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Xi Jinping's Expected Coronation Begins As China's Communist Party Congress Gets Underway | CNN https://digitalarizonanews.com/xi-jinpings-expected-coronation-begins-as-chinas-communist-party-congress-gets-underway-cnn/ How Xi Jinping transformed from privileged child to fierce supporter of the Communist Party 04:25 – Source: CNN Hong Kong CNN  —  The expected coronation for China’s supreme leader Xi Jinping has officially begun, as the ruling Communist Party convenes a week-long meeting to extoll his first decade in power – and to usher in a likely new era of strongman rule. Amid heightened security, escalated zero-Covid restrictions and a frenzy of propaganda and censorship, the party kicks off its most consequential national congress in decades in Beijing on Sunday morning. At the 20th Party Congress, Xi, who came to power in 2012, is poised to secure a third term as the party’s general secretary, breaking with recent precedent and paving the way for potential lifelong rule. The expected anointment will cement the 69-year-old’s status as China’s most powerful leader since late Chairman Mao Zedong, who ruled China until his death aged 82. It will also have a profound impact on the world, as Xi doubles down on an assertive foreign policy to boost China’s international clout and rewrite the US-led global order. At the heart of the Chinese capital, nearly 2,300 handpicked party delegates from around the country have gathered in the Great Hall of the People for the highly choreographed event. Sitting in neat rows with face masks on, they await Xi to deliver a lengthy work report that will take stock of the party’s achievements over the past five years and lay out in broad strokes its policy priorities for the next five. Observers will be closely watching for signs of the party’s policy direction when it comes to its uncompromising zero-Covid policy, handling of steep economic challenges, and stated goal of “reunifying” with Taiwan – a self-governing democracy Beijing claims as its own despite never having controlled. The meetings will be mostly held behind close doors throughout the week. When delegates reemerge at the end of the congress next Saturday, they will conduct a ceremonial vote to rubber stamp Xi’s work report and approve changes made to the party constitution – which might bestow Xi with new titles to further strengthen his power. The delegates will also select the party’s new Central Committee, which will hold its first meeting the next day to appoint the party’s top leadership – the Politburo and its Standing Committee, following decisions already hashed out behind the scenes by party leaders before the congress. The congress will be a major moment of political triumph for Xi, but it also comes during a period of potential crisis. Xi’s insistence on an uncompromising zero-Covid policy has fueled mounting public frustration and crippled economic growth. Meanwhile, diplomatically, his “no-limits” friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has further strained Beijing’s ties with the West following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In the lead-up to the congress, officials across China drastically ramped up restrictions to prevent even minor Covid outbreaks, imposing sweeping lockdowns and increasingly frequent mass Covid tests over a handful of cases. Yet infections caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant have continued to flare. On Saturday, China reported nearly 1,200 infections, including 14 in Beijing. Public anger toward zero-Covid came to the fore Thursday in an exceptionally rare protest against Xi in Beijing. Online photos showed two banners were unfurled on a busy overpass denouncing Xi and his policies, before being taken down by police. “Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” one banner reads. “Go on strike, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping,” read the other. The Chinese public have paid little attention to the party’s congresses in the past – they have no say in the country’s leadership reshuffle, or the making of major policies. But this year, many have pinned their hopes on the congress to be a turning point for China to relax its Covid policy. A series of recent articles in the party’s mouthpiece, however, suggest that could be wishful thinking. The People’s Daily hailed zero-Covid as the “best choice” for the country, insisting it is “sustainable and must be followed.” On Saturday, on the eve of the congress, party spokesman Sun Yeli told a news conference China’s Covid measures have ensured the country’s extremely low rate of infections and deaths, and enabled “sustained and stable operations of the economy and society.” “With everything considered, China’s epidemic prevention measures are the most economical and effective,” Sun said. “Our prevention and control strategies and measures will become more scientific, more accurate, and more effective,” he said. “We firmly believe that the dawn is ahead, and persistence is victory.” Read More Here

Cross Country: Lancer Invitational | ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com https://digitalarizonanews.com/cross-country-lancer-invitational-allsportstucson-com/ Kylie Wild. (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson) The 3rd Annual John Gleeson Lancer Invitational was held Saturday morning at the Rolling Hills Golf Course. The Ironwood Ridge boys scored 64 points to beat Brophy (81) and Salpointe (113) took third place. On the girl’s side, Xavier (36) beat Salpointe (60) and Rincon/University (102)… LINK: MORE AT AZPREPS365 Salpointe standout Mike Urbanski #azpreps365 pic.twitter.com/g2RoBVl0CA — Andy Morales (@AndyMorales8) October 15, 2022 LINK: TEAM RESULTS FOLLOW @ANDYMORALES8 ON TWITTER Named one of “Arizona’s Heart & Sol” by KOLD and Casino del Sol, Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA as the top high school reporter in 2014, he was awarded the Ray McNally Award in 2017 and a 2019 AZ Education News recognition. He was a youth, high school and college coach for over 30 years. He was the first in Arizona to write about high school beach volleyball and high school girls wrestling and his unique perspective can only be found here and on AZPreps365.com. Andy is a Southern Arizona voting member of the Ed Doherty Award, recognizing the top football player in Arizona, and he was named a Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly for 2016. Andy was named an Honorary Flowing Wells Caballero in 2019, became a member of the Sunnyside Los Mezquites Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2021 and he was a member of the Amphi COVID-19 Blue Ribbon Committee. He earned a Distinguished Service Award from Amphitheater and he was recognized by the Sunnyside School District and by Tucson City Councilman Richard Fimbres. Contact Andy Morales at amoralesmytucson@yahoo.com Read More Here

Native Americans Recall Torture, Hatred At Boarding Schools https://digitalarizonanews.com/native-americans-recall-torture-hatred-at-boarding-schools/ MISSION, S.D. (AP) — After her mother died when Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier was just four years old, she was put into a Native American boarding school in South Dakota and told her native Lakota language was “devil’s speak.” She recalls being locked in a basement at St. Francis Indian Mission School for weeks as punishment for breaking the school’s strict rules. Her long braids were shorn in a deliberate effort to stamp out her cultural identify. And when she broke her leg in an accident, Whirlwind Soldier said she received shoddy care leaving her with pain and a limp that still hobbles her decades later. “I thought there was no God, just torture and hatred,” Whirlwind Soldier testified during a Saturday event on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation led by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, as the agency confronts the bitter legacy of a boarding school system that operated in the U.S. for more than a century. Now 78 and still living on the reservation, Whirlwind Soldier said she was airing her horrific experiences in hopes of finally getting past them. “The only thing they didn’t do was put us in (an oven) and gas us,” she said, comparing the treatment of Native Americans in the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries to the Jewish Holocaust during World War II. “But I let it go,” she later added. “I’m going to make it.” Saturday’s event was the third in Haaland’s yearlong “Road to Healing” initiative for victims of abuse at government-backed boarding schools, after previous stops in Oklahoma and Michigan. Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support the schools. The stated goal was to “civilize” Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, but that was often carried out through abusive practices. Religious and private institutions that ran many of the schools received federal funding and were willing partners. Most closed their doors long ago and none still exist to strip students of their identities. But some, including St. Francis, still function as schools — albeit with drastically different missions that celebrate the cultural backgrounds of their Native students. Former St. Francis student Ruby Left Hand Bull Sanchez traveled hundreds of miles from Denver to attend Saturday’s meeting. She cried as she recalled almost being killed as a child when a nun stuffed lye soap down her throat in response to Sanchez praying in her native language. “I want the world to know,” she said. Accompanying Haaland was Wizipan Garriott, a Rosebud Sioux member and principal deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs. Garriott described how boarding schools were part of a long history of injustices against his people that began with the widespread extermination of their main food source — bison, also known as buffalo. “First they took our buffalo. Then our land was taken, then our children, and then our traditional form of religion, spiritual practices,” he said. “It’s important to remember that we Lakota and other Indigenous people are still here. We can go through anything.” The first volume of an investigative report released by the Interior Department in May identified more than boarding 400 schools that the federal government supported beginning in the late 19th century and continuing well into the 1960s. It also found at least 500 children died at some of the schools, though that number is expected to increase dramatically as research continues. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition says it’s tallied about 100 more schools not on the government list that were run by groups such as churches. “They all had the same missions, the same goals: ‘Kill the Indian, save the man,’” said Lacey Kinnart, who works for the Minnesota-based coalition. For Native American children, Kinnart said the intention was “to assimilate them and steal everything Indian out of them except their blood, make them despise who they are, their culture, and forget their language.” South Dakota had 31 of the schools including two on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation — St. Francis and the Rosebud Agency Boarding and Day School. The Rosebud Agency school, in Mission, operated through at least 1951 on a site now home to Sinte Gleska University, where Saturday’s meeting happened. All that remains of the boarding school is a gutted-out building that used to house the dining hall, according to tribal members. When the building caught fire about five years ago, former student Patti Romero, 73, said she and others were on hand to cheer its destruction. “No more worms in the chili,” said Romero, who attended the school from ages 6 to 15 and said the food was sometimes infested. A second report is pending in the investigation into the schools launched by Haaland, herself a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and the first Native American cabinet secretary. It will cover burial sites, the schools’ impact on Indigenous communities and also try to account for federal funds spent on the troubled program. Congress is considering a bill to create a boarding school “truth and healing commission,” similar to one established in Canada in 2008. It would have a broader scope than the Interior Department’s investigation into federally run boarding schools and subpoena power, if passed. ___ This story has been corrected to accurately refer to Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier. Read More Here

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McDermott: In Today’s Republican Party, Hypocrisy Isn’t A Bug, It’s A Feature https://digitalarizonanews.com/mcdermott-in-todays-republican-party-hypocrisy-isnt-a-bug-its-a-feature/ To hear Democrats and left-leaning pundits tell it, Herschel Walker’s abortion scandal has practically sealed his fate in Georgia’s Senate race. The former NFL star turned staunchly anti-choice Republican nominee is accused of having paid for one abortion for an ex-girlfriend, then unsuccessfully urging her to get a second one, and then all but abandoning the resulting child. On its face, Democratic glee is merited by the fact that the story is both credible (though Walker vehemently denies it) and clearly at odds with stated Republican principles opposing abortion and supporting family values — all of it infused with that most toxic of political poisons, hypocrisy. But that’s where Walker’s critics look almost adorably naïve. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that Republicans no longer consider shameless hypocrisy in their politicians to be a bug. In fact, in today’s win-at-all-costs GOP, it’s a feature. Walker is one of a string of shady Republican midterm nominees who have been essentially forced upon the party by that sterling judge of character, Donald Trump. The former president relishes the role of kingmaker, and his first, second and only criterion for lending his support to candidates is how utterly they bow and scrape to him and imitate his noxious brand of politics. But even among that crowd, Walker stands out in his unfitness for office. Well before the current abortion controversy, his campaign was in constant damage control over his shifting account of how many children he has with different women and his general incoherence on policy issues. The one issue he’s been clear on, though, is abortion: He has called for a national ban in all cases, even for rape, incest or to save the woman’s life. So when The Daily Beast reported recently on a woman who said Walker paid for her abortion in 2009, his alleged hypocrisy was naturally the core of the story. Walker initially denied even knowing the woman, though that became an untenable strategy after it emerged that she is the mother of one of his children. He hasn’t denied giving the woman $700 and a get-well card shortly after her abortion, but he maintains the two things are unrelated. “I give money to people all the time,” Walker told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Oddly, that airtight explanation hasn’t put the story to rest. With control of the Senate on the line, prominent Republicans have circled the wagons in Walker’s defense, somehow keeping straight faces as they claim to believe his increasingly convoluted denials. You have to wonder why they’re bothering. The race with Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock was a close one to start with, and Walker could certainly lose — but if so, it won’t be his hypocrisy that brings him down. Not in this party. This is the party, after all, that has stacked the Supreme Court with radically conservative justices by way of what may be the most startling display of political hypocrisy of our era — a high (or low) bar. By now, the stunt by top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell is practically legendary: He refused to allow Barack Obama to fill a court vacancy for the last 11 months of his presidency on the sanctimonious rationale that the voters in the next presidential election should have a say, then four years later he rammed through a Trump nominee in mere weeks to make sure they couldn’t. If hell has a wing dedicated to hypocrites, it’s surely been renamed for McConnell. Or recall how leaders of the “family values party” reacted when, before the 2016 election, video came out showing Trump bragging about how easy it is for him to grope women. Trump’s pious running mate, Mike Pence, pearl-clutched that “Mother is not going to like this” (referring, creepily enough, to his wife). But Pence, like virtually every other prominent Republican, ultimately swallowed his piety and continued kneeling to the man who personifies practically every societal vulgarity that conservatives claim to abhor. Today’s Republicans are for fiscal responsibility, except when they want to pass budget-busting tax cuts for the rich. They’re for local control, except when locally elected school boards want to institute responsible pandemic precautions. They’re for law and order, except when it comes to preventing criminals from getting guns. They’re for national security, except when a Republican former president pilfers classified government documents and refuses to give them back. They’re for free and fair elections — unless they lose. Of course, the party poohbahs don’t put it that way. To get an honest assessment of the GOP’s cynical mindset today, you have to ignore the performative gaslighting from the party’s putative grownups and listen instead to its rhetorical bomb-throwers. “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate,” opined far-right pundit Dana Loesch — adding, because she’s such a class act, that women who get abortions are “skanks.” “Winning,” declared Loesch, “is a virtue.” No. Honesty, integrity, compassion, fair play — those are virtues. Winning is a goal, with power as its end. And it is, more and more, the only end the Republican Party cares about. Kevin McDermott is a Post-Dispatch columnist and Editorial Board member. On Twitter: @kevinmcdermott Email: kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly! 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SNL Roasts Trump, Pence, And Herschel Walker’s Debate Badge In Withering Weekend Update Barrage https://digitalarizonanews.com/snl-roasts-trump-pence-and-herschel-walkers-debate-badge-in-withering-weekend-update-barrage/ Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update took brutal aim at former President Donald Trump, his VP Mike Pence, and his Georgia Senate hopeful protege Herschel Walker. Rap superstar Megan Thee Stallion was the guest host and musical guest on this week’s edition of Saturday Night Live — one of only a handful of rappers to ever pull double duty, and only the second woman rapper to do so. But many fans of the sketch show wait around just to see the musical guest — this week featured the host, as I mentioned— then catch the nightly news parody anchored by Colin Jost and Michael Che. Weekend Update became a mainstay of I from the very first episode — on October 11, 1975 — was then called simply NBC’s Saturday Night. Chevy Chase anchored solo, and opened the sketch with a gag about disappeared Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. The news parody has become a tentpole of the show. In a recent interview from Chris Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace on HBO Max, onetime producer Dick Ebersol told Wallace that Weekend Update was key to keeping viewers tuned in late into the show. This week, Che and Jost took on Trump’s unhinged response to the January 6 committee, Pence’s star turn on newly-released exhibits at the hearing, and Walker’s much-derided unintentional prop comedy, among other things. Walker faced off with incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in a televised debate for the hotly-contested race Friday night, where he drew a flag from moderators when he pulled out a “prop” during an exchange about supporting the police. Sen. Warnock referenced Walker’s prior false claim to have worked in law enforcement, saying, “I’ve never pretended to be a police officer.” As Walker responded, he pulled out the badge, and was admonished by moderator Tina Tyus-Shaw. “No, no, no, no, no,” Tyus-Shaw interrupted. “Mr. Walker, excuse me, Mr. Walker. Please, out of respect, I need to let you know, Mr. Walker, you are very well aware of the rules tonight. And you have a prop. That is not allowed. sir. I ask you to put that prop away.” After briefly protesting, Walker complied. Watch just the jokes above via NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com Read More Here

'SNL' Takes On The January 6 Committee And Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/snl-takes-on-the-january-6-committee-and-trump/ CNN — “Saturday Night Live” opened this week’s episode taking on one of the most notable moments in news as of late: the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Kenan Thompson, who played Rep. Bennie Thompson, opened the NBC variety show by introducing the crowd to the committee’s ninth and final hearing. “January 6 was one of the most dramatic and consequential moments in our nation’s history, so to fight back we assembled a team of monotone nerds to do a PowerPoint,” Thompson’s Bennie Thompson said. He then went on to say the committee has been looking into the attack for more than a year but this session would be a “little different.” “We are going to summarize our findings, hold a history-making vote and then and only then we all get to have a little treat,” Thompson’s Bennie Thompson said bringing out pastries. After this introduction, Rep, Liz Cheney, played by Heidi Gardner, took the floor. “Over the past few months, this bipartisan committee has presented our case to all Americans,” she said. “Whether you’re a Republican who’s not watching or a Democrat who’s nodding so hard your head is falling off, one person is responsible for this insurrection: Donald Trump. And one person will suffer the consequences: Me.” Gardner’s Cheney said audiences may be wondering what makes her so tough, and she said that she would ask the audience, “Who’s your dad? Is it Dick Cheney?” “So yeah, I guess you could say I have big Dick Cheney energy,” she said. The committee then went over some of its evidence including a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, played by Chloe Fineman, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, played by Sarah Sherman, in a bunker. “Hello, DoorDash? It’s Chuck Schumer,” Sherman’s Schumer said on a phone from the bunker. “Yes, we still haven’t received our lunch order. And I did change our drop off location due to some unfortunate treason, but it should have arrived by now.” The committee then went to evidence of then-President Donald Trump asking a bunch of people if he lost the election including a White House janitor who said that he did, in fact, lose the election. Trump even asked a dog who “shook his dead side to side.” “Donald was desperate to hang on to power,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, played by Andrew Dismukes, said. “While real heroes like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were the ones actually running this country. Then it immediately cut to Sherman’s Schumer and Fineman’s Pelosi talking to then-Vice President Mike Pence. “Let me tell you, if Trump comes here right now I’m going to punch him right in the face,” Fineman’s Pelosi said. “I’ll go to jail, but I’ll be happy.” Thompson’s Bennie Thompson then asked Gardner’s Cheney for any final thoughts. “The fact is that Trump planned to declare victory no matter the results,” she said. “Look at this video of the President a day before the election.” The video shown was of James Austin Johnson as Trump on the phone saying the “votes don’t matter.” “What even is a vote?” he said. The committee then took a vote to subpoena Trump. They all voted yes and thought he would actually show up. “Alright, I can already see that this is a complete zero,” Thompson’s Bennie Thompson said. “I want to thank my colleagues for throwing their summers and in some cases their careers to serve on this committee.” He then added it was “a fun country while it lasted.” After that, it led to the show’s signature phrase, “Live… from New York! It’s Saturday night!” The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Desert Mountain Cross-Country: Young Teams Look To Repeat Success At Scottsdale District Meet https://digitalarizonanews.com/desert-mountain-cross-country-young-teams-look-to-repeat-success-at-scottsdale-district-meet/ Desert Mountain runners pose with medals won at the Chandler Relays on Oct. 14. (Krystal/Amazon Photos) Tyler Bednar is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Desert Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com Desert Mountain High School cross-country continues its season at the Scottsdale Unified School District Championships on Oct. 19 at El Dorado Park. The team will compete against three other schools in the district: Arcadia High School, Chaparral High School and Saguaro High School. The boys and girls cross country teams have had plenty of success at the meet. Both varsity teams took home the district championship last season. This season, junior Kaia LaHann has emerged as the top runner for the girls. After the loss of two runners early in the season to injury, LaHann has stepped up to the challenge and delivered. LaHann has been the top finisher for the girls in all races this season. In the team’s last meet, the Desert Twilight Invitational, LaHann finished 12th while setting a personal best 19 minutes, 38.70 seconds in the 5K, which qualified for a medal. Her finish was the 10th fastest 5K in school history. Desert Mountain cross-country head coach Kevin Kemmerle notes LaHann’s impressive improvements this season. “She had great workouts this week,” Kemmerle said. “She’s been gaining confidence every week.” At the district race, she said she hopes to finish even higher. Last season, LaHann finished eighth with a 22:06.40 finish. “My goal for the district race is to PR again,” LaHann said. “I want both the girls and boys to have a top-three finish at districts.” Due to the absence of veteran girl runners, more needed to step up. Junior Ella Larsen has done that for the varsity team. Last week at the Desert Twilight Invitational, Larsen finished top 50 and cemented her spot as one of the team’s top runners. Larsen explains tactics the team uses during races. “We try to go out really fast the first mile, but we also try to keep the last mile fast too by striding to the end,” Larsen said. Larsen performed well at the Scottsdale District race last season. She took home ninth overall, finishing only four seconds behind LaHann. Larsen has specific goals for herself for the district race. “I’m trying to get to sub 20 (minutes) by the end of the season at least,” Larsen said. “I’ll be happy if I get around 20:30 or 20:10.” The 1-2 punch of LaHann and Larsen sets the Wolves up for a high finish at the district race, where they look to repeat as champions. On the other side, senior Brady McCaskill has been the top boys runner for a few seasons. McCaskill finished fourth overall at the Desert Twilight Invitational on Sept. 30 with a 16:15.6 finish, his personal best, which also qualified for a medal. McCaskill said he was pleased with his performance at the event. “It was really fun. I felt good,” McCaskill said. “Being up front was definitely a good experience. I think it was probably the best race of my season so far.” McCaskill explains his strategy to the race. “Generally, I try to start out with the front pack and hang for as long as possible,” McCaskill said. “I try to make sure I’m not starting out too fast to set myself up for the last mile.” The Scottsdale District race knows McCaskill well. In last season’s race, McCaskill was the top Desert Mountain runner and finished second overall with a 17:04.30. He expects to win the race and wants the team to place first. Sophomore Conor McGlynn finished 79th at the Desert Twilight race with a 17:46.6 finish. McGlynn explains his preparation for races is more mental than physical. “Music, having a positive attitude and socializing with the team are all helpful (in his preparation for races),” McGlynn said. McGlynn is already prepared for the District race. Last season, he finished 11th with an 18:35.70 finish. He has his hopes set higher. “This year, I expect to be in the top five,” McGlynn said. McGlynn said he hopes the boys team can repeat annual success at the district race. McGlynn explains how he prepares for each race. “My dad helps me plan it out (what he eats) because he works with cycling athletes,” McGlynn said. “I make sure I pack little snacks that I know I can have like applesauce. I just make sure I’m consistent and staying in shape.” Both teams have high hopes for the district race. The district race sets Desert Mountain up for the sectional meet that takes place Nov. 2. Read More Here

Biden: Truss Plan A 'mistake' Amid 'worldwide Inflation' https://digitalarizonanews.com/biden-truss-plan-a-mistake-amid-worldwide-inflation/ PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Saturday called embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss’ abandoned tax cut plan a “mistake,” and said he is worried that other nations’ fiscal policies may hurt the U.S. amid “worldwide inflation.” Biden said it was “predictable” that the new prime minister on Friday was forced to walk back plans to aggressively cut taxes without identifying cost savings, after Truss’ proposal caused turmoil in global financial markets. It marked an unusual criticism by a U.S. president of the domestic policy decisions of one of its closest allies. “I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake,” Biden said. “I disagree with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain.” Biden’s comments came after weeks of White House officials declining to criticize Truss’ plans, though they emphasized they were monitoring the economic fallout closely. He was speaking to reporters at an Oregon ice cream shop where he made an unannounced stop to promote the candidacy of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek, as Democrats across the country face a tough political environment amid GOP criticism of their handling of the economy. Biden said he was not concerned about the strength of the dollar — it set a new record against the British Pound in recent weeks — which benefits U.S. imports but makes the country’s exports more expensive to the rest of the world. The president said the U.S. economy “is strong as hell.” “I’m concerned about the rest of the world,” he added. “The problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries.” Said Biden: “It’s worldwide inflation, that’s consequential.” Read More Here

How Kristi Noem Rode Political Winds To Washington, Pierre And Perhaps Back To D.C. https://digitalarizonanews.com/how-kristi-noem-rode-political-winds-to-washington-pierre-and-perhaps-back-to-d-c/ Stu Whitney  |  South Dakota News Watch On the night of Sept. 21 in Washington D.C., Kristi Noem’s face appeared on a video screen at an event hosted by the Media Research Center, a far-right watchdog group that aims to “expose and neutralize the propaganda arm of the left: the national news media.” The organization was celebrating its 35th anniversary with a black-tie gala at the National Building Museum and promised to “honor those who have stood up to the left-wing mob.” South Dakota’s governor was a featured speaker. Noem, who had planned to attend in person, said her travel was curtailed by back surgery at the Mayo Clinic earlier in September for an acute condition of her lumbar spine. She submitted a videotaped message that echoed the media-bashing mantra popularized by her political ally, former president Donald Trump. “What we did during the [COVID-19] pandemic worked, even though the liberal media tried to prove otherwise,” Noem told the audience. “So now they have their sights on me in all kinds of ways. They’re attacking my family, they’re attacking every decision that I make, and they’re trying to tear South Dakota down. But that isn’t going to happen. Not on my watch.” It’s hard to imagine recent South Dakota governors Dennis Daugaard, Mike Rounds, or even the irascible Bill Janklow uttering those words on a national stage – or having the opportunity to do so. But Noem has found the national spotlight, building a brand of right-wing populism unrecognizable in many respects from her career before Trump became president and the pandemic made polarization and personal attacks common in American discourse. Noem’s supporters laud her laissez-faire approach to pandemic response and cite her national profile as positive for selling South Dakota as a land of opportunity rather than a flyover state. Business applications increased by 6.4% in August, the highest rate in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the unemployment rate stands at 2.3%. South Dakota ranked second in the amount of state-to-state migration that was inbound (69%) rather than outbound in 2021, according to Atlas Van Lines. Among other concerns, critics accuse Noem, who is up for re-election Nov. 8, of being hypocritical. She talks of less government while South Dakota reaps the benefits of millions in federal COVID and infrastructure funds, re-branded as state-level stewardship. She touts her “no lockdown” pandemic record despite closing schools in the spring of 2020 and proposing laws seeking more authority for state and county health officials to shutter businesses that violated CDC guidelines. And she lavishes praise on Trump despite saying in 2015 that some of his stances were “un-American” and that he was “not my candidate.” So what does Noem really stand for? It might depend on whom, and when, you ask. “She’s like a political chameleon,” said Lance Russell, a former state legislator from Hot Springs who also served as executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party. “I don’t think she’s ever really shed her establishment mentality, but she’ll shift her views or positions if she sees that someone or an idea is popular. She can very easily transition.” Noem didn’t agree to an interview request for this story, deferring questions to spokesperson Ian Fury. South Dakota News Watch reached out to political scientists, lawmakers and campaign experts to assess the steps and strategy of the governor’s journey from farm-raised Hamlin County candidate – a former Snow Queen with agricultural business acumen and a compelling personal story – to one of the most polarizing figures in South Dakota political history. One thing is clear: Noem’s pursuit of Republican Party relevance and extreme positions on hot-button issues such as abortion and gun rights make it nearly impossible for state residents not to have strong opinions of her, whether cheering her for a flag-waving horseback ride or chuckling at her in a Saturday Night Live lampoon in the opening sketch of its Oct. 1 season premiere. “There’s this thing called confirmation bias that says we look for information that fits our previously held beliefs, and we often reject others’ information, or don’t even see it, in the current media environment,” said Michael Card, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Dakota. “That beats the heck out of dealing with the vicissitudes of, how do we make sense of all this? It’s a lot easier just to say she’s all good, or she needs to go.” Though the 50-year-old Noem remains non-committal about aspirations to run for president in 2024 or to make the national ticket as a vice presidential nominee, her national travel and fundraising activities – she had $7.8 million in her state campaign committee as of the last reporting date – point to someone putting themselves in position to make that leap. In addition to visiting early Republican primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Noem has held a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, spoken in Dallas at the National Rifle Association convention (days after a deadly mass shooting at a Texas elementary school in May of 2022) and recently appeared in Arizona with GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who supports Trump’s baseless contention that he won the 2020 election. Noem published a book, “Not My First Rodeo,” earlier this year, capitalizing on her political bounce from the summer of 2020, when her hands-off approach to COVID restrictions and criticism of social justice demonstrations endeared her to Trump – who visited Mount Rushmore for Fourth of July fireworks – and led to a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. Two days after Trump lost the November 2020 election to Joe Biden and started making unfounded claims about voter fraud, Noem complained about “rigged election systems” from her Twitter account. If Trump runs again in 2024, there may not be a lane for Noem, who has polled around 1% in most national GOP primary polls so far. But her anti-lockdown pandemic stance, which led to regular appearances on Fox News and other conservative outlets, offered a glimpse of a political future beyond South Dakota’s borders. “Trump is one variable, but I do think COVID matters,” said Jon Schaff, a professor of government at Northern State University in Aberdeen. “When the pandemic hit, her response to it raised her profile. I suspect at that point the idea struck her that maybe she could be a national contender. She was getting a lot of publicity, she’s an ambitious person, she’s a very good politician and fundraiser, so maybe that which seemed implausible or not even on her radar took on some degree of plausibility. So at that point, how does one advance in the Republican Party? You’ve got to be on Team Trump. It’s not the only way, but it’s the easiest way.” Paving the way was Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager who helped orchestrate Noem’s travel schedule, fundraising and messaging on what the governor’s team calls a volunteer basis, but who does not come without baggage. Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery last year after being accused by a female Trump donor of unwanted sexual advances at a Las Vegas fundraiser also attended by Noem, charges that will be dropped if he follows through on a deal with prosecutors that includes eight hours of “impulse control” counseling. Noem publicly cut ties with Lewandowski soon after the incident but has since welcomed him back to the fold, and he attended a Rapid City event on Sept. 28 at which the governor promised to repeal the state’s grocery tax if re-elected, despite opposing such action during previous legislative sessions. Noem has defended South Dakota’s abortion laws being among the most restrictive in the nation, with no exceptions for rape or incest, despite a recent News Watch poll showing that 76% of respondents support such exceptions. That stance, combined with much-publicized efforts to ban Critical Race Theory-style curricula and transgender sports participation in South Dakota schools, has opened her to criticism of prioritizing nationally resonant GOP issues over more pressing homegrown concerns. “Governor Noem’s position as a national figure can be a positive for South Dakota,” said Republican Attorney General nominee Marty Jackley, who lost to Noem in a 2018 primary for governor. “But it’s important for anyone in a statewide role not to let national policy set your South Dakota agenda. You need to let South Dakota’s agenda set your national policy.” South Dakota hasn’t had a politician run for president since George McGovern in 1972, though senators Tom Daschle and John Thune reportedly considered campaigns before turning back. It takes an element of self-regard, considered a prideful flaw in some corners of the state’s psyche, to reach for higher office, yet Noem has shown impeccable timing in her career and an ability to close out elections, with a record of 7-0. In that respect, say her supporters, she has been consistent in her approach. “Kristi got into politics 16 years ago, and we’ve seen this country change a lot in that time,” said Tony Venhuizen, who worked in the Daugaard and Noem administrations and is headed to the state legislature as a Sioux Falls Republican. “I’m not sure that she’s really changed all that much. She has stepped up to the challenge and gone where she felt God was leading her, which meant stepping up into positions that I don’t think she would have ever guessed she would find herself in.” — This article was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a non-profit journalism organization located online at SDNewsWatch.org. Read More Here

DOJ Asks To Drop Special Master In Trump Docs Case – NT News https://digitalarizonanews.com/doj-asks-to-drop-special-master-in-trump-docs-case-nt-news/ Potential automated action detected! Newscorp Australia are trialling new security software on our mastheads. If you receive “Potential automated action detected!” please try these steps first: Temporarily disable any AdBlockers / pop-up blockers / script blockers you have enabled Add this site in to the allowed list for any AdBlockers / pop-up blockers / script blockers you have enabled Ensure your browser supports JavaScript (this can be done via accessing https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/is-javascript-enabled in your browser) Ensure you are using the latest version of your web browser If you need to be unblocked please e-mail us at accessissues@news.com.au and provide the IP address and reference number shown here along with why you require access. News Corp Australia. Your IP address is: 170.39.76.27 | Your reference number is: 0.97382f17.1665892116.12268caa Read More Here

Fresh Missile Attack Targets US-Occupied Base In Eastern Syria: Media https://digitalarizonanews.com/fresh-missile-attack-targets-us-occupied-base-in-eastern-syria-media/ File photo shows a US military vehicle patrolling near an oilfield in Syria. (Photo by AFP) A US-occupied military base in the eastern Syrian province of Dayr al-Zawr has reportedly come under fresh missile strikes. The attack targeted the outpost — located in Syria’s al-Omar Oilfield in the eastern side of Dayr al-Zawr — on Saturday, Syrian media outlets reported. According to the reports, at least six missiles were fired towards the military outpost during the incident. No person or group has so far claimed responsibility for the strikes. The projectiles were fired from the direction of Dayr al-Zawr’s al-Hanawi and al-Mazare’ areas, the reports added, noting that American warplanes and helicopter gunships were seen loitering over the site of the attack during its immediate aftermath. The US base has come under several such attacks over the past months. The United States and its allied forces invaded Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh, which had been trained and supplied by US and allied military forces in their bids to overthrow the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. The US-led military interference was, however, amazingly — and some believe deliberately — slow in confronting the terrorists, despite the sheer size of the coalition that had enlisted scores of Washington’s allied countries. American forces continue to occupy small parts of the Arab country, although, Damascus and its allies defeated the Daesh terrorists in late 2017. Back in August, Damascus said the years-long occupation of Syria by the US had cost it $107.1 billion in oil and gas sector losses, referring to the occupying forces’ looting of the war-ravaged country’s rich resources, which began under former American president Donald Trump. Read More Here

'If We Don't Break The Silence, We Can't Stop The Violence': Supporters Gather In Phoenix To Give Voice To Victims Of Domestic Abuse https://digitalarizonanews.com/if-we-dont-break-the-silence-we-cant-stop-the-violence-supporters-gather-in-phoenix-to-give-voice-to-victims-of-domestic-abuse/ October is “Domestic Violence Awareness Month”. One Valley woman and survivor of abuse is using her story to give a voice to the voiceless. APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz. — A Valley woman and survivor of domestic abuse hosted a vital event to stop domestic violence and raise awareness for other victims who are suffering in silence. Dozens of supporters gathered in Apache Junction for Sara Pitcher and other domestic violence victims to help give a voice to the voiceless. She is among one in four women who experience physical abuse after almost being killed by her ex-husband Shawn Spink. “I became a survivor 4 years ago and one month to the day,” Pitcher said. Spink was found guilty on multiple charges including attempted first-degree murder and received a life sentence in August. “My ex-husband followed me out here from Indiana and tried to kill me. It was a three and half hour fight for my life, strangulation, suffocation with plastic bags, he stabbed me in my right eye, I’ll never see out of it again and tore my rotator cuff,” she said. Now, years later she’s using her painful story to encourage other victims to fight back and more importantly speak out. “We really need to talk about our pain and our hurt, and just have others be able to reach out to us, and so if we don’t break the silence, we can’t stop the violence.” Dozens of supporters showed up at Prospector Park in Apache Junction to join in her fight. Sara added that sponsors like New Leaf Community Alliance Against Family Abuse, assist in the overall goal to get victims the resources they need to get out of trouble. “We want to bring hope and awareness that there’s life after and there’s help during and just also that it can happen to you, there are no stipulations on who domestic violence can affect.” For more ways how to support victims or where to seek resources, visit the AZ Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. Up to Speed Catch up on the latest news and stories on the 12News YouTube channel. Subscribe today. Read More…

4 Bodies Pulled From Oklahoma River Amid Search For Missing Bike Riders https://digitalarizonanews.com/4-bodies-pulled-from-oklahoma-river-amid-search-for-missing-bike-riders/ The bodies of four males were found Friday in a river outside an Oklahoma city where authorities have been searching for four missing men — though it wasn’t clear if the remains are those of the missing, police said. Friday’s discovery outside the city of Okmulgee came as police have been looking for four local men who disappeared after, investigators believe, they left an Okmulgee home on bicycles Sunday evening. Still, the city’s police chief told the missing men’s families of the remains’ discovery as a courtesy before he alerted news media, he said. “The natural (assumption), once the information gets out … would be that their loved ones were found deceased,” so he notified them while emphasizing he didn’t know the bodies’ identities, city Police Chief Joe Prentice said in a Friday news conference. Police haven’t said how the four dead males died. A medical examiner in Tulsa will conduct autopsies and make identifications, Prentice said. Prentice suspects foul play in the deaths of those found in the river, he told CNN Saturday, but did not elaborate, and did not directly answer questions about whether there were signs of trauma. A passerby called police after seeing something suspicious in a river Friday afternoon outside Okmulgee, a city of about 11,000 people roughly a 35-mile drive south of Tulsa, Prentice said. Police arrived and saw remains protruding from the river, Prentice said. Police initially said they didn’t know how many bodies were there, though hours later they said four male bodies had been removed from the water. Four friends reported missing this week The bodies punctuate a deepening mystery for police in the eastern Oklahoma city: What happened to four friends who were reported missing from their hometown this week? And if the bodies aren’t those of these four men, whose are they? Four men living in Okmulgee — Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29 — were reported missing by relatives Monday night or early Tuesday, Okmulgee police said. “All four are close friends and are believed to have left Billy Chastain’s home on the west side of Okmulgee” on Sunday, October 9, around 8 p.m., police said in their initial release. “All were reportedly on bicycles,” the police statement reads, without elaborating about why they’d gathered or where they might have intended to go. At least two men were believed to have cell phones with them. Police were able to trace the path of at least one phone to the east of town and then south, but the phone eventually was turned off or lost power, police said. Data indicates the phones went to two salvage yards — one about 5 miles from the river, and the other about 10 to 12 miles from the river, Prentice told CNN on Saturday. Police haven’t said whether the phones have been recovered. Because the phone data wasn’t near the river, “we never considered this (river) as a search area,” he told reporters Friday. Prentice cautioned that the phones’ paths didn’t necessarily have to be the path that the men traveled. No bicycles have been found, Prentice said Saturday. Police have received reports of sightings of the men after Sunday evening, but investigators — including those checking surveillance videos in the area — have not verified any of them, Prentice told reporters Friday. CNN’s attempt to reach the Tulsa medical examiner for comment Saturday was not immediately successful. The CNN Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Eastbound Lanes Of I-10 In Phoenix Temporarily Closed After 43rd Avenue Crash https://digitalarizonanews.com/eastbound-lanes-of-i-10-in-phoenix-temporarily-closed-after-43rd-avenue-crash/ The Arizona Department of Transportation announced that the eastbound lanes of Interstate 10 are closed in Phoenix, due to a crash at 43rd Avenue.  For the time being, eastbound traffic must exit at 43rd Avenue and motorists are advised to expect delays and seek an alternate route, according to ADOT.  ADOT said that there is no estimated time to reopen the eastbound lanes and that the westbound lanes are unaffected. Real-time highway conditions are available on ADOT’s Arizona Traveler Information site at az511.gov, by calling 511, downloading the AZ 511 app, and through ADOT’s Twitter feed, @ArizonaDOT, according to ADOT.  This is a developing story; return to azcentral for updates. Reach the reporter Jeremy Yurow at Jyurow@gannett.com. Read More…

Biden Calls Latest January 6 Testimony https://digitalarizonanews.com/biden-calls-latest-january-6-testimony/ By AFP – Agence France Presse October 15, 2022 Order Reprints Print Article US President Joe Biden said the testimony and video presented to the January 6 committee was “devastating” SAUL LOEB Text size US President Joe Biden on Saturday said the latest testimony and video evidence presented by lawmakers probing the deadly 2021 attack on the Capitol — including footage of House leaders asking for help — was “devastating.” Biden, who was speaking during an impromptu ice cream stop in Oregon, where he was campaigning for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Tina Kotek, called the case presented by January 6 committee members “fairly overwhelming.” “I think the testimony and 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,” Biden told reporters. “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.” On Thursday, the House panel into the January 6 riot — comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans — revealed new video of Congressional leaders desperately calling for help as the melee unfolded. In what was expected to be the final hearing of the committee before crucial midterm elections in November, the lawmakers aired the previously unreleased footage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in a secure location. The committee also voted to subpoena former president Donald Trump to testify on his role in the violence. The vote came as a spectacular coda to an already stunning hearing in which the committee offered fresh evidence that Trump had planned to declare victory in the 2020 election — regardless of the outcome. Trump had a “premeditated plan” formulated months before the vote to claim he had won on election night, whatever the vote tally showed, panel member Zoe Lofgren told the hearing, citing evidence gathered by the committee. Read More Here

CASEY: A Pile Of Suggestions For A Marie March Vs. Wren Williams Duel https://digitalarizonanews.com/casey-a-pile-of-suggestions-for-a-marie-march-vs-wren-williams-duel/ Back at the beginning of this month, Randall Wells, the poet/professor/philosopher from Floyd, offered me a genuine Rolodex watch as a bribe. In return, Wells demanded I write a column about a duel between state Dels. Marie March of Floyd and Wren Williams of Stuart. Politically, the Republican lawmakers have been going after each other ever since they got mapped into the same House of Delegates district for the 2023 elections. March has accused Williams of assault, after he (allegedly) hard-bumped her like a hockey check while exiting a GOP dinner-dance in Wytheville last month. In response, Williams more or less accused March with assaulting reality. He also kvetched that she’s trying to rig a 2023 GOP convention against him. I suggested lemon cream pies at 30 paces in Lane Stadium, with proceeds donated to the League of Women Voters. But many readers had more flagrant and fragrant notions on how to settle the dispute. Before we get to those, let’s consider a New River Valley precedent noted by Kay Johnson of Christiansburg. She pointed to a historical marker regarding a May 1808 rifle duel in the Montgomery County town. One participant, Thomas Lewis, was a lawyer and grandson of Revolutionary War Gen. Andrew Lewis (at whose grave U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, was later married). The other, John McHenry, was a lawyer and member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Their specific dispute is unclear, but the duel happened at what is now the intersection of West Main and South Franklin streets. Dr. John Floyd, a future Virginia governor, was the attending physician. Not too surprisingly (for a contest with rifles at 15 yards) the participants shot and killed each other. The event spurred enactment of an 1810 law known as the Barbour Bill that banned dueling in the Virginia. While the Lewis-McHenry duel was real and evidently serious; the remainder of this column is not. For example, many readers suggested fruit pies might not be the most suitable dueling instrument. “It would seem more appropriate for the weapon of choice to be cow pies, to determine once and for all who is the champion bulls— slinger!” wrote Andrew McLaughlin of Daleville. He must have been reading the mind of Gene Holt Pulaksi. “I suggest bulls— at 20 paces,” Holt wrote in an email. “The two of them seem to have an endless supply to hurl at each other.” Tom Long of Staunton adorned his email with a turd emoji. “The weapon of choice … slinging cow pies from 10 paces … because, well, they are both so full of BS,” Long wrote. “First one to take it in the face loses and quits the race. In case of a tie both lose and both quit.” In the latter instance, every resident of Virginia would be a winner. “The most fitting duel should be a mud wrestling event since they both have experience in mudslinging,” wrote Donna Agee of Roanoke. “The venue should be a neutral site such as the Martinsville Speedway to ease the embarrassment brought to their constituents by their behavior.” Cara Gangloff suggested March and Williams face each other in a rap-off. That could be quite entertaining. And Gangloff put a lot of thought into it. “The candidates rap in detail, and in poetry, the planks of their platforms through megablaster speakers from atop Route 8 Donuts, where a no-shove zone has been established. “Beats provided by Jerry Pentecost of Old Crow Medicine Show. Threads provided by La De Da and La De Dude on Church Avenue. Proceeds go to Angels of Assisi where, I hear, they’re fighting like cats and dogs.” In that case, the MAGA contestants will need a word that neatly rhymes with “Trump,” right? I can think of a handful along the lines of “bump the chump” and “dump the hump’s rump.” Betsy Biesenbach of Roanoke proposed the warring lawmakers settle their disagreement peacefully and on their toes. “A duel to the death over a social slight reeks of toxic masculinity,” she penned. “I have a more cooperative and civilized idea for getting these two to play nice: The Wythe County Republicans need to throw another dinner-dance at which March and Williams are the only ones dancing and they must dance with each other. “I mean full-on tangoing, waltzing and cha-chaing,” Biesenbach continued. “The threat of repeat invitations should be enough to prompt them to at least pretend to be grownups. For the rest of us, it would be a gold mine of internet memes.” Gerry McAtavey of Roanoke County suggested the duelists use Amazonian implements powered by political hot air. “How about having them face off at 25 paces using blow guns similar to the ones used by primitive tribesmen?” he wrote. “Maybe someone can come up with a ‘Trump Fever’ antidote that could be loaded into a syringe and used as the weapon to settle this major dispute.” Drawback: That sounds similar to “vaccine,” which (go figure) has become a fighting word in Republican politics. As a pacifist, Paul Zenner of Blacksburg wrote he cannot countenance anything that smacks of violence. Instead, he suggested the lawmakers settle their dispute Quaker-style, in a high school library, “preferably one with all the books that certain Republicans are suggesting should be banned.” “My weapon of choice is silence,” Zenner wrote. “While the candidates face off at just over arms distance (I don’t trust either of these folks) a moderator will read selected quotes from each. “The winner is the candidate that can keep their mouth shut the longest,” Zenner added. “I’m really hoping for a tie but suspect it will be over before the first commercial break.” Rob Neurkirch of Floyd believes Zenner’s idea might be too mature, given the contestants’ emotional ages. Neukirch proposed a junior-high auditorium as the setting. Students would pose questions about the history of the House 47th District, the history of Virginia and the history of the United States.” The only potential problem is we might never hear a correct answer. Steve Huppert of Christiansburg suggested a cornhole contest at half-time during a Hokies basketball game. “Mr. Trump could be the judge,” Huppert proposed, adding “the best answer is to get Chris Tuck to run.” But Tuck might be the worst possible GOP candidate. Current rumors suggest he suffers from the dreaded affliction KSR — otherwise known as knowledge, sanity and reasonableness. Last but not least, we have Jen Nelson of Botetourt County. Brace your stomachs and your funny bones for the pie-eating contest she proposed. Nelson specified the weapons as “two super-fudgy chocolate pies with billowy white topping.” Thoughtfully, she included the recipe. It could’ve been borrowed from a cookbook titled, “Montezuma’s Revenge.” “One pie shell; 30 cartons of Ex-Lax melted down; thinned with milk of magnesia; bake and then cool. For topping: Beat one cup Dawn liquid until light and fluffy; top cooled pie. “Serve and begin contest,” Nelson wrote. “Let the elimination begin!” Yikes, I think we’ve found a worthy recipient for Randall Wells’ genuine Rolodex watch! Contact metro columnist Dan Casey at 981-3423 or dan.casey@roanoke.com. Follow him on Twitter:@dancaseysblog. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Read More Here

Attorneys Phil Brewster Of Brewster Law Firm And Patrick Mincey And Stephen Bell Of Cranfill Sumner Issue Statement On Washington Post https://digitalarizonanews.com/attorneys-phil-brewster-of-brewster-law-firm-and-patrick-mincey-and-stephen-bell-of-cranfill-sumner-issue-statement-on-washington-post/ Attorneys Phil Brewster, Patrick Mincey and Stephen Bell were recently discussed in an in-depth Washington Post article regarding their representation of a whistleblower who exposed alleged securities violations involving Trump Media & Technology Group Corporation (“Trump Media”). Former President Donald J. Trump is the majority owner of Trump Media, the parent company that operates the conservative social media platform Truth Social. As discussed in the article, the whistleblower was one of the original founders of Truth Social, which was established shortly after former President Trump’s permanent suspension from Twitter TWTR because of the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The Washington Post article describes how executives from both Trump Media and its merger partner Digital World Acquisition Corporation DWAC allegedly violated SEC regulations in the still-pending merger transaction. The article also discusses former President Trump’s alleged participation in and knowledge of the transaction currently under investigation. The proposed transaction is intended to take Trump Media public in a deal originally valued at over $1 billion. Trump Media and DWAC have previously acknowledged investigations into the merger transaction by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. “Trump Media’s termination of the whistleblower after the company was contacted for comment by the Washington Post is patent retaliation against a SEC whistleblower of the worst kind,” Brewster, Mincey and Bell jointly said. “Our client continues to remain committed to assisting investigators with his referral to the SEC Office of the Whistleblower and he looks forward to an opportunity to work with members of Congress in their oversight capacity.” Attorney Phil Brewster is the founding partner of Brewster Law Firm LLC in Winnetka, Illinois, a firm dedicated to whistleblower matters and government investigations. Attorney Patrick M. Mincey founded and leads the White Collar, Government Investigations & Special Matters Group at Cranfill Sumner LLP in North Carolina. Attorney Stephen J. Bell is partner in the White Collar, Government Investigations & Special Matters Group at Cranfill Sumner LLP in North Carolina. ABOUT BREWSTER LAW FIRM LLC Brewster Law Firm LLC is dedicated to whistleblower matters and government investigations. For more information, visit www.brewsteradvisory.com. ABOUT CRANFILL SUMNER LLP Cranfill Sumner LLP serves clients in 28 practice areas. For more information, visit www.cshlaw.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221015005023/en/ You just read: EIN Presswire’s priority is source transparency. We do not allow opaque clients, and our editors try to be careful about weeding out false and misleading content. As a user, if you see something we have missed, please do bring it to our attention. Your help is welcome. EIN Presswire, Everyone’s Internet News Presswire, tries to define some of the boundaries that are reasonable in today’s world. Please see our Editorial Guidelines for more information. Submit your press release Read More Here

How Ukraine Is Winning The Social Media War https://digitalarizonanews.com/how-ukraine-is-winning-the-social-media-war/ Image source, Defense of Ukraine Image caption, Ukraine’s plea for more French Caesar howitzers – in a humorous romantic video By Paul Adams BBC News Kyiv, Ukraine After almost eight months, the war in Ukraine hangs in the balance. Ukrainian counter-offensives continue to make progress, while Russian forces are still pressing elsewhere. But on the internet, it’s a very one-sided affair. “This is a meme nation,” says Olena, a Kyiv entrepreneur who manages teams of social media volunteers. “If this was a war of memes, we would be winning.” Olena is not her real name. Due to the sensitive nature of the work she and her teams carry out on behalf of Ukraine’s defence ministry, she has asked to remain anonymous. Her teams work round-the-clock, reacting within hours to news from around the country, producing punchy videos, often set to music, for the ministry’s audiences at home and abroad. Just as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky tailors speeches to foreign parliaments to take account of local history, culture and sensibility, so Olena’s five-strong international team target their messages. A June video thanking Britain for its military assistance featured the music of Gustav Holst and The Clash, with glimpses of Shakespeare, David Bowie, Lewis Hamilton and a montage of British-supplied anti-tank weapons in action. More recently, French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to supply Caesar self-propelled guns was greeted with a video which declared: “Romantic gestures take many forms”. Images of red roses, chocolates, the Paris skyline, followed by the guns in action, were set – perhaps inevitably – to the sound of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s breathless Je T’aime Moi Non Plus. With nods to a Macron-Zelensky bromance, it was suggestive and thoroughly tongue-in-cheek. Olena says one of her favourite “thank you” videos praised Sweden for its value-for-money investment in Ukraine: $20,000 (£17,900) Carl Gustav rocket launchers, capable of knocking out Russian T-90 tanks worth $4.5m. The tune? You guessed it: Abba’s Money, Money, Money. Image source, Defense of Ukraine Thanks to the team’s efforts, the defence ministry’s Twitter feed now has 1.5m followers around the world. Some of the videos have been viewed more than a million times. Their most successful video, released in August after several mysterious attacks on Russian targets in annexed Crimea, has racked up 2.2m views. It mocked Russians for going on holiday on the peninsula and was set to the Bananarama song Cruel Summer. “The main idea is to speak to the international audience and show that Ukraine is actually capable of winning,” she says. “Because nobody wants to invest in losers.” But another of Olena’s teams carries out more subversive work, designed to highlight Russian losses and demoralise Ukraine’s invaders. Targeting Russian audience With a wealth of videos depicting Russian military setbacks being posted on social media platforms, the team is not short of material. But they’ve learned through trial and error what works and what doesn’t. “We started displaying dead Russian bodies,” Olena says. “And then we realised that it actually didn’t work. It only united them against us.” The team then tried to appeal to the consciences of Russian soldiers by showing images of dead Ukrainian civilians. Again, it seemed to fall on deaf ears. “We realised they were actually proud of it. They were not condemning this at all,” she says. “We realised that we have to do this in a much more sophisticated way.” Image source, Defence of Ukraine Image caption, Ukrainian videos warn Russians that they will suffer more big losses Now the volunteers scrutinise Russian social media platforms, looking to press buttons and probe weaknesses in specific parts of the country. “If you do it in Saratov you have to know what’s going on in Saratov,” Olena says. “If you do it in Nizhny Novgorod, you have to know what’s going on in Nizhny Novgorod.” It’s extremely hard to gauge the impact this work is having, but Vladimir Putin’s recent partial mobilisation has given the volunteers lots of material to work with. “We were waiting for the mobilisation,” Olena says. “We knew that it would be very demoralising for them.” The single richest seam of material is to be found on the messaging service Telegram. Olena calls it “the Wild Wild West”. The volunteers providing material for the defence ministry are just a small part of a vast, vibrant, fiercely patriotic and wildly irreverent community reacting to events on the ground, sometimes with amazing speed. Image source, AFP Image caption, Ukrainians quickly exploited the dramatic attack on Russia’s Kerch Bridge in the information war Scores of Telegram channels attract huge numbers of followers. One, called “Ukrainian Offensive”, has 96,485 followers. Its slogan is “fighting on the civil-meme frontlines of the information war since 2014.” It provides a diet of military updates, out-and-out trolling of Moscow and occasional digs at Western media coverage (including the BBC). Like most other channels, it doesn’t shy away from showing suffering, including footage of dead or dying Russian soldiers. The recent explosion on Russia’s Kerch Bridge, linking Russia with occupied Crimea, triggered a tidal wave of videos, jokes and memes as Ukraine’s internet army celebrated wildly. But the country didn’t turn into a nation of digital ninjas overnight. Eight years of war in the eastern Donbas region has given people lots of time to hone their skills, from countering disinformation to circulating humorous content designed to boost morale. More on the information war: The current social media environment, says Ihor Solovey, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security, reflects a rare convergence of official and popular sentiment. “We’re witnessing perhaps the first time in history when civil society trusts the state and is helping it,” he told me. “The armed forces do their own thing, while society is creating content, memes, creative works on their own. Because everyone feels responsible for their own future.” What, if anything, is Russia throwing back at Ukraine? Strangely, given Russia’s reputation for troll farms and shady scammers with alleged links to the Kremlin, the answer seems to be: not much. Earlier this month, two well-known Russian pranksters did manage to con Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba into thinking he was talking to a former US ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul. Excerpts were broadcast on Russian state media, in which Mr Kuleba appeared to admit that Ukraine was responsible for recent attacks in Crimea and Russia – although the prank was conducted before the 8 October Kerch Bridge explosion. But if Russia does have a similarly inventive internet army, Olena says she has seen little sign of it. “Russians haven’t managed to come up with anything interesting,” she says. “No humour, no beauty. Not even pain. No compassion.” Image caption, A mural of a hacker has appeared on the streets of Kyiv Read More Here

Local Organization Is Hoping To Make An Impact On Midterm Election https://digitalarizonanews.com/local-organization-is-hoping-to-make-an-impact-on-midterm-election/ TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A local organization gathered this weekend to discuss the importance of voting in the midterm elections. The Kansas Poor People’s Campaign was held Saturday morning at the Community Resources Council. Members from the organization as well as local supporters joined together to strategized ideas to get low-income voters to the poll. Oshara Hayes, Tri-Chair for the Kansas Poor People’s Campaign, said she this election is not only important, but she wants to see change. “We’d like to see voter suppression gone,” said Hayes. “Like make it much easier to vote. so, that people feel like they can vote and have the ability to go and vote, I think that’s important.” The Kansas Poor People’s Campaign is one of 24 across the country that hosted an event Saturday. This is all part of one big GOTV campaign by the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to reach out to 5 million people ahead of the midterms with the theme of “If We Ever Needed to Vote for Democracy and Justice, We Sure Do Need to Vote Now!” “We’d like to see voter suppression gone,” said Hayes. “Like make it much easier to vote. so, that people feel like they can vote and have the ability to go and vote, I think that’s important.” In addition to Topeka, marches and rallies will take place in cities across the country, including Mobile, AL; Tucson, AZ; Sacramento, CA; Columbus, GA; Washington, D.C.; Springfield, IL; Lexington, KY; Boston, MA; Jackson, MS; Lincoln, NE; Montclair, NJ; Raleigh, NC; Pittsburgh, PA; and Providence, RI. With midterm elections just under a month away, the organization is hoping to give a voice to those who may feel voiceless. Supporters gathered around a podium, singing a voting song, while also speaking out on issues they demand change on. Carl Frazier, community Pastor, said the community of Topeka needs change. “We are a blessed city,” said Pastor Frazier. “And we need to concentrate it on people that has not. And it’s important that housing, healthcare and all these other things that need to be done in the city.” Copyright 2022 WIBW. All rights reserved. Read More Here

New York Governor Race Between Gov. Hochul And Rep. Zeldin Tightens To 'toss Up' https://digitalarizonanews.com/new-york-governor-race-between-gov-hochul-and-rep-zeldin-tightens-to-toss-up/ The New York gubernatorial race between incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul and GOP challenger Lee Zeldin is now a “toss-up,” according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.  The polling outlet’s rolling average of polls from Sept. 30 to Oct. 12 shows that Hochul is leading the Republican congressman by 5.3% with 7% of voters undecided on who they will vote for.  “We have just 24 days to go until we FIRE @KathyHochul & save our state. It’s not too late for Hochul to come out of hiding & do multiple debates with me across New York, starting immediately!” Zeldin said in a Twitter post, along with a graphic showing the race moving from “lean Democrat” to “toss up.” The shift in polls amounts to a significant comeback for Zeldin, who was down in the polls as much as 24 points in August. LEE ZELDIN, NY GOP GOV. CANDIDATE, SAYS TWO PEOPLE SHOT OUTSIDE HIS LONG ISLAND HOME WITH DAUGHTERS PRESENT Incumbent Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin. (Getty Images) “It’s a very competitive race,” pollster Doug Schoen told The New York Post on Friday. Recent polling from Marist University showed that while Hochul has a lead over Zeldin, independent voters support Zeldin 49% to 35%, with rising crime resonating with more and more voters, especially in New York City. LEE ZELDIN ON RISING CRIME: NEW YORKERS ARE HITTING THEIR BREAKING POINT New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin speaks at a “Moms 4Zeldin” town hall on the Upper West Side of Manhattan  (John Lamparski/Getty Images) “Although Democratic candidates for governor and U.S. Senate lead in very blue New York, the race for governor still bears watching,” Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement. “Republicans say they are more likely to vote, enthusiasm for Zeldin among his supporters exceeds Hochul’s, and any shift to crime in the closing weeks is likely to benefit Zeldin.” Zeldin has promised to fire New York City’s progressive District Attorney Alvin Bragg immediately upon taking office after the George Soros-backed prosecutor has taken criticism for perceived soft-on-crime policies. LEE ZELDIN JOINS ‘GUTFELD!’, VOWS TO FIRE LIBERAL MANHATTAN DA ON DAY 1 IF ELECTED GOVERNOR Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images) “I’m not in this race to come in second. I’m all-in. I’m over 18 months into this race, campaigning all throughout this entire state,” Zeldin said earlier this month. “One of the reasons why I got into the race was because of these pro-criminal laws that have been getting passed out of Albany.” Hochul has criticized Zeldin on the campaign trail for his stance on abortion and has also attempted to link him to the personality and policies of former President Donald Trump, who held a fundraiser for the New York Republican in September. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Campaign representatives for Hochul and Zeldin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com. Read More Here

Washington Post Report Alleges Further Mayhem At Trump Media https://digitalarizonanews.com/washington-post-report-alleges-further-mayhem-at-trump-media/ Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. The Washington Post reported Saturday that a former executive with Trump Media, which owns Donald Trump’s struggling social media platform, Truth Social, is alleging the company broke federal security laws, and that another executive was ousted for refusing Trump’s demand that he give his shares in the venture to Trump’s wife, Melania.  Will Wilkerson, who was fired by Trump Media on Thursday, passed along hundreds of documents, photos, and audio files to the Washington Post and to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Post‘s exclusive report details the chaos allegedly taking place at the company.  The report details how cofounder Andy Litinsky was allegedly fired after refusing a personal demand by Trump, who already owned 90 percent of Trump Media shares, to give his shares to Melania. More broadly, the report portrays a company in disarray, one in which decisions were based not on logic or business savvy, but bitterness and spite. Five months after refusing Trump’s demands, writes tech reporter Drew Harwell…  Litinsky, who first met Trump in 2004 as a contestant on the TV show “The Apprentice,” was abruptly removed from the company’s board. Wilkerson said he believes it was payback for his refusal to turn over a small fortune to the former president’s wife. Litinsky thought so, too, according to an email Wilkerson and his attorneys shared with The Washington Post and the Securities and Exchange Commission. In that email, Litinsky complained that Trump was “retaliating against me” by threatening to “ ‘blow up the company’ if his demands are not met. Trump Media did not directly rebut any of Wilkerson’s claims, Harwell noted. Instead, it released a statement essentially accusing the Post of publishing fake news, and saying that… Trump, as company chairman, had hired former congressman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) as CEO to “create a culture of compliance and build a world-class team to lead Truth Social.” The company said it was already a success, having launched on the Apple and Google app stores, “executed multiple feature updates” and attracted millions of users. “Ignoring these achievements, The Washington Post sent us an inquiry rife with knowingly false and defamatory statements and other concocted psychodramas.” Read More Here

Secret Service Documents Handed Over To January 6 Committee Show Law Enforcement Discussed Capitol Threats – KESQ https://digitalarizonanews.com/secret-service-documents-handed-over-to-january-6-committee-show-law-enforcement-discussed-capitol-threats-kesq/ By Zachary Cohen and Whitney Wild, CNN Documents provided to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection by the US Secret Service show that the agency and its law enforcement partners were aware of social media posts that contained violent language and threats aimed at lawmakers prior to the US Capitol attack. The documents, obtained exclusively by CNN, were handed over to the committee ahead of Thursday’s hearing, and shed new light on discussions between law enforcement agencies ahead of the attack. The documents also show the Secret Service took into account assessments from partner agencies, including the FBI and US Capitol Police, as they determined their security posture ahead of the January 6 vote certification. Despite the violent online rhetoric shared in these documents, none of the agencies gave a clear warning about the potential for large scale violence like what unfolded at the Capitol building that day, in spite of information they were sharing. “No immediate threats being tracked at this time,” one summary of the FBI intelligence assessment related to January 6 that was shared with the Secret Service read. However, the Secret Service was alerted to social media posts from sites such as Parler, which was then a popular far-right platform. “Will fight for Trump no matter what,” one post flagged to the Secret Service read. “When we say taking the power away from corruption we meant it,” said another. The documents do not address other concerns raised by the committee last week, including inconsistent testimony from Secret Service witnesses, who told the panel “they had received no intelligence about violence that could have potentially threatened any of their protectees on January 6th, including the vice president.” “Evidence strongly suggests that this testimony is not credible,” Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California said during Thursday’s hearing. Following the hearing, Schiff said in an interview with CNN that the committee intends “to bring people back in from the Secret Service, some who may have testified in ways that we don’t find credible now that we have obtained this documentary evidence, but other witnesses potentially that we have not heard from as well.” In a statement to CNN, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the service “engaged in robust intelligence sharing” with its law enforcement partners “before and during January 6th.” “Intelligence was received from and sent to multiple federal state and local agencies. Included are the redacted examples of these communications that were referenced in Thursday’s committee hearing and show the multi-agency communication,” he said. “Though the Secret Service’s specific mission was executed without compromise, the unprecedented events of that day continue to be evaluated to ensure an attack on our democracy can never occur again,” Guglielmi said. “This is not only paramount to our institutions of government but speaks to the very existence and purpose of the United States Secret Service.” Guglielmi also told CNN that the Secret Service “never received a communication from the committee about an employee’s testimony being contradicted.” The House Select Committee declined to comment when asked about the documents. Thursday’s hearing was the first since July 21. In the nearly three months since that hearing, the committee obtained more than 1 million records from the Secret Service. The panel revealed some of what they learned during Thursday’s hearing. While there are still questions surrounding erased text messages from Secret Service agents around the insurrection, the panel obtained messages and emails showing the agency receiving warnings before January 6, 2021, about the prospect of violence, as well as real-time reports of weapons in the crowd ahead of Trump’s speech at the Ellipse. Schiff said during Thursday’s hearing that the Secret Service had received alerts of online threats made against then-Vice President Mike Pence ahead of the Capitol insurrection, including that Pence would be “‘a dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing.’” On January 6, one Secret Service agent texted at 12:36 p.m., according to the committee, “With so many weapons found so far; you wonder how many are unknown. Could be sporty after dark.” Another agent responded minutes later, “No doubt. The people at the Ellipse said they are moving to the Capitol after the POTUS speech.” The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Suspected Stockton Serial Killer Caught With Gun While 'out Hunting,' Police Chief Says https://digitalarizonanews.com/suspected-stockton-serial-killer-caught-with-gun-while-out-hunting-police-chief-says-2/ A man has been arrested in Stockton in connection to a series of killings in the city and one in Oakland, authorities announced on Saturday. He could face charges for the murders of six men. Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested overnight “while out hunting,” police Chief Stanley McFadden said at a news conference with City Manager Harry Black, Mayor Kevin Lincoln and San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar.McFadden believes they “stopped another killing.” The police chief said the arrest was made possible thanks to community tips and the work of the police department.”Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving. We watched his patterns and determined early this morning he was on a mission to kill. He was out hunting,” McFadden said. | MORE | Stockton serial killings: Everything we know and don’t know so far about the victims and suspectHe was caught around 2 a.m. at Winslow Way and Village Green Drive and was wearing dark clothing with a mask around his neck and armed with a firearm in his waistband, police confirmed to KCRA 3.Authorities said that Brownlee has lived in Stockton off and on, while also living in other cities. He has a criminal record, though police did not detail the previous crimes. Police confirmed that he is the sole suspect “at this time” and is believed to be the person of interest captured on video from shooting scenes. Stockton’s mayor said the city will be able to get past this and that public safety is their number one priority.”I want to make this very very clear, to the people of Stockton, to the United States and around the world. When the people of Stockton come together and we unite we can get things done. Stockton will be a place where people can live, raise a family and grow a business,” Mayor Kevin Lincoln said.Video below: Stockton mayor speaks on arrest Salazar on the arrest of Brownlee said, “The crime was solved because we’re Stockton. You don’t come to our house and bring this reign of terror.” Video below: San Joaquin County DA speaks on arrestBrownlee will appear in court on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Salazar said the district attorney’s office is working to determine the charges against him.Officials are still unsure what the motive behind the killings are, but said his patterns were consistent. It’s unclear if the gun police found on Saturday is linked to all seven shootings. “I am grateful for the work of the Stockton Police Department and law enforcement agencies who lent their support to this investigation, including the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Firearms and Bureau of Forensic Services,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “When we face a challenge or threat to the safety of Californians, we stand stronger when we stand together. Because of our collaborative work, the citizens of Stockton and California communities can feel comfort in knowing that this suspect is now in custody.”| MORE | What we’re learning about victims of the Stockton serial killingsSix men were killed — five in Stockton this year and one in Oakland last year. The victims were identified by police as:35-year-old Paul Alexander Yaw43-year-old Salvador William Debudey Jr.21-year-old Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez52-year-old Juan Cruz52-year-old Lorenzo LopezThe victim in Oakland was a 40-year-old Hispanic man. Affiliate KTVU reported that the coroner identified the man as Juan Miguel Vasquez Serrano.A 46-year-old Black woman is the only known survivor of the shootings. Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said the woman biked to an encampment at Park and Union streets in Stockton where she was shot on April 16, 2021, at around 3:30 a.m.The woman was by a tent when she saw a man, dressed in all dark clothing, wearing a dark face mask and a dark jacket. She said the man was anywhere between 5 foot 10 inches to 6 foot 2 inches.The woman told police that no words were exchanged between them and that she tried defending herself by advancing toward him. She was hit multiple times by gunfire.Where did the shootings happen?Most of the deadly shootings happened in Stockton within a four-mile radius of one another. The shooting where the woman survived happened to the south of the five deadly shootings.Here’s a map with more information:Authorities ask for people to continue to send in tipsMcFadden said it is still a “very active investigation.” “Just because an arrest was made, does not mean the investigation stops,” McFadden said. He said they still need more tips to come in. A tip line will remain open for people to submit information at 209-937-8167. People can email tips to at policetips@stocktonca.gov. Video surveillance can be submitted to Stocktonpdca.evidence.com. This is a developing story. Stay with KCRA 3 as we learn more about the suspect arrested and the series of killings.Here is where you can download our app for the latest.-KCRA 3’s Hilda Flores contributed to this report. STOCKTON, Calif. — A man has been arrested in Stockton in connection to a series of killings in the city and one in Oakland, authorities announced on Saturday. He could face charges for the murders of six men. Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested overnight “while out hunting,” police Chief Stanley McFadden said at a news conference with City Manager Harry Black, Mayor Kevin Lincoln and San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar. McFadden believes they “stopped another killing.” The police chief said the arrest was made possible thanks to community tips and the work of the police department. “Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving. We watched his patterns and determined early this morning he was on a mission to kill. He was out hunting,” McFadden said. | MORE | Stockton serial killings: Everything we know and don’t know so far about the victims and suspect He was caught around 2 a.m. at Winslow Way and Village Green Drive and was wearing dark clothing with a mask around his neck and armed with a firearm in his waistband, police confirmed to KCRA 3. Authorities said that Brownlee has lived in Stockton off and on, while also living in other cities. He has a criminal record, though police did not detail the previous crimes. Police confirmed that he is the sole suspect “at this time” and is believed to be the person of interest captured on video from shooting scenes. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Stockton’s mayor said the city will be able to get past this and that public safety is their number one priority. “I want to make this very very clear, to the people of Stockton, to the United States and around the world. When the people of Stockton come together and we unite we can get things done. Stockton will be a place where people can live, raise a family and grow a business,” Mayor Kevin Lincoln said. Video below: Stockton mayor speaks on arrest Salazar on the arrest of Brownlee said, “The crime was solved because we’re Stockton. You don’t come to our house and bring this reign of terror.” Video below: San Joaquin County DA speaks on arrest Brownlee will appear in court on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Salazar said the district attorney’s office is working to determine the charges against him. Officials are still unsure what the motive behind the killings are, but said his patterns were consistent. It’s unclear if the gun police found on Saturday is linked to all seven shootings. “I am grateful for the work of the Stockton Police Department and law enforcement agencies who lent their support to this investigation, including the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Firearms and Bureau of Forensic Services,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “When we face a challenge or threat to the safety of Californians, we stand stronger when we stand together. Because of our collaborative work, the citizens of Stockton and California communities can feel comfort in knowing that this suspect is now in custody.” | MORE | What we’re learning about victims of the Stockton serial killings Six men were killed — five in Stockton this year and one in Oakland last year. The victims were identified by police as: 35-year-old Paul Alexander Yaw 43-year-old Salvador William Debudey Jr. 21-year-old Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez 52-year-old Juan Cruz 52-year-old Lorenzo Lopez The victim in Oakland was a 40-year-old Hispanic man. Affiliate KTVU reported that the coroner identified the man as Juan Miguel Vasquez Serrano. A 46-year-old Black woman is the only known survivor of the shootings. Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said the woman biked to an encampment at Park and Union streets in Stockton where she was shot on April 16, 2021, at around 3:30 a.m. The woman was by a tent when she saw a man, dressed in all dark clothing, wearing a dark face mask and a dark jacket. She said the man was anywhere between 5 foot 10 inches to 6 foot 2 inches. The woman told police that no words were exchanged between them and that she tried defending herself by advancing toward him. She was hit multiple times by gunfire. Where did the shootings happen? Most of the deadly shootings happened in Stockton within a four-mile radius of one another. The shooting where the woman survived happened to the south of the five deadly shootings. Here’s a map with more information: Authorities ask for people to continue to send in tips McFadden said it is still a “very active investigation.” “Just because an arrest was made, does not mean the investigation stops,” McFadden said. He said they still need more tips to come in. A tip line will remain open for people to submit inf...

Facts Matter: Musk Didn https://digitalarizonanews.com/facts-matter-musk-didn/ Elon Musk’s on-and-off deal to purchase Twitter actually could be finalized as the billionaire and SpaceX founder has expressed renewed interest in making it happen at a price of nearly $44 billion. Although it’s not a done deal and could fall apart again, some social media users claimed Musk already was in charge and making changes. “Donald Trump is back on Twitter and he made sure to thank Elon Musk,” read an Oct. 9 Facebook post, which included a screenshot of a tweet that appeared to be written by Trump, reading, “Thank you Elon Musk, I’m Back!!” But that tweet didn’t come from the former president, according to PolitiFact. Trump’s Twitter account was shut down permanently for violating the platform’s policy against inciting violence following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol building. His account remains suspended. The tweet supposedly sent by Trump came from an account with a name different from the Twitter name the former president used before the ban. While talking about his plan to buy Twitter, Musk has criticized the platform’s policies about banning some accounts and said he would restore Trump’s account because the suspension was “a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme.” Inflation didn’t drop drastically A Twitter user recently shared information that could be good news for consumers, and for the president. “BREAKING: New data has dropped that inflation has dropped to half of what it was a year ago. That’s a Biden Win!” read the Oct. 3 tweet. But that claim doesn’t match the actual data, according to The Associated Press. Although inflation has slowed, prices continue to rise. Johns Hopkins Carey Business School professor of economics Alessandro Rebucci told the AP there has not been a “decisive turnaround” regarding inflation. “There is no hard evidence of either inflation falling sharply on a monthly basis, on a quarterly basis, on a semiannual basis, on a yearly basis, or announcement of any substantial revision of official statistics,” Rebucci said. A drop in gas prices slowed the rate of inflation in July and August but most other prices continued to rise and the increase in core prices “outpaced expectations,” the AP said. Judge Cannon still on bench U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to allow Trump’s request for a special master has received widespread media coverage and scrutiny from others in the legal profession. By her order, a special master is reviewing documents seized from Trump’s Florida residence during an FBI search. Trump, while president, nominated Cannon for that position in the Southern District of Florida. Since her ruling, some social media posts have claimed Cannon is facing repercussions for her decision. “Trump’s corrupt judge loses her license after major scandal,” read a Sept. 30 Facebook post. An Oct. 1 Facebook post takes it a bit further. “Trump betrays Judge Cannon and police have just taken her away, she was being used by Trump,” the Oct. 1 post read. But Cannon hasn’t been removed from the bench or arrested, according to PolitiFact. The judge’s license is in good standing and she has had no disciplinary history since she was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2012. Cannon’s ruling has been frowned upon by some in the law community. “(Her decision is) an unprecedented intervention by a federal district judge into the middle of an ongoing federal criminal and national security investigation,” University of Washington law professor Stephen Vladeck told The New York Times. Facial data doesn’t leave cellphone Facial recognition technology is used to unlock phones, and Snapchat offers filters for users to change their facial appearance by adding features such as dog ears, sunglasses and mustaches. Some social media users are claiming there is more to the technology. “Snapchat filters are a facial recognition database created by the FBI. You don’t believe me? Google: Patent US9396354,” read an Oct. 3 Facebook post. That’s false, according to USA Today. The technology doesn’t collect data that can be used to identify a person. A spokesperson for Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, told USA Today that data used for the filters doesn’t leave the user’s device and is never sent to the company’s servers. As for the patent, Milwaukee School of Engineering professor Derek Riley told USA Today it was a “big red flag,” and has nothing to do with the FBI database. The patent actually is for technology that alters a person’s image to protect that individual’s privacy, he said. “For example, if a celebrity was on a privacy blocking list, this could be used to obscure his or her face in images taken without permission prior to that image being shared on social media,” Riley said. • Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com. Read More Here

Donald Trump Pressured Whistleblower To Give https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trump-pressured-whistleblower-to-give/ Former President Donald Trump’s company Trump Media has been under fire recently due to the controversial Truth Social app for smartphone devices. Now a whistleblower is exposing even more. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that a fired executive from Trump’s media company spoke with the newspaper. The identity of the whistleblower, Will Wilkerson, was a senior vice president of operations at Trump Media and Technology, which owns the social network Truth Social, and was one of the company’s first employees. In August, Wilkerson filed the SEC whistleblower complaint, saying that the company relied on “fraudulent misrepresentation, in violation of federal securities laws,” in its bid to be taken public via an investment vehicle known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Wilkerson also described tension within Trump Media, including with CEO Devin Nunes, who, as a Republican congressman during the Trump Administration, was one of Trump’s most loyal defenders. He also said another executive detailed how Trump pressured him to give shares in the company to his wife, Melania Trump. Digital World Acquisition Corp., the SPAC seeking to take the media company public, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. CNBC also reached out to Wilkerson’s attorneys for comment. A spokeswoman for Trump Media pushed back on the Post’s story and touted Truth Media’s availability on the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store and Samsung’s Galaxy Store. “As Chairman of TMTG, President Trump hired Devin Nunes as CEO to create a culture of compliance and build a world-class team to lead Truth Social,” the spokeswoman said a statement emailed to CNBC. According to Trump Media, Wilkerson was fired for making “unauthorized disclosures” to the Post, the newspaper said. One of his lawyers called the firing a retaliation against a whistleblower, according to the report. There are laws that protect whistleblowers. The Trump Media-DWAC deal is also being investigated by regulators at the SEC and prosecutors in the Justice Department. Trump Media has also blamed the SEC for delaying the deal. We’ll see what happens with the investigations and scandals of Trump Media. Wouldn’t be surprised if more bad information comes out! What do you think of all this drama from Trump Media? Sound off in the comments! Read More Here

Budzinski, Deering Face Off In Illinois https://digitalarizonanews.com/budzinski-deering-face-off-in-illinois/ Nikki Budzinski and Regan Deering. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has scheduled its next hearing for Oct. 13, pushing the investigation back into the limelight less than three weeks before the midterm election that will determine control of Congress. It will be the panel’s first public session since the summer, when lawmakers worked through a series of tightly scripted hearings that attracted millions of viewers and touched on nearly every aspect of the Capitol insurrection. The committee had planned to hold the hearing in late September, but postponed as Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida. The panel — comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans — has not yet provided an agenda, but Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said recently that the hearing would “tell the story about a key element of Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the election.” Associated Press reporter Farnoush Amiri explains the significance of hearing’s timing, especially with midterm elections less than a month away and former President Trump’s influence over many of the Republican candidates. “Donald Trump is not on the ballot, but so many people who have taken his cause and who have taken his baseless claims for election fraud and voter fraud in the 2020 election are on the ballot,” Amiri said. The Committee is expected to release a final cumulative report of its findings by the end of the year. SPRINGFIELD — When U.S. Rep. Bill Enyart, D-Belleville, lost his bid for reelection in the 12th Congressional District in 2014, Illinois was left without a Democratic congressperson south of Interstate 72 for the first time since at least World War II.  Though the party twice came exasperatingly close — 1,002 votes in 2012 and 2,058 votes in 2018 — to defeating Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, in the neighboring Central Illinois-based 13th Congressional District, that effort proved futile amid a shifting political terrain.  But after a decade of tough losses, false starts and unfulfilled hopes, Democrats believe 2022 is the year and Nikki Budzinski is the candidate to finally return a downstate Illinois congressional seat to the blue column.  Budzinski, a Peoria-born political consultant and labor activist, is running against Republican Regan Deering, a Decatur community activist and scion of one of the most prominent families in American agribusiness. The pair are competing in the newly reconfigured 13th Congressional District, which was drawn by Springfield Democrats during the once-a-decade redistricting process last year with the intention of giving the party a foothold in central and southern Illinois once more.  They did this by narrowing the geographic size of the district, cutting out several conservative rural communities and consolidating the most urban, liberal portions of the Metro East region, previously split three ways, into one district. As a result, the string bean-shaped district stretches from East St. Louis to Champaign-Urbana, picking up Springfield and Decatur in between — a mix of college towns and communities with a blend of blue- and white-collar industries. Not to mention a sizable Black population that forms an influential bloc.  This also shifted the district’s partisan lean from voting for President Donald Trump by three points to one that voted for President Joe Biden by an 11-point margin in 2020. It also cut Davis out of the district, leaving it open and perhaps making for an easier path for Budzinski.  The district includes a mix of the increasingly cosmopolitan, urban base that has come to define the modern Democratic Party along with remnants of the coalition made up of unionized coal miners, steel plant workers and workers in other heavy industries that had previously made the region a Democratic stronghold.  “I think when the rubber really hits the road — the makeup of the district and we do our job turning the vote out — she will be the next Congress member from the 13th district. No doubt about it in my mind,” said Sangamon County Democratic Party chair Bill Houlihan. “But these elections have ebbs and flows.” Indeed, the district’s fundamentals suggest it to be a Democratic-leaning district. However, low approval ratings for Biden, sky-high inflation and the poor performance the president’s party typically faces in midterm elections have given Republicans hope that the race could be within reach.  The district’s working class, blue collar constituency has come to define the campaign, with each candidate laser-focusing their messaging on “kitchen table” economic issues, such as bringing down inflation.  “I think, for sure, the defining issue of this campaign is going to be the cost of living,” Deering told Lee Enterprises in an interview earlier this month. “The question is always, are you better off today than you were two years ago?” she continued. “And the answer is no.” Decatur native Regan Deering discusses her campaign for Congress Deering, a first-time candidate, has blamed Biden policies and, by extension, Budzinski for the rise in prices, tying it back to significant government spending during the COVID-19 pandemic. Deering, however, has been short on specific policy proposals to address the issue.  Budzinski, though also a first-time candidate, has been around politics for more than two decades, serving most recently as chief of staff for Biden’s Office of Management and Budget, where she played an integral role in crafting and implementing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.  Among other things, Budzinski said she would seek to address inflation by repealing the Trump tax cuts while making the child tax credit — a signature achievement in the American Rescue Plan that lapsed last year — permanent. “We need to be fighting for the middle class, and tax cuts should be targeted to those families,” Budzinski told Lee Enterprises in an interview on Friday. “That’s all a part of a larger effort to help people keep more of what they’ve earned but also address rising costs so that people can afford day to day expenses.” Though a mainstream Democrat, Budzinski has put distance between herself and her party on a number of issues. She is against Biden’s plan to forgive $10,000 in student loans for all borrowers earning under $125,000 per year, for instance. She also favors an “all of the above” energy strategy, notably releasing a statement earlier this year in support of the construction of a natural gas plant in rural Sangamon County.  “So I’m a trade unionist, a made-in-America Democrat,” Budzinski told Lee Enterprises in August. “I’m not a typical Democrat.” Sen. Dick Durbin and congressional candidate Nikki Budzinski headline address Democratic primary voters in Springfield. Before her stint in the Biden Administration, Budzinski was a senior adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign and, later, administration. She also worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and was in the labor movement for 10 years with the International Association of Firefighters and later the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. While Budzinski may be most associated with labor, Deering’s ties are decidedly business. She is a member of the Andreas family, which ran Archer Daniels Midland Co. for nearly four decades and, in the process, transformed it from a modest regional grain processor into a world-leading company. Deering was born in Decatur but spent most of her adolescence in the Chicago region, moving back to Soy City after getting married. She has since been involved in various philanthropic endeavors and was a small business owner. Most notably, she was president of the board of directors for the Northeast Community Fund, an organization that serves low-income Decatur families by helping with food, clothing, financial assistance and advising programs. Like Budzinski, Deering has sought to separate herself from the most extreme elements of her party. Though personally anti-abortion, a position influenced by her own background as an adoptee, Deering said she opposes a federal abortion ban. She said the issue should remain in the hands of the states. She also supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life and health of the mother. Deering “It’s a challenge for me being a woman that supports life in a state that has very radical legislation that is late-term abortion and fully taxpayer-funded,” Deering said in August. “But, that’s why I think elections in November are gonna matter at the state level as well.” Budzinski, who would vote to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law, said Deering cannot be trusted on the issue.  “No one believes that,” Budzinski said. “It’s political speak because she knows that women are paying attention to this election and they’re going to come out and vote and they are going to want to protect their right to choose. It’s a critical election.” Budzinski Deering is supported by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group that is supporting federal legislation introduced last month that calls for banning abortion after 15 weeks. Budzinski, on the other hand, is supported by pro-abortion rights Planned Parenthood. On guns, Deering said she supports the Second Amendment and has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association. Budzinski said she supports “commonsense gun safety measures.” On immigration, both candidates said there was a need for comprehensive reform, with Budzinski explicitly calling for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, who are undocumented people brought to the country as minors. Deering said “there is a conversation to be had” on a pathway to citizenship but said that the border must first be secured. She criticized Biden for reversing Trump-era policies such as “Remain in Mexico,” in which asylum seekers stayed in Mexico while awaiting their hearing i...

Evin Prison Fire: Gun Shots And Sirens Heard At Iran's Notorious Detention Centre https://digitalarizonanews.com/evin-prison-fire-gun-shots-and-sirens-heard-at-irans-notorious-detention-centre/ Media caption, Iran prison fire: Gunshots and sirens heard on videos By Alex Binley & Elsa Maishman BBC News A major fire has broken out at Iran’s notorious Evin prison, known for housing political prisoners, journalists and foreign nationals. Videos shared online show flames and smoke at the site in Tehran, and gunshots and explosions can be heard. An official quoted by state media said the situation was under control, but video footage appeared to show the fire continuing after this. Iran has been gripped for weeks by anti-government protests. They first erupted last month after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini in police custody. Officials said she died of a heart attack, but her family disputed this, saying she was beaten by morality police. BBC Persian’s Rana Rahimpour said it is not yet known whether the situation at the prison is linked to the recent demonstrations. But this could easily be the case, Rana said, as hundreds of the protesters have been sent to Evin. State media has suggested the two are not linked, quoting an official who blamed “criminal elements” for the fire. In a video posted on social media by anti-government monitoring group 1500tasvir, chants of “death to the dictator” – one of the main slogans of the anti-government protest movement – could be heard coming from outside the prison. Another video appears to show objects being fired into the prison from outside its perimeter, and an explosion is then heard, according to BBC Persian. Iranian media, which is strictly controlled by the government, reported that the riot started with financial and criminal prisoners, and that no political prisoners were involved. Eight people had been injured, it said. Speaking from inside the prison, Tehran’s governor told state TV that the riot was in a wing of the prison housing petty criminals and the situation was now completely calm. However, the situation at the prison is still confused, reports BBC Persian’s Kasra Naji. Videos continue to be posted on social media showing the fire still burning and the sound of gunfire heard around the prison. Other pictures show inmates on the roof of a section of the prison where political prisoners and many of the protestors who have been arrested in the past four weeks are kept, Kasra said. The families of some prisoners told the BBC that they were unable to contact their relatives on the phone, and that internet connection around the prison also appeared to have been cut off. The streets leading to the prison were closed. Earlier, videos showed riot police entering Evin. There were also reports that special forces had been deployed to the area. A witness told Reuters news agency that ambulances were also there. Image source, Twitter Image caption, Images posted online appear to show a fire at Evin prison. Image source, Twitter/Vahid Online Image caption, Smoke can be seen rising from Evin prison. British-Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were both held at Evin prison for several years on spying charges, which they denied, before their release earlier this year. The prison has long been criticised by Western rights groups. Human Rights Watch has accused authorities at the prison of using threats of torture and of indefinite imprisonment, as well as lengthy interrogations and denial of medical care for detainees. A group of hackers calling themselves Edalat-e Ali (Ali’s Justice) posted videos in August last year of leaked surveillance footage from Evin prison showing guards beating or mistreating inmates. Image source, Shutterstock Image caption, A person places a candle during a demonstration in solidarity with the protesters. Some foreign governments whose citizens are being held in the prison have expressed concern. A spokesperson for the US state department said it was following events with “urgency”, while the UK Government’s security minister called it a “very worrying development”. Since the death of Ms Amini five weeks ago, a wave of protests has swept across Iran in the boldest challenge to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979. Many of those who have died have been teenagers. Read More Here

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Biden, Campaigning For Oregon's Kotek, Warns About Trump's Impact On States https://digitalarizonanews.com/biden-campaigning-for-oregons-kotek-warns-about-trumps-impact-on-states/ By Jeff Mason PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden warned that former President Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican Party would spill into state government on Saturday during an event to boost Democrat Tina Kotek in Oregon’s tight race for governor. Biden, who is finishing a western travel swing that included stops in Colorado and California, came to Oregon in part to help Kotek, who supporters hope will keep the governorship in Democratic hands in a state the president won handily in 2020. Kotek is running against Republican Christine Drazan and an independent candidate, Betsy Johnson, a former Democrat who is financially backed by Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Recent public opinion polls suggest Drazan has pulled into the lead. Biden, a Democrat, praised Kotek as an “articulate, tough, committed woman” and emphasized the stakes of state leadership contests. “As long as Trump controls the Republican Party, he’s going to have incredible impact on state legislative bodies,” and state government, Biden said at a reception for Kotek. He said the role of governors in the country was increasing exponentially and said Kotek’s race mattered well beyond Oregon. “She’s rational. She’s smart,” he said of Kotek. Thirty-six of the 50 U.S. states will elect governors in November’s U.S. elections, with potential impact on abortion access, transgender rights, education and future state elections. Trump has falsely asserted that the 2020 presidential election he lost was marred by widespread fraud. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Paul Simao) Read More Here