Well End Up In World War III: Trump Says US saying Exactly The Wrong Thing To Russia
‘We’ll End Up In World War III’: Trump Says US ‘saying Exactly The Wrong Thing’ To Russia https://digitalarizonanews.com/well-end-up-in-world-war-iii-trump-says-us-saying-exactly-the-wrong-thing-to-russia/
Former US president Donald Trump has slammed the United States for “saying exactly the wrong thing” to Russia following President Joe Biden’s remarks on the “prospect of Armageddon” amid President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats.
Mr Trump said the Biden administration should be pushing Russia and Ukraine to sue for peace – warning the conflict could be heading toward “World War III”, according to The Hill.
“And now we have a war between Russia and Ukraine with potentially hundreds of thousands of people dying,” he said during a rally in Arizona on Sunday.
“We must demand immediate negotiation of a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, or we will end up in World War III and there will never be a war like this.”
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Despite Reforms, County Pounds Still Under Fire https://digitalarizonanews.com/despite-reforms-county-pounds-still-under-fire/
Maricopa County Animal Care and Control is facing a critical overload of dogs and is taking steps to alleviate the overcrowding.
But a petition circulating online contends the county is not doing enough to protect the canines who are there.
The shelters in Phoenix and Mesa were housing a combined 855 animals in 755 kennels, which meant some dogs were sharing space in one kennel. MCACC also has added 50 temporary kennel spaces outside the West shelter facility in Phoenix with evaporative coolers to make dogs as comfortable as possible.
“The two shelters have been at critical capacity for months,” said Kim Powell, shelter spokeswoman.
To address this, the county is waiving adoption fees on most animals, holding free adoption events through the rest of the year and increasing efforts to reunite owners with lost pets.
MCACC also has an Assistance Program, which helps owners with financial difficulties keep their pets with subsidized shelter fees, spay/neuter surgery, licensing, and rabies vaccinations. Since July 1, the program has helped return 149 animals to their owners and sterilized 102 animals.
“We cannot address this from within the shelter system alone,” said shelter Director Michael Mendel. “We need support directly from the community where animal homelessness begins, which is why we do everything we can to partner with the community.”
But retired school teacher and animal advocate Lorena Bader is circulating a petition on change.org demanding the county change its practices at the two shelters.
Bader complains that MCACC fails to provide proper medical and behavior care to animals, harbors a hostile work environment that has resulted in low morale and a high-turnover of staff.
Bader criticizes the county for ending the animal behavior team, pointing to a deadly consequence in June because of that action.
A veterinarian employed at the shelter for nine years was mauled by a dog “exhibiting signs of extreme kennel deterioration,” according to Bader.
“As a result of the attack, both the vet who was attacked and another vet resigned immediately,” Bader said. “One of the vets had previously emailed HR about her safety concerns following the dissolution of the behavior team.”
The dog, Kronk, was taken to an office because “he was hyper-salivating, chasing his tail, and self-harming in his kennel,” according to Bader.
Shelters are advised to use alternatives to traditional care housing such as a foster care, or office foster care for animals staying long term, according to the Association of Shelter Veterinarians,
“Since this incident, we have adjusted our practices to ensure staff safety,” Powell said. “We are always trying to balance our desire to find good outcomes for all dogs with our public safety responsibility.”
Jennifer Bryan, founder and president of Alone No more Dog rescue, is another critic of the county shelter. The nonprofit, formed in 2020, pulls the dogs with behavioral issues off the county’s e-list.
Bryan said there’s a night-and-day difference now that the behavioral team no longer exists.
“I’ve overloaded my entire rescue because they are not doing their job,” she said. “So right now, the dogs aren’t being worked with and they are being scheduled to be euthanized when it’s unnecessary.
“These dogs are scheduled to be euthanized because there is no behavioral team any more. None of these dogs have the chance to be pulled out alive.”
According to Bryan, the owner-surrendered dogs on the kill list are actually the easiest to work with.
“If you put a dog in a shelter, it would
be cowering in the corner scared of random people because it’s lived with you their whole life,” she said. “Those types of dogs are not adjusting to their environment. Those are the ones scheduled to
be euthanized.”
According to county data, owners surrendered 589 dogs in 2021.
Fewer euthanizations
Bryan further claimed that no one is left in the shelter who knows how to assess the behavior of a dog.
“People are coming in and applying for jobs whether they have experience or not,” Bryan said. “And there’s no one up at the top that is qualified to train these people.”
She pointed to the dogs her nonprofit rescued from euthanasia.
“I have people who are new that are able to take them out,” she said. “Why is that? Why can’t their staff not work with them? Yet, we give them a little time and they are perfect.”
When asked for the numbers for dogs euthanized for behavioral issues when the behavioral team was in place compared with after when the group was disbanded, Powell responded, “Our save rate has been over 95% for the entire time.”
According to the most recent data, the shelter’s August save rate was 95.76%. Of the 1,628 pets that entered the shelter, 954 were adopted, 279 transferred to partner organizations and 171 returned to owners that month.
For August, the 2022 year-to-date save rate was 95.96%, the county said.
Overall, the number of dogs euthanized in the county shelter is a marked improvement from 2016, when 4,211 dogs were euthanized. In 2021, 537 were euthanized.
“That in itself is a good number but it doesn’t tell the story behind the scene,” Bader said. “They use that number to basically cover for everything else – you’re warehousing dogs that go crazy because they are stuck in cages days on end.”
And, Bryan claimed the county’s high save rate is due to the efforts of her nonprofit and about 10 other rescues.
“My rescue and other rescues if you look at our numbers have exponentially increased because there are so many more dogs scheduled to be euthanized,” Bryan said. “And we are doing our best to save them all.”
According to the county, the shelter in 2021 transferred 2,624 animals to partner organizations, 3,634 in 2020 and 5,494 in 2019.
Year over year the county shelter’s save rate has been the same but “moving forward their save rate is going to be drastically different” because the nonprofit rescues are all full, Bryan predicted.
John Doherty, who’s been fighting for reforms at the shelter since Rodrigo Silva was the director, agreed that the nonprofits are doing all the heavy lifting.
“If not for the rescue units, those dogs
would be put down constantly,” said Doherty, who started the Vets for Pets program.
Doherty, who said he is persona non grata at the county shelter but still has contacts there, insisted that botched surgeries are still going on.
He claimed that a dog recently bled out in a kennel after the sutures came undone. Bader also in her petition provided examples of dogs that died after their surgical procedures, including one who “internally bled out after surgery.”
“These claims are false,” Powell said. “Animals are receiving proper medical care from trained vets.”
County insists staffing is OK
The county also responded to criticism that the shelter is woefully understaffed and therefore unable to provide for all the care the animals need.
Powell said three veterinarians and nine veterinarian technicians are currently on staff. The county has job postings for a chief veterinarian and a veterinarian, she said.
“There is a current job posting to attract additional staff,” she said. “Our shelter is not unique in this way. Many, if not all, local animal rescue organizations are struggling to find and hire veterinarians.”
Powell added that the department has worked with the Board of Supervisors to increase pay rates and with Human Resources to target veterinary schools to recruit more people to work in the county shelters.
“It is challenging, but our results for the past eight months tell the story,” Powell said. “We are finding positive outcomes for more than 95% of animals. This is despite the number of animals and lack of medical history when they enter the shelter.”
Powell noted that there are over 160 employees on staff, most of whom work with animals in some context.
And, there are a total of 405 volunteers at MCACC, she said.
A 2015 report by a county ad hoc task force recommended at the time the hiring of six more veterinarians and six veterinary technicians to supplement the then-current staffing of five veterinarians and 14 vet techs. The report, however, pointed to industry standards of 13 vets and 45 vet techs for an operation the size of the county’s.
Other recommendations included measures to improve the overall medical treatment to animals and the quality of behavioral assessments such as providing more education and instituting an in-kennel enrichment program to help offset behavioral deterioration from being in a shelter environment, which was in progress, according to the report.
Some of the recommendations were not implemented because they were not practical financially or from a staffing standpoint, Powell said.
But “many of the task force’s recommendations were implemented successfully,” she said. “That’s how we were able to improve our live release rate from less than 70% to the current live release rate of 95%-plus.”
Hostile work environment
The shelter has trouble retaining employees, said detractors, attributing that partly to a hostile work environment.
“There are not enough people who want to work in that environment,” Bryan said. “It’s hostile. They feel upper management is disrespectful to them.
“So they work for other shelters and rescues and everyone keeps abandoning Maricopa County. They ran out volunteers and ran out staff members and I know that personally because people come to us and want to work with us.”
The fiscal year 2021 county data showed a 61% turnover rate for animal control officers, 67% for shelter technicians and 31% for animal health technicians.
Notes from shelter employee exit interviews in late 2021 included comments of feeling unappreciated, a stressful environment and burnout.
Powell said she can’t speak to the management under the previous direct...
Engeletin Alleviates The Inflammation And Apoptosis In Intervertebral | JIR
Engeletin Alleviates The Inflammation And Apoptosis In Intervertebral | JIR https://digitalarizonanews.com/engeletin-alleviates-the-inflammation-and-apoptosis-in-intervertebral-jir/
Introduction
Low back pain (LBP) has become the leading cause of disability in the world, affecting an estimated 568 million people worldwide according to a recent global health report.1 Moreover, people suffering from that will continue to rise due to the population increase and aging.1,2 It is reported that about 80% of the people will experience LBP at some point in their lives.3 With the highest prevalence in the working-age population, LBP is an important reason for hospital visits and exit of jobs prematurely, which has brought a great economic burden to society.4,5 Among a variety of reasons, intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a major factor contributing to LBP.6 Therefore, it is of great clinical and social significance to explore how to effectively treat IDD.
Intervertebral disc (IVD) is a flexible joint located between the adjacent vertebral bodies, composed of three integrated parts: the internal nucleus pulposus (NP), the surrounding annulus fibrosus (AF) and cartilage endplate (CEP).7 The healthy nucleus pulposus is a gelatinous tissue, consisting of abundant extracellular matrix (ECM) and scattered NP cells.8 In the majority of cases, the IDD is beginning from the nucleus pulposus, manifesting the decrease in NP cells and loss of the ECM. Subsequently, the nucleus pulposus will dehydrate and shrink, causing the height loss, impaired load-bearing capacity and various symptoms finally.9,10 The normal content of ECM is maintained relying on the homeostasis of anabolism and catabolism. But at the inflammation status, the massive inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), will disturb the metabolic homeostasis, resulting in the up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs (ADAMTS) family, and consequently prompting the degrading of ECM.11–13 Meanwhile, such inflammatory cytokines will also lead to the down-regulated synthesis of collagen and aggrecan, which is the principal component of ECM.8,14 The persistent inflammation will induce the NP cells apoptosis as well, further destroying the metabolic homeostasis and making the IDD irreversible.15,16 From the point of pathophysiology and molecular mechanism, inflammation is the core factor for the starting and developing of IDD; therefore, effectively controlling and relieving the inflammation may be a promising therapeutic strategy.
Engeletin is a natural compound belonging to the flavanonol glycosides, which is widely distributed in many herbs.17 As the main bioactive component of many traditional medicines, engeletin has a long history used to treat a number of inflammatory diseases.18 Modern technology has successfully purified the engeletin and confirmed its a variety of biological effects, such as anti-inflammation, antioxidant and antiulcerogenic effects.19 Recently, many studies have reported engeletin suppresses inflammatory response through blocking the MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways in many diseases.20–22 Therefore, it has drawn our great attention to verify its therapeutic effects towards the IDD.
In our research, we explored the possibility of engeletin to inhibit the TNF-α-induced inflammatory cytokines synthesis and release, mitigate the disturbance of metabolic homeostasis of matrix and attenuate the apoptosis of NP cells through down-regulating the activation of MAPK and NF-κB pathways in vitro. Following, we constructed the IDD model in rat, further elucidating its protective effects for intervertebral disc in vivo.
Materials and Methods
Reagents and Antibodies
Engeletin was purchased from Selleck Chemicals (Houston, TX, United States). Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), type II collagenase, ITS (Insulin Transferrin Selenium) regent and Alcian blue solution were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) culture medium, fetal bovine serum (FBS), 0.25% trypsin EDTA solution, 1% penicillin–streptomycin mixture were purchased from Gibco (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA). Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) was obtained from Sangon Biotech Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China). TNF-α was purchased from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN, USA). TRIzol reagent, BCA assay, Alexa Fluor 594 conjugate secondary antibody and Alexa Fluor 488 conjugate secondary antibody were obtained from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (Waltham, MA, USA). The cDNA Synthesis Kit and TB Green Premix Ex Taq Kit were obtained from Takara Bio (Otsu, Japan). The RIPA lysis buffer and phosphatase and protease inhibitors were purchased from Roche (Basel, Switzerland). The DAPI staining solution, DNase-free Proteinase K, TUNEL Apoptosis Assay Kit and Annexin V-FITC apoptosis detection kit were obtained from Beyotime Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China). The primary antibodies against iNOS (AF0199), IL-1β (AF5103), COX2 (AF7003) were purchased from Affinity Biosciences (OH, United States). The primary antibodies against MMP3 (ab52915), MMP13 (ab39012), SOX9 (ab185966) were obtained from Abcam (Cambridge, MA, USA), while β-actin (66009-1-Ig), Bax (50599-2-Ig), Bcl-2 (26593-1-AP) were purchased from Proteintech (Wuhan, China). Antibodies against MMP9 (13667S), Cleaved Caspase-3 (9664S), IKKβ (8943S), phospho-IKKα/β (2694S), IκBα (4814S), phospho-IκBα (5209S), p65 (8242S), phospho-p65 (3033S), SAPK/JNK (9252S), phospho-SAPK/JNK (4668S), ERK1/2 (4695S), phospho-ERK1/2 (4370S), p38 (8690S), phospho-p38 (4511S), anti-rabbit and anti-mouse IgG (H + L; DyLight 800 4× PEG conjugate) secondary antibodies, HRP-linked second antibody were obtained from Cell Signaling Technology (Danvers, MA, USA).
Primary NP Cells Isolation and Culture
Six-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats (Shanghai Lab, Animal Research Center Co. Ltd, Shanghai, China) were euthanized through an overdose of pentobarbital sodium and soaked in 75% ethanol for 15 min. After Flaying the tail skin, the intervertebral discs were exposed. Then cutting alone the cartilage endplate, the gelatinous nucleus pulposus was extracted and digested in the 1% type II Collagenase for 2 hours. Later, after the centrifuge and suspension, the primary nucleus pulposus cells were cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) supplemented with 15% fetal bovine serum and 1% penicillin–streptomycin in an incubator at 37°C with 5% CO2. The NP cells used in the in vitro experiments were from the passage 2–4.
Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) Assay
The cytotoxicity and influence for proliferation of engeletin on NP cells were assessed using a CCK-8 kit. To determine the cytotoxicity, the NP cells were seeded onto 96-well plates at a density of 2×104 cells/well with engeletin at different concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160 µM) for 24 h. To determine the influence for proliferation, the NP cells seeded onto 96-well plates at a density of 5×103 cells/well were cultured with engeletin at different concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160 µM) for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h. At the end of the experimental periods, 100µl complete media containing 10 μL of CCK-8 reagent was added into each well, and mixture was also added into wells without cells as blank control. After incubating for 2h at 37°C, the absorbances (measured as optical density; OD) of each well were measured at 450nm using an Infinite M200 Pro multimode microplate reader (Tecan Life Sciences, Männedorf, Switzerland).
RNA Extraction and Real-Time Quantitative PCR (qPCR) Analyses
NP cells were seeded in 6-well plates and incubated with different treatments for 24h at 37°C. Then, total RNA was extracted from cells using TRIzol reagent according to the manufacturer’s protocol. The complementary DNA (cDNA) was reversed transcribed from the obtained total RNA using the cDNA Synthesis Kit. Real-time qPCR was performed using the TB Green Premix Ex Taq Kit on an Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 6 Flex Real-Time PCR System (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA). The β-actin was used as the internal reference gene and the expression of other genes were normalized using the 2−ΔΔCT method. The primer sequences were designed using NCBI BLAST and listed in Table 1.
Table 1 Primer Sequences
Protein Extraction and Western Blotting
Total cellular proteins were extracted from the pretreatment NP cells using RIPA lysis buffer containing phosphatase and protease inhibitors, and the content of proteins was quantified with BCA assay. Then, the equal amounts of proteins were resolved on 4–20% gels and separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and electroblotted onto 0.22 μm PVDF membrane (Merck-Millipore). After blocking with 5% BSA-TBST at room temperature for 1h, the membranes were washed for 30 min with TBST buffer and subsequently incubated with targeted primary antibodies (diluted 1:1000) overnight at 4°C. Membranes were washed for another 30 min with TBST and then incubated with anti-rabbit or anti-mouse secondary antibodies (diluted 1:5000) at RT for 1 hour in the dark. Later, the membranes were washed again and protein immunoreactivity was detected on a LI-COR Odyssey fluorescence imaging system (LI-COR Biosciences, Lincoln, NE, United States). The β-actin was used as internal reference and semi-quantitative analysis was achieved using ImageJ V1.8.0 software (National Institutes of Health).
Immunofluorescence
NP cells were seeded on the 35-mm Nunc glass-based dish (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and stimulated using TNF-α with or without engeletin addition for 24h. As for the assessment of p-p65 and p-p38 nuclear translocation, the cells were pretreated with or without engeletin for 3h and then stimulated with TNF-α for 15min. The normal NP cells without treatment were served as the control group. ...
Crikey, Murdoch Argue On Public Interest https://digitalarizonanews.com/crikey-murdoch-argue-on-public-interest/
Lachlan Murdoch (left) claims Crikey was motivated by malice in its article. -AP
Lachlan Murdoch’s alleged failure to disavow the views of “poisonous” Fox News commentators on the US presidential election forms part of Crikey’s defamation defence against the media mogul.
Lawyers for the co-chair of News Corp and chief executive of Fox Corporation have argued in the Federal Court that a new public interest defence isn’t applicable for the online publisher.
“The new dawn promised to the media by reason of this defence is not going to happen,” Sue Chrysanthou SC said on Monday, as both parties try to strike out parts of the case against them.
Rather than the topic of Crikey’s article, a reasonable belief needed to be shown that the defamatory matter at the time of publication was in the public interest, she argued.
Mr Murdoch is suing Crikey over a June 29 opinion piece by political editor Bernard Keane, that was taken down and then posted back online on August 15.
It related to US House of Representative hearings into former president Donald Trump and the Capitol riots in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.
Mr Murdoch alleges it contained defamatory meanings including a false claim he entered an illegal criminal conspiracy with Mr Trump to overturn the US 2020 presidential election and incite a mob with murderous intent to march on the Capitol.
The article was titled “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator”.
Defence barrister Michael Hodge KC submitted that a trial is the correct place to test a new defence that had not been subject to judicial determination in Australia.
The way the Murdoch family was invoked in the Crikey article was as controllers of a global media conglomerate that had backed Mr Trump and the lies he spread about the US election being stolen by mass voter fraud, Mr Hodge said.
Keane’s article had associated the Murdochs with the views expressed by a “slew of poisonous Fox News commentators”.
“We would say, obviously relevant to the question of whether that kind of publication is in the public interest, is whether or not the Murdochs have disassociated themselves from those views,” Mr Hodge said.
“If it was the case that Lachlan Murdoch had said ‘I do not believe any of these things, it is not true that the election has been stolen’ … that would seem to be a fact directly relevant to the question of whether or not my client’s publication is in the public interest.
“Conversely, the fact that we say he’s never done that is also in our submission relevant to whether the publication is in the public interest.”
But Ms Chrysanthou said there was no matter of public interest that connected her client to evidence from the US committee hearings.
The only co-conspirators identified in the article “are persons with my client’s surname” and Fox News commentators.
In the final paragraph Keane “out of nowhere” compared her client with Richard Nixon, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Watergate controversy.
The article was about a criminal who had committed an indictable offence and got away with it, Ms Chrysanthou argued.
Mr Murdoch is also claiming Crikey’s publisher Private Media, Kean and editor-in-chief Peter Fray were motivated by malice, predominantly acting to harm Mr Murdoch.
Private Media has applied to have that claim struck out.
Justice Michael Wigney reserved his decision on the pre-trial applications. A nine-day trial is due to start on March 27.
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Nevada Senate Race Tests Potency Of Abortion Focus For Dems
Nevada Senate Race Tests Potency Of Abortion Focus For Dems https://digitalarizonanews.com/nevada-senate-race-tests-potency-of-abortion-focus-for-dems/
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who is running for reelection, speaks about prescription drug prices during a news conference on April 26, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Cortez Masto faces Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in the November election. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Democrats predicted abortion would be Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s saving grace.
But inside Nevada’s crowded union halls, across its sun-scorched desert towns and on the buzzing Las Vegas strip, there are signs that outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision to dismantle abortion rights may not be enough to overcome intensifying economic concerns.
That’s leaving Cortez Masto as the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrat in the final month of a volatile midterm election year. Her predicament is the starkest example of the challenge facing Democrats nationwide as they try to capitalize on anger over the abortion ruling while Republicans focus on crime and stubborn inflation. If Cortez Masto can’t turn things around, the GOP would be well on its way to netting the one seat they need to retake the Senate and blunt the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term.
In an interview, Cortez Masto sidestepped questions about her fragile political standing. She acknowledged “there’s more work to be done” on the economy in a working-class state in which gasoline remains over $5.40 per gallon, the unemployment rate is higher than the national average and spending at casinos has not kept pace with inflation.
“I know our families, the issues that are important to them are the kitchen-table issues,” she said, citing the recent passage by the Democratic-controlled Congress of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which lowered the cost of some prescription drugs and expanded health care coverage, among other Democratic priorities.
“But I also know, talking with our families, the repeal of Roe v. Wade is having an impact,” she said. “We’re a pro-choice state, proudly. That’s why so many are outraged by the repeal.”
Democrats insist that Nevada remains a purple state, despite being led by a Democratic governor, two Democratic senators and a Democratic-controlled state legislature. Former President Donald Trump lost the state by less than 34,000 votes in 2020. And on Nov. 8, polls suggest, the GOP could take over several statewide offices.
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville fears his party’s hyper-focus on abortion isn’t working.
“A lot of these consultants think if all we do is run abortion spots that will win for us. I don’t think so,” said Carville, a vocal Cortez Masto ally who has sent dozens of fundraising emails on her behalf. “It’s a good issue. But if you just sit there and they’re pummeling you on crime and pummeling you on the cost of living, you’ve got to be more aggressive than just yelling abortion every other word.”
Cortez Masto is facing Republican Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general, failed 2018 gubernatorial candidate and the grandson of a former Nevada governor and U.S. senator. The 44-year-old Republican has avoided talking about his opposition to abortion in the election’s final weeks as his campaign works to avoid unscripted moments.
Laxalt’s campaign refused to make him available for this story. And he has declined to participate in any of the state’s traditional debates, although he called unsuccessfully for Cortez Masto to agree to at least two other meetings. Late last week, organizers canceled what would have been the only debate broadcast in Spanish because of Laxalt’s refusal to attend.
Laxalt instead spent his weekend campaigning with Trump, whom Laxalt has leaned on to revitalize his political career.
Laxalt co-chaired Trump’s state campaign in 2020 and spearheaded legal challenges to the vote-counting process. Earlier in the year, he began raising fears of voter fraud in the 2022 midterms as well.
With polls now showing he could defeat Cortez Masto, Laxalt avoided the topic of election fraud as he addressed thousands of Trump supporters gathered Saturday on the edge of a desert air field. Speaking an hour before Trump called 2020 “a fake and dirty and rigged election” on the same stage, Laxalt focused on the state’s economic woes and Cortez Masto’s support for Biden.
“She won’t mention the two words: ‘Joe Biden.’ Will Joe Biden come to Nevada anytime soon? I’m still waiting for that invite,” Laxalt snickered, speaking from a podium emblazoned with Trump’s name.
In the interview, Cortez Masto did not say whether she wanted the Democratic president to visit the state on her behalf.
“The president is always welcome in the state of Nevada. But really, my goal here is to make sure I’m addressing the needs of Nevadans,” she said, adding that she wasn’t surprised Trump was in the state campaigning for Laxalt.
Laxalt “was the face of the big lie for President Trump in the state,” Cortez Masto said. “In my view, he stands with the insurrectionists and not the people of Nevada.”
Vulnerable Democratic senators in Arizona, Georgia and New Hampshire are also fighting to overcome Biden’s weak standing, which is roughly equal to Trump’s in the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost 40 House seats. The party that occupies the White House almost always suffers major losses in a president’s first midterm election.
But there are reasons to believe that Cortez Masto’s situation is more dire than those of her colleagues elsewhere.
Nevada’s electorate is overwhelmingly working-class compared to voters in other battleground states, leaving the state’s 3 million residents more vulnerable to economic setbacks. Just 25.5% of the state graduated from college, compared to 35% nationally, according to the Census Bureau.
Nevada has among the highest gasoline prices in the country at an average of $5.44, almost 40% higher than the U.S. average, according to AAA. Higher gas prices have also translated into fewer drivers crossing into Nevada from California to go to Las Vegas. Nor has gaming revenue kept pace with annual inflation. Gaming revenue in Clark County, home to Las Vegas, rose just 2.9% in August from a year ago.
Gas prices may get worse before they get better. The Biden administration suffered a stinging setback last week when OPEC oil producers announced a major production cut.
At the same time, Laxalt has avoided some of the pitfalls that have undermined high-profile GOP Senate candidates in other key states.
In New Hampshire, Republican groups canceled millions of dollars in television ad reservations designed to benefit GOP nominee Don Bolduc in recent days, reflecting a growing sense that Bolduc’s hard-line conservative positions will make it difficult to defeat Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.
Republicans have also pulled some money out of Arizona, despite first-term Sen. Mark Kelly’s apparent vulnerability in a state Biden carried by less than 1% in 2020. And in Georgia, Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker’s prospects have been clouded by allegations that he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion.
Laxalt, by contrast, has sought to cast himself as a mainstream Republican with longstanding ties to the state, despite the best efforts of Democrats to highlight his loyalty to Trump. That may be good enough in a difficult political environment for Democrats as questions loom about the potency of the Democrats’ abortion message.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, in Las Vegas late last week to promote the GOP ticket, said Democrats have “oversaturated” their abortion message.
“Voters are starting to come back to the things they wake up thinking about every day: Can I fill my car with gas? Can I pay for groceries? How are my kids doing?” she said. “And those are the issues that I think are really going to win, and that’s where Adam is focused.”
Nevada Republicans also note that abortion — in the state, at least — is settled because of a 1990 referendum that codified abortion access until 24 weeks of pregnancy into state law.
Yusette Solomon, a canvasser for the state’s powerful pro-Democrat Culinary Workers union, said he doesn’t hear much about abortion when talking to voters. Instead, the 47-year-old hotel utility porter said, the state’s economic challenges remain a constant concern.
“It’s hard for everybody,” he said. “It’s the supermarket. It’s gas. Inflation is something we need to deal with. Everyone’s feeling it.”
Solomon lost his job at a Las Vegas hotel for roughly two years because of the pandemic. He survived only by driving for Uber.
Still, he’s optimistic about Cortez Masto’s chances.
“I’m sure Democrats are going to win. This is a blue state. We’re going to continue to be a blue state,” Solomon said. “Every election is tough.”
___
Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Thousands Attend Republican Rally To Hear From Donald Trump
Thousands Attend Republican Rally To Hear From Donald Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/thousands-attend-republican-rally-to-hear-from-donald-trump/
MESA — On Sunday, several thousand people showed up for a Republican party rally in Mesa.
There were plenty of candidates in attendance but the crowd was there for one reason: to see and hear from former President Donald Trump.
It was a rally for Arizona Republicans, but that didn’t stop people from as far away as Illinois, Southern California and Nevada from coming to Mesa.
For the first part of his speech, Trump stuck to the script. He spoke on Democats’ impact on the economy, inflation and the border.
“We don’t want crime, we want a strong military, no taxes. We want great education and we’re going to eliminate the crazy Nancy Pelosi’s political career once and for all,” Trump said.
But as he has done in previous appearances, Trump talked about the ‘stolen election.’ He criticized the FBI raid on his Florida home and the ongoing federal, state and Congressional investigations.
“You don’t hear about greatness anymore, all you hear about is investigations. I’ve been investigated now seven years I think,” he said.
The races for Arizona Senator, Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General are tight. Trump says independent voters will make the difference.
Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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World War III Is A Possibility: Donald Trump On Russia-Ukraine Crisis
World War III Is A Possibility: Donald Trump On Russia-Ukraine Crisis https://digitalarizonanews.com/world-war-iii-is-a-possibility-donald-trump-on-russia-ukraine-crisis/
Former US president Donald Trump called for an immediate and “peaceful end” to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war which started following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Speaking at a “Save America” rally in the US state of Nevada on Saturday, Donald Trump warned of the dangers of escalation and nuclear weapons. “Nothing would be left of our earth all because ignorant people didn’t have a clue”, he said.
“We must demand the immediate negotiation of a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, or we will end up in World War III and there will be nothing left of our planet,” Donald Trump added.
Donald Trump’s remarks come after US President Joe Biden warned of the risk of a nuclear “Armageddon” for the first time in 60 years.
“For the first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat from the use of nuclear weapons if, in fact, things continue down the path they are going,” Joe Biden had said referring to the nuclear standoff that took place sixty years ago owing to Soviet Union stationing missiles in Cuba at a striking distance from the US.
Joe Biden also warned that the world has “not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis.”
On Biden’s chilling remark, the White House later said that president’s warning was not based on any new intelligence suggesting such nuclear use is imminent.
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Michael Cohen Says The DOJ Should Look Into Whether Trump Is Keeping Photocopies Of Classified Documents
Michael Cohen Says The DOJ Should Look Into Whether Trump Is Keeping Photocopies Of Classified Documents https://digitalarizonanews.com/michael-cohen-says-the-doj-should-look-into-whether-trump-is-keeping-photocopies-of-classified-documents-2/
Michael Cohen (left) once served as then-President Donald Trump’s lawyer and fixer.Getty Images
Michael Cohen is urging the DOJ to investigate if Trump kept photocopies of top-secret files.
He speculated that Trump has more files out there that the DOJ hasn’t found yet.
Cohen accused Trump of using “Art of the Deal” tactics to trade these files for other documents.
Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump’s one-time personal lawyer and fixer, says the Department of Justice should investigate whether Trump photocopied and kept any top-secret files.
Cohen made the comment while speaking to MSNBC host Ali Velshi on Sunday morning.
During his appearance, Cohen responded to a report from The New York Times on how Trump had been angered by the National Archives and Records Administration’s refusal to provide him documents regarding the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
According to The Times, Trump told advisers he would give NARA the documents he had at Mar-a-Lago if they handed over what he wanted from them.
Commenting on Trump’s actions, Cohen said the former president appeared to be using a tactic from his book “The Art of the Deal” and trying to trade “this for that.”
“This whole issue is absolutely crazy. The fact that we have to sit there and play this game with a former president of the United States?” Cohen said, adding that Trump was not “entitled” to the documents he wanted.
“First and foremost, they are not his,” Cohen added. “Second of all, we know that he has more documents. We know that because, in the file folder, it would specifically state the number of documents in them. Well, there are more of them obviously out there.”
“On top of that, we should find out whether or not he photocopied any of the documents as well,” he added.
Cohen also wondered aloud why Trump — after being president for four years — didn’t attempt to get the documents while he was in office.
A spokesman at Trump’s post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Cohen’s comments on Sunday echoed his remarks in September about Trump likely having kept copies of classified files at his children’s homes, his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey, and Trump Tower in New York.
During its search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, the FBI seized classified documents, including some marked “top secret.” The DOJ is investigating whether Trump broke three federal laws — including the Espionage Act — by keeping the files at his Florida residence.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to felonies, including tax evasion, campaign finance violations, and bank fraud. He was sentenced in December 2018 to three years in prison and was disbarred in February 2019 by the New York Supreme Court.
Since his release, Cohen has become an outspoken critic of Trump and has gleefully weighed in on the former president’s many legal troubles. In September, he announced he was selling t-shirts depicting Trump behind bars to “celebrate the fall of the mango Mussolini.”
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After Racist Comments Los Angeles City Council President Faces Calls To Resign
After Racist Comments, Los Angeles City Council President Faces Calls To Resign https://digitalarizonanews.com/after-racist-comments-los-angeles-city-council-president-faces-calls-to-resign/
In a leaked recording of a meeting last year, she mocked Indigenous immigrants and the Black child of a fellow council member.
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Nury Martinez, president of the Los Angeles City Council.Credit…Al Seib/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images
Published Oct. 9, 2022Updated Oct. 10, 2022, 1:07 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES — The president of the Los Angeles City Council faced widespread calls to resign on Sunday after a leaked audio recording revealed racist and disparaging remarks about the Black child of a white council member and also about Indigenous immigrants in the city’s Koreatown neighborhood.
The comments, made during a meeting last year with two other council members and a labor official, exposed longstanding racial tensions in the governance of one of the nation’s most multicultural cities as well as fault lines among the city’s Democrats.
In the profanity-laced recording, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times and which was first reported by The Los Angeles Times, the City Council president, Nury Martinez, who is Latina, compared the Black child of a white council member to a “changuito,” Spanish for little monkey. She also called Oaxacan immigrants living in Koreatown “short little dark people.”
It was unclear who leaked the recording of the October 2021 meeting, which included Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, council members representing parts of the city’s East Side, and Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Also unknown was who made the recording, which was initially uploaded to Reddit earlier this month by an unidentified, now-suspended user, and continued to circulate via email after the post was taken down. No one has disputed the recording’s authenticity, and Ms. Martinez and Mr. de León have issued apologies.
Although advocates on all sides of upcoming city races are unleashing information to sway voters, the exact motivation behind the release of the recording was not immediately clear. But an unsigned introduction in the Reddit post, shared via screenshot with the recording, denounced the ties between organized labor and some members of the Council, including Ms. Martinez, complaining that “the labor movement is in bed with City Hall.”
The four officials in the meeting were strategizing about political redistricting in advance of this year’s election. Mr. Herrera can be heard telling the group that “my goal is to get the three of you elected, and I’m just focused on that — we’re like a little Latino caucus of our own.”
A citizen advisory committee conducts Los Angeles’s redistricting process each decade and recommends maps, but the final lines are determined by the Council, which ultimately approved a map far different from the one that was recommended. The conversation focused on those heated negotiations and on the distribution among the 15 council districts of economic and municipal “assets” such as stadiums, universities and airports. Such assets provide jobs to constituents and can enhance an officeholder’s political influence and fund-raising abilities.
In the audio, the group echoed long held complaints about Latino representation in the city, where Latinos make up about half of the population but hold only about a third of the seats on the Council. Ms. Martinez complained that the commission had recommended moving key assets, such as the Van Nuys airport, out of her district while claiming to back broader representation for Latinos.
“If you’re going to talk about Latino districts, what kind of districts are you trying to create?” she asked her colleagues. “Because you’re taking away our assets. You’re just going to create poor Latino districts with nothing?”
Ms. Martinez, who is not up for re-election until 2024, added that Nithya Raman, a council member of South Asian descent, should not represent Koreatown, which is now largely Latino.
Ms. Martinez also weighed in on a dispute between two Black council members over whose district would include Exposition Park and the University of Southern California. Rather than fight among themselves, she said, they should demand a map in which one of them gets the massive Los Angeles International Airport. That asset, she noted, is in the district of a white council member, Mike Bonin, whom she referred to with a vulgarity.
In the ensuing exchange, Mr. de León referred to Mr. Bonin, a West Los Angeles liberal, as the council’s “fourth Black member” and joked with Ms. Martinez that Mr. Bonin carried his adopted son, who is Black, as if the toddler were a designer handbag. Ms. Martinez complained that on a parade float on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Mr. Bonin had failed to control his son and said that the child’s antics had nearly tipped the float over.
“They’re raising him like a little white kid,” Ms. Martinez says. “I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner, and then I’ll bring him back.”
She also cursed George Gascón, the Los Angeles County district attorney, saying that “he’s with the Blacks.”
News of the audio ricocheted around Los Angeles on Sunday, eliciting shock and fury but also acknowledgment of the complexity of race relations in the sprawling city. The furor extended to the city’s increasingly tight race for mayor between Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer and police commissioner endorsed by Mr. Cedillo, and Representative Karen Bass, who is Black and was endorsed by Ms. Martinez.
“This entire situation shows that City Hall is fundamentally broken and dysfunctional,” Mr. Caruso said in a statement. “In a closed-door meeting, leaders at the highest levels of city government used racial slurs and hate speech while discussing how to carve up the city to retain their own power.”
Ms. Bass issued a condemnation as well. “Let me be clear about what was on those tapes: appalling, anti-Black racism,” she said in a statement, adding that she had “spent the day speaking with Black and Latino leaders about how to ensure this doesn’t divide our city.”
“Homelessness is out of control, crime is on the rise, and Angelenos are being priced out of their hometown,” she said. “The challenges we face already threaten to tear us apart and, now, this hateful and shocking conversation among some of our city’s most powerful leaders could divide us even further. All those in the room must be held accountable.”
Eunisses Hernandez, a progressive who in June won Mr. Cedillo’s council seat in an upset, said she was “beyond disgusted.”
“We have three sitting council members being explicit about the Black community, and their language exemplifies anti-Blackness,” she said. “How is it we have these people in leadership?”
Latinos are by far the largest demographic among the city’s 3.8 million residents. But the Black community in Los Angeles has long wielded greater clout than would be suggested by its 8.8 percent of the population, and the Asian community has become a rising political force with nearly 12 percent of the population. White Angelenos, with more than 28 percent of the population, have long controlled much of the city’s wealth and power.
Residents of the city routinely tout their diversity as an asset, and, since the 1992 riots, have expressed pride in the strides they have made in race relations. In polls, Latino residents of the city repeatedly say that their Black neighbors understand them better than do any other ethnic group in Los Angeles, and vice versa, said Fernando Guerra, whose Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University regularly surveys the city’s residents.
Mr. Guerra said that when he heard the recording, he was appalled, particularly at the remarks about Mr. Bonin’s child. But he also noted that, as in most of California, getting along remains a work in progress and that unlike the county and state, the city of Los Angeles still allows elected officials, rather than an independent commission, to have the final say in their own district maps. That practice, he said, has contributed to ongoing racial tensions.
In drawing a fair map, the council “had to talk about race,” Mr. Guerra said. “Although not like this.”
Calls for Ms. Martinez to step down as president or resign from the council altogether came from politicians across the state as well as business owners and activists. Ms. Martinez, who did not respond to a question about whether she would step down, did not deny making the remarks, and she apologized for the comments.
“In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me, and I hold myself accountable for these comments. For that I am sorry,” she said in a statement. “The context of this conversation was concern over the redistricting process and concern about the potential negative impact it might have on communities of color. My work speaks for itself.”
Mr. de León, who also is not up for re-election, apologized as well. “There were comments made in the context of this meeting that are wholly inappropriate,” he said in a statement, “and I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private. I’ve reached out to that colleague personally. On that day, I fell short of the expectations we set for our leaders — and I will hold myself to a higher standard.”
Mr. Cedillo did not respond to requests for comments. Mr. Herrera issued a statement apologizing “for my failure to stand up to racist and anti-Black remarks in that immediate moment,” adding that “there is no justification and no excuse for the vile remarks made in that room.”
Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, who heads the California Labor Federation, condem...
Futures Fall To Start Week With Key Inflation Data Earnings Ahead
Futures Fall To Start Week With Key Inflation Data, Earnings Ahead https://digitalarizonanews.com/futures-fall-to-start-week-with-key-inflation-data-earnings-ahead/
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Getty Images
Stock futures were lower Monday morning as the markets come out of a tumultuous week and traders look ahead to key reports coming in the next week that can offer insights into the health of the economy.
Futures connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.44% or 130 points. S&P 500 futures dropped 0.51%, while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.52%.
Market observers generally consider the week ahead as the kickoff to earnings season, with four of the world’s largest banks – JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Citi – reporting Friday. PepsiCo, Delta and Domino’s are also among companies reporting next week.
Inflation will also take center stage as new monthly Consumer Price Index data comes Thursday morning.
It will follow a week of whiplash for market participants. The first half brought a relief rally that pushed the S&P 500 up more than 5% in its largest two-day gain since 2020.
But jobs data that economists say will keep the Federal Reserve on a path to continue raising interest rates and OPEC+’s decision to slash oil supply rattled investors, diluting wins later in the week. When day trading ended Friday, the S&P was up 1.5% compared to where it started the week. The Dow and Nasdaq were up 1.5% and 0.7%, respectively.
Still, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq had the first positive week in the last four. All remain down substantially so far in 2022, however, and the Nasdaq is less than 1% away from its 52-week low.
Meanwhile, the 2-year Treasury yield rose 6 basis points, closing at 4.316%. One basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.
“The direction of the stock market is likely to be lower because either the economy and corporate profits are going to slow meaningfully or the Fed is going to have to raise rates even higher and keep them higher for longer,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance, on Friday.
“Given the conditions that we are operating under, we believe it’s prudent to begin preparing for a recession,” he added. “The talk of a shallow recession that is now the narrative-du-jour strikes us as eerily similar to the ‘inflation is transitory’ narrative of last year.”
Last week brought heightened concerns that corporate earnings will show the ugly side of a surging dollar as Levi Strauss became the latest to cut guidance due to sliding international sales.
CNBC Pro: Goldman says these ‘cheap’ global stocks are set to win in the short and long-term
As Europe struggles with soaring electricity and gas bills, Goldman Sachs says global companies focussing on energy efficiency are set to outperform.
“We think Energy Efficiency companies can outperform over the short term, with the focus on energy efficiency to tackle the current energy crisis that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the analysts wrote in a note on Oct. 3.
“[And] over the long term, with the focus on energy efficiency to tackle the climate change and reach the ambitious ‘net zero’ targets.”
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Weizhen Tan
Services activity in China contracted in September, private survey shows
The Caixin services purchasing managers’ index came in at 49.3 in September, according to a report published Saturday, a steep drop from 55 in August.
The 50-point mark separates growth from contraction. PMI readings compare activity from month to month.
The nation’s Covid curbs caused services activity in China to contract in September for the first time since May, the report said.
“Companies that reported reduced activity frequently commented that the pandemic and subsequent measures to contain the virus had restricted operations and weighed on demand in September,” the press release by Caixin said.
— Abigail Ng
Core inflation will rise again, Allianz’s El-Erian predicts
Allianz Chief Economic Adviser Mohamed El-Erian predicts core inflation will continue rising while headline inflation comes down to about 8%.
He told CBS’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday that inflation core inflation will eventually come down. But he expects new Consumer Price Index data coming Thursday to show it rose again month over month.
Core inflation previously rose 0.6% from July to August – the most recent data before what is coming next week – and was up 6.3% from a year ago.
“The question is, does it come down with a slowdown in the economy or a major recession?” he said.
— Alex Harring, Ashley Capoot
The week ahead: Earnings season kicks off, new data and more
Market observers will be watching for key data and information coming in the coming week.
Four of the world’s largest banks, as well as consumer interest brands like PepsiCo and Domino’s, will report earnings for a week many call the start to the new earnings season.
They will also watch for Consumer Price Index data Thursday morning as concerns over inflation continue to impact the political landscape and economic policy.
New data from the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index will drop Friday morning. This index gauges consumer feelings about issues such as the health of the business world and their finances and is considered a key indicator of how average Americans feel about the economy.
CNBC Pro subscribers can see more to watch for here.
— Alex Harring, Jesse Pound
Stock futures open lower
Stock futures were down at the start of after-hours trading Sunday night.
Futures connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.3% to 29,225 points.
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 saw futures down 0.4% to 3,638 points and 11,056.75 points, respectively.
— Alex Harring
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Mesa Collision Involving Police Car Officer Injured
Mesa Collision Involving Police Car, Officer Injured https://digitalarizonanews.com/mesa-collision-involving-police-car-officer-injured/
MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) – Two people, including a police officer, were taken to the hospital with minor injuries after a car crash Sunday night.
Around 8:45 p.m., rescue crews responded to the area of Gilbert Road and Main Street for the report of a two-vehicle collision involving a Mesa police patrol car. The officer in the patrol car was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Police say the driver of the second vehicle was taken to the hospital for arm pain, and a child in the car was also transported as a precaution.
Police officers are on the scene talking to witnesses to determine what caused the crash.
Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
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Obituaries In Quincy, MA | The Patriot Ledger https://digitalarizonanews.com/obituaries-in-quincy-ma-the-patriot-ledger/
James R. Young, 86, of Weymouth, formerly of Quincy, Dorchester and Newington, NH., died on October 7th, 2022.
He was the devoted husband of the late Pauline A. (Kiros) Young. Born and raised in Dorchester, Jim was the son of the late James and Isabel (Ritchie) Young. He graduated from Boston Technical High School and joined the US Army. After completing his tour of service to our country, Jim became a meatcutter and worked at a variety of establishments, including Hanscom AFB and Pease AFB before retiring in 2003.
Loving father of former Quincy School Committee member Jo-Ann (Grazio) Bragg of Quincy and late husband Richard Bragg, Donna Glass of Tucson, AZ., Julie Young of Hopkinsville, KY and the late Lori Richard. Dear brother to Hazel Ravanis of Littleton and the late Irene Poirier, Betty Novak, Marjorie Kripton, Isabel “Suzie” Kripton, Mary Forti and his twin John W. Young. Cherished “Papa” to Michelle D’Angelo, Lisa McLoughlin, Jonathan Bragg, David and Christopher Eldred, Michael Folden and Jason Young. Also survived by twenty great grandchildren, multiple ‘favorite’ nieces and nephews, extended family and good friends.
Relatives and friends are cordially invited to attend his visiting hours on October 11th from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. at Hamel-Lydon Chapel, 650 Hancock St., Quincy with a Masonic Service beginning at 6:30 p.m. Private burial with military honors will take place at Pine Hill Cemetery, Quincy.
Posted online on October 10, 2022
Published in The Patriot Ledger
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Michael Cohen Says The DOJ Should Look Into Whether Trump Is Keeping Photocopies Of Classified Documents
Michael Cohen Says The DOJ Should Look Into Whether Trump Is Keeping Photocopies Of Classified Documents https://digitalarizonanews.com/michael-cohen-says-the-doj-should-look-into-whether-trump-is-keeping-photocopies-of-classified-documents/
Michael Cohen (left) once served as then-President Donald Trump’s lawyer and fixer.Getty Images
Michael Cohen is urging the DOJ to investigate if Trump kept photocopies of top-secret files.
He speculated that Trump has more files out there that the DOJ hasn’t found yet.
Cohen accused Trump of using “Art of the Deal” tactics to trade these files for other documents.
Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump’s one-time personal lawyer and fixer, says the Department of Justice should investigate whether Trump photocopied and kept any top-secret files.
Cohen made the comment while speaking to MSNBC host Ali Velshi on Sunday morning.
During his appearance, Cohen responded to a report from The New York Times on how Trump had been angered by the National Archives and Records Administration’s refusal to provide him documents regarding the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
According to The Times, Trump told advisers he would give NARA the documents he had at Mar-a-Lago if they handed over what he wanted from them.
Commenting on Trump’s actions, Cohen said the former president appeared to be using a tactic from his book “The Art of the Deal” and trying to trade “this for that.”
“This whole issue is absolutely crazy. The fact that we have to sit there and play this game with a former president of the United States?” Cohen said, adding that Trump was not “entitled” to the documents he wanted.
“First and foremost, they are not his,” Cohen added. “Second of all, we know that he has more documents. We know that because, in the file folder, it would specifically state the number of documents in them. Well, there are more of them obviously out there.”
“On top of that, we should find out whether or not he photocopied any of the documents as well,” he added.
Cohen also wondered aloud why Trump — after being president for four years — didn’t attempt to get the documents while he was in office.
A spokesman at Trump’s post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Cohen’s comments on Sunday echoed his remarks in September about Trump likely having kept copies of classified files at his children’s homes, his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey, and Trump Tower in New York.
During its search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, the FBI seized classified documents, including some marked “top secret.” The DOJ is investigating whether Trump broke three federal laws — including the Espionage Act — by keeping the files at his Florida residence.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to felonies, including tax evasion, campaign finance violations, and bank fraud. He was sentenced in December 2018 to three years in prison and was disbarred in February 2019 by the New York Supreme Court.
Since his release, Cohen has become an outspoken critic of Trump and has gleefully weighed in on the former president’s many legal troubles. In September, he announced he was selling t-shirts depicting Trump behind bars to “celebrate the fall of the mango Mussolini.”
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Former President Trump Visits Arizona To Rally For Republican Candidates
Former President Trump Visits Arizona To Rally For Republican Candidates https://digitalarizonanews.com/former-president-trump-visits-arizona-to-rally-for-republican-candidates/
For the second time in 3 months, the former president is in Arizona campaigning for Republican candidates Kari Lake, Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh.
Author: 12news.com
Published: 9:38 PM MST October 9, 2022
Updated: 9:38 PM MST October 9, 2022
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Michigan GOP Statewide Candidates Stick To Far-Right Message
Michigan GOP Statewide Candidates Stick To Far-Right Message https://digitalarizonanews.com/michigan-gop-statewide-candidates-stick-to-far-right-message-5/
WARREN, Mich. (AP) — With voting underway in Michigan’s general election, the Republican nominee for secretary of state stepped on stage as a warm-up act for former President Donald Trump and hit hard on the main theme of her campaign.
Kristina Karamo repeated unfounded assertions about the 2020 presidential election that have been repeatedly debunked. She told the crowd at the recent rally at Macomb Community College that “authoritarians” are giving millions to her Democratic opponent — Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson — in an attempt to “corrupt battleground state election systems so they can control America.”
“If you look at history, it shows you what tyrants do,” said Karamo, a former community college professor. “History is telling us, history is screaming to us, that if we don’t step up and fight now, we will lose the greatest country in human history.”
It was an address designed to rev up the crowd of devoted Trump followers, some of whom have latched onto the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.
While Karamo’s speech drew cheers, relying on a general election strategy that appeals to the most far-right voters is a gamble for Michigan Republicans.
Candidates who have to play to their party’s base during primaries or nominating conventions often shift toward the center, aiming to attract more voters for the general election. But that hasn’t happened this year for the Republicans seeking Michigan’s top three statewide offices — governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
The Nov. 8 election will test whether campaigns designed to resonate with the far-right and highlight strong ties to Trump will be enough to win in a traditional swing state, where the Republican incumbent lost the White House race to Democrat challenger Joe Biden by more than 154,000 votes in 2020.
All three GOP candidates stood behind Trump during the Oct. 1 rally at the college about 20 miles north of Detroit, joined by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has amplified Trump’s election falsehoods to audiences across the country.
Trump falsely claimed the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen” in Michigan, citing “evidence” he said first originated with Karamo and Matthew DePerno, a tax lawyer who is the nominee for state attorney general.
In his own address to the crowd, DePerno called Democrats “radical, cultural Marxists” who want to “silence you.”
“If that doesn’t work, they want to put you in jail,” DePerno told the crowd, which fell into chants of “Lock her up.” All three Democratic incumbents are women.
DePerno’s campaign also is clouded by an investigation into whether he should be criminally charged for attempting to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election.
John DeBlaay, a Grand Rapids real estate agent and precinct delegate who attended the rally, said he was thrilled with the candidates. “We’ve got the best America First ticket all the way from top to bottom that we’ve had in a long time now,” he said.
Some moderate Republicans are skeptical that campaigns appealing mostly to base elements of the party will be enough to beat Democratic incumbents with wide name recognition and sizable fundraising advantages. The Democrats also are expected to benefit from having an amendment on the ballot that seeks to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.
These Republicans say inflation, gas prices and economic anxiety should be the GOP’s main talking points, not a continued alignment with Trump and his false claims about widespread fraud costing him reelection.
They point to the unusual way Michigan selects its attorney general and secretary of state candidates, a process done through a party nominating convention rather than through a primary election in which voters make the choice.
The most conservative Republicans who are loyal to Trump dominated that convention in April. The party’s co-chair, Meshawn Maddock, was one of 16 Republicans who submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Biden’s certified victory in the state.
Three weeks before the convention, during another Trump rally, DePerno encouraged attendees — many of them precinct delegates — to “storm” the party gathering and said it was “time for the grassroots to unite.”
Delegates overwhelmingly voted to nominate Karamo. DePerno won a runoff over former legislative leader Tom Leonard, who lost in the 2018 attorney general’s race by 3 percentage points to Democrat Dana Nessel.
“Karamo and DePerno are among the most loyal to Donald Trump that you will find anywhere in the country,” said Jason Roe, a longtime Republican strategist. “That loyalty has been unshakable in this election process, regardless of how it might affect general election prospects.”
Roe, whose father served as the Michigan GOP’s executive director for 10 years, became executive director of the state party in spring 2021. Six months later, he stepped down due to a “difference in opinion on how many conspiracy theories we should tolerate.”
Soon after Roe left, Trump began calling party leaders to “force the party to embrace things formally that weren’t going to be helpful to the upcoming election,” Roe said.
The party’s candidate for governor, Tudor Dixon, won the nomination during the primary in August after receiving Trump’s endorsement. Dixon, a conservative news show host who once acted in low-budget horror films, also benefited from support of the wealthy DeVos family.
While seen as less extreme than Karamo and DePerno, Dixon indicated during debates that she thought the 2020 presidential election was stolen and she recently made light of a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. Dixon has since tried to pivot away from denying the results of the last election by focusing on topics such as inflation and education, but she also is repeating hard-right rhetoric on cultural issues.
She has called for banning “pornographic” books in schools and has pitched an education agenda modeled after the Florida policy that critics have labeled “Don’t Say Gay.”
While Democrats have attacked DePerno and Karamo for their continued denial of Biden’s victory in 2020, they have focused on what they describe as Dixon’s “extreme” abortion stance. Lackluster fundraising has made it difficult for her to push back.
As of Aug. 22, Dixon had $524,000 in the bank compared with Whitmer’s $14 million, according to the latest available campaign finance reports. Some of that gap has been closed by the super PAC Michigan Families United, which has received $2.5 million in donations, including from the DeVos family.
“I just don’t like that there’s no commercials on TV about Dixon. Everything you see is about the other people, and it’s all negative,” said Laura Bunting, an Ionia County resident who attended the Trump rally.
Karamo and DePerno had a combined $422,554 cash on hand as of Sept. 16 compared with the $5.7 million combined for their Democratic opponents, according to campaign finance reports.
Michigan-based pollster Bernie Porn said the Republican candidates have been defined by their extreme stances but that none has attracted enough money to get on TV and introduce themselves to a broader swath of voters. That, he said, “makes it difficult for folks to form a favorable opinion of you.”
Joey Cappelletti is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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Steel Dossier Analyst Set To Face Trial On Charges Of Lying To FBI Over Trump Russia
‘Steel Dossier’ Analyst Set To Face Trial On Charges Of Lying To FBI Over Trump, Russia https://digitalarizonanews.com/steel-dossier-analyst-set-to-face-trial-on-charges-of-lying-to-fbi-over-trump-russia/
October 09, 2022 11:40 pm
By MATTHEW BARAKAT and ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
Igor Danchenko leaves Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. Danchenko was a Russian analyst who contributed to a dossier of Democratic-funded research into ties between Russia and Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
This 2018 portrait released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney John Durham. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP, File)
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Five years after the term “Steele dossier” entered the political lexicon, a think tank analyst who contributed to research about Donald Trump and Russia goes on trial Tuesday for lying to the FBI about his sources of information.
Igor Danchenko is the third person to be prosecuted by Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed to investigate the origins of “Crossfire Hurricane” — the designation given to the FBI’s 2016 probe into former president Trump’s Russia connections. It is also the first of Durham’s cases that delves deeply into the origins of the dossier that Trump derided as fake news and a political witch hunt.
Here’s some background on what the case is about.
WHO IS DANCHENKO AND WHAT IS HE ACCUSED OF?
Danchenko, a Russian analyst, was a source of information for Christopher Steele, a former British spy who was paid by Democrats to research ties between Russia and presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The compilation of research files, which included salacious rumors and unproven assertions, came to be familiarly known as the “Steele dossier.” Though the dossier did not help launch the FBI’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the Justice Department did rely on it when it applied for and received warrants to monitor the communications of a former Trump campaign adviser.
As part of its efforts to verify information in the dossier, the FBI interviewed Danchenko in 2017.
He is charged with lying to agents about his information sources, with prosecutors accusing Danchenko of misleading the FBI in an effort to make his own contributions seem more credible.
WHAT DO THE PROSECUTORS SAY?
Prosecutors say Danchenko lied when the FBI asked him about how he obtained the information he gave to Steele. Specifically, they say he denied that he relied on a Democratic operative, Charles Dolan, a public relations executive who volunteered for Hillary Clinton’s presidential 2016 campaign.
Prosecutors also say Danchenko lied when he said he received information from an anonymous phone call that he believed was placed by a man named named Sergei Millian, a former president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. They argue Danchenko knew that Millian wasn’t a source of any anonymous phone call.
The indictment says the FBI could have better judged the veracity of the Steele dossier had it known that a Democratic operative was the source of much of its information.
WHAT DOES THE DEFENSE SAY?
Danchenko’s lawyers say the prosecution “is a case of extraordinary government overreach.” They note that Danchenko agreed to multiple voluntary FBI interviews throughout 2017. They say his answers to the FBI were all technically true.
For instance, an FBI agent asked Danchenko whether he ever “talked” with Dolan about the information that showed up in the dossier. While prosecutors have produced evidence that the two had email exchanges about topics in the dossier, there’s no evidence that they talked orally about those topics.
“It was a bad question,” said Danchenko’s lawyer, Stuart Sears, at a pretrial hearing last month. “That’s the special counsel’s problem. Not Mr. Danchenko’s.”
And while Danchenko said he believed Millian was the voice on the anonymous phone call, he never told the FBI with any certainty that it was Millian. Sears argued that ambiguous statements like that fall short of what’s necessary to convict on a false statements charge.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga last month rejected a request from defense lawyers to dismiss the charges, though he called his decision to let the case move forward an “extremely close call.” He has since ruled that prosecutors cannot present evidence about the most salacious parts of the dossier.
WHAT OTHER CASES HAS DURHAM BROUGHT?
Durham was the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut in 2019 when he was tapped by then-Attorney General William Barr to hunt for potential misconduct by government officials who conducted the original Russia investigation.
But after more than three years, Durham’s work has failed to meet the expectations of Trump supporters who hoped he would uncover sweeping FBI conspiracies to derail the Republican’s candidacy.
The probe has produced only three criminal cases.
The first case was against an FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, who was accused of altering an email related to the surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. It ended in a guilty plea and a sentence of probation – and involved FBI misconduct already uncovered by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
Last year, Durham’s team charged a Democratic lawyer with making a false statement to the FBI’s top lawyer during a 2016 meeting in which he presented information about a purported digital backchannel between a Russia bank and the Trump organization. The FBI investigated but found no suspicious contact. The case against the lawyer, Michael Sussmann, ended in a swift acquittal in May.
Durham’s work has continued deep into the Biden administration Justice Department, but the Danchenko trial seems likely to be the last criminal case his team will bring. It is not clear when Durham might produce a report summarizing his findings.
____
Tucker reported from Washington.
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Comedian Ariel Elias Chugs Beer Thrown At Her By Heckler In Video
Comedian Ariel Elias Chugs Beer Thrown At Her By Heckler In Video https://digitalarizonanews.com/comedian-ariel-elias-chugs-beer-thrown-at-her-by-heckler-in-video/
A comedian is going viral for her response to a heckler that has left social media stunned.
While performing at Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey on Saturday. Oct. 8, Ariel Elias opened up the floor for a question and answer part of her set. She immediately regretted it when one woman in the audience asked her, “Did you vote for Trump?”
From there, things got awkward and tense, with Elias trying to understand what the person’s end-game was with the line of questioning
After a cringeworthy back and forth, the heckler said: “I could just tell by your jokes you voted for Biden.”
Elias seemingly shuts the back-and-forth down when she responded, “I can tell by the fact that you’re still talking when nobody wants you to that you voted for Trump.”
Elias tried to carry on her with her set, before out of nowhere a beer can is seen aggressively pummeled at her head in the video. It hits the wall behind her, spraying everywhere before falling to the floor.
Stunned, Elias picked up the can and chugged what was left in the can, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club owner Dino Ibelli told BuzzFeed News the heckler’s male partner was the person who threw the beer, and that he was in touch with police to press charges.
TODAY reached out to the Point Pleasant Beach Police Department for further comment but did not immediately hear back.
Gianmarco Soresi — another comedian who was on the night’s billing — told Buzzfeed News, “There’s this idea that the brave comedian is the one saying the thing we’re all thinking, and I’m like, just take a look at this video if you want to see what real bravery looks like as a comedian.”
Shared on Twitter, the clip has amassed more than 2 million views since being shared Sunday morning, catching the eye of many prominent comedians like Patton Oswalt, Whitney Cummings and Jim Gaffigan who are applauding Elias for keeping her cool under such upsetting circumstances.
Elias, who has been performing for 11 years, told Buzzfeed News, “I’ve been at this for a long time. It feels nice to have any positive recognition. Maybe it softens the blow — no pun intended — a little bit.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
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Hurricane Julia Weakens To Tropical Storm https://digitalarizonanews.com/hurricane-julia-weakens-to-tropical-storm/
TROPICAL STORM JULIA CROSSED FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC. IT WAS OVER EASTERN NICARAGUA AND THEN IS IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC AND IS EXPECTED TO HUG THE COAST OF CENTRAL AMERICA TOMORROW BEFORE DISSIPATING. AT HOME, QUIET THROUGH TUESDAY. PASSING SHOWERS.
Hurricane Julia weakens to tropical storm
Hurricane Julia weakened to a tropical storm on Sunday. According to the National Hurricane Center, portions of Central America could experience flash flooding and mudslides through Monday. As of Sunday night, Julia was 95 miles southeast of San Salvador, El Salvador. Julia had winds of 40 mph, and the system was moving west at 15 mph. “Julia did a rare crossover from the Atlantic to Pacific basin today. The last storm to do that was Bonnie earlier this year in July,” WESH 2’s Cam Tran said. “On the forecast track, the center of Julia will move close to and parallel to the Pacific coasts of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala overnight and on Monday,” the National Hurricane Center wrote. “Additional weakening is forecast, but Julia is expected to remain a tropical storm near the Pacific coast of Central America through early Monday.”Julia is forecast to dissipate by Monday night. This storm is not expected to impact Florida. SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT:A tropical storm warning is in effect for…* Pacific coast of Nicaragua from Puerto Sandino northward to the Honduras border* Pacific coast of Honduras* Coast of El SalvadorA tropical storm watch is in effect for…* Pacific coast of GuatemalaA tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours.A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area.KNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WATCH IS ISSUEDStay tuned to WESH 2 News, WESH.COM, or NOAA Weather Radio for storm updates.Prepare to bring inside any lawn furniture, outdoor decorations or ornaments, trash cans, hanging plants, and anything else that can be picked up by the wind.Understand hurricane forecast models and cones.Prepare to cover all windows of your home. If shutters have not been installed, use precut plywood.Check batteries and stock up on canned food, first-aid supplies, drinking water, and medications.The WESH 2 First Warning Weather Team recommends you have these items ready before the storm strikes.Bottled water: One gallon of water per person per dayCanned food and soup, such as beans and chiliCan opener for the cans without the easy-open lidsAssemble a first-aid kitTwo weeks’ worth of prescription medicationsBaby/children’s needs, such as formula and diapersFlashlight and batteriesBattery-operated weather radioWHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WARNING IS ISSUEDListen to the advice of local officials. If you are advised to evacuate, leave.Complete preparation activities.If you are not advised to evacuate, stay indoors, away from windows.Be alert for tornadoes. Tornadoes can happen during a hurricane and after it passes over. Remain indoors, in the center of your home, in a closet or bathroom without windows.HOW YOUR SMARTPHONE CAN HELP DURING A HURRICANEA smartphone can be your best friend in a hurricane — with the right websites and apps, you can turn it into a powerful tool for guiding you through a storm’s approach, arrival and aftermath.Download the WESH 2 News app for iOS | AndroidEnable emergency alerts — if you have an iPhone, select settings, then go into notifications. From there, look for government alerts and enable emergency alerts.If you have an Android phone, from the home page of the app, scroll to the right along the bottom and click on “settings.” On the settings menu, click on “severe weather alerts.” From the menu, select from the most severe, moderate-severe, or all alerts.PET AND ANIMAL SAFETYYour pet should be a part of your family plan. If you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them too. Leaving pets behind, even if you try to create a safe space for them, could result in injury or death.Contact hotels and motels outside of your immediate area to see if they take pets.Ask friends, relatives and others outside of the affected area whether they could shelter your animal.
Hurricane Julia weakened to a tropical storm on Sunday.
According to the National Hurricane Center, portions of Central America could experience flash flooding and mudslides through Monday.
As of Sunday night, Julia was 95 miles southeast of San Salvador, El Salvador.
Julia had winds of 40 mph, and the system was moving west at 15 mph.
“Julia did a rare crossover from the Atlantic to Pacific basin today. The last storm to do that was Bonnie earlier this year in July,” WESH 2’s Cam Tran said.
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.
Julia will hug the Pacific coast of Central America before falling apart tomorrow. Julia did a rare crossover from the Atlantic to Pacific basin today. The last storm to do that was Bonnie earlier this year in July. (before that it Otto in 2016)#Atlantic #Pacific #crossover pic.twitter.com/4Y8TbRUTxf
— Cam Tran WESH (@CamTranTV) October 10, 2022
“On the forecast track, the center of Julia will move close to and parallel to the Pacific coasts of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala overnight and on Monday,” the National Hurricane Center wrote. “Additional weakening is forecast, but Julia is expected to remain a tropical storm near the Pacific coast of Central America through early Monday.”
Julia is forecast to dissipate by Monday night. This storm is not expected to impact Florida.
SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT:
A tropical storm warning is in effect for…
* Pacific coast of Nicaragua from Puerto Sandino northward to the Honduras border
* Pacific coast of Honduras
* Coast of El Salvador
A tropical storm watch is in effect for…
* Pacific coast of Guatemala
A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours.
A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area.
KNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WATCH IS ISSUED
Stay tuned to WESH 2 News, WESH.COM, or NOAA Weather Radio for storm updates.
Prepare to bring inside any lawn furniture, outdoor decorations or ornaments, trash cans, hanging plants, and anything else that can be picked up by the wind.
Understand hurricane forecast models and cones.
Prepare to cover all windows of your home. If shutters have not been installed, use precut plywood.
Check batteries and stock up on canned food, first-aid supplies, drinking water, and medications.
The WESH 2 First Warning Weather Team recommends you have these items ready before the storm strikes.
Bottled water: One gallon of water per person per day
Canned food and soup, such as beans and chili
Can opener for the cans without the easy-open lids
Assemble a first-aid kit
Two weeks’ worth of prescription medications
Baby/children’s needs, such as formula and diapers
Flashlight and batteries
Battery-operated weather radio
WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WARNING IS ISSUED
Listen to the advice of local officials. If you are advised to evacuate, leave.
Complete preparation activities.
If you are not advised to evacuate, stay indoors, away from windows.
Be alert for tornadoes. Tornadoes can happen during a hurricane and after it passes over. Remain indoors, in the center of your home, in a closet or bathroom without windows.
HOW YOUR SMARTPHONE CAN HELP DURING A HURRICANE
A smartphone can be your best friend in a hurricane — with the right websites and apps, you can turn it into a powerful tool for guiding you through a storm’s approach, arrival and aftermath.
Download the WESH 2 News app for iOS | Android
Enable emergency alerts — if you have an iPhone, select settings, then go into notifications. From there, look for government alerts and enable emergency alerts.
If you have an Android phone, from the home page of the app, scroll to the right along the bottom and click on “settings.” On the settings menu, click on “severe weather alerts.” From the menu, select from the most severe, moderate-severe, or all alerts.
PET AND ANIMAL SAFETY
Your pet should be a part of your family plan. If you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them too. Leaving pets behind, even if you try to create a safe space for them, could result in injury or death.
Contact hotels and motels outside of your immediate area to see if they take pets.
Ask friends, relatives and others outside of the affected area whether they could shelter your animal.
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Venezuela Landslide Kills At Least 25 People 50 Missing | CNN
Venezuela Landslide Kills At Least 25 People, 50 Missing | CNN https://digitalarizonanews.com/venezuela-landslide-kills-at-least-25-people-50-missing-cnn/
CNN —
A landslide in Venezuela on Sunday has killed at least 25 people and left more than 50 missing in the north central state of Aragua, according to officials.
The landslide came down in the Santos Michelena municipality after days of heavy rainfall caused the five streams of the Las Tejerías river to overflow, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said.
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro tweeted Sunday that he had ordered the “maximum deployment” of the interior ministry and security agencies to respond to the emergency.
More than 1,000 officials from the National Risk Management System and police officers are participating in the search and rescue operation, according to Carlos Pérez, Deputy Minister for Risk Management and Civil Protection.
The president also declared three days of national mourning starting Sunday, “in solidarity with the families affected,” according to his tweet.
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Sakhalin 1 Important For Japan Oil Procurement Trade Minister Says
Sakhalin 1 Important For Japan Oil Procurement, Trade Minister Says https://digitalarizonanews.com/sakhalin-1-important-for-japan-oil-procurement-trade-minister-says/
TOKYO, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Japanese Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Sunday that the Sakhalin 1 oil and gas project in Russia is very important for Tokyo to ensure its diversified crude oil procurement.
The comment came after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday that establishes a new operator for the project in Russia’s Far East.
Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) holds a 30% operator stake in Sakhalin-1, with Russian company Rosneft (ROSN.MM), India’s ONGC Videsh (ONVI.NS) and Japan’s SODECO as partners.
Asked if Japan intends to keep its stake, Nishimura said, “From the standpoint of diversifying Japan’s crude oil import, that’s a very important project.”
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Leslie Adler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Open Mike Eagle Announces Fall & Winter 2022 & 2023 U.S. Tour Dates
Open Mike Eagle Announces Fall & Winter 2022 & 2023 U.S. Tour Dates – https://digitalarizonanews.com/open-mike-eagle-announces-fall-winter-2022-2023-u-s-tour-dates/
Katherine Gilliam October 9th, 2022 – 7:20 PM
Rap artist Open Mike Eagle has recently announced a headline Fall & Winter 2022 & 2023 U.S Tour, with performances starting October 21st at First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota and ending with a final performance on January 14th in San Francisco, California at the city’s very own Neck of the Woods theater. Hip-hop and rap artist Video Dave will serve as the opening act.
A tour spanning over thirteen weeks, Open Mike Eagle plans to hit many major cities as they travel throughout the United States, making stops at New York, New York’s Elsewhere (Zone One) on December 3rd, Seattle, Washington’s Barboza on December 16th, and more. Rap singer and songwriter Dessa will be accompanying Open Mike Eagle for the first four dates of the tour from October 21-October 26 as they perform in Minneapolis, MN, Des Moines, IA, Madison, WI, and Chicago, IL before Open Mike Eagle reclaims his spot as the headline act.
According to Brooklyn Vegan, tickets will be available Friday (10/7) at 10 AM here for the New York, NY show and here for all other dates and performances. All dates are listed below.
Open Mike Eagle — 2022 Tour Dates
10/21 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue w/ Dessa
10/23 – Des Moines, IA @ XBK w/ Dessa
10/25 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre w/ Dessa
10/26 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen w/ Dessa
11/22 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room @ Observatory
11/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
12/01 – Boston, MA @ Cafe 939 @ Berklee
12/02 – Philadelphia, PA @ Silk City
12/03 – New York, NY @ Elsewhere (Zone One)
12/04 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
12/08 – Dallas, TX @ Ruins
12/09 – Austin, TX @ Ballroom
12/10 – Houston, TX @ White Oak (upstairs)
12/16 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
12/18 – Portland, OR @ Mission Theater
1/6 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
1/7 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
1/8 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
1/14 – San Francisco, CA @ Neck of the Woods
See Dessa’s announcement of her Fall 2022 tour featuring Open Mike Eagle here.
Listen to Open Mike Eagle and The Lasso’s collaborative 2021 single called “Gold Gloves” here.
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Trump Knocks Pelosi Over Stalled Stock Trading Ban
Trump Knocks Pelosi Over Stalled Stock Trading Ban https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-knocks-pelosi-over-stalled-stock-trading-ban/
Former President Trump on Sunday knocked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over Democrats’ failure to bring a bill that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks to the floor before the midterm elections.
“Look at her stocks. I mean, she did better than Warren Buffett. I don’t know about her husband. I don’t know who the hell’s running that deal,” Trump said of Pelosi at a rally in Mesa, Arizona.
“And now she doesn’t want to change it, where they’re allowed to get inside information.”
Pelosi last month hinted that the much-anticipated measure might be brought to the floor for a vote, but after sharing the draft legislation, leaders said more time was needed for members to review the bill. And Pelosi said it didn’t have the votes to pass.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) was among the Democrats who were furious that a vote was not held before the midterms in November.
“This moment marks a failure of House leadership — and it’s yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill, as I have long made known,” Spanberger said in a statement.
Pelosi came under criticism over reports earlier this year that her husband Paul Pelosi sold millions of dollars of shares in a chipmaker company as the House prepared to vote on a bill related to the industry.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called on lawmakers to do a “thorough investigation and look at what is the proper role for members of Congress,” and said Pelosi should not be involved in writing the bill.
Pelosi had previously supported lawmakers’ participation in stock trading, but changed her position earlier this year and backed a ban.
Trump was in Arizona Sunday to stump for GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Senate candidate Blake Masters after attending a separate rally in Nevada the night before.
“We’re going to end the crazy Nancy Pelosi’s political career once and for all. She is crazy,” Trump said at the rally.
Pelosi has indicated that this will be her last session as speaker, regardless of whether Democrats keep control of the House in November, but is still running for re-election.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
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AP News Summary At 10:32 P.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1032-p-m-edt/
Putin calls Kerch Bridge attack “a terrorist act” by Kyiv
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russia President Vladimir Putin is calling the attack on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea a terrorist act carried out by Ukrainian special services. In a meeting Sunday with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Putin said “there’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure.” His investigative chief said he had opened a criminal case into an act of terrorism. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, say a Russian missile strike on a southern city has killed 13 people and partially collapsed an apartment building in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
‘War crime:’ Industrial-scale destruction of Ukraine culture
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is being accompanied by the destruction, damaging and pillaging of historical sites and treasures on an industrial scale. Ukraine’s culture minister says Russian soldiers have helped themselves to artifacts in almost 40 Ukrainian museums. If and when peace returns, the preservation of Ukrainian collections of art, history, and culture will be vital so that survivors of the war can begin rebuilding. Tens of thousands of museum pieces have been evacuated away from the front lines and combat-struck regions. But many others are missing. They include an exquisite, rare golden tiara from the era of 5th-century warrior Attila the Hun that was stolen by Russian soldiers from the Ukrainian city of Melitopol.
20 years later, Bali bombing survivors still battling trauma
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Thiolina Marpaung still panics anytime she smells smoke, immediately recalling the bomb explosion that upended her life 20 years ago. Marpaung, now 48, was in a car with her colleagues on the Indonesian resort island of Bali when the blast shook their vehicle from behind. Marpaung was temporarily blinded as shards of glass pierced her eyes. She remembers calling out for help and someone bringing her to the sidewalk, before an ambulance raced her to a hospital with other victims. She is one of dozens of Indonesian survivors who were outside of Sari Club on the night of October 12, 2002, when a car bombing there and a suicide bombing at nearby Paddy’s Pub killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.
‘A time bomb’: Anger rising in a hot spot of Iran protests
SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Anger among civilians is rising in a majority Kurdish district in northwestern Iran that has become one of the hotspots of protests. The Associated Press spoke to six activists in the northern city of Sanandaj, 300 miles (500 kilometers) from the capital Tehran. They described an evolving protest movement that has shifted from mass gatherings to more scattered protests and other signs of civil disobedience amid a harsh government crackdown. Protests erupted after the burial of a 22-year-old woman who died in Iranian police custody and have persisted with protests in neighborhoods, schools, with burning tires and commercial strikes.
Noem’s balancing act: Big ambitions, South Dakota reelection
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Many political watchers expected Gov. Kristi Noem to cruise to reelection this year in Republican-dominated South Dakota against a Democratic challenger without statewide experience. But Noem’s frequent out-of-state travels on behalf of GOP candidates, as well as recent ethics stumbles, have given Democrats license to dream of an upset. Or perhaps make Noem’s race against state lawmaker Jamie Smith close enough to raise questions about her viability on the national stage. Smith has cast himself as a moderate and so far has run a mostly upbeat campaign. The governor recently came out with an ad that tied Smith to President Joe Biden, who won 36% of South Dakota’s vote in 2020.
Florida school shooter may have been his own worst witness
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz may have talked himself into a death sentence. At his penalty trial last week, prosecutors played video recordings of jailhouse interviews Cruz had this year with mental health experts. He gave frank and sometimes graphic details about his 2018 murder of 17 at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, his planning and his motivations. Lawyers not involved in the case say his statements may have caused some wavering jurors to vote for death. Jury deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday. The panel will decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole.
Rain-fueled landslide sweeps through Venezuela town; 22 dead
LAS TEJERÍAS, Venezuela (AP) — Authorities say a landslide fueled by flooding and days of torrential rain has swept through a town in central Venezuela, leaving at least 22 people dead as it dragged mud, rocks and trees through neighborhoods. Dozens of people are missing. Residents of Las Tejerías in Santos Michelena, an agro-industrial town in Aragua state 54 miles (87 kilometers) southwest of Caracas, had just seconds to reach safety late Saturday as debris swept down a mountainside onto them. The official death toll rose to 22 after the recovery of 20 bodies on Sunday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez told state-owned Venezolana de Televisión on Sunday.
UN ponders rapid armed force to help end Haiti’s crisis
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has submitted a letter to the Security Council proposing the immediate activation of a rapid action force after a plea for help from Haiti as gangs and protesters paralyze the country. The letter, which was seen by The Associated Press but has not been made public, proposes the immediate activation of a rapid action force deployed by one or several member states to help Haiti’s National Police. That force would “remove the threat posed by armed gangs and provide immediate protection to critical infrastructure and services.”
Senator: Dems back reparations for those who ‘do the crime’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville is asserting that Democrats support reparations for the descendants of enslaved people because, in his words, “they think the people that do the crime are owed that.” The first-term Alabama Republican spoke at a Saturday evening rally in Nevada featuring former President Donald Trump, a political ally. Tuberville’s comments are part of a broader critique in the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election about how Democrats have responded to rising crime rates. But Tuberville’s remarks about reparations played into racist stereotypes about Black people committing crimes. The senator is falsely suggesting that Democrats promote crime and that only Blacks are the perpetrators.
Bell wins Charlotte as champion Larson bumped from playoffs
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Christopher Bell saved his title chances with an overtime win Sunday on the road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a stunning finish that knocked reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Larson from the playoffs. Bell entered the race 11th in the standings with four drivers set to be eliminated as NASCAR’s playoff field was trimmed to eight. He took the lead in overtime and drove away as all the drama was further in the field for the final transfer spot into the round of eight. Chase Briscoe bulldozed his way to a ninth-place finish to knock Larson out of the playoffs by two points. Also eliminated were Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Larson’s teammate, Alex Bowman.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Michael Cohen Believes Trump Saw Mar-A-Lago Docs As A 'Get Out Of Jail Free' Card
Michael Cohen Believes Trump Saw Mar-A-Lago Docs As A 'Get Out Of Jail Free' Card https://digitalarizonanews.com/michael-cohen-believes-trump-saw-mar-a-lago-docs-as-a-get-out-of-jail-free-card/
Donald Trump took classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate as a “get out of jail free card” in the event the government should try to pursue charges against him after he left office, his former attorney Michael Cohen hypothesized.
“That’s exactly what he saw in those documents,” Cohen said on the “Salon Talks” podcast. ”‘You want to play with me? Really? I was the former president of the United States. I have documents that are so damaging to this country’s national security. Go ahead, indict me, try to throw me in prison. See what happens.’ What happens is he turns over all this classified information, not as if he hasn’t already done it, but he turns all his classified information over to our adversaries, right? ‘You want to play that game? No problem!’”
He said his former boss would do “anything and everything in order to protect himself, plain and simple.”
“He doesn’t care about this country. He doesn’t care about democracy. He doesn’t care about QAnon,” he added. “He doesn’t care about the independents. He doesn’t care about Republicans or Democrats. He cares about one thing and only one thing and that’s Donald J. Trump.”
Cohen and others have made similar predictions since the FBI executed a search warrant on Trump’s Florida compound on Aug. 8 to retrieve sensitive government documents he unlawfully took there. During a CNN interview later that month, Cohen said Trump likely viewed the documents as a bargaining chip should he be indicted.
“The second they would put him in handcuffs, he would turn around and say: ‘I have the documentation showing, for example, where our nuclear launch pads are,’” Cohen guessed.
Last month, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who serves on the armed services and foreign relations committees, said he had a similar gut feeling about Trump’s reasons.
“I spend a lot of time in secure Senate facilities. I know what this information is like,” he said on CNN. “The reason Trump took this with him to Florida was probably to try to either sell it or have it as a ‘get out of jail free’ card.”
During the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, officials were able to recover at least 20 boxes and 11 pieces of pertinent documents. Trump was found to have had more than 300 classified documents in his possession, including 150 that he returned to the National Archives.
Last week, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department believes there are still more documents in Trump’s possession.
Cohen, who served time in prison after facilitating a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing an alleged affair with Trump before the 2016 election, has since authored a second critical book about the president.
“Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the Us Department of Justice Against His Critics” is due to be released this week.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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Hurricane Julia Makes Landfall In Nicaragua https://digitalarizonanews.com/hurricane-julia-makes-landfall-in-nicaragua/
Hurricane Julia formed made landfall as a Category 1 storm in Nicaragua early Sunday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.
As of 8 a.m., the system was located about 60 miles west-northwest of Bluefields, Nicaragua with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph moving west at 16 mph. Julia’s hurricane winds extend 30 miles while its tropical storm-force winds have a reach of 80 miles. It is not expected to impact Florida.
Hurricane warnings are in effect for San Andres, Providencia and the Santa Catalina Islands in Colombia, and in Nicaragua from Laguna de Perlas to Puerto Cabezas. A hurricane watch and tropical storm warning is in effect for Nicaragua south of Laguna de Perlas to Bluefields and north of Puerto Cabezas to the Honduras/Nicaragua border. A tropical storm watch is in effect for part of the Honduran coast.
Hurricane force winds and a dangerous storm surge is expected where the core of the system crosses the islands tonight. Life-threatening flash flooding and mud slides are expected across portions of Central America through the weekend. The system is expected to make landfall in Nicaragua on Sunday.
Julia becomes the fifth hurricane of the year. Models are in agreement showing Julia growing to a maximum sustained wind strength of 85 mph before making landfall potentially along San Andres, Nicaragua by Sunday morning, the NHC said.
San Andres and Providencia could receive between 6 and 12 inches of rain, the NHC warned, and portions of Central America could receive 15 inches, producing life-threatening flash floods and mudslides through this weekend. Julia’s storm surge will likely raise water levels by as much as 2 to 4 feet above normal tide levels along the immediate coast in areas of onshore winds on San Andres, Providencia, and Santa Catalina Islands.
After landfall, the NHC is confident Julia and its remnants should turn northwest and remain over Central America and southern Mexico through Monday. After that, Julia should be no more.
So far, the 2022 hurricane season has produced nine named storms and one more tropical depression that spun up and fell apart while Ian was striking Florida. The NHC also tracked one other potential cyclone that never grew into a depression, so that is why the most recent tropical depression is named TD 12.
Initially, the season was off to a slow start with a quiet July and August, but the season has picked up the pace since Sept. 1 with the emergence of four hurricanes including Fiona and Ian in the last two weeks. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the season to be an above-average year in storm production calling for 14-21 named storms. An average year has 14.
Hurricane season ends on Nov. 30.
Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com
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Michigan GOP Statewide Candidates Stick To Far-Right Message
Michigan GOP Statewide Candidates Stick To Far-Right Message https://digitalarizonanews.com/michigan-gop-statewide-candidates-stick-to-far-right-message-4/
WARREN, Mich. — With voting underway in Michigan’s general election, the Republican nominee for secretary of state stepped on stage as a warm-up act for former President Donald Trump and hit hard on the main theme of her campaign.
Kristina Karamo repeated unfounded assertions about the 2020 presidential election that have been repeatedly debunked. She told the crowd at the recent rally at Macomb Community College that “authoritarians” are giving millions to her Democratic opponent — Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson — in an attempt to “corrupt battleground state election systems so they can control America.”
“If you look at history, it shows you what tyrants do,” said Karamo, a former community college professor. “History is telling us, history is screaming to us, that if we don’t step up and fight now, we will lose the greatest country in human history.”
It was an address designed to rev up the crowd of devoted Trump followers, some of whom have latched onto the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.
While Karamo’s speech drew cheers, relying on a general election strategy that appeals to the most far-right voters is a gamble for Michigan Republicans.
Candidates who have to play to their party’s base during primaries or nominating conventions often shift toward the center, aiming to attract more voters for the general election. But that hasn’t happened this year for the Republicans seeking Michigan’s top three statewide offices — governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
The Nov. 8 election will test whether campaigns designed to resonate with the far-right and highlight strong ties to Trump will be enough to win in a traditional swing state, where the Republican incumbent lost the White House race to Democrat challenger Joe Biden by more than 154,000 votes in 2020.
All three GOP candidates stood behind Trump during the Oct. 1 rally at the college about 20 miles north of Detroit, joined by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has amplified Trump’s election falsehoods to audiences across the country.
Trump falsely claimed the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen” in Michigan, citing “evidence” he said first originated with Karamo and Matthew DePerno, a tax lawyer who is the nominee for state attorney general.
In his own address to the crowd, DePerno called Democrats “radical, cultural Marxists” who want to “silence you.”
“If that doesn’t work, they want to put you in jail,” DePerno told the crowd, which fell into chants of “Lock her up.” All three Democratic incumbents are women.
DePerno’s campaign also is clouded by an investigation into whether he should be criminally charged for attempting to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election.
John DeBlaay, a Grand Rapids real estate agent and precinct delegate who attended the rally, said he was thrilled with the candidates. “We’ve got the best America First ticket all the way from top to bottom that we’ve had in a long time now,” he said.
Some moderate Republicans are skeptical that campaigns appealing mostly to base elements of the party will be enough to beat Democratic incumbents with wide name recognition and sizable fundraising advantages. The Democrats also are expected to benefit from having an amendment on the ballot that seeks to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.
These Republicans say inflation, gas prices and economic anxiety should be the GOP’s main talking points, not a continued alignment with Trump and his false claims about widespread fraud costing him reelection.
They point to the unusual way Michigan selects its attorney general and secretary of state candidates, a process done through a party nominating convention rather than through a primary election in which voters make the choice.
The most conservative Republicans who are loyal to Trump dominated that convention in April. The party’s co-chair, Meshawn Maddock, was one of 16 Republicans who submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Biden’s certified victory in the state.
Three weeks before the convention, during another Trump rally, DePerno encouraged attendees — many of them precinct delegates — to “storm” the party gathering and said it was “time for the grassroots to unite.”
Delegates overwhelmingly voted to nominate Karamo. DePerno won a runoff over former legislative leader Tom Leonard, who lost in the 2018 attorney general’s race by 3 percentage points to Democrat Dana Nessel.
“Karamo and DePerno are among the most loyal to Donald Trump that you will find anywhere in the country,” said Jason Roe, a longtime Republican strategist. “That loyalty has been unshakable in this election process, regardless of how it might affect general election prospects.”
Roe, whose father served as the Michigan GOP’s executive director for 10 years, became executive director of the state party in spring 2021. Six months later, he stepped down due to a “difference in opinion on how many conspiracy theories we should tolerate.”
Soon after Roe left, Trump began calling party leaders to “force the party to embrace things formally that weren’t going to be helpful to the upcoming election,” Roe said.
The party’s candidate for governor, Tudor Dixon, won the nomination during the primary in August after receiving Trump’s endorsement. Dixon, a conservative news show host who once acted in low-budget horror films, also benefited from support of the wealthy DeVos family.
While seen as less extreme than Karamo and DePerno, Dixon indicated during debates that she thought the 2020 presidential election was stolen and she recently made light of a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. Dixon has since tried to pivot away from denying the results of the last election by focusing on topics such as inflation and education, but she also is repeating hard-right rhetoric on cultural issues.
She has called for banning “pornographic” books in schools and has pitched an education agenda modeled after the Florida policy that critics have labeled “Don’t Say Gay.”
While Democrats have attacked DePerno and Karamo for their continued denial of Biden’s victory in 2020, they have focused on what they describe as Dixon’s “extreme” abortion stance. Lackluster fundraising has made it difficult for her to push back.
As of Aug. 22, Dixon had $524,000 in the bank compared with Whitmer’s $14 million, according to the latest available campaign finance reports. Some of that gap has been closed by the super PAC Michigan Families United, which has received $2.5 million in donations, including from the DeVos family.
“I just don’t like that there’s no commercials on TV about Dixon. Everything you see is about the other people, and it’s all negative,” said Laura Bunting, an Ionia County resident who attended the Trump rally.
Karamo and DePerno had a combined $422,554 cash on hand as of Sept. 16 compared with the $5.7 million combined for their Democratic opponents, according to campaign finance reports.
Michigan-based pollster Bernie Porn said the Republican candidates have been defined by their extreme stances but that none has attracted enough money to get on TV and introduce themselves to a broader swath of voters. That, he said, “makes it difficult for folks to form a favorable opinion of you.”
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