Digital Arizona News

New York Fraud Lawsuit Adds Court-Sized Complication To Possible Trump 2024 Plans https://digitalarizonanews.com/new-york-fraud-lawsuit-adds-court-sized-complication-to-possible-trump-2024-plans/ WASHINGTON – Now that the New York attorney general sued Donald Trump for fraud, one thing seems nearer certainty: If Trump runs for president again in 2024, he will do so while defending himself in a court of law. Maybe several courts of law. The long-running panoply of investigations into Trump – over his business practices, his handling of classified information, his efforts to overturn his election loss in 2020, and his role in the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 – will burden any 2024 presidential run by the former chief executive, analysts said. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ suit — while a civil matter rather than a criminal one — takes things a step further than those other probes: It is the most definitive sign yet that Trump could be pulled into court while running for president, an unprecedented position for a major party candidate. Citing James’ recital of allegations against Trump, including fraud running into the tens of millions of dollars or more, historian Michael Beschloss said, “I have never seen anything remotely like this in the history of the American presidency.” And with a separate tax fraud case currently also moving against the Trump Organization, Trump’s legal woes will be in the headlines for months, or perhaps even years, to come. “It will be in the news over and over again,” said Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor who was part of the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. More investigations?: New York lawsuit against Trump, family could prompt new federal criminal inquiries The investigations so far: Investigations may help Donald Trump politically — and that may hurt the Republican Party Anger – and discovery Trump and his allies— including some past allies — say the investigations will only help him politically as voters rally around a man they believe is being unfairly targeted. Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who has criticized Trump over his actions in a classified documents case, criticized James over the lawsuit. If she fails to make her case, Barr said, it could hurt other investigations with voters who believe the government is “piling on” Trump. “I don’t think it’s going to hurt him,” Barr said. “The more overboard these cases get, the more I think it’s going to help him.” Trump promotes that message in every public appearance while denouncing the various investigations against him, especially the lawsuit filed Wednesday by James. “The American public is really angry,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday. Weissmann said Trump’s reaction is understandable – “he thrives on being the victim and running against the elites” – but could be hard to sustain as cases develop against him. Discovery, or the information exchange process in court, and submission of court documents could be “hideous” for Trump and his cause, Weissmann said. A 2024 test in 2022  Trump has not formally declared a 2024 presidential candidacy. He does frequently flirts with the idea, especially after bad legal news, including James’ lawsuit announcement. In the lawsuit, the attorney general said Trump and members of his family fraudulently over-valued properties to secure bank loans or de-valued them to reduce tax bills. Claiming the valuations amounted to financial fraud, James said: “There aren’t two sets of laws for people in this natio. Former presidents must be held to the same standards as everyday Americans.” James also said she has referred the Trump case to federal prosecutors in New York and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump, who accused James of seeking to criminalize standard business practices, has been under investigative clouds since leaving the White House on Jan. 20, 2021. His single term ended two weeks after a mob of supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to block President Joe Biden’s election victory. The insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, followed weeks of false claims by Trump of a stolen election. Now a grand jury in Atlanta is investigating Trump’s pressure on state officials to overturn his election loss in Georgia. The Department of Justice is investigating whether Trump has culpability for the insurrection. The DOJ also is investigating Trump’s removal of classified information from the White House. That probe inspired the Aug. 8 search of Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., by the FBI, a stunning legal development that amped up speculation about the former president’s political future. Strong with Republicans, weak with independents  Trump-backed candidates in the current midterm elections are in some cases struggling. Candidates who won nominations largely because of Trump’s backing are struggling in general elections, including races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona that will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. Probes and politics: Prosecution vs. politics: Can AG Garland pursue Trump probes without influencing the midterms? Trump v. DeSantis in 2024? USA TODAY/Suffolk poll shows Florida Republicans prefer their governor “The 2022 mid-terms are a test case” for the impact of Trump’s legal difficulties, said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. In Ohio – a key, red-leaning state in most presidential elections – only 26% of independents have a favorable view of Trump, Paleologos said. “He’s always had to fight for independents,” Paleologos said. “The investigations don’t help him.” ‘No Way’ A number of people question how Trump could run a credible presidential candidacy while tied up in court, especially if he is hit with criminal indictments. Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney whose congressional testimony led to the James investigation over property valuations, said he always doubted there will be another Trump presidential campaign and said he thinks Trump only talks about it in order to raise money. “I never thought he was going to run in 2024, and that this was a stunt in order to grift off of his supporters for as long as possible,” said Cohen, a one-time confidante who has since turned on his former boss. Given the James lawsuit and the other investigations, Cohen said he just doesn’t see how Trump can mount a presidential campaign, or how voters could take him seriously. Cohen said: “There is no way he could legitimately run a race with all of the legal baggage that is plaguing him.” Grand juries investigating Trump aren’t expected to take any formal action against the ex-president before this year’s Election Day on Nov. 8. In the meantime, however, news leaks, pre-trial litigation, and legal discovery may continue to rain down on Trump, a preview of legal and political storms to come. The Trump Organization, the former president’s company, has been charged with fraud in a separate case, as well, and faces trial in October. Some of the testimony is expected to touch on Trump and his business dealings. Little of this is expected to help Trump politically. But Matt Wolking, a deputy communications director for Trump’s 2020 campaign said that, if anything, the James lawsuit and the other investigations will only encourage Trump to run. “It certainly gives him an incentive to fight back,” he said. Republicans point out the investigations may not loom as the biggest issues facing voters when Republican primaries roll around in early 2024 – especially if the economy continues to struggle. The inflation rate, for example, has been hovering near a 40-year high, squeezing Americans on everything from rent to the cost of eggs. There’s also the fact that Trump survived any number of scandals on his way to the White House the first time, said Liz Mair, an anti-Trump Republican political consultant. “The problem with Donald Trump,” Mair said, “is that he doesn’t operate in the same reality as everybody else.” Read More Here

Special Master Sets Timeline For Review In Trump Docs Case, Says He Must Explain Claims Of Privilege https://digitalarizonanews.com/special-master-sets-timeline-for-review-in-trump-docs-case-says-he-must-explain-claims-of-privilege/ In a court filing on Thursday, the federal judge tasked with reviewing the FBI-seized materials from Mar-a-Lago directed federal prosecutors to begin producing the approximately 11,000 documents that were recovered last month from former President Donald Trump’s Florida home. The plan and timeline laid out by U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie states that by Monday, the Department of Justice must provide electronic copies of the materials not labeled classified to both Dearie and Trump’s team. For each document, Trump’s attorneys must then say whether he is asserting attorney-client privilege or executive privilege or whether the document is a personal or presidential record, according to Dearie’s latest directions. For any document that Trump and his team mark as privileged and/or personal, they need to include a statement explaining the reasoning for the particular declaration. The government has provided Trump and his lawyers with the documents that DOJ’s “filter team” had found could potentially be privileged and Dearie said in Thursday’s filing that Trump must then provide a log of his designations for the materials — as to whether he is asserting privilege over something and whether it is personal or presidential — to the government by Monday. A courtroom sketch depicts Judge Raymond Dearie as he presides over his first public hearing since his appointment as special master to review documents seized last month by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Florida home, at a courtroom in New York, Sept. 20, 2022. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters Trump’s team has to submit a final and complete review of all the documents to the government by Oct. 14, according to the special master. Both parties must submit a log of any disputed designations to the Dearie by Oct. 21. (Dearie said he needs the help of a retired federal magistrate, James Orenstein, to help with his review.) Where there’s a dispute with the government, the special master will resolve it. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday simplified Dearie’s work by removing classified documents from his review and restoring the government’s access to them as part of its investigation into how Trump, who denies wrongdoing, handled records after leaving office. Among the materials the FBI says it retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, court documents have shown, were 11 sets of documents of various classifications ranging from confidential to top secret (TS) and sensitive compartmented information. FBI photograph of redacted documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container stored in former U.S. president Donald Trump’s Florida estate that was included in a U.S. Department of Justice filing Aug. 30, 2022. U.S. Department Of Justice via Reuters The 11th Circuit’s ruling Wednesday was a partial stay of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order naming a special master and essentially freezing the government’s work pending Dearie’s review. Cannon on Thursday modified her order in light of the appellate decision, striking the parts of her ruling that the special master needs to prioritize the documents marked as classified and submit interim reports and recommendations as appropriate. Cannon also removed a measure that the classified documents and attached papers must be available for inspection by Trump’s attorneys. Read More Here

White Woman Who Called 911 On Black Birder Loses Suit Over Termination https://digitalarizonanews.com/white-woman-who-called-911-on-black-birder-loses-suit-over-termination/ A federal judge has dismissed a case brought by Amy Cooper, the White woman who in 2020 falsely called 911 on a Black man birdwatching in Central Park, against her former employer over her termination. Southern District of New York Judge Ronnie Abrams on Wednesday dismissed Cooper’s lawsuit alleging her ex-employer, Franklin Templeton, discriminated against her based on her race and gender, defamed her and intentionally caused emotional distress. The investment firm said on social media hours after video of the 2020 incident went viral that it was placing Cooper, without naming her, on administrative leave while it conducted an investigation. A day later, it announced the review had led to Cooper’s termination, also without naming her but adding that the company “does not tolerate racism of any kind.” Cooper sued her ex-employer in 2021, alleging the company illegally fired her without performing a legitimate internal review and falsely portrayed her as a racist, while she was being labeled “Central Park Karen” by social media users for the incident. The suit also argued she was the victim of racial discrimination. “Franklin Templeton’s alleged investigation and results provided legitimacy to the ‘Karen’ story, and appeared to provide justification for those who sought the destruction of the Plaintiff’s life,” Cooper’s suit claimed. A spokeswoman with Franklin Templeton on Wednesday said the company was pleased the judge dismissed the case. “We continue to believe the company responded appropriately,” Franklin Templeton spokeswoman Lisa Gallegos told The Washington Post in an email. Attorneys representing Cooper did not immediately responded when reached out by The Post seeking comment. Cooper could not be reached by The Post. On May 5, 2020, Christian Cooper — who is not related to Amy Cooper — was birdwatching in Central Park when he noticed Amy and her dog, an unleashed cocker spaniel, standing right by a sign saying all dogs must be leashed, he told The Post in an interview shortly after the incident. When he approached her and asked her to leash her pet that early morning, she refused, he told The Post. Christian Cooper, who said he usually carries dog treats, then attempted to throw a treat toward her dog. He began recording when she threatened to call the police on him. “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” she told him, pulling out her cellphone and dialing 911. Christian Cooper chose to keep recording because he wasn’t going to become an active player of his “own dehumanization,” he told The Post. “Please call the cops,” he said on video. “Please tell them whatever you’d like.” The video quickly racked up millions of views after his sister posted it on Twitter. The following day, Amy Cooper publicly apologized for her actions, saying she “reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions” when she should have leashed her dog. “I was the one who was acting inappropriately by not having my dog on a leash,” she wrote. “I am well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause. … I hope that a few mortifying seconds in a lifetime of forty years will not define me in his eyes.” State prosecutors charged her with false reporting months later. The criminal charges were later dropped. On May 5, 2o21, Amy Cooper filed a lawsuit alleging Franklin Templeton “performed no investigation” into the incident, did not interview her nor Christian Cooper, and made no attempt at obtaining her full 911 call. The company, the lawsuit states, also failed to take into consideration her achievements as an “exceptional employee” who earned “high performer bonuses” for three consecutive years, instead defaming her and discriminating against her based on her race and gender. This cost the woman a “substantial loss of earnings and benefits,” and “severe emotional distress” in the near and long future, the suit said. Teo Armus, Jaclyn Peiser and Michael Brice-Saddler contributed to this report. Read More Here

3 People In Critical Condition After Car Crash In North Phoenix https://digitalarizonanews.com/3-people-in-critical-condition-after-car-crash-in-north-phoenix/ Authorities say one person had to be extricated from the wrecked vehicle. PHOENIX — Three people were taken to the hospital Thursday for critical injuries sustained from a car crash in north Phoenix. The multi-vehicle collision occurred near 23rd Avenue and Happy Valley Road at about 2 p.m., according to the Phoenix Fire Department.  Once firefighters arrived at the scene, an individual had to be extricated from a wrecked vehicle.  Two men and a women were taken to the hospital. Two of the patients were listed as being in “extremely critical condition” and the third was in “critical condition,” officials said. Phoenix police are currently investigating how the collision occurred. Up to Speed Catch up on the latest news and stories on our 12 News YouTube playlist here. More ways to get 12News  On your phone: Download the 12News app for the latest local breaking news straight to your phone.   On your streaming device: Download 12News+ to your streaming device   The free 12News+ app from 12News lets users stream live events — including daily newscasts like “Today in AZ” and “12 News” and our daily lifestyle program, “Arizona Midday”—on Roku and Amazon Fire TV.   12News+ showcases live and on-demand video throughout the day for breaking news, local news, weather and even an occasional moment of Zen showcasing breathtaking sights from across Arizona.  On social media: Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.  Download the 12News app for the latest local breaking news straight to your phone.  Read More…

NY Probe Found Potential Crimes. Why Isn't Trump In Cuffs? https://digitalarizonanews.com/ny-probe-found-potential-crimes-why-isnt-trump-in-cuffs/ Read More Here

Putin Faces Fury In Russia Over Military Mobilization And Prisoner Swap https://digitalarizonanews.com/putin-faces-fury-in-russia-over-military-mobilization-and-prisoner-swap/ Russian families bade tearful farewells on Thursday to thousands of sons and husbands abruptly summoned for military duty as part of President Vladimir Putin’s new mobilization, while pro-war Russian nationalists raged over the release of Ukrainian commanders in a secretive prisoner exchange. As women hugged their husbands and young men boarded buses to leave for 15 days of training before potentially being deployed to Russia’s stumbling war effort in Ukraine, there were signs of mounting public anger. More than 1,300 people were arrested at anti-mobilization protests in cities and towns across Russia on Wednesday and Thursday, in the largest public protests since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed reports of booked-out flights and queues to leave Russia as “false.” “The information about a certain feverish situation in airports is very much exaggerated,” Peskov insisted during his daily conference call with reporters on Thursday. But there were other signs of increased public pushback against Putin and his war, despite the Kremlin’s harsh crackdown on dissent. In the city of Togliatti, a local military recruitment office was set on fire, one of dozens of similar attacks across Russia in recent months. Russia’s war hawks on the far right, meanwhile, had a different cause for fury: a prisoner exchange that freed commanders from Ukraine’s controversial Azov Regiment, long branded by Russia as “Nazis.” They were swapped for dozens of prisoners held in Ukraine, including Viktor Medvedchuk, reputed to be Putin’s closest Ukrainian friend and the leader of the country’s main pro-Kremlin political party. The dual backlash over mobilization and the prisoner exchange showed Putin facing his most acute crisis since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Not only is his country grappling with punishing economic sanctions imposed by the West, but his military has suffered dramatic setbacks, including an embarrassing retreat from the northeastern Kharkiv region. With his options diminishing, Putin has made increasingly perilous decisions that could turn the Russian public against the war. In his national address Wednesday, he voiced support for steps toward annexing four Ukrainian regions that he does not fully control, which risks fierce fighting and further humiliation. Putin also used his speech to make a thinly veiled threat that Russia would use nuclear weapons. On Thursday, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now the deputy head of the country’s Security Council, made the threat explicit. “Referendums will be held, and the Donbas republics and other territories will be accepted into Russia,” Medvedev posted on Telegram, warning that Russia would be willing to use “strategic nuclear weapons” for the “protection” of those territories. In New York, where world leaders are gathered for the annual United Nations General Assembly, the top U.S. and Russian diplomats clashed during a heated meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the council that every member should “send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately.” He also condemned the gruesome torture and murder of Ukrainian civilians discovered after Russia’s withdrawal from the cities of Izyum and Bucha. “Wherever the Russian tide recedes, we discover the horror that’s left in its wake,” Blinken said. “We can not, we will not, allow President Putin to get away with it.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied the charges and accused Ukrainian forces of killing civilians in the eastern Donbas region “with impunity.” Lavrov also said that countries sending weapons to Ukraine or training its forces “to deplete and weaken Russia” were direct parties to the war. “Such a line signifies the direct involvement of Western countries in the Ukrainian conflict, and makes them a party thereto,” he said, walking out of the chamber as soon as he finished speaking. Yet amid the escalating rhetoric, the secretive prisoner exchange deal announced Wednesday night, which involved the mediation of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, showed that some behind-the-scenes diplomacy was still possible. The deal was celebrated in Kyiv, where the Azov commanders are widely regarded as heroes for their role in holding the line during the siege of Mariupol. The head of Ukraine’s chief military intelligence directorate, Kyryl Budanov, alleged that some of the liberated prisoners had been tortured. “There are persons who were subjected to very cruel torture, and unfortunately the percentage of such persons among whom we returned is quite large,” he said. In Russia, the deal was so toxic that the Kremlin distanced itself from the decision and the Ministry of Defense would not confirm the details. Medvedchuk, the apparent centerpiece of the deal, was chief of staff to former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma from 2002 to 2005 and has long played a Machiavellian role in Ukrainian politics. Before the failure of Moscow to seize Kyiv and topple the elected government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Medvedchuk was seen as a potential puppet leader for the Kremlin. But he is known mainly as a close friend of Putin. Medvedchuk has said the Russian leader is godfather to his daughter and Putin has visited his palatial mansion in Crimea. Asked whether Medvedchuk had been freed, Peskov said: “I can’t comment on the prisoner exchange. I don’t have powers to do so.” A statement from the Russian Defense Ministry also failed to mention Medvedchuk. Eventually, Denis Pushilin, Moscow’s proxy leader in a separatist area of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, confirmed that he had agreed to the exchange for 50 Russian servicemen, five pro-Russian fighters from Ukraine and Medvedchuk. Sending Russian men to fight in a war to “denazify” Ukraine, at the same time as releasing the Azov commanders and fighters, was difficult for Russia to explain — given that, for years, Kremlin propaganda has portrayed the Azov group as fanatical terrorists and “Nazi” ringleaders who must be destroyed. The exchange deal took place “in difficult circumstances,” Pushilin told Russian state television. “We gave them 215 people, including nationalistic battalion fighters. They are war criminals. We were perfectly aware of that, but our goal was to bring our guys back as soon as possible.” Hard-line nationalists branded the exchange as a betrayal that undercut the reason for the war, on the same day Russia was calling up men to fight. Among the toughest critics of the Russian military approach — for being too soft — is Igor Girkin, a former Russian FSB agent who commanded Moscow proxy fighters in 2014. He called the exchange of the Azov fighters “treason,” in a post on social media Thursday, blaming “as yet unidentified persons from the top leadership of the Russian Federation.” The release was “worse than a crime and worse than a mistake. This is INCREDIBLE STUPIDITY,” he complained. (Girkin is being tried in absentia by a court in The Hague over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.) In Chechnya, the regional dictator and close Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov said on Telegram that the Azov Regiment “terrorists” should not have been handed over. “It is not right. Our fighters crushed the fascists in Mariupol, drove them into Azovstal, smoked them out of the basements, died, got wounded and shell-shocked. The transfer of even one of these Azov terrorists should have been unacceptable.” Putin has relied on public apathy to continue his war, and has stopped short of declaring a full national draft. But his mobilization, which is supposed to call up at least 300,000 reservists, will force many more Russians to confront the brutal reality of the conflict in Ukraine. In a speech posted online late Thursday, Zelensky, switching to Russian, addressed Russian citizens directly, invoking the thousands of their countrymen already killed and wounded in Ukraine. “Want more? No?” he asked. “Then protest. Fight. Run away. Or surrender to Ukrainian captivity. These are the options for you to survive.” Some Russian protesters who were arrested while demonstrating against mobilization Wednesday were handed military summonses at police stations, a move designed to deter further dissent, especially by fighting-age men. Peskov said it was perfectly legal. “It does not contravene the law. Therefore, there is no violation of the law,” he said. Questions about the partial mobilization swirled on Thursday, with confusion over who would escape being called up and who would be forced to fight. The role of Peskov’s own son, Nikolai Peskov, underscored Russian suspicions that wealthy and politically connected figures would be spared from military service, and that the war would continue to be fought largely by men from impoverished regions, far from Moscow. Nikolai Peskov was less than enthusiastic about the idea he could be sent to fight when he was phoned Wednesday by Dmitry Nizovtsev, a member of the team of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and an opposition YouTube channel anchor. Nizovtsev, posing as a military official, demanded that the younger Peskov appear at a local military commissariat the following day at 10 a.m. “Obviously I won’t come tomorrow at 10 a.m.,” Nikolai Peskov said. “You have to understand that I am Mr. Peskov and it’s not exactly right for me to be there. In short, I will solve this on another level.” Natalia Abbakamova in Riga, Latvia, and David Stern in Kyiv contributed to this report. War in Ukraine: What you need to know The latest: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization” of troops in an address to the nation on Sept. 21, framing the move as an attempt to d...

To Charge Or Not To Charge Trump? Garland Faces Decision-Time https://digitalarizonanews.com/to-charge-or-not-to-charge-trump-garland-faces-decision-time/ WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland is rapidly approaching a choice likely to shape American politics and the boundaries of law enforcement for decades: whether Donald Trump will be the first former U.S. president charged with a crime. Garland has nothing but hard choices. The nation is split, a bare 47% to 43% plurality backing criminal charges for mishandling classified documents, according to an Aug. 29-Sept. 1 Marist College poll. Trump, who is mulling another run for the presidency in 2024, is already openly raising the possibility of dark consequences in the event of an indictment. Asked last week by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt whether he would be indicted, Trump said, “If it happened, I think you’d have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before.” The Justice Department likely already has the evidence that would support indicting Trump for obstructing a federal grand jury investigation into his handling of classified documents, current and former officials said. The probe into whether he compromised sensitive national secrets is also moving swiftly, potentially setting up a prosecution decision after the Nov. 8 midterm elections. But a sprawling investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election likely will take a lot longer. Any decision by Garland, 69, a former federal appeals court judge known for his by-the-book approach, is sure to stoke political passions in the coming presidential race and set a precedent for whether criminal law extends to presidents. Public confidence in the U.S. justice system is at stake. The prospect of violence looms. The Justice Department declined to comment. “We don’t want to look like a banana republic, where, when people are out of office, they’re prosecuted by their successors,” said former Trump Attorney General William Barr. Conversely, since the Justice Department already has decided a president can’t be charged in office, it raises the question of whether presidents effectively would be placed above the law if they committed criminal acts out of office and weren’t prosecuted. “You can’t have a situation where someone who has been a president is immune,” said Jamie Gorelick, former deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton. Here are Garland’s options: Indict Trump: High-profile top government officials have already been prosecuted for mishandling classified documents, including former national security adviser Sandy Berger and former CIA Director David Petraeus, both of whom pleaded guilty. Each paid a hefty fine — Petraeus $100,000 and Berger $50,000 — and were on probation for two years. As of now, it’s unclear what damage the documents in Trump’s possession may have allegedly caused. The Justice Department’s review before bringing charges against a former president will be extraordinary. Such a prosecution decision “is weightier” than most, Gorelick said. “You just have to be more thoughtful and careful.” The University of Chicago’s Project on Security and Threats estimates 18 million Americans believe a violent response would be justified if Trump were charged with mishandling classified documents, based on a poll taken Sept. 9-12. The researchers extrapolated the estimate from their survey, which found 7% of respondents agreed with that statement in a poll of 2,142 adults contacted by web and telephone. The margin of error is 2.9 percentage points. Barr said Garland should try to put out of his mind the potential for violence when deciding how to proceed. “I don’t think threats of violence are appropriate to consider,” Barr said. “If anything, they should weigh in favor of an indictment because we can’t get into a state of affairs where our justice system is determined by threats of violence and mobs.” An indictment is sure to divide the country. Merely seizing documents from Trump’s estate unleashed furious criticism from Republican politicians and threats of violence against the FBI. The backlash against criminal charges could be far more heated, especially as the campaign for the GOP presidential nomination begins in earnest next year. Some 78% of Republicans opposed prosecution and 63% of Republicans said in the Marist poll that Trump has done nothing wrong. The Marist poll of 1,236 adults contacted by telephone Aug. 29 through Sept. 1 has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. The more the case becomes a partisan cause, the harder it may be for a jury to reach a unanimous verdict. A failed prosecution carries extra risk for the Justice Department’s long-term reputation, not to mention the standing of Garland and his boss, President Joe Biden. An indictment — even a conviction — also won’t necessarily stop Trump from another run for the White House. And the criminal case could well drag on to become a sideshow in the presidential campaign. Don’t Indict: Even if Garland determines he has enough evidence to prove Trump guilty beyond a reasonable doubt — the standard the Justice Department usually uses for criminal charging decisions — he does have prosecutorial discretion to not pursue the case if that would be in the public interest. “There is no question that prosecutorial discretion can consider the political or social upheaval that a case may cause,” said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. “It is part of the balancing with the need to show that no one is above the law.” More immediately, a decision not to prosecute would provide fodder for Republican claims that the Aug. 8 Mar-a-Lago search amounted to nothing more than Justice Department and FBI harassment of Biden’s most prominent political opponent. Even if Garland doesn’t indict Trump in relation to the secret documents, Trump still faces a number of other, potentially more serious, investigations that could lead to criminal charges, including a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Leticia James on Wednesday, accusing Trump of fraud in overvaluing his real estate assets in the state. Conversely, if he doesn’t prosecute Trump in the records case, it sends a message that presidents can break the law with impunity. Wait: Garland could wait on making a charging decision while the Justice Department proceeds with its investigation into whether Trump and his allies illegally attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. There is also a separate investigation into election-related actions by a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, featuring a recorded call from the former president to the state’s secretary of state asking him to “find” more Trump votes. Waiting for a more serious charge like trying to overturn an election could weaken the argument that the charge wasn’t worth the historic prosecution of a former U.S. president. Some have argued that such a prosecution should be for a charge more egregious than mishandling even top secret records. “These violations are rarely prosecuted and those relatively few cases have not generated significant sentences,” Turley said. But there are risks to waiting. Federal investigators are still gathering evidence about actions Trump and his allies took regarding the Jan. 6 violence, fake elector schemes and other efforts to overturn the 2020 election, meaning any charging decisions aren’t expected anytime soon. It could press up against voting in the next Republican presidential primaries, in which Trump may be a candidate. The Justice Department normally makes prosecution decisions on a criminal case even when a defendant may be under investigation for another offense. Charges related to mishandling secret documents also are far easier to explain, potentially creating a simpler test case for a history-making prosecution. Garland has been reluctant to speak publicly about the challenges he and his department face. But he urged allegiance to the rule of law during a speech Saturday to welcome new U.S. citizens. “There is not one rule for friends, another for foes; one rule for the powerful, another for the powerless; a rule for the rich, another for the poor,” Garland said. “The rule of law is not assured. It is fragile. It demands constant effort and vigilance,” Garland said. “And it demands that we reject violence and threats of violence that endanger each other and endanger our democracy.” Read More Here

Trump’s Legal Woes Mount Without Protection Of Presidency https://digitalarizonanews.com/trumps-legal-woes-mount-without-protection-of-presidency/ WASHINGTON Stark repudiation by federal judges he appointed. Far-reaching fraud allegations by New York’s attorney general. It’s been a week of widening legal troubles for Donald Trump, laying bare the challenges piling up as the former president operates without the protections afforded by the White House. The bravado that served him well in the political arena is less handy in a legal realm dominated by verifiable evidence, where judges this week have looked askance at his claims and where a fraud investigation that took root when Trump was still president burst into public view in an allegation-filled 222-page state lawsuit. In politics, “you can say what you want and if people like it, it works. In a legal realm, it’s different,” said Chris Edelson, a presidential powers scholar and American University government professor. “It’s an arena where there are tangible consequences for missteps, misdeeds, false statements in a way that doesn’t apply in politics.” That distinction between politics and law was evident in a single 30-hour period this week. Trump insisted on Fox News in an interview that aired Wednesday that the highly classified government records he had at Mar-a-Lago actually had been declassified, that a president has the power to declassify information “even by thinking about it.” A day earlier, however, an independent arbiter his own lawyers had recommended appeared skeptical when the Trump team declined to present any information to support his claims that the documents had been declassified. The special master, Raymond Dearie, a veteran federal judge, said Trump’s team was trying to “have its cake and eat it,” too, and that, absent information to back up the claims, he was inclined to regard the records the way the government does: Classified. On Wednesday morning, Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, accused Trump in a lawsuit of padding his net worth by billions of dollars and habitually misleading banks about the value of prized assets. The lawsuit, the culmination of a three-year investigation that began when he was president, also names as defendants three of his adult children and seeks to bar them from ever again running a company in the state. Trump has denied any wrongdoing. Hours later, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit — two of them Trump appointees — handed him a startling loss in the Mar-a-Lago investigation. The court overwhelmingly rejected arguments that he was entitled to have the special master do an independent review of the roughly 100 classified documents taken during last month’s FBI search. That ruling opened the way for the Justice Department to resume its use of the classified records in its probe. It lifted a hold placed by a lower court judge, Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee whose rulings in the Mar-a-Lago matter had to date been the sole bright spot for the former president. She responded today by striking the parts of her order that had required the Justice Department to give Dearie, and Trump’s lawyers, access to the classified records. Dearie followed up with his own order, giving the Trump team until Sept. 30 to identify errors or mistakes in the FBI’s detailed inventory of items taken in the search. Between Dearie’s position, and the appeals court ruling, “I think that basically there may be a developing consensus, if not an already developed consensus, that the government has the stronger position in a lot of these issues and a lot of these controversies,” said Richard Serafini, a Florida criminal defense lawyer and former Justice Department prosecutor. To be sure, Trump is hardly a stranger to courtroom dramas, having been deposed in numerous lawsuits throughout his decades-long business career, and he has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to survive situations that seemed dire. His lawyers did not immediately respond today to a request seeking comment. In the White House, Trump had faced a perilous investigation into whether he had obstructed a Justice Department probe of possible collusion between Russia and his 2016 campaign. Ultimately, he was protected at least in part by the power of the presidency, with special counsel Robert Mueller citing longstanding department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president. He was twice impeached by a Democratic-led House of Representatives — once over a phone call with Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the second time over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol — but was acquitted by the Senate on both occasions thanks to political support from fellow Republicans. It remains unclear if any of the current investigations — the Mar-a-Lago one or probes related to Jan. 6 or Georgia election interference — will produce criminal charges. And the New York lawsuit is a civil matter. But there’s no question Trump no longer enjoys the legal shield of the presidency, even though he has repeatedly leaned on an expansive view of executive power to defend his retention of records the government says are not his, no matter their classification. Notably, the Justice Department and the federal appeals court have paid little heed to his assertions that the records had been declassified. For all his claims on TV and social media, both have noted that Trump has presented no formal information to support the idea that he took any steps at all to declassify the records. The appeals court called the declassification question a “red herring” because even declassifying a record would not change its content or transform it from a government document into a personal one. And the statutes the Justice Department cites as the basis of its investigation do not explicitly mention classified information. Trump’s lawyers also have stopped short of saying in court, or in legal briefs, that the records were declassified. They told Dearie they shouldn’t be forced to disclose their stance on that issue now because it could be part of their defense in the event of an indictment. Even some legal experts who have otherwise sided with Trump in his legal fights are dubious of his assertions. Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who testified as a Republican witness in the first impeachment proceedings in 2019, said he was struck by the “lack of a coherent and consistent position from the former president on the classified documents.” “It’s not clear,” he added, “what Jedi-like lawyers said that you could declassify things with a thought, but the courts are unlikely to embrace that claim.” Read More Here

Larry Elwin Porter Obituary (2022) https://digitalarizonanews.com/larry-elwin-porter-obituary-2022/ Larry Elwin Porter, 83, passed away on September 17, 2022 in Mesa, Arizona. He was born to Sanford and Dorothy Porter in Central, AZ in 1939. He was the youngest of 5 children; Harold (dec.), Donald (dec.), Marilyn (dec.), and Harry. In 1964, Larry married his sweetheart Sheila Ann Mauss and we’re lucky to have celebrated 58 years together raising their 6 children; Kevin, Lauri (Jeff), Cindy (Toby), Amy (Dan), Michael (Becky), and Holly (Eric). Larry enjoyed spending time with his 28 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Larry spent most of his adult life in Mesa and St. George, Utah. Larry loved his country and enjoyed serving others. Funeral services are Friday, September 23, 2022 at 10:00am, preceded by a visitation at 9:00am at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Chapel, 825 S 32 St, Mesa. Published by Bunker Family Funerals & Cremation – University Chapel on Sep. 22, 2022. Read More Here

WSJ News Exclusive | Humana, CVS Circle Cano Health As Potential Buyers https://digitalarizonanews.com/wsj-news-exclusive-humana-cvs-circle-cano-health-as-potential-buyers/ Humana has a right of first refusal on any Cano sale, part of an agreement that was originally struck in 2019.Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News Updated Sept. 22, 2022 5:45 pm ET Humana and CVS Health are circling Cano Health according to people familiar with the situation, as healthcare heavyweights scramble to snap up primary-care providers. The talks are serious and a deal to purchase Cano could be struck in the next several weeks, assuming the negotiations don’t fall apart, some of the people said. Cano shares, which had been down nearly 7%, turned positive and closed up 32% after The Wall Street Journal reported on the talks with Humana and other unnamed parties, giving the company a market value of roughly $4 billion. Read More Here

Arizona Republicans Trailing In Key Senate, Gubernatorial Races: New AARP Poll https://digitalarizonanews.com/arizona-republicans-trailing-in-key-senate-gubernatorial-races-new-aarp-poll/ NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A new poll released Thursday shows Arizona Republicans trailing their Democratic opponents in the state’s key Senate and gubernatorial races less than 7 weeks before the November general election. According to an AARP poll of likely Arizona voters, incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly leads Republican nominee Blake Masters 50%-42% in the race for the Senate, while Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has a slight lead over Republican nominee Kari Lake 49%-48% in the gubernatorial race. A bright spot for Republicans in the poll shows them leading a generic congressional ballot by just one point over Democrats, 48%-47%, while a small percentage of voters in each race remains undecided. In the Senate race, Kelly leads Masters in nearly every category of voters, including those aged 50 and older (48%-44%), independents (47%-39%), women (56%-36%), college educated (56%-37%) and Hispanic (63%-38%). OZ, FETTERMAN SHOWDOWN HAS TAKEN CENTER-STAGE IN MIDTERMS BATTLE: HERE IS WHAT PENNSYLVANIA VOTERS HAD TO SAY Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters speaks at a ‘Save America’ rally hosted by former President Donald Trump in support of Arizona GOP candidates on July 22, 2022 in Prescott Valley, Arizona. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) Masters leads Kelly among men (50%-43%) and those without a college degree (46%-45%), but the two tied the preference of White voters at 46% each.  Libertarian Senate candidate Marc Victor drew 4% support among likely voters. In the gubernatorial race, Lake and Hobbs split each category, indicating how much the race has tightened. Lake leads with voters aged 50 and older (50%-48%), men (53%-43%), voters without a college degree (53%-44%), and White voters (52%-45%), while Hobbs lead with independents (49%-45%), women (55%-42%), college educated voters (57%-40%) and Hispanic voters (62%-32%). DEMS ATTACK GOP CANDIDATE OVER WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE POSTS AFTER SPENDING NEARLY $500K TO HELP HIM WIN PRIMARY The poll found that President Biden’s approval rating is underwater with likely voters in the state, showing only 45% approve of the job he’s done as president, compared to 55% who disapprove.  Voters view former President Donald Trump more positively, with 50% approving of him and 50% disapproving. Just 37% of voters have a favorable view of the state’s other Democratic senator, Kyrsten Sinema, who is not up for re-election until 2024. 54% have an unfavorable view of her. Kari Lake, Republican gubernatorial candidate for Arizona, during an Election Night Party in Scottsdale, Arizona, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. (Caitlin O’Hara/Bloomberg via Getty Images) When it came to which issues mattered most to voters as they head to the polls, immigration and border security came out on top with 16% of voters saying it was the most important. It was closely followed by inflation and rising prices at 14%. Just 12% of voters viewed abortion as the most important issue, something Democrats across the country have invested heavily in campaigning on following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. MAJORITY OF TEXANS, 40 PERCENT OF HISPANICS AND LATINOS SUPPORT MIGRANT BUSSING: POLL When asked specifically about the issues of inflation and rising prises and the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, 58% of voters aged 50 and older said inflation was the most important of the two, compared to just 40% who said Roe v. Wade. Independents (55%-40%) and Republicans (90%-9%) agreed that inflation was more important than Roe v. Wade. Only a majority of Democrats aged 50 and older (81%-17%) said Roe v. Wade was a more important issue than inflation. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) speaks during a press conference following the weekly Democratic caucus policy luncheon on February 08, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Overall voters had a poor view in terms of the direction the country is headed, with just 27% saying it’s headed in the right direction, and 72% in the wrong direction. The numbers were similar to how they felt about the direction of Arizona (27%-73%). Additionally, 88% of voters said they were motivated to vote in the midterm elections this year, and 62% said they were “very” or “somewhat” worried about their personal financial situation. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News’ Power Rankings rate the Arizona Senate and gubernatorial races as “tossups.” The general election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 8. Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_cg. Read More Here

Donald Trump’s Legal Woes Mount Without The Protection Of Presidency https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trumps-legal-woes-mount-without-the-protection-of-presidency/ WASHINGTON — Stark repudiation by federal judges he appointed. Far-reaching fraud allegations by New York’s attorney general. It’s been a week of widening legal troubles for Donald Trump, laying bare the challenges piling up as the former president operates without the protections afforded by the White House. The bravado that served him well in the political arena is less handy in a legal realm dominated by verifiable evidence, where judges this week have looked askance at his claims and where a fraud investigation that took root when Trump was still president burst into public view in an allegation-filled 222-page state lawsuit. In politics, “you can say what you want and if people like it, it works. In a legal realm, it’s different,” said Chris Edelson, a presidential powers scholar and American University government professor. “It’s an arena where there are tangible consequences for missteps, misdeeds, false statements in a way that doesn’t apply in politics.” That distinction between politics and law was evident in a single 30-hour period this week. Trump insisted on Fox News in an interview that aired Wednesday that the highly classified government records he had at Mar-a-Lago actually had been declassified, that a president has the power to declassify information “even by thinking about it.” A day earlier, however, an independent arbiter his own lawyers had recommended appeared skeptical when the Trump team declined to present any information to support his claims that the documents had been declassified. The special master, Raymond Dearie, a veteran federal judge, said Trump’s team was trying to “have its cake and eat it,” too, and that, absent information to back up the claims, he was inclined to regard the records the way the government does: Classified. On Wednesday morning, Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, accused Trump in a lawsuit of padding his net worth by billions of dollars and habitually misleading banks about the value of prized assets. The lawsuit, the culmination of a three-year investigation that began when he was president, also names as defendants three of his adult children and seeks to bar them from ever again running a company in the state. Trump has denied any wrongdoing. Hours later, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit — two of them Trump appointees — handed him a startling loss in the Mar-a-Lago investigation. The court overwhelmingly rejected arguments that he was entitled to have the special master do an independent review of the roughly 100 classified documents taken during last month’s FBI search. That ruling opened the way for the Justice Department to resume its use of the classified records in its probe. It lifted a hold placed by a lower court judge, Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee whose rulings in the Mar-a-Lago matter had to date been the sole bright spot for the former president. On Thursday, she responded by striking the parts of her order that had required the Justice Department to give Dearie, and Trump’s lawyers, access to the classified records. Between Dearie’s position, and the appeals court ruling, “I think that basically there may be a developing consensus, if not an already developed consensus, that the government has the stronger position in a lot of these issues and a lot of these controversies,” said Richard Serafini, a Florida criminal defense lawyer and former Justice Department prosecutor. To be sure, Trump is hardly a stranger to courtroom dramas, having been deposed in numerous lawsuits throughout his decades-long business career, and he has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to survive situations that seemed dire. His lawyers did not immediately respond Thursday to a request seeking comment. In the White House, Trump had faced a perilous investigation into whether he had obstructed a Justice Department probe of possible collusion between Russia and his 2016 campaign. Ultimately, he was protected at least in part by the power of the presidency, with special counsel Robert Mueller citing longstanding department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president. He was twice impeached by a Democratic-led House of Representatives — once over a phone call with Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the second time over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol — but was acquitted by the Senate on both occasions thanks to political support from fellow Republicans. It remains unclear if any of the current investigations — the Mar-a-Lago one or probes related to Jan. 6 or Georgia election interference — will produce criminal charges. And the New York lawsuit is a civil matter. But there’s no question Trump no longer enjoys the legal shield of the presidency, even though he has repeatedly leaned on an expansive view of executive power to defend his retention of records the government says are not his, no matter their classification. Notably, the Justice Department and the federal appeals court have paid little heed to his assertions that the records had been declassified. For all his claims on TV and social media, both have noted that Trump has presented no formal information to support the idea that he took any steps at all to declassify the records. The appeals court called the declassification question a “red herring” because even declassifying a record would not change its content or transform it from a government document into a personal one. And the statutes the Justice Department cites as the basis of its investigation do not explicitly mention classified information. Trump’s lawyers also have stopped short of saying in court, or in legal briefs, that the records were declassified. They told Dearie they shouldn’t be forced to disclose their stance on that issue now because it could be part of their defense in the event of an indictment. Even some legal experts who have otherwise sided with Trump in his legal fights are dubious of his assertions. Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who testified as a Republican witness in the first impeachment proceedings in 2019, said he was struck by the “lack of a coherent and consistent position from the former president on the classified documents.” “It’s not clear,” he added, “what Jedi-like lawyers said that you could declassify things with a thought, but the courts are unlikely to embrace that claim.” Read More Here

Special Master Asks Trump Team To Back Up Claim FBI Planted Evidence https://digitalarizonanews.com/special-master-asks-trump-team-to-back-up-claim-fbi-planted-evidence/ Greg Nash Former President Trump gives a keynote address during the America First Policy Institute Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. The special master assigned to review the documents taken during the August search of Mar-a-Lago is asking former President Trump to back up his claim that the FBI planted evidence on his Florida property. Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master selected after being out forth by Trump, told his attorneys they would need to submit a sworn declaration that details “a list of any specific items set forth in the [FBI’s] detailed property inventory that plaintiff asserts were not seized from the premises.” Trump made the insinuation just two days after his home was searched.  “Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be alone,” he wrote in a post on his social media platform, “without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, ‘planting.’” Trump asserted as recently as Wednesday evening during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that the FBI may have planted evidence during the search.  “The problem that you have is they go into rooms — they won’t let anybody near — they wouldn’t even let them in the same building. Did they drop anything on those piles? Or did they do it later?” he said. Neither Trump nor his attorneys have supplied any evidence to back such claims. The plan from Dearie also asked for the attorneys to list a “description of contents or location within the premises where the item was found is incorrect” as well as to break down any property they say was taken during the search but not listed among the FBI’s inventory. The request marks the second time Dearie has asked the Trump legal team to back its claims. A Monday filing from Trump’s team indicated Dearie had asked the former president’s lawyers to explain whether he had in fact ever declassified the intelligence records in his home. Earlier legal filings from Trump insinuated he may have done so but stopped short of fully making the claim. Dearie expressed frustration during a Tuesday conference with both Trump’s team and the Justice Department. Trump attorney James Trusty told Dearie that they were “not in the position” to explain the claim, as they would only do so in a motion to recover property if criminal charges are brought. “Well, you did bring the lawsuit and make that claim,” Dearie responded, adding later, “You can’t have your cake and eat it.” Read More Here

Trump To Host Mar-A-Lago Fundraiser For Maryland Governor Candidate Dan Cox https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-to-host-mar-a-lago-fundraiser-for-maryland-governor-candidate-dan-cox/ Associated Press/Todd Dudek Former President Trump will hold a fundraiser for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox (R) at Mar-a-Lago next month, according to a photo of an invitation obtained by The Hill on Thursday.  The event will be held on Oct. 17 at Trump’s Palm Beach resort, according to the invite. Tickets for the event’s private cocktail reception are going for $1,776 per person. A photo with Trump and Cox will cost $25,000 per photo. Trump endorsed Cox for governor during Maryland’s GOP gubernatorial primary, which pitted the more moderate wing of the party against the wing aligned with the former president. Cox’s primary opponent was Kelly Schulz, who had been endorsed by outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.), a noted Trump critic seen as a possible 2024 candidate. Cox, who currently serves as a Maryland delegate, defeated her by 16 points.  Cox has repeated former President Trump’s false claims the 2020 election was stolen and tried to impeach Hogan for his pandemic policies.  He faces strong headwinds going into the general election against Democrat Wes Moore in November. A survey released earlier this week from Goucher College, The Baltimore Banner and WYPR showed Moore leading Cox 53 percent to 31 percent. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has rated the race as “solid Democrat.”  Moore’s campaign responded to news of the upcoming fundraiser in a statement on Thursday, calling Trump and Cox “a danger to our democracy.”  “Election deniers stick together, and now Dan Cox is going all the way down to Florida with less than 50 days left in the election to kiss the ring,” said Carter Elliot, a spokesperson for Moore’s campaign. The Hill has reached out to Cox and Trump’s respective teams for comment.  Tags dan cox Donald Trump Donald Trump fundraiser Kelly Schulz Larry Hogan Larry Hogan Maryland governor’s race Read More Here

Here’s What Hurricane Fiona’s Surf Looked Like, From Atop A 50-Foot Wave https://digitalarizonanews.com/heres-what-hurricane-fionas-surf-looked-like-from-atop-a-50-foot-wave/ At the heart of Category 4 Hurricane Fiona, a robotic surfboard managed to brave intensifying ocean swells and strengthening winds to capture rare footage from inside the hurricane. Video from the ocean drone, driven by scientists from Saildrone Inc. and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, captured about 360 miles southeast of Bermuda, depicts haunting blue water and monstrous waves, serenaded by howling winds. Torrential rain and ominous sea spray are seen swirling as the vehicle sways and lunges atop the ocean’s turbulent surface. The Saildrone Explorer SD 1078 was in the best position to capture never before seen footage from inside Fiona, the first Category 4 hurricane of the year, with wave heights of near 50 feet and winds over 100 mph on Thursday. The vehicle was steered into Fiona as the storm barreled north in the Atlantic Ocean. “[Saildrones are] giving us a completely new view of one of Earth’s most destructive forces,” Saildrone said in a press release. Four Saildrones have interacted with storm, starting Sunday evening when is was still a tropical storm east of Montserrat. The storm then intensified into a Category 1 hurricane, colliding with a Saildrone stationed south of Puerto Rico, where Fiona first made landfall. Saildrone sent out its vehicles at the beginning of hurricane season to collect critical scientific data in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This is the second year Saildrone has deployed their hurricane-equipped units into the Atlantic with the goal of obtaining hurricane measurements and footage as close to the eye of the hurricane as possible. The company manufactures and designs autonomous surface vehicles that collect ocean data to deepen the understanding of hurricanes, map the ocean floor, and even track diverse ecosystems below the surface. The California-based company boasts that their units have sailed over 800,00 nautical miles and have spent over 18,000 days at sea collecting climate and ocean mapping data. “Saildrone is once again demonstrating its ability to provide critical ocean data in the most extreme weather. Hurricane Fiona intensified from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane just before hitting Puerto Rico, causing significant damage and loss of life,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and CEO. “The data Saildrone vehicles are gathering will help the science community better understand rapid intensification, giving people living in our coastal communities more time to prepare.” In 2021, scientists from Saildrone and NOAA drove Saildrone United 1045 into Category 4 Hurricane Sam and collected the first-ever video from inside the hurricane. The partnership between NOAA and Saildrone is a part of a larger endeavor to understand the development of hurricanes and how they intensify. “Uncrewed systems in the air, on the ocean surface and, underwater and aircraft systems have the potential to transform how NOAA meets its mission to better understand the environment,” said Capt. Philip Hall, director of NOAA’s Uncrewed Systems Operations Center, said. NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft and weather buoys gather operational weather observations that are essential to hurricane forecasts. Read More Here

Get Thee To A Medieval Times https://digitalarizonanews.com/get-thee-to-a-medieval-times/ Each of Medieval Times‘ nine castles is capable of turning out a thousand rotisserie half-chickens in 20 minutes (schedules and seating capacity may vary regionally; check your local castle for details, or call 1-800-WE-JOUST). Medieval Times is also the largest breeder of Andalusian horses in America. All horses destined for the processional and dressage portions of a Medieval Times show are born at the Chapel Creek Ranch in Texas. In a 2013 Texas Monthly profile, general manager Jon Speier said of the Andalusians, “They go from artificial insemination to being born to enjoying the pastures and the oats and having fun here to suddenly performing before thousands of people,” which is the loveliest-possible summation of the life cycle of the dressage horse I can imagine. At Medieval Times, science and nature conspire to produce consistent, uniform, replicable spectacle, five nights a week. There are nine Medieval Times: Dinner & Tournament castles in the world: Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL; Baltimore, MD; Buena Park, CA; Dallas, TX; Lyndhurst, NJ; Myrtle Beach, SC; Orlando, FL; Scottsdale, AZ. Within the continental U.S., no one is ever more than four states away from a Medieval Times dinner and tournament. The ninth castle is in Toronto. All eight of the American castles are freestanding and look like bad Mario 64 renders, but the Toronto castle is tucked away inside the Exhibition Palace, the same site as the Provincial Agricultural Fair of Canada West in 1846. There’s something outsized about Medieval Times’ longevity (the first castle opened outside Orlando in 1983) and cultural saturation (that scene from the Cable Guy, cameos in Garden State, Friends, Cake Boss, and Hell’s Kitchen). Dinner theater devolved into theme restaurants in the 1980s, sprouting like weeds – 12 Planet Hollywoods here, a dozen Hard Rock Cafes there – and often disappearing just as quickly. The Rainforest Café has closed more locations than Medieval Times has ever opened. But slowly, steadily, one half-chicken at a time, Medieval Times has endured. I was full only of rotisserie chicken and envy. I myself have eaten there three times: at the Schaumburg Castle in second grade for my birthday and back there again in fourth grade on a class trip, and once to the Lyndhurst, New Jersey Castle earlier this month. On my first visit, I hoped desperately to be chosen as the Queen of Love and Beauty by the winning knight. It was my eighth birthday, and my birthright. He – the Black and White Knight, if I recall correctly – chose a younger child to wear the plastic tiara, and I would have cheerfully murdered her on the spot if I could. I had no chivalry in my spirit then, few eight-year-olds do. I was full only of rotisserie chicken and envy. Though two decades and a distance of many miles separated my visits, the menu and the flatware remained unchanged. There is no satisfaction more simple, more human, or more innate than to eat a rotisserie chicken with your hands, openly and in front of your fellows. Medieval Times understands this, and it is likely for this reason that Medieval Times remains when so many other theme restaurants and dinner theaters have passed out of this world. That and they never over-leveraged the franchise. Nine is enough. Besides the chicken, Medieval Times offers a blunted potato wedge, a half-nubbin of corn on the cob, and garlic bread, all eaten out of hand. They had run out of corn on my latest visit, and offered half a kielbasa or an extra piece of potato as a substitute. There is also tomato bisque, which one drinks from a large metal bowl with a long handle. I remember being served “dragon soup” as a child, with a consistency more like cream of vegetable, but it was tomato bisque on my most recent visit, and tomato bisque is listed on the downloadable PDF of ingredients on the Medieval Times website. The volume of food alone is impressive enough, but have you any idea how technically difficult it is to serve rotisserie chicken at a temperature high enough to pass health and safety inspections, yet cool enough not to burn the fingers of a thousand middle-schoolers? It’s a remarkable high-wire balancing act, and Medieval Times does it five nights a week, sometimes three times a day. (Forks are available on request.) The copy on the Medieval Times website, by the way, is note-perfect. “Under Royal Decree, we provide robust nutritional information, so those with food allergies are privy to our ingredients.” “Always a generous host, the Queen has commanded her royal chefs to cook her favorite meal just for you.” “We offer an array of meal options for those who are vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free, as commanded by the Queen.” It’s this very blend of old-timey vagueness and corporate adspeak that makes Medieval Times fun in a way that, say, Disneyland and Renaissance fairs aren’t. Purchasable silliness is such a delicate thing, so easily ruined. Going to Disneyland is an emotionally bankrupting, all-day affair, and Renaissance fairs carry the constant threat of audience interaction. If you so much as try to look at the time, someone’s going to grab your phone and bellow, “By the rood! What strange scrying device be this?” But Medieval Times is going to get you in and out in a tight two hours and fifteen minutes, with the same relentless efficiency of a Midwestern church service. You get to stay seated the whole time, and you never have to say anything demoralizing like, “How many ducats for yon turkey leg?” You’re allowed to cheer for the knight whose section you’re sitting in, but no one’s going to prod you if you don’t. It is the closest one can get to the experience of eating at a Spirit Halloween, I think, by which I mean everything is chaotic and perfunctory in the most charming, human ways possible. I grew up just outside of Disneyland, the proud home of novelty architecture and backyard Disneyland knockoffs like Pirates’ Dinner Adventure and John’s Incredible Pizza Company and Salvation Mountain, and have retained my old affinity for whimsical, slightly off-brand midway experiences. I’m not sure if it’s strictly possible to describe the taste of Medieval Times’ food. It tasted like dinner, and plenty of it. Industrial food speaks of aluminum trays, ten-gallon drums of vegetable oil, salt-seasoning canisters, and sufficiency. It tasted Costco-solid and Costco-consistent, which is not nothing. Industrial food is not my favorite type of food to eat, but when it’s good, it’s wonderfully satisfying. My first post-college roommate worked the early shift at Starbucks, and every week for a year our crisper was filled with free, not-quite-expired, fully-defrosted sausage-and-egg breakfast sandwiches. I imprinted on those little sandwiches as wholly and permanently as a baby duck imprints on its mother. If I could eat a Starbucks sausage sandwich for breakfast every day for the rest of my life, I would be perfectly happy. If Medieval Times has been ordering the same menu wholesale for the last three decades, their prime cost percentage has got to be immaculate. Fifty, maybe even forty-five percent. The Chicago Tribune covered the opening of the Schaumburg Castle back in 1991, and then-senior vice-president Tripp Bellows captured the slightly anemic, slightly defensive appeal of the place: “Where else can you go with the family, see a show, eat a meal, get a free parking space, and learn a little about history too? It’s not Othello. But there is a bit of football, basketball and theater rolled into it.” It’s got a little bit of everything. You could find a better show somewhere else, better food somewhere else, learn more about history somewhere else, but if you want all those things in a single package, and to park for free? Then friend, you need a ticket to Medieval Times, where you can watch a falcon fly around the arena for a tight five minutes, with exactly the same energy as a pigeon that’s accidentally flown into an airport. No matter how jaded a traveler you might have become, no matter how long the layover, odds are good that you’re going to say to your traveling companion, “Look at that. There’s a bird in the airport,” just as surely as you will say “Look, horses.” if you drive past horses on a rural stretch of the freeway. Some things are certain. Medieval Times is one of them. One of my best coworkers was a horse. One of my worst coworkers was a different horse. Shortly after my visit I was able to speak with a former knight, Gerald Dudley, who rose to the rank of Chancellor Don Geraldo de Zaragoza during his ten-month stint at the Dallas Castle in 2005: “Imagine the second or third worst restaurant you’ve ever worked in. [This was easy: Mike’s Cafe in Ladera, where I got yelled at for eating leftover fries in 2006.] Now combine that with a rodeo and a store that upsells swords and you’ve got the general idea. One of my best coworkers was a horse. One of my worst coworkers was a different horse.” As Chancellor and emcee he made $12.50 an hour, without benefits, although servers could pull in more in tips, if they were lucky. Incidentally, the New Jersey Castle employees joined the American Guild of Variety Artists this summer, after an unsuccessful attempt to unionize in 2006. Fifty workers at the Buena Park Castle also filed for a union election last month. Huzzah. Read More Here

🌱 Hiker And Dogs Rescued + Restaurant Health Inspections https://digitalarizonanews.com/%f0%9f%8c%b1-hiker-and-dogs-rescued-restaurant-health-inspections/ Skip to main content Tempe, AZ Phoenix, AZ Tucson, AZ Yuma, AZ Palm Desert, CA Las Vegas, NV Ramona, CA Banning-Beaumont, CA Santee, CA Poway, CA Arizona Top National News See All Communities Good morning, Scottsdale! I’m here in your inbox today to tell you everything you need to know about what’s going on in town. But first, today’s weather: Warm with clouds and sun. High: 99 Low: 78. Find out what’s happening in Scottsdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch. I’m looking for business owners and marketers in Scottsdale who want to build awareness, connect with customers and increase sales. I have a limited number of sponsorships available to introduce our Scottsdale Daily readers to local businesses they need to know about. If that’s you, then I invite you to learn more and secure your spot now. Find out what’s happening in Scottsdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch. Here are the top three stories in Scottsdale today: Crews rescued a woman and her 2 dogs from Scottsdale’s Tom’s Thumb on Wednesday afternoon. The woman was about 3/4 of the way up the trail when one of her dogs began suffering from heat exhaustion. Responding paramedics helped cool down Diego, a 125-pound German shepherd dog. (The Sacramento Bee) A Phoenix firefighter is facing assault charges as a result of a confrontation with a Scottsdale Police Department officer. Christina Leon, 33 years old, was arrested on Sunday, Sept. 11 for allegedly assaulting the officer and a detention officer at the HonorHealth Osborn Hospital while off-duty. The details that led to the incident have not been released, yet. Phoenix Fire is conducting its own internal investigation into the incident. (AZ Family) Maricopa County Environmental Health Specialists are currently conducting surprise restaurant inspections. The health inspectors are reportedly finding various violations. The most common ones are workers not washing hands properly, food being improperly stored at incorrect temperatures, and cross-contamination. The department states that its purpose is to correct the violations. (AZ Family) From our sponsor, Wise Bread: Interested in insanely high-paying cash back cards with no annual fee? A long-time credit card writer says these are some of the best deals he’s seen in his years of writing for top financial websites. You can pocket a $200 bonus with these high-paying cash back credit cards. Plus, enjoy high ongoing cash back rates, no annual fee, or 0% interest for 15 months on purchases. Start racking up huge cash back rewards. Click here to learn more. Today in Scottsdale: Freshman Parents Coffee with Counselors At Chaparral High School (9:30 AM) Tango Individual Instruction At Scottsdale Neighborhood Arts Place (12:00 PM) Oktoberfest At Fountain Park (5:00 PM) From my notebook: The Scottsdale Police Department and the Scottsdale Fire Department were able to raise $1,215 for charity during their recent charity golf event. Click to watch the video. (Scottsdale Police Department via Facebook) The City of Scottsdale continues to ask residents to not overseed lawns this season. The practice wastes thousands of gallons of water. Together, we can conserve water in Scottsdale. (City of Scottsdale – Government via Facebook) The City of Scottsdale is currently searching for fleet technicians. Click to learn more about the position and apply today. (City of Scottsdale – Government via Facebook) More from our sponsors — thanks for supporting local news! Featured businesses: Phoenix Online Media — (Visit website) Add your business here Events: Online Webinar with professional plumbers around Mesa, AZ (October 2) Add your event That’s it for today. I’ll see you around! — Helen Eckhard About me: Helen Eckhard is a marketing assistant at Lightning Media Partners. She is a self-professed logophile who is currently pursuing her master’s degree in library science. Outside of work, you can find Helen constructing crossword puzzles, knitting, or devising increasingly crafty ways to kill off characters in her mystery novels. Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. The rules of replying: Be respectful. This is a space for friendly local discussions. No racist, discriminatory, vulgar or threatening language will be tolerated. Be transparent. Use your real name, and back up your claims. Keep it local and relevant. Make sure your replies stay on topic. Review the Patch Community Guidelines. Read More…

Mar-A-Lago Special Master Orders Trump Team To Back Up Any Claims Of FBI 'planting' Evidence https://digitalarizonanews.com/mar-a-lago-special-master-orders-trump-team-to-back-up-any-claims-of-fbi-planting-evidence/ (CNN)The special master overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation has ordered former President Donald Trump’s lawyers to back up out-of-court assertions that the FBI may have planted evidence at the property during their search last month. Judge Raymond Dearie, the court-appointed special master, said in a filing Thursday that Trump’s team needs to submit a sworn declaration saying if they believe the Justice Department included any items on their “inventory” of materials taken from Mar-a-Lago that were not actually seized during the search. The declaration must include “a list of any specific items set forth in the Detailed Property Inventory that Plaintiff asserts were not seized from the Premises on August 8, 2022,” Dearie wrote in the order. This has come up as an issue in the case because Trump himself, some of his attorneys, and several of his outside Republican allies have publicly claimed that the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago during the August 8 search. However, they have offered no evidence to support these accusations. Thursday’s new order from Dearie came two days after he held his first in-person hearing with Trump’s lawyers and federal prosecutors, and it spells out his plan for how the special master review will move forward. On Wednesday night, Trump suggested that the FBI planted evidence during the search. He asked Fox News’ Sean Hannity, “Did they drop anything into those piles” of materials taken from Mar-a-Lago, “or did they do it later?” When asked by Hannity if there is video of that, Trump said, “Nah, I don’t think so.” The judge set a September 30 deadline for Trump’s lawyers to submit this sworn declaration. He also asked the Justice Department to submit declarations attesting to key facts regarding the search. The FBI has previously declined to comment on allegations of impropriety during its search. Asked last month by a reporter about the claim federal agents could have planted evidence, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “I’m sure you can appreciate that’s not something that I can talk about so I’d refer you to the (Justice) Department.” Dearie opens door to witness testimony about documents Dearie opened the door in a Thursday order to holding a hearing where “witnesses with knowledge of the relevant facts” could be called to testify about the Mar-a-Lago search and the materials that were seized. If this happens, it could become a put-up-or-shut-up moment for the Trump side, which has made a wide array of statements about alleged government improprieties out of court, but has been much more restrained in court, where it would be a crime to knowingly lie. The Justice Department also is required to provide Trump’s lawyers with “copies of all seized materials” — except those marked classified — by Monday. This is needed so Trumps’ side can figure out exactly what was taken from Mar-a-Lago and determine which materials they believe should be shielded under attorney-client or executive privilege. The deadline for Trump’s team to finish reviewing all the documents for potential privilege designations is October 14, though they’ll be required to send “rolling” batches of their designations along the way. Dearie ordered both sides to finish their reviews and send their final designations to him by October 21. The judge also signaled that there might be some documents that are covered by executive privilege but can still be reviewed by the Justice Department, which is part of the executive branch. This would be a more nuanced view than what Trump’s team has offered — which is essentially that federal prosecutors shouldn’t be allowed to look at these privileged documents or to use them as part of the investigation. Dearie also raised the possibility of sending some of the proceedings back to Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the search warrant after finding there was probable cause of multiple crimes taking place at Mar-a-Lago. That judge has since become the target of death threats and online vitriol from Trump supporters, and Trump has publicly pushed several false claims about him. Retired judge asked to assist review Dearie has also hired a retired federal judge from the Eastern District of New York to assist his review and will also rely on staff from that district to work on the review of materials. Dearie said the judge, James Orenstein, “has experience with complex case management, privilege review, warrant procedures” and other relevant topics, and that he currently has a top-secret security clearance. The biography page at the law firm where Orenstein formerly worked says he served “on the prosecution team in the Oklahoma City bombings trials.” Attorney General Merrick Garland played a leading role earlier in his career in the Oklahoma City investigation. Dearie said he won’t seek any additional compensation for serving as the special master because he’s currently on the US government payroll as a federal judge. But he proposed that Orenstein get paid $500 an hour, which would be covered by Trump, based on a prior court ruling in the case. CNN’s Josh Campbell contributed to this report. Read More Here

Tucson Man Charged With Making A False Statement To Federal Agents During Investigation Into Mass Shooting https://digitalarizonanews.com/tucson-man-charged-with-making-a-false-statement-to-federal-agents-during-investigation-into-mass-shooting/ TUCSON, Ariz. – Last week, Josue Lopez Quintana, 25, of Tucson, Arizona, was charged by criminal complaint for Making a False Statement to Law Enforcement. Quintana had his initial appearance Monday before United States Magistrate Judge Eric J. Markovich. On August 25, 2022, following a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona that resulted in the death of four individuals, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) initiated an investigation into the acquisition of a firearm used in the shooting. According to the complaint, ATF was able to determine that the firearm’s lower receiver was purchased at a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) in Tucson, Arizona, by Quintana in November 2021. Quintana allegedly completed a form at the FFL stating that he was the true purchaser of the lower receiver, and that he was not acquiring the lower receiver on behalf of another person. On August 26, 2022, federal agents interviewed Quintana about the purchase, during which Quintana allegedly made false statements about the purchase of the lower receiver. A conviction for Making a False Statement to Law Enforcement carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, or both. A criminal complaint is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. An individual is presumed innocent until evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. ATF is conducting the investigation in this case, with assistance from the Tucson Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations. The Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, Tucson, is handling the prosecution. CASE NUMBER:            22-00499MJ RELEASE NUMBER:    2022-158_Quintana # # # For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/ Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on Twitter @USAO_AZ for the latest news. Read More Here

FedEx Hikes Package Rates, Details Cost Cutting As Demand Weakens Globally https://digitalarizonanews.com/fedex-hikes-package-rates-details-cost-cutting-as-demand-weakens-globally/ A person walks by a FedEx van in New York City, May 9, 2022. Andrew Kelly | Reuters FedEx on Thursday announced rate hikes and detailed its cost-cutting efforts after the shipping giant warned last week that its fiscal first quarter results were hit by weakening global demand. Shares of FedEx closed slightly higher after the earnings announcement, which was unintentionally released before the bell. “The early earnings release was a tech issue and not intentional,” a spokesperson for the company said. Last week, the company’s stock sank after it posted preliminary revenue and earnings that fell short of Wall Street expectations. CEO Raj Subramaniam cited a tough macroeconomic environment, and said he expects the economy to enter a “worldwide recession.” The company withdrew its guidance for the year and said it would slash costs. The shipping giant struggled with light volumes in the quarter, citing headwinds in its Europe and Asia markets. The poor results shocked the market, as investors tried to distinguish market woes from FedEx’s own internal shortcomings. In issuing its full first quarter results Thursday, the company said that its Express, Ground and Home Delivery rates will increase by an average of 6.9%. Its FedEx Freight rates will increase by an average of 6.9%-7.9%, the company said. It also said it believes it will save between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion by parking planes and reducing flights. The closure of certain locations, the suspension of some Sunday operations, and other expense actions will save FedEx Ground between $350 million and $500 million, according to the company. FedEx said it will save an additional $350 million to $500 million by reducing vendor use, deferring projects and closing office locations. “We’re moving with speed and agility to navigate a difficult operating environment, pulling cost, commercial, and capacity levers to adjust to the impacts of reduced demand,” said Subramaniam. For its fiscal 2023, the company expects total cost savings of $2.2 billion to $2.27 billion. Despite its bleak warning last week, FedEx stood by its 2025 projections set out in June. The company is forecasting annual revenue growth of between 4% and 6% and earnings per share growth of between 14% and 19%. Read More Here

Tucson Man Arrested After Killing, Dismembering Man He Kidnapped Over Money Dispute, Police Say https://digitalarizonanews.com/tucson-man-arrested-after-killing-dismembering-man-he-kidnapped-over-money-dispute-police-say/ PHOENIX — A Tucson man has been jailed in connection to the murder and dismemberment of a man kidnapped from a Phoenix home last week. According to police documents, officers were initially called to investigate a possible kidnapping from a home in West Phoenix on Monday. A woman reportedly told police she had received text messages from her boyfriend, 28-year-old Antoine Smith, saying he had been kidnapped on Sept. 16 or 17 and was scared. He shared his location from an area in Chandler along I-10, police say. Police learned that Smith was kidnapped over a money dispute. People who knew the suspect, 45-year-old John Cole, reportedly tried to communicate with him to ensure Smith’s safety, but Cole said he didn’t know where Smith was located and that Smith had gotten out of his vehicle at an unknown location. Police say they were able to locate Cole’s vehicle headed to California. He was stopped near Quartzsite where he was taken into custody. Human remains were reportedly discovered in the vehicle and additional human remains were found after Cole led detectives to a rural area south of Tucson. During a police interview, Cole told detectives that while driving to Tucson he pulled off the I-10 in a rural area to use the restroom. He claims while there Smith attacked him but he was able to place him in a submission hold and eventually strangle him to death. Police say Cole then took Smith’s body to Tucson and later purchased items to dismember and conceal it. Cole was booked into jail on multiple charges including first-degree murder. MCSO Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Sign up for the Headlines Newsletter and receive up to date information. Read More Here

U.S. And Russian Diplomats Clash At U.N. Over Ukraine War Crimes https://digitalarizonanews.com/u-s-and-russian-diplomats-clash-at-u-n-over-ukraine-war-crimes/ NEW YORK — Russian and Western diplomats clashed over alleged war crimes in Ukraine on Thursday during a heated meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia’s withdrawal from the Ukrainian cities of Izyum and Bucha revealed gruesome torture and murder of Ukrainian civilians that could not be dismissed as the actions of a few bad actors. “Wherever the Russian tide recedes, we discover the horror that’s left in its wake,” Blinken said. “We cannot, we will not allow President Putin to get away with it.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied the charges and accused Ukrainian forces of killing civilians in the eastern Donbas region “with impunity.” He blamed the United States, France and Germany for not holding Ukraine accountable for alleged atrocities. “The Kyiv regime owes its impunity to its Western sponsors,” he said. The meeting marked only the second encounter between Blinken and Lavrov since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow’s decision to attend the meeting surprised some U.S. officials who expected Russia to recoil at a topic designed to expose and condemn its plans to stage a referendum and annex occupied territory in Ukraine. In singling out Russia for blame, Blinken was joined by top diplomats representing France, Britain, Norway, Albania and Ireland, as well as U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, who accused the Kremlin of violating international law. The meeting was attended by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, who said his team was deploying to Ukraine in the coming days to investigate allegations in the country’s east, where residents of territory previously occupied by Russia have accused Russian forces of torture, forced disappearances and rape. Without explicitly blaming Russia, Khan made clear the atrocities he’s investigated during visits to war-scorched areas of Ukraine including the Kyiv suburb of Bucha and the northeastern city of Kharkiv were real and shocking. “The bodies I saw were not fake,” he said. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said that Russia has committed “unspeakable crimes” and that officials who committed, ordered or planned them must be held accountable. Guterres called Moscow’s plan to stage referendums on joining Russia in occupied areas of Ukraine a “violation of the U.N. charter, and of international law and precedent.” The world’s top diplomat also blamed Russian bombardments of urban areas for killing thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including hundreds of children. “Almost every child in Ukraine has been scarred by the nightmare of war,” he said. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged restraint on both sides and emphasized the importance of the United Nations remaining impartial in the conflict. India’s top diplomat, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, also avoided placing blame on either Russia or Ukraine, and simply endorsed investigations into war crimes. Read More Here

Meta Could Lift Trump's Facebook Ban In January https://digitalarizonanews.com/meta-could-lift-trumps-facebook-ban-in-january/ Meta will decide in January whether to restore former President Donald Trump’s Facebook account. Nick Clegg, who serves as president of global affairs for the company, reportedly said at an event Thursday that a decision will be made by Jan. 7, 2023. Trump was banned from Facebook for two years following the Capitol riots. Politico reported that Clegg will make the decision after discussing it with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s board of directors. “We will look at the signals related to real-world harm to make a decision,” Clegg said, according to Politico. Clegg did not give any indication whether he was leaning toward lifting Trump’s ban or extending it. Trump created his own social medial site, Truth Social, after being kicked off Facebook and Twitter in 2021. The former president regularly posts comments and criticisms from his official account. Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Sign up for the Headlines Newsletter and receive up to date information. Read More Here

Trump Could Be Back On Facebook As Soon As January https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-could-be-back-on-facebook-as-soon-as-january/ Donald Trump could be back to his old social media antics in just a few months. The two-year ban, barring the former poster-in-chief from Facebook, expires at the beginning of 2023. And Meta, Facebook’s parent company, hasn’t revealed whether it’ll be extending Trump’s virtual exile. “When you make a decision that affects the public realm, you need to act with great caution,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, reportedly said during a media event hosted by the new news organization Semafor. It seems that Clegg is who will ultimately be tasked with deciding, one way or the other, the fate of Trump’s Facebook presence. The exec further explained that, to determine the company’s future course of action, Meta would consult with outside sources, and assess the risk of “real-world harm.” All of which echoes previous company statements. The former president was kicked off of Meta platforms, Facebook and Instagram, the day after the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, for his role in inciting the violent riots. Initially, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the block would last “indefinitely,” however Meta’s oversight board contested that decision, and mandated that a timeline for revaluation be imposed. In June of 2021, the company complied with the board’s request and declared that, at the end of the two years, it would “look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded.” G/O Media may get a commission 40% Off Samsung Galaxy Buds Live Listen up These are some of the best earbuds Samsung users can get and feature active noise cancelling, incredible sound quality, and a long-lasting fast-charging battery. In the wake of Jan. 6, YouTube also instituted a ban on Trump. And so did Twitter, where the former president seemed to spend the bulk of his online time. Notably, in contrast to Meta, Twitter’s ban is permanent (assuming Elon Musk doesn’t complete his acquisition). After the tech giants announced their prohibition on Trump, he responded with a lawsuit and then by creating Truth Social, his own “free speech” platform. Trump has been widely criticized for his rabid social media use while in office. Often his tweets and posts propagated disinformation. However, for Clegg and Meta, the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of Trump’s posts isn’t the issue, so much as the potential impact of those posts. “If we think there is content on our platform which will lead to real-world harm — physical harm — then we feel we have a clear responsibility to act against it.” Clegg reiterated at the event on Thursday. If Trump is allowed back on Facebook and Instagram, it would grant him access to a much larger social media audience in time for the the 2024 presidential race. Read More Here

Bolduc-Morse Primary Was Tight, But A Landslide In Rindge, Jaffrey https://digitalarizonanews.com/bolduc-morse-primary-was-tight-but-a-landslide-in-rindge-jaffrey/ Sep. 22—Retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc defeated N.H. Sen. Chuck Morse by a narrow margin statewide in their Republican primary for U.S. Senate last week — but there were a couple of places in Cheshire County where it was a landslide. Countywide, Republican voters favored Bolduc, of Stratham, 2,432 to 1,857, according to the N.H. Secretary of State’s office. But he won in Rindge, 441 to 128, and in Jaffrey, 212 to 121. Statewide, Bolduc topped Morse, of Salem, 52,121 to 50,350. Bolduc, 60, ran as a far-right election denier, but after winning the nomination, immediately tacked more to the center by saying he had come to believe the 2020 election wasn’t stolen from former President Donald Trump. Morse, 61, positioned himself as more of a mainstream Republican and earned the endorsement of GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, whom Bolduc once called “a Chinese Communist sympathizer.” Bolduc will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of Newfields in the Nov. 8 general election. Trump easily won in Rindge two years ago, but lost handily to Joe Biden statewide. Rep. Matthew Santonastaso, R-Rindge, said he sees a strong pro-Trump and “pro-liberty” sentiment in Republicans who live in that 6,000-person town. He said these views may be attributable in part to what he described as conservativism originating in Finnish immigrants who settled in this general area, including nearby New Ipswich, many years ago. “Bolduc was extremely popular around here,” Santonastaso said Wednesday. “People can’t get over him.” This past legislative session, Santonastaso supported a proposal for a statewide vote on whether New Hampshire should secede from the United States. He is one of three Republican representatives from Rindge in what is otherwise a largely Democratic Cheshire County delegation in the N.H. House. The county, as a whole, is strongly Democratic and favored Biden over Trump, 25,522 to 17,898, in the 2020 presidential election. Associate Professor Philip Barker at Keene State College said there may be other factors that lead people in certain areas of the county to be farther to the right on the political spectrum. “Because we are in a more Democratic-leaning area of the state, there can be a tendency for people out of power, Republicans in this area, to be more polarized. There can be less willingness to compromise from both parties,” he said. “You see this playing out in gerrymandered political districts around the country. There becomes less of a need to appeal to centrist voters. You could also see Democrats shifting to be more progressive because they are in safe districts.” He also said rural areas tend to be more conservative than urban areas. Keene resident Shaun Filiault, a political-science lecturer at the college and a Democratic candidate for the N.H. House, said the city’s status as a county seat and a more urban area helps explain its Democratic bent. “It also has the college and the hospital, both of which bring in highly educated people, so that’s going to skew further blue [Democratic],” he said. President Biden won about 60 percent of college-educated voters in 2020, according to a Pew Research Center study. Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567. Read More Here

Shopoff Acquires 270-Acre Industrial Site In AZ – Connect CRE https://digitalarizonanews.com/shopoff-acquires-270-acre-industrial-site-in-az-connect-cre/ Connect News Commercial Real Estate news for every market and every facet, every day. Connect Events Live and virtual events bringing together the best of information and networking. Connect Awards View the A-list of commercial real estate & submit nominations. Advertise, Promote, Attend, Create – Work with Connect. A full service marketing and PR agency. Meet the team behind the machine and taste a little of the secret sauce. California CRE News In Your Inbox. Sign up for Connect emails to stay informed with CRE stories that are 150 words or less. California  + Orange County  + Industrial  |  September 22, 2022 Irvine, CA-based Shopoff Realty Investments has acquired 270 acres of land in the Phoenix submarket of Mesa, AZ. The purchase price of the property was undisclosed, but investment firm Mavik Capital Management provided an $81 million participating first mortgage in connection with the acquisition. “This property is located in a burgeoning employment hub with increasing demand for manufacturing space,” said Shopoff President and CEO William Shopoff. “We plan to work closely with the City of Mesa and entitle the property for manufacturing use, in order to meet the market demand.” Potential plans for the property may include 12 to 15 buildings, with up to 4.1 million leasable square feet.  “Shopoff now owns the largest development-ready industrial park in the entire Southeast Valley, and we are excited to see the economic growth this development will bring to the City of Mesa,” said Dylan Sproul of SVN | Desert Commercial Advisors who represented Shopoff in the transaction. Inside The Story Shopoff Realty InvestmentsMavik Capital ManagementWilliam ShopoffDylan Sproul About Mark Nieto Mark comes to ConnectCRE with an extensive background as a business and news reporter in San Francisco radio, as well as 35 years as a traffic reporter on several stations including KGO, KNBR, KCBS and KFRC. As a business reporter, Mark covered the tech world in Silicon Valley where he became familiar with real estate transactions in the hot Bay Area marketplace. He attended San Jose State University with a BA in Radio and TV Broadcasting and currently resides in the Lake Tahoe area where he gets to frequently enjoy all of his favorite activities: Golfing, Fishing, Hiking and Skiing. Read More Here

World’s Central Banks Race To Raise Rates After Fed Increase https://digitalarizonanews.com/worlds-central-banks-race-to-raise-rates-after-fed-increase/ How have China, Mexico and Greece handled inflation, and where does the U.S. fit in? WSJ’s Dion Rabouin explains. By Will Horner Updated Sept. 22, 2022 2:21 pm ET LONDON—Central banks around the world moved Thursday to combat the effects of a soaring dollar and rising inflation, joining the Federal Reserve in risking a recession to rein in climbing prices. In a flurry of central bank meetings from Norway to South Africa, many raised rates by larger-than-expected margins in a day that analysts at ING billed as “Super Thursday.” Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership View Membership Options Already a member? Sign In Sponsored Offers Chase: Check your credit score for FREE The Motley Fool: New members save 55% on Stock Advisor Wayfair: Up to 15% off + free shipping at Wayfair American Eagle Outfitters: Get 15% off American Eagle promo code with text alerts Kohl’s: Kohl’s coupon – 30% off sitewide for Rewards members Walmart: Walmart coupon: $20 off your $50+ order Read More Here

World Bank Leader, Accused Of Climate Denial, Offers A New Response https://digitalarizonanews.com/world-bank-leader-accused-of-climate-denial-offers-a-new-response/ David Malpass touched off a furor, including calls for his removal, when he refused to acknowledge that fossil fuels are warming the planet. On Thursday, he restated his position. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. David Malpass was nominated to lead the World Bank in 2019 by former President Donald J. Trump. Credit…Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Sept. 22, 2022Updated 2:12 p.m. ET The president of the World Bank, David Malpass, on Thursday tried to restate his views on climate change amid widespread calls for his dismissal after he refused to acknowledge that the burning of fossil fuels is rapidly warming the planet. In an interview on CNN International on Thursday morning, Mr. Malpass said he accepted the overwhelming scientific conclusion that human activity is warming the planet. “It’s clear that greenhouse gas emissions are coming from man-made sources, including fossil fuels,” he said. “I’m not a denier.” He also sent a memo to World Bank staff, which was obtained by The New York Times, in which he wrote “it’s clear that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are causing climate change, and that the sharp increase in the use of coal, diesel, and heavy fuel oil in both advanced economies and developing countries is creating another wave of the climate crisis.” That was much different from Tuesday, when he refused to acknowledge during a public event at The New York Times whether the burning of oil, gas and coal was dangerously heating the Earth. Speaking onstage during a discussion about climate finance, Mr. Malpass was asked to respond to a remark made earlier in the day by former Vice President Al Gore, who called the World Bank president a “climate denier.” Pressed three times, Mr. Malpass would not say whether he accepted that man-made greenhouse gas emissions had created a worsening crisis that is already leading to more extreme weather. “I’m not a scientist,” he said. The World Bank’s mission is to reduce poverty by lending money to poor nations to improve their economies and living standards. The loan terms are more favorable than those countries could get on the commercial market, often at low cost or no cost. The bank, which is owned by 187 countries, finances a wide range of projects from energy to education to public health. Mr. Malpass’s equivocation concerning the basic facts of climate science quickly became a hot topic in New York, where thousands of diplomats, policymakers and activists had gathered for the United Nations General Assembly and a series of events known as Climate Week. Many experts say the World Bank under Mr. Malpass is not doing enough to align its lending with international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and is moving too slowly to help poor countries deal with rising seas, drought and other extreme weather resulting from the warming of the planet. The bank continues to fund oil and gas projects, despite a declaration by the International Energy Agency that countries must stop financing new fossil fuel development if the world has any hope of averting climate catastrophe. Understand the Controversy Surrounding David Malpass Card 1 of 5 What is the controversy about? On Sept. 20, former Vice President Al Gore called Mr. Malpass a “climate denier” during a panel discussion at a climate change event organized by The Times, suggesting that President Biden should work to remove him as the head of the World Bank. How did Mr. Malpass respond? Mr. Malpass, who was present at the same event, defended his record on climate, but refused to say directly whether he accepted the scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels is dangerously warming the planet. On Sept. 22, however, he changed course, saying he accepted the scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels is warming the planet. What is Mr. Malpass’s record on climate? After his appointment as president of the World Bank, Mr. Malpass showed restraint in discussing the environment and global warming. Since President Biden’s election, Mr. Malpass has described climate change as an “immense” issuе. Under his leadership, the World Bank has launched some climate initiatives, though critics say a much more aggressive approach is needed. Why does his position on climate change matter? The World Bank is the world’s largest development bank and has the power to fund far-reaching economic and social projects, including climate initiatives. As such, it has unique power and tools to help developing countries prepare for climate change, something that is increasingly crucial in our warming world. “This landed because there is a very real debate about how all the capital sitting in the bank can be deployed more quickly and assertively given the situation the world is in,” said Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, who has been participating in climate discussions at the United Nations this week. “This is an open wound, and whatever that was from President Malpass was disappointing.” World Bank staff members exchanged text messages lamenting how Mr. Malpass bungled his initial response on Tuesday and expressing disappointment that he had undercut the bank’s work on climate initiatives, according to people familiar with the matter. Some speculated about whether Mr. Malpass would leave before his term expires in 2024. He was nominated to lead the World Bank in 2019 by President Donald J. Trump. Although the United States traditionally picks the leader of the World Bank and is its largest shareholder, removing Mr. Malpass before the end of his term would require the backing of the board of governors. One of those governors, Jochen Flasbarth, a senior economic official in Germany, reacted to Mr. Malpass’s Tuesday performance with alarm, saying on Twitter “We are concerned about this confusing signals about scientific evidence of #climatechange from the top of ⁦@WorldBank.” The reaction from many others was even sharper. “It’s simple,” Christiana Figueres, who helped negotiate the Paris climate agreement as head of the United Nations climate agency, said on Twitter on Wednesday. “If you don’t understand the threat of #climatechange to developing countries you cannot lead the world’s top international development institution.” Speaking at an event on Wednesday, Mark Carney, who is leading a United Nations effort to get financial institutions to help reduce emissions, echoed Mr. Malpass’s comments — but with a distinct twist. “I’m not a scientist,” he said. “But I took scientific advice.” The Biden administration would not say on Wednesday if it had confidence in Mr. Malpass but emphasized that the institution must play a central role in combating climate change. “We expect the World Bank Group to be a global leader of climate ambition and the mobilization of significantly more climate finance for developing countries,” Michael Kikukawa, a Treasury Department spokesman, said. “We have — and will continue — to make that expectation clear to World Bank leadership. The World Bank must be a full partner in delivering on this global agenda.” Activists and climate experts called for Mr. Malpass to be removed. “There is no place at the top of the World Bank for a climate denier,” said Jules Kortenhorst, chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Institute and an expert on energy and climate issues. “David Malpass needs to step down. The World Bank deserves a passionate leader who fully appreciates the threat that climate change poses to reducing poverty, improving living standards and sustainable growth.” Image Climate activists gathered outside the World Bank in Washington on Thursday to call for Mr. Malpass’s removal.Credit…Leigh Vogel for The New York Times All of that followed Mr. Gore’s remarks on Tuesday morning, which set events in motion. “We need to get a new head of the World Bank,” Mr. Gore said at the New York Times event. “This is ridiculous to have a climate denier as the head of the World Bank.” Mr. Malpass’s comments on CNN did little to assuage his critics. “At this point it’s clear he’s trying to hang on to his job after the diplomatic admonishment from the U.S. Treasury Department and other shareholders yesterday,” Luísa Abbott Galvão, senior international policy campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “Malpass has been making climate denying comments for over a decade. We cannot have a situation where a World Bank president is saying nice things publicly but working behind the scenes to block action, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen in his three years as World Bank president.” Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International, also continued to call for Mr. Malpass’s removal after his comments on CNN. “If the World Bank’s mandate is to end poverty, it is incompatible with its continued funding of fossil fuels that is a key driver of the climate crisis impacting on those living in poverty the hardest,” she said. “His track record does not demonstrate that he is taking the climate crisis seriously.” Before taking over the World Bank, Mr. Malpass was an official in the Treasury Department during the Trump administration. He said little publicly about climate change in that role, though comments from 2007 suggesting that he did not believe there was a link between carbon emissions and global warming worried environmental activists. His wife, Adele Malpass, is president of the Daily Caller News Foundation, a nonprofit organization closely associated with the conservative media group that often publishes articles and opinion pieces that question climate science. While Mr. Trump was president, Mr. Malpass walked a fine line, treading carefully to fulf...

Obituaries In Dover, NH | Foster's Daily Democrat https://digitalarizonanews.com/obituaries-in-dover-nh-fosters-daily-democrat/ Marie Claire (Lemerise) Duchemin 93, formerly of Haverhill MA, Hampton NH and Phoenix AZ, died peacefully on September 16, 2022 in Exeter, surrounded by her loving family. Claire was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts on March 3, 1929, daughter of the late Henry and Mathilda (D’Aoust) Lemerise. She attended Saint Joseph’s Grammar School where she met her husband and forever love, Richard “Dick” Duchemin. They graduated from Haverhill High School and were married at Saint Joseph’s Church. Together they celebrated sixty years of marriage until his passing in 2011. In 1969, the Duchemins moved to Hampton Beach, N.H. They owned and operated the Bromfield Motel and Guest House on “G” Street. They later opened the Chez Marie Inn, a bed and breakfast at Plaice Cove. Chef Marie, “Chez” enjoyed her dream of cooking and entertaining the public in her home and the Chez Marie Inn became a favorite destination and dining experience on the Seacoast. In 1990, Dick and Claire relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona where they spent their golden years together with family and friends. Claire moved back to New Hampshire seven years after the passing of her beloved husband, and resided in Exeter, NH with her family. Claire is survived by her three children, a son and daughter-in-law, Wayne R. and Jeanne Duchemin of Marstons Mills, MA, and two daughters and sons-in-law, Jeannie and Kenny Kempf of San Antonio, TX, and Deborah J. and Charles Brown of Exeter; her seven grandchildren; Kevin, Krisanne, Katie, Jeffrey, Kelly, Brian, and Kyle and their spouses and partners; and her great grandchildren, Jocelyne, Jaxon, Mia, Ava, Kasey, Dean, Kenzie, and Sami. She is also survived by her brothers, Bernard “Bernie” Lemerise and his wife “Peachie”, of Hampton, Robert Lemerise of Haverhill and Henry “Hank” Lemerise, Jr. of Florida, and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by a brother Richard Lemerise and sisters, Margaret Houle, Noella Frascaria and Lorraine Charboneau. Relatives and friends are invited to Claire’s Mass of Christian Burial to be held on Saturday, October 1, 2022, at 11 a.m. in Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church, 289 Lafayette Road, Hampton, NH. Live streaming for those not able to attend will be available through the parish website. The family will receive guests at a reception in the church hall following the Mass. Burial will be at a later date in the National Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery, Phoenix, AZ. The family requests that memorial donations be made to OLMM Outreach, c/o Sr. Doris Ouellette, 289 Lafayette Rd. Hampton, NH. Arrangements are under the direction of Brookside Chapel & Funeral Home, Plaistow, NH. To send a message of condolence to the family or to share a cherished memory, please visit: www.brooksidechapelfh.com. Posted online on September 22, 2022 Published in Exeter News-Letter/Hampton Union, Exeter News-Letter/Hampton Union Read More…

Autonomous Driving Company Pony.ai Expands Into Tucson – AZ Big Media https://digitalarizonanews.com/autonomous-driving-company-pony-ai-expands-into-tucson-az-big-media/ Pony.ai, a leading global autonomous driving technology company, today announces its plan to begin testing its autonomous vehicles in Tucson, Arizona, with trained safety drivers behind the wheel of the vehicles. Pony.ai is partnering with Pima Community College and will base its operations at the new Automotive Technology & Innovation Center, located at its Downtown campus. The new Pony.ai operation is the first and only location in Arizona for the company. “We are excited to welcome Pony.ai to Tucson as the next site of their autonomous vehicle pilot,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. “Our city is known as a hub for innovation and smart technologies, and now we have a unique opportunity to partner with Pony.ai to test new technologies that can help us create safer streets,” said Romero. READ ALSO: How innovation zone could be an East Valley game-changer “Tucson is quickly becoming a leading city for tech startups and smart city technology, and Pony.ai is excited to expand our operations there. We want to thank Mayor Romero, the City of Tucson, Sun Corridor, ADOT, and others who made our expansion to Tucson so seamless,” said James Peng, Pony.ai’s co-founder and CEO.  “Pony.ai is the first company in Southern Arizona to launch passenger AV testing. Pima County’s highly skilled automotive workforce, as well as expertise built with TuSimple and others, will greatly benefit Pony.ai in this launch and future expansions,” said Sharon Bronson, chair, Pima County Board of Supervisors. “We’re also excited to see that Pony.ai’s technology vision will include enhanced mobility for underserved populations by providing more reliable transportation for persons with disabilities. I wish them all the success as they establish testing operations in Pima County.”  “Pony.ai’s decision to select Tucson for their new autonomous passenger vehicle testing operations is further validation that Southern Arizona is an emerging player in the autonomous vehicle industry,” said Joe Snell, president & CEO, Sun Corridor Inc. “Pony.ai joins a growing list of companies developing autonomous technologies that have established or expanded operations in the region over the last few years.” “We are thrilled with the opportunity to become the home of Pony.ai’s operations in the region,” said Lee Lambert, chancellor, Pima Community College. “It aligns perfectly with our vision of the PCC Automotive Technology & Innovation Center to be on the cutting edge of the new automotive technology. Our students will be excited to be at the center of the autonomous vehicle technology action. Welcome, Pony.ai.” “Arizona is the premier destination for autonomous vehicle innovation,” said Sandra Watson, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority. “Pony.ai’s Tucson operations are a valued addition to Arizona’s growing AV ecosystem, which is supported through one-of-a-kind collaborations like the Institute of Automated Mobility.” To date, Pony.ai vehicles have driven more than 9.3 million autonomous testing and operation miles worldwide. Pony.ai ranked #10 on the 2022 CNBC Disruptor List of 50 of the most disruptive and innovative private companies. Read More Here