose risks to aircraft and ships as the missile travels down to its target, since they would have no prior warning to avoid the area. And if the test had failed, causing the missile to fall short, it could have endangered major population areas. The missile flew over Japan’s Tohoku region, according to Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, which is home to more than 8 million people. In the past, US planes have been grounded as a ‘precaution’ following North Korean missile launches. And in late November 2017, several commercial jet pilots were reported to have seen what appeared to be the re-entry of a North Korean missile as it approached the Sea of Japan. However, Lewis emphasized, such risks are statistically low, especially that far out in the Pacific and that high above Japan as it flew overhead. Mostly, it’s an escalation simply because “it’s provocative to fire a missile over your neighbor.” “For the Japanese especially, it feels like a violation of their sovereignty,” Lewis said. “If Russia fired a missile over Florida, we would have a fit.” And, experts say, it’s a sign of Kim’s ambitions for North Korea’s weapons development – and of what’s yet to come. There are differing opinions on what may have driven North Korea to fire Tuesday’s missile. Robert Ward, senior fellow for Japanese Security Studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, pointed to the multiple security threats faced by Japan, from an aggressive Russia to its north and China to its south. “North Korea may be trying to exploit the unstable international situation, which it will see as a tailwind,” he said. Lewis disagreed, saying that although North Korea sometimes responds or retaliates to specific actions by Western players or groups, for the large part “they have their own schedule … and I don’t think that we have a lot of impact on the timing.” There are also practical reasons; North Korea often takes breaks in testing during the summer when weather is bad, and pick up again once the fall and early winter arrive – meaning now could just be the right conditions for a test, he added. Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, added that Tuesday’s flight path could just make for a better test. These types of missiles are meant for long-range targets – so flying it over Japan could help North Korea gauge its accuracy over a longer distance, its ability to withstand different forces exerted on the missile, and other factors, compared to its usual “lofted” tests – which travel higher in altitude and splash down west of Japan. 02:28 – Source: CNN Explained: How much damage can North Korea’s weapons do? Kim had vowed earlier this year to develop North Korea’s nuclear arms at the “highest possible” speed – and experts say Tuesday’s launch is part of that push for weapons advancement. “North Korea is going to keep conducting missile tests until the current round of modernization is done,” Lewis said, adding that a nuclear test could come “anytime.” South Korean and US officials have been warning since May that North Korea may be preparing for a nuclear test, with satellite imagery showing activity at its underground nuclear test site. If North Korea conducts a test, it would be the country’s seventh underground nuclear test and the first in nearly five years. There are also other missile tests to watch. Apart from the Hwasong-12, North Korea also has three intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of flying over Japan, though these have not been tested “to their full range yet,” said Lewis. “This is probably an appetizer for the main course, which is yet to come,” he added. “I would expect that when North Korea has more confidence in one of their ICBMs, they might fly one of those to full range over Japan.” Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, added that North Korea could be waiting until after China holds its Communist Party Congress in mid-October to “conduct an even more significant test.” “The Kim regime is developing weapons such as tactical nuclear warheads and submarine-launched ballistic missiles as part of a long-term strategy to outrun South Korea in an arms race and drive wedges among US allies,” Easley said. Read More Here

Trump Wants The Supreme Court To Have Its Say In The Mar-A-Lago Documents Case – Digital World Acq (NASDAQ:DWAC) https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-wants-the-supreme-court-to-have-its-say-in-the-mar-a-lago-documents-case-digital-world-acq-nasdaqdwac/ Donald Trump and his legal team are requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court review a stay issued by the 11th Circuit of Appeals in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.  What Happened: The lawyers for the former president said the 11th Circuit lacked jurisdiction to stay the special master’s review of the documents, according to court documents seen by NPR. In an application to vacate the stay of the order, filed before the Supreme Court, Trump’s lawyers said, “In sum, the Government has attempted to criminalize a document management dispute and now vehemently objects to a transparent process that provides much-needed oversight.” The lawyers said the government’s move to shield what they called “purportedly classified documents” from the special master “illustrates precisely why the District Court found a special master was appropriate and necessary under the circumstances.” See Also: How To Buy TMTG IPO Stock  Why It Matters: Trump received a legal blow late in September when the 11th Circuit allowed the U.S. Department of Justice to continue investigating the classified records obtained from Mar-a-Lago — the former president’s Palm Beach, Florida estate. Trump-appointed Florida Federal Judge Aileen Cannon had earlier denied a motion by prosecutors for a partial stay that forbade DoJ from reviewing the seized materials. Cannon had earlier appointed Senior District Judge Raymond Dearie as special master in the case. Trump labeled Cannon as “brilliant and courageous” on Truth Social, a platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). TMTG is set to go public through a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. DWAC. Read Next: Biden Signals More Empathy Than Trump To Hurricane-Ravaged Puerto Rico: ‘Going To Make Sure You Get Every Dollar Promised’ © 2022 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Stunner! Elon Musk Changes His Mind And Decides He Will Buy Twitter After All https://digitalarizonanews.com/stunner-elon-musk-changes-his-mind-and-decides-he-will-buy-twitter-after-all/ With Twitter’s lawsuit against Elon Musk (and Musk’s cross complaints) expected to go to trial in less than two weeks, the richest man in the world (with a net worth of nearly $248 billion) has made an abrupt 180-degree change and says that he wants to go ahead with his $44 billion purchase of Twitter at $54.20 per share. Musk had hoped to back out of the deal when Twitter couldn’t prove to his satisfaction that less than 5% of Twitter users were bots. As you might imagine, Twitter shares soared in New York Stock Exchange trading today rising $9.46 or 22.24% to $52. Twitter has yet to accept Elon’s change of mind and is looking to add conditions to the contract to make sure that Musk doesn’t back out again. According to The New York Times, Twitter received the letter from the Tesla executive expressing his interest in keeping the terms of the original deal and the company says that it has every intention of completing the transaction. Twitter shares soar after Musk decides to go ahead with his offer to pay $54.20/share for the company Musk filed an amended 13D indicating that he holds 73.12 million shares of Twitter or 9.6% of the company. The current valuation of these shares amounts to over $3.8 billion. The 13D filed by Elon’s team says, “the Reporting Person (Musk) intends to proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement, on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth therein and pending receipt of the proceeds of the debt financing contemplated thereby, provided that the Delaware Chancery Court enter an immediate stay of the action.” Musk reverses field, now says he wants to buy Twitter for $44 billion Musk is scheduled to give sworn testimony during two depositions scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Austin, Texas. In searching for a reason to explain Elon’s about-face, Ann Lipton, a professor of corporate governance at Tulane Law School, said, “I think he recognized that litigation is not going well on his part.” Twitter could ask that the Court help supervise the closing of the deal. The company could also ask that Musk be ordered to pay a daily interest fee dating back to September 13th, which is when Twitter shareholders approved the deal. To help pay for the transaction, Musk sold $8.5 billion in Tesla stock in April. The following month he raised $7 billion from various investors. Morgan Stanley, and other investment banks, are kicking in $13 billion in debt and remain on the hook to deliver the money until April. If he buys Twitter, Musk says he will welcome Donald Trump back to the platform Just in case some of the money he helped raise from equity partners doesn’t appear, Musk sold another $7 billion of Tesla stock in August. Before backing out of the deal, Elon told investors that by 2025, he could get Twitter up to 500 million daily users and help it generate $13.2 in annual revenue. As of this past July, Twitter had 238 million global active daily users. For the 12 months ending on June 30, 2022, Twitter collected $5.23 billion in revenue. Musk also said that if he buys Twitter, he would welcome back former President Donald Trump who was permanently kicked off the platform days after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Trump started his own Twitter-esque platform called Truth Social, but by all accounts, the app is not giving Trump the kind of audience he enjoyed while allowed on Twitter. Nonetheless, the former president has said that if Musk buys Twitter and welcomes his return, he will not reactivate his account. Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has not addressed the unexpected turn of events but Twitter’s general counsel Sean Edgett emailed employees and said, “I will continue to keep you posted on significant updates, but in the meantime, thank you for your patience as we work through this on the legal side.” According to the latest report in the Times, the deal could close within weeks. Read More Here

Chiranjeevi's GodFather Advance Booking Trumps Nagarjuna's The Ghost At BO, Sells Tickets Worth Whopping Rs 4 Crore https://digitalarizonanews.com/chiranjeevis-godfather-advance-booking-trumps-nagarjunas-the-ghost-at-bo-sells-tickets-worth-whopping-rs-4-crore/ Chiranjeevi’s Godfather advance booking trumps Nagarjuna’s The Ghost at BO KEY HIGHLIGHTS GodFather and The Ghost are clashing at BO GodFather stars Chiranjeevi in lead GodFather has trumped The Ghost in advance bookings Dussehra 2022 is seeing two of the biggest Telugu stars clashing at the box office with the release of Chiranjeevi‘s GodFather and Nagarjuna‘s The Ghost. However, it seems that in terms of advance bookings, Chiranjeevi’s GodFather has trumped over Nagarjuna’s The Ghost by a massive margin. GodFather, a remake of Moanlal’s Lucifer features Nayanthara, as well as Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in a pivotal role. The action entertainer is releasing in Telugu and Hindi and the Telugu version of the film had sold tickets worth over ₹4 crore for day one. In addition, the Hindi version had seen advance bookings worth ₹10 lakh. As per industry sources, the figure is might even reach the ₹5-crore mark. On the other hand, The Ghost, which also stars Sonal Chauhan, has seen advance booking sales of only ₹70 lakh by Tuesday evening. The film stars Nagarjuna, Sonal Chauhan, Gul Panag, Anikha Surendran, Manish Chaudhari, Ravi Varma, and Srikanth Iyengar and follows Vikram (Nagarjuna), a retired RAW field operative who is now working in the Indian Embassy. GodFather Meanwhile, recently in an interaction with News18, Chiranjeevi played down the clash with Nagarjuna. The actor stated, “There is no competition with Nagarjuna. Both the films are unique and we are trying to showcase our talent in it and prove ourselves.” As per 123Telugu.com, Nagarjuna in a recent interview said that both the films would be huge hits. He said that GodFather and The Ghost are made in different genres and the fact that Chiranjeevi and he will be seen in different avatars after a long time, will help the two films become huge hits. Last week Nagarjuna had wished Chiranjeevi luck on the release of Godfather, stating, “My dear friend Chiranjeevi’s GodFather is also releasing on the October 5 along with The Ghost. I hope both the films become a big hit at the box office.” Read More Here

October 4, 2022 Newscast – Cronkite News – Arizona PBS https://digitalarizonanews.com/october-4-2022-newscast-cronkite-news-arizona-pbs/ Young Latinos ready to vote Nov. 8, Sky Harbor to get major upgrade Staff News Reporter, Phoenix Read More…

Vote For Caring Candidates For Scottsdale Governing Board, Avoid Those Mailing False, Slanderous Postcards | Arizona Capitol Times https://digitalarizonanews.com/vote-for-caring-candidates-for-scottsdale-governing-board-avoid-those-mailing-false-slanderous-postcards-arizona-capitol-times/ Home / Letters / Vote for caring candidates for Scottsdale governing board, avoid those mailing false, slanderous postcards  By: Guest Opinion October 4, 2022 This letter is to inform Scottsdale Unified School District residents of a group or individuals who are mailing false and slanderous postcards to voters.  Enter your user name and password in the fields above to gain access to the subscriber content on this site. Your subscription includes one set of login credentials for your exclusive use. Security features have been integrated on this site: If someone signs in with your credentials while you are logged in, the site will automatically close your ongoing login and you will lose access at that time. To inquire about group subscriptions for your organization please email Shaun Witt for special pricing. If you feel your login credentials are being used by a second party, contact customer service at 877-615-9536 for assistance in changing your password. Already a paid subscriber but not registered for online access yet? For instructions on how to get premium web access, click here. Forgot your password? Tags: voters, governing board, politics, religion, vote, Arizona, slander, right wing, censorship, Scottsdale Unified School District, pawns, SUSD, election, Democracy Read More Here

Tim Steller https://digitalarizonanews.com/tim-steller/ Any time the Legislature considers changing the way our initiative process works in Arizona, you can be pretty sure of one thing. The change will take power from us and give power to them.  That’s what you’ll find if you crack open the thick tome that should have arrived in your mailbox, the Arizona 2022 General Election Publicity Pamphlet. Skip past the judges’ reviews and you’ll start reading about the ballot issues. Propositions 128 and 129 are the first ones you’ll get to — the first of 10! Another one, Prop. 132, also deals with initiatives. When the ballots are in our hands, most of us will start considering the propositions after the races that we know and feel strongly about, right about when we’re starting to feel uncertain.  No need to feel uncertain. You can rely on a simple principal: Protect your political power. Since the Voter Protection Act passed in 1998, citizen initiatives have been an annoyance to many legislators. Initiatives are, by design, a way for us to go around the political structure at the state Capitol, where money and insider connections hold sway. The power to pursue a citizen initiative is so fundamental in Arizona that it came before the establishment of the Legislature in the state Constitution. But the Voter Protection Act took power from the Legislature, who previously messed with initiatives that citizens had passed. When we used the initiative process to take redistricting power from the Legislature, create the clean-elections system, pass an inflation-statewide minimum wage and and legalize marijuana, it pissed them off. The GOP-controlled Legislature didn’t want any of these things. Sen. Vince Leach, the outgoing Republican from SaddleBrooke, has taken a special interest in going after citizen-initiative powers. He is, unsurprisingly, the sponsor of the resolution that became Prop. 128.  The ballot issue is deceptively simple: It says that the Legislature may amend by majority vote any initiative that becomes law if part of that initiative is ruled illegal or unconstitutional by the Arizona or U.S. supreme court. Leach and some colleagues discussed it during the 2021 legislative session as a way to simplify fixing parts of an initiative that are struck down by the courts. By text message Tuesday, Leach explained the measure this way: “Going forward the Leg (Legislature) could amend/supersede, with a simple majority, any new or existing initiative language found to have illegal/unconstitutional provisions by AZ or US Supreme Court.” Opponents argue, and the plain wording of the proposition shows, that it’s not just that. The proposition appears to let the Legislature make any changes it wants to a citizen-passed law if any part of it is found unconstitutional or illegal by either of those two courts. One of the people making this point in the arguments section of the pamphlet is Carlos Figueroa of Tucson.  “Under Proposition 128, politicians would be able to undo or entirely rewrite a ballot initiative that had been previously approved by voters, if the Supreme Court interprets any small part of the law as unconstitutional,” wrote Figueroa, who identified himself as “head tortillero” at Maiz Tucson, where they make tortillas from heirloom varieties of corn. It’s not just the tortilla-makers who have figured this out. The League of Women Voters also urges a no vote, as does a group called Mormon Women for Ethical Government and LUCHA, among others. If you consider the history of the Citizens Clean Elections Act, the proposition doesn’t make sense from the practical perspective either. Voters passed the act in 1998, but in 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court threw out one of its key provisions — a system for providing matching funds for candidates. The Citizens Clean Election Commission went on working anyway, but abandoned the matching-funds system. In 2012, more than three-quarters of the Legislature voted to repeal the parts of the act found unconstitutional.  Jim Barton, the attorney who defended the matching-funds system in court, noted that the history of clean elections shows the existing system works, when the Legislature actually wants to clean up laws that have been found unconstitutional. But of course it didn’t do so in the case of the abortion law that just came back into effect, he noted. Prop. 208 “does make it easier for the Legislature to clean up the books, which is something they don’t care about,” Barton said.  Propositions 129 and 132 also may seem deceptively simple and attractive. The first would require that any initiative be only about one subject and that the subject be in the title of the measure.  You can imagine where this is going: Every initiative passed will be challenged on the idea that it contains too many subjects or that its title is faulty. This just opens another avenue for going to the courts and overturning the will of the people. Prop. 132 would require that any tax increase passed by initiative reach the 60% threshold in order to become law. This is apparently a response to Prop. 208, the 2020 Invest in Education initiative to raise taxes on families making over $500,000 per year. The initiative got 51.7% of the vote, but it didn’t become law because it was struck down in the courts. My evaluation of this and the other propositions having to do with the initiative power is simple. Would it restrict the voters’ power? Yes, it would. It would in all three of these cases, which means voters should have an easy decision.   Contact columnist Tim Steller at tsteller@tucson.com or ​520-807-7789. On Twitter: @senyorreporter Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Read More Here

Trump Asks US Supreme Court To Intervene Over Seized Classified Records https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-asks-us-supreme-court-to-intervene-over-seized-classified-records/ Donald Trump has filed an emergency request over some of the records seized from his home. Photo: AFP / Getty Images Former president Donald Trump is asking the US Supreme Court to intervene in his fight with the Justice Department over classified documents seized from his Florida home as part of a criminal investigation into his handling of government records. Trump filed an emergency request on Tuesday asking the justices to block part of a lower court’s ruling that prevented an independent arbiter requested by Trump, known as a special master, from vetting more than 100 documents marked as classified. The documents were among 11,000 records seized by FBI agents at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on 8 August. The Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals on 21 September repudiated a decision by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who had temporarily barred the department from examining the seized classified documents until the special master had weeded out any that could be deemed privileged and withheld from investigators. Justice Clarence Thomas, who is assigned to assess emergency appeals from the 11th Circuit, late on Tuesday requested a response from the Justice Department by 11 October. Thomas is one of six conservatives on the nine-member Supreme Court. The 11th Circuit also prevented the special master, Judge Raymond Dearie, from having access to the documents with classified markings, noting the importance of limiting access to classified information. A photo attached as evidence to a court filing by the US District Court Southern District of Florida, of documents allegedly seized at Mar-a-Lago spread over a carpet. Photo: AFP / US Department of Justice Trump’s lawyers in Tuesday’s filing said Dearie should have access to “determine whether documents bearing classification markings are in fact classified, and regardless of classification, whether those records are personal records or presidential records”. The Justice Department has “attempted to criminalise a document management dispute and now vehemently objects to a transparent process that provides much-needed oversight”, Trump’s lawyers added. The court-approved Mar-a-Lago search was conducted as part of a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally retained documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021 after his failed 2020 re-election bid and whether Trump tried to obstruct the probe. Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate which was raided by FBI agents in August. Photo: Giorgio Viera / AFP The investigation seeks to determine who accessed classified materials, whether they were compromised and if any remain unaccounted for. At issue in the 11th Circuit ruling were documents bearing classified markings of confidential, secret or top secret. Cannon, presiding over Trump’s lawsuit seeking to restrict Justice Department access to the seized documents, barred review of all of the materials and named Dearie to review the records, impeding the investigation. On 15 September, Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, rejected the Justice Department’s request that she partially lift her order on the classified materials as it impeded the government’s effort to mitigate potential national security risks from their possible unauthorised disclosure. The three-judge 11th Circuit panel included two judges appointed by Trump and one by former President Barack Obama. Noting that classified records belong to the US government, the 11th Circuit doubted Trump has any “individual interest” in them and that he “has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents”. The 11th Circuit also rejected any suggestion that Trump had declassified the documents – as the former president has claimed – saying there was “no evidence” of such action and that the argument was a “red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal”. In Tuesday’s filing, Trump’s attorneys said he had “broad authority governing classification of, and access to, classified documents”. In an interview on Fox News last month, Trump again asserted without evidence that he declassified the documents and claimed he had the power to do it “even by thinking about it”. The three statutes underpinning the search warrant used by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago make it a crime to mishandle government records, regardless of their classification status. Cannon had tasked Dearie to review all of the seized materials, including classified ones, to identify anything subject to attorney-client confidentiality or executive privilege – a legal doctrine that shields some White House communications from disclosure. The document investigation is one of several legal woes Trump is facing as he considers whether to run again for president in 2024. New York state’s attorney general last month filed a civil lawsuit accusing Trump and three of his adult children of fraud and misrepresentation in preparing financial statements from the family real estate company. The Trump Organisation also is set to go on trial on 24 October on New York state criminal tax fraud charges. -Reuters Read More Here

Trump Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Special Main Dispute | Donald TrumpFGN News https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-intervene-in-mar-a-lago-special-main-dispute-donald-trumpfgn-news/ Donald Trump on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to partially overturn an appeals court ruling that barred the special master, reviewing lien protection documents seized by the FBI at his Mar-a- Lago in August, to examine 100 documents with classification marks. The motion to overturn the decision of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit represents the former president’s last chance to reinsert the 100 documents into the special main examination – and potentially exclude some of them from the investigation. to find out if he illegally withheld national defense information. In the emergency request, Trump’s lawyers argued the appeals court lacked jurisdiction to overturn the trial judge’s ruling and rule that the Justice Department should regain access to the 100 documents. and that the special master should be forbidden to examine them during the examination. The technical motion argued that while the 11th Circuit was not wrong in allowing the Justice Department to regain access to the 100 documents for its criminal investigation, it had no jurisdiction to curtail the special master process. The motion was based on the doctrine of “pending appellate jurisdiction”, which generally discriminates against appeals from non-final or interlocutory decisions: it should not have been brought in the special main examination since the judge’s order of first instance was procedural and not injunctive. “This appointing order is simply not appealable on an interlocutory basis,” the filing states. “Nevertheless, the 11th Circuit granted a stay of the special master order, effectively compromising the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review.” In that sense, Trump’s motion was narrow, seeking only that the special master could review the 100 documents for potential privilege protections while leaving the 11th Circuit’s decision alone to allow the Justice Department to use the documents for the criminal investigation. Trump will face significant challenges even if the Supreme Court hears the case, even if the bench is dominated by six conservative justices – three of whom he appointed – who have already shown deference to the powers of the executive. . Just to meet the procedural criteria to overturn a stay in lower court, legal experts say, Trump would have to show the Supreme Court that it must step in because he is suffering irreparable harm — something his lawyers have failed to do. not seem to address directly in the 37-page ranking. Trump’s lawyers have also argued that the seized documents could be marked as classified for national security purposes and simultaneously be personal documents — a position the DoJ has previously declared impossible, with which the 11th Circuit has indicated it is. Okay. The Trump motion said nothing about whether Trump had in fact declassified any of the documents, as he publicly claimed. Instead, he suggested the Supreme Court consider the case on the basis that Trump had the power to do so, and could have done so, without providing evidence. The filing came two days after the start of the new Supreme Court session, and after the DoJ asked the 11th Circuit to expedite its own appeal against the appointment of a special master, arguing that the process hindered the criminal investigation. The Justice Department, aiming to capitalize on the ruling Trump has now appealed, argued that the special master should never have been appointed because US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon misapplied a four-part test that allowed him to practice his skill. In the ruling that barred the special master from reviewing the 100 documents, the 11th Circuit agreed with the DoJ that Cannon got it wrong in the first “Richey” test about whether the government had shown due diligence. a “callous disregard” for Trump’s constitutional rights by seizing materials. Cannon determined that Trump had not suffered from callous disregard and instead based his decision to grant a special master on the other tests. But the 11th Circuit said Trump’s failure to meet the first standard of callous contempt was enough on its own to deny his claim. “The absence of this ‘indispensa[ble]’The factor in Richey’s analysis is sufficient reason to conclude that the district court abused its discretion in exercising equitable jurisdiction here,’ ruled the three-judge 11th Circuit panel that included two Trump appointees. Although the appeals court only narrowly decided whether the special master should review the 100 documents in the review and whether the DoJ could regain access to them, the government argued that the reasoning suggested that there should be no special master. Read More Here

Trump Goes To Supreme Court Over Mar-A-Lago Search – The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer – Podcast On CNN Audio https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-goes-to-supreme-court-over-mar-a-lago-search-the-situation-room-with-wolf-blitzer-podcast-on-cnn-audio/ showcast The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer: The command center for breaking news, politics and extraordinary reports from around the world. The Situation Room airs weekdays 6p-7p Eastern, Monday through Friday on CNN.  Visit CNN.com/TheSituationRoom. Read More Here

Colombia To Restart Peace Talks With The Country’s Largest Active Guerrilla Group https://digitalarizonanews.com/colombia-to-restart-peace-talks-with-the-countrys-largest-active-guerrilla-group/ Colombia’s government and the nation’s largest remaining guerrilla group have announced that they will restart peace talks next month for the first time since 2018. After meeting in Caracas, representatives of the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army issued a statement saying a start date for the peace talks would be announced after the first week of November. The statement added that Norway, Venezuela and Cuba would be “guarantor states” in the talks, and that the participation of civil society groups would be “essential” for the peace talks to succeed. A venue for the talks has not yet been announced, though an ELN commander, Antonio García, suggested that different stages of the negotiations could be held in Cuba, Norway and Venezuela. The ELN was founded in the 1960s by students, union leaders and Catholic priests inspired by Cuba’s revolution. The group is believed to have about 4,000 fighters in Colombia and is also present deep inside Venezuela where it runs illegal goldmines and drug trafficking routes. After a 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), the ELN became the nation’s largest remaining guerrilla group. Since then it has increased its activities in territories that were formerly under Farc control. The group is known for staging kidnappings for ransom and attacks on oil infrastructure and has been listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and the EU. Colombia’s recently elected president, Gustavo Petro, is the nation’s first leftist leader and has promised to make peace deals with the ELN and other armed groups in Colombia. He has shifted away from the strategy of the previous government, which suspended talks with the ELN after the rebels refused to stop attacking military targets. In a press conference after the meeting between both sides, Colombia’s peace comissioner Danilo Rueda said that the ELN had shown changes in its behaviour which had enabled it to gain the government’s trust. Rueda said that the rebel group had recently released hostages and scaled back attacks against the Colombian military. The ELN did not disclose any details on what it would seek in exchange for laying down its weapons. But the commander, García, hinted that the group was looking for political and economic changes. “The way to look for peace is not just by thinking about weapons but by attacking the root causes of this conflict which are inequality and the lack of democracy,” García said. In the 2016 peace deal with the Farc, Colombia gave the rebel group 10 seats in the nation’s congress as well as the possibility of forming its own political party, while rebel leaders who collaborated with a transitional justice system were able to evade prison sentences. Colombia’s government also agreed to finance land titling schemes and rural development projects as part of the peace deal. Read More Here

Okla. GOP Ties Hospital’s Covid Funds To End Of Gender-Affirming Care https://digitalarizonanews.com/okla-gop-ties-hospitals-covid-funds-to-end-of-gender-affirming-care/ When Oklahoma lawmakers met last week to distribute more than $108 million in federal pandemic relief funds for one of the state’s largest hospital systems, many expected a routine vote in favor of upgrading its medical records and a cancer-treatment center. Instead, Republican lawmakers added an explosive provision: OU Health would only get these funds, including $39.4 million for a new pediatric mental health facility, if its Oklahoma Children’s Hospital stopped providing gender-affirming care. The move, which Oklahoma Gov. Kevin J. Stitt (R) signed into law on Tuesday, marks the first time conservative state lawmakers have successfully tied gender-affirming care to the receipt of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the $1.9 trillion effort to restart the economy and harden medical care during the coronavirus pandemic. Oklahoma Republicans, who were pushed into action through a campaign led by a pair of conservative podcasters, hailed the move as necessary to restrict the type of medical care for young transgender patients that has riled the party’s base this year. “By signing this bill today we are taking the first step to protect children from permanent gender transition surgeries and therapies,” Stitt said in a statement. “It is wildly inappropriate for taxpayer dollars to be used for condoning, promoting, or performing these types of controversial procedures on healthy children.” Some advocates worry the latest move in Oklahoma might embolden other legislatures with Republican majorities to add similar restrictions before allocating federal and state money to publicly funded hospitals and clinics. Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures in recent years. This year, at least 160 measures were considered, with nearly two-thirds of them focused on transgender rights. Oklahoma was part of this trend, with bill restricting bathrooms and sports access for transgender residents. It was the largest burst of emergency spending in U.S. history: Two years, six laws and more than $5 trillion intended to break the deadly grip of the coronavirus pandemic. The money spared the U.S. economy from ruin and put vaccines into millions of arms, but it also invited unprecedented levels of fraud, abuse and opportunism. In a yearlong investigation, The Washington Post is following the covid money trail to figure out what happened to all that cash. Read more Transgender advocates and medical experts, though, say OU Health’s facilities had been following best practices in its gender-affirming care. OU Health officials would not outline which services will halt as a result of the legislation. But one Oklahoma pediatrician who treats transgender youth in the region said she believes all hormone therapy and surgeries will cease: “In order to receive this treatment, they will now have to go out-of-state,” Shauna Lawlis said. About 100 children are receiving gender-affirming care at the center, Democratic state Sen. Carri Hicks told reporters. Parents of transgender children who are receiving care at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital say they may have to travel to Kansas or Colorado. Shane Poindexter, whose 14-year-old transgender son has been treated at the hospital for a year and is receiving hormone suppression drugs, said his son had attempted suicide before going to the clinic. “It is someplace they can go and be who they are and be accepted. Kids are bullies,” Poindexter said. “It was mentally destroying him. The love and affection from that place is amazing. We don’t know what we are going to do now.” The federal stimulus included about $350 billion to prop up state and local government budgets with virtually no strings attached. By late last year, as it became clear that the economy was recovering far faster than lawmakers had expected, it paved the way for states to put the aid to use in unanticipated ways. In Oklahoma, the legislature opened a public portal last year, allowing any state resident to submit a request for the discretionary funds. They received more than 1,400 proposals that a state legislative committee reviewed this summer before sending dozens of them to the full legislature for a vote. The state and local funds are part of a bigger pool of nearly $5 trillion that Washington sent out in the first two years of the pandemic, creating an unprecedented challenge to account for how the money was spent. With almost no rules on how states used their share, some Republican governors have tried to pay for tax cuts with the aid, for example. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other GOP state legislators used interest they earned on federal aid to pay for a $12 million fund that covered the cost of flying migrants to Massachusetts last month. Children’s hospitals around the country have also faced escalating threats of violence over online anti-LGBTQ campaigns targeting gender-affirming care. Some states have taken other actions to block public funds from being used for transgender care; this year, Florida became one of at least 10 states that have blocked Medicaid coverage for the procedures. “It’s so outrageous and unbelievably mean-spirited,” said Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for the LGBTQ community, in reference to Oklahoma’s bill. “It’s literally about covid relief. It’s about restarting the economy.” The push to end OU Health’s transgender care was accelerated by two conservative podcasters who last month began demanding action from legislators on their programs and social media. The target of their ire was the Roy G. Biv Program at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, which for the last six years has offered mental health counseling and hormone therapy, including puberty blockers. In a handful of cases, it has also referred patients transitioning from female to male to surgeons for mastectomies. Mark Ousley appealed to his 20,000 Twitter followers and listeners to his Oklahoma-based “UnWokable Podcast” in mid-September to call on lawmakers and demand OU Health’s federal money be withheld. He was later joined by Megan Fox, a conservative podcaster who broadcast the calls she made to lawmakers and provided her 23,000 Twitter followers with scripts to do the same. “I am going to make it my mission in life to shame any Republican that votes for this,” Ousley wrote in a Sept. 25 tweet. Transgender advocates and Oklahoma lawmakers said the campaign had a noticeable effect. “One of them spent the entire day live-streaming, calling legislative staff, asking them why they were committing child abuse,” said Cindy Nguyen, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma. “There was a lot of inflammatory language; it built momentum.” Republicans introduced the bill Sept. 28. In a debate on Thursday, Republican lawmakers argued young patients were taking hormones that could be physically damaging — something that the American Medical Association disputes — and said all transitioning surgeries for Oklahomans under 18 should be outlawed. “To promote and help facilitate with taxpayer money, the gender reassignment should be disallowed in this state,” state Sen. Jake A. Merrick (R) said. “I think it reflects the majority of the opinions and values held in this state.” Several Democratic lawmakers in the House, meanwhile, yielded their time to state Rep. Mauree Turner (D), Oklahoma’s first openly nonbinary legislator who appealed to their colleagues to not be influenced by the social media and phone call campaign. “I hope that one day you understand maybe a little bit of what it’s like to be born into a body that isn’t yours. That’s what our youth across Oklahoma are facing,” Turner said, adding that they “came out” to their mother in the second grade. “Oklahoma has the money to take care of our people, and we do not have to wage this war against them and we don’t have to use our children, our youth, as pawns. Please vote no.” The bill passed the House 68-23, following a Senate approval at 31-13. Although the votes were largely along party lines, a few Republicans in both chambers voted against the bill, either because they said the language targeting the OU Health program wasn’t strong enough or because they were opposed to accepting and doling out the pandemic relief funds altogether. OU Health reacted quickly to the measure, saying last week that it was already “proactively planning the ceasing of certain gender medicine services.” But Richard Lofgren, president and CEO of OU Health, sent an email on Friday to employees of the health-care system, saying that although he knew some members of the legislature might introduce bills targeting the transgender program, he “did not expect it to be tagged to the ARPA request.” Lofgren also expressed dismay that the legislature required that the transgender medical care stop immediately. “We were not provided with a reasonable timeline to safely transition the care of our patients,” he wrote in the email that was obtained by The Washington Post. “For our physicians, it is morally distressing to the guiding principles of our profession and our Hippocratic oath to not be able to provide a safe transition of care, but we have to comply with the law.” A group of Republican lawmakers — and the podcasters — are pushing for more. Last week, a group of senators held a news conference saying the next step should be a permanent, statewide ban on medical services that assist Oklahoma youth with gender transitioning. “We should have an immediate statewide prohibition on these surgeries, on these puberty blockers, on what is being done to these children,” state Sen. Nathan Dahm (R), who recently appeared on Ousley’s podcast, said at the news conference. Dahm, who has prev...

Elon Musk Suggests Buying Twitter At His Original Price https://digitalarizonanews.com/elon-musk-suggests-buying-twitter-at-his-original-price/ The billionaire’s surprise move came months after he tried to back out of a $44 billion deal to acquire the company. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Elon Musk, center, has agreed to acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share, according to filings made public on Tuesday. Credit…Shannon Stapleton/Reuters Oct. 4, 2022Updated 7:23 p.m. ET The monthslong battle over Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter has been massive in scale and drama. One of the tech industry’s biggest deals in recent years, it has captured the public’s imagination, with cinematic twists that have been closely followed even by people who have never written a tweet. Now Mr. Musk, in a surprise move, has added another plot turn. After months of trying to get out of a deal that he struck in April, the billionaire made a proposal on Monday night that could bring the acrimonious legal fight to an end. Mr. Musk said he would do exactly what he said he would do in April: Acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share, according to regulatory filings made public on Tuesday. Twitter, which sued Mr. Musk in July to force him to go through with the $44 billion deal, has yet to accept his new proposal and plans to add conditions to try to ensure that he doesn’t change his mind again. In a short statement, Twitter said it had received Mr. Musk’s letter and reiterated the company’s intention to close the deal. Twitter may ask a court in Delaware, where it filed its suit, for protections that would force Mr. Musk to follow through with his new proposal, said three people familiar with the company’s plans, who were not authorized to speak publicly about them. The company could also demand that Mr. Musk pay interest on the deal price for the delays in completing the acquisition, one of those people added. A deal would allow both sides to avoid a messy trial that was expected to start in two weeks in Delaware Chancery Court. The trial most likely would have featured testimony from Mr. Musk, who runs the electric automaker Tesla, and senior Twitter executives. Mr. Musk is scheduled to be deposed on Thursday and Friday in Austin, Texas, according to a legal filing. Twitter has barely been profitable for most of its history and is dwarfed in size by other social media platforms like Facebook and the much younger TikTok. But the fight with Mr. Musk has preoccupied Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington because Twitter has for years been an online bullhorn for opinionated tech industry billionaires like Mr. Musk and politicians like former President Donald J. Trump, whom the company barred from its platform last year after the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill. If Mr. Musk does take over Twitter, one of his first big moves could be allowing Mr. Trump to return. Mr. Musk has said it was a “mistake” for Twitter to bar Mr. Trump. The potential agreement follows months of disputes that have created existential challenges for Twitter, cratering its share price, demoralizing its employees and spooking the advertisers it relies on for revenue. Mr. Musk, with his repeated, scathing criticism of Twitter and its management, has often seemed more interested in taking a wrecking ball to the company than becoming its new owner. His critics have argued that he has simply been looking for anything to justify backing out of a rash decision that he quickly came to regret. What Happened to Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal Card 1 of 9 A blockbuster deal. In April, Elon Musk made an unsolicited bid worth more than $40 billion for the social network, saying he wanted to make Twitter a private company and allow people to speak more freely on the service. Shareholders give approval On Sept. 13, as the start of the trial approached, Twitter’s shareholders voted to approve the company’s deal with Mr. Musk, even as it remains uncertain whether the acquisition will be completed. The company said a preliminary tally of shareholder votes determined support for the deal, but it did not immediately release a vote count. A surprise move. On Oct. 4, Mr. Musk proposed a deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, the price he agreed to pay for the company in April. An agreement at the original price, which would be a victory for Twitter, could bring to an end the acrimonious legal fight between the billionaire and the social media company. “I think he recognized that litigation is not going well on his part,” said Ann Lipton, a professor of corporate governance at Tulane Law School. Image Mr. Musk submitted his latest proposal to Twitter on Monday evening, informing the company that he intended to proceed with his original offer.Credit…Jim Wilson/The New York Times A deal at the original price would be a victory for Twitter. Mr. Musk declared in July that he no longer intended to continue with the acquisition because he believed Twitter’s service was overrun by spam. Twitter sued him soon after. Mr. Musk submitted his latest proposal to Twitter on Monday evening, informing the company that he intended to proceed with his original offer. “We write to notify you that the Musk parties intend to proceed to closing of the transaction,” a lawyer for Mr. Musk wrote in the letter, according to a regulatory filing. The letter asked that the court battle be paused, pending the closing of the deal. What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. The two sides met in court in an emergency virtual hearing on Tuesday to discuss the proposal before Kathaleen McCormick, the judge overseeing the trial. The proposal was reported earlier by Bloomberg. Lawyers for Mr. Musk and Twitter were expected to meet again in court later on Tuesday to discuss next steps, the person said. If they opt to proceed with the sale of Twitter, a deal could possibly close within weeks, or as soon as Mr. Musk hands over the $44 billion. Twitter may request that Mr. Musk agree to have the court supervise the deal’s closing, three people familiar with the matter said. The company may also ask Mr. Musk to pay a daily interest fee for every day that has passed since shareholders approved the deal on Sept. 13, one of those people said. “Procedurally, Twitter has done everything they need to do to close this deal,” said Brian J.M. Quinn, a professor at Boston College Law School. If the company accepts Mr. Musk’s proposal, it could request that the trial be postponed until the deal is completed, Mr. Quinn said. Once the acquisition is completed, Twitter will most likely dismiss its lawsuit against Mr. Musk. On Tuesday evening, Mr. Musk tweeted that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” X is the name of holding company that Mr. Musk formed to buy Twitter. Shares in the social media company spiked more than 12 percent on the news of Mr. Musk’s latest offer, before a halt in trading. Trading resumed in the afternoon, and Twitter’s share price closed at $52, a 22 percent increase. The economic backdrop has changed significantly since Mr. Musk announced his intent to buy Twitter last spring. Amid inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, investors are facing the kinds of losses they haven’t seen since 2009. That has also made it more difficult to finance deals. Investment banks, led by Morgan Stanley, have already agreed to help finance the deal with about $13 billion in debt. The banks remain on the hook until April, according to the terms of their contract. Mr. Musk has said he would finance the rest of the deal in cash. In April, he sold about $8.5 billion shares in Tesla to help fund the deal; in May, he said he had lined up about $7 billion in cash from an array of investors including the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and the tech mogul Larry Ellison. It was not immediately clear what commitments those investors had to Mr. Musk. In August, Mr. Musk sold an additional $7 billion worth of Tesla’s stock in “the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners don’t come through,” he wrote at the time. Twitter employees learned of Mr. Musk’s proposal from media reports while participating in a companywide meeting about corporate plans for 2023 on Tuesday, reigniting confusion and speculation that have roiled Twitter’s work force over the past six months, four employees said. Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, did not immediately address Mr. Musk’s offer with employees, those people added. Sean Edgett, Twitter’s general counsel, said in an email to employees on Tuesday afternoon, “I will continue to keep you posted on significant updates, but in the meantime, thank you for your patience as we work through this on the legal side.” On the internal Slack messaging system on Tuesday, employees discussed the implications for the company, their jobs and their stock compensation. In a channel with nearly 2,000 members that is used to joke about company news, some wondered what would happen if Twitter’s board did not accept Mr. Musk’s renewed offer. Some speculated that Twitter’s stock would plummet, while another, referring to Mr. Musk, said the company would not have to be owned by “a moron.” Image Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, did not immediately address Mr. Musk’s latest proposal with employees.Credit…Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images While an agreement would signify an end to the uncertainty clouding Twitter’s immediate future, Mr. Musk’s plans for the company are not clear. He told investors before trying to back out of t...

Trump Goes To Supreme Court Over Mar-A-Lago Search And Seizure Of Documents | CNN Politics https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-goes-to-supreme-court-over-mar-a-lago-search-and-seizure-of-documents-cnn-politics/ CNN  —  Former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in the dispute over materials marked as classified that the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate this summer. His emergency request with the Supreme Court is the latest example of the former President seeking to involve the justices in investigations that entangle him – at a time when the high court’s legitimacy in politically explosive cases is under intense scrutiny. Trump is specifically asking the court to ensure that the more than 100 documents marked as classified are part of the special master’s review. The request, if granted, could bolster the former President’s attempt to challenge the search in court, as he has argued that he may have had a right, as a former president, to possess certain government documents, including documents potentially containing the country’s most sensitive secrets. Trump, though, is not asking the Supreme Court to block the Justice Department from using the documents in its criminal probe into how materials from his White House were mishandled. Justice Clarence Thomas – the recipient of Trump’s application because he oversees litigation coming from the circuit court that is handling the special master order appeal – gave the Justice Department a deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday, October 11, to respond. It remains to be seen whether allowing the special master – a third-party attorney tasked with reviewing evidence and filtering out privileged documents – to also access classified documents poses a real threat to the criminal investigation. Nor is it clear how sympathetic the high court will be to Trump’s claims, which rest largely on technical arguments about whether an appeals court had the authority to carve out the 100 documents from the review. Late last year, Trump asked the justices to block the release of documents from his White House to congressional January 6, 2021, investigators. The high court rejected the request. Trump’s emergency application to the Supreme Court comes after the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Justice Department and said that the department’s criminal investigation into the documents marked as classified could continue. The probe’s use of the records had been put on hold by a district judge in Florida, who granted a Trump request for a third-party review of the materials obtained in the Mar-a-Lago search. That appeals court is now considering whether to wipe away the rest of the special master order. Trump is not asking the high court to restore the hold that Judge Aileen Cannon – a US district judge he nominated in 2020 – put on the Justice Department probe accessing the documents marked classified. But Trump wants those documents put back within the scope of the materials special master is reviewing. In the new filing, Trump’s attorneys said that “any limit on the comprehensive and transparent review of materials seized in the extraordinary raid of a President’s home erodes public confidence in our system of justice.” They also pushed back on the Justice Department’s claims that including the documents in the special master review would pose national security risks. “The Government argued on appeal, without explanation, that showing the purportedly classified documents to Judge Dearie would harm national security,” Trump’s attorneys said, referring to senior Judge Raymond Dearie, who has been appointed special master in the dispute. The Trump team said that position “cannot be reconciled” with the DOJ saying it may want to show those same documents to a grand jury or to witnesses during interviews. In filings before the lower court, the Justice Department had also cautioned that having Dearie’s review cover those documents would potentially allow members of Trump’s legal team to access them, including lawyers whom the department has signaled it views as possible witnesses in its investigation. Cannon, the Justice Department previously told the 11th Circuit, had “ordered disclosure of highly sensitive material to a special master and to Plaintiff’s counsel—potentially including witnesses to relevant events—in the midst of an investigation, where no charges have been brought.” The purpose of getting a special master to review those documents is not entirely fleshed out by Trump’s new filing with the Supreme Court. Trump nodded to Cannon’s assertion that he, as former president, would suffer “reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude” if he was indicted based on evidence that had been unlawfully seized. That rationale was squarely rejected by the 11th Circuit, when it carved out the documents from the special master review. Elsewhere in the new application, Trump indicated his desire to include the documents marked as classified in the churn of challenges his lawyers will get to hash out before Dearie as part of the special master process. He re-upped arguments – viewed with extreme skepticism by a broad range of legal experts – that the Presidential Records Act may shield him from criminal charges brought for how he handled the materials. Trump also hinted at the idea that he may have declassified the records in question. As he has in earlier stages of the litigation, however, Trump stopped short of making the assertion outright. On Tuesday, Trump told the Supreme Court that Cannon had the authority to refer “these matters to a special master to determine whether documents bearing classification markings are in fact classified, and regardless of classification, whether those records are personal records or Presidential records, such that their disposition may be managed properly under the PRA.” “The Government’s position presumes certain documents are in fact classified, affording President Trump no opportunity to contend otherwise. This presumption is at the core of the dispute,” he said. Trump’s application is landing at the Supreme Court’s door step as it embarks on a new term where the justices will consider several high-profile cases. The Supreme Court, with its current conservative majority, is already viewed by the American public as partisan following a string of controversial rulings this year, including overturning Roe v. Wade, and will likely make the Mar-a-Lago search even more of an issue in the upcoming congressional midterm elections. Trump appointed three of the current justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. In addition, the justice who receives Supreme Court emergency requests out of Florida is conservative Thomas, although he is almost guaranteed to refer the petition to the full court to consider. Thomas’ wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, promoted efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and has testified before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack. CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said the appeal is intended to delay the Justice Department’s investigation into the former President, if possible. “This is part of the delay strategy,” Honig said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” noting Trump lost at the appeals court. “So either he accepts that loss and those documents don’t go to the special master and they go right over to DOJ, or his only remaining recourse is to try to get the Supreme Court to take it, and that’s the course he’s taking now.” Honig said it’s a “close call” if the court will take up the case. “The Supreme Court typically likes to stay out of messy, political disputes,” Honig said. “On the other hand, when it comes to sort of unique, novel issues of constitutional law, of separation of power, of issues like executive privilege and classification of documents, that’s sort of why the Supreme Court exists – to adjudicate those high level disputes between branches that involve sort of core constitutional principles.” This story has been updated with additional details Tuesday. 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Report: Donald Trump Told Mike Pence Gay People ’Love Me’ | EDGE Media Network https://digitalarizonanews.com/report-donald-trump-told-mike-pence-gay-people-love-me-edge-media-network/ by Emell Adolphus EDGE Media Network Contributor Tuesday October 4, 2022 Donald Trump  (Source:Associated Press) Do the gays really have love for former President Trump? A new book by Maggie Haberman of The New York Times paints an interesting picture. As reported by Newsweek, Haberman’s book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” delves into the former president’s behavior and how he was able to drive his empty confidence to the highest office in the land. In one particular part of the book, “on page 299,” Newsweek reports, Haberman recounts a conversation Trump had with conservative donor and philanthropist Paul Singer. In a sit down, Singer made it clear that he was staunchly conservative on some issues and more moderate on other issues, such as same-sex marriage and gay rights. After Trump asked Singer if he was indeed gay, he explained that his son is gay, which is what garnered his support for the LGBTQ community. “Pence began to leave. Trump gestured toward the vice president and said ‘you’re not like those guys, that kind of conservative?'”, the extract from the book reads. He then added, “the gays, they love me,” referring to the applause he received in his convention speech after emptily vowing to protect LGBTQ people from oppression. In true Trump form, the former president took to social media (Truth Social, specifically) and called Haberman a “maggot” “Maggot Hagerman [sic] of the Unfunded Liability plagued New York Times is my self appointed Biographer, even though she got the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax & the Mueller Report conclusion completely wrong, & refused to write about the FACT that the Democrats spied on my campaign, Lied to Congress, & Cheated and Lied to the FISA Court,” Trump wrote. He continued, “Maggot was also duped on Impeachment Hoax #1 & Impeachment Hoax #2, & said in 2016 that, ‘Trump will NOT run for President.’ She is a bad writer with very bad sources!” Despite what he believes, Haberman seems to have struck a ill chord with Trump over the books release, which makes us want to read it even more. Will you be reading? Tell us in comments. Haberman’s book is out now. Read More Here

Donald Trump Asks For SC Intervention In Classified Documents Case https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trump-asks-for-sc-intervention-in-classified-documents-case/ Former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in litigation over documents marked as classified that the FBI removed from his Florida estate, saying that an appeals court had lacked jurisdiction to rule on the matter. Although the Supreme Court is dominated by six conservative justices, three of them appointed by Trump, it has rejected earlier efforts to block the disclosure of information about him, and legal experts said Trump’s new emergency application faces significant challenges. The new filing was largely technical, saying that the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, in Atlanta, had not been authorized to stay aspects of a trial judge’s order appointing a special master in the case. “The 11th Circuit lacked jurisdiction to review the special master order, which authorized the review of all materials seized from President Trump’s residence, including documents bearing classification markings,” the application said. Also Read | Donald Trump sues CNN for defamation, claiming $475 million in damages In September, a three-judge panel for the 11th Circuit unanimously granted a request from the Justice Department to block one aspect of a ruling from Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump had appointed to the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Cannon had appointed a special master to review the more than 11,000 files seized in August from the former president’s residence, Mar-a-Lago, and forbade the Justice Department from using them as part of a criminal inquiry in the meantime. The Justice Department’s request to the appeals court was limited, asking only that the 100 or so documents with classified markings be excluded from the special master’s assessment and that its review of them be allowed to continue. In a detailed and forceful 29-page decision, the appeals court agreed, staying Cannon’s order “to the extent it enjoins the government’s use of the classified documents and requires the government to submit the classified documents to the special master for review.” The decision, which was unsigned, was joined by Judges Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher, appointed by Trump, and Judge Robin Rosenbaum, appointed by President Barack Obama. The ruling was skeptical of Trump’s arguments. “We cannot discern why plaintiff” — Trump — “would have an individual interest in or need for any of the 100 documents with classification markings,” the panel wrote. The panel said Trump’s suggestion that he may have declassified the documents was legally irrelevant. “Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was president,” the panel said. “But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified. And before the special master, plaintiff resisted providing any evidence that he had declassified any of these documents.” The panel added that the question did not figure in its analysis. “The declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal,” the decision said. In an interview last month, Trump took an expansive view of his power to declassify documents, one at odds with past practice and judicial precedent. “You can declassify just by saying ‘it’s declassified,’ even by thinking about it,” Trump told Sean Hannity on Fox News. The new filing addressed Trump’s declassification powers obliquely. “President Trump was still the president of the United States when any documents bearing classification markings were delivered to his residence in Palm Beach, Fla.,” it said. “At that time, he was the commander in chief of the United States. As such, his authority to classify or declassify information bearing on national security flowed from this constitutional investment of power in the president.” Trump has had decidedly mixed success in earlier efforts to keep his presidential and business records from law enforcement officials and congressional investigators. In January, the Supreme Court refused his request to block the release of White House records held by the National Archives concerning the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, effectively rejecting his claim of executive privilege. The court let stand an appeals court ruling that Trump’s desire to maintain the confidentiality of presidential communications was outweighed by the need for a full accounting of the attack. Only Justice Clarence Thomas noted a dissent. It later emerged that his wife, Virginia Thomas, had sent a barrage of text messages to the Trump White House urging efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Experts in legal ethics said that Justice Thomas’ connection to the case should have prompted him to disqualify himself from it. In 2020, while Trump was still president, the court ruled that he had no absolute right to block release of financial records sought by prosecutors in New York. “No citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. Justices Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. The court returned that case to the lower courts for further proceedings. After they again ruled against Trump, he asked the justices to hear a new appeal in 2021. In a decisive defeat, the court refused to hear the case, clearing the way for the release of the records. There were no noted dissents. Read More Here

Man Armed With Knife Shot By Cochise County Deputies https://digitalarizonanews.com/man-armed-with-knife-shot-by-cochise-county-deputies/ WHETSTONE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — A man is in the hospital after he was shot by Cochise County deputies while carrying a knife Tuesday morning, investigators said. Just after 11 a.m., deputies received a call about a man trespassing on property near Highway 90 and Camino De Mesa in Whetstone, roughly 47 miles from the Arizona-Mexico border. Deputies arrived at the scene, but the man had already left. However, police found a man that matched the suspect’s description in the area. Investigators say deputies tried to go near him but noticed he had a large knife. The man reportedly refused to listen to them, and a deputy shot him. He was taken to the hospital, but his condition is unknown. This is the 29th officer-involved shooting outside of Maricopa County and the 80th in the state in 2022. The man’s name has not been released. The investigation is ongoing. Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Police Looking For Man Accused Of Stalking Woman, Touching Himself At Her Chandler Apartment https://digitalarizonanews.com/police-looking-for-man-accused-of-stalking-woman-touching-himself-at-her-chandler-apartment/ CHANDLER, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — The Chandler Police Department is asking the public for help identifying a man accused of stalking a woman and doing sexual acts outside her apartment several times this year. Police say the man was captured on surveillance video walking up to a woman’s apartment near Cooper and Ray roads between June and September. He walked up to the door and began touching himself, investigators said. Officers say it’s happened numerous times, and police believe he’s stalking the woman. The suspect is described as a Hispanic man in his thirties, with short black hair and a goatee. If you have any information, contact Chandler police at (480) 782-4130 or (480) 782-4331. Anyone with information that leads to the man’s arrest may be eligible for a Silent Witness reward of up to $1,000. Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Trump Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Review Of Documents Seized In Mar-A-Lago Search https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-intervene-in-review-of-documents-seized-in-mar-a-lago-search/ President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to intervene and annul a ruling that allowed the Justice Department access to documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago that were marked as classified.  The former president’s application is addressed to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose purview includes the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which made the earlier ruling.  The former president’s team filed the emergency request with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, arguing the special master, or independent arbiter, appointed by the district judge to screen documents for attorney-client or executive privilege should be allowed to review records marked as classified. Last month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed to put a hold on the lower court’s order to keep records with classified markings off limits to the Justice Department’s investigation, pending the review by the independent special master. The appeals court allowed the Justice Department to resume using those documents in its investigation and said that it did not have to turn them over to the special master. Former U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd after speaking during the America First Agenda Summit, at the Marriott Marquis hotel July 26, 2022 in Washington, DC.  Drew Angerer / Getty Images Trump’s attorneys argued in Tuesday’s filing that “this unwarranted stay should be vacated as it impairs substantially the ongoing, time-sensitive work of the Special Master.” Trump’s attorneys are seeking relief through the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket,” meaning it would not go through the Court’s regular process of briefing, oral arguments and opinions. The Court will issue a written order, which may or may not explain the reasoning behind the decision or reveal how the justices voted, though they may note their dissents.  While Trump was in the White House, his administration made 41 requests for emergency relief through the shadow docket, more times than the Bush and Obama administrations, according to analysis by a law professor at the University of Texas. Trump last week said on Fox News that he had “declassified everything,” and presidents can do so just by “thinking about it.”  On Tuesday, in a statement separate from the filing, Trump bashed the National Archives and Records Administration, the agency responsible for storing and handling records of past presidents.  “How can Americans trust a system like this? There is no security at NARA. I want my documents back!” Trump wrote. Trump pursued a legal battle after the FBI executed a search warrant on his private residence at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and seized approximately 100 documents that were marked as classified. The former president filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department on Aug. 22, requesting a special master be appointed to review the seized records.  On Sept. 5, a Trump-nominated federal judge in Florida approved Trump’s request to appoint a special master. Ten days later, Judge Aileen Cannon, appointed U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie to serve as the independent arbiter or special master. Cannon rejected federal prosecutors’ request to allow investigators to regain access to the approximately 100 documents marked as classified. On Sept. 21, the three-judge panel on the 11th Circuit allowed the Justice Department to allow investigators to have access to the documents again.  The Supreme Court began its new term Monday, after seating its newest associate justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson.  Kathryn Watson Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, D.C. Read More Here

Donald Trump Asks US Supreme Court To Intervene In Florida Home Raid Case https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trump-asks-us-supreme-court-to-intervene-in-florida-home-raid-case/ Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the legal tussle over FBI raid of his Florida home. Washington: Former US president Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in the legal tussle over classified documents seized in the FBI raid of his Florida home. Trump urged the conservative-dominated court to stay a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that restored access to the classified documents to the Justice Department. The FBI, in the affidavit used to justify the August 8 raid on Trump’s home, said it was conducting a criminal investigation into “improper removal and storage of classified information” and “unlawful concealment of government records.” The search warrant said the probe was also related to “willful retention of national defense information,” an offense that falls under the Espionage Act, and potential “obstruction of a federal investigation.” A “special master,” a senior New York judge, was appointed by a District Court judge in Florida to screen the seized files for materials potentially subject to attorney-client privilege. A three-judge appellate panel ruled that while the special master conducts his review, the government should be able to continue using documents marked as classified for its criminal investigation. Trump, in his emergency request to the Supreme Court, is appealing that unanimous ruling by the appellate panel made up of two judges appointed by Trump and one by Barack Obama. Trump nominated three of the justices on the nine-member Supreme Court but it has delivered him several defeats in high-profile cases, most notably by refusing to hear his claims alleging fraud in the November 2020 presidential election. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) Read More Here

Russia Touts Rapid Mobilization But Faces Dilemma As Ukrainians Advance https://digitalarizonanews.com/russia-touts-rapid-mobilization-but-faces-dilemma-as-ukrainians-advance/ Ukraine’s troops pushed farther east into the strategically important town of Lyman, threatening Moscow’s positions in the Donetsk region. WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov reports from the recently liberated town after Russia’s hasty retreat. Photo: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images Updated Oct. 4, 2022 6:37 pm ET Russia’s defense minister said 200,000 men had entered the army as part of a mobilization drive that began last month as the rapid advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian-occupied territories outpaces Moscow’s ability to pour in reinforcements. The suggestion that Russia is already two-thirds of the way toward the target the minister, Sergei Shoigu, announced last month follows criticism of the call-up process—including from Russian President Vladimir Putin. But it raises questions as to whether the depleted Russian military will be able to cope with the sheer numbers of new recruits and use them effectively. Read More Here

Judge Rules Naughty Bits Off Limits At Trump Dossier Trial | Federal News Network https://digitalarizonanews.com/judge-rules-naughty-bits-off-limits-at-trump-dossier-trial-federal-news-network/ ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors cannot present evidence to a jury about the most salacious parts of a flawed dossier alleging connections between former President Donald Trump and Russia at an upcoming trial of an analyst who served as a primary source for that report. Igor Danchenko is scheduled to go on trial next week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on charges of lying to the FBI…. READ MORE ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors cannot present evidence to a jury about the most salacious parts of a flawed dossier alleging connections between former President Donald Trump and Russia at an upcoming trial of an analyst who served as a primary source for that report. Igor Danchenko is scheduled to go on trial next week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on charges of lying to the FBI. Special Counsel John Durham says Danchenko was a primary source of information in a dossier about Trump prepared by British spy Christopher Steele at the request of Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign. The indictment alleges that Danchenko’s primary source of information was actually a Democratic operative named Charles Dolan, a public relations executive who volunteered for Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. Prosecutors say the FBI would have been able to judge the veracity of the dossier more accurately if Danchenko had admitted his primary source was a Clinton supporter. The dossier most famously includes allegations that Trump engaged in salacious sexual activity with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel that was purportedly bugged by Russian intelligence — raising the possibility that Russians had information they could use to blackmail Trump. Trump had called the dossier fake news and evidence of a political witch hunt against him. The five specific counts in the indictment don’t charge Danchenko with lying about his sourcing for the sex allegations. Still, prosecutors wanted to present testimony at trial that they said would have shown that Danchenko lied about his sourcing for those allegations just as he lied about other aspects of his sourcing, Danchenko’s lawyers objected. They say the testimony would be highly prejudicial and would confuse the jury. In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga agreed with the defense. Specifically, he said the testimony that the government planned to introduce wouldn’t actually prove Danchenko lied. “(G)given the low probative value of these allegations, they are not admissible … as they are substantially outweighed by the danger of confusion and unfair prejudice,” Trenga wrote. The ruling is another setback for Durham’s case. At a hearing last week, Trenga rejected a motion from Danchenko’s lawyers to toss out the case entirely. But in doing so, he said it was “an extremely close call” and said jurors may well be persuaded by Danchenko’s defense. Danchenko’s lawyers have called the case an example of prosecutorial overreach and have said that the answers Danchenko gave to the FBI were all technically true, even if they weren’t particularly illuminating. Also in Tuesday’s ruling, Trenga denied — at least for now — a request from the government that Danchenko be barred from arguing to jurors or presenting evidence that the prosecution is politically motivated. Copyright © 2022 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. Read More Here

Here Is What We Know So Far About The Victims Of The Possible Serial Killer In Stockton, California https://digitalarizonanews.com/here-is-what-we-know-so-far-about-the-victims-of-the-possible-serial-killer-in-stockton-california-2/ Police are searching for a person of interest in a series of five fatal shootings in Stockton, California, that are thought to be connected. “By definition, you could probably very well call this serial killings,” Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said Friday. An unidentified person recorded on grainy security video could be a suspect or a witness, police said, and other people may be involved in the five attacks that have happened since July. Two other shootings from 2021, including one in which the victim survived, have also been linked to the killings, Stockton police said Monday evening. McFadden said the slayings have happened after dark and in areas with few security cameras. Each has involved a single victim. “It wasn’t a robbery,” he said. “Items aren’t being stolen. They’re not talking about any gang activity in the area or anything. It’s just element of surprise.” A $95,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest, police said. The San Joaquin County medical examiner’s office on Monday released the names of the victims, all of whom lived in Stockton: Paul Alexander Yaw, 35, died July 8; Salvador Debudey, Jr., 43, died Aug. 11; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, died Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, died Sept. 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, died Sept. 27. Police said a Latino man was fatally shot just before 4:20 a.m. April 10, 2021, in Oakland. The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau Tuesday identified the victim as Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39, of Oakland. Stockton police spokesperson Joe Silva called on the community for help. “We do have grieving family members that are asking a lot of questions, and they want closure,” he said Monday. “We are just hoping that someone will do the right thing and report that information to our detectives.” Paul Alexander Yaw Paul Alexander Yaw.via Facebook Greta Bogrow, 60, of Texas, said Monday that her son Paul Alexander Yaw was killed July 8 at a park in the Northern California city. Bogrow said she has been estranged from her son, who was homeless for about five years. “I have always hoped in my heart that at some point we would get reunited and have a relationship,” she said. “It’s always a mom’s dream that their children turn out to be good people. He was a good person. I just wish I had the opportunity to speak to him again in this life.” Bogrow said she has been in touch with detectives and can’t fathom how someone could commit such senseless slayings. “They are a really sick person. And they are preying on the weak,” she said. “My son had a big heart. He didn’t want to ever hurt anybody. … I don’t understand what kind of mind this person might have.” She said whoever is responsible must be arrested quickly. “I hope that all of this publicity brings this person in to get some kind of justice for what he has done to my son and all the other victims and their families,” Bogrow said. “I just hope it gets him off the street and stops him from doing this to anybody else.” Lawrence Lopez Sr. Lawrence “Lorenzo” Lopez Sr. Courtesy of Jerry Lopez. Jerry Lopez, 53, said his brother, Lawrence, who went by the nickname “Lorenzo,” was a father of six children ages 16 to 38. Jerry Lopez said his older brother worked as an independent contractor and had fallen into homelessness. He said that many people offered his brother to stay a place to stay but that he didn’t want to “burden” people. “He’d rather be taking care of himself than have other people take care of him,” Jerry Lopez said. He said they had lived in Stockton since they were in elementary school. “No city should have to deal with this,” Jerry Lopez said. “This thing needs to end. It’s scary for our city.” He added: “It’s just hard to think why a person would even get this way. But there are people out there having hard times and troubled minds.” Salvador Debudey Jr. NBC affiliate KCRA of Sacramento reported that Analydia Lopez, Debudey’s wife, was devastated the slaying. “To be honest with you, a part of me died with him that day,” Lopez said. “It’s been hard. It’s been really, really hard.” The station reported that Debudey was a father and that he and Lopez met 28 years ago when they were in high school. The pair reconnected later in life and had been married 12 years when he was slain in August. Relatives of the other victims could not be reached Monday. Antonio Planas Antonio Planas is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.  Dennis Romero Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.  Madelyn Urabe contributed . Read More Here

Stock Market Coverage – Tuesday October 4 Yahoo Finance https://digitalarizonanews.com/stock-market-coverage-tuesday-october-4-yahoo-finance/ Stock Market Coverage – Tuesday October 4 Yahoo Finance  Yahoo Finance Stock Market Coverage – Monday October 3 Yahoo Finance  Yahoo Finance Read More Here

Donald Trump Reportedly Pitted His Then-Wife Marla Maples Against Ex Ivana Over Pizza Hut Commercial https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trump-reportedly-pitted-his-then-wife-marla-maples-against-ex-ivana-over-pizza-hut-commercial/ October 4, 2022 at 3:51pm PM EDT Donald Trump, Marla Maples Frances M. Roberts/Newsmakers/Newscom/The Mega Agency. If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, SheKnows may receive an affiliate commission. The Donald Trump–Ivana Trump–Marla Maples love triangle might have lasted far longer than people could have ever imagined. Maggie Haberman’s new book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, shares a story about the former president not letting his then-wife know that he filmed a provocative Pizza Hut commercial with ex Ivana until after it was completed. Donald Trump, who had a highly publicized affair with Maples while married to Ivana, was completely comfortable with the script that teased a post-divorce affair with his ex. He says, “it’s wrong” in the ad while Ivana quips, “but it feels so right.” Of course, they are talking about the stuffed-crust pizza, but that certainly didn’t make Maples feel much better. The former duo filmed the commercial at Trump Tower while Maples was thousands of miles away at Mar-a-Lago — she had no clue what her husband was up to. When he did confess that he worked with Ivana while she was out of town, Maples had a severe reaction to the news. Donald Trump recalled the story to Nick Ribis, the chief executive of the Trump casino empire at the time, and Alan Marcus, a consultant, about how she took the news. “The poor kid,” he said in Haberman’s book. “I started to tell her, and she got sick. She said she had to go.” Maples reportedly went to the restroom to “puke her f**king guts out.”  Donald Trump seemed to have no problem keeping that information from his wife until he absolutely felt like she needed to know — and perhaps his ego didn’t mind the idea of two women fighting over him. Even though Maples was wrong to engage in an affair with a married man (who should have honored his vows to Ivana) in the first place, she probably worried that he might go back to Ivana because they shared so much history together, including a Pizza Hut commercial. Before you go, click here to see all the celebrities who have admitted to cheating on their partners. Related story Donald Trump Reportedly Wanted to Dress as Superman After Beating Covid, According to Bombshell New Book Read More Here

Former President Trump Escalates The Legal Battle Over Classified Documents, Again https://digitalarizonanews.com/former-president-trump-escalates-the-legal-battle-over-classified-documents-again/ Former President Trump escalates the legal battle over classified documents, again Audio will be available later today. NPR’s Juana Summers talks to University of Texas law expert Stephen Vladeck about former President Trump’s request that the Supreme Court intervene in the dispute over classified material at his home. Read More Here

Black Business Owners Face Challenges In Arizona, Report Reveals https://digitalarizonanews.com/black-business-owners-face-challenges-in-arizona-report-reveals/ Fernanda Sayles, the CEO and founder of FernDiggidy Sweets & Treats, begins to prepare her specialty banana pudding mix at the Local First Arizona Community Kitchen in Mesa on Sept. 13, 2022. (Photo by Justin Spangenthal/Cronkite News) Fernanda Sayles, the CEO and founder of FernDiggidy Sweets & Treats, places sliced bananas in a pudding tray at the Local First Arizona Community Kitchen in Mesa. (Photo by Justin Spangenthal/Cronkite News) Fernanda Sayles is featured on stickers promoting her business, FernDiggidy Sweets & Treats. Photo taken Sept. 13, 2022. (Photo by Justin Spangenthal/Cronkite News) FernDiggidy Sweets & Treats dessert Mason jars are sold at the Uptown Farmers Market in Phoenix, Retail Therapy AZ in Glendale and Main Street Harvest community grocer in Mesa. (Photo by Justin Spangenthal/Cronkite News) The banana pudding tray is FernDiggidy Sweets & Treat’s highest-selling item, according to CEO and founder Fernanda Sayles. She quickly puts together jars and tins of pudding, eventually leading to a full refrigerator. (Photo by Justin Spangenthal/Cronkite News) Every jar of banana pudding comes with fresh bananas mixed in and topped with a wafer cookie. FernDiggidy Sweets & Treats makes other sweet treats, each made with fresh and local ingredients. Photo taken Sept. 13, 2022. (Photo by Justin Spangenthal/Cronkite News) PHOENIX – Fernanda Sayles found her love for baking at age 10, when she started making banana pudding for her family in south Phoenix. At the time, Sayles never would have imagined she’d someday own a successful business selling desserts in Mason jars. Her success didn’t come easy though, as she began FernDiggidy Sweets & Treats in 2015 with only the resources she had in her kitchen. “I didn’t have a lot of money at all to start my business,” she said. “I’ve left a couple of jobs to work my business full time, but of course the bills kept coming, so I had to go back to work” at a doctor’s office. Sayles’ experience is common among Black business owners, who as of 2021 have the lowest entrepreneurship rates of any single race and ethnicity in the U.S., averaging 0.28% since 1996, according to a national report in March by Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship. However, that average rose to a high of 0.38% in 2020. The 2022 State of Black Business report, released in August by data nonprofit The State of Black Arizona, indicates more than 50% of Black business owners struggle with a lack of access to capital, driven by low levels of personal wealth, disparities in creditworthiness and low loan request rates. The report also indicated that Black entrepreneurs have the lowest opportunity share – meaning they are more likely to start a business out of necessity rather than opportunity – of any race or ethnicity. If Black-owned businesses reached parity with the population, the study said, there would be 4,945 such businesses in metro Phoenix. According to Brookings Metro data quoted in the report, there are 1,019 today. More than 132,000 jobs would be created in metro Phoenix if that parity existed, the study said. Teniqua Broughton, executive director of The State of Black Arizona, said African Americans have had lower entrepreneurship rates than people of other races for decades, and the trend has persisted in Arizona for generations. She attributed this to “disparities in personal wealth, and building proper, equitable generational wealth, which have been historically taken away.” Besides access to capital, The State of Black Business report listed networking, management education, business expertise and marketing as major challenges. (Video by Annie Lavino/Cronkite News) Sweet launch after uphill battle Sayles said she didn’t have savings or other funds to launch her business. She didn’t qualify for loans and was denied even after obtaining permits and tax information. Sayles said she started small and built her business through her personal network. “I would go to local barbershops all over the Valley to get the word out, and they welcomed me in, supported me and told everyone they could about my business,” she recalled. “The community was my backbone, from the barbershops to friends and even complete strangers.” Sayles said her business is rooted in her family’s cookouts. Her family enjoyed her banana pudding, strawberry cheesecake, peach cobbler and seasonal items so much, they’d often argue over who got the last bite – especially the crispy corners of cobbler. To resolve the spat, she started making desserts in Mason jars, which restored harmony. Soon after, Sayles decided to spread this joy and “goodness” and founded FernDiggidy. Sayles now bakes at the Local First Arizona Community Kitchen in Mesa and sells her sweets and treats at the Uptown Farmers Market in Phoenix, Retail Therapy AZ in Glendale and Main Street Harvest community grocer in Mesa. She also whips up gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan options. Before her business could take off, Sayles struggled to keep it afloat during the pandemic. She applied for a Phoenix small business microgrant and received $3,000 to cover rent, utilities, employee salaries and other expenses. The Phoenix City Council allocated $8 million from the American Rescue Plan Act for the grant program. But many businesses suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, the number of African American business owners plummeted from 1.1 million in February 2020 to about 640,000 in April of that year, Broughton said. Arizona has help for Black business owners Arizona has several programs and organizations to combat the wealth disparity gap and assist the launch and success of Black-owned businesses, including the UPI Loan Fund, Foresight Foundation and S.E.E. M.E. (Social and Economic Equity for Minority Enterprises). Angela Garmon, owner of ARG Coaching & Consulting Group and founder of S.E.E. M.E., said she wants to see Black businesses become visible as resources for the community. “If we can continue to get them the opportunities that they deserve,” she said, “then ultimately what we’re doing is creating a space for generational wealth and bridging that disparity gap that exists within our community.” As a business owner herself, Garmon said she has the same hopes as other Black-owned businesses – to be “recognized for our value, what we bring to the table and to be given opportunities.” (Audio by Annie Lavino/Cronkite News) ‘Everyone wins’ Sayles said her dream for FernDiggidy is to sell her sweets in major grocery stores nationally, and to some day open a storefront. She encouraged other Black business owners to never give up on their goals, despite economic challenges. “We have a history of being determined, constantly fighting and never giving up, so with our dreams and goals we need to continue to do that,” Sayles said. Despite the challenges they face, African Americans are one of the fastest-growing demographics in Arizona, Broughton said, and they’re key to the success of the economy. “Everyone wins when we invest in our Black businesses and our neighbors – for Arizona to thrive, attract industries and be a place people want to live, work and raise their families,” Broughton said. “The ecosystem needs to shift from solo efforts and start working as a collective. Arizona must make intentional targeted investments of political, social and business capital as a priority and begin to build a better ecosystem for Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.” Read More…