Look: NFL World Surprised By The Donald Trump News
Look: NFL World Surprised By The Donald Trump News https://digitalarizonanews.com/look-nfl-world-surprised-by-the-donald-trump-news/
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump make their way to board Marine One before departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on January 13, 2020. – Trump is heading to New Orleans to attend the College football playoff national championship. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh might be receiving another phone call from former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Last month, following the Jets’ wild win over the Browns, New York’s head coach received a surprising call from Trump.
Saleh confirmed that he received a phone call from the former United States president, who compared him to legendary head coach Vince Lombardi.
Unsurprisingly, the always over-the-top Trump said that Saleh is actually better than Lombardi.
Is another phone call coming on Sunday?
The Jets had another impressive win on Sunday, defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road.
NFL fans have taken to social media to weigh in.
“I can handle us losing ALL the dam time..but this right here..yea its a big red flag and NO for me…may be accepting new team applications..” one fan wrote.
“Football stories are the best,” one fan added.
“Somehow fitting that instead of calling SB champs, Trump gets to call Jets HC whenever they win,” another fan wrote.
The Jets improved to 2-2 on the season with Sunday’s win in Pittsburgh.
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A New Justice At The U.S. Supreme Court And An Idaho Wetlands Case Up First Georgia Recorder
A New Justice At The U.S. Supreme Court, And An Idaho Wetlands Case Up First – Georgia Recorder https://digitalarizonanews.com/a-new-justice-at-the-u-s-supreme-court-and-an-idaho-wetlands-case-up-first-georgia-recorder/
When the U.S. Supreme Court opens its fall term on Monday, a few things will be different.
A Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, will hear oral arguments for the first time ever. And the public will be allowed into the room for the first time since early 2020.
The content of the term’s first case, though, will be familiar to many who have followed federal water policy for the past several years. The case is a challenge to the definition of “waters of the United States,” which delineates which wetlands the federal government can regulate under the Clean Water Act.
The case, brought by an Idaho couple, could further restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate environmental protections, just as one of the last decisions by the conservative majority in the most recent term curbed the agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases.
A history-making day
Monday will be the first day Jackson joins the ritual of oral arguments in the ornate chamber as one of nine Supreme Court justices. Jackson, a Harvard Law School grad and former federal judge who grew up in Miami, took the oath of office in June following an often–contentious Senate confirmation process.
On Friday, she took part in an investiture ceremony, which mirrors stylistic aspects of the swearing-in. The investiture, though, is purely symbolic. Jackson has been a member of the court since taking her oath of office.
Although the event was only symbolic, President Joe Biden and a handful of top White House staff members, along with several members of Congress, including Rep. Hank Johnson of Lithonia and Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey, all Democrats, attended the six-minute event.
Booker, who is Black, brought tears to Jackson’s eyes at a fraught time in the confirmation hearing when he spoke of the importance of Jackson’s role in history and as a role model to young Black people.
U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee, was the only senator who voted against Jackson’s confirmation to attend Friday’s ceremony. His presence seemed intended to make a point about the need to respect institutions, even amid good-faith disagreement with individuals.
In a statement, Sasse, who is white, said that he disagreed with Jackson’s judicial philosophy but that their disagreement was respectful and impersonal. He urged members of both parties not to attack the court itself.
“Right now, there’s a lot of sound and fury about whether or not the Supreme Court has lost legitimacy,” Sasse said in the statement. “It’s a load of bunk. The Court’s legitimacy comes from its constitutional role, not the popularity of its opinions. I’m certain that I won’t agree with all of Justice Jackson’s opinions, but I’m not going to attack the credibility of the Court when we see things differently, and I wish more of my colleagues would take a similar approach.”
During the March hearings at the Judiciary Committee, Sasse avoided the most salacious attacks on Jackson launched by other Republicans and bemoaned publicity-seeking “jackassery” in the chamber.
Court’s legitimacy
Jackson is not expected to affect the court’s ideological balance, as she replaced Stephen Breyer, who’d been among the court’s liberal minority before his retirement.
With three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, the court’s last term was its most conservative in decades, culminating with a ruling overturning Roe. v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed the right to an abortion nationally.
The three liberal justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and the since-retired Breyer, wrote a scathing dissent that the decision “undermines the Court’s legitimacy.”
The court’s departure from its own precedent in the Dobbs case “calls into question this Court’s commitment to legal principle,” they wrote. “It makes the Court appear not restrained but aggressive, not modest but grasping. In all those ways, today’s decision takes aim, we fear, at the rule of law.”
Americans’ opinions of the court have declined over the past two years, along with its rightward shift. A nationwide Marquette Law School poll conducted in September found 60% of respondents disapproved of the court, while only 40% approved. The results represented a 53-point drop in net favorability from the same survey in 2020, when twice as many respondents held favorable views as those with unfavorable views.
Other events have also threatened the court’s reputation.
Justice Clarence Thomas did not recuse himself from a case about the House Jan. 6 committee’s access to presidential records and was the sole justice to vote in favor of restricting those records. The records later showed that his wife, Nebraska native Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, had exchanged several texts with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spreading false claims that the election was stolen.
Additionally, a draft of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to news media months before it was published in what several experts said was an “unprecedented” breach of the court’s protocol that launched an internal investigation.
New court rules, old issue
Monday will mark the first time since March 2020 that the court will allow the public to attend oral arguments. Masks will be optional.
The court will continue to live-stream audio from oral arguments, a practice the staid court only adopted while it limited attendance during the pandemic.
The first oral arguments made under the new rules involve the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate “waters of the United States.” The 1972 law changed the criteria for what constituted a federally protected waterway away from one that is navigable to any “waters of the United States.”
That definition has shifted since the law was passed, and particularly as the last three presidential administrations have enacted rules to define it.
In 2015, President Barack Obama’s administration issued a definition that some, especially Republicans, viewed as expanding federal jurisdiction. His successor, Donald Trump, took steps to loosen the definition in 2020, but a federal court vacated that move in 2021.
Last year, under Biden, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers said they would interpret the phrase consistent with a pre-2015 definition while they worked on updating a more permanent version. A Supreme Court ruling will likely come before that rule is finalized.
An Idaho couple, the Sacketts, own a parcel of land near Priest Lake in the state’s panhandle. Their land is within 30 feet of a tributary to the lake. The EPA has claimed that parcel is within its jurisdiction to regulate as a navigable waterway, and the Sacketts disagree.
The Sacketts are among the many farmers and other private landowners seeking a reprieve from federal regulation of wetlands on their property.
A federal appeals court ruled last year in favor of the federal agency, but the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case could mean it will overturn the lower court’s ruling.
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National Archive Says It Is Still Missing Some Trump Administration Records
National Archive Says It Is Still Missing Some Trump Administration Records https://digitalarizonanews.com/national-archive-says-it-is-still-missing-some-trump-administration-records/
The National Archives and Records Administration sent a letter to Congress saying that it is still missing records from the Trump administration, despite the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Acting Archivist of the United States Debra Streidel Wall sent a letter to House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney. “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” the letter stated.
The letter was in response to one sent by Ms Maloney asking the agency to “conduct an urgent review of presidential records from the Trump Administration to identify any Presidential record” that might still be outside of its control and to seek a written certification from Mr Trump that he had surrendered all presidential records or classified materials; had not made any copies and hadn’t transferred them to anyone but NARA or the Department of Justice.
NARA had identified that some White House staff conducted official business using non-official accounts.
“NARA has been able to obtain such records from a number of former officials and will continue to pursue the return of similar types of Presidential records from former officials,” the letter said. The letter continued by saying that NARA would consult with the Justice Department about whether to “to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed,” according to the Federal Records Act.
It also noted that it filed a lawsuit against former Trump adviser Peter Navarro.
“With respect to the second issue concerning whether former President Trump has surrendered all presidential records, we respectfully refer you to the Department of Justice in light of its ongoing investigation,” the letter ends.
The news comes almost two months after the FBI executed its search warrant of Mr Trump’s home for reportedly not turning over documents it is required to give to NARA.
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A New Justice At The U.S. Supreme Court And An Idaho Wetlands Case Up First Maryland Matters
A New Justice At The U.S. Supreme Court, And An Idaho Wetlands Case Up First – Maryland Matters https://digitalarizonanews.com/a-new-justice-at-the-u-s-supreme-court-and-an-idaho-wetlands-case-up-first-maryland-matters/
When the U.S. Supreme Court opens its fall term on Monday, a few things will be different.
A Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, will hear oral arguments for the first time ever. And the public will be allowed into the room for the first time since early 2020.
The content of the term’s first case, though, will be familiar to many who have followed federal water policy for the past several years. The case is a challenge to the definition of “waters of the United States,” which delineates which wetlands the federal government can regulate under the Clean Water Act.
The case, brought by an Idaho couple, could further restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate environmental protections, just as one of the last decisions by the conservative majority in the most recent term curbed the agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases.
A history-making day
Monday will be the first day Jackson joins the ritual of oral arguments in the ornate chamber as one of nine Supreme Court justices. Jackson, a Harvard Law School grad and former federal judge who grew up in Miami, took the oath of office in June following an often–contentious Senate confirmation process.
On Friday, she took part in an investiture ceremony, which mirrors stylistic aspects of the swearing-in. The investiture, though, is purely symbolic. Jackson has been a member of the court since taking her oath of office.
Although the event was only symbolic, President Biden and a handful of top White House staff members, along with several Democratic members of Congress attended the six-minute event.
U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee, was the only senator who voted against Jackson’s confirmation to attend Friday’s ceremony. His presence seemed intended to make a point about the need to respect institutions, even amid good-faith disagreement with individuals.
In a statement, Sasse, who is white, said that he disagreed with Jackson’s judicial philosophy but that their disagreement was respectful and impersonal. He urged members of both parties not to attack the court itself.
“Right now, there’s a lot of sound and fury about whether or not the Supreme Court has lost legitimacy,” Sasse said in the statement. “It’s a load of bunk. The Court’s legitimacy comes from its constitutional role, not the popularity of its opinions. I’m certain that I won’t agree with all of Justice Jackson’s opinions, but I’m not going to attack the credibility of the Court when we see things differently, and I wish more of my colleagues would take a similar approach.”
During the March hearings at the Judiciary Committee, Sasse avoided the most salacious attacks on Jackson launched by other Republicans and bemoaned publicity-seeking “jackassery” in the chamber.
Court’s legitimacy
Jackson is not expected to affect the court’s ideological balance, as she replaced Stephen Breyer, who’d been among the court’s liberal minority before his retirement.
With three justices appointed by former President Trump, the court’s last term was its most conservative in decades, culminating with a ruling overturning Roe. v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed the right to an abortion nationally.
The three liberal justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and the since-retired Breyer, wrote a scathing dissent that the decision “undermines the Court’s legitimacy.”
The court’s departure from its own precedent in the Dobbs case “calls into question this Court’s commitment to legal principle,” they wrote. “It makes the Court appear not restrained but aggressive, not modest but grasping. In all those ways, today’s decision takes aim, we fear, at the rule of law.”
Americans’ opinions of the court have declined over the past two years, along with its rightward shift. A nationwide Marquette Law School poll conducted in September found 60% of respondents disapproved of the court, while only 40% approved. The results represented a 53-point drop in net favorability from the same survey in 2020, when twice as many respondents held favorable views as those with unfavorable views.
Other events have also threatened the court’s reputation.
Justice Clarence Thomas did not recuse himself from a case about the House Jan. 6 committee’s access to presidential records and was the sole justice to vote in favor of restricting those records. The records later showed that his wife, Nebraska native Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, had exchanged several texts with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spreading false claims that the election was stolen.
Additionally, a draft of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to news media months before it was published in what several experts said was an “unprecedented” breach of the court’s protocol that launched an internal investigation.
New court rules, old issue
Monday will mark the first time since March 2020 that the court will allow the public to attend oral arguments. Masks will be optional.
The court will continue to live-stream audio from oral arguments, a practice the staid court only adopted while it limited attendance during the pandemic.
The first oral arguments made under the new rules involve the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate “waters of the United States.” The 1972 law changed the criteria for what constituted a federally protected waterway away from one that is navigable to any “waters of the United States.”
That definition has shifted since the law was passed, and particularly as the last three presidential administrations have enacted rules to define it.
In 2015, President Obama’s administration issued a definition that some, especially Republicans, viewed as expanding federal jurisdiction. His successor, Trump, took steps to loosen the definition in 2020, but a federal court vacated that move in 2021.
Last year, under Biden, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers said they would interpret the phrase consistent with a pre-2015 definition while they worked on updating a more permanent version. A Supreme Court ruling will likely come before that rule is finalized.
An Idaho couple, the Sacketts, own a parcel of land near Priest Lake in the state’s panhandle. Their land is within 30 feet of a tributary to the lake. The EPA has claimed that parcel is within its jurisdiction to regulate as a navigable waterway, and the Sacketts disagree.
The Sacketts are among the many farmers and other private landowners seeking a reprieve from federal regulation of wetlands on their property.
A federal appeals court ruled last year in favor of the federal agency, but the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case could mean it will overturn the lower court’s ruling.
Read More Here
AP News Summary At 4:35 P.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-435-p-m-edt/
10 torture sites in 1 town: Russia sowed pain, fear in Izium
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that Russian torture in the Ukrainian town of Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic, and a kindergarten. AP also spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture and confirmed the deaths of eight men. All but one were civilians. The AP also found a former Ukrainian soldier who was tortured three times hiding in a monastery, and connected him with loved ones. The town has now been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
Brazil holds historic election with Lula against Bolsonaro
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Polls have closed in Brazil in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years. The race pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recent polls have given da Silva a commanding lead, pointing to a chance that he might win the first round outright, without need for a runoff. Da Silva would have to get more than 50% of the votes cast Sunday, topping the total vote for Bolsonaro and the other nine candidates.
Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones. This comes as Ukraine has pushed ahead with its counteroffensive that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Ukraine took back control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which Russia had been using as a transport and logistics hub. That’s a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine. Photos circulating online pointed to some battlefield movement for Ukraine, showing Ukrainian soldiers entering what appeared to be newly retaken settlements in the south and east. Pope Francis, meanwhile, on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats against the West and appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”
125 die as tear gas triggers crush at Indonesia soccer match
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Police firing tear gas after an Indonesian soccer match in an attempt to stop violence triggered a disastrous crush of fans that has left at least 125 people dead. Attention immediately focused on police crowd-control measures at Saturday night’s match between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya. Witnesses described officers beating them with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation of security procedures and the president of FIFA called the deaths “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.” While FIFA has no control over domestic games, it has advised against the use of tear gas at soccer stadiums.
Feds vow major aid for Hurricane Ian victims amid rescues
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — U.S. officials are vowing to unleash an unprecedented amount of federal disaster aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian as the death toll rises amid recovery efforts. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Deanne Criswell said Sunday that the government is ready to provide help days after Ian came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane and carved a deadly path of destruction through Florida and into the Carolinas. The monster storm killed at least 54 people, including 47 in Florida, and hundreds of thousands of people and businesses remain without power. Officials warn that flooding could still worsen in parts of Florida because all the rain that fell has nowhere to go, with waterways already overflowing.
Ian is long gone but water keeps rising in central Florida
GENEVA, Fla. (AP) — Residents living in parts of central Florida donned fishing waders, boots and bug spray and canoed or kayaked their way to their homes on streets where floodwaters continued rising Sunday despite it being four days since Hurricane Ian tore through the state. The waters flooded homes and streets that had been passable just a day or two earlier. Ben Bertat found 4 inches of water in his house by Lake Harney off North Jungle street in a rural part of Seminole County north of Orlando after kayaking to it Sunday morning. Only a day earlier, there had been no water.
Mediator: Ousted Burkina Faso leader offers resignation
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Mediators in the West African nation of Burkina Faso say ousted coup leader Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba has agreed to resign so long as his security and other conditions are met. Hamidou Yameogo, a spokesman for the negotiations by religious leaders, said Sunday that the country’s new junta president has accepted those conditions. There was no immediate corroboration of Damiba’s official resignation, but the religious leaders said he made the offer in order to spare the country further bloodshed. Capt. Ibrahim Traore was named the country’s new leader on Friday in an announcement made on state television. Damiba, who came to power in a January coup, saw his popularity plummet as violence linked to Islamic extremists continued.
Yemen’s warring sides fail to extend UN-backed truce
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The United Nations says that negotiations between Yemen’s warring sides have failed to extend a nationwide cease-fire, after an agreement was not reached before a deadline on Sunday. In a statement, the U.N.’s envoy to Yemen called on all sides to refrain from acts of provocation as the talks continue. The development dampers hopes that the 6-month-old ceasefire could have turned into a longer peace. The truce, which initially took effect in April, is the longest lull of fighting in Yemen’s civil war, now in its eighth year. The brutal conflict began in 2014, when the Iranian-backed Houthis seized the capital of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile.
AP Top 25: Tide retakes No. 1 from UGA; Kansas snaps drought
Alabama reclaimed No. 1 from Georgia in The Associated Press college football poll in one of the closest votes in the recent years. Two points separate the Crimson Tide from the Bulldogs. Six teams including Kansas made their season debut in the AP Top 25. The Jayhawks are ranked for the first time since 2009, which was the longest drought among current Power Five conference teams. The Crimson Tide received 25 first-place votes and 1,523 points. Georgia got 28 first-place votes to become the first team since Alabama in November 2019 to have the most first-place votes but not be No. 1.
Trump: ‘King’ to some in Pennsylvania, but will it help GOP?
MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP) — The enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s brand of nationalist populism has cut into traditional Democratic strongholds in places such as Monongahela in western Pennsylvania. That’s where House Republicans recently outlined their election-year campaign agenda, called “Commitment to America.” They’re hoping they can tap into the same political sentiment Trump used to attract voters. But it’s not clear whether the support that propelled Trump to the White House will be there on Election Day this November. Just as challenging for the Republican Party is whether Trump’s false claims of voter fraud will hurt the GOP if voters decide to sit out the election.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Russia's War In Ukraine | CNN https://digitalarizonanews.com/russias-war-in-ukraine-cnn/
Hear what worries Sen. Rubio more than a Russian nuclear attack
03:24
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the key city of Lyman was “completely liberated” after Russia’s defense ministry said that Russian troops withdrew from in the Donetsk region on Saturday after being surrounded by Ukrainian forces.
It comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of four areas of occupied Ukraine — including the Donetsk region — in the largest forcible annexation of land in Europe since 1945.
Western governments have announced a new wave of sanctions and vowed not to recognize the regions as part of Russian territory, saying so-called referendums held there are a “sham.”
Ukrainian officials said more than 20 civilians — including 10 children — were killed in Russian shelling on a convoy of cars near the town of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine.
Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has ended for the day read about the latest in the posts below.
Russian forces retreated from Lyman, a strategic city in Donetsk for its operations in the east, the Russian defense ministry said Saturday, just a day after Moscow’s annexation of four regions — including Donetsk — that’s been declared illegal by the West.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the key city was “completely liberated.”
The retreat marks Ukraine’s most significant gain since its successful counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.
Here are more of the latest headlines from Russia’s war in Ukraine:
10 children killed in car convoy strike: The bodies of 22 civilians, including 10 children, were found following Russian shelling on a convoy of cars near the town of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine, the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said Saturday. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Telegram it would be investigating the “war crime.”
Zaporizhzhia plant director detained: The director general of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been detained by a Russian patrol, the president of state nuclear company Energoatom, Petro Kotin, said in a statement on Saturday. Director General Ihor Murashov was in his vehicle on his way from the plant when he was “stopped, he was taken out of the car, and with his eyes blindfolded he was driven in an unknown direction. Kotin and Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Russia to release him.
Danish Energy Agency: “Stable pressure” appears to have been achieved on Nord Stream pipelines: “Stable pressure” appears to have been achieved on the Nord Stream pipelines, indicating the gas outflow from the leaks has now stopped, the Danish Energy Agency said Sunday. “The Nord Stream AG company has informed the Danish Energy Agency that a stable pressure now appears to have been achieved on the two Nord Stream 1 pipelines,” the agency said on Twitter, indicating that the gas leakage had now ended. The Danish agency on Saturday had already said on Twitter that “stable pressure” had also appeared to have been achieved on Nord Stream 2.
Presidents of 9 NATO countries support Ukraine’s membership: The presidents of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia and Romania expressed their firm support for “the decision of the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit regarding the future membership of Ukraine in the Alliance.” The statement said; “We reiterate our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. We do not recognize and will never recognize Russian attempts to annex any Ukrainian territory.”
Putin submits draft legislation on the annexation of Ukrainian regions: Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted treaties on the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to the State Duma. The document was published in the Duma electronic database on Sunday. Putin also submitted bills on the accession of these regions, Russian state media TASS reported on Sunday, citing the press service of the State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation.
Liberation of Lyman shows “Ukrainians are making progress” in war with Russia, NATO chief says: The liberation of the city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine shows “Ukrainians are making progress,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday. This gain by Ukraine “demonstrates that the Ukrainians are making progress, are able to push back the Russian forces,” Stoltenberg told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces said Sunday he discussed military needs with the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said via Telegram that he had a phone conversation with General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and “discussed the provision issues of the needs of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in repelling Russian armed aggression.”
The Ukrainian military leader also said he is “sincerely grateful to the entire American people and its leaders for the consistent and unwavering support of Ukraine in this hard time.”
The phone call came a couple of days after the US House of Representatives voted to provide around $12 billion for Ukraine. The House also requires the Pentagon to report on how US dollars have been spent there.
The $12 billion in additional funding for Ukraine provides money for the US to continue sending weapons to replenish US stocks that have been sent to the country over the past seven months during the ongoing conflict.
In order to continue providing Ukraine with weapons to counter Russia’s offensive, the bill allocates an additional $3 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. This pot of money allows the US to procure and purchase weapons from industry and send them to the country, instead of drawing directly from US stockpiles of weapons.
The bill also authorizes an additional $3.7 billion in presidential drawdown authority funding, which allows the US to send weapons directly from US stockpiles, and $1.5 billion is included to “replenish US stocks of equipment” provided to Ukraine, a fact sheet from Senate Democrats about the bill states.
A Ukrainian soldier with the Dnipro 1 brigade walks past a damaged building in central Lyman, Ukraine, on Sunday, October 3, 2022.
(Brice Lâiné/CNN)
The ghostly emptiness of the streets of Lyman in eastern Ukraine belies this city’s strategic significance.
There is no sign of Russian troops at all – few damaged Russian tanks, or Russian dead, or Russian prisoners. Members of the Ukrainian National Guard from the Dnipro-1 unit hover in small numbers on some streets.
The occasional rattle of gunfire, or thud of artillery, pierces the silence. A few locals emerge, riding bicycles, searching for food, bewildered about what is happening.
“One day I wear one cap, another day a different cap”, said one woman in tears, pretending to take off a hat.
“How can we live like this”, she said, referring to the changing control of the town.
CNN were likely the first media into the recently liberated city, arriving thirty minutes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared the town completely cleared of Russians troops.
Ukrainian officials and troops had spoken repeatedly of large numbers of Moscow’s better units being trapped there. Yet on Sunday there were few signs of encirclement to be seen.
Some officials said Russian corpses had already been cleared away, and prisoners removed. But locals offered another explanation: that Russian forces had left the city on Friday in an orderly fashion.
“They got on their tanks, and drove out”, said Tanya, riding her bicycle back to the bomb shelter, where she still spends the nights with 15 others.
Read more here.
“Stable pressure” appears to have been achieved on the Nord Stream pipelines, indicating the gas outflow from the leaks has now stopped, the Danish Energy Agency said Sunday.
“The Nord Stream AG company has informed the Danish Energy Agency that a stable pressure now appears to have been achieved on the two Nord Stream 1 pipelines,” the agency said on Twitter, indicating that the gas leakage had now ended.
The Danish agency on Saturday had already said on Twitter that “stable pressure” had also appeared to have been achieved on Nord Stream 2.
Earlier this week, four leaks were discovered on the Nord Stream pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea. The cause of the incident is not yet confirmed but western officials have called this a deliberate act.
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at U.N. headquarters on September 20, 2022 in New York City.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Russia’s “illegal referendums” on a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sunday.
“The head of the Ukrainian state thanked the President of France for his strong condemnation of the illegal referendums in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and Russia’s attempts to illegally annex these territories of Ukraine,” Zelensky’s office reported on Sunday.
The presidents agreed on “the need for a tough, consolidated response by the world community to this latest crime by the Russian Federation, in particular via boosting sanctions pressure.”
Zelensky emphasized the importance of enhancing defense support for Ukraine and discussed the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, emphasizing the need for its immediate demilitarization.
The presidents also called for the release of Ihor Murashov, the director general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, who was detained by a Russian patrol on Saturday.
Ibrahim Kalin, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman and chief foreign policy adviser, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Istanbul, ...
Wind Spreads Fire Among Four Triple-Deckers Including Former Wahlberg Home
Wind Spreads Fire Among Four Triple-Deckers, Including Former Wahlberg Home https://digitalarizonanews.com/wind-spreads-fire-among-four-triple-deckers-including-former-wahlberg-home/
Winds pushed flames through several neighboring triple-deckers, including one where the Wahlberg family used to live, in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on Sunday morning.According to Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke, the situation began at approximately 10 a.m. He said heavy wind conditions pushed the fire to three other buildings.”So it was a total of four, three-deckers that were on fire, mostly in the rear of the buildings on the porches,” Burke said. Firefighters struck six alarms to call in additional resources. More than 120 firefighters were involved in the effort. “It’s a tight street. They couldn’t get an aerial ladder up here because of the wires on the poles here. It’s a very tight street, so they needed the labor to get going and get everybody in place,” said Burke.One of the homes involved was 25 Peverell Street, where the famous Wahlberg family used to live. It’s an address that actor Mark Wahlberg visited during the production of his Netflix movie Wonderland in 2018 and 2019.Photos from the department show the rear of the building where the fire began was heavily damaged. Officials said they were using a drone to help identify and target pockets of flame. “It was a tough fire,” Burke said.The commissioner reported two minor injuries to firefighters and one minor injury to a civilian. He said 15 residents were displaced by the fire. The cause remains under investigation. Officials estimated the damage at $2 million.
BOSTON —
Winds pushed flames through several neighboring triple-deckers, including one where the Wahlberg family used to live, in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on Sunday morning.
According to Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke, the situation began at approximately 10 a.m. He said heavy wind conditions pushed the fire to three other buildings.
“So it was a total of four, three-deckers that were on fire, mostly in the rear of the buildings on the porches,” Burke said.
Firefighters struck six alarms to call in additional resources. More than 120 firefighters were involved in the effort.
“It’s a tight street. They couldn’t get an aerial ladder up here because of the wires on the poles here. It’s a very tight street, so they needed the labor to get going and get everybody in place,” said Burke.
One of the homes involved was 25 Peverell Street, where the famous Wahlberg family used to live. It’s an address that actor Mark Wahlberg visited during the production of his Netflix movie Wonderland in 2018 and 2019.
Hearst Owned
Boston firefighters respond to 25 Peverell Street, former home of the Wahlberg family.
Photos from the department show the rear of the building where the fire began was heavily damaged. Officials said they were using a drone to help identify and target pockets of flame.
“It was a tough fire,” Burke said.
The commissioner reported two minor injuries to firefighters and one minor injury to a civilian. He said 15 residents were displaced by the fire.
The cause remains under investigation. Officials estimated the damage at $2 million.
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Chino Valley Is Perfect In Tucson https://digitalarizonanews.com/chino-valley-is-perfect-in-tucson/
October 2, 2022 by Andy Morales, AZPreps365
Chino Valley beat St. Augustine 2-0. on a goal from Carlos Rodriguez in the 53rd minute and a goal from Cristian Ayala in the 59th. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)
Desert Christian Old Pueblo Soccer Classic
Udall Park: Sept. 30 – Oct. 1
Chino Valley went 4-0 at the Old Pueblo Soccer Classic hosted by Desert Christian on Friday and Saturday in Tucson. The Cougars are 13-0-1 overall and 7-0 in power-ranking matches with two weeks left in the regular season.
Chino Valley is the top-ranked team the 2A Conference followed by No. 2 Show Low (6-1-2) and No. 3 Snowflake (6-1-2). The four region champions will advance to the state tournament automatically with the remaining four teams selected by power ranking. Show Low lost to No. 11 Blue Ridge 1-0 on Saturday in a regular season match so there will be some changes when the new rankings come out on Tuesday at noon at azpreps365 or 10 a.m. on the mobile app.
None of the region championships have been decided at this point which will make for an intense final few days with 12 teams, at the least, having a legitimate shot at one of the eight playoff spots.
Chino Valley beat Camp Verde for the state championship last fall and the Cowboys are currently ranked No. 5 at 6-2-1 in ranking matches. Blue Ridge won in 2019 and 2020.
No. 18 Desert Christian also went 4-0 at Udall Park.
The state tournament is slated to start on Tuesday, Oct. 25 with the semifinal round following on Thursday, Oct. 27. The state championship match is set for Saturday, Oct. 29 at Westwood High School in Mesa at 6:15 p.m. The higher seeds will host the first two rounds.
Chino Valley has seven state championships and four runner-up finishes since 1998. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)
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Trump Says New York AG Has No Case 'if He Invokes Disclaimer Clause' CanIndia News
Trump Says New York AG Has No Case 'if He Invokes Disclaimer Clause' CanIndia News https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-says-new-york-ag-has-no-case-if-he-invokes-disclaimer-clause-canindia-news/
Former US President Donald Trump has claimed his disclaimer clause in agreements with lenders will dismiss New York (NY) Attorney General (AG) Letitia James’ tax fraud case against him. James had sued Trump and his three grown up children of perpetuating a fraud over a decade by overstating the net worth of their assets and securing loans and evading taxes.
Trump’s net-worth statements start with disclaimers that essentially warn lenders: “Check my math.” The statements were unsealed last week as part of James’ fraud lawsuit against Trump. Trump told Sean Hannity of Fox News the disclaimers absolve him of any responsibility and the AG has “no case”.
Trump hunched forward in his gold-painted, spindle-backed chair under the chandeliers of Mar-a-Lago’s glittering grand ballroom and told Sean Hannity why New York’s Attorney General, who’d sued him earlier that day, has “no case”, says the Business Insider.
“We have a disclaimer,” Trump told the Fox News host. “Right on the front. And it basically says, you know, get your own people. You’re at your own risk … It may be way off.”
Trump was describing the disclaimer that fills the second and third pages of his annual proclamations of net-worth – the 20-page “Statements of Financial Condition” at the center of AG Letitia James’ massive lawsuit against the former president, his three oldest kids, and his real estate and golf resort empire.
James calls these statements “fraudulent”, and says each one is filled with wildly exaggerated math – implausible numbers that misled banks into lending Trump and the New York-incorporated Trump Organization hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade.
But Trump told Hannity none of that would matter because each Statement of Financial Condition begins with a warning. “Be careful,” Trump told Hannity the disclaimers essentially say. “Because it may not be accurate. It may be way off … get your own people. Use your own lawyers,” Trump added. “Don’t rely on us.”
Former financial crimes prosecutor Armen Morian, who worked for the AGs office from 2006 to 2019 before founding Morian Law, believes Trump has a point. Sure, the annual Statements of Financial Condition may be filled with real whoppers, including all those years – from 2012 through 2016 – when they tripled the actual square footage of Trump’s triplex atop Manhattan’s Trump Tower, adding as much as $200 million a year to the former president’s net worth.
But each year, the disclaimers put banks on notice to double check the numbers before relying on them in deciding how much to lend and at what rate of interest, Morian said. And if the banks cut Trump a good deal anyway, despite this warning – as Deutsche Bank did year after year, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into his Miami golf club, his skyscraper in Chicago and the Old Post Office in DC – then they did so with eyes wide open, he said.
“What the disclaimers are saying is, ‘Beware when you read these financial statements,’” Morian said, after a decade’s worth of the statements were unsealed in court filings last week. “That’s all it has to do,” he said of their disclaimers, affixed to the front of each year’s statement by longtime Trump accountants Mazars USA.
“And that doesn’t cover just Mazars,” added Morian, whose AG financial fraud cases included the 13-year prosecution of insurance magnate Maurice “Hank” Greenberg. “It covers Trump.”
Morian noted that these are “robust” disclaimers – set down right in the open, not hidden in fine print. “We have not audited or reviewed the accompanying financial statement,” their first paragraphs say, in boilerplate language repeated through the years.
And so, the accountants at Mazars, “do not express an opinion or provide any assurance about whether the financial statement is in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.”
Deutsche Bank in particular – the largest single lender to the Trump Organization and Donald Trump over the last ten years – is a “sophisticated counterparty,” Morian said. They well knew Trump’s reputation for puffery in an industry – real estate – already known for puffery.
“All of that,” Morian said, “essentially renders the disclaimer an absolute defence.”
A license to exaggerate? To lie? So, a business can lie about its worth? And get away with it, just by warning, as Trump put it, “It may not be accurate. It may be way off?”
“There is something unsatisfying about it,” Morian conceded. “But I have a hard time taking off my hat as a lawyer. This is a legal question, and it turns on facts and the law. That’s the game we’re playing in, and that’s the game the attorney general is playing in also, the Insider said.
“It’s shocking that they brought this case,” Morian said. But not everyone agrees, least of all the former president’s fixer-turned-critic, Michael Cohen, who turned over Trump’s Statements of Financial Condition for 2011 through 2013 as part of his testimony before Congress in 2019.
“The attorney general was not filing a 200-plus page lawsuit, after three years of investigatory work, to have her case negated by a disclaimer,” Cohen told Insider. That disclaimer was written and signed by Mazars in order to protect Mazars, not Trump, Cohen noted.
These are not our numbers, Mazars essentially tells would-be lenders, and you’ll get no assurances from us on their accuracy. Diana Florence, a former Manhattan prosecutor for complex financial fraud cases, agreed. “Sure, they’re a hurdle,” she told Insider of the disclaimers. “They do weaken the case.”
But that’s not the full story, she said. The AG is alleging that ten years of Trump’s Statements of Financial Condition contain a total of some 200 false and misleading valuations involving 23 properties. Deutsche Bank can’t be expected “to literally chase down everything in the statement and verify it,” Florence said. And while James’ lawsuit shines its widest, brightest spotlight on the Statements of Financial Condition, it suggests that other paperwork could put Trump at greater risk.
Through the years, Trump or his children signed multiple documents that personally attest to Mazars and to Deutsche Bank that the Statements of Financial Condition are accurate, or at least “fairly” represent Trump’s worth, the lawsuit alleges.
And those “boilerplate disclaimers?” James’ lawsuit is aware of them. “The disclaimers … do not give license to Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization to submit to their accountant’s fraudulent and misleading asset valuations for inclusion in the Statements,” the lawsuit says.
“Trump could say, ‘Yeah, if Deutsche Bank were really worried, they could have asked for more things or could have turned us down. They didn’t do any due diligence,’” Florence said.
“But it doesn’t change what the case is about, which is patterns of fraud.” The AGs office and lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In February, Mazars quit working for Trump entirely – in the middle of preparing his and Melania Trump’s tax returns – and issued the ultimate disclaimer by saying that the last 10 years of Statements of Financial Condition “should no longer be relied upon.”
In declining to comment, a Mazars spokesperson said, “We remain committed to fulfilling all of our professional and legal obligations.”
20221003-010802
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AP News Summary At 3:33 P.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-333-p-m-edt/
10 torture sites in 1 town: Russia sowed pain, fear in Izium
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that Russian torture in the Ukrainian town of Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic, and a kindergarten. AP also spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture and confirmed the deaths of eight men. All but one were civilians. The AP also found a former Ukrainian soldier who was tortured three times hiding in a monastery, and connected him with loved ones. The town has now been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
125 die as tear gas triggers crush at Indonesia soccer match
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Police firing tear gas after an Indonesian soccer match in an attempt to stop violence triggered a disastrous crush of fans that has left at least 125 people dead. Attention immediately focused on police crowd-control measures at Saturday night’s match between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya. Witnesses described officers beating them with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation of security procedures and the president of FIFA called the deaths “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.” While FIFA has no control over domestic games, it has advised against the use of tear gas at soccer stadiums.
Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones. This comes as Ukraine has pushed ahead with its counteroffensive that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Ukraine took back control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which Russia had been using as a transport and logistics hub. That’s a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine. Photos circulating online pointed to some battlefield movement for Ukraine, showing Ukrainian soldiers entering what appeared to be newly retaken settlements in the south and east. Pope Francis, meanwhile, on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats against the West and appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”
Florida deaths rise to 47 amid struggle to recover from Ian
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers have evacuated stunned survivors cut off by Hurricane Ian on Florida’s largest barrier island, and the state’s death toll has risen sharply amid recovery efforts. Hundreds of thousands of people are still sweltering without power in the state, days after Ian’s rampage from Florida to the Carolinas. Florida now has 47 confirmed deaths. Ian was one of the strongest U.S. hurricanes on record when the Category 4 monster smashed ashore at midweek. Many storm victims were left isolated with limited cellphone service and lacking basic amenities like water and power. As of Sunday morning, nearly 850,000 customers in Florida were still without electricity.
Ian is long gone but water keeps rising in central Florida
GENEVA, Fla. (AP) — Residents living in parts of central Florida donned fishing waders, boots and bug spray and canoed or kayaked their way to their homes on streets where floodwaters continued rising Sunday despite it being four days since Hurricane Ian tore through the state. The waters flooded homes and streets that had been passable just a day or two earlier. Ben Bertat found 4 inches of water in his house by Lake Harney off North Jungle street in a rural part of Seminole County north of Orlando after kayaking to it Sunday morning. Only a day earlier, there had been no water.
Brazil holds historic election with Lula against Bolsonaro
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilians are voting in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years. The race pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recent polls have given da Silva a commanding lead, pointing to a chance that he might win the first round outright, without need for a runoff. Da Silva would have to get more than 50% of the votes cast Sunday, topping the total vote for Bolsonaro and the other nine candidates.
AP Top 25: Tide retakes No. 1 from UGA; Kansas snaps drought
Alabama reclaimed No. 1 from Georgia in The Associated Press college football poll in one of the closest votes in the recent years. Two points separate the Crimson Tide from the Bulldogs. Six teams including Kansas made their season debut in the AP Top 25. The Jayhawks are ranked for the first time since 2009, which was the longest drought among current Power Five conference teams. The Crimson Tide received 25 first-place votes and 1,523 points. Georgia got 28 first-place votes to become the first team since Alabama in November 2019 to have the most first-place votes but not be No. 1.
Mediator: Ousted Burkina Faso leader offers resignation
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Mediators in the West African nation of Burkina Faso say ousted coup leader Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba has agreed to resign so long as his security and other conditions are met. Hamidou Yameogo, a spokesman for the negotiations by religious leaders, said Sunday that the country’s new junta president has accepted those conditions. There was no immediate corroboration of Damiba’s official resignation, but the religious leaders said he made the offer in order to spare the country further bloodshed. Capt. Ibrahim Traore was named the country’s new leader on Friday in an announcement made on state television. Damiba, who came to power in a January coup, saw his popularity plummet as violence linked to Islamic extremists continued.
US shift away from coal hits tribal community in New Mexico
KIRTLAND, N.M. (AP) — The lights are out at a coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico that has provided electricity to millions of people across the southwestern U.S. for nearly a half-century. The closure of the San Juan Generating Station follows years of legal battles by environmentalists and mounting regulatory pressures aimed at curbing pollution and climate change. The realities of closing the plant and the adjacent mine are now setting in for surrounding communities, many of which are home to Native Americans. Hundreds of good-paying jobs are evaporating along with tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue that’s used to fund local schools.
Trump: ‘King’ to some in Pennsylvania, but will it help GOP?
MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP) — The enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s brand of nationalist populism has cut into traditional Democratic strongholds in places such as Monongahela in western Pennsylvania. That’s where House Republicans recently outlined their election-year campaign agenda, called “Commitment to America.” They’re hoping they can tap into the same political sentiment Trump used to attract voters. But it’s not clear whether the support that propelled Trump to the White House will be there on Election Day this November. Just as challenging for the Republican Party is whether Trump’s false claims of voter fraud will hurt the GOP if voters decide to sit out the election.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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AP News Summary At 3:33 P.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-333-p-m-edt-2/
10 torture sites in 1 town: Russia sowed pain, fear in Izium
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that Russian torture in the Ukrainian town of Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic, and a kindergarten. AP also spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture and confirmed the deaths of eight men. All but one were civilians. The AP also found a former Ukrainian soldier who was tortured three times hiding in a monastery, and connected him with loved ones. The town has now been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
125 die as tear gas triggers crush at Indonesia soccer match
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Police firing tear gas after an Indonesian soccer match in an attempt to stop violence triggered a disastrous crush of fans that has left at least 125 people dead. Attention immediately focused on police crowd-control measures at Saturday night’s match between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya. Witnesses described officers beating them with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation of security procedures and the president of FIFA called the deaths “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.” While FIFA has no control over domestic games, it has advised against the use of tear gas at soccer stadiums.
Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones. This comes as Ukraine has pushed ahead with its counteroffensive that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Ukraine took back control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which Russia had been using as a transport and logistics hub. That’s a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine. Photos circulating online pointed to some battlefield movement for Ukraine, showing Ukrainian soldiers entering what appeared to be newly retaken settlements in the south and east. Pope Francis, meanwhile, on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats against the West and appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”
Florida deaths rise to 47 amid struggle to recover from Ian
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers have evacuated stunned survivors cut off by Hurricane Ian on Florida’s largest barrier island, and the state’s death toll has risen sharply amid recovery efforts. Hundreds of thousands of people are still sweltering without power in the state, days after Ian’s rampage from Florida to the Carolinas. Florida now has 47 confirmed deaths. Ian was one of the strongest U.S. hurricanes on record when the Category 4 monster smashed ashore at midweek. Many storm victims were left isolated with limited cellphone service and lacking basic amenities like water and power. As of Sunday morning, nearly 850,000 customers in Florida were still without electricity.
Ian is long gone but water keeps rising in central Florida
GENEVA, Fla. (AP) — Residents living in parts of central Florida donned fishing waders, boots and bug spray and canoed or kayaked their way to their homes on streets where floodwaters continued rising Sunday despite it being four days since Hurricane Ian tore through the state. The waters flooded homes and streets that had been passable just a day or two earlier. Ben Bertat found 4 inches of water in his house by Lake Harney off North Jungle street in a rural part of Seminole County north of Orlando after kayaking to it Sunday morning. Only a day earlier, there had been no water.
Brazil holds historic election with Lula against Bolsonaro
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilians are voting in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years. The race pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recent polls have given da Silva a commanding lead, pointing to a chance that he might win the first round outright, without need for a runoff. Da Silva would have to get more than 50% of the votes cast Sunday, topping the total vote for Bolsonaro and the other nine candidates.
AP Top 25: Tide retakes No. 1 from UGA; Kansas snaps drought
Alabama reclaimed No. 1 from Georgia in The Associated Press college football poll in one of the closest votes in the recent years. Two points separate the Crimson Tide from the Bulldogs. Six teams including Kansas made their season debut in the AP Top 25. The Jayhawks are ranked for the first time since 2009, which was the longest drought among current Power Five conference teams. The Crimson Tide received 25 first-place votes and 1,523 points. Georgia got 28 first-place votes to become the first team since Alabama in November 2019 to have the most first-place votes but not be No. 1.
Mediator: Ousted Burkina Faso leader offers resignation
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Mediators in the West African nation of Burkina Faso say ousted coup leader Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba has agreed to resign so long as his security and other conditions are met. Hamidou Yameogo, a spokesman for the negotiations by religious leaders, said Sunday that the country’s new junta president has accepted those conditions. There was no immediate corroboration of Damiba’s official resignation, but the religious leaders said he made the offer in order to spare the country further bloodshed. Capt. Ibrahim Traore was named the country’s new leader on Friday in an announcement made on state television. Damiba, who came to power in a January coup, saw his popularity plummet as violence linked to Islamic extremists continued.
US shift away from coal hits tribal community in New Mexico
KIRTLAND, N.M. (AP) — The lights are out at a coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico that has provided electricity to millions of people across the southwestern U.S. for nearly a half-century. The closure of the San Juan Generating Station follows years of legal battles by environmentalists and mounting regulatory pressures aimed at curbing pollution and climate change. The realities of closing the plant and the adjacent mine are now setting in for surrounding communities, many of which are home to Native Americans. Hundreds of good-paying jobs are evaporating along with tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue that’s used to fund local schools.
Trump: ‘King’ to some in Pennsylvania, but will it help GOP?
MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP) — The enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s brand of nationalist populism has cut into traditional Democratic strongholds in places such as Monongahela in western Pennsylvania. That’s where House Republicans recently outlined their election-year campaign agenda, called “Commitment to America.” They’re hoping they can tap into the same political sentiment Trump used to attract voters. But it’s not clear whether the support that propelled Trump to the White House will be there on Election Day this November. Just as challenging for the Republican Party is whether Trump’s false claims of voter fraud will hurt the GOP if voters decide to sit out the election.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Latino Voters Divided On Biden Job Performance: Poll
Latino Voters Divided On Biden Job Performance: Poll https://digitalarizonanews.com/latino-voters-divided-on-biden-job-performance-poll/
Getty Images
Latino voters are split on whether they approve of the job President Biden is doing, according to a new NBC News/Telemundo poll released Sunday.
About 51 percent of Latinos approve of how Biden is handling his job, compared to 45 percent who disapprove, according to the poll of 1,000 registered Latino voters.
Biden only has a lead approval rating on foreign policy, with 49 percent of Latinos approving of how he handles those issues and 44 percent disapproving.
Latino voters generally disapprove of Biden’s handling of other issues, including border security, the economy and the cost of living as the administration continues to struggle with high inflation.
Still, about 51 percent of Latinos have a favorable or positive view of Biden, compared to 30 percent who hold a favorable view of Trump, who continues to tease a potential 2024 run.
Heading into the midterm elections, the top issues for Latino voters are the cost of living at 23 percent, threats to democracy at 20 percent and jobs and the economy at 17 percent, the poll shows.
Fifty-seven percent of Latinos say the U.S. is off on the wrong track, while 38 percent say the nation is headed in the right direction.
The NBC News/Telemundo poll was conducted Sept. 17 to Sept. 26 among 1,000 Latino voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Tags Biden Biden democrats latino voters republicans
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AP News Summary At 2:31 P.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-231-p-m-edt/
10 torture sites in 1 town: Russia sowed pain, fear in Izium
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that Russian torture in the Ukrainian town of Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic, and a kindergarten. AP also spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture and confirmed the deaths of eight men. All but one were civilians. The AP also found a former Ukrainian soldier who was tortured three times hiding in a monastery, and connected him with loved ones. The town has now been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
125 die as tear gas triggers crush at Indonesia soccer match
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Police firing tear gas after an Indonesian soccer match in an attempt to stop violence triggered a disastrous crush of fans that has left at least 125 people dead. Attention immediately focused on police crowd-control measures at Saturday night’s match between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya. Witnesses described officers beating them with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation of security procedures and the president of FIFA called the deaths “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.” While FIFA has no control over domestic games, it has advised against the use of tear gas at soccer stadiums.
Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones. This comes as Ukraine has pushed ahead with its counteroffensive that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Ukraine took back control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which Russia had been using as a transport and logistics hub. That’s a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine. Photos circulating online pointed to some battlefield movement for Ukraine, showing Ukrainian soldiers entering what appeared to be newly retaken settlements in the south and east. Pope Francis, meanwhile, on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats against the West and appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”
Florida deaths rise to 47 amid struggle to recover from Ian
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers have evacuated stunned survivors cut off by Hurricane Ian on Florida’s largest barrier island, and the state’s death toll has risen sharply amid recovery efforts. Hundreds of thousands of people are still sweltering without power in the state, days after Ian’s rampage from Florida to the Carolinas. Florida now has 47 confirmed deaths. Ian was one of the strongest U.S. hurricanes on record when the Category 4 monster smashed ashore at midweek. Many storm victims were left isolated with limited cellphone service and lacking basic amenities like water and power. As of Sunday morning, nearly 850,000 customers in Florida were still without electricity.
Poor Florida neighborhood battered by flood tries to recover
HARLEM HEIGHTS, Fla. (AP) — The Gladiolus Food Pantry usually hands out supplies on Wednesdays to about 240 families. But when Hurricane Ian swept through last week it canceled their distribution and laid waste to much of their supplies. Food bank founder and director Miriam Ortiz couldn’t even get out of her nearby house the day after Ian because of the floodwaters. Over the weekend, she and volunteers were cleaning up while people from around the region were dropping off food and other supplies to donate to families in need. Ortiz says many of the people the pantry serves were already struggling with rising rents and inflation before the hurricane hit.
Brazil holds historic election with Lula against Bolsonaro
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilians are voting in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years. The race pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recent polls have given da Silva a commanding lead, pointing to a chance that he might win the first round outright, without need for a runoff. Da Silva would have to get more than 50% of the votes cast Sunday, topping the total vote for Bolsonaro and the other nine candidates.
AP Top 25: Tide retakes No. 1 from UGA; Kansas snaps drought
Alabama reclaimed No. 1 from Georgia in The Associated Press college football poll in one of the closest votes in the recent years. Two points separate the Crimson Tide from the Bulldogs. Six teams including Kansas made their season debut in the AP Top 25. The Jayhawks are ranked for the first time since 2009, which was the longest drought among current Power Five conference teams. The Crimson Tide received 25 first-place votes and 1,523 points. Georgia got 28 first-place votes to become the first team since Alabama in November 2019 to have the most first-place votes but not be No. 1.
Exit poll: Center-right GERB party will win Bulgarian vote
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — An exit poll in Bulgaria suggests that the center-right GERB party of ex-premier Boyko Borissov, a party blamed for presiding over years of corruption, is the likely winner of the country’s parliamentary election. The Gallup International poll showed the GERB party earning 24.6% support and the reformist We Continue the Change pro-Western party of former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov capturing 18.9%. But will be an uphill task for Borissov to produce a stable governing coalition, since most political groups have already rejected any cooperation with his GERB party. The early election came after Petkov lost a no-confidence vote in June. He claimed afterward that Moscow had used “hybrid war” tactics to bring his government down.
US shift away from coal hits tribal community in New Mexico
KIRTLAND, N.M. (AP) — The lights are out at a coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico that has provided electricity to millions of people across the southwestern U.S. for nearly a half-century. The closure of the San Juan Generating Station follows years of legal battles by environmentalists and mounting regulatory pressures aimed at curbing pollution and climate change. The realities of closing the plant and the adjacent mine are now setting in for surrounding communities, many of which are home to Native Americans. Hundreds of good-paying jobs are evaporating along with tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue that’s used to fund local schools.
Trump: ‘King’ to some in Pennsylvania, but will it help GOP?
MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP) — The enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s unique brand of nationalist populism has cut into traditional Democratic strongholds in places such as Monongahela in western Pennsylvania. That’s where House Republicans recently outlined their election-year campaign agenda, called “Commitment to America.” They’re hoping they can tap into the same political sentiment Trump used to attract voters. But it’s not clear whether the support that propelled Trump to the White House will be there on Election Day this November. Just as challenging for the Republican Party is whether Trump’s false claims of voter fraud will hurt the GOP if voters decide to sit out the election.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Democrats Lead Among Latino Voters Shrinks In New Survey
Democrats’ Lead Among Latino Voters Shrinks In New Survey https://digitalarizonanews.com/democrats-lead-among-latino-voters-shrinks-in-new-survey/
AP/Nicole Neri
Voting signs direct voters to the Minneapolis Elections and Voter Services center on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, in Minneapolis. With Election Day still more than six weeks off, the first votes of the midterm election were already being cast Friday in a smattering of states including Minnesota. (AP Photo/Nicole Neri)
Democrats hold a 21-point lead on Republicans among Latino voters heading into the midterm elections, but that lead has slowly shrunk over the years, according to a new NBC News/Telemundo poll released Sunday.
In the poll of 1,000 Latino registered voters, 54 percent said they preferred a Democrat-controlled Congress and 33 percent said they prefer a Republican-controlled Congress, a lead that has dropped from previous NBC polling.
The registered voters included in the poll identified themselves from at least 20 Latino countries and territories, including Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
While Trump has espoused racist rhetoric against Latino migrants and implemented harsh policies at the border during his administration, the poll shows Latino voters support the GOP on border security and other issues like crime and the economy.
Latinos, however, back Democrats on issues like abortion, protecting constitutional rights, education and having the right approach to gun laws.
Democrats also have a lead over Republicans when it comes to the matter of abortion, 50 percent to 23 percent. The issue has become key in this election cycle after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, according to the poll.
About 30 percent of Latinos have a favorable view of the Republican party, compared to a 49 percent favorability rating for Democrats, the poll shows.
Similarly, about 51 percent of Latino voters have a favorable view of President Biden, compared to 30 percent for Trump.
The NBC News/Telemundo poll was conducted Sept. 17 to Sept. 26 among 1,000 Latino voters. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.
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Review: Order Chaos Theater Company Presents Melinda Lopez
Review: Order Chaos Theater Company Presents Melinda Lopez https://digitalarizonanews.com/review-order-chaos-theater-company-presents-melinda-lopez/
In a commanding one-woman performance, Ángela Kabasan Gonzalez embodies the travails of a daughter managing the final stages of her parents’ lives. At times pensive, reflective, angry, sad, or whimsical ~ and always grounded and authentic ~ the actress runs through a rainbow of emotions, serving as a master teller of a touching tale of love and fidelity.
As Mala talks to the open space before her (there is no fourth wall or a latticed partition for this confessional), she speaks to her confrontation with mortality…with the onerous burdens of caretaking…with death and dying. Her reflections are intimate and simmering, offering catharsis and, perhaps closure to her exhausting and all-encompassing role as caretaker for her mother.
Following a sympathetic and unorthodox advisory to the audience that they may keep their phones on in case of a life emergency, Mala enters the stage with her own smartphone. It serves as her diary, replete with notes about encounters that she and acquaintances have had with managing elderly and dying parents.
Mala’s life, as she tells it in well-paced meter, is an existential balancing act. She is wife, mother, sister, and daughter. It is this last role that occupies the storytelling’s center…it’s heart and soul.
As the play opens, Mala recalls the day, February 23rd, when Annie, the aide to her 92-year-old mother, has called 911 because of her mom’s apparent fall. It’s the trigger to the all-too-often “white knuckle” “sinking stomach” drive to the hospital, only then to find that her mother stubbornly refuses treatment. Mom claims that she simply fell off the chair, but Mala knows that there is no such thing as a simple fall. In the wake of her father’s “slipping” off his bed seven months earlier, complications arose, and he died.
Nothing simple exists in these moments of frailty. These are the denials of the elderly that plague the child…that resist having the car keys taken away or any challenge to their independence.
Nothing simple lies in the fact that Mala’s mother lives with her and not in a nursing home. As difficult as that burden may be, the commitment is implicit in the meaning of familia. It inheres in the Spanish culture that Mala, as a first-generation child, religiously observes. (In an introduction to the production, playwright Melinda Lopez,, of Cuban descent, notes that the character could be Greek or Polish or Mexican. The theme is that universal.)
Whether reenacting her intense exchanges in Spanish with her mother or conversations with acquaintances in similar circumstances, Kabasan Gonzalez nails the accents and accentuates the moments with vitality and emotion.
Mala is the homebody and, as such, is on the receiving end of her mother’s complaints and demands. Her accomplished sister may have her opinions about mother’s care, but it is Mala that owns the duty.
In writing this play, Melinda Lopez, the Mellon Playwright-in-Residence for the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and a professor of playwriting at Northeastern University, has taken pages from her own life and developed a narrative that calls upon its audience to confront the realities of “becoming a parent to one’s parent.”
Ms. Kabasan Gonzalez has embraced Lopez’s words and delivered a standout performance that attests to the truth of the script: “Plays are about people who do extraordinary things. But the most ordinary thing you can do is to die. And the second most ordinary thing is to bear witness.”
MALA is the first offering of Order Chaos Theater Company’s (OCTC) brand-new presence in Phoenix theatre. Given Kabasan González’s portrayal under the astute direction of co-founder Jean-Paoul C Clemente, one can only look forward enthusiastically to what is in store for the rest of its inaugural Season.
MALA runs through October 15th at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix, AZ.
Order Chaos Theater Company (OCTC) ~ orderchaostheater@gmail.com ~ 602-252-8497
Venue: Herberger Theatre Center ~ www.herbergertheater.org/~ 222 E Monroe St, Phoenix, AZ ~ 602-254-7399
Photo Credit: OCTC
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5 Signs The World Is Headed For A Recession | CNN Business
5 Signs The World Is Headed For A Recession | CNN Business https://digitalarizonanews.com/5-signs-the-world-is-headed-for-a-recession-cnn-business/
New York CNN Business —
Around the world, markets are flashing warning signs that the global economy is teetering on a cliff’s edge.
The question of a recession is no longer if, but when.
Over the past week, the pulse of those flashing red lights quickened as markets grappled with the reality — once speculative, now certain — that the Federal Reserve will press on with its most aggressive monetary tightening campaign in decades to wring inflation from the US economy. Even if that means triggering a recession. And even if it comes at the expense of consumers and businesses far beyond US borders.
There’s now a 98% chance of a global recession, according to research firm Ned Davis, which brings some sobering historical credibility to the table. The firm’s recession probability reading has only been this high twice before — in 2008 and 2020.
When economists warn of a downturn, they’re typically basing their assessment on a variety of indicators.
Let’s unpack five key trends:
The US dollar plays an outsized role in the global economy and international finance. And right now, it is stronger than it’s been in two decades.
The simplest explanation comes back to the Fed.
When the US central bank raises interest rates, as it has been doing since March, it makes the dollar more appealing to investors around the world.
In any economic climate, the dollar is seen as a safe place to park your money. In a tumultuous climate — a global pandemic, say, or a war in Eastern Europe — investors have even more incentive to purchase dollars, usually in the form of US government bonds.
While a strong dollar is a nice perk for Americans traveling abroad, it creates headaches for just about everyone else.
The value of the UK pound, the euro, China’s yuan and Japan’s yen, among many others, has tumbled. That makes it more expensive for those nations to import essential items like food and fuel.
In response, central banks that are already fighting pandemic-induced inflation wind up raising rates higher and faster to shore up the value of their own currencies.
The dollar’s strength also creates destabilizing effects for Wall Street, as many of the S&P 500 companies do business around the world. By one estimate from Morgan Stanley, each 1% rise in the dollar index has a negative 0.5% impact on S&P 500 earnings.
The No. 1 driver of the world’s largest economy is shopping. And America’s shoppers are tired.
After more than a year of rising prices on just about everything, with wages not keeping up, consumers have pulled back.
“The hardship caused by inflation means that consumers are dipping into their savings,” EY Parthenon Chief Economist Gregory Daco said in a note Friday. The personal saving rate in August remained unchanged at only 3.5%, Daco said — near its lowest rate since 2008, and well below its pre-Covid level of around 9%.
Once again, the reason behind the pullback has a lot to do with the Fed.
Interest rates have risen at a historic pace, pushing mortgage rates to their highest level in more than a decade and making it harder for businesses to grow. Eventually, the Fed’s rate hikes should broadly bring costs down. But in the meantime, consumers are getting a one-two punch of high borrowing rates and high prices, especially when it comes to necessities like food and housing.
Americans opened their wallets during the 2020 lockdowns, which powered the economy out of its brief-but-severe pandemic recession. Since then, government aid has evaporated and inflation has taken root, pushing prices up at their fastest rate in 40 years and sapping consumers’ spending power.
Business has been booming across industries for the bulk of the pandemic era, even with historically high inflation eating into profits. That is thanks (once again) to the tenacity of American shoppers, as businesses were largely able to pass on their higher costs to consumers to cushion profit margins.
But the earnings bonanza may not last.
In mid-September, one company whose fortunes serve as a kind of economic bellwether gave investors a shock.
FedEx, which operates in more than 200 countries, unexpectedly revised its outlook, warning that demand was softening, and earnings were likely to plunge more than 40%.
In an interview, its CEO was asked whether he believes the slowdown was a sign of a looming global recession.
“I think so,” he responded. “These numbers, they don’t portend very well.”
FedEx isn’t alone. On Tuesday, Apple’s stock fell after Bloomberg reported the company was scrapping plans to increase iPhone 14 production after demand came in below expectations.
And just ahead of the holiday season, when employers would normally ramp up hiring, the mood is now more cautious.
“We’ve not seen the normal September uptick in companies posting for temporary help,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. “Companies are hanging back and waiting to see what conditions hold.”
Wall Street has been hit with whiplash, and stocks are now on track for their worst year since 2008 — in case anyone needs yet another scary historical comparison.
But last year was a very different story. Equity markets thrived in 2021, with the S&P 500 soaring 27%, thanks to a torrent of cash pumped in by the Federal Reserve, which unleashed a double-barreled monetary-easing policy in the spring of 2020 to keep financial markets from crumbling.
The party lasted until early 2022. But as inflation set in, the Fed began to take away the proverbial punch bowl, raising interest rates and unwinding its bond-buying mechanism that had propped up the market.
The hangover has been brutal. The S&P 500, the broadest measure of Wall Street — and the index responsible for the bulk of Americans’ 401(k)s — is down nearly 24% for the year. And it’s not alone. All three major US indexes are in bear markets — down at least 20% from their most recent highs.
In an unfortunate twist, bond markets, typically a safe haven for investors when stocks and other assets decline, are also in a tailspin.
Once again, blame the Fed.
Inflation, along with the steep rise in interest rates by the central bank, has pushed bond prices down, which causes bond yields (aka the return an investor gets for their loan to the government) to go up.
On Wednesday, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury briefly surpassed 4%, hitting its highest level in 14 years. That surge was followed by a steep drop in response to the Bank of England’s intervention in its own spiraling bond market — amounting to tectonic moves in a corner of the financial world that is designed to be steady, if not downright boring.
European bond yields are also spiking as central banks follow the Fed’s lead in raising rates to shore up their own currencies.
Bottom line: There are few safe places for investors to put their money right now, and that’s unlikely to change until global inflation gets under control and central banks loosen their grips.
Nowhere is the collision of economic, financial, and political calamities more painfully visible than in the United Kingdom.
Like the rest of the world, the UK has struggled with surging prices that are largely attributable to the colossal shock of Covid-19, followed by the trade disruptions created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the West cut off imports of Russian natural gas, energy prices have soared and supplies have dwindled.
Those events were bad enough on their own.
But then, just over a week ago, the freshly installed government of Prime Minister Liz Truss announced a sweeping tax-cut plan that economists from both ends of the political spectrum have decried as unorthodox at best, diabolical at worst.
In short, the Truss administration said it would slash taxes for all Britons to encourage spending and investment and, in theory, soften the blow of a recession. But the tax cuts aren’t funded, which means the government must take on debt to finance them.
That decision set off a panic in financial markets and put Downing Street in a standoff with its independent central bank, the Bank of England. Investors around the world sold off UK bonds in droves, plunging the pound to its lowest level against the dollar in nearly 230 years. As in, since 1792, when Congress made the US dollar legal tender.
The BOE staged an emergency intervention to buy up UK bonds on Wednesday and restore order in financial markets. It stemmed the bleeding, for now. But the ripple effects of the Trussonomics turmoil is spreading far beyond the offices of bond traders.
Britons, who are already in a cost-of-living crisis, with inflation at 10% — the highest of any G7 economy — are now panicking over higher borrowing costs that could force millions of homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments to go up by hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
While the consensus is that a global recession is likely sometime in 2023, it’s impossible to predict how severe it will be or how long it will last. Not every recession is as painful as the 2007-09 Great Recession, but every recession is, of course, painful.
Some economies, particularly the United States, with its strong labor market and resilient consumers, will be able to withstand the blow better than others.
“We are in uncharted waters in the months ahead,” wrote economists at the World Economic Forum in a report this week.
“The immediate outlook for the global economy and for much of the world’s population is dark,” they continued, adding that the challenges “will test the resilience of economies and societies and exact a punishing human toll.”
But there are some silver linings, they said. Crises force transformations that can ultimately improve standards of living and make economies stronger.
“Businesses have to change. This has been the story since the pandemic started,” said Rima Bhatia, an economic...
Longtime Sedona Volleyball Coach Adapting To Change
Longtime Sedona Volleyball Coach Adapting To Change https://digitalarizonanews.com/longtime-sedona-volleyball-coach-adapting-to-change/
October 2, 2022 by Brian M. Bergner Jr., AZPreps365
Sedona Red Rock head volleyball coach John Parks talks to his team during a timeout Aug. 29, 2022, against Camp Verde in Sedona. Parks began the volleyball program at Sedona back in 1994 and led the club to its first state title in 2012. (Brian M. Bergner Jr./AzPreps365)
SEDONA — There’s something to be said for any coach who spends their time teaching young people not only a sport of choice, but how to become responsible, society-contributing adults.
And for the coaches out there who do it year after year, decade after decade even, there’s surely a special place in heaven for those individuals.
THE BEGINNING
For longtime Sedona Red Rock coach John Parks, his allegiance to Scorpion volleyball spans across four different decades. Starting the program in 1994 when the high school opened in a town with a little over 9,000 population, there wasn’t much to build from at first except a few young, dedicated girls and a brand-new gymnasium.
“Back when the program first started, back in the 1990s, I think about all the kids and how dedicated, how hard working they all were,” Parks said. “They helped us get this program established and kind of on the map, even when we first started.”
Prior to 1994, kids who grew up in Sedona had two choices at the high school level. Or depending on what side of town they were on, were bused to Flagstaff High School (a 45-minute trip up Oak Creek Canyon), or to Cottonwood, home of Mingus Union High School.
In its first two seasons, Sedona managed only a junior varsity club, but by 1996, Parks had built the program to have not only a varsity team, but a jv and freshman team.
Sarah Busche, a four-year varsity letterwinner from 1997-2000, has plenty of great memories playing volleyball for Parks and the Scorpions, including the long bus rides.
“We had to travel really far for region matches. Even though there were plenty of high schools within an hour (Flagstaff, Camp Verde, Mingus), our closest in-region game was Williams and our farthest trip was to Red Mesa. This meant we sometimes boarded the bus as early as 5 a.m. and returned home as late as 3 a.m. the next day,” Busche recalls. “While these days were long, it was fun to travel with all three teams together.”
Busche remembers being pushed hard during practice.
“John pushed us hard and focused on technique, which is what made our team really strong,” Busche said.
By the mid-2000s, Parks had built a competitive offseason travel club volleyball program, a perfect feeder system where volleyball players could learn the high school ways before they ever stepped foot on campus.
It was then that Scorpion volleyball really took off.
The Sedona Red Rock volleyball team poses for a team picture in the early 2000s. John Parks, top row, far right, began the program in 1994 and led the Scorpions to a state title in 2012. (Photo courtesy of Kay Bushe)
UNPRECIDENTED RUN
From 2007 through 2021, Sedona missed the state playoffs (Played 3A, 2A, Division III, IV during this stretch) in only two seasons, losing the state play-in rounds in 2017 and 2018.
To be fair to Parks, however, the longtime coach had stepped away from the team in 2017 and 2018. He returned in 2019 to lead the team back to state, then took another year off in 2020 (state qualifier) before returning to the bench once again last year.
In 2009 and 2011, Parks led the Scorpions to the state final four, only to be turned away. But by 2012, Sedona finally made it over the hump and won a Division IV state championship, defeating one of the winningest programs in Arizona history, Northwest Christian, 3-1, finishing with a 36-3-2 record.
Parks said that winning a state title was one of the highlights of his coaching career.
“Every year I think I appreciate it more,” Parks said, adding that the 2012 club was an amazing group of girls.
“It was hard [to win that year]. We had a really great group of girls, just eight of them. There was real cohesion amongst the girls, it was incredible the more I think about it. It’s one of those things I’d like to live all over again,” Parks said.
Parks and the Scorpions returned to the finals in 2014, but lost 3-2 to Thatcher, finishing 32-10-3 overall.
Morgan Hawes, a four-year varsity letterwinner under Parks from 2010 to 2014, said she was fortunate to experience different team dynamics during her time in Sedona.
“My junior year, we were the underdog going into that state championship and that win will forever be an incredible memory,” Hawes said.
Sierra Hatler, a three-year varsity letterwinner from 2010-2012, said she appreciates the time she was able to learn and grow as a volleyball player under Parks.
“Coach Parks has great knowledge of the game and I was able to grow quickly as a player,” Hatler said. “In that state championship, the whole team worked so hard and was a well-deserved accomplishment for everyone.”
TODAY’S CHALLENGES
The longtime coach believes it’s “more challenging” to win a title now compared to 10 years ago when coming from a rural school in Arizona.
“Back then, there wasn’t as many small schools in the metro area like there is now. When you’re in that metro area, you have a little bit of an advantage in those programs, because there’s places to play everywhere,” Parks said. “For us, if I don’t get a club team together, then there’s no place for anyone to play.”
Sedona Red Rock head volleyball coach John Parks walks toward the bench before a match against Camp Verde on Aug. 29, 2022, in Sedona. Parks started the Scorpion volleyball program in 1994 and led them to a state title in 2012. (Brian M. Bergner Jr./AzPreps365)
In Sedona, a town ravaged by internet home rentals squeezing out regular working families, student-athletes have become scarce not only in classroom, but on its playing fields.
Gone is the youth football program. Gone is Little League. There is very little youth soccer to speak of, too. Parents are forced to take their kids to neighboring towns just to enroll their children in athletics.
And Friday Night Light’s? Forget it. Sedona shuttered its high school football program in 2020.
The state’s official count in October 2021 put Sedona at 323 students on campus. For a school that averaged anywhere from 450-500 students its first 20-plus years of existence, that’s a tough pill to swallow.
In 2018, Sedona Oak Creek School District closed Big Park Community School in the face of a $1.5 million budget deficit. The K-8 school was located in the Village of Oak Creek. Now students are bussed to West Sedona School, and the seventh and eighth grade classes are now on the high school campus.
Parks said things have certainly changed, with some kids in school now having to help parents make rent.
“I don’t think it’s just about Scorpion volleyball. And I don’t know how much this applies to all rural schools … when I was a kid, you had one parent that worked and most of the time, one part that stayed home. When I had my kids, you had both parents that were working and trying to make everything go. Now, what I see is, both parents are working, and the kid is working so they can make a living and make things go,” Parks said. “That’s been challenging. It’s one of the hardest things we’ve had to overcome and continue to overcome. Some of these kids must help support families now. You didn’t see that much in the past.”
REBUILDING AND FAMILY
After losing six of their first seven power-point matches this season, the Scorpions (4-12, 2-0 2A Metro) have won three straight, including a 3-0 sweep over North Pointe Prep. on Sept. 28.
Despite their recent success, Parks said it’s definitely a rebuilding year with so many underclassmen on the roster and only one senior.
“We have a lot of kids with no experience and they’re learning how to play. The main key will be to try and get a really good offseason program going. Whether its club, or intermural, we must get more offseason stuff going to compete with the schools we face,” Parks said.
Sedona Red Rock head volleyball coach John Parks sits the bench and cracks a smile with one of his players as the Scorpions take on Camp Verde on Aug. 29, 2022, in Sedona. (Brian M. Bergner Jr./AzPreps365)Kayla Parks, who played one season of varsity volleyball under her father more than a decade ago, said playing for her dad was “one of the best experiences” she could ask for.
“He was harder on me but that also pushed me to be better,” Kayla said. “Having your dad as the coach can be an interesting dynamic, but even when it would get frustrating, I always knew my coach/dad would do what was best for me and best for the team.”
Through the winning, the rebuilding and all the student-athletes he’s seen walk the halls of Sedona, one of the strangest feelings Parks admits he still gets during practice this season is watching his granddaughter (his oldest daughter Teresa’s child) practice for him every day.
“Nothing came across my mind when I started [coaching] that, ‘Hey, someday I’ll be coaching my granddaughter here.’ I never thought that for one brief second until it happens,” Parks said with a big smile.
If history repeats itself, it won’t be long before Sedona is back to its winning ways, despite all the challenges they face.
Afterall, volleyball is in the school’s DNA.
Brian M. Bergner Jr. has covered professional, collegiate and high school sports for more than 20 years. Follow him on Twitter @AzPreps365Brian. Have a story idea? Email Brian at bbergner@azpreps365.com.
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AP News Summary At 1:38 P.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-138-p-m-edt/
10 torture sites in 1 town: Russia sowed pain, fear in Izium
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that Russian torture in the Ukrainian town of Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic, and a kindergarten. AP also spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture and confirmed the deaths of eight men. All but one were civilians. The AP also found a former Ukrainian soldier who was tortured three times hiding in a monastery, and connected him with loved ones. The town has now been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
125 die as tear gas triggers crush at Indonesia soccer match
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Police firing tear gas after an Indonesian soccer match in an attempt to stop violence triggered a disastrous crush of fans that has left at least 125 people dead. Attention immediately focused on police crowd-control measures at Saturday night’s match between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya. Witnesses described officers beating them with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation of security procedures and the president of FIFA called the deaths “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.” While FIFA has no control over domestic games, it has advised against the use of tear gas at soccer stadiums.
EXPLAINER: What’s behind Indonesia’s deadly soccer match?
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Violence, tear gas and a deadly crush that erupted following a domestic league soccer match Saturday night marked another tragedy in Indonesian football. Emotions often run high for sports fans, and Indonesia is no stranger to soccer violence. Saturday’s chaos occurred when a disappointing loss led to fans throwing objects and swarming the soccer pitch, then to police firing tear gas, which led to a crush of people trying to escape. At least 125 have died. Indonesia’s soccer association has banned host team Arema from hosting matches for the remainder of the season.
Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones. This comes as Ukraine has pushed ahead with its counteroffensive that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Ukraine took back control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which Russia had been using as a transport and logistics hub. That’s a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine. Photos circulating online pointed to some battlefield movement for Ukraine, showing Ukrainian soldiers entering what appeared to be newly retaken settlements in the south and east. Pope Francis, meanwhile, on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats against the West and appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”
Florida deaths rise to 47 amid struggle to recover from Ian
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers have evacuated stunned survivors cut off by Hurricane Ian on Florida’s largest barrier island, and the state’s death toll has risen sharply amid recovery efforts. Hundreds of thousands of people are still sweltering without power in the state, days after Ian’s rampage from Florida to the Carolinas. Florida now has 47 confirmed deaths. Ian was one of the strongest U.S. hurricanes on record when the Category 4 monster smashed ashore at midweek. Many storm victims were left isolated with limited cellphone service and lacking basic amenities like water and power. As of Sunday morning, nearly 850,000 customers in Florida were still without electricity.
Poor Florida neighborhood battered by flood tries to recover
HARLEM HEIGHTS, Fla. (AP) — The Gladiolus Food Pantry usually hands out supplies on Wednesdays to about 240 families. But when Hurricane Ian swept through last week it canceled their distribution and laid waste to much of their supplies. Food bank founder and director Miriam Ortiz couldn’t even get out of her nearby house the day after Ian because of the floodwaters. Over the weekend, she and volunteers were cleaning up while people from around the region were dropping off food and other supplies to donate to families in need. Ortiz says many of the people the pantry serves were already struggling with rising rents and inflation before the hurricane hit.
Brazil holds historic election with Lula against Bolsonaro
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilians are voting in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years. The race pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recent polls have given da Silva a commanding lead, pointing to a chance that he might win the first round outright, without need for a runoff. Da Silva would have to get more than 50% of the votes cast Sunday, topping the total vote for Bolsonaro and the other nine candidates.
US shift away from coal hits tribal community in New Mexico
KIRTLAND, N.M. (AP) — The lights are out at a coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico that has provided electricity to millions of people across the southwestern U.S. for nearly a half-century. The closure of the San Juan Generating Station follows years of legal battles by environmentalists and mounting regulatory pressures aimed at curbing pollution and climate change. The realities of closing the plant and the adjacent mine are now setting in for surrounding communities, many of which are home to Native Americans. Hundreds of good-paying jobs are evaporating along with tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue that’s used to fund local schools.
Trump: ‘King’ to some in Pennsylvania, but will it help GOP?
MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP) — The enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s unique brand of nationalist populism has cut into traditional Democratic strongholds in places such as Monongahela in western Pennsylvania. That’s where House Republicans recently outlined their election-year campaign agenda, called “Commitment to America.” They’re hoping they can tap into the same political sentiment Trump used to attract voters. But it’s not clear whether the support that propelled Trump to the White House will be there on Election Day this November. Just as challenging for the Republican Party is whether Trump’s false claims of voter fraud will hurt the GOP if voters decide to sit out the election.
Amid crises, rural roots anchor Southern Baptists’ president
FARMERSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention is a staunchly conservative small-town preacher who touts biblical inerrancy, opposes women serving as pastors and supports abortion bans. Bart Barber also says he wants to be a unifier, a healer and a reformer as the United States’ largest Protestant denomination reels from a major sex abuse crisis in which SBC leaders were found to have stonewalled victims for decades. Barber, 52, is a highly educated historian and expert on SBC polity. But he seems most at home on his Texas pastureland, communing with cows that he gives SBC-inspired names like Bully Graham, after the late Rev. Billy Graham.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Trump Plans To Take revenge On Ron DeSantis If Reelected Mary Trump Says
Trump Plans To Take ‘revenge’ On Ron DeSantis If Reelected, Mary Trump Says https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-plans-to-take-revenge-on-ron-desantis-if-reelected-mary-trump-says/
If he is re-elected in 2024, Donald Trump is going to take “revenge” against his political antagonists, federal officials and even former allies like Florida governor Ron DeSantis, according to Mr Trump’s niece Mary Trump.
On a Friday episode of her podcast The Mary Trump Show, Ms Trump interviewed New York University historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and the pair agreed that strongmen-style leaders like Mr Trump who find themselves in legal jeopardy will often continue to seek power to punish their enemies and avoid punishment themselves.
Ms Ben-Ghiat believes the former president will take special umbrage with Mr DeSantis, the most successful of the Republicans to parrot Mr Trump’s style and false claims about the 2022 election, because the Florida governor has reaped all the political benefits without facing federal investigations and impeachment hearings.
“He must be particularly upset with Mr Ron DeSantis who has learned all of his lessons as the most ruthless of the bunch,” Professor Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, said.
“He’s flourishing and Trump’s in limbo, which increases the odds that he has to run for office, because he’s got to get back in, shut everything down, take revenge,” she added. “This is how strongmen are.”
Mr Trump endorsed Mr DeSantis during his 2018 run for Florida governor, but the pair’s relationship has soured as the former president’s protege has grown in national prominence and come to be seen as Mr Trump’s only serious rival for the 2024 GOP presidential ticket.
In a forthcoming book from New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman, Mr Trump reportedly complained that Mr DeSantis is “fat,” “phony,” and “whiny.” (Mr Trump has said the book is inaccurate.)
The former president has reportedly also fumed at Mr DeSantis’s recent, highly controversial migrant flights moving asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, with Mr Trump, a staunch opponent of immigration, claiming the stunt was “his idea”.
As early as 2021, Mr Trump was claiming somewhat tartly that he was responsible for Mr DeSantis’s success.
“Well, I don’t know that he wants to run [in 2024], you know, I have a good relationship with Ron,” Mr Trump told an interviewer. “But I was very responsible for him getting elected, as you know.”
The Florida governor, for his part, is also feeling the strain in his relationship with Donald Trump.
“[DeSantis] calls him a TV personality and a moron who has no business running for president,” a former staffer told Vanity Fair.
In a deeply reported profile of the Florida governor, those in his inner circle indicated Mr DeSantis would go for the jugular against Mr Trump in a hypothetical 2024 primary, though neither man has formalised their suspected bids for the White House.
“DeSantis says the only way to beat Trump is to attack him head-on,” a GOP source told the magazine. “He says he would turn to Trump during a debate and say, ‘Why didn’t you fire Fauci? You said you would build the wall, but there is no wall. Why is that?’”
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Watch: As Concerns Grow For Biden Trump On The Other Hand Shows Sharpness
Watch: As Concerns Grow For Biden Trump On The Other Hand Shows Sharpness https://digitalarizonanews.com/watch-as-concerns-grow-for-biden-trump-on-the-other-hand-shows-sharpness/
Current fight chief for fight nation USA President Biden has had a number of concerns for him and certainly his administration which keeps losing people.
As New York City turned against Democrats recently even, and booed Nancy Pelosi furiously, former President Trump has been drawing big crowds recently:
While you may not agree with Trump on everything he does show sharpness there cognitively compared to Biden.
As well as much more support wherever he goes as opposed to Biden.
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Matchroom Confirms Chocolatito-Estrada Trilogy December 3rd
Matchroom Confirms Chocolatito-Estrada Trilogy December 3rd https://digitalarizonanews.com/matchroom-confirms-chocolatito-estrada-trilogy-december-3rd/
Published on October 2, 2022
A highly anticipated third fight between multi-time world champions at the smaller weights, Ramon “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada is now confirmed for December 3rd with a location.
This after Matchroom Boxing announced the trilogy bout will be in the Phoenix area at the newly renamed Desert Diamond Arena (former Gila Arena) in Glendale, AZ,
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘 @GalloEstradaOfi and @chocolatitobox go again at @DDArenaAZ, Phoenix on Dec 3!
Live on @DAZNBoxing | #EstradaChocolatito3 pic.twitter.com/vOx9chp5Tz
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) October 1, 2022
As our Dan Rafael wrote previously, Estrada had declined to pursue about with WBA mandated challenger Joshua Franco. He instead elected to vacate that championship. That indicated he wanted the more significant and lucrative bout with Chocolatito.
Estrada, 43-3, 28 KOs. then fought a tune-in bout with fellow countryman Argi Cortes on September 3rd that ended up being quite the battle.
Cortes, in his first bout against a recognizable opponent, gave Estrada an extremely difficult fight for 12 action-packed rounds in the main event of that Matchroom Boxing card televised on DAZN at the Multiple Use Center in Estrada’s hometown of Hermosillo, Mexico.
Estrada out fought him in the final rounds and squeaked a 114-113, 115-112 x 2, unanimous decision victory to put him on course for the trilogy.
The third fight between Estrada and Gonzalez was initially ticketed for October 2021 but postponed when Gonzalez came down with Covid-19. It was then scheduled for March 5 in San Diego but called off six weeks beforehand when Estrada pulled out after contracting Covid-19.
Gonzalez (51-3, 41 KOs), 35, of Nicaragua, instead faced late replacement Julio Cesar Martinez, the WBC flyweight titlist, who moved up for the fight, and dominated him in a lopsided decision win.
In their first meeting in 2012, Gonzalez and Estrada produced a barnburner in which Gonzalez won a decision to retain his junior flyweight title.
Estrada won the follow up fight by narrow split decision over Chocolatito in March of 2021 in Frisco, TX.
Both fighters are regarded as strong Hall of Fame candidates and should finally produce an action packed third bout.
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AP News Summary At 11:46 A.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1146-a-m-edt/
10 torture sites in 1 town: Russia sowed pain, fear in Izium
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that Russian torture in the Ukrainian town of Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic, and a kindergarten. AP also spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture and confirmed the deaths of eight men. All but one were civilians. The AP also found a former Ukrainian soldier who was tortured three times hiding in a monastery, and connected him with loved ones. The town has now been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
125 die as tear gas triggers crush at Indonesia soccer match
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Police firing tear gas after an Indonesian soccer match in an attempt to stop violence triggered a disastrous crush of fans that has left at least 125 people dead. Attention immediately focused on police crowd-control measures at Saturday night’s match between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya. Witnesses described officers beating them with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation of security procedures and the president of FIFA called the deaths “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.” While FIFA has no control over domestic games, it has advised against the use of tear gas at soccer stadiums.
EXPLAINER: What’s behind Indonesia’s deadly soccer match?
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Violence, tear gas and a deadly crush that erupted following a domestic league soccer match Saturday night marked another tragedy in Indonesian football. Emotions often run high for sports fans, and Indonesia is no stranger to soccer violence. Saturday’s chaos occurred when a disappointing loss led to fans throwing objects and swarming the soccer pitch, then to police firing tear gas, which led to a crush of people trying to escape. At least 125 have died. Indonesia’s soccer association has banned host team Arema from hosting matches for the remainder of the season.
Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones. This comes as Ukraine has pushed ahead with its counteroffensive that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Ukraine took back control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which Russia had been using as a transport and logistics hub. That’s a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine. Photos circulating online pointed to some battlefield movement for Ukraine, showing Ukrainian soldiers entering what appeared to be newly retaken settlements in the south and east. Pope Francis, meanwhile, on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats against the West and appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”
Florida deaths rise to 47 amid struggle to recover from Ian
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers have evacuated stunned survivors cut off by Hurricane Ian on Florida’s largest barrier island, and the state’s death toll has risen sharply amid recovery efforts. Hundreds of thousands of people are still sweltering without power in the state, days after Ian’s rampage from Florida to the Carolinas. Florida now has 47 confirmed deaths. Ian was one of the strongest U.S. hurricanes on record when the Category 4 monster smashed ashore at midweek. Many storm victims were left isolated with limited cellphone service and lacking basic amenities like water and power. As of Sunday morning, nearly 850,000 customers in Florida were still without electricity.
Brazil holds historic election with Lula against Bolsonaro
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilians are voting in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years. The race pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recent polls have given da Silva a commanding lead, pointing to a chance that he might win the first round outright, without need for a runoff. Da Silva would have to get more than 50% of the votes cast Sunday, topping the total vote for Bolsonaro and the other nine candidates.
Poor Florida neighborhood battered by flood tries to recover
HARLEM HEIGHTS, Fla. (AP) — The Gladiolus Food Pantry usually hands out supplies on Wednesdays to about 240 families. But when Hurricane Ian swept through last week it canceled their distribution and laid waste to much of their supplies. Food bank founder and director Miriam Ortiz couldn’t even get out of her nearby house the day after Ian because of the floodwaters. Over the weekend, she and volunteers were cleaning up while people from around the region were dropping off food and other supplies to donate to families in need. Ortiz says many of the people the pantry serves were already struggling with rising rents and inflation before the hurricane hit.
Defendant to represent himself in Wisconsin parade trial
A Wisconsin man accused of killing six people and injuring dozens more when he allegedly drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee last year is set to go on trial Monday. Darrell Brooks faces nearly 80 charges in the 2021 disaster in Waukesha. Prosecutors promised to present extensive video of the SUV plowing through the crowd, and the trial had looked like a straightforward proceeding. But the judge last week allowed Brooks to represent himself. Brooks has no legal training but will get the opportunity to cross-examine victims, police officers and anyone else who testifies. Legal experts warn it could quickly become chaotic and painful for witnesses.
Trump: ‘King’ to some in Pennsylvania, but will it help GOP?
MONONGAHELA, Pa. (AP) — The enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s unique brand of nationalist populism has cut into traditional Democratic strongholds in places such as Monongahela in western Pennsylvania. That’s where House Republicans recently outlined their election-year campaign agenda, called “Commitment to America.” They’re hoping they can tap into the same political sentiment Trump used to attract voters. But it’s not clear whether the support that propelled Trump to the White House will be there on Election Day this November. Just as challenging for the Republican Party is whether Trump’s false claims of voter fraud will hurt the GOP if voters decide to sit out the election.
Election officials brace for confrontational poll watchers
GOLDSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Local election officials across the United States are bracing for a wave of confrontations on Election Day in November. Emboldened Republican poll watchers, including many who embrace former President Donald Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election, are expected to flood election offices and polling places. The Republican Party and conservative activists have been holding poll watcher training sessions, but in many states they’ve barred the media from observing those sessions. Some Republican-led states passed laws after the 2020 election that require local election offices to allow poll watchers and give them expanded access to observe and challenge ballots.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Saturday Night Live Starts New Season By Tackling Changes
‘Saturday Night Live’ Starts New Season By Tackling Changes https://digitalarizonanews.com/saturday-night-live-starts-new-season-by-tackling-changes/
“Saturday Night Live” kicked off its 48th season with a cold open that acknowledged an off-season of change in which several stars departed and a team of newcomers joined the huddle.
The show began with a parody of ESPN2’s “ManningCast” where former Giant Eli Manning and his superstar brother Peyton Manning offer analysis of each week’s Monday Night Football game. But on “SNL,” the pair, featuring “Top Gun” star Miles Teller playing an uncanny version of the latter Manning, pretended to analyze a sketch featuring cast members that will be seen on NBC every Saturday night in coming months. That fake sketch focused on Donald Trump’s family’s various shenanigans, which Teller’s character immediately called out as a tired idea.
Mad Men” star and repeat “SNL” host John Hamm (c) helped kick off the new season, which included a performance by musical guest Kendrick Lamar. (NBC/SNL)
That sketch started with “rookie” cast member Michael Longfellow appearing on screen with veteran performer Heidi Gardner, who joined the show in 2017. The Manning brothers skewer Longfellow’s deliberately awkward debut.
“That might be the only time we see him tonight,” said Andrew Dismukes, playing Eli Manning.
When Teller asks why the bit included no fun impressions like Anthony Fauci, Lindsay Graham or Rudy Giuliani, he’s reminded those impersonations were previously performed by Kate McKinnon, who was one of the several stars deciding not to return following “SNL’s” 47th season. Other comics not returning include Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd, Alex Moffat and Aristotle Athari.
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The opening sketch included an appearance by returning cast member Bowen Yang that was, by design, not impressive. Teller joked that Yang was clearly feeling the pressure of being a returning cast member who’ll be counted on to deliver laughs.
“The show’s in a rebuilding year, for sure,” Teller said.
A sketch focused on Donald Trump’s family’s various shenanigans. (NBC/SNL)
“Mad Men” star and repeat “SNL” host John Hamm helped kick off the new season, which included a performance by musical guest Kendrick Lamar.
Holding down the “Weekend Anchor” desk for an eighth straight year together were Michael Che and Colin Jost, who are the longest tenured hosts that segment has seen.
The 48th season of “SNL,” opened under an air of uncertainty not typically associated with the long-running sketch-comedy program.
During a December interview on CBS, producer Lorne Michael said he was committed to seeing the show through to its 50 year anniversary, but said, “I have a feeling that’d be a really good time to leave.”
Musical guests Willow and Meghan Thee Stallion will reportedly appear in upcoming episodes with the latter expected to also serve as a host.
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Florida Death Toll Climbs As Aftermath Of Ian Reverberates
Florida Death Toll Climbs As Aftermath Of Ian Reverberates https://digitalarizonanews.com/florida-death-toll-climbs-as-aftermath-of-ian-reverberates/
Florida residents continue to grapple with floodwaters yet to recede and search efforts underway as the state comes to terms with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the U.S. mainland.
The confirmed death toll, currently 48, is expected to rise, as more autopsies are completed and recovery efforts continue, and President Biden warned Ian could be Florida’s deadliest hurricane ever.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden are planning to travel to Puerto Rico on Monday and to Florida on Wednesday to tour hurricane damage in two places that have been significantly affected, the White House announced late Saturday night.
Florida National Guard troops relied on high-water vehicles to drop off rescued residents at a church in North Port on Saturday.
Connie Cullison, 67, said she was finally picked up Saturday afternoon, after she had initially called for help Friday night. The rising water had cut off access to her home, and Cullison needs a walker to get around after having knee replacement surgery.
“My house has minor damage but we just have no power, no water, no food,” Cullison said after she was brought to the church. “But there are people so much worse off than me.”
Florida’s Medical Examiners Commission said Saturday night that the storm had resulted in 44 deaths in the state, most of them due to drowning. Many were over 60 years old. Bodies were found inside flooded cars, floating in waters and drowned on the beach. That number is expected to grow as rescuers comb through debris and medical examiners conduct autopsies. There were four storm-related deaths in North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said.
Officials said 30 of the victims in Florida were found in Lee County, which includes Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Cape Coral. The county does not have running water, and nearly 70 percent of the county is without power.
Across the southwest and central regions of the state, about 800,000 homes and businesses remained without power on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. In North Carolina, more than 26,000 customers are without power.
Meanwhile, several bridges were destroyed, complicating rescue efforts. The causeway to Sanibel, a 12-mile barrier island, was rendered impassable, cutting the island off from the mainland.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told ABC News “This Week” that the island will be uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. “I think our priority now is to identify the people that remain on Sanibel who wanted to stay there, but eventually have to come off because there’s just no way to continue with life there. There’s no way to restore the power. There’s no economy there. At some point they’ll have to be moved,” Rubio said, adding that it will take “a couple of years at least” to rebuild the bridge.
Rubio said the total damage was more devastating than anything he could recall in Florida history. “Fort Myers Beach no longer exists. It’ll have to be rebuilt,” he said. “It was a slice of old Florida that you can’t recapture,” he said.
Speaking on the same program, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell said emergency workers are “still actively in the search and rescue phase” and going “through every home to make sure that we don’t leave anybody behind.”
Residents on Sanibel were told to evacuate before the storm but questions have been raised about how long officials in Lee County took to make evacuation decisions amid uncertain forecasts.
Those who decided to ride out the major hurricane from their homes have begun to share their stories of camaraderie and loss in the wake of the storm.
A further challenge to clean up and rescues, major flooding is also expected to continue through next week across portions of central Florida, causing more destruction. Already, the storm is estimated to have caused more than $60 billion in property loss in Florida.
The National Hurricane Center issued its last advisory for Post-Tropical Cyclone Ian Saturday night, forecasting flooding in central Florida, as well as up to three inches of rain in parts of West Virginia and western Maryland into Sunday morning.
Major flood warnings have shut down roads stretching from Kissimmee River to St. Johns River watersheds in Central Florida. The National Weather Service is concerned that some places like East Lake Tohopekaliga and Lake Tohopekaliga will have more flooding in the coming days, leading to more waterlogged areas downstream for inland areas like Orlando.
The Myakka River, reaching a record high, washed over Interstate 75, closing the major highway before it was reopened Saturday afternoon. Officials are continuing to monitor the river’s levels.
Water has already inundated buildings as far north as homes in Astor near St. Johns and south as a retirement community in Kissimmee, outside of Orlando.
Tim Craig, Matt Viser and Matt Brown contributed to this report.
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