Grant Remmers https://digitalarizonanews.com/grant-remmers/
Grant Christopher Remmers was born March 21,1991 in Mitchell, SD to Lona (Goldammer) Remmers and his biological father Michael Remmers.
Grant attended Grade school in Tripp, SD and Delmont, SD. He was very intelligent and always did well in school. Grant was a happy soul, and good natured. He loved playing with his hot wheel cars, dominos, playing board games, and especially the game “Sorry”. Grant’s brother Shane, who he looked up to, was his inspiration to learn how to play the trumpet.
Grant started 7th grade in Mitchell, SD. Being a much larger school, the transition was difficult, but he made new friends. In high school, he got his first job at Culvers.
Grant graduated from Mitchell High School in 2009. He then moved to Fargo, ND and chose to study journalism. He moved to Sioux Falls, SD in 2014 and was employed at the Midco call center and then at the CCC call center. He excelled at each position that he held.
In 2013, Grant met Helge Sahl and Helge became Grant’s mentor. He was good influence for Grant and taught him many things as Grant was willing to learn. Grant considered Helge to be his Dad. He really enjoyed hanging out with him and enjoyed all of Helge’s clever catch phrases as he was going to write a book about them.
Grant’s creative mind shined every day. One of the many creativities he shared is that he named things in his life. He called his Dodge Neon, Nora, and his three guitars were named Suzanne, Maureen and June.
Grant was very proud of the fact that he taught himself how to play the guitar. His creativity was at his peak when he created “Peeler City” where he promoted his music. He also created different bands and music that each band played. He performed with his friends as he enjoyed accompanying poetry with his guitar.
In the summer of 2019, Grant found true love with Kathleen Rykhus. They were planning their lives together.
Grant passed away on October 9, 2019 at the age of 28 at his residence from natural causes. The immediate family had a private viewing at the Miller Funeral Home in Sioux Falls, SD.
Grant is survived by his Mom, Lona Kock (Mark) Sioux Falls, SD, his brother, Shane Remmers, (Hanna Kelly) Phoenix, AZ, Grant’s Love of his Life, Kathleen Rykhus, Sioux Falls, SD, Uncle Brian (Paulette) Goldammer, Donna, TX, Aunt Gail Overman, Meridianville AL, cousins, Amber, Andrea, Bobby, Michael, Travis, Meagan, Step family and numerous friends.
Grant was preceded in death by his mentor and Dad, Helge Sahl, and Grandparents, Hilda and Harold Goldammer.
Grant’s smile, his sense of humor, his good nature and his creativeness will be missed by everyone. Grant was loved by many, is missed by many and leaves many happy memories.
Grant’s celebration of life will be held on October 8, 2022 5:00pm to 8:00pm at the Full Circle Book CO-OP in Sioux Falls, SD.
Grant’s website is: dory-lizard-47ad.squarespace.com
Read More…
QC Kinetix (Chandler): The Future Of Regenerative Medicine In Arizona Digital Journal
QC Kinetix (Chandler): The Future Of Regenerative Medicine In Arizona – Digital Journal https://digitalarizonanews.com/qc-kinetix-chandler-the-future-of-regenerative-medicine-in-arizona-digital-journal/
Chandler, AZ – The focus on healthy living has increased the uptake of sports and other physical activities. However, this comes with an increased incidence of injuries. Traditional methods of managing these pains often involve drugs that may have adverse effects. However, there are safer and more effective alternatives, such as regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine is a branch of medicine that focuses on the repair and regeneration of tissues. This treatment has shown great promise in treating various conditions, including joint pain, knee pain, back pain, and muscle pain. QC Kinetix (Chandler) is a leading provider of regenerative medicine in Arizona. The pain control clinic has seasoned treatment providers passionate about helping their patients live their best lives.
“A healthy back is vital to a person’s quality of life. It allows us to do the things we love without pain or worry. When our backs are injured, it can be difficult to return to normal activities. Our team at QC Kinetix (Chandler) is dedicated to helping patients find relief from back pain and regain their quality of life.” To learn more about their Chandler office, please visit their website.
Any physical exertion strains the joints, which can result in pain and inflammation. In some cases, the damage to the joints may be too extensive for them to heal independently. Regenerative medicine can help to repair this damage and promote healing. This minimally invasive treatment option is a great alternative to traditional methods, such as surgery, and the Chandler joint pain treatment clinic has set the pace in providing this treatment to patients in Arizona. Their customized approach to each patient’s condition ensures they get the best possible results.
The knees are some of the most vulnerable joints in the body that are susceptible to injury and pain, and for athletes, knee pain can be a career-ending injury. However, biologic therapies have shown great promise in treating knee injuries. These therapies use the body’s own healing mechanisms to repair the damage. QC Kinetix (Chandler) offers customized biologic therapy treatments designed to enhance the healing process.
The ability to move the arms freely is often taken for granted. However, this movement may be restricted by shoulder pain. The shoulder is a complex joint that is made up of bones, muscles, and tendons, and any injury to these structures can result in pain. For instance, rotator cuff tears commonly cause shoulder pain among athletes. However, this condition can be effectively treated with biologic therapies. The benefit of these therapies is their short recovery time, as biologic therapies help promote the body’s natural healing process. QC Kinetix (Chandler) is one of the clinics steering the way in providing these restorative therapies to patients.
QC Kinetix (Chandler) is located at 1100 S Dobson Rd, Suite 210, Chandler, AZ, 85286, US. Clients can also contact the pain control clinic at (602) 837-7246. They can also learn more by browsing the company’s website.
Media Contact
Company Name
QC Kinetix (Chandler)
Contact Name
Scott Hoots
Phone
(602) 837-7246
Address
1100 S Dobson Rd, Suite 210
City
Chandler
State
AZ
Postal Code
85286
Country
United States
Website
https://qckinetix.com/phoenix/chandler/
Read More Here
5 Homebuilding Stocks To Watch Amid Rate-Hike & Inflation Woes
5 Homebuilding Stocks To Watch Amid Rate-Hike & Inflation Woes https://digitalarizonanews.com/5-homebuilding-stocks-to-watch-amid-rate-hike-inflation-woes/
Indeed, the U.S. housing space continues to grapple with accelerating mortgage rates, rising raw material and labor costs. Disruption in the supply chain has been impacting builders’ ability to deliver on time. That said, the rising need for more work-at-home space, lack of existing homes for sale, focus on cost control, increased operating leverage and important buyouts have been somewhat aiding the Zacks Building Products – Home Builders industry. Companies like Taylor Morrison Home Corporation (TMHC – Free Report) , Century Communities, Inc. (CCS – Free Report) , Dream Finders Homes, Inc. (DFH – Free Report) , M/I Homes, Inc. (MHO – Free Report) and Beazer Homes USA, Inc. (BZH – Free Report) have been gaining from their fundamental strength and above-mentioned tailwinds.
Industry Description
The Zacks Building Products – Home Builders industry comprises manufacturers of residential and commercial buildings. Some of the industry players are involved in providing financial services that include selling mortgages and collecting fees for title insurance agencies as well as closing services. The industry players are involved in building single-family detached and attached home communities; townhouses, condominiums, duplexes and triplexes; master-planned luxury residential resort-style golf communities; and urban low, mid, and high-rise communities. The companies are also involved in the purchase, development and sale of residential land. Additionally, the companies build and own multi-family rental properties; residential real estate; and oil and gas assets.
4 Trends Shaping the Homebuilding Industry’s Future
Supply Chain Hurdles & Tight Labor Market: Continuous supply-chain issues arising from the COVID-19 outbreak and response to the health crisis in various countries have been impacting builders’ ability to deliver on time. Rising material costs are quite challenging. According to an Associated Builders and Contractors’ latest analysis of information provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there has been upward pressure on construction input prices for August 2022 compared with the year-ago period. With COVID-related lockdowns continuing in China and Europe facing severe energy crises, supply chain disruptions are likely to persist in the near term as well. Again, the shortage of skilled labor continues to be a pressing concern.
Higher Rates: While supply-chain challenges are expected to continue to impact the level of housing starts and construction cycle times, the home affordability issue remains a headwind owing to accelerating home prices and mortgage rates this year. While remaining committed to combating inflation, the Fed has raised rates four times since March this year, with a 75-basis-point increment at each of its last two meetings. Per Fed officials’ latest hawkish comments, the central bank of the United States is likely to raise the benchmark rate by 75 basis points in September 2022 in order to more effectively address persistent inflation. This is less encouraging for this rate-sensitive market, which accounts for almost 3% of the economy. Rising borrowing costs and elevated risk of recession have been driving the single-family homebuilding market into recession.
Suburban Shift: The changing geography of housing demand has been supporting builder confidence to some extent. Demand for new homes in lower-density markets, including small metro areas, rural markets and large metro exurbs is a tailwind as people seek larger homes to work from home amid the pandemic. The desire for more space and amenities to accommodate working and learning from home should continue to favor the U.S. housing market in the near term.
Cost-Control Efforts, Focus on Entry-Level Buyers & Acquisitions: Given the accelerated raw material prices, companies have been relying on effective cost control and focusing on making the homebuilding platform more efficient, which in turn is resulting in higher operating leverage. Homebuilders have been controlling construction costs by designing homes efficiently and obtaining construction materials and labor at competitive prices. Some homebuilders also follow a dynamic pricing model, which enables them to set the price according to the latest market conditions. Also, the majority of companies are focused on growing the demand for entry-level homes and addressing the need for lower-priced homes, given affordability concerns prevailing in the U.S. housing market. Meanwhile, industry players have been acquiring other homebuilding companies in desirable markets, resulting in improved volumes, market share, revenues as well as profitability.
Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Dull Prospects
The Zacks Building Products – Home Builders industry is a 19-stock group within the broader Zacks Construction sector. The industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #237, which places it in the bottom 5% of more than 250 Zacks industries.
The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates bleak near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
The industry’s positioning in the bottom 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is a result of bleak earnings outlook for the constituent companies in aggregate. Looking at the aggregate earnings estimate revisions, it appears that analysts are gradually losing confidence in this group’s earnings growth potential. Since June 2022, the industry’s earnings estimates for 2022 have decreased approximately 1.8%.
Despite the industry’s blurred near-term view, we will present a few stocks that one may consider adding to their portfolio. Before that, it’s worth taking a look at the industry’s shareholder returns and current valuation.
Industry Lags Sector and S&P 500
The Zacks Building Products – Home Builders industry has lagged the S&P 500 Index and broader Zacks Construction sector in the past year.
Over this period, the industry has lost 26.1% compared with the S&P 500’s decline of 13.4% and the broader sector’s 18.5% decline.
One-Year Price Performance
Industry’s Current Valuation
On the basis of the forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio, which is commonly used for valuing homebuilding stocks, the industry is currently trading at 4.7 compared with the S&P 500’s 16.9 and the sector’s 11.
Over the last five years, the industry has traded as high as 14.4X and as low as 4.2X, with a median of 9X, as the chart below shows.
Industry’s P/E Ratio (Forward 12-Month) Versus S&P 500
5 Homebuilding Stocks to Watch For Now
We have selected five stocks from the Zacks homebuilding space that currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Taylor Morrison Home: This Scottsdale, AZ-based homebuilder’s ongoing operational enhancements, acquisition synergies and robust pricing power have been more than offsetting the inflationary pressure and delay in some closings.
TMHC shares have dropped 33.3% over the past year. Nonetheless, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2022 earnings has been upwardly revised by 6.6% over the past 30 days. Earnings for 2022 are expected to grow 87.8%.
Price and Consensus: TMHC
Dream Finders Homes: This Jacksonville, FL-based company operates as a holding company for Dream Finders Holdings LLC. It provides single-family entry-level, and first-time and second time move-up homes in Charlotte, Raleigh, Jacksonville, Orlando, Denver, the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, Austin, Dallas and Houston. The second-quarter 2022 marks the company’s sixth quarter as a public company. Its land-light operating model and strategic position in high-growth markets, providing affordable homes to the entry-level, first and second-time move-up homebuyers, are tailwinds. Also, the build-for-rent platform provides a consistent home deliveries pipeline, which is less susceptible to temporary changes in demand from individual homebuyers.
DFH has slipped 40.8% over the past year. Nonetheless, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2022 earnings has been upwardly revised by 6.3% over the past 30 days. Earnings for 2022 are expected to grow 100%.
Price and Consensus: DFH
M/I Homes: This Columbus, OH-based builder of single-family homes has been gaining from a high level of performance across all its housing operations and the Mortgage and Title business. Greater operating leverage, a stellar backlog level and a higher return on equity have been helping the company to generate improved profits. MHO remains optimistic about navigating the ongoing challenges, given its balance sheet strength, low debt levels, record backlog sales value, diverse product offerings and well-located communities.
MHO has plunged 38% over the past year. Nonetheless, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2022 earnings has been revised upwardly by 2.1% over the past 60 days. Earnings for 2022 are expected to grow 23.9%.
Price and Consensus: MHO
Beazer Homes: This Atlanta, GA-based homebuilder designs, builds and sells single-family homes. BZH designs homes to appeal primarily to entry-level and first move-up homebuyers. BZH’s subsidiary, Beazer Mortgage, originates the mortgages for the company’s homebuyers. The company’s Balanced Growth strategy, higher pricing, lower sales incentives and a solid backlog level are expected to improve profitability.
BZH has an expected earnings growth rate of 59.3% for fiscal 2022. Although its shares have declined 47.8% over the past year, BZH has seen an upward estimate revision of 7% for fiscal 2022 earnings over the past 30 days. This depicts analysts’ optimism about the company’s prospects.
Price and Consensus: BZH
Century Communities: This Greenwood Village, CO-based company engages in the design, development, co...
New Loop 202 Interchange At Lindsay Road In Gilbert Opens Thursday
New Loop 202 Interchange At Lindsay Road In Gilbert Opens Thursday https://digitalarizonanews.com/new-loop-202-interchange-at-lindsay-road-in-gilbert-opens-thursday/
GILBERT, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — After nearly two years of construction work, the new interchange at Lindsay Road and the Loop 202 Santan Freeway in Gilbert is officially set to open on Thursday.
The project is a partnership between the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Town of Gilbert with a goal to provide direct freeway access to Gilbert’s Central Business District as well as other nearby businesses and neighborhoods through the new full diamond interchange. As part of the project, Lindsay Road was widened to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion to existing interchanges at Gilbert Road and Val Vista Drive.
The project also involved constructing a new two-lane westbound frontage road between Lindsay and Gilbert roads, widening the eastbound Val Vista Drive and westbound Gilbert Road off-ramps, and relocating the Zanjero Park parking lot.
Construction began in January 2021 and took 20 months to complete. Thursday morning, the Town of Gilbert is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new interchange. It will be open for travel following the event.
The new interchange at Loop 202 Santan Freeway and Lindsay Road opens Thursday after nearly two years of construction.(Courtesy: ADOT)
Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
Read More Here
Who And What Would Trump Run Against In 2024? https://digitalarizonanews.com/who-and-what-would-trump-run-against-in-2024/
By Michael Malaszczyk
The likelihood that former President Donald Trump will run again in 2024 seems to increase by the day. Unless the Mar-a-Lago raid turns up something that leads to a criminal indictment, it would be somewhat anticlimactic for Trump to have hyped up the imagined grand announcement, only to conclude with, “I’m not running.”
So, the question is, who would he run against?
Trump ran against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 from Day One. He capitalized on an anti-establishment sentiment that had been percolating across America in both major parties for some time. That was what allowed him to blitz through a field of respected Republican politicians like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio.
Trump repeatedly singled out Bush — the one-time frontrunner who counts both a father and a brother as one-time occupants of the Oval Office — in a move that signified that Trump was going against the Republican Party of old.
Sen. Bernie Sanders had similar success against Clinton in 2016, albeit not quite as successful. The Democratic Party’s nomination of Clinton for president, however, played right into Trump’s campaign message: As the anti-establishment candidate, who was a better representation of the establishment — and the perfect villain — than Hillary Clinton?
Trump apparently feared the idea of Clinton even considering the Vermont senator as her running mate, calling Sanders “the only one I didn’t want her to pick” — perhaps aware of how much Sanders could have disrupted Trump’s campaign message.
But everything changed in 2020. How could Trump run against the establishment when he was now the establishment? So he tried a different approach. The entrenched elite wasn’t the boogeyman this time around; it was socialism. And as far as Trump and his supporters were concerned, “Democrat” and “socialist” were interchangeable terms.
Trump was almost gleeful when Sanders — a self-described “democratic socialist” — was winning the early primaries in 2020. Trump strategist Michael Caputo even said that “the only thing better for Trump than Bernie getting screwed out of the nomination (is) if Bernie wins the nomination.”
While there was a brief time in which it seemed that it would indeed be Trump vs. Sanders, Democrats ultimately went a different route. The anti-Bernie route. The Joe Biden route.
Outside of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Biden was the only candidate who never aligned with Sanders. So, in nominating Biden, Democrats went against Trump’s wishes.
That didn’t stop the then president from trying to link Biden with socialism anyway, but no one was buying it. At least not enough to swing the general election in Trump’s favor.
Essentially, Trump was always running against “crooked” Hillary Clinton and the pre-Trump establishment — even when Clinton wasn’t in the race and the establishment was Trump’s own.
So how will Trump frame 2024? Can he recapture any of his 2016 anti-establishment magic? That’s doubtful, because he and many of his acolytes are the establishment.
Maybe this time he can get Biden-as-a-socialist to stick. Biden is hardly the poster child of anything too hard left. And even his more progressive, Sanders-esque agenda items have been torn apart in Congress — with little argument from Biden himself. The late President Lyndon Johnson is rolling in his grave at how passive-aggressive Biden is with the likes of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.
How about Biden as a failed president? Inflation has skyrocketed, but so has job growth. The economy screams recession, but if it’s out there, no one has quite found it.
And Biden has been on a bit of a roll lately. Some key measures he has championed, tackling inflation and the environment, have been signed into law, and he just took out a key terrorist in the Middle East.
Biden may have led a disastrous pull-out from Afghanistan last year, but now he has finessed the war in Ukraine to make Russian dictator Vladimir Putin look like the monster he is without putting a single pair of American boots on the ground there.
Former President Trump will have to run against President Biden, and running against an incumbent president ain’t easy: Only 10 presidents in American history have lost re-election — and one of them was Trump.
But how will the former president present his message? Biden isn’t exactly a great president, but he’s not a failed one, either. If Trump gets past his legal troubles to make another run for the Oval Office, his only chance to come out on top could very well require changing his playbook completely.
Michael Malaszczyk is a Herald reporter covering Wantagh and Seaford. Comments about this column? Mmalaszczyk@liherald.com.
Read More Here
Armenia Says 105 Troops Killed In Azerbaijan Border Clashes
Armenia Says 105 Troops Killed In Azerbaijan Border Clashes https://digitalarizonanews.com/armenia-says-105-troops-killed-in-azerbaijan-border-clashes/
By Leo Sands
BBC News
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Firefighters at the ruins of a house in Sotk, which Armenia claimed had been hit by Azeri shelling
More than 100 Armenian soldiers have been killed in border clashes with Azerbaijan since Monday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said.
Azerbaijan said on Thursday that 71 of its troops had been killed, in fighting which both sides blame on the other.
It is the latest in a series of long-running conflicts fought between the two former Soviet republics over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Russia and the US have each called for peace between the two countries.
Speaking to his country’s parliament, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said 105 Armenian servicemen had been killed since Monday night in attacks he blamed on Azerbaijan.
He also accused Azeri troops of occupying 10 sq km (4 sq miles) of Armenian territory this week and said he had now turned to Russia for military assistance – a long-time ally of Armenia.
Azerbaijan denies the Armenian account of this week’s events, including reports that it fired upon vehicles belonging to Russia’s FSB security services stationed inside Armenia.
Instead, Azerbaijan claims its neighbour started the conflict by shelling military targets within its own district of Kalbacar.
“Our units are taking the necessary response measures,” Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said, according to Reuters.
A fragile ceasefire brokered by Russia on Tuesday failed to hold, with both sides blaming the other of breaching the agreement and reports of violence continuing into Wednesday evening.
Late on Wednesday evening Armenia said a truce has been agreed with Azerbaijan, although there has been no confirmation yet from Azerbaijan.
On Thursday Azerbaijan’s defence ministry published a list of 71 servicemen killed in the clashes.
The fighting is the deadliest to break out between the two neighbours in two years.
International leaders are intensifying diplomatic efforts to prevent it from escalating into an even deadlier war – as has happened with previous skirmishes in the past.
In addition to the human cost of a second war in the former USSR, a full-blown conflict would risk dragging in Russia and Turkey, both key powers in the region, as well as disrupting crucial oil and gas transit routes.
As part of that diplomatic effort, the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) is sending a peace mission to Armenia that the Kremlin said would arrive “imminently”.
Turkey is aligning itself with Azerbaijan and its President, Recep Erdogan, has accused Armenia of starting the conflict by violating an existing peace settlement.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held phone calls with the leaders of both nations in the hope of facilitating a ceasefire – urging Moscow to do more as well.
A long-running dispute between the neighbouring republics over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region has led to full-scale war in the 1980s and 1990s, a six-week war in 2020 and continuing clashes for decades.
Although internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, the region has long been populated and effectively administered by ethnic Armenians.
A Moscow-brokered peace deal that ended the 2020 war saw Armenia withdraw its troops from some occupied areas within Azerbaijan.
A Russian peacekeeping force of nearly 2,000 men was deployed to the area as part of the negotiations, where it remains today.
Read More Here
Maricopa County Elections Officials Hiring About 3000 Temporary Workers For The General Election
Maricopa County Elections Officials Hiring About 3,000 Temporary Workers For The General Election https://digitalarizonanews.com/maricopa-county-elections-officials-hiring-about-3000-temporary-workers-for-the-general-election/
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — The General Election is less than two months away and the Maricopa County Elections Department wants to fill about 3,000 temporary positions.
Jobs range from poll workers to warehouse workers, truck drivers and ballot processors, and more. Megan Gilbertson with the department says every temporary position has job-specific and unique training with varying commitment options.
Pay starts at minimum wage for some, Gilbertson tells Arizona’s Family, and goes up to $19 to $20 an hour depending on the position. There was a $1,000 bonus offered for those who could work 240 hours between the primary and general elections.
This week at the elections warehouse, workers were making sure the printers were outfitted and ready to print your ballot. It’s just an example of the help that’s needed. “If you think about a voting location and everything that goes into it, they need power cords, they need chairs, they need printers, they need ballot paper,” Gilbertson said. “There are so many items. And so we have workers that come in, and they build those kits to make sure every voting location has everything they need.”
“It takes an entire community in order to run elections. In Maricopa County, we are the second largest voting jurisdiction in the country and we really rely on community members, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, to come in and work elections,” Gilbertson said.
For some, working elections is a chance to get a firsthand look at the election process and get involved in the community. Rosetta Walker, who lives in the Valley, has been a poll worker in the area for about 20 years. She is typically stationed at one of the voting centers at Arizona State University.
Walker likes it because she gets to meet a whole new batch of people every year, making new friends and connections. “It’s very invigorating being around the young people because you get to see the younger generation,” she said. “Some of them are first-time voters, 18 years old.” Walker says there are also staff and faculty who are able to cast their ballot at their workplace.
If you’d like to get involved, click here. Election Day is November 7th.
Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
Read More…
Judge Orders An Iowa Teen Who Killed Her Alleged Rapist To Pay His Family $150000 In Restitution
Judge Orders An Iowa Teen Who Killed Her Alleged Rapist To Pay His Family $150,000 In Restitution https://digitalarizonanews.com/judge-orders-an-iowa-teen-who-killed-her-alleged-rapist-to-pay-his-family-150000-in-restitution/
(CNN)A girl who was 15 when she killed a man she said raped her multiple times must pay his family $150,000 in restitution, an Iowa judge ruled Tuesday.
Pieper Lewis, who killed her alleged rapist in 2020, received a deferred judgment from Polk County District Judge David Porter after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury.
Porter ruled Lewis would receive five years’ probation, serve 200 hours of community service and pay $150,000 in restitution, plus more than $4,000 in civil penalties. The deferred judgment means this may be expunged from Lewis’ record.
Iowa law requires the court to sentence offenders to pay at least $150,000 in restitution if they kill another person.
A crowdsourcing campaign to cover the restitution has raised $330,000 — more than double what Lewis owes. But Lewis’ attorneys must determine whether Iowa law would allow the donated money to be used to pay the restitution, they told Des Moines Register.
Money collected beyond the court-ordered sum would help Lewis attend college, start her own business and “explore ways to help other young victims of sex crimes,” her former teacher Leland Schippe wrote at the GoFundMe page he set up.
Lewis pleaded guilty in June 2021 to the killing of Zachary Brooks. According to the plea agreement, Lewis said Brooks, 37, raped her multiple times in 2020. She was initially charged with first-degree murder.
Lewis said in the plea agreement that she ran away from home several times and ended up sleeping in the hallway of an apartment complex.
One man took her in, but she left when he became abusive, she wrote in the plea agreement. She said she then moved in with another man who created an online dating profile for her and arranged for men to have sex with her for money. She lived with that man, who told her she was his girlfriend, from April 2020 until she was arrested for killing Brooks, Lewis said.
She was introduced to Brooks in May 2020, and he gave her alcohol and marijuana and had sex with her five times while she was unconscious over a three-day period, she said in her plea. She said she learned of what he had done, according to the plea, each time she regained consciousness and he was still on top of her.
On May 31, the man with whom Lewis lived with confronted her with a knife after she refused his order to go to Brooks’ apartment to have sex with Brooks in exchange for marijuana, she wrote. Eventually she agreed to go after he cut her neck, she said in the plea.
Brooks picked her up and drove her back to his apartment, where he told her to go to the bedroom.
She was forced to drink vodka shots and fell asleep, she wrote in her plea agreement. At one point in the night she woke up and Brooks was raping her, she said. Brooks fell asleep and Lewis went to find her clothes. When she came back to the bedroom, she saw him passed out naked, she wrote.
“I suddenly realized that Mr. Brooks had raped me yet again and was overcome with rage. Without thinking, I immediately grabbed the knife from his nightstand and began stabbing him,” Lewis stated in the plea agreement. “I further acknowledge that the multiple stab wounds that I inflicted upon Mr. Brooks thereafter ultimately resulted in his death.”
In court on Tuesday, Lewis read from a statement.
“My story can change things. My story has changed me,” she said. “The events that took place on that horrific day cannot be changed, as much as I wish I could. That day a combination of complicated actions took place resulting in the death of a person, as well as a stolen innocence of a child.
“As I grow and evolve as a young woman, I feel for the victim’s family. I wish what happened never did. And I truly feel that way. The healing process is inevitable. I repeat, I wish the events that occurred on June 1, 2020 never occurred. But to say there is only one victim of this story is absurd.”
Lewis’ attorney said that he was pleased with the court deferring her sentence.
“We are very thrilled by Judge Porter’s decision in the case. A deferred judgment will allow Pieper to live a full life,” Matt Sheeley told CNN.
“Pieper is extremely grateful for all the love, compassion, and support that she has received. Anyone that has met her immediately falls in love with her,” Sheeley said. “She’s a remarkable young woman who has remarkable courage. And she’s amazed at all the love she’s received — she’s just blown away. We’re all frankly blown away.”
Explaining his decision to order community service, Porter said: “The purpose of that, Ms. Lewis, is that you have a story to tell … you should be willing and able to tell that story to other young and vulnerable women in our community. And therefore, you are going to give back … by the way of community service hours.”
Sheeley did not say if they planned to appeal the restitution decision in the case.
KellyMarie Meek of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault said she was concerned about Tuesday’s ruling.
“I don’t think that justice was served. I think that justice would have not seen Pieper Lewis spend any time behind bars,” Meek told CNN. “This is not the worst outcome that could have happened, but it’s far from the best outcome and it’s definitely not justice.”
Meek also expressed concern about Lewis’ ability to manage the terms of her probation due to the severity of her trauma.
“Five years (of) probation under strict supervision is something that concerns me, because I know that many of the ways that trauma survivors deal with their trauma is not understood very well by folks that haven’t experienced trauma, which can sometimes lead to behaviors that get folks in trouble,” she said.
Meek said she understood the restitution ruling and the fact the judge didn’t have any discretion.
“It worked out really poorly in this case, but I don’t want to automatically swing the pendulum and say, we’re just going to get rid of that,” she said.
Many victims’ families fought hard to get the restitution law passed, she said, adding what is needed now is discussion with “a lot of voices at the table to figure out how we get victims of crime the support that they need and not unfairly punish people.”
Read More Here
Adobe Snaps Up Figma For $20B Taking Out One Of Its Biggest Rivals In Digital Design
Adobe Snaps Up Figma For $20B, Taking Out One Of Its Biggest Rivals In Digital Design https://digitalarizonanews.com/adobe-snaps-up-figma-for-20b-taking-out-one-of-its-biggest-rivals-in-digital-design/
Big news in the world of digital creative technology: Adobe today announced that it would acquire Figma for $20 billion, taking out one of its biggest rivals in the realm of digital design.
Both the WSJ and Bloomberg reported earlier this morning that Adobe was close to announcing the deal to acquire Figma. In the end, Adobe confirmed the news to coincide with its quarterly earnings.
Those Q3 earnings saw the company post revenues of $4.43 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $3.40, which respectively met and exceeded analysts’ expectations. Nevertheless, the company said that it might need to finance this deal with a loan, and it provided a lukewarm outlook for the next quarter, with revenues expected to be $4.52 billion and EPS of $3.50, citing “the overall macroeconomic environment” and “FX headwinds”. Its stock is trading down nearly 10% pre-market open — one sign of how Adobe likely hoped the news of consolidating and taking out a rival could give it a boost.
Investors are not the only ones a little worried…
I just hope the new interface would not be so complicated. I like how simplified Figma is
— Petite (@Meddivva) September 15, 2022
These are the kinds of reactions — from their target community — that are a strong signal to Adobe and Figma to definitely keep an eye on how they integrate and take their users along to whatever the next step is.
The acquisition is coming in the form of a deal that is half cash and half stock, Adobe said, and it will also include 6 million additional restricted stock units granted to Figma’s CEO and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing. It is expected to close in 2023, “subject to the receipt of required regulatory clearances and approvals and the satisfaction of other closing conditions, including the approval of Figma’s stockholders.”
Design and prototyping, for individuals and teams, executed in a very streamlined and modern, cloud-based environment, are Figma’s product strengths, and it’s amassed some 4 million users to date. Adobe meanwhile has been building and acquiring a number of businesses in the wider world of digital creation, and that has taken it not just into the larger and more general reaches of design but also marketing and other areas adjacent to design in the longer creation chain. Adobe’s DNA is in design, though, and it has built out iconic products in areas like imaging (such as Photoshop), fonts, illustration, video and 3D and more.
The idea now will be to create a seamless connection between these and Figma, essentially building it out as the native platform to bring them all together. Adobe, of course, already had something like this, in the form of AdobeXD. It’s not clear what happens with that when this deal closes.
Indeed, whether all this will raise the attention of antitrust authorities will be worth watching: Adobe is already dominant in so many of the tools that are used, and now it will be the dominant player as well in the platform to bring in and provision all of these tools.
“Adobe’s greatness has been rooted in our ability to create new categories and deliver cutting-edge technologies through organic innovation and inorganic acquisitions,” said Shantanu Narayen, chairman and CEO, Adobe, in a statement. “The combination of Adobe and Figma is transformational and will accelerate our vision for collaborative creativity.”
“With Adobe’s amazing innovation and expertise, especially in 3D, video, vector, imaging and fonts, we can further reimagine end-to-end product design in the browser, while building new tools and spaces to empower customers to design products faster and more easily,” added Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO, Figma. Field will stay on and continue to lead the Figma business, said Adobe.
A $20 billion price tag is a sizable jump for Figma, which was last valued at $10 billion in June 2021, when it raised $200 million. But Adobe is doing more than just taking out a big competitor. It’s picking up a fast-scaling business.
It notes that Figma’s total addressable market is $16.5 billion by 2025, and that “the company is expected to add approximately $200 million in net new ARR this year, surpassing $400 million in total ARR exiting 2022, with best-in-class net dollar retention of greater than 150 percent. With gross margins of approximately 90 percent and positive operating cash flows, Figma has built an efficient, high-growth business,” it said.
The deal definitely lays down the gauntlet for other big names in the world of digital design. Specifically it will be interesting to see what comes next for companies like Canva and Sketch.
Field is due to speak at our Disrupt event this year: hopefully (!) he still makes it — it will be a hell of a session if he does.
The companies are holding a conference call later today and we’ll listen in and add in interesting details as and when they come up.
More to come.
Read More Here
Biden Approval Rises Sharply Ahead Of Midterms: AP-NORC Poll
Biden Approval Rises Sharply Ahead Of Midterms: AP-NORC Poll https://digitalarizonanews.com/biden-approval-rises-sharply-ahead-of-midterms-ap-norc-poll-2/
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s popularity improved substantially from his lowest point this summer, but concerns about his handling of the economy persist, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Support for Biden recovered from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in large part by a rebound in support from Democrats just two months before the November midterm elections. During a few bleak summer months when gasoline prices peaked and lawmakers appeared deadlocked, the Democrats faced the possibility of blowout losses against Republicans.
Their outlook appears better after notching a string of legislative successes that left more Americans ready to judge the Democratic president on his preferred terms: “Don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.”
The president’s approval rating remains underwater, with 53% of U.S. adults disapproving of him, and the economy continues to be a weakness for Biden. Just 38% approve of his economic leadership as the country faces stubbornly high inflation and Republicans try to make household finances the axis of the upcoming vote.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, to travel to Wilmington, Del.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Still, the poll suggests Biden and his fellow Democrats are gaining momentum right as generating voter enthusiasm and turnout takes precedence.
Average gas prices have tumbled 26% since June to $3.71 a gallon, reducing the pressure somewhat on family budgets even if inflation remains high. Congress also passed a pair of landmark bills in the past month that could reshape the economy and reduce carbon emissions.
Republicans have also faced resistance since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its abortion protections. And Biden is openly casting former President Donald Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy, a charge that took on resonance after an FBI search of Trump’s Florida home found classified documents that belong to the U.S. government.
This combination of factors has won Biden some plaudits among the Democratic faithful, even if Americans still feel lukewarm about his leadership.
“I’m not under any belief that he’s the best person for the job — he’s the best from the people we had to choose from,” said Betty Bogacz, 74, a retiree from Portland, Oregon. “He represented stability, which I feel President Trump did not represent at all.”
Biden’s approval rating didn’t exceed 40% in May, June or July as inflation surged in the aftermath of Russia invading Ukraine.
The president’s rating now is similar to what it was throughout the first quarter of the year, but he continues to fall short of early highs. His average approval rating in AP-NORC polling through the first six months of his term was 60%.
Driving the recent increase in Biden’s popularity is renewed support among Democrats, who had shown signs of dejection in the early summer. Now, 78% of Democrats approve of Biden’s job performance, up from 65% in July. Sixty-six percent of Democrats approve of Biden on the economy, up from 54% in June.
New data released Tuesday shows U.S inflation is slowing, but still rose more than expected in August. (CNN/KOVR)
Interviews suggest a big reason for Biden’s rebound is the reemergence of Trump on the national stage, causing voters such as Stephen Jablonsky, who labeled Biden as “OK,” to say voting Democratic is a must for the nation’s survival.
“The country has a political virus by the name of Donald Trump,” said Jablonsky, a retired music professor from Stamford, Connecticut. “We have a man who is psychotic and seems to have no concern for law and order and democracy. The Republican Party has gone to a place that is so unattractive and so dangerous, this coming election in November could be the last election we ever have.”
Republicans feel just as negative about Biden as they did before. Only about 1 in 10 Republicans approve of the president overall or on the economy, similar to ratings earlier this summer.
Christine Yannuzzi, 50, doubts that 79-year-old Biden has the capacity to lead.
“I don’t think he’s mentally, completely aware of everything that’s happening all the time,” said Yannuzzi, who lives in Binghamton, New York. “The economy’s doing super poorly and I have a hard time believing that the joblessness rate is as low as they say it is.”
“I think the middle class is being really phased out and families are working two and three jobs a person to make it,” the Republican added.
Twenty-nine percent of U.S. adults say the economy is in good shape, while 71% say it’s doing poorly. In June, 20% said conditions were good and 79% said they were bad.
Democrats are more positive now than they were in June, 46% vs. 31%. Republicans remain largely negative, with only 10% saying conditions are good and 90% saying they’re bad.
About a quarter of Americans now say things in the country are headed in the right direction, 27%, up from 17% in July. Seventy-two percent say things are going in the wrong direction.
Close to half of Democrats — 44% — have an optimistic outlook, up from 27% in July. Just 9% of Republicans are optimistic about the nation’s direction.
Akila Atkins, a 27-year-old stay-at-home mom of two, thinks Biden is “OK” and doesn’t have much confidence that his solutions will curb rising prices.
Atkins says it’s gotten a little harder in the last year to manage her family’s expenses, and she’s frustrated that she can no longer rely on the expanded child tax credit. The tax credit paid out monthly was part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and has since lapsed.
The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the expanded tax credit nearly halved the child poverty rate last year to 5.2%. Atkins said it helped them “stay afloat with bills, the kids’ clothing, shoes, school supplies, everything.”
Whatever misgivings the Democrat in Grand Forks, North Dakota, has about Biden, she believes he is preferable to Trump.
“I always feel like he could be better, but then again, he’s better than our last president,” she said.
___
The poll of 1,054 adults was conducted Sep. 9-12 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of President Joe Biden at https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Read More Here
Post Politics Now: Biden Hosting White House Summit Targeting Hate-Fueled Violence
Post Politics Now: Biden Hosting White House Summit Targeting Hate-Fueled Violence https://digitalarizonanews.com/post-politics-now-biden-hosting-white-house-summit-targeting-hate-fueled-violence/
Today, President Biden is hosting a White House summit aimed at combating the kind of hate-fueled violence that emerged at a gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016, a Walmart in El Paso in 2019 and a supermarket in Buffalo earlier this year. Aides said Biden will deliver a speech calling for a “whole-of-society” response at the United We Stand summit, where several new actions are expected to be unveiled, including some measures from technology companies to address hate-based content.
Earlier Thursday, the White House announced it had reached a “tentative” agreement to avert a national rail strike that had threatened the nation’s economy. In a statement, Biden said the agreement would guarantee “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs” for workers.
Your daily dashboard
10 a.m. Eastern time: Vice President Harris delivers welcoming remarks at the United We Stand summit. Watch live here.
12:15 p.m. Eastern: Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and other Democrats hold a news conference on reproductive rights.
1:15 p.m. Eastern: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters. Watch live here.
3:30 p.m. Eastern: Biden delivers the keynote speech at the United We Stand summit. Watch live here.
8:25 p.m. Eastern: Biden attends the 45th Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Gala.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
Analysis: Can Biden take credit for an ‘electric vehicle manufacturing boom’?
Return to menu
President Biden boasted Wednesday that the Inflation Reduction Act, which he signed into law last month, would turbocharge domestic production of electric vehicles and the batteries that power them.
“U.S. auto manufacturers are in a position today to drive full speed ahead,” the president said during a speech at the Detroit Auto Show after test-driving an electric Cadillac Lyriq across the showroom floor. “I believe we can own the future of the automobile market.”
Writing in The Climate 202, The Post’s Maxine Joselow says experts agree that the climate law will accelerate a race to make EVs and batteries in the United States, rather than in rival countries such as China. Per Maxine:
Analysis: Three takeaways from the monkeypox hearing
Return to menu
Senators hauled top Biden health officials to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, demanding answers on the federal response to monkeypox during the chamber’s first hearing on the virus.
Writing in The Health 202, The Post’s Rachel Roubein notes that lawmakers on the Senate’s health panel said they were disturbed that a virus traditionally confined overseas had spread so rapidly in the United States — and were worried that it may permanently take root here.
Per Rachel:
Both Republicans and Democrats accused the administration of frequent missteps, raising questions about whether the federal government can beef up its public health preparedness efforts in time for the next infectious-disease outbreak.
“For the next one, we’ve got to respond a hell of a lot faster than we did for covid — and we’ve got to do much better than we did on monkeypox,” said Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), the panel’s top Republican.
You can read the full analysis, in which Rachel and The Post’s Dan Diamond offer takeaways from the hearing, here.
Noted: Rail deal was reached after more than 20 straight hours of negotiations
Return to menu
Railroad companies and union representatives engaged in more than 20 consecutive hours of negotiations at the Department of Labor before reaching an agreement that averted a potentially calamitous rail strike, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said Thursday.
In a statement posted just after 5 a.m. Thursday, Walsh said both sides came to “a tentative agreement that balances the needs of workers, businesses, and our nation’s economy.”
“The Biden Administration applauds all parties for reaching this hard-fought, mutually beneficial deal. Our rail system is integral to our supply chain, and a disruption would have had catastrophic impacts on industries, travelers and families across the country,” Walsh said.
The latest: Amtrak working to restore canceled trains
Return to menu
Following the White House announcement early Thursday, Amtrak said it plans to move to restore service that had been canceled ahead of the potential work stoppage.
“Amtrak is working to quickly restore canceled trains and reaching out to impacted customers to accommodate on first available departures,” the passenger railroad said in a statement.
Amtrak had announced the suspension of all its long-distance and some state-supported trains starting Thursday, impacting thousands of passengers. It is unclear if any of Thursday’s trains will be restored. The company said it would provide updates as soon as more information becomes available.
The latest: Pelosi says Congress was prepared to act in response to rail strike
Return to menu
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that Congress was prepared to act to avert a national rail strike. In a statement, she also praised President Biden for helping broker a tentative agreement between freight rail operators and workers.
“With hope for an agreement but concern for the challenges that a strike would present, Congress stood ready to take action,” Pelosi said. She noted that, under the commerce clause of the Constitution, Congress “has the authority and responsibility to ensure the uninterrupted operation of essential transportation services and has in the past enacted legislation for such purposes.”
Noted: Most Americans say politicians don’t know enough about abortion to make fair policies
Return to menu
Seventy percent of Americans — including large majorities in both major political parties — don’t believe politicians are informed enough about abortion to craft fair policies, a new 19th News-SurveyMonkey poll finds.
The finding comes as lawmakers, particularly at the state level, are moving quickly to make new abortion policy in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Members of Congress are also pushing new measures. This week, for example, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled legislation that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Analysis: Democrats ramp up efforts to win over Hispanic voters
Return to menu
President Biden will address the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual gala this evening, as Democrats labor to win back Hispanic voters ahead of the midterm elections.
They’ve got their work cut out for them, The Post’s Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell write in The Early 202. Per our colleagues:
Former president Donald Trump alarmed Democrats by making big gains with Hispanic voters — Hispanic men in particular — in 2020 even as he lost the presidency. The party suffered another blow when Republicans won the special election in June to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Tex.), who represented a heavily Hispanic district.
Republicans argue that Democrats have alienated Hispanic voters by moving to the left on social issues.
Democrats are cautiously optimistic that stepped-up outreach to Hispanic voters, falling gas prices and anger over the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade can help them reverse their losses this cycle — or at least stop the bleeding.
You can read the full analysis here.
On our radar: Technology companies, former presidents, mayors to detail initiatives at Biden summit
Return to menu
At Thursday’s White House summit seeking to combat hate-fueled violence, President Biden plans to announce several new initiatives, some of them led by outside groups, including major technology companies. Among the new actions, according to a White House fact sheet:
A group of former White House officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations is launching Dignity.us, an initiative to foster dialogue in local communities. The group is being supported by foundations and centers of former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford.
New Pluralists, a group of philanthropic leaders, is pledging $1 billion to increase support for programs “that build bridges among Americans of different backgrounds to foster unity.”
More than 140 mayors have signed a new “Compact to Combat Hate and Extremism.”
Service organizations, led by Interfaith America, the YMCA and Habitat for Humanity, are launching A Nation of Bridge Builders, a partnership to train 10,000 Americans to be “bridge builders” in their neighborhoods.
Technology companies, including YouTube, Twitch, Microsoft and Meta, are announcing new actions that their platforms are taking to prevent hate-fueled violence. Few details were provided by the White House on Thursday morning.
The latest: Biden says ‘tentative’ deal reached to avert rail strike
Return to menu
The White House announced Thursday morning it has reached a “tentative” agreement to avert a national rail strike that threatened the nation’s economy.
The Post’s Jeff Stein and Lauren Kaori Gurley report that President Biden said in a statement that the agreement would guarantee “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs” for the workers.
Per our colleagues:
Negotiators had until Friday at 12:01 a.m. to reach a deal to avoid a major impact to the economy.
A Labor Department official confirmed that a deal “that balances the needs of workers, businesses, and our nation’s economy” was reached early Thursday morning after 20 consecutive hours of negotiations between rail companies and union negotiators.
“Secretary Walsh and the Biden administrati...
Where's The Republican Political Strategy For 2022?
Where's The Republican Political Strategy For 2022? https://digitalarizonanews.com/wheres-the-republican-political-strategy-for-2022/
Commentary
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Sept. 13 was down 1,049 points in response to the latest devastating inflation report from the Department of Labor. Overall year-on-year inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, was 8.3 percent in August, with core inflation a shocking 6.3 percent year-on-year.
According to the New York Post, “the CPI’s food index … surged 11.4%, its largest year-over-year increase since May 1979.”
But that’s hardly the only bad news in the Biden-Democrat economy. As reported by NASDAQ, “U.S. household wealth fell by a record $6.1 trillion in the second quarter to its lowest in a year as a bear market in stocks far outweighed further gains in real estate values.”
According to an August report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Americans’ total credit card debt increased by $46 billion in the second quarter of 2022: “The 13% cumulative increase in credit card balances since Q2 2021 represents the largest in more than 20 years.”
And on the producer side, as reported by Trading Economics, “new orders for US manufactured goods fell 1% month-over-month in July of 2022.”
Oh, and the national debt will top the $31 trillion mark before the end of the month.
Continuing record inflation: check. Food prices soaring: check. Americans’ net worth imploding: check. Credit card debt soaring: check. U.S. manufacturing in a slump: check.
The only reason that increasing gas prices doesn’t get a “check” is that the Biden administration has been draining the U.S. petroleum reserve to its lowest level since 1984 (after the Arab oil embargo ended) in order to artificially lower gasoline prices ahead of the November elections.
People shop at a supermarket in Montebello, Calif., on Aug. 23, 2022. U.S. shoppers are facing increasingly high prices on everyday goods and services as inflation continues to surge with high prices for groceries, gasoline, and housing. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
Where’s Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the U.S. Senate?
He’s whining about fundraising problems while dissing candidates—who recently won Senate primaries—endorsed by former President Donald Trump. In the most important midterm elections in recent memory, where’s McConnell’s overt leadership and national communications strategy in conveying exactly what the Republicans would do to reverse the disastrous policies of President Joe Biden and Progressive Democrats in Congress?
Perhaps McConnell wishes to hide his role in helping the Democrats pass gargantuan spending bills–such as the $280 billion computer chip funding bill—which are the root cause for high inflation. Or maybe he wants Americans to forget his caving to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Democrats last year when he handed them an emergency debt extension, which opened the floodgates for the Democrats’ spending bills this year, as reported by The Federalist.
McConnell is a creature of Washington. He has been in the Senate since 1985 and either the majority or minority leader since 2006. His Senate Leadership Fund PAC is the gold standard of the GOP establishment for campaign fundraising.
After Labor Day, that PAC pumped $18.4 million into Senate races in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, and Wisconsin. But none for the Blake Masters, the Trump-endorsed Senate candidate in Arizona who trails incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly by only 2 points, according to a new Emerson poll reported out on Sept. 10. And none for Republican Tiffany Smiley in Washington state, who trails long-time Democrat Sen. Patty Murray by a mere three percentage points, as reported here on Sept. 3. Targeted spending could put these and other Republican challengers over the top and McConnell into the majority leader’s chair next January. Does McConnell wish to be the majority leader or not?
But maybe that’s just the problem. If the Republicans take the Senate in November (no sure thing given the absence of a national strategy at this late stage), an influx of Trump-endorsed America First senators could put McConnell’s Senate leadership post at risk. This is a distinct possibility, as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), appears to be jockeying for the position himself.
In a Washington Examiner editorial on Sept. 1, Scott specifically called out “the establishment wing of the Republican Party” for trashing some Republican candidates in swing states: “Many of the very people responsible for losing the Senate last cycle are now trying to stop us from winning the majority this time by trash-talking our Republican candidates … [and are] giving anonymous quotes to help the Washington Post or the New York Times write stories trashing Republicans.”
Was Scott alluding to McConnell (or his staffers) as being the source of some of those leaks? That’s entirely possible, as Scott called out McConnell by name in a Politico interview on Aug. 31, as reported here: “Sen. McConnell and I clearly have a strategic disagreement here [on the quality of Republican senate candidates] … We have great candidates.”
Loss of political power means loss of big donors—anathema for a long-serving senator used to wheeling and dealing and controlling Republican caucus votes with PAC money. But if the Democrats hold the Senate—which would largely be due to a poor Republican political strategy given all of the obvious political problems that the Democrats’ agenda has created for themselves—McConnell would likely retain his position as minority leader (along with access to all that big donor money during high stakes pay-for-play deliberations in the next Congress). Has he calculated that it’s better to be a handmaiden to Schumer’s Democrats than to risk losing his Senate Republican leadership role? That would certainly explain his dissing of Trump-endorsed Senate candidates.
If any midterm election should be nationalized, it’s this one. The Contract with America greatly served Newt Gingrich’s Republicans during the 1994 midterms. By focusing attention on a Republican congressional platform rather than simply on individual races, the Contract included a list of eight reforms the Republicans promised to enact, as well as 10 bills they promised to bring to floor debate and votes, if they were made the majority following the 1994 election. The reforms included three core Republican principles—accountability, responsibility, and opportunity—which resonated with many Americans. And the Republicans subsequently gained 54 House and 9 Senate seats and flipped both chambers of Congress.
As the 1994 Contract with America was introduced a mere six weeks before the elections, there’s still time for McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (the prospective Republican speaker of the House) to produce their own Contract with America to galvanize voters this year by giving them real reasons to vote Republican, not merely to vote against Bidenomics and left-wing Democrat policies being crammed down Americans’ throats.
What might the 2022 version of the Contract include? Here’s a starter list of congressional actions and legislation:
Use Congress’s recission authority under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to massively cut the Democrats’ spending bills free from the threat of a filibuster, as described here (these recissions should be sold as real actions to reduce inflation).
Fund the completion of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and beef up the U.S. Border Patrol to shut down the flood of illegal aliens into the country. (In addition, impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for good measure for refusing to enforce existing U.S. immigration laws).
Restart and incentivize U.S. hydrocarbon energy production on all federal lands (defund the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency if/when the federal bureaucrats resist oil, gas, and coal production increases).
Appropriate and authorize funds for at least six new oil and gas refineries (which would be the first since 1977), four new clean coal energy plants, and 10 new nuclear power plants in the United States (real infrastructure development that would contribute directly to reducing inflation instead of the boondoggles funded by the Democrat infrastructure bill).
Pass legislation to remove Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) monitoring requirements by the Securities and Exchange Commission (thus removing green and equity socialism mandates for the private sector).
Defund the 87,000 IRS agents included in the Democrats’ Orwellian “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Pass legislation that repeals former President Lyndon Johnson’s now 60-year-old Affirmative Action program, which has morphed into the racist and Marxist critical race theory and diversity/equity/inclusion agenda currently ripping America apart (and prohibit CRT and DEI training throughout the federal government, especially Department of Defense).
Pass legislation that prohibits all federal agencies from endorsing and propagating pro-LGBTQI and child grooming materials (depoliticize and remove federal agencies entirely from the culture wars).
Conduct genuine bipartisan investigations into the politicization of the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Intelligence Community (reorganize to include measures to depoliticize the agencies, as appropriate).
Real actions attacking inflation immediately, restoring U.S. energy production to pre-Biden levels, reversing left-wing cultural attacks by the federal government that is dividing Americans, returning federal law enforcement to the principles of equal justice under the law for all Americans, and shutting down the flood of illegal immigrants into the country—these are simply logical actions that should be included in a 2022 Con...
Kemp Grew His Fortune By Erasing Personal Debts While In Office
Kemp Grew His Fortune By Erasing Personal Debts While In Office https://digitalarizonanews.com/kemp-grew-his-fortune-by-erasing-personal-debts-while-in-office/
But a closer look at the figures shows his addition mostly came by subtraction.
During his first term, Kemp’s assets — which include ownership stakes in apartment complexes, office buildings and agricultural properties, as well as other business ventures and investments — actually fell 24% in total value from about $11.6 million to $8.8 million.
But he increased his overall net worth by erasing $6.3 million in debt, much of which came from his decision to divest himself from Hart AgStrong, a costly and controversial seed-crushing operation with plants in northeast Georgia and Kentucky.
Kemp’s campaign said the governor used the proceeds from the sale of his share of the company to pay off bank notes, business loans and mortgage debt on investment properties, leaving just the $180,000 outstanding balance on his private residence in Athens.
Doing the math, Kemp’s net worth grew 65% from $5.2 million in 2018 to $8.6 million on his most recent financial disclosure earlier this year, ahead of his rematch against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
The AJC is committed to ensuring that Georgians are fully educated about the candidates for governor and others who seek public office. It is critical that voters know where each candidate stands on important issues, what moneyed interests might influence them and whether the candidates have behaved ethically. Today’s focus is on Republican Brian Kemp. The newspaper will, over the course of this election cycle, focus on each of the candidates. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newsroom will:
Conduct deep background investigations with an eye toward past behavior and any potential conflicts that might raise questions on or provide insight into how a candidate might perform.
Publish profiles of each candidate aimed at understanding each candidate’s personal life, background, influences and qualifications.
Attend forums and debates throughout the election cycle so you know how the candidates are staking out their positions and answering urgent questions.
To access the newspaper’s ongoing coverage of politics, visit ajc.com/politics.
Kemp managed all of this private business activity while simultaneously steering the state through a global pandemic and choppy economic waters. And, inevitably, sometimes the paths crossed.
Last year, Specialty Stone Inc., a landscaping supply company in Jackson County that is half-owned by Kemp, received $38,137 in pandemic relief from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
In statements to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kemp campaign spokesman Cody Hall at the time pointed to Kemp’s support for the PPP program and emphasized the governor was not a direct recipient of the aid and was not involved in the day-to-day operation of the store. In his personal financial disclosure, Kemp reported nearly $15,000 in losses in his investment in the store in 2020 and 2021.
In more recent comments for this article, Hall touted the governor’s track record as a businessman while defending Kemp’s decision to continue to manage his assets while serving in public office.
Combined Shape
Caption
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, have both seen their net worth increase since their first race in 2018.
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Combined Shape
Caption
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, have both seen their net worth increase since their first race in 2018.
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
“Gov. Kemp has been a successful small businessman for over 35 years and still is to this day,” Hall said. “His business interests in construction, real estate and agribusiness do not conflict with his duties as governor and have been fully disclosed, reported on and discussed publicly for years now.”
Abrams’ personal finances have come under the microscope, too, as her narrow loss in the 2018 race to Kemp helped catapult the Democrat into wider fame — and brought her new financial opportunities.
An AJC review showed how her lucrative portfolio of books, speaking engagements, business interests and investments made her a multimillionaire.
She’s said that if elected she would step down from public boards and wall herself off from financial decisions that could create a conflict of interest. And when asked by the AJC, the Abrams campaign confirmed that she would place her assets in a blind trust.
It used to be common for Georgia governors to distance themselves from their private financial matters while in office.
Govs. Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes and Nathan Deal are recent examples of chief executives who placed their personal business in the hands of a trusted adviser. These blind trusts were meant to create separation between the governors’ personal lives and their service to the state, shielding them from claims of self-dealing.
And it worked, most of the time.
In the 1990 campaign for governor, Democrat Andy Young and Republican Johnny Isakson criticized Zell Miller for the 25% stake in a North Georgia bank held by him and his wife, Shirley. Young and Isakson said the banking stock created a conflict of interest for Miller, who would be called on to sign banking legislation.
In response, Miller placed his financial interests in a blind trust, and two years later the trustee liquidated the stock without consulting him. “The point of a blind trust is not to have it the subject of (Miller’s) knowledge,” the trustee told The Associated Press at the time.
Combined Shape
Caption
During the 1990 campaign for governor, Andy Young. far left, criticized fellow Democrat Zell Miller, second from left, for his investment in a North Georgia bank. Young said the banking stock created a conflict of interest for Miller, who would be called on to sign banking legislation. Miller responded by placing his assets in a blind trust. (Frank Niemeir / AJC file)
Credit: AJC Staff
Credit: AJC Staff
Combined Shape
Caption
During the 1990 campaign for governor, Andy Young. far left, criticized fellow Democrat Zell Miller, second from left, for his investment in a North Georgia bank. Young said the banking stock created a conflict of interest for Miller, who would be called on to sign banking legislation. Miller responded by placing his assets in a blind trust. (Frank Niemeir / AJC file)
Credit: AJC Staff
Credit: AJC Staff
Placing those interests in a blind trust didn’t entirely shield Miller from the fallout. When his trustee sold the bank stock, Miller was criticized for the $600,000 he received in the sale — a 31% return on the investment made eight years prior.
But these are different times. Charles Bullock, a longtime political science professor at the University of Georgia with expertise in state politics, said Kemp’s decision to continue to manage his personal finances while in office likely does not shock or concern many voters in the current political environment.
He invoked Donald Trump, who refused to sever ties with his real estate empire and other businesses after his 2016 election as president, putting him and his family in line to directly profit from his public service.
“Trump lowered the bar dramatically in that area,” Bullock said.
Rather than separate himself from his vast business holdings, Trump allowed his children to actively manage his assets. Critics — then and now — say that decision created countless conflicts of interest, especially with his real estate holdings, while his businesses profited.
Kemp’s fortune, while substantial, is nowhere near that of Trump’s, and Bullock said voters may have lowered their expectations of what is proper financial behavior for politicians as a result.
Even before Trump, concern over conflicts of interest has not been enough to sway voter opinion. Sonny Perdue eschewed tradition during his two terms as governor and remained popular with voters throughout.
Elected in 2002, Perdue became the first governor since the 1970s to forgo the blind trust and actively managed his assets while in office. As a result, he was accused of using his position of power and influence to enrich himself, including signing legislation that gave him a $100,000 tax deferral on a controversial land deal.
“He also left office very popular,” Bullock said. “If Georgia law had allowed it, he could have been elected a third time.”
Despite his popularity, Perdue was heavily scrutinized for his decision to moonlight as a private businessman while serving in office. In contrast, Kemp has received relatively little attention or criticism, even from Democrats who haven’t chosen to make the Republican’s private business a campaign issue in 2022.
State Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, said he would rather the governor put more distance between his personal finances and the business of the state, but you can’t build a campaign around it.
“It’s not the best practice,” said Wilkerson, a certified public accountant. “But do voters typically punish someone for not doing that? They haven’t in the past.”
Wilkerson said the decision of high-ranking politicians to continue to act as private investors or business people feeds into a narrative that politicians are crooked.
“Every decision that gets made, you wonder if it is in the best interest of the state or their best interest,” he said.
Combined Shape
Caption
Sonny Perdue, left, and Brian Kemp both managed their private businesses while also serving as governor. “It’s not the best practice,” said state Rep. David Wilkerson, a Democrat from Powder Springs and a certified public accountant. “But do voters typically punish someone for not doing that? They haven’t in the past.” HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Combined Shape
Caption
Sonny Perdue, left, and Brian Kemp both managed their private businesses ...
Opinion | Pennsylvania Is A Lesson In How Republicans Are Blowing 2022
Opinion | Pennsylvania Is A Lesson In How Republicans Are Blowing 2022 https://digitalarizonanews.com/opinion-pennsylvania-is-a-lesson-in-how-republicans-are-blowing-2022/
Pennsylvania is the proverbial swing state. It went for Republican Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton in 2016, and for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. The state’s seats in the U.S. Senate have been split between the two parties since 2007, and the House delegation is evenly split as well.
In November, when Pennsylvanians will vote for their next governor and for the person to replace outgoing Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R), the state will once again serve as a barometer of which party has become unpalatable for middle-of-the-road voters. And so far, it seems Republicans have turned off a substantial share of the electorate.
A CBS News Battleground tracking poll shows Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman leading MAGA Republican Mehmet Oz by five points among likely voters in the race to replace Toomey. A poll from Monmouth University shows Fetterman up by 10 points. In the gubernatorial contest, Democrat Josh Shapiro leads Jan. 6 participant and 2020 election denier Doug Mastriano by 11 points in the CBS poll.
It is not hard to figure out why Oz is doing so badly in a state where Biden’s approval rating is underwater. For starters, even Oz’s voters don’t like him that much. The CBS poll reports that only 15 percent are voting for him, as opposed to against Fetterman (54 percent). Fetterman’s numbers, by contrast, show 56 percent are voting for him because they like him.
Follow Jennifer Rubin’s opinionsFollow
Add
In addition, Fetterman’s message that Oz is a phony and an outsider from New Jersey have stuck. Only 29 percent believe Oz says what he means, and only one-third think he’s been in the state long enough to run for Senate. Meanwhile, Oz’s attack on Fetterman’s health after he had a stroke in May has flopped. Fifty-nine percent of voters don’t buy it, including 40 percent of Republicans.
Most important, voters understand Oz is a forced-birth extremist (70 percent who say abortion is important side with Fetterman) and an election denier (by a 52 percent to 19 percent margin, voters want elected officials who know Biden won in 2020).
The descent of the GOP into unelectable extremism is nowhere more vivid than in the gubernatorial race. As the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board writes, “Mastriano’s relentless efforts to thwart the results of the 2020 presidential election, spread Donald Trump’s election lies, and suppress votes in future elections amounts to a 10-alarm fire for anyone who believes in a functioning democracy.” Mastriano’s ties to White Christian nationalist groups and his attempt to play down his extreme abortion views also make him an easy target in a pro-choice and increasingly diverse state (the White population has fallen 4.7 percentage points in the last decade to 74.8 percent).
While Mastriano has tried to avoid talking about abortion, his rigid views and declaration that abortion would be a crime in the state if he is elected are well-known. That’s a problem for a large majority of voters in the state. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports: “According to a Franklin & Marshall College poll, support for abortion among registered Pennsylvania voters reached an all-time high in the weeks following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health [Organization] that overturned a federal constitutional right to an abortion.”
Even 42 percent of Republicans wish they had nominated someone other than Mastriano, the CBS poll found. His candidacy is a powerful example of how the most extreme portion of the electorate in a low-turnout primary election can saddle a party with an embarrassing nominee.
The mainstream media’s fixation with our supposedly “polarized” politics obscures what has been going on. While Democrats have remained relatively stable in their center-left outlook, the darlings of the MAGA movement endorsed by their cult leader are so extreme that, in the case of Mastriano, he is losing 20 percent of Republicans.
If Republicans lose the races for governor and the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, they will have every reason to blame their own primary voters and Trump. The triumph of the GOP’s MAGA wing over so-called mainstream or establishment Republicans may have been good for Trump and his cohorts. But the midterms might prove that a party dominated by delusional conspiratorialists and reactionary right-wingers is less than ideal when it comes to winning over swing voters.
Read More Here
Analysis | Is The FBI Impartial? Over Half Of Republicans Say no.
Analysis | Is The FBI Impartial? Over Half Of Republicans Say ‘no.’ https://digitalarizonanews.com/analysis-is-the-fbi-impartial-over-half-of-republicans-say-no/
Since the FBI executed a warrant to obtain White House documents from former president Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, Trump supporters have flooded the media with outrage. Much of that has been aimed at the FBI and at the Justice Department, which secured the warrant.
But these attacks are only the most recent. Trump has been attacking the FBI as biased since early in his presidency.
Evaluations of government branches and agencies have long been colored by citizens’ partisan affiliations. For instance, people tend to think more highly of the presidency when their party’s candidate is in office. But for the past 20 years — until before Trump’s election in 2016 — both Democrats and Republicans mostly supported the FBI. In fact, in keeping with their reputation as the party of law and order, Republicans supported the FBI more strongly than did Democrats, no matter who sat in the White House.
That support has shifted starkly since 2016 — and, as we have found, in two waves of the American Institutional Confidence Poll. In fact, our polls suggest even more political polarization toward the FBI.
How we did our research
The AIC Poll is a nationally representative survey of adults, administered by YouGov using its online panel. Its two survey waves were conducted in 2018 and 2021, with 5,400 individuals interviewed in the first wave, and 4,070 last year. Of this latter number, nearly 2,400 were repeat respondents from the first wave, allowing us to chart opinion shifts among this sample. For all findings discussed in this article, we reweighted the survey results to align our samples to the general population.
In each wave, we asked respondents what party they supported, if any, and how much confidence they felt in a variety of government institutions, on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 meaning “No Confidence” and 4 indicating “A Great Deal of Confidence.” Confidence in the executive branch as a whole roughly flipped between Republicans and Democrats over the two waves, depending on which party held the White House, but confidence in most of the other institutions in the figure stayed about the same.
Republicans in both waves held the FBI in much lower esteem than either local police or the military, considering the bureau closer to the reviled “press” and President Biden’s executive branch than to the other “law-and-order” institutions.
We interpret these rankings as revealing respondents’ feelings about an institution’s competence and trustworthiness. We are interested in these numbers in part because low confidence in a government agency’s competence could erode support for democratic governance.
Which Republicans believe the FBI is politically biased?
That’s even more true when these feelings are combined with beliefs or accusations of political bias — which our findings suggest is currently true for much of the Republican Party. When asked whether they believe that the FBI treats both parties equally or whether it favors a particular party, over 34 percent of identified Republicans stated that the FBI “strongly favors the Democratic Party.” Another 26 percent of Republicans believe the organization “slightly” favors Democrats. This represents a majority of surveyed Republicans, and dwarfs the 8 percent of Democrats who believe the FBI favors their own party or the 21 percent that believe that the FBI favors the Republicans, either slightly or strongly.
So which Republicans think the FBI is biased against their party? That belief is especially strong among tea party supporters, people with highly favorable views of Trump, early Trump endorsers, those who believe Trump really won the 2020 election, and those who viewed the storming of the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 as justified.
Other Republicans are less likely to see the FBI as biased. While approximately 59 percent of Republicans told us last year that the FBI favored the Democratic Party, this perception of bias was 17 percentage points lower among those Republicans who condemned the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
In other words, it’s the Trump wing of the Republican Party that distrusts the FBI.
Will Republican antipathy for the FBI continue?
As Trump has been campaigning for candidates he favors, he often complains that he’s a victim of a politically motivated witch hunt. Republicans generally will be looking for issues that resonate with portions of their base as they attempt to take back control of Congress. The recent ruling requiring a special master to review the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago will probably draw out the Justice Department/FBI investigation, making it likely that Trump and his supporters will continue to denigrate the bureau for the foreseeable future.
Democrats are unlikely to let the irony of an FBI-skeptical GOP slide. The White House Twitter account is already calling out specific Republican House members for demands to defund the FBI. This may further polarize attitudes toward the FBI, which would reduce confidence in the main federal institution of domestic law enforcement. At worst, that can lead to active violence, as happened in August, when an angry Trump supporter attacked an FBI office.
We expect to continue tracking this trend, alongside attitudes toward other institutions and general trends in support for democracy. All data from the 2018 wave is available on the AIC website, and the 2021 data should be similarly so this fall. In the meantime, find replication data for our analyses here.
Jan Zilinsky (@janzilinsky) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Technical University of Munich and a research affiliate at the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics (CSMaP).
Sean Kates is the associate director of programs in data analytics at the University of Pennsylvania and a core instructor at the Fels Institute of Government.
Jonathan Ladd is an associate professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy and the department of government at Georgetown University.
Funding for the American Institutional Confidence Poll was provided by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at New York University, and by the Baker Trust, the Massive Data Institute and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.
Read More Here
Xi And Putin Meet For First Time Since Invasion Of Ukraine
Xi And Putin Meet For First Time Since Invasion Of Ukraine https://digitalarizonanews.com/xi-and-putin-meet-for-first-time-since-invasion-of-ukraine/
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Xi on first trip since COVID pandemic
Xi and Putin to discuss Ukraine and Taiwan
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping met Vladimir Putin on Thursday in Uzbekistan, their first meeting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
Russian President Vladimir Putin disembarks from the plane as he arrives for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 15, 2022. Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan/Handout via REUTERS
Xi, on his first trip outside China since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, met Putin in the ancient Uzbek Silk Road city of Samarkand where they will attend a attend a summit of The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
The two leaders are due to discuss the war in Ukraine, tensions over Taiwan and the deepening partnership between rising superpower China and natural resources titan Russia.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Writing by Olzhas Auyezov and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Tomasz Janowski and Hugh Lawson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Read More Here
Stock Futures Are Little Changed Ahead Of A Fresh Batch Of Economic Data
Stock Futures Are Little Changed Ahead Of A Fresh Batch Of Economic Data https://digitalarizonanews.com/stock-futures-are-little-changed-ahead-of-a-fresh-batch-of-economic-data/
Railroad stocks tick up following labor deal expected to avert strike
Shares of railroad companies rose before the bell Thursday following a tentative, last-minute labor deal with the unions representing railway workers that is expected to avert a strike.
CSX Corp. and Union Pacific rose 5.38% and 3.92% in early trading. Norfolk Southern also went up 1.5%.
President Joe Biden’s announcement of the agreement comes amid a period of tumult within the railroad industry. The unions, which collectively represent about 60,000 workers, prepared a nationwide strike that was expected to have halted more than 7,000 trains and cost up to around $2 billion per day. Railroads account for about 40% of long-distance trade in the U.S.
The White House had communicated with the unions and companies for several months, though they previously could not come to a consensus on sick time. Under the tentative agreement, rail employees will see a 24% wage increase between 2020 and 2024. The agreements must be ratified by each union.
— Alex Harring, Leslie Josephs, Melodie Warner
Crypto market is calm after ethereum merge is completed
The long-awaited ethereum merge took effect overnight. The software upgrade switches the ethereum network to proof-of-stake from proof-of-work, a move that should significantly reduce energy consumption for the blockchain network.
However, there did not appear to be an immediate reaction in crypto prices. Ether, the flagship token for the ethereum network, dipped 0.3% to $1,585.18 on Thursday morning.
— Jesse Pound
Netflix gets upgrade at Evercore ISI
Netflix shares rose more than 2% after analysts at Evercore ISI upgraded the streaming giant to outperform from in line, saying the company’s new ad-supported subscriber tier can give the company a much-needed boost.
“We believe these opportunities, especially the ad-supported service, constitute Growth Curve Initiatives (GCIs)—catalysts that can drive a material reacceleration in revenue growth,” the firm wrote. “We don’t believe these opportunities are factored into current Street estimates or into NFLX’s current valuation. Hence the upgrade.”
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Sam Subin
Europe markets higher as banks lead gains
European markets rose in early trading Thursday, with banking stocks taking the lead.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 opened in the red before moving to a 0.34% gain through the first hour of trading, as banking stocks added 1.75%. The euro zone bank index hit its highest level since June 10, Reuters reported.
— Jenni Reid
CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley says the S&P 500 is set for a comeback by year-end. These are its top stock picks
U.S. markets had a meltdown on Tuesday — the worst since June 2020 — following yet another hot inflation report. But that may not last for long, according to Andrew Slimmon of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, who says the S&P 500 could enjoy upside by year-end.
He predicts the level that the S&P 500 will rise to by the year end, and also picks stocks to buy into the “fear.”
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Weizhen Tan
U.S. 2-year Treasury yields hits 3.8% again
Inflation isn’t as bad as the data makes it seem, says Commonwealth’s McMillan
This week’s CPI data was “terrible,” but there are signs some key components may improve shortly, according to Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. One of them is Wednesday’s producer price index report.
“The headline number held steady at 0.2 percent, but the annual number dropped by much more, from 9.8 percent to 8.7 percent (a much bigger drop than the CPI),” he said. “Similarly, for the core PPI, while there was a gain from 0.2 percent to 0.4 percent, the annual number was down as well, from 7.6 percent to 7.3 percent. That’s still too high, but even if that monthly 0.4 percent figure held, there would be a decline in inflation going forward.”
“As always, markets have reacted to a headline—although not about the headline number. But when you look at the details, things are not so bad,” he added. “The CPI and the market reaction suggest inflation will keep rising at an accelerating rate, but not all of the data agree. Even using much of the data as it stands, it still looks likely inflation will end the year lower than it is now.”
— Tanaya Macheel
Danaher shares rise after hours
Danaher was one of the top stock movers in extended trading Wednesday evening after the medical company announced plans to spin off its environmental and applied solutions business to create an independent, publicly traded company. Its shares rose about 4%.
Danaher also raised its third-quarter revenue guidance, according to FactSet.
— Tanaya Macheel
Stock futures open slightly higher
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures opened 33 points, or 0.11%, higher Wednesday night. S&P 500 futures added 0.15%, while Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.14%.
The moves came after all of the major averages ended a choppy trading day modestly higher.
— Tanaya Macheel
Read More Here
Gov. Ron DeSantis Claims Credit For Sending 2 Planes Carrying Migrants To Martha's Vineyard In Massachusetts
Gov. Ron DeSantis Claims Credit For Sending 2 Planes Carrying Migrants To Martha's Vineyard In Massachusetts https://digitalarizonanews.com/gov-ron-desantis-claims-credit-for-sending-2-planes-carrying-migrants-to-marthas-vineyard-in-massachusetts/
(CNN)Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is claiming credit for sending two planes carrying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts Wednesday, according to a statement emailed to CNN by his office.
“Florida can confirm the two planes with illegal immigrants that arrived in Martha’s Vineyard today were part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” the statement said.
“States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden Administration’s open border policies.”
An estimated 50 migrants arrived on Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday on two planes, according to Massachusetts state Sen. Julian Cyr, a Democrat who represents Martha’s Vineyard. The two planes arrived just after 3 p.m., Cyr said, and white vans took the migrants to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services.
“There was no advance notice to anyone in Martha’s Vineyard or Massachusetts that these migrants were arriving to my knowledge,” Cyr said.
“The island scrambled to respond,” he added. “They essentially set up shelters, the equivalent of a hurricane or Nor’easter. They set that up in a matter of hours and these families received a meal. They were Covid tested and are spending the night in shelters at several churches on the island.”
Municipal officials and state officials are in touch about next steps, but Cyr stressed that the focus right now is supporting the migrants who arrived.
The move follows in the footsteps of Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona, who began sending migrants to Washington, DC, earlier this year. Abbott has since expanded his effort to include New York City and Chicago.
Migrants released from government custody often move to other cities in the US as they go through their immigration proceedings. It’s unclear where the migrants who arrived in Martha’s Vineyard originated or whether they knew where they were going.
The Dukes County Emergency Management Association said in a tweet Wednesday evening that it is taking volunteers and opening emergency shelters on Martha’s Vineyard “due to an “unexpected urgent humanitarian situation.”
Terry MacCormack, press secretary for Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, said in a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WBZ, “The Baker-Polito Administration is in touch with local officials regarding the arrival of migrants in Martha’s Vineyard. At this time, short-term shelter services are being provided by local officials, and the Administration will continue to support those efforts.”
DeSantis’ claim brought strong reaction Wednesday from Democratic officials in Florida.
“Even for Ron DeSantis, this is a new low.” Florida Democratic Chair Manny Diaz said in a statement. “There is nothing that DeSantis won’t do, and nobody that he won’t hurt, in order to score political points.”
Charlie Crist, the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida, said in a statement, “This is just another political stunt that hurts our state. Tonight, the 4.5 million immigrants who call Florida home must be wondering if they’re next.”
CNN’s Chenelle Woody, Jessica Prater and Steve Contorno contributed to this report.
Read More Here
Stephen H. Kennedy https://digitalarizonanews.com/stephen-h-kennedy/
Stephen H. Kennedy, 78, died at 4:28 p.m. Tuesday, September 13, 2022 at OSF St. Anthony’s Healthcare Center. Born March 23, 1944 in Alton, he was the son of Stephen B. and Lillian A. (Howard) Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy graduated from Marquette Catholic High School in 1962 and Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville in 1966 and earned his Executive MBA from Louisiana State University. He retired from Graphic Packaging in 2006 and was a member of St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Godfrey. On January 23, 1965 he married the former Mary Ann Gillespey at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Alton. She survives. Also surviving is a son and daughter-in-law, Stephen E. Kennedy and Lisa Ottolini of Creve Coeur, MO, a daughter and son-in-law, Beth and Rob Hasse of Godfrey, four grandchildren, Lily Kennedy, Julia Kennedy, Sarah Hasse, and Stephen Hasse, and three sisters, Jane Kohnen of Phoenix, AZ, Nancy Birkemeier of St. Peters, MO, and Kathryn Krueger of O’Fallon, MO. Along with his parents, he was preceded in death by a sister, Patricia Cooper. Visitation will be from 4:00-7:00 p.m. Sunday, September 18, 2022 at Gent Funeral Home in Alton. A memorial mass will be held at 10:00 a.m. Monday, September 19, 2022 at St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Godfrey. Father Steven Janoski will officiate. Burial will be at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Godfrey. Memorials may be made to St. Ambrose Catholic Church or Marquette Catholic High School. Online guestbook and information may be found at www.gentfuneralhome.com
Read More…
Bus-Trip Planner Pleads Guilty To Jan. 6 Charge https://digitalarizonanews.com/bus-trip-planner-pleads-guilty-to-jan-6-charge/
FILE – Insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump riot outside the Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. Suzanne Ianni, a former Massachusetts town official pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, to joining a mob in storming the U.S. Capitol after she organized a bus trip to Washington, for fellow members of a right-wing group called “Super Happy Fun America.”(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
A former Massachusetts town official pleaded guilty on Wednesday to joining a mob in storming the U.S. Capitol after she organized a bus trip to Washington, D.C., for fellow members of a right-wing group called “Super Happy Fun America.”
Before her guilty plea, Suzanne Ianni had argued in February that federal authorities had selectively targeted her for prosecution based on her political beliefs. Prosecutors said her political views played no role in charging her with crimes for her conduct at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A judge rejected Ianni’s request to dismiss the case before she pleaded guilty.
Ianni, 60, of Natick, Mass., faces a maximum sentence of six months of imprisonment and five years of probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols is scheduled to sentence her on Dec. 2.
Ianni was an elected member of Natick Town Meeting in a Boston suburb while serving as operation director of Super Happy Fun America, which gained national notice for organizing a “Straight Pride Parade” in Boston in 2019.
On its website, Super Happy Fun America calls itself “a right of center civil rights organization focusing on defending the Constitution, opposing gender madness and defeating cultural Marxism.” The group registered as a nonprofit with Massachusetts state regulators.
A Dec. 29, 2020, post on the group’s Twitter account said Super Happy Fun America members would be in Washington “to get wild.” Ianni was listed as the contact for the trip. The account also tweeted a photo of Ianni and other members on a bus traveling to Washington on the eve of the riot.
After marching to the Capitol, she joined a crowd chanting “Fight for Trump!” and “Our house!” while rioters near her broke windows, forced open doors and breached police barricades. Surveillance video captured Ianni marching through the Capitol after she entered the building through a Senate fire-exit door. She raised her fist in the air in front of police officers who stopped her and other members of the mob, prosecutors said in a court filing.
Mark Sahady, another Super Happy Fun America member, was arrested on Capitol riot-related charges that haven’t been resolved.
In April 2021, Natick Town Meeting members voted to condemn the Capitol riot. Ianni, who was elected to a three-year term that was due to expire in March 2022, told the MetroWest Daily News that the vote represented “political persecution of conservatives.”
Also on Wednesday, a Nevada man pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers at the Capitol with what appeared to be a table leg, injuring an officer. Josiah Kenyon, 35, of Winnemucca, Nev., is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 15. Kenyon was dressed up as “Jack Skellington,” a character from the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” when he attacked police.
Print Headline: Bus-trip planner pleads guilty to Jan. 6 charge
Read More Here
Mark Meadows Becomes Most Senior Trump Official To Comply With DOJ Jan. 6 Subpoena
Mark Meadows Becomes Most Senior Trump Official To Comply With DOJ Jan. 6 Subpoena https://digitalarizonanews.com/mark-meadows-becomes-most-senior-trump-official-to-comply-with-doj-jan-6-subpoena/
Donald Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has complied with a Department of Justice subpoena connected to its investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, CNN reports. Citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation, the outlet claims that Meadows provided the same materials he previously handed over to the House select committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Meadows is the highest-ranking Trump official reported to have responded to a subpoena linked to the DOJ inquiry. Meadows gave thousands of emails and text messages to House investigators last year before he stopped cooperating, withholding hundreds of messages on the claim of executive privilege.
Read it at CNN
Read More Here
Russian Forces Strike Dam Flooding Parts Of Kryvyi Rih City; President Zelenskyy Involved In Car Accident
Russian Forces Strike Dam, Flooding Parts Of Kryvyi Rih City; President Zelenskyy Involved In Car Accident https://digitalarizonanews.com/russian-forces-strike-dam-flooding-parts-of-kryvyi-rih-city-president-zelenskyy-involved-in-car-accident/
President Putin gets ready to meet Xi Jinping
Russia has increasingly looked to China for support as its relations with the West deteriorate, and Beijing has called for a diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine.
Alexei Druzhinin | Afp | Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Thursday as both leaders attend a security summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The leaders are set to discuss the war in Ukraine as well as Taiwan when they meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization , according to Yury Ushakov, President Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, according to comments reported by Russian state news agency Ria Novosti on Tuesday.
The news agency quoted Ushakov as stating that Beijing “has a balanced approach to this issue” and understands the reasons for the “special military operation,” as Russia labels its invasion of Ukraine.
“If we are talking about a bilateral agenda, then a conversation on trade and economic cooperation will be very important during this contact. In the current difficult situation, in the face of illegitimate Western sanctions, this cooperation demonstrates stability, continues to develop progressively, gain momentum,” he said.
It’ll be Xi’s first foreign visit since the start of the Covid pandemic. China has tacitly supported Russia’s position regarding Ukraine but has also appeared keen to insulate itself from the global geopolitical and economic fallout from the war, having called for a cease-fire in Ukraine earlier this year.
— Holly Ellyatt
112 houses flooded, 11 people rescued but no casualties after Kryvyi Rih flooding
Ukrainian officials have released more details on the flowing in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, which was targeted by Russian missile strikes yesterday.
Kyrylo Timoshenko, deputy head of the office of President Zelenskyy, posted on Telegram that after the strikes by Russian missiles, which targeted a major dam on the Inhulets river, 112 houses were flooded and rescuers had to save 11 people.
No deaths have been reported.
The local authorities organized four collection points for citizens to evacuate to in order to reach a safe zone, he added as he detailed how the river level rose after the dam was damaged.
“As a result of such a breach, the water level in the Ingulets River rose from 100cm to 190cm,” he said, saying that in order to lower the water level, it was necessary to blow up part of the hydraulic structures downstream.
After what he described as “the exhausting work of this long night,” the water level in the river has already dropped by 40cm, a detail also noted by the head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Valentyn Reznichenko.
“The water level in the Ingulets River has already dropped by 40 centimeters at the moment and continues to fall. Thank you to the rescuers, emergency services and everyone who worked through the night and continues to work now. Each of you did an incredible job,” Reznichenko said.
— Holly Ellyatt
European Commission chief visits Kyiv
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers the State of the European Union address to the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, on Sept. 14, 2022.
Yves Herman | Reuters
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Kyiv on Thursday to discuss how to progress Ukraine’s membership bid to join the European Union.
“In Kyiv, for my 3rd visit since the start of Russia’s war. So much has changed,” von der Leyen said on Twitter.
“Ukraine is now a candidate” for EU membership, she said, adding that she would hold talks with President Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal about progressing its membership application.
The Ukraine’s membership bid was formally accepted earlier this year but it’s expected that it will take years for it to join the union.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russians’ flight from Kharkiv region shows ‘breakdowns in command and control’
The manner in which Russian forces withdrew, and fled, from the region of Kharkiv on northeastern Ukraine suggests a breakdown in command structures, the U.K. said in its latest intelligence update Thursday.
A damaged military vehicle is seen after the withdrawal of Russian forces in Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on Sept. 13, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
“Ukrainian forces continue to consolidate their control of newly liberated areas of Kharkiv Oblast. Russian forces have largely withdrawn from the area west of the Oskil River,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Twitter.
“The way in which Russian forces have withdrawn in the last week has varied. Some units retreated in relatively good order and under control, while others fled in apparent panic,” it said.
“Such abandonment highlights the disorganised retreat of some Russian units and likely localised breakdowns in command and control.”
High-value equipment abandoned by withdrawing Russian forces included capabilities essential to enable Russia’s artillery-centric style of warfare, the ministry noted, including at least one Zoopark counter-battery radar and at least one IV14 artillery command and control vehicle.
— Holly Ellyatt
‘Active hostilities’ in Kherson amid reports of shelling and looting by Russian forces
De-occupied settlements in the region of Kherson in southern Ukraine are coming under Russian fire, a regional official warned on Thursday as he told residents to evacuate.
“The situation in the de-occupied settlements of the Kherson region is extremely difficult,” Yaroslav Yanushevych, head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said on Telegram, noting that one town had seen all of its houses damaged or destroyed while another had seen 80% of its properties destroyed.
Ukraine recently launched a counteroffensive in southern Ukraine to reclaim Russian-occupied territories. Unlike its counterattack in northeastern Ukraine, which has seen most of the region of Kharkiv de-occupied, a significant part of Kherson — the region above Russian-annexed Crimea — remains occupied by Russian forces although Ukraine has launched a series of counterattacks there and has made some gains.
A destroyed house following a missile strike in Mykolaiv on Aug. 29, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Dimitar Dilkoff | Afp | Getty Images
Yanushevych said the first thing Ukraine’s armed forces did when they liberated settlements from Russian occupation was to advise residents to leave immediately in expectation of Russian reprisals and attacks.
Yesterday Yanushevych said the “situation in the Kherson region remains extremely difficult, active hostilities continue.”
The region’s infrastructure was being subjected “to devastating destruction every day due to shelling by the occupiers. In the temporarily occupied settlements, the Russians continue to seize administrative premises and loot,” he said. CNBC was unable to verify the information in the official’s post.
— Holly Ellyatt
Zelenskyy tells Crimeans that Ukraine is coming
Video source: Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a key city recently liberated by Ukrainian troops and had a message for residents of Crimea: “We will arrive.”
Zelenskyy spoke to reporters after visiting scenes of destruction inflicted by Russian troops and helping to hoist Ukraine’s flag at Izyum, which only a week ago was held by invading forces. A Ukrainian counteroffensive sent Russian troops into a retreat and reclaimed the city on Sept. 10.
“We will come,” Zelenskyy said, addressing residents of Crimea. “I don’t know when. And nobody knows when. But we have plans. So we’ll come, because…it’s our land, and it’s our people.”
Zelenskyy expressed concern about the cumulative effect of televised Russian propaganda on Crimean children who have never known what it’s like to be part of Ukraine. Russia’s military seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
“The information war is very strong, and Russia attacked [Crimeans] by television, media … and of course, it will be very difficult for children when we come,” Zelenskyy said.
— Ted Kemp
Russians target dam near Kryvyi Rih, causing flooding and evacuation of parts of the city
Russians have shelled a dam on the Inhulets River near Kryvyi Rih — President Zelenskyy’s home city — leading to flooding in parts of the city and residents being evacuated.
Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration, said on Telegram last night that Russian missiles had hit a “very large hydrotechnical structure,” widely reported as a dam near the city.
“Dear residents of Kryvyi Rih, Russia has committed another terrorist act. They hit a very large hydrotechnical structure in Kryvyi Rih with eight cruise missiles. The attempt is to simply wash away a part of our city with water. We are monitoring the situation, the response efforts are underway, all services are involved, everyone is on the site. But the water level in the Inhulets River has risen,” Vilkul said.
He then named streets that citizens were being asked to evacuate as “the water in the Inhulets River has risen.”
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, said eight Russian cruise missiles had attacked Kryvyi Rih, calling it a “terrorist act.”
“After all, rockets are aimed at buildings that are critically important for people’s livelihood,” he said in a post on Telegram with a video showing high water levels on the river and partially submerged trees on the banks.
“Today, the Russian troops directed the maximum number of their weapons to hydrotechnical structures. The goal is obvious — an attempt to create an emergency situation. It is not important to them whether...
Dozens Of Migrants Arrive On Martha's Vineyard Via Charter Flights
Dozens Of Migrants Arrive On Martha's Vineyard Via Charter Flights https://digitalarizonanews.com/dozens-of-migrants-arrive-on-marthas-vineyard-via-charter-flights/
A Massachusetts state senator said Wednesday that dozens of migrants arrived on Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday afternoon via charter flights.Julian Cyr, the state representative serving Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, claimed that the charter flights arrived from Texas. The group of approximately 50 Venezuelan migrants, some of them children, were brought to Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School where they were given snacks and shelter. They were being cared for Wednesday night by two shelters in Edgartown. “We’re going to take care of you,” Dukes County Sheriff Robert Ogden told the migrants, according to The Maratha’s Vineyard Times.”My understanding is there was no advance communication or notice that this plane and these people were arriving,” Cyr told WCVB. “The officials on Martha’s Vineyard, municipal and county officials, scrambled but did a pretty remarkable job to welcome these families.”Barb Rush and others at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Summer St. in Edgartown have been working all day to help the families she says are from Venezuela, some with children as young as 2.”Many of them seem overwhelmed,” Rush said. “We’ve received calls from restaurants , offering food, people trying to help. It’s amazing.””Florida can confirm the two planes with illegal immigrants that arrived in Martha’s Vineyard were part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” a statement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office obtained by WCVB sister station WESH in Orlando said.”States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden Administration’s open border policies,” the statement said. Online flight records show at least two private planes that began the day in San Antonio, Texas, that also made stops in Florida’s panhandle, before later arriving on the island.It was not immediately clear who paid for the private charter flights to the island, however, the statement from the governor’s spokesperson said the Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to implement a program to facilitate the transport of undocumented immigrants from the state. DeSantis, who is running for reelection this year and is a potential 2024 presidential contender, has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.”The Baker-Polito Administration is in touch with local officials regarding the arrival of migrants in Martha’s Vineyard,” a written statement from Gov. Charlie Baker’s office said. “At this time, short-term shelter services are being provided by local officials, and the administration will continue to support those efforts.””This is an island that is in the business of welcoming people,” Cyr said. “But it’s pretty disgusting that a state or a governor or whoever this is would capitalize on the unfortunate, dire circumstances of these families who are just looking for a better life. To capitalize that for a political stunt or for a ‘gotcha’ moment. That’s just disgusting.””Gov. Ron DeSantis could learn a lesson from Massachusetts on what patriotism and liberty really look like if he weren’t so busy using humans as props in a cruel stunt to buoy his pathetic political aspirations,” Massachusetts U.S. Senator Ed Markey wrote in a post on social media. “To those who’ve just landed: we gladly embrace you.”WCVB has also reached out to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office for comment.Information from WESH and the Associated Press was used in this report.
TISBURY, Mass. —
A Massachusetts state senator said Wednesday that dozens of migrants arrived on Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday afternoon via charter flights.
Julian Cyr, the state representative serving Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, claimed that the charter flights arrived from Texas.
The group of approximately 50 Venezuelan migrants, some of them children, were brought to Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School where they were given snacks and shelter. They were being cared for Wednesday night by two shelters in Edgartown.
“We’re going to take care of you,” Dukes County Sheriff Robert Ogden told the migrants, according to The Maratha’s Vineyard Times.
“My understanding is there was no advance communication or notice that this plane and these people were arriving,” Cyr told WCVB. “The officials on Martha’s Vineyard, municipal and county officials, scrambled but did a pretty remarkable job to welcome these families.”
Barb Rush and others at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Summer St. in Edgartown have been working all day to help the families she says are from Venezuela, some with children as young as 2.
“Many of them seem overwhelmed,” Rush said. “We’ve received calls from restaurants , offering food, people trying to help. It’s amazing.”
“Florida can confirm the two planes with illegal immigrants that arrived in Martha’s Vineyard [Wednesday] were part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” a statement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office obtained by WCVB sister station WESH in Orlando said.
“States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden Administration’s open border policies,” the statement said.
Online flight records show at least two private planes that began the day in San Antonio, Texas, that also made stops in Florida’s panhandle, before later arriving on the island.
It was not immediately clear who paid for the private charter flights to the island, however, the statement from the governor’s spokesperson said the Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to implement a program to facilitate the transport of undocumented immigrants from the state.
DeSantis, who is running for reelection this year and is a potential 2024 presidential contender, has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
“The Baker-Polito Administration is in touch with local officials regarding the arrival of migrants in Martha’s Vineyard,” a written statement from Gov. Charlie Baker’s office said. “At this time, short-term shelter services are being provided by local officials, and the administration will continue to support those efforts.”
“This is an island that is in the business of welcoming people,” Cyr said. “But it’s pretty disgusting that a state or a governor or whoever this is would capitalize on the unfortunate, dire circumstances of these families who are just looking for a better life. To capitalize that for a political stunt or for a ‘gotcha’ moment. That’s just disgusting.”
“Gov. Ron DeSantis could learn a lesson from Massachusetts on what patriotism and liberty really look like if he weren’t so busy using humans as props in a cruel stunt to buoy his pathetic political aspirations,” Massachusetts U.S. Senator Ed Markey wrote in a post on social media. “To those who’ve just landed: we gladly embrace you.”
WCVB has also reached out to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office for comment.
Information from WESH and the Associated Press was used in this report.
Read More Here
Talks To Avert Crippling US Rail Strike Continue Overnight | CNN Business
Talks To Avert Crippling US Rail Strike Continue Overnight | CNN Business https://digitalarizonanews.com/talks-to-avert-crippling-us-rail-strike-continue-overnight-cnn-business/
New York CNN Business —
Talks aimed at averting a freight railroad strike that could cripple US supply chains continued overnight into Thursday. If the strike goes ahead early Friday, it could send prices higher for goods from gasoline to food to cars.
Two rail unions, representing more than 50,000 engineers and conductors who make up the two-person crews that make the trains run, are threatening the first rail strike in 30 years as of 12:01 am ET Friday. Union leaders and the railroads’ labor negotiators began meeting with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh at his Washington, DC, office at 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
The talks were still underway 18 hours later at 3 a.m. ET Thursday, a Labor Department spokesman told CNN.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday that “all parties need to stay at the table, bargain in good faith to resolve outstanding issues and come to an agreement. A shutdown of our freight rail system is unacceptable outcome for our economy and the American people, and all parties must work to avoid just that.”
The Labor Department asked both management and labor not to comment on the state of the talks, and neither responded to a request for comment.
Nearly 30% of the nation’s freight moves on the nation’s railroads. Many vital sectors — including oil refining, agriculture, auto and other manufacturing, plus the imports of consumer goods — depend on the railroads to operate. While a short strike would have a limited effect, economists say a strike lasting a week or more could have severe economic consequences.
The railroads announced last Friday that they had stopped accepting shipments of hazardous material, including fertilizer, as well as security-related materials, due to concerns that trains will immediately stop wherever they are once the strike begins. On Wednesday many stopped accepting shipments of agricultural products.
Members of Union Pacific (UNP) train crews were informed by the railroad late Tuesday that if they’re in the middle of a trip when the strike begins at 12:01 am EST Friday they should park and secure their train and wait for transportation.
Freight railroad Norfolk Southern (NSC) is planning to use management employees to operate a limited number of trains in the event of a strike Friday. That could allow critical materials to reach their destinations, like chlorine to water treatment plants.
“We’ll have some capability. Not a very good capability, but we’ll have some if it comes to that,” Norfolk Southern spokesman Connor Spielmaker told CNN Business Wednesday. “How we’re going to utilize them is still being planned out.”
Spielmaker said the railroads still hope to reach a deal with the unions and avert such a situation. Freight railroads CSX, BNSF and Union Pacific declined to say if they’ll be using management employees to operate trains in the event of a strike.
The threat of the strike could snarl commutes across the country. Many Amtrak and local commuter trains travel on railways owned by freight companies. If striking engineers park their trans midroute Friday morning, commutes could be disrupted. Amtrak on Wednesday said it canceled all long-distance trains starting Thursday, and it announced 10 additional routes would be shut down Thursday evening. Amtrak said additional delays or cancellations are possible.
The effort to avert a strike is a major test for President Joe Biden and his White House, which has positioned itself as one of the most pro-labor administrations ever. At the same time, it also wants to avoid any potential shocks to the economy, especially with the midterm elections just seven weeks away.
Railroad workers are governed by a different labor law than most workers, one that limits their freedom to strike and allows for more governmental intervention. In July Biden issued an order that prevented a strike at that time and created a panel, known as a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), to try to find a solution to the dispute. It also imposed a 60-day cooling off period during which the unions could not strike and management could not lock out workers.
But Biden cannot order the railroads to keep operating once the cooling off period ends Friday. Only Congress can act to keep workers on the job if there is no deal. Sen. Richard Durbin, the second highest ranking member of the Democrats’ Senate leadership, told CNN this week that Congressional action is unlikely, despite business groups calling on Congress to act. The Senate is in recess on Friday, and many members of Congress are flying to London to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
The PEB’s recommendations called for workers to get an immediate 14% pay raise, plus back pay dating back to 2020. It also called for a 24% increase in pay during the five-year life of the contract from 2020 to 2024, and cash bonuses of $1,000 a year.
But it did not address the staffing shortages and scheduling rules that have become the key sticking point in the dispute. The engineers’ and conductors’ unions say the railroads are requiring their members to be “on call” and ready to report to work on short notice as often as seven days a week. Leadership of the two unions say their members would not accept a contract without changes to those work rules.
There are more than 50,000 other unions members at the railroads who maintain tracks, operate signals, dispatch trains and work as mechanics, among other jobs. But they are not subject to the same work rules, and those unions already accepted tentative deals with the railroads based on the PEB’s recommendations.
One of those unions, the Machinists, announced Wednesday that its members voted to reject its tentative labor deal. There are about 5,000 members of the union at the railroads working as locomotive machinists, track equipment mechanics and facility maintenance personnel.
Their rejection of the proposed contract is not an immediate setback in efforts to avoid the strike. The union said it will not go on strike before the end of the month, as it tries to reach a change in the tentative agreement that its members will accept. But it is a sign of the complexity the railroads are facing in reaching deals with a dozen different unions that are also acceptable to rank-and-file membership.
Two other unions, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen and the Transportation Communications Union, which between them have 11,000 members, ratified deals on Wednesday.
– CNN’s Matt McFarland, Ali Zaslav, Kate Sullivan, Phil Mattingly, Maegan Vazquez and Andrew Millman contributed to this report
Read More Here
Things To Do In Phoenix AZ – The Arizona Republic https://digitalarizonanews.com/things-to-do-in-phoenix-az-the-arizona-republic-2/
Local events and things to do in Phoenix, AZ. Find sporting events, conferences, attractions and more, or promote your own event.
Read More…
On Democracy Day Newsrooms Draw Attention To A Crisis In The U.S. System Of Government Kansas Reflector
On Democracy Day, Newsrooms Draw Attention To A Crisis In The U.S. System Of Government – Kansas Reflector https://digitalarizonanews.com/on-democracy-day-newsrooms-draw-attention-to-a-crisis-in-the-u-s-system-of-government-kansas-reflector/
A recent poll found that 69 percent of both Democrats and Republicans think democracy in the United States is in danger of collapse.
Almost two years after Donald Trump falsely claimed that voter fraud cost him the election and inspired a web of supporters and “big lie” candidates to also believe the election was rigged, a majority of Americans are worried that democracy, our system of government in which political decisions are determined by the will of the people, is unstable.
Yet most U.S. news organizations don’t convey that level of concern and do very little to equip Americans with practical information about what they can do to save democracy. Many newsrooms in 2022 grapple with limited resources and staff, making it difficult for the media to dedicate the time and space required to an issue as vast as the precarious nature of our democracy.
Without adequate attention on the issue, egregious claims from far-right candidates could become normalized and the news cycle moves on. Other important issues take over top stories.
But this week, for one day, news organizations including States Newsroom are going to try to demonstrate the scope of the problem.
On Thursday, a collaboration of organizations including Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media, the Institute for Nonprofit News, and audience and engagement company Hearken want to show what it looks like to give democracy the attention it is due.
Coinciding with International Day of Democracy, roughly 386 media partners will publish stories drawing attention to the crisis facing U.S. democracy and sounding the alarm that democracy is on the cusp of collapse.
“We tend to take democracy, at least in this country, as a given,” said Joe Amditis, associate director of the Center for Cooperative Media, who is helping to organize Democracy Day. “We say that word so much, and we hear that word so much, that it loses its meaning in many contexts. It’s important, especially with all the anti-democratic activity that’s happening at every level of the government, to really stop and consider what it means to be a democracy, what it looks like to be a democracy, and really understand and grapple directly with why it’s so important to maintain and preserve that.”
States Newsroom’s 29 outlets will all participate in Democracy Day, with stories on a range of issues from threats to election officials to continued false narratives about the stolen 2020 election.
Reporters and editors with Colorado Newsline will discuss how election workers have taken their personal security into their own hands and will look into a new law that raises the standards for disseminating election material in languages other than English. Newsline will also take a deeper dive into Colorado’s enviable voter turnout numbers and examine the disparities among different demographics.
The Wisconsin Examiner will get congressional candidates on the record, talking about whether they believe the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, and will discuss how that narrative has affected the administration of elections.
The Minnesota Reformer and Source New Mexico will fact-check their GOP candidates for secretary of state, who have both denied the results of the 2020 election.
And the Oregon Capital Chronicle will look into threats being made to county election offices over alleged election issues, requiring them to retain documents and distracting them from doing the work necessary to administer the upcoming election.
Other outlets will discuss voter registration campaigns targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and get-out-the-vote efforts on both sides of the aisle.
The stories by States Newsroom’s outlets and other participating news organizations will inform the public about the scope of the problem and give readers practical information about what they can do.
While Americans often believe that our democracy is strong and unassailable, researchers find that we have actually become a backsliding democracy, Amditis said.
“That in itself should raise alarm bells and what better institution to raise those alarm bells and to shine light on solutions than the so-called Fourth Estate?” he said. “If we can get everyone to work together on a single day to publish at least one story looking into these issues, we think that’s a good starting point.”
Read More Here
Ex-Town Official Pleads Guilty To Capitol Riot Charge The National Herald
Ex-Town Official Pleads Guilty To Capitol Riot Charge – The National Herald https://digitalarizonanews.com/ex-town-official-pleads-guilty-to-capitol-riot-charge-the-national-herald/
FILE – Insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump riot outside the Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. Suzanne Ianni, a former Massachusetts town official pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, to joining a mob in storming the U.S. Capitol after she organized a bus trip to Washington, for fellow members of a right-wing group called “Super Happy Fun America.”(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
A former Massachusetts town official pleaded guilty on Wednesday to joining a mob in storming the U.S. Capitol after she organized a bus trip to Washington, D.C., for fellow members of a right-wing group called “Super Happy Fun America.”
Before her guilty plea, Suzanne Ianni had argued in February that federal authorities had selectively targeted her for prosecution based on her political beliefs. Prosecutors said her political views played no role in charging her with crimes for her conduct at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A judge rejected Ianni’s request to dismiss the case before she pleaded guilty.
Ianni, 60, of Natick, Massachusetts, faces a maximum sentence of six months of imprisonment and five years of probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols is scheduled to sentence her on Dec. 2.
Ianni was an elected member of Natick Town Meeting in a Boston suburb while serving as operation director of Super Happy Fun America, which gained national notoriety for organizing a “Straight Pride Parade” in Boston in 2019.
On its website, Super Happy Fun America calls itself “a right of center civil rights organization focusing on defending the Constitution, opposing gender madness and defeating cultural Marxism.” The group registered as a nonprofit with Massachusetts state regulators.
A Dec. 29, 2020, post on the group’s Twitter account said Super Happy Fun America members would be in Washington “to get wild.” Ianni was listed as the contact for the trip. The account also tweeted a photo of Ianni and other members on a bus traveling to Washington on the eve of the riot.
After marching to the Capitol, she joined a crowd chanting “Fight for Trump!” and “Our house!” while rioters near her broke windows, forced open doors and breached police barricades. Surveillance video captured Ianni marching through the Capitol after she entered the building through a Senate fire-exit door. She raised her fist in the air in front of police officers who stopped her and other members of the mob, prosecutors said in a court filing.
Mark Sahady, another Super Happy Fun America member, was arrested on Capitol riot-related charges that haven’t been resolved.
In April 2021, Natick Town Meeting members voted to condemn the Capitol riot. Ianni, who was elected to a three-year term that was due to expire in March 2022, told the MetroWest Daily News that the vote represented “political persecution of conservatives.”
Also on Wednesday, a Nevada man pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers at the Capitol with what appeared to be a table leg, injuring an officer. Josiah Kenyon, 35, of Winnemucca, Nevada, is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 15. Kenyon was dressed up as “Jack Skellington,” a character from the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” when he attacked police.
More than 870 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot. Approximately 400 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors, and over 250 have been sentenced.
Read More Here
