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Kanye West Is Upset With His https://digitalarizonanews.com/kanye-west-is-upset-with-his/ Kanye West is upset with his ‘close friend’ Donald Trump Kanye West is unhappy with politicians, including his friend Donald Trump for using Black people to raise their approval ratings. During an interview with Fox News, the Yeezy rapper recounted the phone call with the then-president after he visited the White House in 2018. The Grammy-winner had requested Trump to get his friend ASAP Rocky out of jail in Sweden; however, he responded with, “Kanye, you’re my friend. When you came to the White House, my Black approval rating went up 40%. And for politicians, all Black people are worth is an approval rating,” he added. “The Democrats feel that they don’t owe us anything, and Republicans feel like they don’t owe us anything.” Earlier, Kanye West and Donald Trump had both voiced support for conservative values. Read More Here

Women Students Tell Iran's President To 'get Lost' As Unrest Rages, Activists Say https://digitalarizonanews.com/women-students-tell-irans-president-to-get-lost-as-unrest-rages-activists-say/ DUBAI, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Female students in Tehran chanted “get lost” as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited their university campus on Saturday and condemned protesters enraged by the death of a young woman in custody, activists said. Raisi addressed professors and students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated “rioters” with flies, as nationwide demonstrations entered a fourth week. “They imagine they can achieve their evil goals in universities,” state TV reported. “Unbeknownst to them, our students and professors are alert and will not allow the enemy to realise their evil goals.” Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com A video posted on Twitter by the activist 1500tasvir website showed what it said were women students chanting “Raisi get lost” and “Mullahs get lost” as the president visited their campus. An Iranian state coroner’s report denied that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini had died due to blows to the head and limbs while in morality police custody and linked her death to pre-existing medical conditions, state media said on Friday. Amini, an Iranian Kurd, was arrested in Tehran on Sept. 13 for wearing “inappropriate attire”, and died three days later. Her death has ignited nationwide demonstrations, marking the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leaders in years. Women have removed their veils in defiance of the clerical establishment while furious crowds called for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The government has described the protests as a plot by Iran’s enemies including the United States, accusing armed dissidents – among others – of violence in which at least 20 members of the security forces have been reported killed. Rights groups say more than 185 people have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested by security forces confronting protests. After a call for mass demonstrations on Saturday, security forces shot at protesters and used tear gas in the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Saqez, according to the Iranian human rights group Hengaw. In Sanandaj, capital of the northwestern Kurdistan province, one man lay dead in his car while a woman screamed “shameless”, according to Hengaw, which said he had been shot by security forces after he honked his horn as a sign of protest. But a senior police official repeated the claim by security forces that they did not use live bullets and that the man had been killed by “counter-revolutionaries” (armed dissidents), the state news agency IRNA reported. A video shared on social media showed a young woman lying unconscious on the ground after she was apparently shot in the northeastern city of Mashhad. Protesters gathered around her to help. The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights said on its website that at least 185 people, including at least 19 children, had been killed in the protests. The highest number of killings occurred in the restive Sistan-Baluchistan province with half the recorded deaths, it said. CALL FOR UNITY After a weekly meeting, President Raisi and Iran’s head of judiciary and parliament speaker called for unity. “Currently, the Iranian society needs the unity of all its strata regardless of language, religion and ethnicity to overcome the hostility and division spread by anti-Iranians,” they said in a statement carried by state media. A social media video showed protesters marching in the northern city of Babol and several posts said security forces had surrounded students demonstrating on a university campus. Hengaw also carried a video of emergency personnel trying to resuscitate a person and said one protester had died after being shot in the abdomen by security forces in Sanandaj. Reuters could not verify the video. One of the schools in Saqez city’s square was filled with girls chanting “woman, life, freedom”, Hengaw reported. The widely followed 1500tasvir Twitter account also reported shootings at protesters in the two northwestern Kurdish cities. A university student who was on his way to join protests in Tehran said he was not afraid of being arrested or even killed. “They can kill us, arrest us but we will not remain silent anymore. Our classmates are in jail. How can we remain silent?” the student, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters. Iran’s semi-official news agencies played down the protests across the capital Tehran. The ISNA agency reported “limited” demonstrations in about 10 areas of the city and said many Bazaar traders had shut their shops for fear of damage caused by the unrest, denying there was a strike. Internet watchdog NetBlocks said that the internet had been cut in Sanadaj again amid protests in Kurdish areas in the northwest. The group said on Friday that “internet remains regionally disrupted across #Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, #Iran, seven days after an escalation of violence and civilian killings by security forces”. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Writing by Michael Georgy Editing by Ros Russell and Nick Macfie Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Most Admired Companies Of 2022: Suntec Concrete – AZ Big Media https://digitalarizonanews.com/most-admired-companies-of-2022-suntec-concrete-az-big-media/ After receiving a record number of nominations, 50 companies have risen from the adversity of the past couple years and earned the right to call themselves Arizona’s Most Admired Companies of 2022. The Most Admired Companies of 2022 includes Suntec Concrete. READ ALSO: Sold-out crowd celebrates the Most Influential Women in Arizona for 2022 Arizona’s Most Admired Companies of 2022 will be celebrated at an awards dinner and ceremony from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, October 13, 2022 at Chateau Luxe, at 1175 E. Lone Cactus Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85024. For sponsorship information, email [email protected]. For information about the event honoring Arizona’s Most Admired Companies, email [email protected] or click here. To buy tickets, click here. Most Admired Companies: Suntec Concrete Most Admired Company: 2010-2012, 2014-2017, 2019-2022   Top Arizona executive: Derek Wright, president and CEO What it does: The largest commercial concrete contractor in the Southwest. Admirable trait: In 2022, Suntec presented more than $200,000 worth of school supplies and equipment to 96 deserving teachers. Also under its Heroes in Hardhats umbrella, Suntec employees support the Make-a-Wish Foundation and take part in charitable events throughout the community, including the American Heart Association Heart Walk, the Run to Fight Cancer and the Arizona Builders Alliance Toy Drive. Next generation: Suntec has also established two $5,000 scholarships with the ASU School of Construction, along with an internship program to help mentor students. The company has been one of Arizona’s strongest supporters of Teach for America for more than a decade, making a tremendous impact on the teachers who educate our future leaders. Whether it’s funding school supplies, backpack drives or school construction projects, Suntec has provided time and talent to many Valley school districts. Arizona’s Most Admired Companies of 2022 Accenture American Express Arizona Diamondbacks Axon Better Business Bureau Serving the Pacific Southwest Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Blue Yonder Burch & Cracchiolo CBIZ CBRE CHASSE Building Team Canyon State Electric Charles Schwab CopperPoint Insurance Companies Cresa DP Electric Inc. Desert Financial Credit Union Equity Methods Farmers Insurance Fennemore FirstBank Frazer Ryan Goldberg & Arnold Freedom Financial Network Gallagher & Kennedy Gila River Resorts & Casinos GoDaddy Greenberg Traurig Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona Health Information Management Systems (HiMS) Homeowners Financial Group USA Intel JE Dunn KUBRA LAVIDGE Lovitt & Touché, A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Company Microchip Technology Mortenson OneAZ Credit Union Quarles & Brady Small Giants Spear Education Sundt Construction Suntec Concrete Terros Health TriWest Healthcare Alliance USAA Voya Financial WaFd Bank Wilde Wealth Management Group Willmeng Construction Read More…

Gilbert Ranks #1, Four Other Valley Suburbs In The '25 Safest Cities For Trick-Or-Treating This Halloween' https://digitalarizonanews.com/gilbert-ranks-1-four-other-valley-suburbs-in-the-25-safest-cities-for-trick-or-treating-this-halloween/ GILBERT, AZ — Multiple Valley cities can say they are among the safest cities in the country to trick-or-treat this Halloween. A new study took a look at key safety factors across more than 300 cities and curated a list of the top 25 safest cities for trick-or-treating. Gilbert topped the list due to its low crime rate, a high number of law enforcement employees, and safe pedestrian streets. Scottsdale came in at #7, Chandler ranked at #17, and Surprise and Peoria were ranked #22 and #23, respectively. Here are the highlights that made Gilbert No.1: Low number of registered sex offenders: 21 per 100,000 Violent crime incidents: 87 per 100,000 Property crime incidents: 1,387 per 100,000 Average annual pedestrian fatalities: 1 (or .4 per 100,000) Law enforcement employees: 165 per 100,000 Rounding out the top five behind Gilbert: Cambridge, Massachusetts; Cary, North Carolina; Naperville, Illinois; and Rochester, Minnesota. To take a look at all 25 cities that made the list: Click here Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Sign up for the Headlines Newsletter and receive up to date information. Read More Here

Here's Who Is Not Eligible For Biden's Marijuana Pardon | CNN Politics https://digitalarizonanews.com/heres-who-is-not-eligible-for-bidens-marijuana-pardon-cnn-politics/ CNN  —  President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he’s pardoning individuals charged with simple marijuana possession on a federal level, but his decision does not affect broad groups of Americans and non-citizens charged with the crime. There’s historical precedent for mass application of the presidential pardon power, but the sheer size of Biden’s pardon list stands out among most recent predecessors. The White House estimates “6,500 people with prior federal convictions” and “thousands of such convictions under (Washington, DC) law could benefit from this relief.” While Biden is issuing pardons for federal charges of simple marijuana possession, his move on Thursday did not decriminalize the drug and it remains a federal crime to possess small amounts of marijuana on federal land. Biden did announce an expedited review of how marijuana is scheduled under federal law – a move that could change how the drug is regulated in the United States and could help guide criminal laws. In a video announcing his executive actions, Biden said that “no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana.” “It’s legal in many states, and criminal records for marijuana possession have led to needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” he continued. “And that’s before you address the racial disparities around who suffers the consequences. While White and Black and Brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and Brown people are arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionate rates.” But despite those words, there is still a broad set people who will not see immediate relief from Biden’s recent actions – some who he could have pardoned and some who he doesn’t have the power to pardon. Among those who Biden does not have power to pardon are thousands of individuals who have faced state charges for simple marijuana possession. While Americans’ attitudes about marijuana consumption are changing – smoking weed is becoming more popular than smoking tobacco, and 19 states, two US territories, and DC have legalized small amounts of marijuana – there are still laws in most states that criminalize possessing small amounts of marijuana. The full scope of individuals who could be pardoned as a result of state clemency for simple marijuana possession is unclear, but available law enforcement data analyzed by the American Civil Liberties Union found that in 2018, for example, there were almost 700,000 marijuana arrests, which accounted for more than 43% of all reported drug arrests. Not all drug arrests, however, lead to charges nor are they all categorized as simple marijuana possession. The President’s presidential pardon power is limited to federal criminal cases and does not extend to state criminal charges. As part of his moves Thursday, Biden called on governors to issue similar pardons to those with state marijuana offense convictions. Biden’s presidential proclamation states that his pardon “does not apply to individuals who were non-citizens not lawfully present in the United States at the time of their offense.” This suggests that undocumented immigrants will not be pardoned for existing federal charges for simple marijuana possession. But a senior administration official on Thursday noted that as a result of Biden’s proclamation, “anyone who has committed that offense could not be prosecuted federally, at this point, based on that conduct.” The official did not make a distinction between citizens and non-citizens. Data from the US Sentencing Commission indicates that during fiscal year 2021 some 72% of federal offenders in a case of marijuana possession were non-citizens. But it’s not clear how many non-citizens count as “lawfully” or “unlawfully” present in the country. Matt Cameron, a Boston-based immigration attorney who also teaches immigration policy at Northeastern University, told CNN that the decision to not include non-citizens who were not lawfully present could have dire consequences for some people. “If you’re in deportation proceedings or applying for a visa or applying green card, and you’re charged for possession, you will be denied. And you won’t be eligible for a waiver,” he said. He added, “You could be denied a green card and you would be denied for life.” The Department of Justice says that federal marijuana possession offenses that occur after October 6, 2022 – the date of the presidential proclamation – will not protect individuals from being charged down the road. “The proclamation pardons only those offenses occurring on or before October 6, 2022. It does not have any effect on marijuana possession offenses occurring after October 6, 2022,” DOJ says. However, the pardon does apply to pending federal simple marijuana possession charges, including those where conviction has not been obtained by October 6. In a statement about his presidential proclamation, Biden emphasized that “even as federal and state regulation of marijuana changes, important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and under-age sales should stay in place.” While Biden’s pardons will impact thousands who face simple possession charges, the act of clemency will not apply to all types of federal marijuana offenses. “Conspiracy, distribution, possession with intent to distribute, and other charges involving marijuana are not pardoned by the proclamation,” the Justice Department says. The DOJ also says the pardon does not apply to individuals who were convicted of possessing multiple different controlled substances in the same offense – including a charge related to possessing marijuana and another controlled substance in a single offense. “For example, if you were convicted of possessing marijuana and cocaine in a single offense, you do not qualify for pardon under the terms of President Biden’s proclamation,” the Justice Department explained. “If you were convicted of one count of simple possession of marijuana and a second count of possession of cocaine, President Biden’s proclamation applies only to the simple possession of marijuana count, not the possession of cocaine count.” The move also is not expected to remove any individuals from prison. The administration official speaking to reporters on Thursday said that “there are no individuals currently in federal prison solely for simple possession of marijuana.” Individuals seeking additional guidance regarding federal pardon eligibility and procedures should visit https://www.justice.gov/pardon for more information. Read More Here

Woman Tells New York Times That Herschel Walker Urged Her To Have Second Abortion https://digitalarizonanews.com/woman-tells-new-york-times-that-herschel-walker-urged-her-to-have-second-abortion/ Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for a Georgia US Senate seat, has maintained he does not know the identity of a woman who claims that in 2009 she terminated a pregnancy that was the result of her and Walker’s relationship. But on Friday, the woman at the center of a political storm that threatens to undo the former Dallas Cowboys running back’s campaign told the New York Times that Walker urged her to terminate a second pregnancy two years later and that their relationship ended when she declined. The woman, a former girlfriend whom Walker has referred to as “some alleged woman”, said the Senate hopeful backed by former president Donald Trump had scarcely been involved in their son’s life other than child support and gifts. But she offered a perspective on a candidate who has appealed to the state’s social conservatives as an opponent of abortion – even in cases of rape and incest. “As a father, he’s done nothing,” she told the Times, insisting on anonymity to protect her son. “He does exactly what the courts say, and that’s it. “He has to be held responsible, just like the rest of us. And if you’re going to run for office, you need to own your life.” She provided the paper with a $575 receipt from an Atlanta women’s clinic where the 2009 procedure was performed, as well as a check deposit slip showing a copy of a $700 check she claims Walker gave her as reimbursement. But Walker said Thursday on conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show: “I know this is untrue. I know it’s untrue. I know nothing about any woman having an abortion.” Walker’s wife, Julie Blanchard, disclosed to the Daily Beast on Friday that she had been in touch with the woman who had told her it was “cruel” that Walker “continues to claim he doesn’t know me or the abortion he paid for”. “He brought all of this on himself when he decided to get on a platform and denounce abortion and make a mockery of his children who have done NOTHING to deserve this,” the anonymous woman reportedly also said. Blanchard said that “this makes me incredibly sad”, adding that she “witnessed everyday Herschel pray for you and [your son] & everyone in our family”. She told the outlet that Walker calls and texts the 10-year-old child “regularly” and feels “sadness” when he gets no response – to which the woman replied, “Are you kidding me?” The woman has said that Walker has never missed any of his $3,500 monthly child-support payments, but the complex drama has nonetheless focused attention on the Republican candidate that his campaign did not want. Besides his opposition to abortion, he has four children with four different women after openly criticizing absentee dads in the Black community. Walker has disputed that he does not acknowledge his children. “I just chose not to use them as props to win a political campaign,” he said in June. “What parent would want their child involved in garbage, gutter politics like this?” But some criticism has come from close to home. “You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence,” Walker’s adult son and conservative social-media influencer Christian Walker said on Twitter. Herschel Walker responded with his own tweet: “I LOVE my son no matter what.” But the revelations have challenged Walker’s conservative political positions as he faces off with Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock for the US senate seat that could determine control of the evenly divided legislative body. A Fox News poll conducted after reports emerged last week that Walker had paid for the former girlfriend to have an abortion showed Warnock at 47% and Walker at 44%. Warnock’s campaign recently reported having $13.7m in cash on hand. Walker’s campaign said it has more than $7m. Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise said the candidate had his best fundraising days immediately after the abortion revelation, contained in a Daily Beast article on 3 October. Nonetheless, there’s apparently been an atmosphere of chaos in the Walker campaign since the bombshell Daily Beast report. Two days after the report, the campaign cut ties with its political director, Taylor Crowe, CNN reported, citing multiple sources. Read More Here

Trump Is A “classified Documents Terrorist,” Should Be Arrested: Kirschner https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-is-a-classified-documents-terrorist-should-be-arrested-kirschner/ Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Friday called former President Donald Trump a “classified document terrorist” over allegedly mishandling top secret and other classified records—storing them in his Mar-a-Lago resort home in Florida. The Katie Phang Show host Katie Phang asked Kirschner whether he thinks an indictment could now come more quickly for Trump after recent reports said that the Department of Justice believes the former president is still holding on to more classified documents—which reportedly should have been turned over to the National Archives. “Katie, how could it not?,” the attorney, a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC News, responded. “The federal government, the National Archives negotiated with Donald Trump [and] I’m gonna call him what he has proven himself to be at this point, he’s a classified documents terrorist.” “Donald Trump, I’m going to call him what he has proven to be at this point. He is a classified documents terrorist.”@GlennKirschner2 reacts to reporting that the DOJ suspects Trump still has not returned all of the classified documents in his possession. pic.twitter.com/TCgnXYp8wR — The Katie Phang Show (@katiephangshow) October 7, 2022 “The government asked for them back; he refused to give it. The government subpoenaed them back; he refused to give them all back. The government got a search warrant and executed it at Mar -a-Lago and got a bunch more documents, and now the reporting is he is still unlawfully retaining and concealing additional documents,” Kirschner added. The legal analyst was referring to a New York Times article, which reported this week that Jay Bratt, who leads the department’s counterintelligence operations, recently told Trump’s attorneys that the department believed he didn’t return all the documents he was supposed to after leaving office. During his interview with Phang, Kirschner addressed Bratt, who he said was his former colleague, saying “if I could say just one thing to my friend and former colleague, Jay Bratt, it would be arrest the classified documents terrorist and put an end to our long national nightmare.” “The evidence is there tenfold. It’s time to… really step up and enforce the laws against Donald Trump the way they would be enforced against any other mere mortal,” Kirschner said. Former President Donald Trump speaks at a Save America Rally to support Republican candidates running for state and federal offices at the Covelli Center on September 17 in Youngstown, Ohio. Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Friday called Trump a “classified document terrorist” over allegedly mishandling classified documents and keeping them in his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images Meanwhile, Harvard law professor and legal scholar Laurence Tribe made similar remarks on Thursday, predicting that the DOJ looks as if it is moving towards possibly indicting Trump in connection to the classified documents probes. “This looks like a major step toward an indictment of Trump by DOJ for obstruction of justice,” Tribe tweeted, sharing the Times article. However, the Times report mentioned that no details were provided about the potential next steps that the justice department would take to retrieve any documents it thinks are still in Trump’s possession. The DOJ declined to comment on the matter when contacted by Newsweek. It is also not known whether the department has gathered new evidence that could potentially show that Trump still held on to classified materials even after the FBI search of his Florida home in August. Still, Bratt’s outreach caused a divide in Trump’s legal team on how to approach the Justice Department, with one side insisting on taking a more adversarial stance when dealing with the department, according to the Times. FBI agents raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence to retrieve White House classified documents after an approval from Attorney General Merrick Garland. That decision came following a tip received by law enforcement from an informant who knew the type of documents Trump kept and where he stored them. Documents recovered reportedly included sensitive information about “highly classified programs” and nuclear weapons. Authorities also found dozens of empty folders that were marked “classified.” Trump has denied any wrongdoing in handling the documents and said that he had already declassified them to be able to take them to his house. However, many legal analysts, including former Justice Department official Mary McCord, have said that he was not authorized to do so after leaving the White House. Newsweek reached out to Trump’s media office for comment. Read More Here

'Malicious And Targeted' Sabotage Halts Rail Traffic In Northern Germany https://digitalarizonanews.com/malicious-and-targeted-sabotage-halts-rail-traffic-in-northern-germany/ An ICE high-speed train arrives at the Hamburg-Altona train station, September 2, 2021. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer BERLIN, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Cables vital for the rail network were intentionally cut in two places causing a near three-hour halt to all rail traffic in northern Germany on Saturday morning, in what authorities called an act of sabotage without identifying who might be responsible. The federal police are investigating the incident, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, adding the motive for it was unclear. The disruption raised alarm bells after NATO and the European Union last month stressed the need to protect critical infrastructure after what they called acts of sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com “It is clear that this was a targeted and malicious action,” Transport Minister Volker Wissing told a news conference. A security source said there were a variety of possible causes, ranging from cable theft – which is frequent – to a targeted attack. Omid Nouripour, leader of the Greens party, which is part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s federal coalition, said anyone who attacked the country’s critical infrastructure would receive a “decisive response”. “We will not be intimidated,” he wrote on Twitter. CHAOS BEFORE ELECTION DAY “Due to sabotage on cables that are indispensable for rail traffic, Deutsche Bahn had to stop rail traffic in the north this morning for nearly three hours,” the state rail operator said in a statement. Deutsche Bahn (DB) had earlier blamed the network disruption on a technical problem with radio communications. Spiegel magazine said the communications system was down at around 6:40 a.m. (0440 GMT). At 11:06 a.m, DB tweeted that traffic had been restored, but warned of continued train cancellations and delays. The disruption affected rail services through the states of Lower Saxony and Schlewsig-Holstein as well as the city states of Bremen and Hamburg, with a knock-on effect to international rail journeys to Denmark and the Netherlands. They came the day before a state election in Lower Saxony where Scholz’s Social Democrats are on track to retain power and the Greens are seen doubling their share of the vote, according to polls. Queues rapidly built up at mainline stations including Berlin and Hanover as departure boards showed many services being delayed or canceled. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke and Christian Ruettger; Editing by David Holmes and Mark Potter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

He's Not Even Running – But US Midterms Could Make Or Break Donald Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/hes-not-even-running-but-us-midterms-could-make-or-break-donald-trump/ Last Updated: October 08, 2022, 20:59 IST Washington Many of Trump’s primary endorsements have been seen as undermining more electable, mainstream alternatives. (Reuters File Image) Trump threw himself into the midterm election campaign with unprecedented gusto, staking his kingmaker reputation on a slew of controversial candidates in key primary races After losing the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump could have worked on his golf swing or produced another book by the pool at his south Florida beach club. Instead he threw himself into the midterm election campaign with unprecedented gusto, staking his kingmaker reputation on a slew of controversial candidates in key primary races. His US Senate picks in open races — mostly anti-abortion hardliners, backers of his election fraud conspiracy theories or out-of-towners with tenuous local ties — have been struggling however. And with exactly a month to go until Election Day, many Republicans are laying the blame at the gates of Mar-a-Lago. “Donald Trump is not on any ballot in 2022, but his political future is,” John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote in a recent blog post. Trump’s project to reshape the Republican Party in his image via the midterms will likely “either make Donald Trump an also-ran or the commanding force in party politics for years to come,” Hudak argued. Many of Trump’s primary endorsements have been seen as undermining more electable, mainstream alternatives, and potentially squandering easy victories in key battlegrounds seen as ripe for flipping from the Democrats. Among his controversial picks are celebrity physician Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania — seen by many as an out-of-touch “carpetbagger,” prone to rhetorical gaffes — and Ohio’s J.D. Vance, a venture capitalist who has spent most of his adult life in Silicon Valley and faces similar issues. The story is the same in Georgia, where ex-football star Herschel Walker faces questions over domestic abuse, dishonesty about his past and mental fitness. And in Arizona, Blake Masters is struggling in what should be a winnable seat with a campaign that Politico has described as “hardline nationalist.” ‘Little to gain’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — who needs just one gain to take the upper chamber from the Democrats — has offered oblique hints that he sees “candidate quality” as a problem. Hudack put it more starkly. “(If) Senate candidates like Walker, Oz, Vance or Blake Masters ultimately lose in numbers that maintains Democrats’ Senate majority, Mr Trump will be widely blamed,” he said. A poor election night for Trump candidates would be chum in the water for his 2024 rivals, a list that potentially includes outspoken anti-Trumpist Liz Cheney, Florida’s firebrand governor Ron DeSantis and ex-vice president Mike Pence. Cheney aside, Republican presidential hopefuls have largely continued to genuflect to Trump through his post-presidency. But figures such as ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo, estranged Trump ally Chris Christie and one-time UN ambassador Nikki Haley could be emboldened by poor results on November 8. David Greenberg, a media and history professor at Rutgers University, said the former president — for now the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination — had “little to gain” in the midterms. “But Trump has a lot to lose because if his candidates flame out, then he will be seen as having lost his magic,” Greenberg told AFP. “Some primary voters in 2024 may think twice about supporting him again, especially if a popular alternative such as DeSantis also runs.” A note of caution: the polls are expected to tighten before November and all of Trump’s most divisive candidates could yet triumph in photo finishes. ‘Clear leader’ Expect some of the circling sharks to back off if this happens — and for Trump to look suddenly like a political genius with a bold vision rather than a liability. Trump watchers often point out that much of the former president’s die-hard base cares little about the Senate or Washington politics in any case. “Despite losing reelection, two impeachments, nearly a dozen serious criminal probes, and countless scandals that would have long ago sunk most any other politician, Trump remains the clear leader of the Republican Party,” said political analyst Nicholas Creel, of Georgia College and State University. “Trump’s support in the Republican Party is far too resilient to be damaged by a poor showing by the party this November.” Other observers though expect the tycoon’s many legal woes, including the mushrooming scandal over his mishandling of classified government secrets, to be as a big a drag on his political prospects as the performance of his midterm picks. Irina Tsukerman, a New York-based national security lawyer and geopolitical analyst, said Trump was increasingly perceived as a “political liability” — incapable of winning a future presidential election even against a weak Democrat. “Overall, it looks like he will be strongly discouraged from running in 2024, which he may not do for his own reasons — such as avoiding embarrassment and keeping the money he is currently raising,” she told AFP. Trump’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Read the Latest News and Breaking News here Read More Here

A Doctor Who Moved From California To Arizona Says He's Saving $25,000 A Year But Misses San Diego Weather https://digitalarizonanews.com/a-doctor-who-moved-from-california-to-arizona-says-hes-saving-25000-a-year-but-misses-san-diego-weather/ Anesthesiologist Taylor Graber, 32, and his wife, Amelia, moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2021. In California, nine cents of every dollar he earned went to taxes. In Arizona, it’s only 4.5 cents. Graber isn’t saving much on rent in Arizona, but he’s able to put more toward his retirement fund. It was hard for Taylor Graber and his wife, Amelia, to leave San Diego’s sun, beaches, and hiking. But they gathered their strength and moved to Scottsdale, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, last year. “It was kind of the big-boy adult decision that caused us to make that choice, because I love San Diego,” Graber, who described his experience to Insider in September, said. “Love the climate, love the city, love everything that’s over there. But the cost of living is more expensive there. Buying a house is more expensive there. Taxes are more expensive there.” The 32-year-old is an anesthesiologist and the founder of an at-home IV company, ASAP IVs, who pulled in a salary of about $65,000 at his job as a resident anesthesiologist at the UC San Diego Medical Center. Before making the move, the couple vetted Graber’s work opportunities in the area, with all of them clearing salaries far north of $250,000 — when doctors graduate residency and become attendings, it’s typical for their annual pay to skyrocket. The couple’s finances are clearly better in Arizona In Phoneix, Graber said he’s making $350,000 a year at Valley Anesthesiology Consultants, “and there’s other performance bonuses and productivity bonuses,” he added. He also said the nature of the job he accepted in Arizona was more attractive than the options in California, and he wanted to expand the footprint of his IV company. “I have the very first-world problem, and a good problem to have, that I make a pretty good amount of money. But that also puts me in such a tax bracket that I’m more penalized,” Graber said. “However much you’re paying for state income tax versus federal income tax adds up pretty quickly. The difference between California and Arizona is quite a bit that adds up over time.” The couple moved from California to Arizona for its favorable income tax and to be closer to family. Taylor Graber Graber estimated the marginal tax rate for their combined household income in California was 9.3%, over twice that of Arizona’s, which sits at 4.5%. That means about nine cents on every dollar would go toward taxes in California, while four-and-a-half cents of every dollar would go toward taxes in Arizona. That amounts to a savings of roughly $25,000 a year in Arizona, a number that helped justify the move for the Grabers.  Because they’ve only lived in Arizona for about 14 months, they have yet to see their savings-account balance increase. But Graber said, however, that he’s been able to put more into his retirement fund. Graber also added that both his family and his wife’s relatives are in the Scottsdale area, making the move a bit more inevitable. Moving to a low-tax state has some minor drawbacks Still, the move has taken some adjusting. Graber said Arizona’s weather isn’t as good as what they were used to in California, where they lived for four years, and that it’d taken an adjustment to trade in “those sunny and 75-degree summers for sunny and 115 degrees.” The Grabers hope to buy their first home someday soon. Their move to Arizona puts them closer to not only family but also their dream of homeownership as they’re able to save more with Arizona’s lower income-tax rate. “A big perk of the move is definitely being able to pocket a little bit more of those savings to either save away so that we can speed up the rate that we’re able to buy our first house or buy a little bit nicer of a first house,” he said, though he added that “surprisingly, Scottsdale is not the cheapest place in the world.”  The median sale price of a home in Scottsdale is $791,500, compared to $850,000 in San Diego, according to Redfin. The couple is currently renting while figuring out where they want to put down roots. The savings from rent aren’t huge: Graber said the two-bedroom unit they’re renting in Scottsdale is only about $100 less than their two-bedroom rental in San Diego.  Still, it’s been worth it.  “There’s a lot of bigger metropolitan areas that are certainly catching up to San Diego  in terms of cost of living, but it’s still cheaper,” he said. Read More…

POLITICO Playbook: The Shoes Keep Dropping In Georgia https://digitalarizonanews.com/politico-playbook-the-shoes-keep-dropping-in-georgia/ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT — Just a few hours after the end of VLADIMIR PUTIN’s 70th birthday, a major explosion today set ablaze the only bridge connecting Crimea to Russia, killing three people and causing parts of the crucial supply route to collapse. Ukraine didn’t take credit in so many words, but some officials bragged about it indirectly. More from CNN … Alleged video of the blast GEORGIA ON MY MIND — You know things are bad when Bloomberg writes a paragraph explaining state election rules for replacing a nominee. HERSCHEL WALKER’s Georgia Republican Senate bid has suffered a brutal week after an allegation surfaced that he’d paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion — and new hits kept coming Friday. (The answer to the replacement question, by the way: Can’t happen. Walker will be on the ballot.) NYT’s Maya King, Lisa Lerer and Jonah Bromwich confirmed the reporting of The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger about the abortion in 2009 — and revealed that the woman now alleges Walker encouraged her to have a second abortion two years later. She refused, giving birth to a now 10-year-old boy with whom she says Walker has had a minimal relationship. (POLITICO has not independently verified the reporting.) Until Friday, Walker claimed he didn’t know the identity of the woman making the abortion allegation, and his campaign said he never paid for an abortion. Talking to NBC’s Marc Caputo, Walker had a somewhat different message: “I’m not saying she did or didn’t have one [an abortion]. I’m saying I don’t know anything about that. I don’t know.” Both Walker’s campaign and the woman shared text messages Friday between his wife, JULIE BLANCHARD, and the woman, which lay out an ongoing (and newly strained) relationship: “You know I have continually tried to bridge a better relationship between you and Herschel,” Blanchard wrote after the woman asked if she knew about the abortion. Sollenberger’s latest story includes new text messages shared by the woman between Walker and their son, whom she says he’s met only thrice. The messages lay out a heartbreaking narrative, apparently showing Walker lying to the boy in July about how many half-siblings he has, and Walker frequently sending unanswered texts that simply say, “Love you.” “What’s my favorite color?” the boy texted Walker last fall, per Sollenberger. “What grade am I in?And how old am I.” The next day, Walker wrote back, “God bless you, love you.” For Walker, who’s been a public critic of absentee fathers in the Black community and a hardline abortion opponent, the ongoing barrage of messy family details — and ensuing media circus — could threaten his campaign to unseat Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK. One Republican in the state texted Bloomberg’s Billy House an image of a sinking ship. But, but, but: Don’t count Walker out just yet. Georgia is a newly purple state in a red-tinted year, and in an era of hyper-polarized politics, scandal ain’t what it used to be. For the first time, DONALD TRUMP is jumping in to boost Walker financially, per Meridith McGraw. MAGA Inc., the new super PAC using Trump’s war chest in the midterms, put down $750,000 on Friday for a new ad that avoids mention of Walker: “From D-Day to drag queen story time, America has lost its way,” it says instead. “Radical Democrats are indoctrinating our children to hate America — opening our borders and crushing working people with taxes.” And on the campaign trail, Walker is leaning into an unapologetic conservative message attacking excessive “wokeness” in society, AP’s Bill Barrow reports from Emerson. “Walker says those who don’t share his vision of the country can leave, and he blasts his opponent … and the Democratic Party as the real purveyors of division.” Related reads: The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein in Atlanta on the Democratic fight to turn out young voters of color. … Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser on MAGA Inc.’s new TV ads in Arizona and Nevada. … Jessica Piper on why MAGA Inc.’s last-minute entry into the campaign will have a limited impact. Good Saturday morning from Spring Mills, Pa., where the first thing we heard as we pulled up to a nearby Sheetz was a complaint about the price of gas under President JOE BIDEN. Thanks for reading Playbook. Reach out at [email protected], or drop a line to the rest of the team: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza. BATTLE FOR THE SENATE GRANITE STATE SIREN — The NRSC is pulling $2.7 million in ad spending from New Hampshire, where DON BOLDUC is having trouble catching Sen. MAGGIE HASSAN, Natalie Allison and Burgess Everett report. The Senate GOP campaign arm is instead running an ad in conjunction with Bolduc. But the race is competitive, and the Senate Leadership Fund is still spending big. The NRSC will redirect the money to other top states. KFILE STRIKES AGAIN — Wisconsin Democrat MANDELA BARNES says in a new ad that it’s a “lie” he wants to defund the police and abolish ICE. But CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck dig up his social media posts from 2018 and 2019 that indicate otherwise: He said “I need that” about an “Abolish ICE” T-shirt and said “the wrong ICE is melting” in remarks to a local group, among other instances. BUCKS THE TREND — Pennsylvania Democrat JOHN FETTERMAN heads to Bucks County for a rally this weekend, “a test of Fetterman’s working-class appeal in a region known as pro-union,” the Philly Inquirer’s Julia Terruso reports. The bellwether purple county could be pivotal in November. — More broadly, the tightening race in Pennsylvania puts a lot of pressure on Fetterman’s claim that he could improve Democrats’ performance with rural, working-class white voters, NYT’s Trip Gabriel reports from Murrysville. Republican attacks on his privileged upbringing could undercut his everyman brand. And after his stroke, “his campaign has been forced to pivot from relying on Mr. Fetterman’s charisma before crowds … to a strategy focused heavily on social media and television ads.” DEPT. OF ADVANCE FAILS — Pennsylvania Republican MEHMET OZ held a fundraiser Thursday at a museum where he stood (and was photographed) in front of one of ADOLF HITLER’s cars, Jezebel’s Susan Rinkunas reports. The California event, hosted by Rep. MATT GAETZ’s (R-Fla.) brother-in-law, also featured NRSC Chair RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) and Nevada’s ADAM LAXALT. JORDAN PETERSON called in, too. UP FOR DEBATE — The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has five takeaways from Barnes’ tete-a-tete Friday with Sen. RON JOHNSON. … And The News & Observer has five takeaways from the first showdown between CHERI BEASLEY and Rep. TED BUDD in North Carolina. — Meanwhile, Oz and Fetterman won’t debate until Oct. 25 — which Oz’s campaign calls too last-minute for many voters. The Inquirer’s Julia Terruso, Jonathan Lai and Jonathan Tamari dig into the numbers and surmise that most voters still won’t have cast a ballot by then, though. BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE REDISTRICTING VS. RED WAVE — Illinois Democrats gerrymandered the state’s House map to gain a seat and get some breathing room in retiring Rep. CHERI BUSTOS’ district. But in a tough year for Democrats, they’re now staring down unexpectedly difficult races in the 13th and the 17th, Shia Kapos reports from Chicago. Republicans REGAN DEERING and ESTHER JOY KING are proving to be strong candidates, and Dems worry that “as economic concerns spook voters,” seats they thought they’d taken care of could give the party a fright. HOT ADS Via Steve Shepard — Pennsylvania: The first ad from the Trump-linked MAGA Inc. picks up on Republicans’ crime attacks against Fetterman. He “wants ruthless killers, muggers and rapists back on our streets, and he wants them back now,” a narrator says. PHOTO OF THE DAY 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. BIG ABORTION RULINGS: Some abortions will remain legal in Arizona and Ohio after courts in both states put temporary holds on more restrictive laws Friday. The Arizona Court of Appeals halted enforcement of an 1864 law that bans almost all abortions; a 15-week ban remains in place, but Planned Parenthood said it would begin offering the procedure again, per the Arizona Republic. And an Ohio judge blocked a new fetal “heartbeat” law for now; a 22-week ban remains in place, per the Cleveland Plain Dealer. 2. CLAMPING DOWN: A new White House policy makes it official: The Biden administration is putting tighter limits on drone strikes used for counterterrorism outside of war zones, reversing a Trump-era move, NYT’s Charlie Savage reports. The policy “suggests that amid competing priorities in a turbulent world, the United States intends to launch fewer drone strikes and commando raids away from recognized war zones than it has in the recent past.” 3. LINCOLN LOGS: Nebraska Gov. PETE RICKETTS said Friday he won’t appoint himself to fill Sen. BEN SASSE’s seat if and when he leaves Congress, per the Omaha World-Herald. But political observers still think Ricketts is interested in becoming a senator: He could wait for his successor to tap him for the role instead. 4. HOT DOCS: “How Trump Deflected Demands for Documents, Enmeshing Aides,” by NYT’s Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt: “Mr. Trump, still determined to show he had been wronged by the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the National Archives and Records Administration for its unwillingness to hand over a batch of sensitive documents that he thought proved his claims. In exchange for those documents, Mr. Trump told advisers [last year], he would return to the National Archives the boxes of material he had taken to Mar-a-Lago … Mr. Trump’s aides never pursued the idea. But … Mr. Trump spent a year and a half deflecting, delaying and sometimes leading aides to dissemble.” 5. MIGRANT FLIGHT FALLOUT: The Miami Herald’s Mary Ellen Klas and Nicholas Nehamas got their h...

Once Hopeful Iowa Democrats Running Uphill Vs. Sen. Grassley https://digitalarizonanews.com/once-hopeful-iowa-democrats-running-uphill-vs-sen-grassley/ WEST DES MOINES, Iowa – When Michael Franken won the Democratic nomination for the Senate in June, many in Iowa’s disillusioned party thought they landed on a candidate who could maybe — possibly — reverse their humbling slide in the state. After all, the retired Navy admiral won 76 of 99 counties, in every region of the state, notably conservative northern and western Iowa. His hesitancy during the primary campaign to back weapons bans and college loan forgiveness were signs he aimed to appeal to moderate Democrats and even some Republicans tired of incumbent Chuck Grassley after four decades in office. But those ambitions are beginning to fade as Election Day, Nov. 8, approaches. Franken’s quest to unseat the most senior Republican in the Senate has been wounded by allegations that the Democrat kissed a former campaign aide without permission. Franken’s campaign has denied the claim. He’s defied skeptics before, beating the better known and better funded former Rep. Abby Finkenauer in primary. Nonetheless, many Democrats acknowledge that a race always considered a long shot is at risk of slipping firmly out of reach. To Democrat Marcia Nichols, the former longtime political director for Iowa’s largest public employees union, the allegation, “whatever it is, it’s made it tougher now.” But she noted that Franken took on Finkenauer, “who was pretty popular, and beat her by a lot. I’m not writing him off.” The obstacles seemed distant during a recent campaign stop as Franken, in his standard Navy ball cap, urged hundreds of supporters on a warm early autumn afternoon in suburban Des Moines to rally Republicans who might want a change after 42 years of Grassley in the Senate. “Iowans wake up every day doing hard things,” Franken said. “That takes, in today’s environment, a lot of guts.” To win, Franken would have to have to share voters with Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, a devout social conservative and fervent Donald Trump supporter who is favored in her reelection campaign. He would have to defy a decadelong Republican ascendency in Iowa, made harder in an election year when majority Democrats in Congress are facing economic headwinds and tepid approval of Democratic President Joe Biden. Franken’s challenges are part of a broader reversal of fortunes for Democrats. A decade ago, Grassley and five-term progressive Democrat Tom Harkin were Iowa’s senators. Democrats held three of five U.S. House seats and a thin majority in the state Senate. Today, Rep. Cindy Axne of West Des Moines is Iowa’s lone Democrat in Congress and she is considered among the most vulnerable in her party this fall. The GOP hold on the statehouse is the party’s longest in more than six decades. Franken’s resounding primary victory offered a glimmer of a chance for Democrats. A month after the primary, Franken trailed Grassley by just 8 percentage points among likely voters in a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll. That pointed to a potentially closer race than Grassley has faced since he defeated Democratic Sen. John Culver in 1980. With no help from the Democrats’ national Senate campaign arm, Franken has raised a noteworthy $8.3 million this year, including $3.6 million in the third quarter. Grassley had reported raising $7.5 million through the end of July but had not released his total for July-September period. That report is due by Oct. 15. The majority job approval that Grassley had owned for roughly two decades of Des Moines Register polling has recently fallen: It has hovered in unfamiliar territory and was at 46% in the July poll. Also telling of the shift, 64% of likely voters said in a June 2021 Des Moines Register poll they did not want him to run again, given the choice of seeing someone else hold office or reelecting the senator for another term. The change in mood comes as Grassley, who entered the Senate as a Ronald Reagan-era fiscal conservative, has tried to adapt to the hyper-partisan politics of the Trump era. Facing pointed questions from voters last year about why he had declined to say Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Grassley parsed his language to obliquely suggest Biden is president as the result of the Electoral College vote count. About two-thirds of Republicans nationally said they do not think Biden was legitimately elected, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in July 2021. A year ago, Grassley beamed when Trump endorsed him at a Des Moines rally that drew 10,000 to the Iowa state fairgrounds, where the former president argued falsely that he had won the 2020 election. “I’m smart enough to accept that endorsement,” Grassley told the audience, noting Trump’s comfortable victory in Iowa in that race. Grassley has campaigned little in public. He has relied more on television advertising, much of it critical of Franken for comments he made about the direction of the state under Republican leadership. Grassley turned 89 last month and says he has no concerns about being able to finish another six-year term — he would be 95 at the end of an eighth term. “Absolutely not,” he said during a Wednesday news conference. He ticked through his daily schedule, which he said includes rising at 4 a.m., running 2 miles six days a week and arriving at his office by 6 a.m. “Unless God intervenes, I’m going to be in the Senate for six years,” he added. Franken has steered clear of Grassley’s age and instead has cast Grassley’s time in office as his chief liability. “We deserve better than a senator for life,” the Democrat said. Franken has characterized Grassley’s praise of the Supreme Court decision stripping women of their constitutional right to an abortion as out of step with Iowa, where polls show a majority of voters support keeping abortion legal. Franken, who supports enacting legislation making abortion a federal right, held a modest advantage with women likely voters in the July Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll. But the publication of a police report detailing the unwanted kiss with the former campaign staffer has prompted questions from some would-be Franken supporters. The campaign manager issued a public statement that the allegation in the report was untrue and the police called it unfounded. Elizabeth Sibers, a 22-year-old Iowa State University student from Waukee who attended Franken’s rally, said she would like him, at a minimum, to speak out against harassment. “It does trouble me. He needs to take the time to address it,” she said. Sibers remains open to voting for him and said she wants to “give Franken the chance to grow from this, and not just look past it.” Grassley said he does not plan to raise it as a campaign issue. But when Franken called him “anti-woman,” for supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Grassley replied quickly and curtly. “You’re in no position to lecture me about women,” he said. “You’re in no position to do that.” ___ For more information on the midterm elections, go to: 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. Read More Here

NEW HABERMAN SCOOP: Trump Told Aides He Would Trade Documents He Took To Mar-A-Lago For FBI’s Russia Files https://digitalarizonanews.com/new-haberman-scoop-trump-told-aides-he-would-trade-documents-he-took-to-mar-a-lago-for-fbis-russia-files/ L: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images R: Department of Justice New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman has dropped a new scoop: former President Donald Trump wanted to barter the documents he took to Mar-a-Lago for the FBI’s files on the Trump/Russia investigation. Haberman has been making the rounds to promote the release of her controversial but much-buzzed-about book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. But she has also found time to drop scoop after scoop about the Justice Department’s investigation of Trump for crimes involving the Espionage Act after thousands of documents — some bearing classified markings — were seized from his home in August. On Saturday, Haberman and Michael Schmidt dropped a new one, reporting that Trump effectively wanted to use the Mar-a-Lago documents as hostages — to procure other secret documents: Mr. Trump, still determined to show he had been wronged by the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the National Archives and Records Administration for its unwillingness to hand over a batch of sensitive documents that he thought proved his claims. In exchange for those documents, Mr. Trump told advisers, he would return to the National Archives the boxes of material he had taken to Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla. Mr. Trump’s aides never pursued the idea. But the episode is one in a series that demonstrates how Mr. Trump spent a year and a half deflecting, delaying and sometimes leading aides to dissemble when it came to demands from the National Archives and ultimately the Justice Department to return the material he had taken, interviews and documents show. Haberman highlighted some of her report’s findings on Twitter: NEW: Trump, seeking Russian investigation-related classified documents last fall from archives, proposed a deal to advisers: tell archives he would trade the Mar-a-Lago documents he had for them. @nytmike and me https://t.co/ZRTzQUBqDY — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 8, 2022 The “pattern was strikingly similar to how Mr. Trump confronted inquiries into his conduct while in office: entertain or promote outlandish ideas, eschew the advice of lawyers and mislead them, then push lawyers and aides to impede investigators.” https://t.co/nUmxtvJD09 — Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) October 8, 2022 “But archives officials made clear that even newspaper clippings and printouts of articles seen by Mr. Trump in office were considered presidential records.” https://t.co/UuFuPuttu5 — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 8, 2022 Haberman and Schmidt also provide a deep dive on Trumpworld’s handling of the document issue. Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com Read More Here

He's Not Even Running — But US Midterms Could Make Or Break Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/hes-not-even-running-but-us-midterms-could-make-or-break-trump-2/ After losing the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump could have worked on his golf swing or produced another book by the pool at his south Florida beach club. Instead he threw himself into the midterm election campaign with unprecedented gusto, staking his kingmaker reputation on a slew of controversial candidates in key primary races. His US Senate picks in open races — mostly anti-abortion hardliners, backers of his election fraud conspiracy theories or out-of-towners with tenuous local ties — have been struggling. And with exactly a month to go until Election Day, many Republicans are laying the blame at the gates of Mar-a-Lago. “Donald Trump is not on any ballot in 2022, but his political future is,” John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote in a recent blog post. Trump’s project to reshape the Republican Party in his image via the midterms will likely “either make Donald Trump an also-ran or the commanding force in party politics for years to come,” Hudak argued. Also Read | Donald Trump likely to announce 2024 presidential run in weeks Many of Trump’s primary endorsements have been seen as undermining more electable, mainstream alternatives, and potentially squandering easy victories in key battlegrounds seen as ripe for flipping from the Democrats. Among his controversial picks are celebrity physician Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania — seen by many as an out-of-touch “carpetbagger,” prone to rhetorical gaffes — and Ohio’s J D Vance, a venture capitalist who has spent most of his adult life in Silicon Valley and faces similar issues. The story is the same in Georgia, where ex-football star Herschel Walker faces questions over domestic abuse, dishonesty about his past and mental fitness. And in Arizona, Blake Masters is struggling in what should be a winnable seat with a campaign that Politico has described as “hardline nationalist.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — who needs just one gain to take the upper chamber from the Democrats — has offered oblique hints that he sees “candidate quality” as a problem. Hudack put it more starkly. “(If) Senate candidates like Walker, Oz, Vance or Blake Masters ultimately lose in numbers that maintains Democrats’ Senate majority, Mr Trump will be widely blamed,” he said. A poor election night for Trump candidates would be chum in the water for his 2024 rivals, a list that potentially includes outspoken anti-Trumpist Liz Cheney, Florida’s firebrand governor Ron DeSantis and ex-vice president Mike Pence. Cheney aside, Republican presidential hopefuls have largely continued to genuflect to Trump through his post-presidency. But figures such as ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo, estranged Trump ally Chris Christie and one-time UN ambassador Nikki Haley could be emboldened by poor results on November 8. David Greenberg, a media and history professor at Rutgers University, said the former president — for now the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination — had “little to gain” in the midterms. “But Trump has a lot to lose because if his candidates flame out, then he will be seen as having lost his magic,” Greenberg told AFP. “Some primary voters in 2024 may think twice about supporting him again, especially if a popular alternative such as DeSantis also runs.” A note of caution: the polls are expected to tighten before November and all of Trump’s most divisive candidates could yet triumph in photo finishes. Expect some of the circling sharks to back off if this happens — and for Trump to look suddenly like a political genius with a bold vision rather than a liability. Trump watchers often point out that much of the former president’s die-hard base cares little about the Senate or Washington politics in any case. “Despite losing re-election, two impeachments, nearly a dozen serious criminal probes, and countless scandals that would have long ago sunk most any other politician, Trump remains the clear leader of the Republican Party,” said political analyst Nicholas Creel, of Georgia College and State University. “Trump’s support in the Republican Party is far too resilient to be damaged by a poor showing by the party this November.” Other observers though expect the tycoon’s many legal woes, including the mushrooming scandal over his mishandling of classified government secrets, to be as a big a drag on his political prospects as the performance of his midterm picks. Irina Tsukerman, a New York-based national security lawyer and geopolitical analyst, said Trump was increasingly perceived as a “political liability” — incapable of winning a future presidential election even against a weak Democrat. “Overall, it looks like he will be strongly discouraged from running in 2024, which he may not do for his own reasons — such as avoiding embarrassment and keeping the money he is currently raising,” she told AFP. Trump’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Read More Here

A Broke Marching Band Parades On Capitol Hill To Practice. Magic Ensues. https://digitalarizonanews.com/a-broke-marching-band-parades-on-capitol-hill-to-practice-magic-ensues/ The mostly low-income kids in the Eastern High School Marching Band are beloved by the mostly affluent D.C. homeowners who witness their practices October 8, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT Eastern High School band director James Perry, right, gives direction to the students as they march through Capitol Hill neighborhood to prepare for homecoming and the 100th anniversary of the school. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) Rush hour traffic slammed to a halt as the high school band director walked backward into the busy Capitol Hill intersection, followed by a line of teens gripping trombones, trumpets, french horns and flutes. The thunk-thunk-thunk of bass drums reverberated in the damp October air. “Straight ahead, band, you got to be lookin’ straight ahead,” James Perry, director of the Eastern High School Marching Band, shouted at the students through his megaphone. “Hey, hey, hey, hey!” they chanted back. Eastern High’s homecoming and a celebration of the school’s 100th anniversary were just days away, and the 65-member band — known as “The Blue and White Marching Machine” — was practicing for a performance Saturday that would draw hundreds of Eastern students, parents and alumni. Now, they followed a familiar path, down A Street NE toward Lincoln Park, delighting neighbors and anyone else who stumbled upon them. Practically everyone pulled out their cellphone to record the band as it passed. With four students across, they took up the entire road. Eastern High School marching band practiced their performance ahead of their homecoming in Capitol Hill on Oct. 6. (Video: Lizzie Johnson/The Washington Post) People cheered and shouted encouragement from their front stoops, car windows and the small tables set up outside the local coffee shop, Wine & Butter. Children chased the teens down the block. Sometimes passing patrol cars would flick on their lights and block oncoming traffic so the students could safely pass. Only the dogs weren’t fans. They lunged at the ends of their leashes or cowered behind their owners, uncertain. But Perry, 41, who also works as an attendance counselor at Eastern, didn’t take it personally. He chalked it up to the drums. As the students high-stepped down the street, over wet leaves and under a sky of sagging rain clouds, the driver of a black Toyota Camry rolled down his window and peered out. A woman smoking a cigarette, blue handbag slung over one shoulder, stopped on the sidewalk, gawking. “Hey band?” Perry shouted. “What?” “Hey band?” “E-H-S!” they yelled. They passed million-dollar rowhouses decorated for Halloween, with pumpkins heaped on porch steps and ghosts of stiff gauze frozen on lawns. A toddler pressed against the front door of one home, his breath fogging the glass. Nearby, Katie Telligman, 42, put on a warm jacket and stepped outside her home to better hear the music. “This has been one of the greatest things we’ve discovered since moving to this street five years ago,” said Telligman, who works in communications and has lived on Capitol Hill since 2002. For a while, the pandemic had disrupted these impromptu parades. Now the neighborhood valued them even more. “We’ve watched some of the kids grow up,” Telligman said. “It’s so unique and brings joy to people’s lives. They don’t put this on the real estate listings for the street, but they should. Where else in D.C. can you find this?” ‘The Pride of Capitol Hill’ In Room W01, Perry aimed to give his students something they couldn’t always find elsewhere at Eastern High — a place to dream. Eastern’s 735 students, nearly all Black and most from poor families, face obstacles the affluent residents surrounding the school rarely do. Eastern has long struggled with low test scores, high absenteeism and constant teacher burnout. But in the band room, the teens felt like they had a chance to aspire for more. “The main thing is family and new opportunities,” explained Marckelle Hodge, 17, a senior trombonist. “It’s more than I would’ve had in other programs. I want to get good grades, go to college, and make it out of my neighborhood. I’m thinking Texas Southern.” Perry, who played alto saxophone in Norfolk State University’s band, knows that such a thing is possible. Recent graduates of Eastern’s program have received full-ride scholarships to Columbia, Florida A&M, Mississippi State and other universities — places he tries to take the students for band competitions to show them what’s possible. What isn’t covered by a student’s scholarship is augmented by care packages from their musical alma mater. The boxes from the band arrive stuffed with laundry detergent, socks and underwear, towels, deodorant and other college kid essentials. Many of Perry’s students “come from tough backgrounds and deal with a lot at home,” he said. For 15 years, he’s directed the program, which includes younger students from nearby middle schools that lack music programs. Perry raises money for the band program by charging booking fees for their performances in the community. It costs $750 — plus transportation — for an appearance from the drum line. The entire band costs $1,500. It takes about two performances to pay for a competition, he said, usually in the Washington region but sometimes as far away as Atlanta. The buses are the most expensive part. In 2019, Perry said he donated his own money to the band by selling his car so the teens could travel and afford new warm-up uniforms. He now walks to work, he said. The Capitol Hill Community Foundation also gave the band a $20,000 grant to repair and replace instruments and announced plans to raise $90,000 more. The band kids have always been scrappy. They used to play at Metro stations to raise money. They washed their threadbare uniforms at the laundromat because they couldn’t afford dry-cleaning, hand mending them as needed. But the band’s motto — “The Pride of Capitol Hill” — has proved true time after time. The community, Perry said, “has really just adopted them.” In 2008, when the band needed $3,000 for the bus ride to a performance in Ohio, neighbors raised the money. And in 2015, when the band needed another $4,000 to get to Virginia, the community stepped up again. The students practice three times a day, before, during and after school, usually finishing at 7 p.m. Perry often reminds them that their reputation as “the city’s premiere band” means everything. The band room reflects their success. The piano and lockers are topped with colorful trophies and other awards. They’ve performed in four NFL halftime shows, three presidential inauguration parades and the opening ceremony for the FIFA World Cup Games. When The Washington Post moved out of its old building in Northwest D.C., Eastern’s band marched through the newsroom. Anything but excellence, Perry tells the kids, is “bad for the brand.” When students talk over each other or fail to listen, he makes them do push-ups, calling it “character building.” He doesn’t tolerate misbehavior. “It’s Homecoming week!” Perry yelled into his megaphone Tuesday afternoon as they started practice. The students were clustered on the football field — hoods cinched around their faces to wield off the rain — preparing for their foray around Capitol Hill. “The performance is on Saturday, y’all,” he continued. “Do we give up? Or do we maintain our energy? Y’all understand?” “Yes sir!” they shouted back. Davon Richardson, a 15-year-old sophomore who plays the trumpet, peppered Perry with questions, eager to get going. He was in a thin shirt, despite the 53-degree weather, and jumped from foot to foot to stay warm. He liked parading through the neighborhood, he said. The residential streets they marched down reflected a different reality than their school — the homeowners were predominantly White — but the students loved it. “People cheering out their houses and listening to and enjoying us,” Richardson said. “I like hearing them yell.” “Yeah, it feels like I’m making people’s day,” added Tobias Johnson, 16, a junior who also plays the trumpet. “I see them smile, and it makes me so happy.” Their instruments might be old and their uniforms worn. Their section might be short two trumpets. But they knew they had an unparalleled capacity to spark joy. The strains of “Just Got Paid” by Johnny Kemp thundered down the street. It was one of the band’s favorites, along with “I Would Die For You” by Prince. The teens continued high-stepping — all knobby knees and twirling drumsticks — as they ventured deeper into the neighborhood. In house after house, heads popped out front doors. The music was the only lure that could prompt them outside on a drizzling afternoon. “Go band, go band!” yelled Adrianne Marsh, 44, a political consultant, who bobbed and swayed to the beat with her two young daughters. On the sidewalk, a blonde girl in a school backpack shimmied her shoulders. Her younger brother leaned back in their mother’s arms to see better. Just then, two girls in pink shoes darted past them, hand-in-hand, chasing after the band. One of them was Bahman Koosha’s 6-year-old daughter, Nikki Koosha, who said her favorite instrument is the drum because it makes her “feel happy.” “I like that the band is noisy,” she said. “Almost every other day, we come and watch,” said Koosha, 41, an engineer. “As soon as the kids hear them, we have to go out,” agreed Filip Medic, 42, a director at a nonprofit. He paused, watching as his 3-year-old, Tessa Medic, took off running again with Nikki. At the end of the block, the band paused. Perry blew into his whistle. The teens quieted, and he gave a few pointers over the megaphone. “My fingers are freezing,” a flutist whispered to her classmate. “They’re going to fall off.” A few moments later, they turned ...

Explosion Damages Crimea Bridge, Imperiling Russian Supply Route https://digitalarizonanews.com/explosion-damages-crimea-bridge-imperiling-russian-supply-route/ Image A fire on the Kerch Strait Bridge in Crimea on Saturday.Credit…Reuters KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine — An explosion tore through the sole bridge linking the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula to Russia, collapsing a part of the span into the sea and imperiling a primary supply route for Russian troops fighting in the south of Ukraine. The 12-mile-long Kerch Strait Bridge is a cherished political project of President Vladimir V. Putin and had become a potent symbol of the claims that Mr. Putin makes to the peninsula, which his forces illegally seized from Ukraine in 2014. Mr. Putin presided over the opening of the bridge in 2018, personally driving a truck across. The extent of the damage was difficult to immediately assess, though any impediment to traffic on the bridge could have a profound effect on Russia’s ability to wage war in southern Ukraine. Videos showed the railroad burning and two of four lanes of roadway collapsed into the Black Sea, where waves lapped the asphalt. The Russian Railways company said all trains to and from Crimea have been temporarily canceled, the state news agency Tass reported. The bridge is the principal military supply route linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula. Without it, the Russian military will be severely limited in its ability to bring fuel, equipment and ammunition to its units fighting an increasingly intense battle for the control of southern Ukraine. Russia still controls roads on overland routes from Russia into southern Ukraine, but those are within range of Ukrainian rocket artillery. The peninsula also holds special meaning for Mr. Putin, who has told his people that Crimea is a “sacred place” and Russia’s “holy land.” Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement that a truck had exploded on the bridge, igniting seven fuel cisterns being pulled by train on a parallel railroad crossing headed in the direction of Crimea and causing two car spans to partially collapse. Preliminary information suggested that three people were killed, Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement. While there were no immediate claims of responsibility, Russian and Ukrainian officials indicated that the fire was no accident. The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, referred to the episode as an “emergency” in a statement on Saturday, without assessing who was behind it. He said that Mr. Putin, who had celebrated his 70th birthday on Friday, had been briefed. “The president directed the prime minister to form a government commission to find out the causes of the incident and eliminate the consequences as soon as possible,” Mr. Peskov said, according to Russian state media. Occupation officials in Crimea left little doubt about who they thought was responsible. “Ukrainian vandals were able to reach the Crimean bridge with their bloody hands,” said Vladimir Konstantinov, the head of Crimea’s Kremlin-installed Parliament. Multiple Ukrainian officials and government agencies hinted, often slyly, that Ukraine was responsible. Since early in the war, Kyiv has maintained a policy of ambiguity on attacks targeting Russian territory and some strikes on occupied land. “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, wrote on Twitter. “Everything illegal, must be destroyed. Everything stolen returned to Ukraine.” In a wink at claiming credit, the Security Service of Ukraine, known by its Ukrainian acronym S.B.U., issued a statement as a rephrased stanza of a poem by the country’s national poet, Taras Shevchenko. “Dawn, the bridge is burning beautifully,” the agency posted on Twitter. “A nightingale in Crimea meets the S.B.U.” A senior Ukrainian military official did not deny that Ukrainian forces were behind the attack but would not confirm it. “All I can say is that an echelon with fuel intended to supply occupation forces in the south of Ukraine was passing over the bridge,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the news media. As a symbol of Mr. Putin’s claim on Ukrainian land, the bridge has been tightly bound with the Russian president’s political messaging at home. Its partial destruction, however, could play into Mr. Putin’s claims that Russia is under attack from a Western-armed Ukraine and help tamp down domestic opposition to Russia’s first wartime draft since World War II. Ukrainian officials have said they worried hitting the bridge could galvanize Russian support for the war. In recent weeks, military traffic heading across the bridge into Crimea has increased as Russia has raced tanks and artillery equipment to the front lines in the Kherson Region, which has been a focus of Ukraine’s counteroffensive against the Russian army. Russian troops have been in retreat, abandoning towns and villages and falling back toward the regional capital, Kherson. Maria Varenikova contributed reporting from Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. Image General Sergei Surovikin in 2017.Credit…Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday named a new commander for its forces in Ukraine, appointing a career general to the post as Moscow’s troops face setbacks on the battlefield. It said in a statement that Gen. Sergei Surovikin had been appointed to lead troops in the “special military operation” — using the language President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has designated to refer to the war. The statement was a rare acknowledgment of a personnel change from the ministry and comes at a time that Moscow’s forces have been under pressure. General Surovikin, 55, had been leading troops in the south of Ukraine, the focus of fighting as Kyiv’s forces mount a counteroffensive to reclaim territory from Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said late Thursday that his troops had recaptured more than 200 square miles of “territory and dozens of settlements” from Russian forces in the southern Kherson region since the start of the month. General Surovikin had previously served in a variety of roles, including in Chechnya in the early 2000s, according to his biography on the Defense Ministry’s website. — Cassandra Vinograd Image The Kerch Strait Bridge in Crimea in 2019.Credit…Aleksey Nikolskyi/Sputnik, via Reuters The 12-mile Kerch Strait Bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula to Russia, which was badly damaged by an explosion on Saturday, is not just the primary supply route for Moscow’s forces fighting in southern Ukraine. It is also deeply symbolic for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, a pillar of his disputed claim to the Crimean Peninsula since the completion of the twin road spans in 2018. Mr. Putin presided over the bridge’s opening, personally driving a truck across what is a physical link between Russia and Crimea — land that Mr. Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014 and annexed to international outcry. Ukrainians loathe the bridge, whose symbolism and strategic importance for resupply has long made it a potential target. Over the summer, the Ukrainian military posted a taunting image on Twitter threatening to strike it with American-provided guided rockets. The video showed the launch vehicle, a High Mobility Artillery Rocket system, floating on a pink inflatable pool raft in the strait, and the bridge in the background. And at one point over the summer, it appeared to have been targeted: Russian officials said that a drone had triggered air defense systems. The Ukrainian government had no official comment at the time. The damage to the bridge could sever the single overland route to bring supplies from Russia to its bases in Crimea. Moscow had stepped up countermeasures to defend the structure, deploying a target ship — replete with an array of radar reflectors — to protect the bridge from attack and running drills to cover the bridge with a smoke screen. As well as military value, the structure holds deep symbolic significance for the Kremlin. After illegally annexing Crimea in 2014, Moscow vowed to physically connect the peninsula to Russia. For a century, talks of building a bridge across the strait — which runs between two mountain ranges, creating a fierce wind tunnel — had failed to result in action. But Mr. Putin put his weight behind the project, despite that and other engineering challenges, which include a seabed covered with some 250 feet of fine silt deposited by the alluvial flow from various rivers. During World War II, an ice floe unleashed during the spring thaw toppled a German military bridge that been hastily constructed across the waters to aid the Nazi war effort. In 2018, when the new bridge was opened, Mr. Putin hailed it a “remarkable” achievement that, he said, referring to a major city on the peninsula, “makes Crimea and legendary Sevastopol even stronger, and all of us are even closer to each other.” But after explosions at the Saki airfield on Crimea in August, the bridge served a different purpose: It was a quick escape route as the war came to the peninsula, with more than 38,000 cars crossing in one day, the most recorded since Mr. Putin declared it open. Image A couple took a selfie in front of an artwork shaped as a big stamp named “Cotton to the Crimean Bridge.Credit…Sergei Supinsky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images KYIV — Nearly every significant military gain for Ukrainian interests in the war with Russia has been met with jubilation from Ukrainians and their supporters, who flood social media with celebratory memes. The blast on Saturday morning that damaged the vital Kerch Strait Bridge that links the Crimean Peninsula to Russia was no exception. The bridge has both practical and symbolic resonance as it is not only a critical supply line for Russian forces in the country’s south but also a personal passion pr...

The U.S. Is The World’s Largest Oil Producer. You’ll Still Pay More For Gas. https://digitalarizonanews.com/the-u-s-is-the-worlds-largest-oil-producer-youll-still-pay-more-for-gas/ When the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners — often known as OPEC Plus — announced a production cut of 2 million barrels of oil on Wednesday, the reaction in the United States was less than positive. In a statement, the White House called the decision “shortsighted” and vowed to look at alternatives for U.S. oil supply. But the oil cut raised a question. Over the past few decades, various presidents have stressed the importance of U.S. “energy independence.” (Former president Donald Trump famously claimed that under his term, the U.S. achieved energy independence, only to lose it under President Biden.) Since 2018, however, the United States has been the largest producer of oil and gas in the world and a net exporter — the country exports more than it imports. Why, then, do U.S. oil prices hinge on the actions of an international oil cartel? The answer — like the global oil market — is complex. The most straightforward answer, according to Ann-Louise Hittle, vice president of oils research at the research and consultancy company Wood Mackenzie, is that U.S. demand still outstrips its own supply. “We’re the world’s largest producer, but we’re also the world’s largest consumer,” she said. The U.S. produces 18.8 million barrels of oil per day but consumes slightly more — 20.5 million barrels per day. (The world as a whole consumes about 100 million barrels per day.) That difference means that no matter what, the U.S. has to purchase oil on the global market. So when supply in the market contracts slightly — as it will with the decision from OPEC Plus — that can affect prices in the U.S. And even if U.S. production exactly matched U.S. demand, the country would still be importing and exporting oil constantly. Crude oil can be heavy or light, sweet or sour, and those qualities affect how much it needs to be refined and for what uses. U.S. oil companies constantly export crude oil and import refined oil, and vice versa. But there is another, more complicated explanation as well. “When it comes to insulating our economy from global oil price shocks, being a big producer means next to nothing,” said Bob McNally, the founder and president of the Rapidan Energy Group and the author of “Crude Volatility: The History and Future of Boom-Bust Oil Prices.” “Real power in the oil market comes from being able to stabilize prices,” he said. McNally argues that what matters most for stabilizing global oil prices is “spare production capacity” — defined as how much a producer can ramp up oil production within 30 days. That spare production capacity allows a producer to ramp up — or slow down — oil production basically at will, shifting global prices. Saudi Arabia has a huge amount of spare production capacity: around 2 million barrels of oil a day. Once, the United States did have spare production capacity that was managed by the Texas Railroad Commission. But as more easily reached oil dried up — to be replaced by harder-to-reach shale oil — that power disappeared. Today, the United States’ spare production capacity is zero. U.S. oil producers, many of whom are beholden to their shareholders, can’t hold on to spare capacity in the same way as their Middle East counterparts. Spare production capacity “is expensive to maintain, which is why no other producers maintain it,” said Hittle. In the U.S., she added, investors would never put up with spending capital to develop production and then letting it sit idle until the right moment. Is there any solution to the United States’ role in the global market? Some researchers have suggested that the government could promise to buy more oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, a stockpile of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil that is supposed to help insulate U.S. consumers from oil price shocks. (Earlier this year, Biden ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil a day in an attempt to lower oil prices.) But experts say that the SPR is becoming worryingly depleted — and that it’s simply not a strong enough tool to counter the actions of OPEC. “It’s like bringing a squirt gun to a firefight with guys with guns,” McNally said. If the SPR becomes too drained, he argues, oil prices will rise even faster — and there will be no remaining buffer to protect U.S. consumers. Biden has also urged oil producers in the United States to drill more to help lower prices — but the president simply doesn’t have authority to order companies to produce more. And oil companies, recently burned from price crashes in the beginning of 2020, are hesitant to repeat the same mistakes. In the short term, McNally says, the best thing that the country can do is not make the situation worse. “There’s no magic wand for short-term price volatility,” he said. “It’s going to be a wild ride until we have a scalable, affordable and reliable alternative to oil for transportation.” Read More Here

Letters To The Editor: Oct. 8 https://digitalarizonanews.com/letters-to-the-editor-oct-8/ So-called debate Our televised political “debates” have degenerated into nothing more than slugfests of name-calling and grandstanding. Very little energy goes into explaining candidates’ policy positions and vision, which voters need in order to make informed choices. I admire Katie Hobbs for refusing to take part in a televised “debate” and for suggesting an alternative format that would actually enlighten voters. If more candidates followed her lead we could perhaps find our way forward to an era of decorum and respect in the public forum. Becky Hilst SaddleBrooke So you think it could never happen here The series on PBS “The U.S. and the Holocaust” shows the deep fear of Jews and immigrants in the U.S. The fear, hatred and lies about those who are not “like us” has come back to America in the form of many groups. Southern Poverty Law Center identified 733 hate groups in 2021. Wikipedia says there are 38,000 Oath Keepers.. NBC reported QAnon groups have millions of members, including Arizona politicians. The AZ Mirror lists Mary Ann Mendoza, Liz Harris, David Farnsworth, and Justine Wadsack as sharing the QAnon slogan on social media. ABC News reports Republican Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem “continues to espouse the ‘Big Lie’” and won’t say if he will accept the vote count of an election. Rep. Finchem appeared on a number of QAnon talk shows and spoke at their conferences. Kari Lake appeared on the “InTheMatrix” QAnon show. Please watch the series. Ray Omdahl Green Valley Lake chosen over Taylor Robson In selecting the Republican candidate for Arizona governor in the recent primary election, voters turned down Karrin Taylor Robson and chose Kari Lake. Lake, a recent local newscaster, apparently is qualified to be the next governor as opposed to Robson, a principal of a real estate/zoning law firm, staff assistant for President Ronald Reagan’s economic policy council, staff assistant for the Office of Cabinet Affairs in the administration of George H.W. Bush, and a member of the Arizona Board of Regents from 2017 until 2021. Robson has a BA degree in history, political science and her JD from ASU College of Law. Lake has a BA degree in both communications and journalism. It seems obvious that if concerned voters don’t care to go to the polls in November then a totally unqualified candidate will become AZ governor and further embrace the cult that the Republican Party has become. Owen Rentfro Midtown Upcoming election chaos Is there any doubt election deniers will claim election fraud if they lose the general election? They claimed fraud before the primary election votes were even cast and indicated if they don’t win, “there’s cheating going on.” Nationwide, they are sowing the seeds of distrust and claiming to have proof of fraud while providing no evidence. Why are they allowed to do so with impunity? Don’t libel or slander laws apply? Taxpayers are footing the bill for sham audits and recounts when extensive procedures are in place to ensure free and fair elections. “Free” speech shouldn’t come at a cost to the taxpayers. Make the ones contesting election results pay for it and all incurred costs (replacement equipment, government manpower, court costs, etc) and any damages caused when election officials or government property are attacked, regardless of party affiliation. If election fraud is discovered to the extent it affects the outcome, then they will be reimbursed. Dianne Lethaby East side Russia-Ukraine War Politics and idealism are driving the Russia-Ukraine War. President Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin all want to appear strong and resolute. Politics demands this posture. Biden is conscious of Barack Obama’s declared “red line” warning to Bashar al-Assad against use of chemical weapons and the disastrous withdrawals from Vietnam and Afghanistan. The war is good politically for Zelensky as long as the U. S. and others are bankrolling it. Putin cannot let the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine cause any kind of military defeat against Russia. But the war has caused skyrocketing prices of energy and food, millions of refugees, tens of thousands of deaths and the massive devastation of Ukraine. This war cannot go on indefinitely. The Biden administration needs to initiate peace talks. This will not be good short-term U. S. politics; even though it won’t be easy, it’s the right thing to do. Douglas R. Holm East side Fatherhood is a privilege RE: the Sept. 27 article “In GOP legislatures, a gender divide emerges over abortion.” Leah Willingham states in her article “… After the bill passed, the House clerk read a lengthy resolution introduced by a white male lawmaker describing how society should view mothers. Motherhood is a privilege, it said, and shouldn’t be treated as ‘a mere option …’” Isn’t fatherhood also a privilege? Why aren’t all these abortion-banning bills accompanied by riders requiring that the father acknowledge his privilege and commit to supporting mother and child until the child is an adult. What, he’ll miss college? So will she. Oh, he really loves someone else? So does she. It’s not his child? Prove it. DNA testing can now be done at 7-8 weeks. If an abortion ban meant that the male counterpart had to give up an equal portion of his life for child care, I bet abortion would be legalized immediately. And, buy stock in birth-control product companies. Stella Miles Southwest side Finchem lost Candidate Mark Finchem is posting signs around town claiming he “Protects Gun Rights.” The Arizona Secretary of State’s office has nothing to do with guns? His supporters might fire a flare. He’s lost — in all meanings of the word. Ted Downing, former Tucson State Representative Midtown CFSD School Board As a parent of children that go to Manzanita, I am horrified with the opponents of our current school board in the upcoming election in CFSD. Back-to-Basics is founded on gaslighting, racist, political rhetoric, while Amy Krauss, Amy Bhola and Gina Mehmert have over 50 years of combined experience dedicated to CFSD as current board members and school volunteers. The opponents would completely wreck CFSD’s standing as the No. 1 school district in Arizona. Teachers are already saying they will quit if these people with zero experience are elected. Parents are saying they would move. The opponents are only interested in dismantling our amazing public schools. Our students and property values will suffer. Vote for Krauss, Bhola and Mehmert to protect CFSD’S excellence as the No. 1 school district in the entire state and our community. Tiila Abbitt Foothills Lets cheer together Re: the Sept. 25 article “Stop demonizing political opposition.” Congratulations to Tim Steller for his Sunday article on helping to bridge the divide between the politics going on in this state and country. We all stand up and cheer the American flag. We all stand up and cheer when the Wildcats hit the field and floor. If only we can transcend this unity to our political system. Our country and state would be better for it. Thanks, Tim. Jimmy Fein Midtow Importance of your school board vote Amy Bhola, Amy Krauss and Gina Mehmert, running for Catalina Foothills School Board, believe in public education and are dedicated to keeping Catalina Foothills School District at the highest level. It is crucial to vote and support the public school system even if you have no young children. Curriculum and treatment of students and outreach by schools affects every walk of life and every person. These children are not only our future, but they are our present. The preparation at school determines whether we will be prisoners in our homes, afraid to go by car or bus to the store, repair our homes, have art, theater and books as a part of our lives and other activities now and in the future. I hope people in every area will vote, tell their neighbors and friends to vote and stress the importance of these candidates interested in moving Arizona forward and not backward. Dee-Dee Samet Chandler Foothills Amphitheater Board election I am writing in support of Matt Kopec for a position on the Amphitheater School Board. This would be Matt’s second term on the board, where he has served loyally for three years. During that time, he supported the expansion of all-day kindergarten to all elementary schools and approved wage increases for faculty and staff. He would like to expand the capacity of pre-kindergarten and work on a career center at Amphi High School. I have known Matt for a number of years and find him to be a conscientious person and deeply committed to issues concerning children. By emphasizing early childhood education, he is laying the groundwork for increased graduation rates, better grades for students and higher ratings for schools. We in the Amphi district are lucky to have someone as dedicated as Matt on this board. Please vote for Kopec for Amphitheater School Board. Sandy Elers, fellow board member Northwest side Stark choices in upcoming election Never in the history of Arizona elections have there been more stark choices than this year. We are being asked to choose between MAGA Republican candidates who still claim the last election was a fraud, curb funding to public schools, and deny abortions even in the case of rape or severe danger to the mother’s health, or moderate Democratic candidates who will protect our voting rights, fully fund our state’s public education system, and restore women’s healthcare rights. We need to vote for candidates who care about these priorities. The choices we make at the top of the ballot- Mark Kelly, Katie Hobbs, Kris Mayes, Adrian Fontes — are crucial, but so too are those down the ballot where the choices we make for State Legislature and AZ Corporation Commission will impact our daily lives. If we elect se...

Doctors Warn Of These Key Dementia “Warning Signs” — Eat This Not That https://digitalarizonanews.com/doctors-warn-of-these-key-dementia-warning-signs-eat-this-not-that/ According to the CDC, nearly 6 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. “Many people wrongly believe that all older people will end up with dementia and that all dementia is the same,” says Dr. Ronald D. Adelman, co-chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and the Emilie Roy Corey Professor of Geriatrics and Gerontology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “It’s crucial to distinguish between mild cognitive impairment and profound or progressive Alzheimer’s disease.” Here are five key dementia warning signs, according to experts. Read on—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You’ve Already Had COVID. Shutterstock Memory issues are one of the earliest warning signs of dementia. “If you used to balance your bank accounts to the penny and now you’ve lost track of where your household money is going, bills have not been paid and as a result electricity or phone service has been turned off,” says Johns Hopkins geriatrician Sevil Yasar, MD, PhD. “Similarly, you feel lost and overwhelmed making, or even worse, being unable to make, Thanksgiving pumpkin pie with your favorite longtime recipe, it may be a sign of early brain changes.” Personality changes are a common symptom of dementia and can appear 10-15 years before an official diagnosis. “Behavioral changes are very common and affect upwards of 95% of people with dementia,” says Ganesh Gopalakrishna, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist at Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix, AZ. “Many patients are burdened with depression, paranoia, or hallucinations,” said Dr. Gopalakrishna. “This can be enough to make one feel unsafe even in their own home. The first step in these situations is to provide a safe environment, limiting the chances of any accidental or intentional harm to self or others.” “The term ‘sundowning’ refers to a state of confusion occurring in the late afternoon and lasting into the night,” says Jonathan Graff-Radford, MD. “Sundowning can cause different behaviors, such as confusion, anxiety, aggression or ignoring directions. Sundowning can also lead to pacing or wandering. Sundowning isn’t a disease. It’s a group of symptoms that occur at a specific time of the day. These symptoms may affect people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. The exact cause of this behavior is unknown.” Long-winded speech could be an early sign of dementia, according to researchers who compared the language abilities of healthy individuals to those with mild cognitive impairment. “They were much less concise in conveying information, the sentences they produced were much longer, they had a hard time staying on point and I guess you could say they were much more roundabout in getting their point across,” says Janet Cohen Sherman, clinical director of the Psychology Assessment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It was a very significant difference.” “With age-related cognitive decline, your processing speed or ability to perform common tasks might slow down, but it doesn’t interfere with your day-to-day life,” says Richard S. Isaacson, MD. “Alzheimer’s disease affects ability to complete everyday tasks independently. For instance, a person might get lost while driving to an appointment or never remember the appointment in the first place.” Ferozan Mast Ferozan Mast is a science, health and wellness writer with a passion for making science and research-backed information accessible to a general audience. Read more about Ferozan Read More…

GOP Looks For Veto-Proof Majorities In Wisconsin Legislature https://digitalarizonanews.com/gop-looks-for-veto-proof-majorities-in-wisconsin-legislature/ MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans are hoping Tim Michels will defeat Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in November, but even if Evers prevails they could still reshape the battleground state by winning enough seats in the Legislature to override vetoes. If Republicans can flip five seats in the Assembly and one in the Senate they’ll have the two-thirds majority they need. They would be free to rework state politics at will, including the state budget and election administration. “My first goal is to elect Tim Michels,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said. “If for some reason we are unsuccessful in defeating Evers, a veto-proof majority is the second priority. Evers is a major stumbling block. It’s about being able to get things done that the people of Wisconsin want.” Evers has blocked almost every piece of major GOP legislation over the last four years, including proposals that would have tightened restrictions on absentee voting and unemployment benefits, expanded the right to carry concealed weapons and curtailed the government’s ability to respond to COVID-19. Democrats are aware of the risk. “There is no higher priority than making sure Gov. Evers stays in his role and we hold onto the veto,” said Morgan Hess, executive director of the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee. The GOP has controlled the Legislature for the last decade thanks to district boundaries the party drew in 2011 to consolidate its power. The U.S. Supreme Court this spring upheld district lines Republicans redrew last year to reflect census changes, a major ruling that solidified their grip on both houses for the next decade. The party that controls the White House typically fares poorly in midterm elections. And Republican strength has been growing in rural areas. The GOP’s plan for winning a supermajority targets a handful of open seats and Democratic incumbents in rural districts. Republicans hold a 57-38 advantage in the Assembly with four open seats held by outgoing Republicans. They need 66 seats to gain a two-thirds majority. If they hold all their seats and flip five they’ll get it. On the Senate side, Republicans go into Election Day with a 21-12 majority. Twenty-two seats would give them a supermajority. Republicans are targeting four seats held by retiring Democrats, including two Assembly seats and one Senate seat in far northwestern Wisconsin along Lake Superior. That region has leaned liberal for decades, but it’s overwhelmingly rural. The Democratic Assembly incumbents, Nick Milroy and Beth Meyers, narrowly defeated GOP challengers in 2020. Both decided earlier this year to retire, with Milroy saying he wanted to spend more time with his children and Meyers citing the five-and-a-half hour drive to the Capitol in Madison. The Senate incumbent, Janet Bewley, narrowly defeated Republican Dane Deutsch with 51% of the vote to win the seat in 2014. Her race against James Bolen in 2020 was just as close. She decided this year not to seek reelection. Running to replace her are Democrat Kelly Westlund, a former staff member for U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and a one-time congressional candidate, and Republican Romaine Quinn, a former state representative. Westlund said the new district boundaries include a larger portion of Republican-leaning Burnett County. She said the GOP is going for what she called a “three-fer” with the three open seats in northwestern Wisconsin, and acknowledged that Democrats face an uphill climb in such a rural area. “They’ve drawn this line around the district trying to make it more and more red,” Westlund said. “We’re not taking anything for granted. We’re knocking on doors every single day. I don’t think people realize how much is at stake at times.” Quinn’s campaign didn’t respond to a message. The other open Assembly seat in Republican crosshairs is in Oshkosh, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Green Bay in northeastern Wisconsin. Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Gordon Hintz won the seat in 2007, but former President Donald Trump won the county in 2016 and 2020 and Hintz announced earlier this year he was done. A handful of Democratic incumbents in rural districts are in the Republicans’ sights as well, including state Rep. Steve Doyle and Sen. Jeff Smith in west-central Wisconsin and Rep. Katrina Shankland in central Wisconsin. Doyle’s district covers eastern La Crosse County and most of Monroe County. Trump won Monroe County in 2016 and 2020 but lost La Crosse County to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, due largely to the Democratic-leaning city of La Crosse. Doyle’s district doesn’t include the city, which makes him vulnerable to the rural vote. This time around he faces challenger Ryan Huebsch, the son of Republican Mike Huebsch. The senior Huebsch held the seat from 1995 until 2011, when he resigned to take a job in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration. Doyle won a special election later that year to take the open seat. Doyle said Republicans have targeted him ever since, but the stakes are higher with Evers’ veto authority potentially on the line. “I’ve always been a Democrat in a Republican-leaning district,” he said. “I’ve always known I have to work twice as hard as anyone else. That sense of urgency has been there since 2011. I knock on doors election years and non-election years. That has continued, and (it has been) very intense in that regard.” Ryan Huebsch said he’s working to win an Assembly seat and isn’t worried about achieving a veto-proof majority. Smith won his seat with just 51% of the vote in 2018. He faces former police officer and bull rider David Estenson in November. Shankland, meanwhile, will have to contend again with Republican opponent Scott Soik, a gun shop owner she defeated by 3,500 votes in 2020. The district includes most of rural Portage County, which Clinton and Biden won in 2016 and 2020. But this spring conservative John Pavelski won the county executive race, giving Republicans hope. Shankland said she understands Democrats must protect Evers’ veto powers. She said she has been campaigning at meet-and-greets and knocking on doors until 1 a.m. most days, mindful of her vulnerability as Republicans eye the rural votes that might come their way. “I think they probably looked at the voting patterns over the last decade and wanted to set their sights here,” Shankland said. Soik didn’t return messages left on his cellphone. “When you’re looking for seats to flip, you look for the low-hanging fruit, and more rural districts are low-hanging fruit for Republicans,” University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political scientist Anthony Chergosky said. “Republicans essentially dominate rural Wisconsin. So much is based on geography. The question here is can Democrats make a last stand in some of these rural districts they have to protect?” Read More Here

Founder Of Far-Right Oath Keepers Warned Of A 'bloody War' Ahead Of The US Capitol Riot, Court Hears https://digitalarizonanews.com/founder-of-far-right-oath-keepers-warned-of-a-bloody-war-ahead-of-the-us-capitol-riot-court-hears/ The trial of the far-right militia the Oath Keepers has heard that the group’s founder declared there would be a “bloody war” if former President Donald Trump did not reverse his election loss, Reuters reports.  The leader of the far-right Oath Keepers has implored Trump to overturn his election loss in 2020. Stewart Rhodes said if Trump failed in securing a second term, there would be a “bloody war.” He implored Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a law that allows troops to be deployed to manage civil unrest.  In the Washington DC trial against Stewart Rhodes, the jury was presented with speeches, texts, and social media posts made by Rhodes that show him declaring unrest if Trump did not seize the 2020 election, which he lost.  In one speech given before the riots, Rhodes said, “If he does not do it now, while he is commander in chief, we are going to have to do it ourselves later, in a much more desperate, much more bloody war.” Reuters also reports that Rhodes implored Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 19th-century law that allows presidents to mobilize troops to manage civil unrest, which he never did. Rhodes has been charged with five counts relating to the Capitol riot, including seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, tampering with documents or proceedings, and aiding and abetting. Rhodes is being tried alongside four co-defendants who all, according to court documents from the Department of Justice, coordinated travel to Washington DC to protest Trump’s lawful election loss, which later became a part of the infamous Capitol riots.  The documents read that they planned to bring weapons to the riots.  Co-defendant and Oath Keeper member Joshua James said, “After this, if nothing happens, it’s war. Civil War 2.0.”  Another co-defendant, Roberta Minuta, said in a Facebook live during the riots, “it’s going down, guys; it’s literally going down right now Patriots storming the Capitol building. Fucking war in the streets right now. Word is they got in the building let’s go.” FOLLOW BUSINESS INSIDER AFRICA Our newsletter gives you access to a curated selection of the most important stories daily. Thanks for signing up for our daily insight on the African economy. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. Also join us across all of our other channels – we love to be connected! Unblock notifications in browser settings. Read More Here

Kanye West Reveals The Reason Why He Like Donald Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/kanye-west-reveals-the-reason-why-he-like-donald-trump/ Kanye West likes Donald Trump In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, the 45-year-old rapper explained why he liked the former US President. When you visited the White House, my approval rating among Black people increased by 40%. “ The rapper made headlines by endorsing Trump in the 2017 presidential contest. In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, the 45-year-old rapper explained why he liked the former US President. West said to Tucker Carlson, “Even Trump, somebody I’d consider a friend, isn’t immune to having a radicalized viewpoint. He told me various things, like, “Kanye, you’re my friend.” When you visited the White House, my approval rating among Black people increased by 40%. “Black folks are only worth their approval rating to politicians. Democrats hold the opinion that they owe us nothing. Republicans also believe they owe us nothing. Blacks never asked for anything in exchange for their vote. Why am I a fan of Trump? The conservative ideals just align on all fronts. Hey, man, Trump is crap. He owns his own structures “finished Kanye. The rapper made headlines by endorsing Trump in the 2017 presidential contest. Also Read Margot Robbie’s response to Lady Gaga’s portrayal of Harley Quinn in “Joker 2” According to Margot Robbie, she is “glad” to hand over the Harley… Read More News On End of Article BOL Stories of the day Kylie Jenner to launch Batman-themed make-up collection Ministry: Rapper Oxxxymiron is deemed a “foreign agent” by Russia Kanye West says Gigi Hadid is a zombie and a spoiled Karen Amber Heard flaunts meaningful tattoo amid her vacation in Mallorca Harry Styles delays concert in Chicago due to a crew member’s illness Deadpool 3: T.J. Miller talks about the reason why he’s not returning In The Spotlight Advertisement Popular From Pakistan Advertisement Entertainment News Read More Here

Michael Flynn’s ReAwaken Roadshow Recruits ’Army Of God’ | EDGE Media Network https://digitalarizonanews.com/michael-flynns-reawaken-roadshow-recruits-army-of-god-edge-media-network/ People in the audience pray during the ReAwaken America Tour at Cornerstone Church in Batavia, N.Y., Friday, Aug. 12, 2022  (Source:AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) By the time the red, white and blue-colored microphone had been switched off, the crowd of 3,000 had listened to hours of invective and grievance. “We’re under warfare,” one speaker told them. Another said she would “take a bullet for my nation,” while a third insisted, “They hate you because they hate Jesus.” Attendees were told now is the time to “put on the whole armor of God.” Then retired three-star Army general Michael Flynn, the tour’s biggest draw, invited people to be baptized. Scores of people walked out of the speakers’ tent to three large metal tubs filled with water. While praise music played in the background, one conference-goer after another stepped in. Pastors then lowered them under the surface, welcoming them into their movement in the name of Jesus Christ. One woman wore a T-shirt that read “Army of God.” Flynn warned the crowd that they were in the midst of a “spiritual war” and a “political war” and urged people to get involved. ReAwaken America was launched by Flynn, a former White House national security adviser, and Oklahoma entrepreneur Clay Clark a few months after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol failed to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Attendees and speakers still insist — against all evidence and dozens of court rulings — that Donald Trump rightfully won. Since early last year, the ReAwaken America Tour has carried its message of a country under siege to tens of thousands of people in 15 cities and towns. The tour serves as a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist movement that’s wrapped itself in God, patriotism and politics and has grown in power and influence inside the Republican Party. In the version of America laid out at the ReAwaken tour, Christianity should be at the center of American life and institutions. Instead, it’s under attack, and attendees need to fight to restore the nation’s Christian roots. It’s a message repeated over and over at ReAwaken — one that upends the constitutional ideal of a pluralist democracy. But it’s a message that is taking hold. A poll by the University of Maryland conducted in May found that 61% of Republicans support declaring the U.S. to be a Christian nation. “Christian nationalism really undermines and attacks foundational values in American democracy. And that is a promise of religious freedoms for all,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, which advocates for religious freedom. She said the ReAwaken cause is “a partisan political cause, and the cause here is to spread misinformation, to perpetuate the big lie and to have a different result next time in the next election.” This story is part of an ongoing investigation from The Associated Press and the PBS series “Frontline” that includes the upcoming documentary “Michael Flynn’s Holy War,” premiering Oct. 18 on PBS and online. ReAwaken acts as a petri dish for Christian nationalism and pushes the idea that there’s a battle underway between good and evil forces. Those who are considered evil include government officials and Democrats. It’s “a pep rally on spiritual steroids.” said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at Calvin University in Michigan, who studies evangelicalism. ReAwaken often appears in churches with speakers addressing attendees from the pulpit. The Batavia show was staged on the grounds of a church, after faith and community leaders in nearby Rochester told organizers they weren’t welcome. Inside a revival tent set up outside, people sat in white folding chairs packed so tightly the rows between were nearly impassable. From the stage, speakers stirred up fear and hatred. Immigrants are rushing over the border “to take your place,” one said. Homosexuals and pedophiles are classified in the same category: sinful people who don’t honor God. Life-saving vaccines are creating “a damn genocide.” “The enemy wants to muzzle you,” another speaker warned. “He wants to shut your mouth.” Clark, the Tour’s principal organizer and emcee, opened the Batavia show bellowing: “Good morning, New York! And good morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James!” The greeting was a reference to a letter James’ sent to Flynn and Clark warning them against violent or unlawful conduct. “I want you to look around and you’ll see a group of people that love this country dearly,” he said. “At this Reawaken America Tour, Jesus is King (and) President Donald J. Trump is our president.” The AP and Frontline bought tickets for the Batavia event after Clark invited “Frontline” to attend one of the tour’s shows. Reporters spent two days listening to speakers and observing the events from inside. On the second day, security escorted a “Frontline” reporter from the grounds because, he was told, Flynn believed he intended to cover the event unfavorably. When an AP reporter began interviewing people attending the event at the end of the second day, she was also reported to security. While smaller in scale, the ReAwaken shows are similar in tone to the rallies Trump holds. Grievance and contempt for government institutions are regular themes. ReAwaken speakers have included Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., Trump confidant Roger Stone, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has spread anti-vaccine misinformation. For a tour stop scheduled later this month in Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano is listed as a speaker. In Batavia, Greg Locke, a Tennessee pastor, and Eric Trump declared in back-to-back remarks that the FBI’s court-authorized search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for classified records showed how the U.S. government has been weaponized against its citizens. “Third world Gestapo stuff,” said Eric Trump. After he finished speaking, a group gathered to pray over him. Other speakers promoted bizarre theories. One claimed President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 because he threatened to expose a plot to enslave every man, woman and child in the U.S. Another said a Hebrew prophet foretold 2,500 years ago the exact date the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away the constitutional right to abortion. There were frequent personal attacks on Democrats, with no remark apparently off limits. Clark questioned the gender of former first lady Michelle Obama. Locke called Democrats “baby-butchering mongrels.” The volatile combination of politics, Christianity and conspiracy theory pushed at the ReAwaken tour could eventually tip into political violence, several political and religious scholars told AP. Samuel Perry, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma, has done numerous surveys measuring Christian nationalist ideology. In an August 2021 survey, about half of white Americans who most strongly identified with Christian nationalism said they believe things are getting so bad that “real patriots” may have to resort to violence. “I think all of us believe that America is on the verge of ending,” Clark told AP. ___ Flynn is a constant presence at ReAwaken America events. He is painted as a martyr on the far right — the retired general who paid a price for working for Trump. That status has made him the Tour’s star attraction. Offstage, people flock to Flynn to take photos, trade trinkets or tell him how much it means to them that he is there. He hops onstage frequently to speak or even bang a gong to welcome Eric Trump. An AP/Frontline investigation published last month reported that Flynn has used public appearances to energize voters, political endorsements to build alliances, and a network of nonprofit groups — one of which has projected spending $50 million — to advance his movement. The irony of Flynn’s aura as a populist warrior is glaring. He was the ultimate Washington insider before being fired by Trump in February 2017 for lying about contacts he had with Russians. Now, Flynn leads a crusade against the same government establishment that employed him for years and which gave him access to many of its deepest secrets. “So now, he’s a spiritual general,” said Anthea Butler, a scholar of American religion and politics at the University of Pennsylvania. Butler said that the way Flynn and ReAwaken join Christian nationalism to the idea of spiritual warfare is dangerous because it suggests there are “demonic” people in government, and Christians need to act to save the country. “If people are talking about spiritual warfare and are talking about taking up arms and stuff, then I think you should be very worried,” she said. Flynn’s battlefield experience, she added, enhances his credibility. Who exactly the United States needs to be saved from is displayed on a huge monitor on the ReAwaken America stage. The show’s villains include former President Barack Obama and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, but the principal foe at the center of the monitor is less familiar. He’s an 84-year-old German economist and engineer named Klaus Schwab, who heads the World Economic Forum, a global think tank in Switzerland, that holds an annual gathering of the world’s business and political elites in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss ways of building a better future. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Schwab unveiled an initiative called The Great Reset that envisioned sweeping changes to how societies and economies work. Even though Schwab and The World Economic Forum have no policymaking power, ReAwaken America participants see his plan, which spoke of “greater government interference” and a “green economy,” as an assault on America’s foundations. The other side of the giant monitor has pho...

Flynn, Gingrich Testimony Sought In Georgia Election Probe https://digitalarizonanews.com/flynn-gingrich-testimony-sought-in-georgia-election-probe-3/ ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia prosecutor investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election filed paperwork Friday seeking to compel testimony from a new batch of Trump allies, including former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed petitions in court seeking to have Gingrich and Flynn, as well as former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann and others, testify next month before a special grand jury that’s been seated to aid her investigation. They join a string of other high-profile Trump allies and advisers who have been called to testify in the probe. Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump attorney who’s been told he could face criminal charges in the probe, testified in August. Attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro have also appeared before the panel. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s attempt to fight his subpoena is pending in a federal appeals court. And paperwork has been filed seeking testimony from others, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Flynn didn’t immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment, and his lawyer also didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment. Gingrich referred questions to his attorney, who declined to comment. Herschmann could not immediately be reached. Willis has said she plans to take a monthlong break from public activity in the case leading up to the November midterm election, which is one month from Saturday. Each of the petitions filed Friday seeks to have the potential witnesses appear in November after the election. But the process for securing testimony from out-of-state witnesses sometimes takes a while, so it appears Willis is putting the wheels in motion for activity to resume after her self-imposed pause. Compelling testimony from witnesses who don’t live in Georgia requires Willis to use a process that involves getting judges in the states where they live to order them to appear. The petitions she filed Friday are essentially precursors to subpoenas. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, signed off on the petitions, certifying that each person whose testimony is sought is a “necessary and material” witness for the investigation. The petition for Gingrich’s testimony relies on “information made publicly available” by the U.S. House committee that’s investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. It says he was involved along with others associated with the Trump campaign in a plan to run television ads that “repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election” and encouraged members of the public to contact state officials to push them to challenge and overturn the election results based on those claims. Gingrich was also involved in a plan to have Republican fake electors sign certificates falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the state’s official electors even though Democrat Joe Biden had won, the petition says. The petition seeking Flynn’s testimony says he appeared in an interview on conservative cable news channel Newsmax and said Trump “could take military capabilities” and place them in swing states and “basically re-run an election in each of those states.” He also met with Trump, attorney Sidney Powell and others at the White House on Dec. 18, 2020, for a meeting that, according to news reports, “focused on topics including invoking martial law, seizing voting machines, and appointing Powell as special counsel to investigate the 2020 election,” Willis wrote. Willis in August filed a petition seeking testimony from Powell. Herschmann, who featured prominently in the House committee hearings on the Capitol attack, was a senior adviser to Trump from August 2020 through the end of his term and “was present for multiple meetings between former President Trump and others related to the 2020 election,” Willis wrote in the petition seeking his testimony. She wrote that the House committee also revealed that Herschmann had “multiple conversations” with Eastman, Giuliani, Powell “and others known to be associated with the Trump Campaign, related to their efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.” Specifically, he had a “heated conversation” with Eastman “concerning efforts in Georgia,” she added. Willis also filed petitions Friday to compel testimony from Jim Penrose and Stephen Cliffgard Lee. She identified Penrose as “a cyber investigations, operations and forensics consultant” who worked with Powell and others known to be associated with the Trump campaign in late 2020 and early 2021. He also communicated with Powell and others regarding an agreement to hire data solutions firm SullivanStrickler to copy data and software from voting system equipment in Coffee County, about 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, as well as in Michigan and Nevada, Willis wrote. Penrose did not immediately respond to an email and phone message seeking comment. Willis wrote in a petition seeking Lee’s testimony that he was part of an effort to pressure elections worker Ruby Freeman, who was the subject of false claims about election fraud in Fulton County. He could not immediately be reached for comment. Special grand juries are impaneled in Georgia to investigate complex cases with large numbers of witnesses and potential logistical concerns. They can compel evidence and subpoena witnesses for questioning and, unlike regular grand juries, can also subpoena the target of an investigation to appear before it. When its investigation is complete, the special grand jury issues a final report and can recommend action. It’s then up to the district attorney to decide whether to ask a regular grand jury for an indictment. Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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Letters To The Editor For Saturday, October 8, 2022 https://digitalarizonanews.com/letters-to-the-editor-for-saturday-october-8-2022/ Letter writers  |  Fort Myers News-Press Paradise interrupted Everyone called this a slice of paradise. From the funky vibe of Fort Myers Beach to the palatial homes in Naples and everything in between. Sanibel and Captiva were a slice of Florida’s Caribbean islands. We live just east of I-75 and were spared the resident-killing storm surge, just intense winds, rain and repairable damages. Thousands lost everything and many lost their lives. But as Americans do, we pull together. It will take months and years to rebuild from the ravages of climate change and a future for the new Southwest Florida. In addition to the efforts of fire, police, EMTs, linemen/women, we have seen the churches step up to minister and feed the multitudes of the afflicted. It’s still paradise, just interrupted not lost. Laurence Jacks, Estero Jude Richvale for Bonita council I recently moved back to Southwest Florida from the country of Estonia with the promise of a job as chief maintenance engineer at The Sanibel Inn. After two weeks on the job, the Sanibel Causeway was destroyed by Ian. I was lucky to reconnect with my friend Jude Richvale after I heard that his wife and my good friend Kathy Walters recently passed away. Jude was kind enough to offer me a place in his home and assistance in finding work as a handyman helping some of his friends repair storm damages. Since then, I have read Jude’s Water Plan for Bonita (News-Press 2/2/2022). It is clearly an effective ways to reduce flooding and red tide. Storing sweet summer storm water in ASR Wells before it goes out to sea is a winner. Retrieving that water in winter and saving us about $400 yearly on BSU bills is a no brainer. Another one of Jude’s articles “A New Vision for Old 41” (on jude4bonita.org) is creative and insightful and would inspire businessmen to create an organic, popular and quaint downtown. Jude has given much thought to the issues in Bonita and that shows a deep love for the people and for nature. His opponent issues platitudes like “I am for clean water” and a “safe city” but offers no plans. Jude has my vote for the Bonita District 5 Council seat. For all of our sake’s, I hope he has yours too. Peter Madisson, Bonita Springs Mouth soap for president and mayor The hot mics of President Biden and Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy blowing out filthy and ungodly words reminded me of my southeast Alabama 1971 smoky pool hall that shot out obscenity nonstop. Unrealistic and unbelievable that the pool shooter “Fast Eddy” of “The Hustler” 1961 movie never used Biden and Murphy’s foul language. What about a boatload of “mother’s soap” for the wanna-be tough Biden and Murphy?  Mike Sawyer (former Florida foster dad for over 60 kids), Denver, CO Silence gives consent In recent days, Mr. Trump, the leader of the Republican Party, has openly issued two veiled threats of violence against those who oppose him and in effect against the principles of law and order in this country. Mr. Trump told a radio host that there would be problems like this country has never seen if he is indicted for illegally taking and mishandling national security documents from the White House. I say if Mr. Trump has indeed willfully broken the law, he should be punished under the law and any problems that produces will be dealt with legally as well.  More recently, Mr. Trump stated that Mitch McConnell has a “death wish” for supporting election reform in Congress and, never missing an opportunity to appeal to that part of his base animated by racial animosity, attributed it to McConnell’s “China loving wife, Coco Chow.” McConnell’s wife, real name Elaine Chow was, by the way, appointed by Mr. Trump as his own Transportation Secretary. This style of slash and burn leadership and governing is now part of the approach favored by Republican leaders and which brought us “that little elf” comment in reference to a person who saved millions of lives from the AIDS epidemic.  Meanwhile, Mr. Biden, agree with his policies or not, is busy speaking the plain truth to the American people and governing, without fanfare, and without wasting taxpayer dollars to punish those who did not vote for him. It is either naivete or willful ignorance to think that policies do not flow from the character of the person making them. A vengeful, petty, thin-skinned insecure character will sooner or later resort to form and produce vengeful, petty, self-serving policies. We have seen this in gerrymandering, voter suppression, “don’t say gay,” elimination of non-existent CRT and the “by any means necessary” approach to achieve and maintain power. Every citizen should familiarize themselves with the Marine adage that says when one hears that an artillery round or bombing run is being plotted into their position and remains silent, “silence gives consent.” None of us should be silent when “leaders” openly issue veiled threats against those who oppose them. That’s fully expected in a dictatorship, not in a democracy. Thomas Minor, Bonita Springs Obama/Biden the real oppressors The editorial, “You Can’t Build Roads Without Oil” of 10/06/22, speaks to how illogical the “climate-control” advocates in the Biden administration policies are. Jacob R. Borden speak truth (to power). The real truth is, the Biden administration is trying everything possible to destroy America, including what is unconstitutional. By wasting our tax dollars on climate control, there is little left for infrastructure, military defense, medical research, or safe borders. Climate control, along with WOKE ideology, are the major ways in which the Obama/Biden administration is tearing down America’s economy, America’s defense, and America’s freedoms by turning America into an impoverished weak country. Democrats seem to believe that once America is impoverished, it will be easy to create their Marxist dictatorship. Impoverished people have little to no power to stop them. The Obama/Biden legacies will be: These two presidents abolished America’s freedom and liberty for all in exchange for their dictatorship of equity, transgender mutilations, CRT, and 1619 Project of a false history taught to our youth so that they will be easy to control. The poem “Ozymandias” comes to mind: Words on the lifeless remains state, “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.” This could be America’s future if the Democrats remain in power. Think about who the real “oppressors” are and who the real “victims” are. The Obama/Biden governments are the real oppressors and the American people, regardless of race, color, socio-economic class, or religion, are the real victims. Dionne M. Schwartz, Naples Authoritarian Republican threat Some Americans who are rightly appalled by Trump’s Republican Party have been making hopeful noises in the media lately. They’re saying that power hungry, “win at any cost” Republicans have gone too far and will pay a stiff political price for their cynical, unprincipled, un-American behaviors — somewhere down the line. “Somewhere down the line!” They have to be kidding me. If this current iteration of the Republican Party is not roundly defeated in ’22 and ’24, there will be no “down the line” for America as a small “d” democratic republic. The American experiment in government of, by and for the people will be effectively over, and our beloved country will look more like Putin’s Russia than Lincoln’s ideal. This is it, people. It’s now or never. A vote for this particular brand of Republican is a vote for an authoritarian future dressed up as a democracy. If they get their hands on the levers of government, they will make hollow shells of the very mechanisms the founders created as hedges against consolidated, authoritarian rule. It’s time to choose. There will be no next time. “Somewhere down the line” is now. Geremy Spampinato, Naples Memories of communist country As someone who grew up under and escaped from a Soviet-type communist country, there are certain memories that one never forgets. These are memories of only one undisputed ruling party and one candidate to vote for, that political dissent is not to be tolerated, that those espousing such contrarian ideas would likely end up in a gulag, or worse, and the nightmares of middle-of-the-night secret police tearing down doors to arrest “enemies of the people” who — authorities remind everyone — hide behind every bush and every wall, and yet the authorities knew full well who those threatening the “people’s freedom” were and where they hid.   There are also memories that “even the walls have ears,” that parents, children, best friends and others so dear to you may and are, in fact, encouraged to report any transgression of thought or speech, that the secret police and the military are an extension of the authority’s long arm, and the constant and repeated all-reassuring government reminders of its best intentions and its commitment to “uniting people.”  Yet not all was so dark then; there was the comfort that the country was safe and secure as its borders were well protected and guarded by attack dogs and fully armed military personnel with orders to shoot to kill — but not at those who would want to enter this paradise on earth, but those who would want to leave it.  Why would anyone want to leave? Interesting how those memories are resonating more frequently and more vividly in recent times. Frank Sterdjevich, North Naples What Biden has accomplished A letter writer recently complained about President Biden. Here are some of his accomplishments: Despite some bad press, he inherited a broken economy with the daily death toll from the global pandemic at an all-time high. Here are just a few examples of what ...

Massive Blast Cripples Crimea-Russia Bridge, In Blow To Putin's War Effort | CNN https://digitalarizonanews.com/massive-blast-cripples-crimea-russia-bridge-in-blow-to-putins-war-effort-cnn/ CNN  —  In a major blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a huge explosion has severely damaged the only bridge connecting the annexed Crimean peninsula with the Russian mainland, paralyzing a key supply route for Moscow’s faltering war in Ukraine. The blast early Saturday caused parts of the Kerch Strait road and rail bridge – opened by Putin himself in 2018 – to collapse, images and video from the scene showed. The exact cause of the blast at Europe’s longest bridge is unclear. Russian officials said a fuel truck exploded, but sections of the road part of the bridge crossing in the direction of Crimea appear to have collapsed. A subsequent fire engulfed a train of fuel trucks on a separate part of the bridge. Putin immediately ordered a “government commission” to examine the Kerch Bridge “emergency” in Crimea, Russian state media TASS reported. The heads of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Transport are now at the scene of the incident, according to TASS. The damage to the road bridge appears to be severe, with the part of the bridge that carries westbound road traffic crippled in at least two places. The damage to the rail link is unclear, but several wagons – apparently carrying fuel – caught fire. The bridge was built after Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014 in a move condemned by the international community. It is a critical artery for supplying Crimea with both its daily needs and supplies for the military. Over the last few months, dozens of Russian military convoys have used the bridge, carrying vehicles, armor and fuel. If the Russian military can’t use the bridge, its supply lines to forces in southern Ukraine would become more tenuous, especially when combined with Ukrainian advances southwards into Kherson region, north of Crimea. Russia has used the Crimean railroads to ferry supplies to forces in Kherson, and several rail hubs in both Crimea and Kherson have been attacked by long-range Ukrainian rockets. Sergey Aksenov, the Russian-appointed Head of Crimea, confirmed that “two spans of the roadbed of the part [of the bridge] from Krasnodar to Kerch, collapsed” after a large explosion. Aksenov said that “at the same time, fuel tanks caught fire. Now two locomotives are approaching” to remove the burning train, he said. Video and images from the bridge show several charred rail fuel trucks. “As soon as the fire is extinguished, it will be possible to assess the extent of damage to the bridge and pillars, and it will be possible to talk about the timing of the restoration of traffic,” Aksenov said. Images of the Kerch bridge posted on social media appear to show a portion of the roadway of the vehicle and rail bridge had fallen into the waters below it. Flames are seen burning from rail cars above. It’s unclear yet if there were casualties. The tanker was located on the 19-kilometer (11 mile) long bridge – strategically important because it links Russia’s Krasnodar region with the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. The bridge spans the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, on which sit key Ukrainian ports, including Mariupol. For Russia, the bridge symbolizes the physical “reunification” of Crimea with the Russian mainland. The bridge carries much of Crimea’s needs – such as fuel and goods – and has been used regularly to supply weapons and fuel to Russian forces. No further details on the timing or scope of the commission have been announced. The decision comes after Putin “received reports from [Russian Prime Minister] Mikhail Mishustin, [Russian Deputy Prime Minister] Marat Khusnullin, the heads of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Transport, and heads of law enforcement agencies in connection with the emergency on the Crimean bridge,” TASS reported, citing Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov. Russian state media RIA Novosti said that there are “no projections for the timing of the restoration of the Crimean bridge yet,” also citing Peskov. Work is “underway to extinguish the fire,” the adviser to the Russian administration head of occupied Crimea, Oleg Kryunchkov, said in a Telegram post, adding that the bridge’s “shipping arches were not damaged.” An official in Crimea blamed “Ukrainian vandals” for the explosion on Kerch bridge in a post on Telegram. “Ukrainian vandals somehow managed to get their bloody paws on the Crimean bridge. And now they have something to be proud of, in 23 years of their economic activity, they did not manage to build anything deserving of interest in Crimea. But they did succeed in damaging the roadbed of the Russian bridge,” Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov said. “Such is the whole essence of the Kiev regime and the Ukrainian state … Of course, the causes of the accident will be investigated, and the damage will be repaired swiftly,” he added. CNN cannot independently verify Konstantinov’s claim. Ukrainian officials responded to the explosion Saturday without directly acknowledging that Ukraine was responsible for the explosion. “Air defense of the Russian Federation, are you sleeping?” the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Facebook, alongside a video showing a section of the bridge’s road that had been completely destroyed. “Russian illegal construction is starting to collapse and catch fire. The reason is simple: if you build something explosive, sooner or later, it will explode. And this is just the beginning,” David Arakhamia, the head of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s party in parliament and a member of Kyiv’s negotiating team with Russia, said in a Telegram statement about the incident. A senior Ukrainian official, Oleksiy Danilov, posted video of the damaged Kerch bridge alongside a clip of Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy Birthday, Mr President,” which Monroe performed for President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Putin turned 70 on Friday. On Thursday, Oleksii Hromov, a senior official with the General Staff, said that since September 21, Ukrainian troops had managed to advance 55 kilometers in the north-east, “establish control over 93 settlements, [and] take control over more than 2,400 square kilometers.” Hromov appeared to be referencing gains in Kharkiv region that were made before September 21 but only confirmed later. “In the Kherson direction, the enemy is trying to counter-attack at the expense of reserves in order to restrain the advance of our troops and regain lost positions. Since October 1, 29 settlements have been taken under [our] control,” he said. In an interview in August, a senior Ukrainian military commander said the Kerch bridge was a legitimate target. “This is a necessary measure in order to deprive them (Russia) of the opportunity to provide reserves and reinforce their troops from Russian territory,” Maj. Gen. Dmytro Marchenko said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine. The Kerch bridge is able to handle 40,000 cars a day and to move 14 million passengers and 13 million tons of cargo per year, state news agency RIA Novosti reported when Putin opened the bridge in 2018. Russian special forces masked in camouflage without unit insignia seized Crimea in a lightning operation in February 2014. Initially, Russia denied that its troops had carried out the mission. Later, it acknowledged that the so-called “little green men” were indeed Russian units. The West responded swiftly with crippling economic sanctions. After the bridge opened, the United States condemned its construction as illegal. “Russia’s construction of the bridge serves as a reminder of Russia’s ongoing willingness to flout international law,” according to a US State Department statement at the time. “The bridge represents not only an attempt by Russia to solidify its unlawful seizure and its occupation of Crimea, but also impedes navigation by limiting the size of ships that can transit the Kerch Strait, the only path to reach Ukraine’s territorial waters in the Sea of Azov.” Ukrainian officials echoed those sentiments following the explosion. “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,” Mykhailo Podoliak, who is an adviser to Ukraine’s leader. Meanwhile, a cargo train in Ilovaisk in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region was hit by a “powerful explosion” Saturday morning, according to the adviser to Mariupol Mayor Petro Andrushenko. “Not only Crimea. Not only fuel tanks. There is also a cargo train in Ilovaisk. Locals report a rather powerful explosion and subsequent detonation at night. The occupiers now have big problems with supplies from both sides,” Andrushenko said. Pro-Russian authorities in the self-declared republic of Donetsk confirmed the cargo train incident, releasing video Saturday showing the fire’s aftermath at a local railway station. On Thursday, US President Joe Biden expressed caution about the dangers stemming from Putin’s nuclear threats as his military continued to experience military setbacks in Ukraine. “First time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use (of a) nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path they are going,” Biden warned Thursday evening during remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in New York. He added: “I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.” Read More Here

Oregon Ducks Vs Arizona Wildcats 10/8/2022 Picks Predictions https://digitalarizonanews.com/oregon-ducks-vs-arizona-wildcats-10-8-2022-picks-predictions/ Oregon Ducks vs Arizona Wildcats 10/8/2022 Picks Predictions Previews The Arizona Stadium in Tucson will host the no.12 ranked Oregon Ducks and the Arizona Wildcats in week 6 of the 2022 College Football on Saturday evening. The Ducks improved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in PAC- 12 after winning their last four games including their recent 45-27 victory over the Stanford Cardinal. Oregon’s starting QB Bo Nix passed for 166 yards and finished two TDs while seeing the end zone twice in rushing for 80 yards in leading the offense for the Ducks.       QB Bo Nix led the passing offense for Oregon with 1,261 yards and completed 12 touchdowns but intercepted on three occasions this season. Nix also rushed for five touchdowns while RB Bucky Irving led the running game with 362 yards and reached the end zone once for the Ducks. WR Troy Franklin led the receiving unit with 391 yards and landed three touchdowns. CB Bennett Williams intensified the defensive line for Oregon with 26 total tackles while his team tallied ten sacks and four interceptions.        The Ducks are 4-1 SU in their 5 contests against Arizona. The totals went UNDER in 6 of Oregon’s last 8 road outings. The Ducks are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 matches on the road versus the Wildcats. More College Football Picks Predictions Previews Chat with our Live Handicapper to Know More about the Game. Oregon Ducks vs Arizona Wildcats Predictions 10/8/2022 The Arizona Wildcats will try to defend their home field against the visiting #12 Oregon Ducks in week 6 of 2022 College Football action on Saturday evening. The Wildcats improved to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in PAC- 12 play after winning their recent tour over the Colorado Buffaloes at 43-20 on October 1. QB Jayden de Laura led the offense through the air after passing for 484 yards with a school-record equalizer of six touchdowns. WR Jacob Cowing hauled down 12 passes for 180 yards and landed one TD in leading the ground offensive. Arizona gained 673 yards of total offense while their defense controlled the offense of Colorado to just 340 yards.      QB Jayden de Laura recorded 1,633 passing yards with 14 touchdowns and six interceptions in leading the Wildcats’ offense for the season. RB Michael Wiley rushed for 287 yards with three touchdowns while WR Jacob Cowing chipped in 566 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in leading the ground offense for Arizona. On defense, LB Jerry Roberts has 42 total tackles while the Wildcats accumulated nine sacks and two interceptions as a unit.      Arizona is 4-16 SU in its last 20 games played. The totals went UNDER in 7 of the Wildcats’ last 8 contests facing the Oregon Ducks. The Arizona Wildcats are 5-1 ATS in their last home matches. No.12 Oregon Ducks vs. Arizona Wildcats. The NCAAF Pick for this contest is Oregon -13. The 12th-ranked Oregon Ducks will dominate this match-up versus the Wildcats on the road on Saturday. Oregon has a stronger offense which averages 40.6 PPG while Arizona is averaging 32.4 PPG but both defenses gave up an average of 30.2 or more points per outing. Prediction: The Oregon Ducks will win 42-27.   College Football Free Premium Picks Predictions. This week’s entire college football premium pick predictions against the spread are free right now at 1-888-711-4311 or text the word WINBIG to 760-670-3130 to receive them. Included are Best Bets, Parlays and Halftime winners for this week free of charge. NCAAF Starting Time: 9:00 PM ET Location: Arizona Stadium in Tucson, AZ  Date: Saturday, October 8, 2022             TV: PAC-12 Network NCAAF Odds/Point Spread: Oregon Ducks -13.0   NCAAF Totals: 70.5   Click Here For More College Football Video Free Picks Read More Here

Frog And Firkin Football Frenzy: Salpointe Is Ready For Region Play Plus Complete Results | ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com https://digitalarizonanews.com/frog-and-firkin-football-frenzy-salpointe-is-ready-for-region-play-plus-complete-results-allsportstucson-com/ Salpointe junior Taylor Nagore had two TD passes. (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson) Salpointe improved to 3-2 on the year after beating Mica Mountain 55-14 at home Friday night. The Thunderbolts moved to 1-4 with region play coming up next. The initial AIA power-rankings for 4A, 5A and 6A are set to be released on Tuesday and we will be able to get a better picture of what both programs need to do down the stretch…. MORE AT AZPREPS365 Salpointe over Mica Mountain 55-14 #azpreps365 https://t.co/8Uu3H4g4Pw — AZPreps365 (@AZPreps365) October 8, 2022 SALPOINTE 55, MICA MOUNTAIN 14 FIRST QUARTER SAL: Fredo Sotelo 1 Run (Carson Fiske) 7-0 (8:26) SAL: Sotelo 3 Run (Fiske) 14-0 (6:11) SAL: Dailan Goodman 8 Run (Fiske) 21-0 (3:07) SAL: Taylore Nagore 48 Pass to Cordell Killingsworth (Fiske) 28-0 (1:14) SECOND QUARTER MM: Jayden Thoreson 8 Pass to Jack Bradley (Santino Stopani) 28-7 (7:03) MM: Xavior Johnson 30 INT (Stopani) 28-14 (5:12)) SAL: Nagore 25 Pass to Gage Felix (Fiske) 35-14 (2:20) THIRD QUARTER SAL: Elias Roberts 2 Run (Fiske) 42-14 (7:46) SAL: Sotelo 39 Pass to Killingsworth (blocked) 48-14 (5:28) FOURTH QUARTER SAL: Sotelo 1 Run (Fiske) 55-14 (5:31) Roberts from 2. 42-14 Salpointe 7:46 in the third https://t.co/ufFtiwVPju pic.twitter.com/kFBkMtlnOV — Andy Morales (@AndyMorales8) October 8, 2022 A LOOK AT WEEK EIGHT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6 St. David 28, Ft. Thomas 0 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7 Salpointe 55, Mica Mountain 14 Sunnyside 24, Tucson 0 Canyon del Oro 49, Catalina Foothills 6 Marana 41, Cienega 31 Ironwood Ridge 27, Flowing Wells 7 Walden Grove 49, Mountain View 42 Desert View 34, Nogales 6 Pueblo 44, Sahuarita 0 Amphitheater 35, Rincon/University 27 Rio Rico 23, Empire 0 Safford 59, Palo Verde 0 Thatcher 51, Benson 0 Bisbee 30 at Tombstone 16 Tanque Verde 54, Catalina 0 Phoenix Carl Hayden 36, Douglas 19 Sabino 73, Maricopa Sequoia Pathway 40 Casa Grande Vista Grande 51, Cholla 13 Willcox over Santa Rita (Forfeit) San Manuel over Kearny Ray (Forfeit) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8 Sahuaro (2-2) at Buena (3-1) A LOOK AHEAD TO WEEK NINE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14 Salpointe (3-2) at Mesa Red Mountain (3-2) Canyon del Oro (4-1) at Douglas (3-2) Amphitheater (1-4) at Catalina Foothills (2-3) Nogales (0-5) at Marana (4-1) Chandler Valley Christian (6-1) at Pusch Ridge (6-1) Empire (3-2) at Mica Mountain (1-4) Desert View (2-2) at Ironwood Ridge (1-4) Mountain View (1-4) at Tucson (2-3) Rincon/UHS (1-4) at Sunnyside (3-2) Rio Rico (2-3) at Sahuarita (0-5) Cholla (1-4) at Flowing Wells (1-4) Sahuaro at Walden Grove (3-2) Pueblo (4-1) at Vista Grande (4-2) Buena at Cienega (1-4) Sabino (6-1) at Mesa Eastmark (6-1) Palo Verde (2-5) at Tempe (0-7) Phoenix Christian (0-7) at Benson (4-3) Tombstone (3-4) at Willcox (5-2) Tanque Verde (3-4) at Bisbee (4-4) St. David (8-0) at Hayden (7-0) Baboquivari (3-4) at San Manuel (6-2) Valley Union (1-6) at Duncan (4-3) Catalina (1-7) over Santa Rita (Forfeit) FOLLOW @ANDYMORALES8 ON TWITTER Named one of “Arizona’s Heart & Sol” by KOLD and Casino del Sol, Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA as the top high school reporter in 2014, he was awarded the Ray McNally Award in 2017 and a 2019 AZ Education News recognition. He was a youth, high school and college coach for over 30 years. He was the first in Arizona to write about high school beach volleyball and high school girls wrestling and his unique perspective can only be found here and on AZPreps365.com. Andy is a Southern Arizona voting member of the Ed Doherty Award, recognizing the top football player in Arizona, and he was named a Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly for 2016. Andy was named an Honorary Flowing Wells Caballero in 2019, became a member of the Sunnyside Los Mezquites Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2021 and he was a member of the Amphi COVID-19 Blue Ribbon Committee. He earned a Distinguished Service Award from Amphitheater and he was recognized by the Sunnyside School District and by Tucson City Councilman Richard Fimbres. Contact Andy Morales at amoralesmytucson@yahoo.com Read More Here

Moscow Says Truck Explosion Destroys Part Of Russia-Crimea Bridge https://digitalarizonanews.com/moscow-says-truck-explosion-destroys-part-of-russia-crimea-bridge/ A view shows a fire on the Kerch bridge at sunrise in the Kerch Strait, Crimea, October 8, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – A blast on the strategic road-and-rail bridge linking Russia and the Crimea peninsula on Saturday brought down sections of road taking traffic in one direction, prompting gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no direct claim of responsibility. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the 19-km (12-mile) bridge linking it to Russia’s transport network was opened with great fanfare by President Vladimir Putin four years later. It now represents a crucial supply route for the Russian forces who have taken control of most of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said on social media that the blast occurred at 6:07 a.m. (0307 GMT) in a freight truck, and caused seven fuel tanker wagons to catch fire on a train heading for the peninsula. It said two sections of road bridge had partially collapsed, but that the arch spanning the Kerch Strait, the waterway through which ships travel between the Black Sea and Azov Sea, was not damaged. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor of Crimea, said on social media that the road bridge was still intact in one direction, although traffic was suspended while the damage was assessed. Images showed thick smoke pouring from part of the bridge. Later, the Emergency Ministry said the fire had been extinguished, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. A Ukrainian presidential adviser posted a message on Twitter saying the incident was just “the beginning” but stopped short of saying Ukrainian forces were responsible for the blast. “Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything that is stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote. Putin has instructed the government to create a state commission to investigate the incident, TASS news agency reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Interfax quoted the chairman of the Crimean republic’s State Council, Vladimir Konstantinov, as saying that “Ukrainian vandals managed to reach for the Crimean bridge with their bloody hands”. “They now have something to be proud of,” he said. “In their 23 years of economic activity they failed to build anything worthy of attention in Crimea, but (now) they have managed to damage the roadway of the Russian bridge.” Konstantinov said the damage was “not of a severe nature” and would be quickly repaired. The head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov posted a video of the burning bridge on social media alongside a video of Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy birthday, Mr President”. Putin turned 70 on Friday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Reuters Editing by Kevin Liffey and Frances Kerry Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Donald Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trump-2/ From coal miner’s daughter to presidential adviser – Dr Fiona Hill has returned to the North East to receive her honorary doctorate with hopes of inspiring others. Dr Hill visited the University of Sunderland’s city campus on October 5 where she spoke about her experiences serving as Russian advisor to three US presidents, before she was made a senior director for Europe and Russia on the country’s National Security Council by Donald Trump. But despite working for top officials on the other side of the world, Dr Hill said it is her roots in the North East that kept her grounded, and gave her the steely grit and determination needed to succeed. Read more: North Shields couple slapped with fine after getting stuck for hours in gridlocked Tesco car park “I cannot express what a huge honour this is for me. I just wish my and mam and dad were here to see this,” said Fiona. “My dad left school at 14 and always wanted that education, and so always pushed me towards this, and I know he would be thrilled by this honorary degree from Sunderland. He always supported the football team, and my mum worked in Sunderland at the Royal Infirmary, it was her first nursing job. Dr Fiona Hill at Hope Street XChange (Image: David Wood) “This city meant a lot to them and I’m delighted to be able to come back here today and share my own story. This really is a special place with very special people. This is a huge honour and I’m so grateful.” She was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws “in recognition of her outstanding contribution to public service in the US at the highest level”, the university said. Dr Hill later found herself at the centre of a global news story, as she was called upon to give evidence at Mr Trump’s first impeachment hearing in 2019. And it was once again her strong upbringing that helped her to remain calm under such extreme circumstances, taking a leaf from her father’s book, who first went down the pit aged 14. “We were delighted to award Fiona Hill an honorary doctorate of laws as it was our way of acknowledging the extraordinary global achievements of this remarkable woman from the north east of England,” said the university’s vice chancellor and chief executive Sir David Bell. “We look forward to developing a warm and productive relationship with Fiona in the months and years to come.” Dr Hill, who grew up in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, recently released her book, ‘There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century’, documenting her life from her upbringing to the peak of her success in America. Read more: Sunderland woman who feared she couldn’t afford bills becomes award-winning makeup artist Demand for North East addiction charity soars during cost of living crisis Meet Stumpy – the young duck in desperate need of a prosthetic leg after his dropped off Matfen Hall workers could lose their jobs as hotel closes for second part of refurbishment Eye condition caused Cullercoats mum to lose her sight when her baby was just three months old Read More Here