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AP News Summary At 3:43 P.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-343-p-m-edt/ Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants WASHINGTON (AP) — When Joe Biden was running for the White House, he denounced then-President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Biden said Trump’s approach inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden has turned to an unlikely source for an election-year solution, taking a page from Trump’s own immigration playbook. Biden has invoked a Trump-era rule that Biden’s Justice Department is fighting in court. Biden wants to deny Venezuelans who are fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. China’s Xi calls for military growth as party congress opens BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for faster military development and announced no change in policies that have strained relations with Washington and tightened the ruling Communist Party’s control over society and the economy. China’s most influential figure in decades spoke at the start of a party meeting Sunday that was closely watched by companies, governments and the Chinese public for signs of its future economic and political direction. It comes amid a painful economic slump and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. The congress will install leaders for the next five years. Xi, 69, is expected to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as party leader. Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in occupied Donetsk KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials are blaming Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in a key Ukrainian city controlled by the separatists. The municipal building in Donetsk was seriously damaged by the rocket attack. Separately, Ukrainian officials said Russian rockets struck a city across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Kyiv also reported holding the line in fierce fighting around the town of Bakhmut. The fighting comes seven weeks into a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and east. Late Saturday, a Washington-based think tank accused Moscow of forcibly deporting Ukrainians to Russia and said it likely amounted to ethnic cleansing. UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss has only been in office for six weeks. But already her libertarian economic policies have triggered a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention, multiple U-turns and the firing of her Treasury chief. Now Truss faces a mutiny inside the governing Conservative Party that leaves her leadership hanging by a thread. Conservative lawmaker Robert Halfon accused the government Sunday of treating the country like “laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free-market experiments.” Conservatives are mulling whether to try to force out their leader. Truss, meanwhile, has appointed a new Treasury chief, Jeremy Hunt, who plans to rip up much of her economic plan when he makes a budget statement Oct. 31. GOP hopefuls turn to Pence to broaden appeal before election NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, his Vice President Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. That was the day when Pence refused to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost. And that was the day of the Capitol riot. Pence’s decision made him a prime target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But in the final weeks of the 2022 election, Pence has emerged as an in-demand draw for Republican candidates. That includes some candidates who are trying to make moderate appeals after spending much of the primary season courting Trump and parroting his lie that his 2020 race was stolen. LA’s Black-Latino tensions bared in City Council scandal Cross-cultural coalitions have ruled Los Angeles politics for decades, helping elect both Black and Latino politicians to top leadership roles in the huge racially and ethnically diverse city. But a shocking recording of racist comments by the city’s City Council president has laid bare the tensions over political power that have been quietly simmering between the Latino and Black communities. Concerns among the African American community have been growing in recent years as the Latino share of the population has grown and as Hispanic politicians have started assuming more leadership roles. Latino leaders around the U.S. have denounced the recorded remarks and called for the resignations of those involved. AP Top 25: Tennessee up to No. 3, ‘Bama’s top-5 streak ends Tennessee has moved to No. 3 in The Associated Press college football poll behind No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Ohio State. It comes after the Volunteers knocked off Alabama, one of five unbeaten teams to fall during a wild weekend. The Crimson Tide dropped three to No. 6 and swapped places with the Vols after Tennessee kicked a field goal as time expired Saturday. Alabama is out of the top-five for the first time since 2019. Georgia is still No. 1 and received 31 first-place votes and No. 2 Ohio State had 17 first-place votes. Gates Foundation pledges $1.2B to eradicate polio globally BERLIN (AP) — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says it is committing $1.2 billion to efforts aimed at ending polio worldwide. The money will be used to help implement the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026. The foundation says in a statement Sunday that the initiative is trying to end the polio virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries. The money also will be used to stop outbreaks of new variants of the virus. The announcement was made Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin. California city rests easier after serial killings arrest STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — The mayor of Stockton, California, says his city is resting easier following the weekend arrest of a man suspected of killing six men and wounding a woman in a series of shootings. Mayor Kevin Lincoln said Sunday that he shed tears of relief when he was informed of the arrest of 43-year-old Wesley Brownlee. Police Chief Stanley McFadden says Brownlee had a gun and appeared to be “out hunting” for another victim. Police had been searching for a serial killer who shot five men in the city since July. Police believe the same person killed a man in Oakland. It was not immediately clear whether Brownlee had an attorney who could comment. Postal worker holdup leads to muscle car theft ring arrests DETROIT (AP) — Cloned key fobs, high-powered Hellcats and thieves daring police and risking arrest are part of a trend in which vehicles are being stolen from factory lots and dealer showrooms only to be later sold on the street for tens of thousands of dollars less than their worth. A federal complaint says the muscle cars, SUVs and pickups worth $50,000 to more than $100,000 are sold on the street for $3,500 to $15,000. One Ohio-based theft ring came crashing down in June, when an investigation into the holdup of a postal worker led authorities to connect four Cleveland-area men to brazen vehicle thefts in the Detroit area. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More Here

Fauci Shares Bad Feeling On Day Trump Suggested Injecting Disinfectant To Cure Covid https://digitalarizonanews.com/fauci-shares-bad-feeling-on-day-trump-suggested-injecting-disinfectant-to-cure-covid/ Anthony Fauci has described his trepidation ahead of the press conference when then-President Donald Trump suggested injecting disinfectant to battle Covid-19. The chief medical adviser to the president and the director of the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases since 1984 spoke to ABC News ahead of his retirement from government service at the end of 2022. “And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that?” Mr Trump said in the White House briefing room on 23 April 2020. “Where were you when President Trump floated the idea of injecting disinfectant?” ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Dr Fauci. “I was at the White House, yes. I didn’t want to go up on there with this because I had a bad feeling about when Homeland Security brought this guy in, he briefed the people in the Situation Room beforehand. And as soon as I heard it, I said, holy s***, this is going to go bad. Why don’t I bow out of this one?” Dr Fauci said. “What would you have done if you had been standing by the president when he said that?” Karl pressed. “Well, I would have to had said, hey, I would have done this,” Dr Fauci said, indicating the hand sign for a time-out. “When did it all get so political?” Karl asked. “It got political very, very quickly,” Dr Fauci said. “Because we had the misfortune of an outbreak, and a double misfortune of an outbreak in a divided society, and the triple misfortune of a divided society in an election year. I mean, you couldn’t get more… getting the cards stacked against you, than right there. It was a triple whammy.” “I look upon the country, in many respects, as my patient,” Dr Fauci told ABC. “And … if you’re a really good physician, you are concerned and worry about every element of your patient.” “Including how your patient is going to react to something you said?” Karl asked. “Exactly. And even if the patient is somebody who’s not the most attractive person in the world in the sense of personality, you still got to treat them the way you would treat anybody else. We learned that in medical school,” Dr Fauci said. “I think the misconception is that I was misleading people,” Dr Fauci told ABC. “You know, to say that I, who have been an adviser to seven presidents, and have never ever veered one way or the other from an ideological standpoint, and for somebody to say that I’m … political, I mean that’s completely crazy.” Karl also noted that Dr Fauci “became an icon”. “It was kind of wild to see. There were Fauci bobbleheads. People had Fauci shirts that said ‘In Fauci We Trust.’ You became somebody the whole country was turning to. What was that like?” the journalist asked. “I was pretty well known among my peers in science, but certainly not to the extent it is now,” Dr Fauci said. “You know, I actually think both extremes … are aberrations of a reflection of the divisiveness in our country.” Read More Here

Trump Attacks American Jews, Posting They Must ‘get Their Act Together’ On Israel https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-attacks-american-jews-posting-they-must-get-their-act-together-on-israel/ Former president Donald Trump attacked American Jews in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, saying Jews in the United States must “get their act together” and show more appreciation for the state of Israel “before it is too late.” American Jews have long been accused of holding secret loyalty to Israel rather than the United States, and Trump’s post leaned on that antisemitic trope, suggesting that by virtue of their religion, American Jews should show more appreciation to Israel. Trump also complained in the post that “no president” had done more for Israel than he had but that Christian evangelicals are “far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” It was not the first time that Trump has suggested that American Jews, who traditionally have more often aligned with the Democratic Party on domestic policies, should be more supportive of him because of how he dealt with Israel. “Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough. Does that make sense to you?” he said in an interview last year with an Orthodox Jewish magazine, adding that it seemed “strange” to him that he did not have more Jewish support. At a Hanukkah event at the White House in 2018, he drew criticism for referring to Israel as “your country” while speaking to American Jews. He was also rebuked when he said during an Oval Office meeting in 2019 that “any Jewish people who would vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Trump’s latest diatribe about Jews came as Republican candidates have made overt appeals to racial animus and resentments in the closing weeks of the midterm election campaign. It also comes as leading Republican figures have failed to disavow musician and sometime-Trump supporter Ye, the rapper and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West. Ye earlier this month tweeted that he wanted to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to Defcon, the U.S. military defense readiness system. Instagram and Twitter removed posts by the artist, who had been featured on conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show. Trump has long been frustrated that he has not drawn more support from American Jews, particularly when as president, he moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, helped negotiate new treaties between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors. In Sunday’s post, Trump wrote that his support among people living in Israel is “a different story.” “Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.!” he wrote, contrasting his popularity in the foreign country with his support among American Jews. Trump’s post drew quick criticism. “We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship,” Anti-Defamation League chief executive and national director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting.” On her personal Twitter account, Neera Tanden, a senior adviser to President Biden, wrote, “We should all stand against what feels like a growing chorus of anti-Semitism. There should be no quarter for it in our politics or culture.” Read More Here

Elon Musk Says SpaceX Will Continue To Cover Starlink Costs In Ukraine https://digitalarizonanews.com/elon-musk-says-spacex-will-continue-to-cover-starlink-costs-in-ukraine/ By Matthew Luxmoore Updated Oct. 16, 2022 3:13 pm ET KYIV, Ukraine—Elon Musk backtracked on his complaints over the cost of funding Starlink internet terminals in Ukraine and said his company would continue to pay for them, as explosions rocked the Russian-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. Mr. Musk, the billionaire chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, pledged to continue funding the Starlink service for Ukraine just a day after he said SpaceX couldn’t finance the service indefinitely on its own. Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership View Membership Options Already a member? Sign In Sponsored Offers GoPro: Fall Savings – $255 off all GoPro cameras Samsung: 30% off smartphones + free shipping – Samsung promo code Dell: Score 10% Off select Alienware PCs & peripherals – Dell coupon code HP: HP Student Discount: 40% Off with HP coupon code Wayfair: Up to 15% off + free shipping at Wayfair Target: Up to 60% off – Target Promo Code Read More Here

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: ‘The Semiconductor Industry Is Near The Limit’ https://digitalarizonanews.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-the-semiconductor-industry-is-near-the-limit/ Read More Here

Political Battle Likely To Trump Civic Issues, Say Experts https://digitalarizonanews.com/political-battle-likely-to-trump-civic-issues-say-experts/ Mumbai: The Andheri East by-poll is very significant not just on account of the prestige fight between the two warring fronts of the Shiv Sena but also for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It will be the first litmus test for all of them after the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray was pulled down by defector Eknath Shinde with the backing of the BJP in June-July this year. The poll results will not only set the tone for the forthcoming local body polls but reveal the political standing of each one of the parties after the high-voltage political drama in the state. The Andheri by-poll, scheduled to be held on November 3, has garnered state-wide importance in the backdrop of the political upheaval in the state when 40 of 55 MLAs left Thackeray to join hands with the BJP to form the government in Maharashtra. The constituency, which has a mix of lower-income and middle-income group voters with a few elite pockets, may thus not thus see a battle fought on the civic issues it faces. However there are many issues in this constituency, which has industrial hubs like the Andheri MIDC and SEEPZ and linear transport projects like the metro railway routes. The key issues The main issues here include the rehabilitation of slum dwellers, infrastructure like water and drainage in slum areas and redevelopment of old buildings, especially some pockets which are part of the airport funnel zone. The constituency lags behind in health infrastructure and faces a major problem of water supply. Stalled redevelopment projects have left slum dwellers from the constituency in the lurch and living in transit accommodation for years. “We have focused on providing water to areas which did not get adequate water supply or were hamstrung by low pressure. The late Ramesh Latke, MLA from here, had worked for this. The problem has almost been solved. Old water lines have been replaced to ensure that water is supplied at a higher force,” said Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab. BJP candidate Murji Patel said, “We have no government-run hospital in the vicinity, posing challenges during epidemics and compelling citizens to depend on expensive treatments in private hospitals. Similarly, 12 of our key roads have been encroached upon by slums, leading to traffic snarls. I plan to clear these roads by rehabilitating the slumdwellers. We are also planning to have meetings with the industrial houses in the constituency to ensure that youngsters from the area get priority in recruitment in the industries here. Ours is the highest tax-paying constituency in the city.” Sympathy wave The Shiv Sena expects the sympathy wave to work in its favour in the by-poll. “Besides the sympathy for Rutuja Latke due to the demise of her husband Ramesh, voters here have a soft corner for the Thackeray faction thanks to its ‘betrayal’ by the Shinde camp,” said a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader. “The drama over the delay in passing Latke’s resignation by the BMC has also fuelled sentiments among voters. It will help us in the election.” The UBT Sena also expects the ‘Marathi pride’ card to favour it, as 40 percent of votes in the constituency are Marathi. According to its leaders, the BJP’s putting up a Gujarati-speaking candidate will help them galvanise Marathi voters. However, BJP candidate Murji Patel said, “People will choose development over sentiments and sympathy. I have always got the support of Marathi-speaking voters as well as Muslims, and this time too will not be an exception.” Alliances put up united face Since it is the first poll after the split in the Shiv Sena and the change in the state government, both alliances are putting up a united front against each other, with the Congress and NCP going all out to ensure that their voters fully support Rujuta Latke, and the Shinde faction of the Sena ensuring that the BJP candidate is supported by its cadre. The poll’s outcome will also determine if the Shiv Sena and Congress can formally join forces for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections due later this year or in early 2023. “I can say with conviction that if the BJP loses this battle, it will be a major loss of face for them. We, on the other hand, have little to lose. But a victory for the Shiv Sena will serve as a major morale-booster for the BMC polls,” said Anil Parab, who, as the local vibhag pramukh, is also leading the charge for the party. The MVA, however, has witnessed dissident voices, with many party office-bearers resigning in protest of the Congress decision to back a Sena candidate. “The alliance with the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena is not in the interests of the party. If the party wants to keep its existence floating in Mumbai, it needs to fight against the Sena for its corruption in the BMC over the last three decades,” said Congress leader and All India Congress Committee member Vishwabandhu Rai in a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi. In the three by-elections that have taken place since 2019, the BJP has won one (Pandharpur-Mangalwedha), while the MVA has won two (Kolhapur North and Deglur). All the three by-polls were fought by the MVA as an alliance against the BJP. Mumbai-based political analyst Hemant Desai said, “Because of the recent political developments in the state, the by-poll has become a battleground for parties struggling for their prestige. The real issues of the constituency are unlikely to be addressed in the election. The outcome of the election will, however, have a significant impact on politics in future.” In 2019, Ramesh Latke had secured 62,773 votes in the Andheri East constituency, while Patel, a former corporator, who has in the past been part of the Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena, fought as an independent and got 45,808. Amin Kutty of the Congress had cornered 27,951 votes. The constituency has been represented by former health minister Suresh Shetty of the Congress as well. However, Shetty lost the 2014 election badly and ended up in the third position. The Shiv Sena and BJP had fought the polls separately in a neck-and-neck fight. The Sena’s Ramesh Latke polled 52,817 votes against the BJP’s Sunil Yadav’s 47,338. Shetty polled 37,929 votes. Read More Here

What To Know Before Monday’s US Senate Debate https://digitalarizonanews.com/what-to-know-before-mondays-us-senate-debate/ By Harrison Epstein – Daily Herald | Oct 16, 2022 1 / 3 U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, left, and Evan McMullin, an independent who is challenging the incumbent in the race for the seat. Photos supplied 2 / 3 Evan McMullin poses for a photograph April 28, 2022, in Salt Lake City. McMullin, a newly empowered independent who’s been backed by the Democrats, is running against Sen. Mike Lee, who is up for reelection. Rick Bowmer, Associated Press 3 / 3 U.S. Sen. Mike Lee talks to supporters during a Utah Republican election night party Tuesday, June 28, 2022, in South Jordan. George Frey, Associated Press ❮ ❯ U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, left, and Evan McMullin, an independent who is challenging the incumbent in the race for the seat. Evan McMullin poses for a photograph April 28, 2022, in Salt Lake City. McMullin, a newly empowered independent who’s been backed by the Democrats, is running against Sen. Mike Lee, who is up for reelection. U.S. Sen. Mike Lee talks to supporters during a Utah Republican election night party Tuesday, June 28, 2022, in South Jordan. On Monday night, for the first and only time before Election Day, Utah’s two major candidates for the U.S. Senate will be on the same stage. Incumbent GOP Sen. Mike Lee and independent challenger Evan McMullin will participate in a debate at Utah Valley University beginning at 6 p.m., moderated by KSL NewsRadio host Doug Wright. The debate will be streamed at https://utahdebatecommission.org/live-feed/ and on the Utah Debate Commission’s Facebook page. It will also be broadcast live on ABC4, Fox13, KSL5, KUTV and PBS Utah. While the two will only be face to face once, their roads coming to the stage are vastly different but equally winding. Mike Lee As it stands, the senior senator from Utah is seeking a third term. Lee made it to the ballot after fending off two primary challengers — former Utah Rep. Becky Edwards and Ally Isom, a longtime staffer for former Gov. Gary Herbert. At the state GOP convention in April, Lee received a standing ovation before claiming a resounding victory over the two challengers with 70.74% of votes. Because Edwards and Isom also gathered signatures, the trio headed to a primary election in June. Lee finished with 61.9% of the vote in the primary as well, advancing to the general election ballot. Despite resounding victories in the GOP-only contests, it has not been a quiet year for Lee. Both of his primary opponents targeted Lee for his support of then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In April 2022, before state delegates stood and applauded him, it was revealed that Lee sent a host of text messages and supported lawyer John Eastman, author of a memo outlining a plan to flip election results, in his work with the Trump administration. In his text messages, Lee said he was working “14 hours a day” at one point to object to Joe Biden’s victory. According to The New York Times, Lee endorsed a plan to have an alternate slate of electors in states won by Biden sent to Washington, D.C. Those alternate electors would then put forward votes for Trump despite their state’s popular vote. In the end, Lee voted to certify Biden’s election after no state legislators convened an alternate slate of electors. Still, Lee has maintained support within the Utah Republican Party, evidenced by his convention and primary victories, and the national GOP. He has been endorsed by Trump along with 48 sitting U.S. senators, former Vice President Mike Pence, former ambassador Nikki Haley and a handful of conservative organizations. Lee was first elected to the office in 2010 after he forced a primary between himself and businessman Tim Bridgewater after the duo ousted longtime Sen. Bob Bennett at the state convention. Lee won the primary with 51.2% support before winning the general election in 2010 and again in 2016. Lee was raised in Provo and graduated with his bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctor from Brigham Young University. Evan McMullin McMullin, an independent with the backing of the Utah Democratic Party, is seeking the U.S. Senate for the first time. Over one year ago, on Oct. 5, 2021, McMullin launched his independent bid with no Democrat having yet declared for the race. As state GOP delegates gathered in Sandy, McMullin joined delegates for the Utah Democratic Party at their convention in Cottonwood Heights. Kael Weston, a former U.S. State Department official and congressional candidate, had since started his campaign for the Senate seat, but delegates were left to decide whether they should nominate Weston or no candidate, meaning support is thrown behind McMullin. After a speech to the delegates, and with the backing of former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, McMullin prevailed at the convention. In subsequent months, McMullin has worked to build a coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans. Approximately 14% of registered voters in the state are Democrats and 29.6% are unaffiliated, according to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office. After graduating from BYU, McMullin worked for the CIA for a decade. He then attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an investment banker and staffer for the House Republican Conference. In 2016, he left the Republican Party due to Trump’s nomination. He then ran for president as an independent, receiving 21.5% of votes in Utah. In recent news As Election Day has grown closer, the race has commanded more and more attention, specifically through an increase in paid advertising. Commercials from Club For Growth, a conservative Super PAC, have drawn the ire of the McMullin campaign for using audio clips the campaign called “deceptively edited.” In a statement released Sept. 29, McMullin campaign manager Andrew Roberts said, “to resort to desperate lies and deceptive editing like this is unacceptable. It’s counter to Utah values.” Despite the McMullin campaign filing a lawsuit against the Super PAC, Club for Growth promised to keep up their advertising effort. “We think it’s critical Mike Lee win this race and win it handily. We will continue to spend to bring Utah voters the truth about Mike Lee and Evan McMullin,” Club for Growth president David McIntosh said during a Tuesday afternoon teleconference. Utah County residents are no strangers to the criticisms of McMullin. Billboards can be seen calling him a “deadbeat” over outstanding debts from his 2016 presidential run while others echo arguments made in Club for Growth’s TV ads. Counter-ads from McMullin utilize news headlines from 2020 when, at an Arizona rally for Trump, Lee compared the president to Captain Moroni, a heroic figure from the Book of Mormon. In an interview Tuesday on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, Lee implored Mitt Romney, Utah’s junior senator and the 2012 GOP nominee for president, to endorse him in the race. “Help me win reelection. Help us do that. You can get your entire family to donate to me,” Lee said. Despite the plea, Romney has stated he would not endorse either candidate. In a poll of 509 statewide voters released by the Utah Debate Commission on Sept. 16, Lee received support from 48.13% of people surveyed compared to 37.33% for McMullin. The poll also showed support for third-party candidates James Hansen, of the Libertarian Party, and Tommy Williams, of the Independent American Party, at 4.72% and 4.52%, respectively. A candidate needed support from 10% of survey participants to qualify for the debate. Of those surveyed across the state, 175 participants lived in the 3rd District — covering part of Utah County east of Utah Lake and north of 400 South Springville along with a majority of the state’s eastern half ranging from Park City to Moab — and 116 came from the 4th District, which includes Utah County residents south of 400 South in Springville and west of Utah Lake. Of those in the 3rd District, 49.71% supported McMullin and 41.14% backed Lee. In the 4th District, 51.72% expressed support for Lee compared to 35.34% for McMullin. In the most recent poll from the Deseret News, however, Lee garnered 41% support compared to 37% for McMullin with 12% of voters undecided. The poll was taken from Oct. 3-6 and included responses from 801 voters. “Conservatives and liberals have largely made up their minds. Now we’re going to see how the silent, moderate majority exerts their power. That is the ground both candidates want,” Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, told the Deseret News. The poll includes ranging favorability numbers for both major candidates, with the largest difference being in those without an opinion. Only 14% of respondents did not have an opinion, favorable or unfavorable, of Lee while 28% reported the same neutrality to McMullin. County clerk’s offices will begin mailing ballots on Tuesday before voting culminates with Election Day on Nov. 8. Newsletter Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. Read More Here

GOP Hopefuls Turn To Pence To Broaden Appeal Before Election https://digitalarizonanews.com/gop-hopefuls-turn-to-pence-to-broaden-appeal-before-election-2/ NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. By refusing to go along with the former president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But the final weeks of the intensely competitive 2022 election suggest the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential campaign for the White House in 2024. The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand surrogate for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting Trump’s election lies. Pence has been traveling the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees. Former Vice President Mike Pence gestures as he addresses the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy on the campus of Utah Valley University Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, in Provo, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Rick Bowmer For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That includes Arizona, with a key Senate race on Nov. 8 and what is expected to be a hotly contested stop in the 2024 presidential campaign. Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary to win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents. “He takes a little bit of the edge off Masters with a lot of voters,” veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed said. “You know Masters is new to this, first time candidate, said some silly things he probably regrets during the campaign.” Yet the endorsements can seem jarring given that Pence has spent much of the past year pushing back on Trump’s election lies, which spurred the violent mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while Pence was trying to preside over the formal congressional certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Pence and members of his family had to be rushed to safety and held for hours in an underground loading dock as the marauders roamed the hallways, some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a makeshift gallows outside. Masters, during the primary, baselessly denied the 2020 results, recording a video in which he said he thought Trump had won. Masters claimed on his website that, “if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today.” Trump said when he endorsed Masters in June: “Blake knows that the “Crime of the Century” took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.” Pence made no mention of that in Phoenix on Tuesday. “What I came here to Arizona to say is not only is Blake Masters the right choice for the United States Senate, the people of Arizona deserve to know Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the Senate,” Pence said. Pence, along with Masters and Gov. Doug Ducey, took just three questions, two of them from conservative websites. When a local television reporter tried to ask Masters whether Pence was right to move forward with certifying Biden’s victory, he was quickly cut off by a Masters spokesman. Masters is not the only election denier Pence has endorsed or assisted. Two days after the Masters event, Pence was in Georgia headlining a fundraiser for Burt Jones, the nominee for lieutenant governor. Jones not only embraced Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and called for a statewide investigation into the 2020 race, but also signed on to be one of his state’s fake alternate electors — a scheme that is now under criminal investigation. Last month, Pence campaigned in New Hampshire for Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who also spent his primary campaign telling voters the 2020 race was stolen from Trump. Marc Short, a longtime Pence adviser, declined to set a red line for candidates Pence would and would not endorse. “It’s more about making sure that he’s being a team player where he needs to be,” he said. “I think as a lot of these candidates look to solidify the party behind them, Pence can be helpful.” There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, underscored by repeated audits, court cases and the conclusions of Trump’s own Department of Justice. Still, support of false election claims run deep among GOP candidates this year. Short said Pence was happy to support candidates who had moved past 2020, as he has urged the party to do. “If people sort of acknowledged a mistaken position before, he certainly wants to reward that,” said Short. “I think he wants to help conservatives first and foremost, but if people who were elected are now adopting new position about the events of Jan. 6,” he said, “then that’s a positive.” Reed, the Republican strategist, said he wasn’t surprised by the candidates Pence had chosen to back. “He’s a big picture party guy. And it doesn’t surprised me that he’s hustling as hard as he is for people who may not be 100% Pencers,” Reed said. “By doing these kinds of events,” he added, “they’re going to take another look at him if he decides to run.” ___ Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More Here

GOP Hopefuls Turn To Mike Pence To Broaden Their Appeal https://digitalarizonanews.com/gop-hopefuls-turn-to-mike-pence-to-broaden-their-appeal/ NEW YORK — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. By refusing to go along with the then-president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But the final weeks of this year’s intensely competitive midterm elections suggest that the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential 2024 White House campaign. The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand draw for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting his election lies. Pence has traveled the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees. For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That’s the case in Arizona, with a critical Senate race this year and where the 2024 presidential campaign will be hotly contested. Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary and win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents. “He takes a little bit of the edge off Masters with a lot of voters,” veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed said. “You know Masters is new to this, first-time candidate, said some silly things he probably regrets during the campaign. But now it’s all about undecided voters in Maricopa County. There’s not a lot more science behind this.” The endorsements can seem jarring given that Pence has spent much of the past year pushing back on Trump’s election lies, which spurred the violent mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6 while Pence was trying to preside over the formal congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Pence and members of his family had to be rushed to safety and were held for hours in an underground loading dock as the marauders roamed the building’s hallways. Some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a makeshift gallows outside. Pence agreed to endorse Masters even though Masters, during the primary, baselessly denied the 2020 election results. Masters recorded a video in which he said he thought Trump had won and claimed on his website that “if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today.” Trump endorsed Masters in June, saying in a statement: “Blake knows that the “Crime of the Century” took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.” Pence made no mention of that in Phoenix on Tuesday. “What I came here to Arizona to say is not only is Blake Masters the right choice for the United States Senate, the people of Arizona deserve to know Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the Senate,” Pence said. The former vice president, along with Masters and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, took just three questions, two of them from conservative websites. When a television reporter tried to ask Masters if Pence was right to move forward with certifying Biden’s victory, the candidate was quickly cut off by a Masters spokesperson. Masters is not the only election denier Pence has endorsed or assisted. Two days after the Masters event, Pence was in Georgia headlining a fundraiser for Burt Jones, the nominee for lieutenant governor. Jones not only embraced Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and called for a statewide investigation into the 2020 race, but he also signed on to be one of his state’s fake alternate electors — a scheme now under criminal investigation. Last month, Pence was in New Hampshire for Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who also spent his primary campaign telling voters the race was stolen from Trump. Marc Short, a longtime Pence adviser, declined to set a red line for candidates Pence would and would not endorse. “It’s more about making sure that he’s being a team player where he needs to be,” Short said. “I think as a lot of these candidates look to solidify the party behind them, Pence can be helpful.” There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, underscored by repeated audits, court cases and the conclusions of Trump’s own Department of Justice. Still, support for false election claims run deep among GOP candidates this year. The Masters endorsement notably came days after a debate in which he made headlines for seeming to have shifted from his most outrageous rigged election claims. Masters instead blamed Trump’s loss on “big tech,” “big media” and the FBI, and under repeated questioning, acknowledged he hadn’t seen evidence the vote count or results were manipulated, as Trump has claimed. (After the Pence visit, Masters told Fox News he stood by what he had said on his now-modified website, adding: “I think if everyone followed the law, President Trump would be in the Oval Office.”) Short said Pence was happy to support candidates who had moved past 2020, as the former vice president has urged the party to do. “If people sort of acknowledged a mistaken position before, he certainly wants to reward that,” Short said. “I think he wants to help conservatives first and foremost, but if people who were elected are now adopting new position about the events of Jan. 6,” Short said, “then that’s a positive.” Jones and Bolduc have also tried to distance themselves from their previous statements. In interviews, Jones has tried to play down the fake elector slate as a “procedural move,” while noting that voters rarely mention the 2020 race. “Look he’s been consistent that he does not believe the 2020 election was rigged. He said that Joe Biden is president,” said Jones campaign spokesperson Stephen Lawson, who noted that Pence and Jones have a long-standing relationship and, like Masters, share former Pence staff. “For us, it was sort of a no-brainer because the vice president’s still very well liked in Georgia, very well received. And we’re in that final stretch where any Republican coming to raise money, support, is a value add,” he said. “I think it’s certainly a nod to more mainstream kind of moderate Republicans. I think that’s a fair assessment,” he said. Bolduc claimed throughout the primary race that the 2020 election had been stolen. During a debate, he proclaimed that “Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by” and adding, “I’m not switching horses, baby.” But right after the GOP primary — and a day after appearing with Pence — he told Fox News it was time to move on. “You know, we live and learn, right? And I’ve done a lot of research on this and I’ve spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party. And I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive on this: The election was not stolen,” Bolduc said. He described Biden as “the legitimate president of this country.” (Earlier this month Bolduc changed his position again, saying he wasn’t sure what happened with the election. “I can’t say that it was stolen or not. I don’t have enough information.”) Reed, the party strategist, said he understood the rationale behind Pence’s endorsements. “He’s a big picture party guy. And it doesn’t surprise me that he’s hustling as hard as he is for people who may not be 100 percent Pencers,” he said. “By doing these kinds of events,” he added, “they’re going to take another look at him if he decides to run.” Pence’s political future is an open question. Trump, who is widely expected to run again, remains deeply popular with Republican primary voters and would almost certainly be an early front-runner for the 2024 nomination. Pence has said his own decision about running will not be influenced by Trump, though allies often voice skepticism that Trump ultimately will end up on the ballot. Beyond his endorsements, Pence has spent his time since leaving office performing a careful balancing act. He has distanced himself from Trump’s most corrosive statements while promoting what he calls the Trump-Pence agenda. Pence, like generations of could-be candidates, has used the primaries as an opportunity to forge new relationships and build goodwill, and continues to align himself with conservative causes. His trips often include college visits and speeches before anti-abortion groups. Other potential 2024 candidates have campaigned for the Republican cause, including Texas Sen. Ted Cuz, who is on a monthlong, 17-state “Take Back America” bus tour. Trump has held rallies and finally begun spending a small part of his vast political fortune to help his favored candidates. “I think he and all these guys are out there really helping the Republicans to win back the House and win back the Senate. It’s an effort that everybody needs to contribute to,” said David McIntosh, president of the influential Club for Growth, who has joined Pence at several events. McIntosh, who has been at odds with Trump in recent months, said he believes the electorate is “moving on” from 2020 “to what’s on the ballot this election.” He said candidates such as Masters “want to show that they’ve got support from all different types of Republicans, everyone that’s out there, so there’s a unity theme.” “It’s always been my view,” he added, “that leaders like that help themselves by helping.” But being popular enough that candidates want to campaign with you is very different from being popular enough to be competitive in a presidential primary, and right now, Pence routinely polls in the ...

Biden Turning To Trump-Era Rule To Expel Venezuelan Migrants https://digitalarizonanews.com/biden-turning-to-trump-era-rule-to-expel-venezuelan-migrants-3/ Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S. The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds. “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels. “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S. Why the turnaround? For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers. Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere. After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S. Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings. But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials. A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year. By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage. So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42. It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.” Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico. The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S. “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.” A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless. “People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt. WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today. Read More Here

Social Security COLA 2023, Live Online Today: Increase, Benefits And Adjustment | SSA Latest News https://digitalarizonanews.com/social-security-cola-2023-live-online-today-increase-benefits-and-adjustment-ssa-latest-news-4/ Update: October 16th, 2022 11:56 EDT “The higher-than-expected COLA costs could have long term implications for Social Security solvency, and could potentially move the insolvency date, currently around 2034, forward.” SOCIAL SECURITY At what age is Social Security no longer taxed in the US? The Social Security Administration announced the 2023 COLA on 13 October and the boost was a doozy. Great news for those that are finding their monthly checks not going as far in the face of rising prices. Bad news for those that will break the income thresholds where a portion of their benefits are liable to taxation. Before 1984, Social Security benefits were not taxed. However, to keep the Trust Fund that supports the program solvent, bipartisan legislation was passed totax a portion of payments to seniors citizens, surviving spouses, and the disabled if they had income above certain thresholds. Social Security and Medicare on the ballot in November Social Security and Medicare are both facing financial shortfalls that will push them to insolvency if nothing is done. This year’s report on the health of the Medicare fund gave it an additional two years before it runs out of money which is now predicted to be in 2028. Prior to the 8.7% COLA increase to benefits the trustees of the Social Security funds determined the combined funds will run dry by 2035, just the retirement fund one year earlier. The outsized boost to benefits was more  than double the increase used to calculate the prediction which could move the insolvency date up by a whole calendar year. Both programs need reform but what that looks like will be shaped by the results of Midterm Elections in November. Legislation has been proposed in the House by Democrats to expand Social Security and boost funding. On the other side of the aisle Republicans are talking about making the programs discretionary spending with sunset clauses meaning that they would need to reapproved every five years. Will 8.7% boost Dems in election? With tens of millions of Americans getting a financial leg up in the coming months thanks to the Democratic party, some on the other side are trying to argue that it will not help them in the upcoming elections. What do you think? President Biden talks social security and medicare The president, in Portland for a two-day trip to campaign for Democrats ahead of the 8 November general election, delivers a speech in which he discusses the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as his plan to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security. You can watch and listen. Only three COLAs have been larger than in 2023 Thursday’s cost-of-living adjustment is the fourth largest since the Social Security Administration began implementing the annual mechanism nearly half a century ago. Since 1975, the only increases that have been greater than the 8.7% hike for 2023 came in a three-year period at the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s. In 1979, the COLA was 9.9%. In 1980, it then rose to a record 14.3%, before 12 months later it was 11.2%. COLA 2023 official announcement If you like to hear your communications straight from the financial benefits horse’s mouth, then here you go… Welcome to AS USA 2023 COLA increase updates Hello and welcome to AS USA’s live blog on the 2023 Social Security COLA increase for Sunday, 16 October.  The Social Security Adminstration announced the 2023 Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for social security benefits, for programs like Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance. Other government pension and benefits programs will also be affected by the 8.7% increase. The COLA offered for next year is historic in size after inflation has plagued markets for basic commodities consumed by most households, including food, shelter, utilities, and gasoline.   Tagged in: Seguridad Social Inflación Estados Unidos Pensión jubilación Discapacidad Read More Here

Trump Attacks U.S. Jews, Posting They Must ‘get Their Act Together’ On Israel https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-attacks-u-s-jews-posting-they-must-get-their-act-together-on-israel/ Former president Donald Trump attacked American Jews in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, saying Jews in the United States must “get their act together” and show more appreciation for the state of Israel “before it is too late.” American Jews have long been accused of holding secret loyalty to Israel rather than the United States, and Trump’s post leaned on that antisemitic trope, suggesting that by virtue of their religion, American Jews should show more appreciation to Israel. Trump also complained in the post that “no president” had done more for Israel than he had but that Christian evangelicals are “far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” It was not the first time that Trump has suggested that American Jews, who traditionally have more often aligned with the Democratic Party on domestic policies, should be more supportive of him because of how he dealt with Israel. “Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough. Does that make sense to you?” he said in an interview last year with an Orthodox Jewish magazine, adding that it seemed “strange” to him that he did not have more Jewish support. At a Hanukkah event at the White House in 2018, he drew criticism for referring to Israel as “your country” while speaking to American Jews. He was also rebuked when he said during an Oval Office meeting in 2019 that “any Jewish people who would vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Trump’s latest diatribe about Jews came as Republican candidates have made overt appeals to racial animus and resentments in the closing weeks of the midterm election campaign. It also comes as leading Republican figures have failed to disavow musician and sometime-Trump supporter Ye, the rapper and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West. Ye earlier this month tweeted that he wanted to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to Defcon, the U.S. military defense readiness system. Instagram and Twitter removed posts by the artist, who had been featured on conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show. Trump has long been frustrated that he has not drawn more support from American Jews, particularly when as president, he moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, helped negotiate new treaties between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors. In Sunday’s post, Trump wrote that his support among people living in Israel is “a different story.” “Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.!” he wrote, contrasting his popularity in the foreign country with his support among American Jews. Trump’s post drew quick criticism. “We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship,” Anti-Defamation League chief executive and national director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting.” On her personal Twitter account, Neera Tanden, a senior adviser to President Biden, wrote, “We should all stand against what feels like a growing chorus of anti-Semitism. There should be no quarter for it in our politics or culture.” Read More Here

Iran Prison Fire Kills Four, Injures 61 As Protests Persist https://digitalarizonanews.com/iran-prison-fire-kills-four-injures-61-as-protests-persist/ Iranian judiciary says those killed died of smoke inhalation Iran says calm returns to Evin prison after fire, airs footage Fire comes amid widespread protests, brutal crackdown Iran accuses Biden of interfering in state affairs Protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death enter second month DUBAI, Oct 16 (Reuters) – A fire at Iran’s Evin prison late on Saturday killed four detainees and injured 61, state media reported, as anti-government protests sparked by a woman’s death in police custody continued on Sunday, including at several universities. Iranian authorities said on Saturday that a prison workshop had been set on fire “after a fight among a number of prisoners convicted of financial crimes and theft”. Evin also holds many detainees facing security charges, including Iranians with dual nationality. Iran’s judiciary said four of those injured in Saturday’s fire were in critical condition and that those killed had died of smoke inhalation, Iranian state media reported. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Protests sparked by 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death on Sept. 16 have turned into one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution, with protesters calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, even if the unrest does not seem close to toppling the system. Demonstrations continued at several universities on Sunday, including in the cities of Tabriz and Rasht, to a heavy deployment of riot police. Videos posted on social media showed students at a Tehran university chanting: “Iran has turned into a big prison. Evin prison has become a slaughterhouse.” Reuters could not independently verify the footage. Families of some political detainees took to social media to call on the authorities to ensure their safety at Evin prison, which in 2018 was blacklisted by the U.S. government for “serious human rights abuses”. Footage of the prison aired on state television hours after the fire apparently showed that calm had returned to the facility with inmates asleep in their wards. It also showed firefighters inspecting a workshop with fire damage to the roof. Atena Daemi, a human rights activist, said that relatives of prisoners in the women’s section had gone to Evin for visiting hours, but authorities denied them access, resulting in a standoff. Prisoners were “fine, but the phones are broken”, they were told, according to Daemi. She later tweeted that some women prisoners had called their families. The husband of Iranian journalist Niloofar Hamedi, who broke the news of Amini’s hospitalisation and was arrested last month, also wrote on Twitter that she had telephoned him on Sunday. A lawyer representing an American Iranian held at Evin, Siamak Namazi, imprisoned for nearly seven years on espionage-related charges rejected by Washington as baseless, said on Sunday that Namazi had contacted his relatives. A view of smoke rising from Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, October 15, 2022 in this still image take from a video obtained by Reuters. “SiamakNamazi has now spoken to his family. He is safe and has been moved to a secure area of Evin Prison. We have no further details,” lawyer Jared Genser said in a tweet. Several other dual national Iranians and foreign citizens are held in Evin prison mostly for security-related charges. Some Twitter posts by their friends and relatives said they had contacted their families on Sunday. VIOLENT CRACKDOWN Asked about the prison fire, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday he was surprised by the courage of Iranian protesters. He earlier called on Iran “to end the violence against its own citizens simply exercising their fundamental rights”. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Biden was inciting “chaos, terror, and destruction… (and) should be reminded of the eternal words of the founder of the Islamic Republic who called America the great satan,” referring to Iran’s late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. France said on Sunday it was following with the utmost attention the situation at Evin prison, “where several French nationals are being arbitrarily detained”. “France once again reminds the Iranian authorities that they are responsible for the safety and health of our compatriots detained in Iran,” a French foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement, repeating a call for their immediate release. Protests have been met with a brutal state crackdown. Rights groups said at least 240 protesters had been killed, including 32 minors. Over 8,000 people had been arrested in 111 cities and towns, Iranian activist news agency HRANA said on Saturday. The authorities have not published a death toll. Among the casualties have been teenage girls whose deaths have become a rallying cry for more demonstrations across the country. Iran, which has blamed the violence on enemies at home and abroad, denies security forces have killed protesters. State media said on Saturday at least 26 members of the security forces had been killed by “rioters”. The clampdown on protests has attracted international condemnation, with the United States, Canada and some European countries imposing sanctions on Iranian officials and organisations they accuse of being involved. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Additional reporting by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris Writing by Parisa Hafezi Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Alexandra Hudson Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Sixers Convert Michael Foster To Two-Way Contract, Waive CBJ https://digitalarizonanews.com/sixers-convert-michael-foster-to-two-way-contract-waive-cbj/ Note: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links, Schneps Media may earn a commission. CHANDLER, AZ – NOVEMBER 07: Michael Foster, from Hillcrest Prep, warms up during the Pangos All-American Festival on November 7, 2020 at AZ Compass Prep in Chandler, AZ. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire) The Philadelphia 76ers continue to put the finishing touches on their final roster before the start of the regular season. The latest move by the Sixers, converting Michael Foster Jr. to a two-way contract, waiving previous two-way player Charlie Brown Jr. according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The 76ers are converting forward Michael Foster to a two-way contract, sources tell ESPN. Foster is an undrafted rookie out of the G League Ignite. Philadelphia will waive Charlie Brown. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 16, 2022 Foster signed as a free agent after going undrafted in this past June’s draft after spending the with the G League Ignite. Coming into the 2021-22 season, Foster was considered a top-10 prospect by ESPN. Foster would go on to average 14.8 points and 8.8 rebounds in nearly 30 minutes per game. He displayed many tools that showed why so many scouts were interested in the first place. However, those traits are all quite a bit raw, which, in large part, is why he slid so far down the draft board. After the draft, Foster was signed to an Exhibit 10 deal, which is effectively a deal that allows a player to participate in training camp, allows the team to control said player’s G League rights, and of course, allows the team to convert the Exhibit 10 deal to a two-way contact. On his new two-way deal, Foster will spend a healthy mix of time between the Philadelphia 76ers’ and the Delaware Blue Coats. He will have plenty of time to polish his game, especially with the Blue Coats. In a related move, the Sixers will waive Charlie Brown Jr., who previously was on one of the Sixers’ two-way contracts (along with Julian Champagnie). Brown proved to be quite valuable to the Sixers last season in spurts last season, specifically as one of the very few athletic wing defenders on the entire team. This year, with the additions of P.J. Tucker and Danuel House, the Sixers now have the luxury to afford their two-way contracts to young, developing players like Michael Foster Jr. Read More Here

Billions Of Snow Crabs Have Disappeared From The Waters Around Alaska. Scientists Say Overfishing Is Not The Cause | CNN https://digitalarizonanews.com/billions-of-snow-crabs-have-disappeared-from-the-waters-around-alaska-scientists-say-overfishing-is-not-the-cause-cnn/ CNN  —  The Alaska snow crab harvest has been canceled for the first time ever after billions of the crustaceans have disappeared from the cold, treacherous waters of the Bering Sea in recent years. The Alaska Board of Fisheries and North Pacific Fishery Management Council announced last week that the population of snow crab in the Bering Sea fell below the regulatory threshold to open up the fishery. But the actual numbers behind that decision are shocking: The snow crab population shrank from around 8 billion in 2018 to 1 billion in 2021, according to Benjamin Daly, a researcher with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “Snow crab is by far the most abundant of all the Bering Sea crab species that is caught commercially,” Daly told CNN. “So the shock and awe of many billions missing from the population is worth noting – and that includes all the females and babies.” The Bristol Bay red king crab harvest will also be closed for the second year in a row, the agencies announced. Officials cited overfishing as their rationale for canceling the seasons. Mark Stichert, the groundfish and shellfish fisheries management coordinator with the state’s fish and game department, said that more crab were being fished out of the oceans than could be naturally replaced. “So there were more removals from the population than there were inputs,” Stichert explained at Thursday’s meeting. Between the surveys conducted in 2021 and 2022, he said, mature male snow crabs declined about 40%, with an estimated 45 million pounds left in the entire Bering Sea. “It’s a scary number, just to be clear,” Stichert said. But calling the Bering Sea crab population “overfished” – a technical definition that triggers conservation measures – says nothing about the cause of its collapse. “We call it overfishing because of the size level,” Michael Litzow, the Kodiak lab director for NOAA Fisheries, told CNN. “But it wasn’t overfishing that caused the collapse, that much is clear.” Litzow says human-caused climate change is a significant factor in the crabs’ alarming disappearance. Snow crabs are cold-water species and found overwhelmingly in areas where water temperatures are below 2 degrees Celsius, Litzow says. As oceans warm and sea ice disappears, the ocean around Alaska is becoming inhospitable for the species. “There have been a number of attribution studies that have looked at specific temperatures in the Bering Sea or Bering Sea ice cover in 2018, and in those attribution studies, they’ve concluded that those temperatures and low-ice conditions in the Bering sea are a consequence of global warming,” Litzow said. Temperatures around the Arctic have warmed four times faster than the rest of the planet, scientists have reported. Climate change has triggered a rapid loss in sea ice in the Arctic region, particularly in Alaska’s Bering Sea, which in turn has amplified global warming. “Closing the fisheries due to low abundance and continuing research are the primary efforts to restore the populations at this point,” Ethan Nichols, an assistant area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told CNN. Stichert also said that there might be some “optimism for the future” as a few, small juvenile snow crabs are starting to appear in the system. But it could be at least three to four more years before they hit maturity and contribute to the regrowth of the population. “It is a glimmer of optimism,” Litzow said. “That’s better than not seeing them, for sure. We get a little bit warmer every year and that variability is higher in Arctic ecosystems and high latitude ecosystems, and so if we can get a cooler period that would be good news for snow crab.” Read More Here

Independent Utah Senate Candidate Wouldn't Caucus With Either Party, He Says https://digitalarizonanews.com/independent-utah-senate-candidate-wouldnt-caucus-with-either-party-he-says/ Evan McMullin, an Utah independent candidate for Senate who’s backed by Democrats, said Sunday he won’t caucus with either party if elected. “I will maintain my independence. I will not caucus with either side,” McMullin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” McMullin is supported by Democrats in his race against two-term Republican Sen. Mike Lee, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. A Democrat ran for the party’s nomination, but delegates decided not to nominate anyone following a push from McMullin’s campaign. The independent ran for president in 2016, receiving 21.5 percent of the votes in Utah. The current U.S. Senate includes two independents (Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont) who both caucus with Democrats in a 50-50 party breakdown. Having an independent in the Senate could also give Utah increased political influence, McMullin said. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), currently the center-most voice in the body, has frequently cast a deciding vote on legislation. “They’re more influential, I think, even than the party bosses,” McMullin said of moderates. Asked whether he would help decide whether Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell earns the title of majority leader in the new Senate, McMullin said he “won’t be a part of that, as an independent.” “For the parties and the bosses in Washington, they’ll have to decide what this means on their own,” he said. In a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted earlier this month, Lee led McMullin by 4 percentage points among registered Utah voters, 41 percent to 37 percent. The poll’s margin of error was 3.46 percent. Read More Here

Biden Calls Testimony From Jan. 6 Committee Hearing 'devastating' https://digitalarizonanews.com/biden-calls-testimony-from-jan-6-committee-hearing-devastating/ President Joe Biden said Saturday that he found testimony presented during the House Jan. 6 committee’s hearing last week to be “devastating” and that the panel has made an “overwhelming” case. Asked by reporters about his thoughts on the committee’s ninth hearing during a stop at a Baskin-Robbins in Portland, Oregon, Biden said, “I think the testimony in the video are actually devastating.” “And I’ve been going out of my way not to comment and see what happens. But it’s— I think it’s been devastating,” he said. “I mean, the case has been made, it seems to me, fairly overwhelming.” He added, “But any more I say about it, you — justified — are going to ask me if I’m trying to influence the Attorney General. I’m not. I’ve not spoken with him at all.” The committee’s hearing Thursday — the last before the midterm elections — delve into former President Donald Trump’s mindset as the violence at the Capitol unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021. The hearing featured never-before-seen footage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other congressional leaders calling for help during the riot as Trump refused to call off the mob of his supporters. Former Trump White House aides testified that Trump privately knew he had lost the 2020 election, despite espousing false claims of widespread election fraud. The hearing concluded with the committee voting unanimously to subpoena the former president for documents and testimony. Biden previously weighed in on the importance of the Jan. 6 congressional hearings in June, saying that Americans should know what unfolded and that “the same forces that led to Jan. 6 remain at work today.” “The insurrection on Jan. 6 was one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history — a brutal assault on our democracy, a brutal attack on law enforcement, some losing their lives, and we heard about it last night again,” Biden said in June, at the top of remarks focused on inflation at the Port of Los Angeles. Although he said he was unable to watch the committee’s first public hearing in June, the president stressed that it is important that the public understands “what truly happened.” “We have to protect our democracy,” he said, adding that “the soul of America has been far from won.” This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Read More Here

Donald Trump Jr. And Eric Trump Wanted 'Handout' From Truth Social Company: Report https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trump-jr-and-eric-trump-wanted-handout-from-truth-social-company-report/ Donald Trump Jr. (left) and Eric Trump reportedly asked for a Donald Trump Jr. (left) and Eric Trump reportedly asked for a “handout” of Truth Social stock. (Photo: Grant Lamos IV via Getty Images) Will Wilkerson, a co-founder of Truth Social’s media parent company, told The Washington Post that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump requested financial stakes in the social media platform despite having never worked for the company. “They were coming in and asking for a handout,” Wilkerson told the Post in an article published Saturday. “They had no bearing in this company … and they were taking equity away from hard-working individuals.” One of the first Trump Media & Technology Group employees, Wilkerson served as senior vice president of operations until he was forced off the board Thursday after sharing that and other allegations with the Post. Wilkerson’s other revelations included that Donald Trump had asked co-founder Andy Litinsky to relinquish his stock to Melania Trump. “The gift would have meant a huge tax bill he couldn’t pay,” Wilkerson told the Post. “Trump didn’t care. He said, ‘Do whatever you need to do.’” That request last October followed Truth Social receiving millions of dollars in new investments. Trump had already taken 90% of shares in Trump Media and left its employees to split the rest. Litinsky refused to part with his stock for Melania and was fired five months later. “Ignoring these achievements [of launching Truth Social on the Apple and Google app stores to millions of downloads], the Washington Post published a story rife with knowingly false and defamatory statements and other concocted psychodramas,” Trump Media & Technology Group told Insider. Donald Trump reportedly even asked a Truth Social co-founder to gift his stock to his wife Melania. (Photo: Elsa via Getty Images) Donald Trump reportedly even asked a Truth Social co-founder to gift his stock to his wife Melania. (Photo: Elsa via Getty Images) Wilkerson filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August. His attorney told the Post that he is currently cooperating with investigations into Trump Media by the SEC and by federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York. He provided the SEC with a daily computer log that he, Litinsky and co-founder Wes Moss kept during their time at Trump Media. Obtained by the Post, it chronicled infighting in the Trump business and detailed what his lawyers called “fraudulent misrepresentations … in violation of federal securities laws.” The log also showed the trio of co-founders debating how to market the Trump family’s ties to the business and showed one of them telling another that Trump Jr. “needs a bedtime story and some love.” Trump Media dismissed Wilkerson’s claims; Wilkerson said the company threatened him for speaking out. “We weren’t trying to be Trump Org 2.0,” Wilkerson told the Post. “We always saw Trump as the rocket fuel to send this thing to space. I wanted this to succeed more than anything. … But these are glaring issues, and they’re threatening me now for calling them out. I couldn’t stay quiet anymore.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related… Truth Social Exec Forced Off Board After Ignoring Trump Demand To Gift Stock To Melania: Report Michael Cohen Says He’d Fear For His Safety If Trump Were Reelected Roger Stone Calls Video Of Him ‘Fake,’ But Says He Really Doesn’t Like Ivanka Trump Read More Here

Mesa High Athletes Memorialize Former Student With Local Cemetery Cleanup – Signals AZ https://digitalarizonanews.com/mesa-high-athletes-memorialize-former-student-with-local-cemetery-cleanup-signals-az/ The CAST 11 Podcast Network is made possible by the 2022 Ultimate Holiday Guide. Promote your next event or holiday offering in the Ultimate Holiday Guide by calling Elicia at: 928-642-3552. For generations, Mesa High School’s motto “Carry on” has been embedded in the school’s traditions and the surrounding community. It is a rallying cry to persevere in difficult times and to help others in the community. In 1932, Mesa High student Zedo Ishikawa passed away in an accident on his family’s farm. In honor of his memory, Mesa adopted his final words, “Carry on” as its slogan. It is the title of the school’s fight song, and the essence of the school’s culture. It is also why, on a recent Saturday, members of the football team could be found cleaning up the grounds of a historic cemetery near HoHoKam Stadium in central Mesa. A group of students pose with Brian and Mark Ishikawa at the grave site of Zedo Ishikawa, who inspired Mesa High School’s “Carry On” slogan. (Photo courtesy of Steven Lewis) Fifteen years ago, the football coaches at Mesa wanted their players to get more involved in community service. Inspired by Ishikawa and the “Carry on” slogan, they decided to have the players travel to the nearly 140-year-old City of Mesa Cemetery where Ishikawa and Mesa’s founding fathers are buried. It’s also where country musician Waylon Jennings and boxer Zora Folley were laid to rest. “A lot of coaches sacrifice for these guys, and these guys sacrifice for the community,” Mesa coach Chad DeGrenier said. “That’s what makes the world go ‘round. At the end of the day, it’s not just about football. It’s about teaching life skills. We’re just blessed to coach these guys then play football on Fridays.” The event was so popular with the football team, athletes in Mesa’s other fall sports wanted to join in. Now, the school sends all fall sports athletes and club members to the cemetery for one Saturday in August each year to clean the grounds and tombstones as a way to give back to the community. Athletic Director Preston Peterson believes the tradition is unlike any other at schools that he has worked for during his career. “This is one thing that Mesa High has over just about every other campus out there,” Peterson said. “I’ve had teachers that are new to the campus tell me, ‘I don’t understand all of this tradition stuff.’ But then after about six months they circle back around and say, ‘I get it now. I understand how important this is.’” Brian and Mark Ishikawa, nephews of Zedo Ishikawa, deliver a motivational speech about giving back to the community to Mesa High students. (Photo courtesy of Steven Lewis) Ishikawa’s nephews often speak to students and are active members of the Mesa community. “I just love the ‘Carry on’ tradition,” said Mesa’s senior quarterback Manny Pino. “(I love) hearing the Ishikawa brothers talk to us about Zedo and their family, how the football team was. We hear it every year, but it’s such a great learning experience.” Most high schools have traditions. Maybe it’s a fight song or a pregame ritual. But few, if any, have a tradition built around serving its community like Mesa High. The tradition isn’t just about the school, it’s about the entire community. It’s what makes Peterson and other faculty members so proud to represent the school and why it is important to continue the tradition. The event grows every year. In August, the school sent 12 buses loaded with 300 students to the cemetery. Students work together to clean tombstones and foliage at the City of Mesa Cemetery, which is nearly 140 years old. (Photo courtesy of Steven Lewis) “It’s an opportunity for them to serve the community and give back,” Peterson said. “They enjoy the camaraderie, being out there with each other and doing service together. It’s always more fun to do service when you’re doing it with friends and people on your team or in your club.” The students all rave about it. For them, it’s not an obligation, but a fun community service that they look forward to all year. “I just like helping out the community,” senior lineman Troy Reynolds said. “I get a warm feeling inside every time I do it.” Senior wide receiver Tre Brown added: “It’s a fun experience to go out there and laugh, talk, bond with the teammates in other sports and other clubs out there. It’s a great tradition.” And for those who have seen family members take part in the project, it is something to look forward to for multiple years. It’s a tradition that they hope will “Carry on.” “Everyone is having fun, picking up trash, cleaning up the cemetery,” McKy Peters said. “I’m a third generation at Mesa. My brother just turned 31, and he did it when he was at Mesa. So it has been around for a long time.” Read more stories from the Phoenix Area on Signals A Z.com. Coming soon to Talking Glass Media and featured in your Winter Editions of Badger Nation, Cougar Country, and Prescott Valley Recreation Guide featuring Bear Nation! Read More Here

GOP Hopefuls Turn To Pence To Broaden Appeal Before Election https://digitalarizonanews.com/gop-hopefuls-turn-to-pence-to-broaden-appeal-before-election/ By JILL COLVIN – Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. By refusing to go along with the then-president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But the final weeks of this year’s intensely competitive midterm elections suggest that the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential 2024 White House campaign. The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand draw for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting his election lies. Pence has traveled the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees. For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That’s the case in Arizona, with a critical Senate race this year and where the 2024 presidential campaign will be hotly contested. Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary and win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents. “He takes a little bit of the edge off Masters with a lot of voters,” veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed said. “You know Masters is new to this, first-time candidate, said some silly things he probably regrets during the campaign. But now it’s all about undecided voters in Maricopa County. There’s not a lot more science behind this.” The endorsements can seem jarring given that Pence has spent much of the past year pushing back on Trump’s election lies, which spurred the violent mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6 while Pence was trying to preside over the formal congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Pence and members of his family had to be rushed to safety and were held for hours in an underground loading dock as the marauders roamed the building’s hallways. Some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a makeshift gallows outside. Pence agreed to endorse Masters even though Masters, during the primary, baselessly denied the 2020 election results. Masters recorded a video in which he said he thought Trump had won and claimed on his website that “if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today.” Trump endorsed Masters in June, saying in a statement: “Blake knows that the “Crime of the Century” took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.” Pence made no mention of that in Phoenix on Tuesday. “What I came here to Arizona to say is not only is Blake Masters the right choice for the United States Senate, the people of Arizona deserve to know Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the Senate,” Pence said. The former vice president, along with Masters and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, took just three questions, two of them from conservative websites. When a television reporter tried to ask Masters if Pence was right to move forward with certifying Biden’s victory, the candidate was quickly cut off by a Masters spokesman. Masters is not the only election denier Pence has endorsed or assisted. Two days after the Masters event, Pence was in Georgia headlining a fundraiser for Burt Jones, the nominee for lieutenant governor. Jones not only embraced Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and called for a statewide investigation into the 2020 race, but he also signed on to be one of his state’s fake alternate electors — a scheme now under criminal investigation. Last month, Pence was in New Hampshire for Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who also spent his primary campaign telling voters the race was stolen from Trump. Marc Short, a longtime Pence adviser, declined to set a red line for candidates Pence would and would not endorse. “It’s more about making sure that he’s being a team player where he needs to be,” Short said. “I think as a lot of these candidates look to solidify the party behind them, Pence can be helpful.” There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, underscored by repeated audits, court cases and the conclusions of Trump’s own Department of Justice. Still, support of false election claims run deep among GOP candidates this year. The Masters endorsement notably came days after a debate in which he made headlines for seeming to have shifted from his most outrageous rigged election claims. Masters instead blamed Trump’s loss on “big tech,” “big media” and the FBI, and under repeated questioning, acknowledged he hadn’t seen evidence the vote count or results were manipulated, as Trump has claimed. (After the Pence visit, Masters told Fox News he stood by what he had said on his now-modified website, adding: “I think if everyone followed the law, President Trump would be in the Oval Office.”) Short said Pence was happy to support candidates who had moved past 2020, as the former vice president has urged the party to do. “If people sort of acknowledged a mistaken position before, he certainly wants to reward that,” Short said. “I think he wants to help conservatives first and foremost, but if people who were elected are now adopting new position about the events of Jan. 6,” Short said, “then that’s a positive.” Jones and Bolduc have also tried to distance themselves from their previous statements. In interviews, Jones has tried to play down the fake elector slate as a “procedural move,” while noting that voters rarely mention the 2020 race. “Look he’s been consistent that he does not believe the 2020 election was rigged. He said that Joe Biden is president,” said Jones campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson, who noted that Pence and Jones have a long-standing relationship and, like Masters, share former Pence staff. “For us, it was sort of a no-brainer because the vice president’s still very well liked in Georgia, very well received. And we’re in that final stretch where any Republican coming to raise money, support, is a value add,” he said. “I think it’s certainly a nod to more mainstream kind of moderate Republicans. I think that’s a fair assessment,” he said. Bolduc claimed throughout the primary race that the 2020 election had been stolen. During a debate, he proclaimed that “Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by” and adding, “I’m not switching horses, baby.” But right after the GOP primary — and a day after appearing with Pence — he told Fox News it was time to move on. “You know, we live and learn, right? And I’ve done a lot of research on this and I’ve spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party. And I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive on this: The election was not stolen,” Bolduc said. He described Biden as “the legitimate president of this country.” (Earlier this month Bolduc changed his position again, saying he wasn’t sure what happened with the election. “I can’t say that it was stolen or not. I don’t have enough information.”) Reed, the party strategist, said he understood the rationale behind Pence’s endorsements. “He’s a big picture party guy. And it doesn’t surprised me that he’s hustling as hard as he is for people who may not be 100% Pencers,” he said. “By doing these kinds of events,” he added, “they’re going to take another look at him if he decides to run.” Pence’s political future is an open question. Trump, who is widely expected to run again, remains deeply popular with Republican primary voters and would almost certainly be an early front-runner for the 2024 nomination. Pence has said his own decision about running will not be influenced by Trump, though allies often voice skepticism that Trump ultimately will end up on the ballot. Beyond his endorsements, Pence has spent his time since leaving office performing a careful balancing act. He has distanced himself from Trump’s most corrosive statements while promoting what he calls the Trump-Pence agenda. Pence, like generations of could-be candidates, has used the primaries as an opportunity to forge new relationships and build goodwill, and continues to align himself with conservative causes. His trips often include college visits and speeches before anti-abortion groups. Other potential 2024 candidates have campaigned for the Republican cause, including Texas Sen. Ted Cuz, who is on a monthlong, 17-state “Take Back America” bus tour. Trump has held rallies and finally begun spending a small part of his vast political fortune to help his favored candidates. “I think he and all these guys are out there really helping the Republicans to win back the House and win back the Senate. It’s an effort that everybody needs to contribute to,” said David McIntosh, president of the influential Club for Growth, who has joined Pence at several events. McIntosh, who has been at odds with Trump in recent months, said he believes the electorate is “moving on” from 2020 “to what’s on the ballot this election.” He said candidates such as Masters “want to show that they’ve got support from all different types of Republicans, everyone that’s out there, so there’s a unity theme.” “It’s always been my view,” he added, “that leaders like that help themselves by helping.” But being popular enough that candidates want to campaign with you is very different from being popular enough to be competitive in a presidential primary, and rig...

Biden Turning To Trump-Era Rule To Expel Venezuelan Migrants https://digitalarizonanews.com/biden-turning-to-trump-era-rule-to-expel-venezuelan-migrants-2/ WASHINGTON – Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S. The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds. “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels. “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S. Why the turnaround? For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers. Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere. After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S. Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings. But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials. A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year. By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage. So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42. It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.” Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico. The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S. “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.” A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless. “People have a right to seek asylum — regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt. Long reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. 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GOP Hopefuls Turn To Mike Pence To Their Broaden Appeal Before The November Election https://digitalarizonanews.com/gop-hopefuls-turn-to-mike-pence-to-their-broaden-appeal-before-the-november-election/ In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. By refusing to go along with the then-president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But the final weeks of this year’s intensely competitive midterm elections suggest that the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential 2024 White House campaign. The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand draw for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting his election lies. Pence has traveled the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees. For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That’s the case in Arizona, with a critical Senate race this year and where the 2024 presidential campaign will be hotly contested. Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary and win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents. “He takes a little bit of the edge off Masters with a lot of voters,” veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed said. “You know Masters is new to this, first-time candidate, said some silly things he probably regrets during the campaign. But now it’s all about undecided voters in Maricopa County. There’s not a lot more science behind this.” The endorsements can seem jarring given that Pence has spent much of the past year pushing back on Trump’s election lies, which spurred the violent mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6 while Pence was trying to preside over the formal congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Pence and members of his family had to be rushed to safety and were held for hours in an underground loading dock as the marauders roamed the building’s hallways. Some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a makeshift gallows outside. Former Vice President Mike Pence gestures as he addresses the Convocation at Liberty University on Sep. 14, 2022, in Lynchburg, Va. (Steve Helber/AP) Pence agreed to endorse Masters even though Masters, during the primary, baselessly denied the 2020 election results. Masters recorded a video in which he said he thought Trump had won and claimed on his website that “if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today.” Trump endorsed Masters in June, saying in a statement: “Blake knows that the “Crime of the Century” took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.” Pence made no mention of that in Phoenix on Tuesday. “What I came here to Arizona to say is not only is Blake Masters the right choice for the United States Senate, the people of Arizona deserve to know Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the Senate,” Pence said. The former vice president, along with Masters and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, took just three questions, two of them from conservative websites. When a television reporter tried to ask Masters if Pence was right to move forward with certifying Biden’s victory, the candidate was quickly cut off by a Masters spokesman. Masters is not the only election denier Pence has endorsed or assisted. Two days after the Masters event, Pence was in Georgia headlining a fundraiser for Burt Jones, the nominee for lieutenant governor. Jones not only embraced Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and called for a statewide investigation into the 2020 race, but he also signed on to be one of his state’s fake alternate electors — a scheme now under criminal investigation. Last month, Pence was in New Hampshire for Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who also spent his primary campaign telling voters the race was stolen from Trump. Marc Short, a longtime Pence adviser, declined to set a red line for candidates Pence would and would not endorse. “It’s more about making sure that he’s being a team player where he needs to be,” Short said. “I think as a lot of these candidates look to solidify the party behind them, Pence can be helpful.” There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, underscored by repeated audits, court cases and the conclusions of Trump’s own Department of Justice. Still, support of false election claims run deep among GOP candidates this year. Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Kaufmann Family Harvest Dinner on Sept. 29, 2022, in Wilton, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP) The Masters endorsement notably came days after a debate in which he made headlines for seeming to have shifted from his most outrageous rigged election claims. Masters instead blamed Trump’s loss on “big tech,” “big media” and the FBI, and under repeated questioning, acknowledged he hadn’t seen evidence the vote count or results were manipulated, as Trump has claimed. (After the Pence visit, Masters told Fox News he stood by what he had said on his now-modified website, adding: “I think if everyone followed the law, President Trump would be in the Oval Office.”) Short said Pence was happy to support candidates who had moved past 2020, as the former vice president has urged the party to do. “If people sort of acknowledged a mistaken position before, he certainly wants to reward that,” Short said. “I think he wants to help conservatives first and foremost, but if people who were elected are now adopting new position about the events of Jan. 6,” Short said, “then that’s a positive.” Jones and Bolduc have also tried to distance themselves from their previous statements. In interviews, Jones has tried to play down the fake elector slate as a “procedural move,” while noting that voters rarely mention the 2020 race. “Look he’s been consistent that he does not believe the 2020 election was rigged. He said that Joe Biden is president,” said Jones campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson, who noted that Pence and Jones have a long-standing relationship and, like Masters, share former Pence staff. “For us, it was sort of a no-brainer because the vice president’s still very well liked in Georgia, very well received. And we’re in that final stretch where any Republican coming to raise money, support, is a value add,” he said. “I think it’s certainly a nod to more mainstream kind of moderate Republicans. I think that’s a fair assessment,” he said. Bolduc claimed throughout the primary race that the 2020 election had been stolen. During a debate, he proclaimed that “Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by” and adding, “I’m not switching horses, baby.” But right after the GOP primary — and a day after appearing with Pence — he told Fox News it was time to move on. “You know, we live and learn, right? And I’ve done a lot of research on this and I’ve spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party. And I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive on this: The election was not stolen,” Bolduc said. He described Biden as “the legitimate president of this country.” (Earlier this month Bolduc changed his position again, saying he wasn’t sure what happened with the election. “I can’t say that it was stolen or not. I don’t have enough information.”) Reed, the party strategist, said he understood the rationale behind Pence’s endorsements. “He’s a big picture party guy. And it doesn’t surprised me that he’s hustling as hard as he is for people who may not be 100% Pencers,” he said. “By doing these kinds of events,” he added, “they’re going to take another look at him if he decides to run.” Pence’s political future is an open question. Trump, who is widely expected to run again, remains deeply popular with Republican primary voters and would almost certainly be an early front-runner for the 2024 nomination. Pence has said his own decision about running will not be influenced by Trump, though allies often voice skepticism that Trump ultimately will end up on the ballot. Beyond his endorsements, Pence has spent his time since leaving office performing a careful balancing act. He has distanced himself from Trump’s most corrosive statements while promoting what he calls the Trump-Pence agenda. Pence, like generations of could-be candidates, has used the primaries as an opportunity to forge new relationships and build goodwill, and continues to align himself with conservative causes. His trips often include college visits and speeches before anti-abortion groups. Other potential 2024 candidates have campaigned for the Republican cause, including Texas Sen. Ted Cuz, who is on a monthlong, 17-state “Take Back America” bus tour. Trump has held rallies and finally begun spending a small part of his vast political fortune to help his favored candidates. “I think he and all these guys are out there really helping the Republicans to win back the House and win back the Senate. It’s an effort that everybody needs to contribute to,” said David McIntosh, president of the influential Club for Growth, who has joined Pence at several events. McIntosh, who has been at odds with Trump in recent months, said he believes the electorate is “moving on” from 2020 “to what’s on the ballot this election.” He said candidates such as Masters “want to show that they’ve got support from all different types of Republicans, everyone that’s out the...

In Wisconsin, Voters Shrug Off GOP Candidate’s Jan. 6 Tie https://digitalarizonanews.com/in-wisconsin-voters-shrug-off-gop-candidates-jan-6-tie/ LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Derrick Van Orden was among the thousands of people who went to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” rally headlined by then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. Afterward, Van Orden was photographed on or near the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, where rioters violently breached the building in one of American democracy’s darkest days. Now Van Orden, a Donald Trump-endorsed retired Navy SEAL who says he took no part in the riot and did not set foot on the Capitol grounds, appears poised to win the U.S. House seat held since 1997 by retiring Democratic Rep. Ron Kind. Voters in the southwestern Wisconsin district say they are more concerned about daily economic issues than what happened on Jan. 6. “He shouldn’t have been there. Don’t get me wrong,” said Rosemary Hermanson, a 60-year-old political independent from Black River Falls. “I’m just worried about feeding myself and making sure I’ve got gas to get to my cancer treatments.” That’s the challenge for Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff as he scrambles in the final weeks of the Nov. 8 election to sound the alarm and raise money, trying to make Van Orden’s attendance on Jan. 6 a disqualifier for holding elective office. The stakes are high as Pfaff’s party seek to stop the slide in this once-Democratic leaning part of the country. “I think it’s the No. 1 issue. It’s the underlying issue of this race,” Pfaff said in an interview. “Jan. 6 opened up the window into his soul. And what we saw there, is we saw something that is unfortunately very dark.” Pfaff acknowledges he is trailing the Republican, who has a vast fundraising edge. Van Orden’s campaign declined to make him available for an interview with The Associated Press. Some voters in the 3rd Congressional District, a sprawling landscape of dairy farms, small manufacturing hubs and college towns, have sharply negative views of what happened Jan. 6. But that doesn’t mean they blame Van Orden. Hermanson said she had not seen Pfaff’s ads on the issue. Nor had Beth Hammond, a 49-year-old Republican from nearby Taylor who said the economy, followed closely by gun rights, top her list of concerns. “Even if I’d seen his ads, it wouldn’t matter to me,” she said. “It wasn’t a good thing. But it’s not what’s at the heart of peoples’ lives now.” Even Susan Burlingame, a Democrat in Black River Falls who will be voting against Van Orden, said it wasn’t because of the riot. “I’m afraid he’s going to cut Social Security,” said Burlingame, 80. “The other stuff is just noise.” Their ambivalence about Pfaff’s key strategy is noteworthy, considering all three are from Jackson County, the most closely divided among the 18 in the district. It’s territory that Democrat Barack Obama won twice in his White House races, but has become more conservative as rural areas generally have done so. Trump carried the district in 2016 and 2020. Perhaps mindful of the shift, Kind chose not to run for a 14th term after beating Van Orden by less than 3 percentage points two years ago. The district runs from north of the university town of Menomonie in the northwest down through the Mississippi River bluffs and rolling hills of the picturesque Driftless Area and includes Chippewa Falls, home of Leinenkugel beer. From the Illinois border, it stretches 250 miles north past Prairie du Chien, Van Orden’s home, known for its Cabela’s outdoor gear distribution center and 19th century riverside historic sites. Pfaff, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture appointee and past state secretary of agriculture, says Van Orden’s presence at Trump’s rally, on Jan. 6, held shortly before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, suggests he would have a hard time building relationships in Congress. “How is he going to do any of this when his character and judgment is the way it is?” said Pfaff, 54, who’s from La Crosse. Van Orden, 53, has said he was in Washington for political meetings when he decided to attend the rally near the White House. He says he did not march to the Capitol and he condemned the violence. A Facebook photo from that day appears to show Van Orden posing with a small handful of protesters on the Capitol grounds. Van Orden has said the suggestion he was within the restricted area is “inaccurate.” Pfaff and his Democratic allies are trying to make a late push. Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, from the neighboring district that includes Democratic-dominated Madison, campaigned this month with Pfaff on the five smaller University of Wisconsin system campuses in the district. The hope was to scoop up supporters in the small Democratic-leaning cities from Platteville in the south to Menomonie in the north. Pocan fretted that national Democrats have so far failed to commit to pouring late money into the race and would reconsider. Van Orden had raised more than six times as much as Pfaff through early summer. Pfaff was expected to have raised a little more than $700,000 in the third quarter, still certain to leave him trailing Van Orden by millions in overall money raised. Outside conservative groups were expected to spend more than $1 million for Van Orden in the final weeks, while an independent group had committed to spending roughly $500,000 on an ad condemning him. The House Democrats’ super political action committee has reserved $1.68 million in advertising time for Pfaff, but could choose to shift that elsewhere. GOP congressional strategists said the uncertainty over Pfaff’s money was telling. ___ Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report. Read More Here

Recruiting Roundup: Huskies Extend A New Offer & Other Notes https://digitalarizonanews.com/recruiting-roundup-huskies-extend-a-new-offer-other-notes/ Happy Sunday Husky fans. With the team now at 5-2 the staff is able to show recruits that the team is better than it was last year and they are on an upward trajectory. This last week some new offers went out and the Husky staff utilized the home game to bring some recruits on campus (unofficially). 2024 3 star running back Ca’lil Valentine from Chandler HS, AZ was extended an offer from the Husky staff yesterday. Rated as the 45th best running back in the country and 14th best prospect in AZ, Valentine is an explosive running back that can make great cuts and then accelerate through the hole. So far Arizona and ASU are the Pac 12 schools that have offered him (now obviously UW has). 3 star running back Kyren Condoll from Rancho Cucamonga HS, CA was extended an offer by the Husky staff earlier this week. Rated as the 55th best cornerback in the country, Condoll holds offers from Arizona, ASU, Oregon State, Duke, and Colorado. Listed at 6’2”’and around 180 pounds, Condoll is a bigger cornerback who is just starting to go through the recruiting process and will be a name to keep an eye on. The Huskies used the home game to host some unofficial visitors from the 2023 and 2024 classes. Among those that made their way to campus was Leroy Bryant a 3 star cornerback who is committed to the Huskies and looks like he will play pretty early. 2024 prospects Malachi Durant, a 3 star wideout from in-state, and 4 star athlete Nathaniel Frazier from Mater Dei HS, CA also made his way up to campus to check out the Huskies. Both players are priority recruits in the 2024 class for the dawgs. That is all for today and as always follow me @asieverkropp. Read More Here

Jeremy Hunt Warns Tory MPs Against Trying To Oust PM https://digitalarizonanews.com/jeremy-hunt-warns-tory-mps-against-trying-to-oust-pm/ Media caption, WATCH: Hard decisions ahead, says Jeremy Hunt By Paul Seddon Politics reporter Jeremy Hunt has appealed to Tory MPs to get behind Liz Truss, as she battles to restore credibility with backbenchers. A series of damaging U-turns over her tax-cutting plans has led some MPs to talk privately about how to remove her from office. Her new chancellor told the BBC a fresh leadership campaign was “the last thing that people really want”. But a senior backbench Conservative MP has called for Ms Truss to go as prime minister, saying “the game is up”. Mr Hunt replaced Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, after Ms Truss fired the former chancellor. His sacking followed market turmoil in response to £45bn of unfunded tax cuts included in the mini-budget. In a series of humiliating U-turns to restore market confidence, Ms Truss has abandoned plans to scrap the top income tax rate and reversed a planned freeze to corporation tax she had put at the centre of her Tory leadership campaign. Mr Hunt held talks with Ms Truss at her official Chequers country retreat earlier, as they plan a programme of tax hikes and spending cuts to be delivered on 31 October. The new chancellor told Laura Kuenssberg he was not ruling out further reversals of tax cuts from last month’s mini-budget, adding he was not “taking anything off the table”. According to reports in the Sunday Times, Ms Truss is also preparing to delay by a year her 1p cut to the basic rate of income tax. The Treasury has not confirmed the reports, adding: “We cannot speculate on any tax changes outside of a fiscal event.” Asked whether he could rule out scrapping more of the tax cuts, Mr Hunt said he wanted to keep as many of them “as I possibly can”. “We are going to have to take some very difficult decisions both on spending and on tax,” he said in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, which was recorded on Saturday. “Taxes are not going to go down as quickly as people thought and some taxes are going to go up,” he added. “So it’s going to be very, very difficult and I think we have to be honest with people about that.” Image source, Reuters Image caption, Mr Hunt held talks with the prime minister at Chequers, her official country residence, on Sunday Meanwhile, in a further blow to the prime minister, US President Joe Biden has criticised tax cuts from her mini-budget. In an unusual intervention, he told reporters during a campaign visit that the outcome was “predictable” and “I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake”. He added that he had disagreed with “the idea of cutting taxes on the super wealthy”, but it was up to the UK to “make that judgment, not me”. In his BBC interview, Mr Hunt said the government’s debt reduction plan, due in two weeks’ time, would be a “very big fiscal statement”, and that every government department would be asked to make savings. However, he insisted the changes would not be “anything like” the period of austerity which began in 2010, when predecessor George Osborne oversaw large cuts in public spending. Despite the U-turns, Mr Hunt insisted Ms Truss remained committed to her goal of promoting economic growth, but she had changed “the way we’re going to get there”. “She’s listened, she’s changed, she’s been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics which is to change tack,” he added. ‘The game is up’ Under current party rules, Ms Truss is safe from a formal leadership challenge for a year – but newspaper reports suggest some Tory MPs have already begun talks about how to force her from office. Tactics reportedly under consideration include submitting no-confidence letters in a bid to force party bosses into a rule change, or changing party rules to allow MPs to bypass members and pick a new leader themselves. Asked whether she could survive as the prime minister, former minister Crispin Blunt told Channel 4: “No, I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed. “If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change then it will be effected.” Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who sits on the committee that decides the rules, told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House a rule change would only be considered if “sixty to seventy percent” of the party’s MPs backed a change. Speaking on Sky News, senior backbencher Robert Halfon said “of course, colleagues are unhappy with what is going on”, adding that “we’re all talking to see what can be done about it”. The chair of the Commons Education Committee went on to accuse the government of behaving like “libertarian jihadists” treating the public as “laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free market experiments”. He said he was not calling on Ms Truss to go and he worried about “further political stability” – but a “dramatic reset” was needed and “things have to improve”. Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged the prime minister to reshuffle the cabinet to extend her support across the party. He told the BBC: “There’s a huge amount of talent on the backbenches – I’m not talking about me, but there are many others that should be brought into government.” Treasury minister Andrew Griffith, speaking on Times Radio, insisted that the prime minister has the “confidence of the government”. Labour’s shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said any further public spending cuts would be “entirely because” of government “incompetence”. “I’m not even sure what this government’s economic policy is at the moment. I don’t know which bits of the budget still apply, and I don’t know what we will hear next week,” he told the BBC. Read More Here

Postal Worker Holdup Leads To Muscle Car Theft Ring Arrests https://digitalarizonanews.com/postal-worker-holdup-leads-to-muscle-car-theft-ring-arrests/ DETROIT (AP) — Thieves are using cloned key fobs to steal Dodge muscle cars and other high-powered vehicles directly from dealerships and even automakers in Michigan, then selling them for tens of thousands of dollars less than their value, according to authorities and court records. For one Ohio-based theft ring, it all came crashing down after a January holdup of a U.S. postal worker led authorities to connect several men to brazen car thefts in the Detroit area, long home to the country’s biggest automakers, including Dodge, which is now owned by international conglomerate Stellantis. Investigators then discovered that new Chargers, Challengers, Durangos and Ram pickups worth $50,000 to $100,000 were turning up in Ohio, Indianapolis and East Cost shipping ports after being sold on the street for $3,500 to $15,000, according to a criminal complaint. Thieves in the Detroit area are primarily going after Dodge vehicles with Hellcat engines, including Chargers and Challengers — “the fast ones,” Sgt. Jerry Hanna with the Macomb Auto Theft Squad said. “If a patrol car gets them, they are not stopping and they’re faster than patrol cars. They’re 150 mph all day,” he said. Instead of stealing them off the street, they’re driving them straight off dealership and assembly plant lots. Just this year, about a half-dozen vehicles — primarily Dodge Ram TRX pickups — were taken from a lot outside an assembly plant in Macomb County. After security measures were stepped up at some lots with Dodge vehicles, more than a dozen 2022 Ford F-150 Raptor pickup trucks were swiped from a plant lot in June in suburban Dearborn. More than a dozen Ford Mustang’s were stolen in early September from the automaker’s assembly plant in Flat Rock, southeast of Detroit. Thieves have targeted Dodges by using handheld electronic “pro pads” — a locksmith’s tool that can clone keys by plugging into interior ports in the vehicles, according to the federal complaint in the Ohio case. Authorities weren’t looking for stolen vehicles when they stopped Devin Rice on Jan. 31 after a postal worker in Shaker Heights, outside Cleveland, was robbed at gunpoint of a mailbox key. But court records show that a search of his car and then his home turned up not just stolen mail, bogus checks, and credit and debit cards, but also a Ram pickup, a Range Rover SUV and a Dodge with a Hellcat engine — all stolen. Rice and others were indicted in federal court in Ohio in June. Jaylen Harris, Lavelle Jones and Hakim Benjamin are charged with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen vehicles. Rice, Harris and Jones also are charged with mail theft. Their trials are scheduled next year. Harris’ attorney declined comment. The AP left email and phone messages seeking comment from attorneys for Benjamin, Rice and Jones. Harris told the FBI that he and Jones had been in contact through Instagram with people in the Detroit area to get stolen vehicles, according to the complaint. Harris said those thieves “were also selling to buyers in other areas, including Chicago and Indianapolis,” the complaint said. Videos posted on social media show how the high-horsepower vehicles outpaced and evaded police. A judge stated in a detention order that “Benjamin drove a 2022 Dodge Challenger valued at $95,000 at 120 mph down Ohio’s State Route 2 on a Sunday evening in February.” “Spike strips were eventually needed to remind Benjamin that the law required him to comply with police orders” the judge wrote. About two years ago, police in Ohio’s Ottawa County began noticing the vehicles blasting along state Route 2. The sheriff’s office got calls about reckless driving, Capt. Aaron Leist said. “These cars are going 140-150 mph. All have the Hellcat engines. We had a lot of pursuits. We did not catch them all,” he said. Investigators learned the vehicles mostly were being stolen in the Detroit area and taken to Cleveland. Some also were destined for Memphis, Tennessee, Leist said. “We started working with (Stellantis) in early 2022,” he said. “They would call us and tell us `We have these cars missing.’” A spokeswoman for Stellantis declined to comment. Added security measures at some lots have included concrete barriers, according to law enforcement. Then last fall, a dealership’s showroom northwest of Detroit was broken into. Someone drove a Ram pickup through the building’s glass wall and “all the other cars followed suit,” said Jeff Schneider, general manager at Szott Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Highland Township. “I think they were able to find some keys in a desk drawer and used them,” he added. Police tracked one of the stolen cars, a Durango Hellcat SRT valued at about $100,000, to a suburb northwest of Detroit. The driver had crashed into a brick wall while fleeing. A 2021 Dodge Durango GT, 2021 Dodge Ram TRX and a 2017 Dodge Charger Hellcat SRT were later recovered. Authorities arrested four people. They were not believed to have stolen the vehicles, but to have paid $5,000 for one. “In the Detroit area they are selling them for like $3,500,” Hanna said. “Once they get that money in their pockets they go out and steal another one.” For dealerships and their insurance companies, the cost is high. Even recovered vehicles can’t be sold for what they were once worth. Schneider said his dealership came up with an “old school” solution: parking boots. “It’s a deterrent that works amazingly,” he said. “We put boots on all the Hellcats.” Read More Here

On Kari Lake’s Campaign For Arizona Governor, The Mic Is Always Hot https://digitalarizonanews.com/on-kari-lakes-campaign-for-arizona-governor-the-mic-is-always-hot-2/ The former Phoenix TV news anchor has emerged as a Republican phenom by amplifying Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen and embracing the hard-right politics of abortion and immigration October 16, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake speaks at a campaign event at San Tan Flat in Queen Creek, Ariz., on Oct. 5. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post) PHOENIX — If you’d like to speak with Kari Lake, there are some things you should know first. One is that Kari Lake does not say “um.” Kari Lake’s words are crisp and clean and, when needed, they can be warm or they can be harsh. The more confrontational you are, the more composed Kari Lake will become. People have said Kari Lake is “Donald Trump in heels,” but really, she is Donald Trump with media training and polish. Her sentences are perfectly complete. Her hair is cropped into a familiar pixie cut, left over from 22 years on the anchor desk at Channel 10, the Fox affiliate in Phoenix, where she entered living rooms every weeknight at 5 and 9. The name Kari Lake, first and last, is known by virtually everyone in Arizona. It has power. When Kari Lake walks into a room, all eyes turn to Kari Lake. She is one of those people. The other thing you should know is this: When Kari Lake walks into a room, there will be a small lavalier microphone clipped to the collar of her dress or the lapel of her shirt. The microphone is the operational heart of Lake’s Republican campaign to become governor of Arizona. It is not the one she holds onstage, amplifying her voice to a crowd of supporters. Rather, it is connected to a camera operated by her husband, Jeff Halperin, a former videographer for the NBC affiliate in Phoenix who has run his own production company for the past 20 years. He is a constant presence, tall and bearded, at every Kari Lake rally, on the edge of every Kari Lake news conference, inside the room for every Kari Lake interview with a reporter. His lens is always trained in position, which is to say on his wife — and on you, the person on the other side of the exchange. When Kari Lake campaigns, she is also making television. The microphone is there whenever Stacey Barchenger, the Arizona Republic reporter assigned to cover Lake, tries to ask a question. “Not you,” the candidate tells Barchenger, looking her in the eye before calling on another journalist, in what has become a familiar bit on the trail. It is there when a CNN reporter tries to ask for an interview: “I’ll do an interview,” Lake says, “as long as it airs on CNN+. Does that still exist? I didn’t think so.” It is there when Dennis Welch, political editor for Phoenix’s 3TV and CBS 5, tries to question Lake, only to have Lake question the questioner: “I don’t even know: Do you guys have any viewers left?” The interactions are packaged into videos, content for her campaign to release and weaponize on social media: “Kari Lake Exposes Bias” … “Kari Lake Goes Mega Viral After Exposing Fake News” … “Watch Kari Lake Put The AZ Republic In Its Place.” Lake’s microphone captures the magnetism she brings to a stage. It also amplifies the existential danger Democrats see in her candidacy, from her election denialism to her restrictive abortion agenda to the national platform she could assume. But more than that, it is wielded as a weapon and a threat. On a recent Wednesday evening, after a Hispanic forum in the Maryvale neighborhood of Phoenix, a campaign staffer pulls me into a small backroom. The lights are bright fluorescents. Live Latin music from the stage comes booming through the walls. The night before, a campaign aide texted to say Lake would grant a short interview. “Please don’t wear jeans and we ask that you stay away from purple tops. Thank you!” the aide wrote, clarifying the next morning that they were “kidding” about the jeans. Inside the room, a chair is waiting for me. Lake is wearing royal blue, not purple. Seeing Halperin point his camera in the direction of our faces, as well as the large boom mic hanging inches overhead, I ask if I’m being recorded. “You are being recorded,” Lake confirms. She asks if it’s okay. I tell her it’s not my favorite thing. “It’s not my favorite either,” the candidate says. “But we feel we have to because the media has been so unfair that we feel we have to record everything.” She explains that the campaign releases the recording only “if we feel that we’ve been misrepresented.” If everything “goes great,” Lake says, it’s nothing to worry about. After spending her life in TV news, Lake, 53, propelled herself to the top of the GOP ticket in Arizona by claiming falsely that President Biden’s election was stolen from Trump, by embracing the hard-right politics of abortion, immigration, pandemic-era mandates and critical race theory — and by casting her television career and her former colleagues, journalists who once were her friends, as part of what she calls the corrupt and immoral “fake news media.” As a candidate, Lake has sought to use her TV news credentials to her advantage — “I know Arizona,” she often says — while simultaneously discrediting the entire enterprise. Friends from Channel 10 knew Lake as more free-spirited than Bible-loving. They say she was into Buddhism, loved her regular vacations to Jamaica, became swept up in the energy around President Barack Obama, threw big parties at her house, went out to gay bars and thrived on cultivating a television audience with the same instinct they see in her new life as a candidate for governor. In the years after Trump’s 2016 election, her politics shifted to the right in ways her colleagues found unpredictable and bewildering. On March 2, 2021, she left journalism altogether, and within three months, she launched her first campaign for office. Now she is weeks from a possible victory, driven by the energy of voters young and old — and by a Democratic opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who not only refuses to debate Lake but has struggled to communicate in the most basic ways. Arizona is both a foundational home for hard-right politics — it gave rise to Barry Goldwater in the 1960s — and an increasingly viable target for Democrats. The state will help determine future presidents, as it did in 2020, and if Lake wins, she will help oversee the management of its elections, possibly in partnership with Arizona’s Republican candidate for secretary of state, Mark Finchem, who has led the conspiracy assertions that mass fraud was at work in 2020. Lake has claimed falsely that Trump was the “real winner” of Arizona, repeating the lie with a frequency and conviction that thrills the former president and his supporters. “It’s funny,” Lake told an audience this summer, “I talk to President Trump. He goes, ‘I love it. No matter what I ask you, you always bring it right back to the election. I can ask you what the weather’s like in Arizona, and you’ll say, ‘Well, it’s nice, but how do I enjoy it when our elections are stolen and we don’t have a country?’ ” The Kari Lake campaign has become a phenomenon in Arizona. It spans multiple demographics. It draws huge crowds on a day’s notice. People arrive in Lake gear, in Trump T-shirts, in cowboy hats. Lake works the crowd, and an eddy of staff and security circles the woman at its center. Before she faces the press, a posse of supporters appear as if out of nowhere, lining up behind the candidate to form a human backdrop. When the cameras roll, they grip their Kari Lake signs and smile. And here, Lake takes over. She picks public fights with the press at almost every opportunity, to the delight of her followers and her staff, a collection of 20-somethings who snicker as she tees off, their mouths agape in admiration. It’s a show they’ve all seen before but never grow tired of watching. And it’s on display from the moment I introduce myself to Lake. “Is this paper owned by — who is it owned by?” she asks. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, owns The Washington Post. “Oh, I thought so,” she says, her voice turning hard. “You don’t give anybody fair coverage, unfortunately.” She walks away, and a gaggle of Lake staffers are waiting, laughing. “That was gonna happen. That was gonna happen,” one of them says. “She’s actually like that all the time. She’s real!” says another. “It’s not staged,” he added. “It’s real.” On a Tuesday morning in October, Lake is preparing to take the stage with Kristi L. Noem, the 50-year-old Republican governor of South Dakota who could be Lake’s closest political contemporary should she win in November. The event is a “Coffee with Kristi & Kari,” but behind a rack of makeshift curtains, in a small holding room backstage, staffers instead drink tallboy cans of Monster Energy as they monitor a playlist of “JAMZ” coming through the loudspeakers. Vape plumes fill the air. When the two women arrive, a man in the crowd, intrigued, pulls out his phone and types “Kristi Noem” into Google Images, scrolling through photos. Onstage beside her, Lake repeatedly identifies Noem as one of the country’s “two strong governors,” the other being Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, leaving out the other 26 currently serving from her party, including Arizona’s own, the term-limited Doug Ducey. She makes only passing reference to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is scheduled to visit Phoenix on Wednesday to campaign on behalf of Lake at two rallies and two fundraisers, according to a campaign aide. A day after appearing with Noem, at a saloon-style restaurant in Queen Creek, Lake speaks at a rally with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who watches from an outdoor pagoda beneath a sign that reads, “If there are idiots in power: It is because those who elected them are well represented.” During her speech, Lake calls for Cruz to replace “t...

SUNDAY FEATURE: As Arizona Law Shifts, Abortion Access Remains Limited In Flagstaff https://digitalarizonanews.com/sunday-feature-as-arizona-law-shifts-abortion-access-remains-limited-in-flagstaff/ Abortion laws in Arizona have been changing since a Supreme Court decision overturned Roe v. Wade in June, and several Flagstaff officials and healthcare providers have said they will be following the law in providing care and enforcing state legislation. “The effect of the abortion ban here in Flagstaff is the same as it is throughout the state,” Susan Shapiro, who volunteers for Indivisible Northern Arizona and the Flagstaff Abortion Alliance, said last week. “There’s virtually no surgical abortion available in the State of Arizona.” In September, a Pima County Superior Court judge ruled that Arizona can enforce an almost-complete ban on abortions. ARS 13-3063 states that “a person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than five years.” Last Friday, the Arizona Court of Appeals issued a stay that temporarily blocks enforcement of the ban. Because of the stay, abortion is currently legal in Arizona until 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions to save the pregnant person’s life or to prevent serious risk to their physical health. Arizonans younger than 18 need either permission from a legal guardian or a judicial bypass to get an abortion. “The access we have now is not permanent,” said Eloisa Lopez of the Abortion Fund of Arizona. “We don’t have laws right now that are helping us solidify it permanently into our state. The reason why we have access in this moment when we didn’t have access two weeks ago is because there’s a litigation case happening, and it’s around the pre-Roe ban, because that did take effect. ” … Since the Dobbs decision came out from the Supreme Court, we have lost access twice, we have very limited care, we now have a 15-week ban that has taken effect in the middle of all of this, and now we’re back to a place of having access to limited care up to 15 weeks.” She added: “That’s very confusing for people to stay on top of. As a community organization, we’re doing our best to get people out there for folks, but at the forefront is for people to be aware that stuff can change quickly. Having guaranteed access today, this week, is not promised to us next week.” Healthcare providers Abortion services have been limited in Flagstaff even before this summer’s changes to Arizona law. Abortions still happen in the region, however, with the Arizona Department of Health Services’s (ADHS) 2020 Advanced Vital Statistics Report listing a total of 1,510 pregnancies and 180 abortions in Coconino County for the year. Abortions ranged in maternal age from 15 to 44, with the majority (70) in 20- to 24-year-old county residents. Across Arizona, 40 deaths were attributed to “pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium” and none were attributed to “pregnancy with an abortive outcome.” Six or fewer deaths were attributed to the former in Coconino County. Some abortion services have resumed in Arizona since the stay, but for most Flagstaff residents, getting a clinical abortion will require a trip out of the city. The Flagstaff Planned Parenthood location (Flagstaff Health Center) is the only abortion clinic in northern Arizona and had limited services (medication only, not in-clinic) and hours even before the Dobbs decision. Those options shrank during the COVID-19 pandemic.  “There’s one facility for all of northern Arizona and they have not been consistent in offering services,” Lopez said. ” … It’s better than having nothing up here, but also, if people are having a hard time even trying to schedule their care, then it’s not truly meeting the needs of the community.” According to its website, accessed Friday, Flagstaff Health Center currently provides referrals to “healthcare providers in your area that offer abortion services.” The location still offers other services in Flagstaff, including pregnancy tests, birth control, emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, among others. The website also says that the Southern Arizona Health Center in Tucson currently offers abortion services. “Our goal is to bring abortion care back to our Flagstaff and Phoenix locations as soon as possible,” it added. “Check back here for updates.” Planned Parenthood Arizona has not responded to requests for comment about the services currently offered at its Flagstaff location. For those currently seeking abortion in northern Arizona, Lopez said, the nearest options are Phoenix (2 1/2 hours away, six clinics), Las Vegas (4 hours away) or Albuquerque (4 1/2 hours away). She said the Abortion Fund of Arizona had seen many northern Arizona residents travel to Phoenix or Albuquerque for the procedure, depending on state law, where they live, and the location of friends or family to stay with. “Those are the biggest factors,” she said. “If you’re trying to get care in-state, well, what’s your gestational stage, how much time do you have left to get care for the 15-week mark and how is your schedule trying to get this in quickly and if clinics have that availability? Or you can travel out of state.” Nevada has fewer restrictions on abortion, according to Lopez. For instance, it doesn’t have the 24-hour waiting period between an ultrasound consultation appointment and receiving the procedure required in Arizona law.  While Albuquerque is a close option, especially for residents of northeastern parts of the state, it might also mean longer wait times. “It’s very overwhelmed with supporting essentially half the country from the Midwest and southern states that have completely lost access,” she said. “[If] you’re traveling to New Mexico, you’re going to see longer wait times for clinic abortions.” The fund does not help people with accessing pills to self-manage abortions, as this is currently illegal in Arizona. Passed in 2021, SB 1457 states that abortion-inducing drugs can only be provided by a qualified physician and cannot be provided using delivery or mail service.  “We believe people should have abortion care however it fits best with their lives and whatever they feel most comfortable with,” she said. ” … I think what is lacking is a lot more awareness, staying informed about the criminal risk around it because [having pills shipped to you] sounds so easy. … It’s just being mindful, being aware of your legal risk around that.” She recommended the reproductive legal helpline at If/When/How and said it is working to create an updated website of current Arizona laws. Other Flagstaff healthcare providers said they were following the legal changes and would provide care accordingly. In response to a question about whether Flagstaff Medical Center’s (FMC) treatment of pregnant patients would change in response to the state ban, Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) stated that it is “staying up to date on the evolving legal landscape.” “Based on the recent Arizona state court ruling and anticipated appeals, NAH will provide appropriate guidance to our hospital staff to ensure that patients and communities in northern Arizona will continue to have access to the highest quality of care,” NAH said in a statement. “Additionally, as a participant in Medicare, NAH has been and will continue to remain compliant with the EMTALA [Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act] guidance issued by CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] to ensure that the patients we serve have access to emergency care. We continue to support healthcare professionals in their practice of medicine and delivering patient care both ethically and lawfully.” Northern Arizona University (NAU) spokesperson Kim Ott had a similar answer to questions about Campus Health Service’s (CHS) response to the ban. “This is a dynamic situation currently working its way through the judicial process,” she wrote in an email. “Ultimately, we seek to comply with all applicable laws while providing our students with information to make decisions for themselves.” CHS provides onsite access to most kinds of birth control, she said, referring patients to other local providers for services not available on campus, including tubal ligations and vasectomies. “Our CHS providers also advise patients about safe-sex practices,” she said. “NAU’s Health Promotions office focuses on education, offering free condoms and dental exams to patients, as well as sexual health education workshops and online resources. Health Promotion also partners with Coconino County for free monthly HIV testing and reduced-cost STI testing once per semester.” Hope Pregnancy Resource Center Executive Director Cathy Martin said the center has seen more clients in the past few months. “We’ve been busier providing both pregnancy tests and ultrasounds at our medical clinic, and providing material resources in our baby boutique,” she said. “ … It’s hard to say, but especially as far as the medical clinic, I think that when abortion access changed in Arizona, we definitely saw an increase in our medical clinic services.” The center has offered free pregnancy resources to Flagstaff residents since 1977, including pregnancy tests, obstetric ultrasounds, STI testing (for gonorrhea and chlamydia) and options for counseling, all performed by a registered nurse. It also offers parenting education and material resources, such as clothes, diapers and formula, for pregnant people and those with kids 5 and younger. Hope has never offered abortions or abortion referrals, though Martin said the center is “committed to offering accurate informati...

Trump Testifying Live Before Jan. 6 Committee Would Require 'negotiation,' Kinzinger Says https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-testifying-live-before-jan-6-committee-would-require-negotiation-kinzinger-says/ In a rare move, the House panel voted to subpoena the former president. The House Jan. 6 committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot would need to negotiate with former President Donald Trump if he were to offer to testify live in response to the panel’s subpoena, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Sunday. “I think that’s going to be a negotiation,” Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the committee, told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos Sunday. “I’ll only address that when we know for sure whether or not the president has tried to push to come in and talk to us live.” “We want to speak to the president. Look, he’s made it clear he has nothing to hide, [that’s] what he said. So he should come in on the day we asked him to come in. If he pushes off beyond that, we’ll figure out what to do next,” Kinzinger added when pressed if the committee would consider holding Trump in criminal contempt over refusing the subpoena. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Read More Here

Biden Turning To Trump-Era Rule To Expel Venezuelan Migrants https://digitalarizonanews.com/biden-turning-to-trump-era-rule-to-expel-venezuelan-migrants/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S. The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds. “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels. “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S. Why the turnaround? For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers. Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere. After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S. Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings. But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials. A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year. By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage. So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42. It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.” Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico. The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S. “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.” A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless. “People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt. ___ Long reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of immigration at https://apnews.com/hub/immigration Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Read More Here