Five Takeaways From Likely Last Jan. 6 Hearing https://digitalarkansasnews.com/five-takeaways-from-likely-last-jan-6-hearing/ The House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, held what may be its final public hearing on Thursday, seeking to put a fine point on its argument that the violence that day was fueled by former President Trump’s words and actions. The hearing featured no live witnesses, but did include a plethora of new evidence from recent depositions, video footage and material turned over by the Secret Service. It culminated in the committee voting to subpoena Trump, a move that the former president will assuredly resist. Here are five takeaways. Panel takes big step with subpoena The committee took the remarkable step of issuing a subpoena for testimony from Trump, making the decision after months of wavering on whether to compel cooperation from the bombastic former president. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the subpoena was a matter of getting a thorough accounting of the events around Jan. 6, but also a matter of ensuring Trump is held accountable for his conduct. ​​“He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6. So we want to hear from him. The committee needs to do everything in our power to tell the most complete story possible,” Thompson said, shortly before the panel cast a unanimous 9-0 vote in favor of issuing the subpoena. “We also recognize that a subpoena to a former president is a serious and extraordinary action. That’s why we want to take this step in full view of the American people, especially because the subject matter at issue is so important to the American people and the stakes are so high for our future and our democracy.” The move marks a major escalation in the effort to hold Trump to account for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — a riot the committee contends was orchestrated by the former president.  The subpoena is not likely to yield fruit, however, at least not in the near term, as Trump has remained defiant throughout the 16-month investigation and is expected to challenge the subpoena in the courts. Within an hour of the panel gaveling out, Trump shot back on social media. “Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total “BUST” that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly – A laughing stock all over the World?” he wrote. If he fails to comply, the committee and then the full House could vote to hold Trump in contempt of Congress, sending a criminal referral to the Justice Department.  The motion to subpoena Trump was introduced by Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who lost her recent reelection bid after becoming a critic of the former president and the GOP for their response to Jan. 6.  New video shows drama from leadership hideout While much of Thursday’s hearing served as a synthesis of the committee’s work in demonstrating Trump’s role before and during the attack on the Capitol, one of the most striking pieces of new evidence came in the form of video footage of congressional leaders huddling in secure locations after the mob had breached the complex. The footage showed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the phone with then-Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), then-Vice President Mike Pence, former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen as they tried to restore order and gather information. “Oh my gosh,” Pelosi told Northam as she watched footage of the riot. “They’re just breaking windows, they’re doing all, all, kinds of, I mean it’s really, that somebody, they said somebody was shot.” “It’s just, it’s just horrendous. And all at the instigation of the president of the United States,” she added. In another clip, Pelosi is shown talking to House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) as someone informs her that members on the floor are putting on gas masks. “Do you believe this?” she asks. In a clip filmed at 3 p.m., Schumer tells Pelosi “I’m gonna call up the effing secretary of [Defense].” The footage, which had not previously been made public, provided a glimpse at the frantic situation behind the scenes as lawmakers grappled with the violence on Jan. 6.  The panel has repeatedly sought to emphasize comments from the likes of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others who, in the immediate aftermath of the riot, said Trump bore some of the blame for the day’s events. Trump’s plan to declare victory was months in the making The committee presented new evidence to bolster its case that Trump’s plan to declare victory, regardless of ongoing vote counting in various states, was premeditated for months before Election Day 2020. The committee displayed a memo sent from Tom Fitton, a conservative activist, to two White House officials dated Oct. 31, 2020. The document outlined what Trump should say on Election Day, when experts predicted Trump would take an early lead over now-President Biden before mail-in and absentee ballots were counted and some states began tilting toward the Democrat. “We had an election today—and I won,” Fitton wrote in the memo. “The ballots counted by the election day deadline show the American people have bestowed on me the great honor of reelection as president of the United States,” Fitton wrote. Brad Parscale, a former top Trump campaign official, told the committee that Trump had planned as early as July 2020 that he would say he won the election, even if he lost.  Parscale served as campaign manager until July 2020, when he was demoted and replaced by Bill Stepien. Steve Bannon, another former Trump adviser, said in an Oct. 31 recording played Thursday that Trump would “just declare victory,” adding that if Biden was winning, Trump would do “some crazy shit.” “This big lie, President Trump’s effort to convince Americans that he had won the 2020 election, began before the election results even came in,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said. “It was intentional, it was premeditated, it was not based on election results or any evidence of actual fraud affecting the results or any actual problems with voting machines.” Messages show Secret Service knew of risks of violence The committee publicized freshly obtained communications from the Secret Service showing agents were aware of concerns about violence leading up to that day and knew some in the crowd were armed. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the committee obtained “nearly one million emails, recordings and other electronic records from the Secret Service.” “The documents we obtained from the Secret Service make clear that the crowd outside the magnetometers was armed, and the agents knew it,” Schiff said. Schiff read off several messages in chats among Secret Service agents and emails exchanged among the agency. He displayed one intelligence summary from late December 2020 that included online chatter about occupying federal buildings and “intimidating Congress and invading the Capitol building.” A Dec. 26, 2020, email from the Secret Service showed the agency had a tip that the Proud Boys, a far-right group, planned to march on the Capitol and felt it had a large enough group to overwhelm law enforcement. A Jan. 5 email from a deputy Secret Service chief instructed agents to add certain objects to a list of items that supporters could not bring into a rally on the Ellipse near the White House planned for Jan. 6, including ballistic vests, tactical vests and ballistic helmets. Messages from agents displayed Thursday also showed they were aware of online chatter making threats against then-Vice President Mike Pence. One message showed Secret Service agents reacting in real time after Trump tweeted criticism of his vice president, with one noting it was probably “not going to be good for Pence” and another expressing alarm that the tweet had gotten over 20,000 likes in just minutes. The committee issued the Secret Service a subpoena in July after the panel and agency became involved in controversy, partially due to reports that some text messages sent by Secret Service agents on Jan. 6 had been missing. Panel faces dwindling time to take action The midterm elections are less than a month away, and with Republicans expected to regain the majority, the panel is likely to be disbanded. As a result, the pressure is on for the committee to make the most of the time it has left. Committee members signaled during Thursday’s hearing that they still have some remaining business to pursue during the remainder of this congressional session. Cheney said the committee “may ultimately decide to make a series of criminal referrals to the Department of Justice,” though she noted decisions about prosecution rest with them. She also said the committee may make a “range of legislative proposals to guard against another Jan. 6.” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said Thursday the committee is reviewing testimony for the possibility of obstruction involving the Secret Service, including the potential that some in the agency were advised not to tell the panel about Trump’s alleged outburst in the presidential SUV after being told he would not be taken to the Capitol on Jan. 6.  “After concluding its review of the voluminous additional Secret Service communications from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, the committee will be recalling witnesses and conducting further investigative depositions based on that material. Following that activity, we will provide ever greater detail in our final report,” Aguilar said. Much of the attention will likely shift in the coming weeks to the Department of Justice and how they handle any recommendations from the panel. The departm...

Social Security COLA 2023, Live Online Today: Increase, Benefits And Adjustment | SSA Latest News https://digitalarkansasnews.com/social-security-cola-2023-live-online-today-increase-benefits-and-adjustment-ssa-latest-news/ Update: October 14th, 2022 07:29 EDT 2023 COLA based on CPI-W beats inflation for index based on elederly spending habits There has been a push to change the way that the annual automatic increase, if any, is calculated through the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The Social Security Administration currently uses the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). This broad basket of goods and services that consumers spend their money on is said not to reflect properly what seniors are spending their money on and causing retirees to lose purchasing power.  There have been calls for the Consumer Price Index for Americans 62 years of age and older (CPI-E) to be used instead. While the data hasn’t been published yet, the 8.7 percent COLA announced Tuesday beat the August-to-August CPI-E by a full percentage point according to Jaime Hopkins from the Carson Group. Despite record 8.7% COLA for 2023, “Still more work to do to help seniors” The Social Security Administration announced a historic 8.7 percent COLA increase for benefits in 2023. The extra money each month will help recipients cope with inflation to a degree when it arrives with January’s payments. However, there are concerns that more needs to be done especially in the case of seniors to make the COLA more responsive to the expenses they face that aren’t used in the current calculation. The current COLA uses inflation figures from the CPI-W, a broad basket of consumer goods and services. There are calls to use the CPI-E which targets goods and services that “would more accurately measure spending patterns of seniors.” The Senior Citizens League reported recently that since the early 2000s, those on Social Security have lost forty percent of their purchasing power. Without SSA COLA beneficiaries would lose purchasing power Prices continually rise over time but Social Security benefits didn’t always adjust to the increased cost of living recipients faced on a daily basis. Prior to 1975 it took an Act of Congress to give benefits a boost. Since then monthly checks paid out by the Social Security Administration have been adjusted automatically each year to reflect general inflation being experienced by consumers for goods and services. Social Security Administration announces historic 8.7% COLA 2023 increase The Social Security Administration has announced a nearly 9% cost-of-living adjustment, the biggest increase since 1981, affecting the benefits received by over 70m Americans. Welcome to AS USA 2023 COLA increase updates Hello and welcome to AS USA’s live blog on the 2023 Social Security COLA increase for Friday, 14 October.  The Social Security Adminstration announced the 2023 Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for social security benefits, for programs like Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance. Other government pension and benefits programs will also be affected by the 8.7% increase. The COLA offered for next year is historic in size after inflation has plagued markets for basic commodities consumed by most households, including food, shelter, utilities, and gasoline.   Tagged in: Seguridad Social Inflación Estados Unidos Pensión jubilación Ayuda económica Read More Here

UK's Truss Has Fired Kwarteng – BBC https://digitalarkansasnews.com/uks-truss-has-fired-kwarteng-bbc/ Kwarteng leaves IMF meeting early Pressure mounts for a U-turn over tax policy Pound, bond prices recovering PM Truss now faces political fight LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Liz Truss has fired her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng, the BBC reported on Friday, shortly before she is expected to scrap parts of his economic package in a bid to survive the market and political turmoil gripping the country. Downing Street confirmed that Truss, in power for only 37 days, would hold a press conference later on Friday after Kwarteng was forced to rush back to London from IMF meetings in Washington to address the chaos. The BBC said Kwarteng had been sacked. Downing Street declined to comment. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com If that is confirmed, Kwarteng would become Britain’s shortest serving chancellor since 1970, and his successor would be the country’s fourth finance minister in as many months. British government bonds rallied further on Friday, adding to their partial recovery since Truss’s government started looking for ways to balance the books after her unfunded tax cuts crushed UK asset values and drew international censure. Kwarteng had announced a new fiscal policy on Sept. 23, delivering Truss’s vision for vast tax cuts and deregulation to try to shock the economy out of years of stagnant growth. But the response from markets was so ferocious that the Bank of England had to intervene to prevent pension funds from being caught up in the chaos, as borrowing and mortgage costs surged. The duo have since been under mounting pressure to reverse course, as polls showed support for their Conservative Party had collapsed, prompting colleagues to openly discuss whether they should be replaced. Having triggered a market rout, Truss now runs the risk of bringing the government down if she cannot find a package of public spending cuts and tax rises that can appease investors and get through any parliamentary vote in the House of Commons. Her search for savings will be made harder by the fact the government has been cutting departmental budgets for years. At the same time the Conservative Party’s discipline has all but broken down, fractured by infighting as it struggled first to agree a way to leave the European Union and then how to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and grow the economy. “If you can’t get your budget through parliament you can’t govern,” Chris Bryant, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party, said on Twitter. “This isn’t about u-turns, it’s about proper governance.” Downing Street has so far declined to comment but Kwarteng had not been expected to appear at Truss’s news conference later on Friday, fuelling speculation about his future. During his time in the United States Kwarteng had been told by the head of the International Monetary Fund of the importance of “policy coherence”, underlining how far Britain’s reputation for sound economic management and institutional stability had fallen. Shortly before 11 a.m. (10:00 GMT) Britain’s television news channels switched to carry live footage of a British Airways plane landing at Heathrow, carrying Kwarteng. In Westminster, Truss was trying to find agreement with her cabinet ministers on a way to preserve her push for growth while also reassuring the markets and working out which of the measures could be supported by her lawmakers in parliament. Earlier a minister in the trade department, Greg Hands, had said people wanting details on the budget would have to wait until Oct. 31 when Kwarteng was due to set out his full plan alongside independent forecasts that will show the cost of the tax cuts to the public finances and whether they will boost economic growth. Critics of the government had said that wait was unacceptable. Rupert Harrison, a portfolio manager at Blackrock and once an adviser to former British finance minister George Osborne, said markets have now almost fully priced in a U-turn. “(That) means if the U-turn doesn’t come markets will react badly,” he said on Twitter. INTERNATIONAL CREDIBILITY A Conservative Party lawmaker, who asked not to be named, said Truss’s economic policy had caused so much damage that investors may demand even deeper cuts to public spending as the price for their support. “Everything’s possible at the moment,” said the lawmaker, who backed Sunak in the leadership race. “Problem is the markets have lost trust in the Conservative Party – and who can blame them?” Another lawmaker told Reuters earlier this week that Truss needed to appreciate that there was not a huge amount of enthusiasm for her at the moment. According to a source close to the prime minister, Truss is now in “listening mode” and inviting lawmakers to speak to her team about their concerns to gauge which parts of the programme they would support in parliament. Credit Suisse economist Sonali Punhani said markets needed to see a credible fiscal plan, with the government needing to find around 60 billion pounds through tax cut U-turns and further spending cuts. “It would be challenging to deliver the scale of these cuts, but for them to be credible, these need to be delivered sooner rather than in the latter part of the forecast,” Punhani said. One policy that is expected to be reversed is their plan to hold corporation tax rates at 19%. That had formed a key part of their package after Sunak proposed increasing it to 25% when he was finance minister under Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson. That could save 18.7 billion pounds by 2026/27. The latest bout of political drama to grip Britain comes as the Bank of England prepares to end its intervention in the gilt market. ($1 = 0.8869 pounds) Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Writing by Kate Holton; additional reporting by Sarah Young, David Milliken and Muvija M; Editing by Michael Holden, Catherine Evans and Hugh Lawson Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Saudis Say US Sought 1 Month Delay Of OPEC+ Production Cuts https://digitalarkansasnews.com/saudis-say-us-sought-1-month-delay-of-opec-production-cuts/ DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia said Thursday that the U.S. had urged it to postpone a decision by OPEC and its allies — including Russia — to cut oil production by a month. Such a delay could have helped reduce the risk of a spike in gas prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections next month. A statement issued by the Saudi Foreign Ministry didn’t specifically mention the Nov. 8 elections in which U.S. President Joe Biden is trying to maintain his narrow Democratic majority in Congress. However, it stated that the U.S. “suggested” the cuts be delayed by a month. In the end, OPEC announced the cuts at its Oct. 5 meeting in Vienna. Holding off on the cuts would have likely delayed any rise in gas prices until after the elections. Rising oil prices — and by extension higher gasoline prices — have been a key driver of inflation in the U.S. and around the world, worsening global economic woes as Russia’s months-long war on Ukraine also has disrupted global food supplies. For Biden, gasoline prices creeping up could affect voters. He and many lawmakers have warned that America’s longtime security-based relationship with the kingdom could be reconsidered. The decision by the Saudi Foreign Ministry to release a rare, lengthy statement showed how tense relations between the two countries have become. The White House pushed back on Thursday, rejecting the idea that the requested delay was related to the U.S. elections and instead linking it to economic considerations and Russia’s war on Ukraine. “We presented Saudi Arabia with analysis to show that there was no market basis to cut production targets, and that they could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting to see how things developed,” said John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council. “Other OPEC nations communicated to us privately that they also disagreed with the Saudi decision, but felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction,” he added, without naming the countries. U.S.-Saudi ties have been fraught since the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which Washington believes came on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Meanwhile, higher energy prices provide a weapon Russia can use against the West, which has been arming and supporting Ukraine. The statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry acknowledged that the kingdom had been talking to the U.S. about postponing OPEC+’s 2 million barrel cut announced last week. “The government of the kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the U.S. administration that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences,” the ministry said in its statement. The ministry’s statement confirmed details from a Wall Street Journal article this week that quoted unnamed Saudi officials saying the U.S. sought to delay the OPEC+ production cut until just before the midterm elections. The Journal quoted Saudi officials as describing the move as a political gambit by Biden ahead of the vote. The kingdom also criticized attempts to link its decision to Russia’s war on Ukraine. “The kingdom stresses that while it strives to preserve the strength of its relations with all friendly countries, it affirms its rejection of any dictates, actions, or efforts to distort its noble objectives to protect the global economy from oil market volatility,” it said. “Resolving economic challenges requires the establishment of a non-politicized constructive dialogue, and to wisely and rationally consider what serves the interests of all countries.” Both Saudi Arabia and the neighboring United Arab Emirates, key producers in OPEC, voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution Wednesday to condemn Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of four Ukrainian regions and demand its immediate reversal. In Congress, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who long has been critical of Saudi Arabia, proposed a new freeze on military aid to the kingdom. He suggested stopping a planned transfer of surface-to-air missiles to Riyadh and instead sending them to Ukraine, which has faced a renewed barrage of Russian fire in recent days. Saudi Arabia has been targeted by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who hold that country’s capital amid the long, grinding war in the Arab world’s poorest country. American air defenses have been crucial in downing Houthi-launched, bomb-carrying drones targeting the kingdom. Once muscular enough to grind the U.S. to a halt with its 1970s oil embargo, OPEC needed non-members like Russia to push through a production cut in 2016 after prices crashed below $30 a barrel amid rising American production. The 2016 agreement gave birth to the so-called OPEC+, which joined the cartel in cutting production to help stimulate prices. The coronavirus pandemic briefly saw oil prices go into negative territory before air travel and economic activity rebounded following lockdowns around the world. Benchmark Brent crude sat over $92 a barrel early Wednesday, but oil-producing nations are worried prices could sharply fall amid efforts to combat inflation. Biden, who famously called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” during his 2020 election campaign, traveled to the kingdom in July and fist-bumped Prince Mohammed before a meeting. Despite the outreach, the kingdom has been supportive of keeping oil prices high in order to fund Prince Mohammed’s aspirations, including his planned $500 billion futuristic desert city project called Neom. Prince Mohammed and his father, King Salman, hosted former President Donald Trump on his first trip abroad and enjoyed a closer relationship with his administration. Yet even Trump pressured the kingdom over oil production, once telling a crowd that King Salman “might not be there” without U.S. military support. On Tuesday, Biden warned of repercussions for Saudi Arabia over the OPEC+ decision. “There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done, with Russia,” Biden said. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be — there will be consequences.” ___ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. Read More Here

Letter: Stopping The Violence https://digitalarkansasnews.com/letter-stopping-the-violence/ Published: 10/14/2022 7:00:58 AM Read More…

PREP FOOTBALL: Fayetteville https://digitalarkansasnews.com/prep-football-fayetteville/ Fayetteville junior Drake Lindsey (5) throws a pass during the Bulldogs’ game against Rogers on Sept. 30 at Whitey Smith Stadium in Rogers. Lindsey, a first-year starter, has passed for 2,130 yards and 21 touchdowns for the Bulldogs, who travel to Bentonville tonight. (Special to NWA Democrat-Gazette/Brent Soule) FAYETTEVILLE — Drake Lindsey doesn’t get caught up in the significance of the name on the back of his football jersey. The junior quarterback is more focused on the name on the front of his No. 5 Fayetteville jersey. Lindsey (6-3, 200 pounds) is proud of the legacy associated with his last name, the grandson of former University of Arkansas player Jim Lindsey, who later played for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings. Drake said he is trying to chart his own course, and so far, based on the statistics he’s put up this season, he’s setting a fast pace. “When I’m playing, I try not to think about any of that, just try to go out there and play my game,” said Drake. “I just try to play to prove who Drake Lindsey is and try to be the best Drake Lindsey.” Six games into his career as a starting quarterback, he is proving quite a lot after earning the starting job in the summer. Heading into tonight’s big 7A-West Conference showdown at Bentonville, Lindsey is 140-of-216 passing for 2,130 yards. His touchdown-to-interception ratio is off the charts at 21 touchdowns with one interception and his quarterback rating is 127.7. He is coming off statistically his best game of the season in last week’s 60-20 win against Fort Smith South-side at Razorback Stadium. Lindsey was 24-of-36 passing for 401 yards and five touchdowns. It was the third time this season he has tossed four or more touchdown passes in a game. Fayetteville (4-2, 2-1 7A-West) graduated a ton of offensive talent from last year’s 7A state runner-up team including stellar quarterback Bladen Fike, who passed for 4,098 yards and signed with Missouri State. Even Bulldogs coach Casey Dick has been surprised that not only has Fayetteville’s offense not skipped a beat, but it’s also actually out-pacing last year’s production. Last season the team averaged 327.8 yards passing per game. This year, the Bulldogs are averaging 362.5 yards per game through the air. “It’s kind of shocking statistically,” said Dick. “I think anybody from the outside would say that strictly because of who we lost, like Isaiah (Sategna) and Jalen (Blackburn) and (Dylan) Kittell and Bladen Fike. But these guys have done a great job of preparing every week and going out and playing football.” While the loss of three stellar receivers and a strong-armed quarterback would be enough to cause any team to take a step back, these Bulldogs have actually thrived with new faces in key roles. Lindsey has a deep arsenal at his disposal in the passing game, led by senior Kaylon Morris (6-2, 190) who missed most of last season after being involved in a car accident the third week of the season. Morris is a dynamic playmaker and leads the team with 51 catches for 956 yards and seven touchdowns. Junior Lach McKinney provides a strong complement to Morris with 30 catches for 429 yards and seven scores. A huge addition to the offense has been sophomore Jaison Delemar, who has excelled in the slot. The Arkansas baseball pledge has 35 catches for 510 yards and four touchdowns. “I think they each understand their role, which is a big key to having that identity,” said Dick of his receivers. “I think they all do that, and they don’t get frustrated if they don’t get a certain number of catches. If you look at each week, it’s somebody different. They just all do a great job of coming out and putting in the work to get better.” Lindsey said he developed a connection with Morris and McKinney during the summer in voluntary workouts. That is where they were able to work on their timing, and the numbers prove those days spent under the hot Arkansas sun were worth it. “I knew Kaylon could be that guy and we already knew what Lach could do,” Lindsey said. “This offseason, like from December through August, I couldn’t name how much we threw without a coach around. We threw a lot. At first, it wasn’t that great, but we just stayed after it and it got better and better. “With Jaison, because of baseball in the summer he was gone a lot, but he got back for fall camp, and I just knew he was a dude,” said Lindsey. “Like, I watched him with the ball in his hands and I knew. I mean I didn’t have a lot of chemistry with him going into the season, but I just knew he could ball.” Lindsey is no stranger to adversity. As a freshman, he suffered a season-ending left-knee injury “just horsing around playing basketball.” He was able to recover from patellar tendon surgery through stringent rehab and says his knee is stronger than it was pre-injury. He will get his first real taste of the “Battle of the ‘Villes” tonight under the lights of Bentonville’s Tiger Stadium. Last season Fayetteville ended Bentonville’s stranglehold on the 7A-West Conference, winning the program’s first league title in six decades and ending the Tigers’ 35-game conference winning streak. Bentonville (5-1, 3-0) is sitting atop the league standings. “I know the history of this game,” said Lindsey. “I saw it last year and I’m very familiar with it. I know there will be a lot of people there, so that will make it a big moment for me. I love it. I love playing in front of people. I love showing my skills and all that.” PREP RALLY DIGITAL NWA podcast/ video content online youtube.com/embed/ebqr7-Tq_WI Read More Here

Trump Subpoenaed https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-subpoenaed/ The special congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack held its ninth public hearing this year, which ended with a subpoena of former President Donald Trump. Also in the news: Debate highlights from Michigan and Wisconsin. A look at how college football coaches are in a race to make the most millions. I’m Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Did you know you can follow this newsletter via USA TODAY’s app? Download it here. Happy Friday! Now here’s the news. Up first: Looking to see scary movie this weekend? Here’s our review of “Halloween Ends.” Panel subpoenas Trump, shows new video of Pelosi as mob attacked The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack voted to subpoena former President Donald Trump Thursday after a dramatic meeting where its members presented evidence that Trump incited the assault on the Capitol even though he knew he had lost the election. The panel also unveiled recently obtained Secret Service messages and video footage, which showed how worried agents were about armed Trump supporters storming the building. Read more One thing to know: The landscape has changed since the committee’s last hearing in June following the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump. What else happened: “Watching the crazies”: One of the most important moments during Thursday’s hearing was the unveiling of text messages between Secret Service agents, who were warning each other about Trump’s supporters leading up to the attack. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter unveiled footage that showed Democrats making frantic calls, practically begging federal officials for help, while Trump watched the violence unfold on television, according to video of witnesses who testified before the panel earlier this year.  The Roger Stone of it all: The committee aired parts of a documentary by Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen which showed Roger Stone, a top Trump adviser, telling a group how the former president should say he won before the final results. The New York Lawsuit: New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a court order to block former President Donald Trump’s business from transferring assets to a newly-formed company. Russian official urges Kherson residents as Ukraine presses offense As Ukrainian forces zero in on the southern city of Kherson, occupied by Russian troops since early in the war, the Kremlin-picked leader of the Kherson province is urging civilians to “take your children and leave’’ for Russia. Vladimir Saldo said Thursday on messaging service Telegram that Kyiv is retaliating against Kherson – one of four Ukrainian regions Moscow claims to have annexed – for supposedly voting to join Russia last month in elections widely discredited as shams. Ukraine has maintained it doesn’t target its own civilians. Read more More news to know now Five people are dead, including a police officer, in a shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina, official says. U.S. health officials confirm shortage of Adderall, a medication often used for ADHD, narcolepsy. The Gulf of Mexico rose 15 feet in part of Florida as Ian drowned residents. It’s cold and flu season. Have these essentials at home before you get sick. Deshaun Watson faces a new lawsuit from a 25th woman for an alleged incident in December 2020. On today’s 5 Things podcast, hear a recap of Thursday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker. Pop quiz! President Joe Biden designated his first national monument this week. What state is it located in? Reply with your guesses and test your news knowledge with this week’s News Quiz.  What’s the weather for your weekend plans? Check your local forecast here. Michigan and Wisconsin: midterm debate takeaways Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon debated for one hour Thursday over abortion, education, school safety, the state’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the condition of Michigan’s roads. Meanwhile, the candidates went on the attack in Wisconsin. Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson met Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, and abortion was a focus, as expected. Barnes declared: “In Ron Johnson’s America, women won’t get to make the best choice for their health care.” Johnson made his continued pitch for a one-time referendum on abortion to let Wisconsin voters decide the issue. Here are our recaps from Michigan and Wisconsin. ”Ignoring racism will not solve it”: Georgia voters weigh in on Walker, Warnock and race. Victims’ families angry after Parkland shooter sentenced to life in prison Victims’ family members seated in the gallery scowled, shook their heads, or held them in their hands after jurors recommended life in prison without parole for Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to killing 17 people in the 2018 school massacre in Parkland, Florida. The 12-person jury came to a decision after seven hours of deliberations over two days, ending a three-month trial where stories of the victims’ execution were retold in graphic detail. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Cruz. Read more Just for subscribers: Post-Roe, non-pregnant people are being denied medications over ”hypothetical” conception. In the tight race for Georgia governor, Black men emerge as Stacey Abrams’ key voters. Wisconsin high school sports are in jeopardy as rising verbal abuse contributes to a shortage of referees. How to know if your partner might be gaslighting you. Phrases and words to pay attention to. These articles are for USA TODAY subscribers. You can sign up here. Already a subscriber and want premium content texted to you every day? We can do that! Sign up for our subscriber-only texting campaign. Coaches ‘arms race’ getting out of control College football boosters have been cast as wealthy, reclusive types whose past emergence from the shadows was prodded only when reporters or NCAA investigators rooted out improper benefits or payments to players. Now, they are in plain sight, and so is their involvement in getting the best coach and helping fund the big-bucks deal. This year’s annual USA TODAY Sports examination of NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches’ pay reveals a 15.3% rise in average total compensation compared to last season’s, the greatest one-year spike since the current basic methodology was put in place for the 2009 survey. Read more Why ACC commissioner Jim Phillips says “it’s time to look at” expanding NCAA tournaments? Tennessee to topple Alabama? Penn State or Michigan? Our expert picks for college football’s Week 7 Can’t read this article? That’s because it’s a premium story for USA TODAY subscribers only. If you’d like to access stories like this one, please consider subscribing.  Photo of the day: Best photos from MLB playoffs’ Division Series The Houston Astros moved within a game of their sixth consecutive American League Championship Series appearance with a 4-2 Game 2 victory Thursday over the Seattle Mariners. Astros left fielder Yordan Alvarez became the first player in major league history to hit a walk-off playoff home run and follow it up with a go-ahead homer in consecutive games. Read more Click here to see more of the best photos from the MLB playoff’s division series. One more thing Harvey Weinstein accuser Ashley Judd talks playing herself in ”validating” new drama ”She Said.” CVS cut costs of period products by 25%, pays customer ”tampon tax” in some states. How sober are these ”sober” drinks? And why are they so popular? ”Do you want to turn a blind eye to history?”: Danielle Deadwyler cautions against skipping ”Till.” Space ”fingerprint?” NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captures rings formed by star duo. Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note, shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this – subscribe to USA TODAY here. Associated Press contributed reporting. Read More Here

N Korea Fires Missile And Shells, Further Inflaming Tensions https://digitalarkansasnews.com/n-korea-fires-missile-and-shells-further-inflaming-tensions/ SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a ballistic missile and 170 rounds of artillery shells early Friday toward the sea and flew warplanes near the tense border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests. The North Korean moves suggest it is reviving an old playbook of stoking fears of war with provocative weapons tests before it seeks to win greater concessions from its rivals. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the short-range missile lifted off from the North’s capital region at 1:49 a.m. Friday (1649 GMT Thursday; 12:49 p.m. EDT Thursday) and flew toward its eastern waters. It was North Korea’s 15th missile launch since it resumed testing activities Sept. 25. North Korea said Monday its recent missile tests were simulations of nuclear strikes on South Korean and U.S. targets in response to their “dangerous” military exercises involving a U.S. aircraft carrier. After the latest missile test, North Korea fired 130 rounds of shells off its west coast and 40 rounds off its east coast. The shells fell inside maritime buffer zones the two Koreas established under a 2018 inter-Korean agreement on reducing tensions, South Korea’s military said. A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. North Korea early Friday launched a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters and flew warplanes near the border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Ahn Young-joon A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. North Korea early Friday launched a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters and flew warplanes near the border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Ahn Young-joon A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea’s military exercise during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. North Korea early Friday launched a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters and flew warplanes near the border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Ahn Young-joon Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, second left, talks to Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, right, as they gather for a cabinet meeting at Kishida’s office in Tokyo Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. North Korea early Friday fired an additional ballistic missile and 170 rounds of artillery shells toward the sea and flew warplanes near the tense border with South Korea. “Whatever the intentions are, North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches are absolutely impermissible and we cannot overlook its substantial advancement of missile technology,” Hamada said. (Keisuke Hosojima/Kyodo News via AP) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Keisuke Hosojima South Korean army soldiers walk down the stairs of a military guard post at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. North Korea early Friday fired a ballistic missile and 170 rounds of artillery shells toward the sea and flew warplanes near the tense border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Ahn Young-joon PreviousNext Observers said it was North Korea’s third and most direct violation of the 2018 agreement, which created buffer zones and no-fly areas along their land and sea boundaries to prevent accidental clashes. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it sent North Korea a message asking it not to violate the agreement again. North Korea separately flew warplanes, presumably 10 aircraft, near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There were no reports of clashes between the two countries. It was reportedly the first time that North Korean military aircraft have flown that close to the border since 2017. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea’s provocations are becoming “indiscriminative’” but that his country has massive retaliation capabilities that can deter actual North Korean assaults to some extent. “The decision to attack can’t be made without a willingness to risk a brutal outcome,” Yoon told reporters. “The massive punishment and retaliation strategy, which is the final step of our three-axis strategy, would be a considerable psychological and social deterrence (for the North).” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it imposed sanctions on 15 North Korean individuals and 16 organizations suspected of involvement in illicit activities to finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. They were Seoul’s first unilateral sanctions on North Korea in five years, but observers say they are largely a symbolic step because the two Koreas have little financial dealings between them. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters he supports South Korea’s decision to impose the sanctions. Most of the North’s recent weapons tests were ballistic missile launches that are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions. But the North hasn’t been slapped with fresh sanctions thanks to a divide at the U.N. over U.S. disputes with Russia regarding its invasion of Ukraine and with China over their strategic competition. The missile launched Friday traveled 650-700 kilometers (403-434 miles) at a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers (30 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to South Korean and Japanese assessments. “Whatever the intentions are, North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches are absolutely impermissible and we cannot overlook its substantial advancement of missile technology,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said. He said the missile flew on an “irregular” trajectory — a possible reference to describe the North’s highly maneuverable KN-23 weapon modeled on Russia’s Iskander missile. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan remains “ironclad.” Other recent North Korean tests included a new intermediate-range missile that flew over Japan and demonstrated a potential range to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam; long-range cruise missiles; and a ballistic missile fired from an inland reservoir, a first for the country. After Wednesday’s cruise missile launches, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the tests successfully demonstrated his military’s expanding nuclear strike capabilities. He said his nuclear forces were fully prepared for “actual war to bring enemies under their control at a blow” and vowed to expand the operational realm of his nuclear armed forces, according to North Korea’s state media. Some observers had predicted North Korea would likely temporarily pause its testing activities this week in consideration of its ally China, which is set to begin a major political conference Sunday that is expected to give President Xi Jinping a third five-year term as party leader. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing Friday that all related countries should work to prevent tensions from escalating and move toward restarting meaningful talks. North Korea’s ongoing testing spree is reminiscent of its 2017 torrid run of missile and nuclear tests that prompted Kim and then-U.S. President Donald Trump to exchange threats of total destruction. Kim later abruptly entered high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump in 2018 but their negotiations fell apart a year later due to wrangling over how much sanctions relief Kim should be provided in return for a partial surrender of his nuclear capability. Kim has repeatedly said he has no intentions of resuming nuclear diplomacy. But some experts say he would eventually want to win international recognition of his country as a nuclear state and hold arms control talks with the United State to wrest extensive sanctions relief and other concessions in return for partial denuclearization steps. The urgency of North Korea’s nuclear program has grown since it passed a law last month authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear weapons over a broad range of scenarios, including non-war situations when it may perceive its leadership as under threat. Most of the recent North Korean tests were of short-range nuclear-capable missiles targeting South Korea. Some analysts say North Korea’s possible upcoming nuclear test, its first bomb detonation in five years, would be related to efforts to manufacture battlefield tactical warheads to be placed on such short-range missiles. These developments sparked security jitters in South Korea, with some politicians and scholars renewing their calls for the U.S. to redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea as deterrence against intensifying North Korean nuclear threats. North Korea’s military early Friday said it took unspecified “strong military countermeasures” in response to South Korea’s artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border on Thursday. South Korea’s military later confirmed it conducted artillery training at a frontline area but said its drills didn’t violate the conditions of the 2018 agreement. Maj. Gen. Kang Ho Pil of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a televised stateme...

Trevor Noah Jokes On What The 'J' In Donald J. Trump Really Stands For – The Bharat Express News https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trevor-noah-jokes-on-what-the-j-in-donald-j-trump-really-stands-for-the-bharat-express-news/ Trevor Noah on Thursday made fun of the news that former President Donald Trump ordered an employee to move boxes of classified documents he took to his Mar-a-Lago estate after receiving a subpoena demanding their return — and the employee was reportedly caught on security camera doing so. ‘Yes, I’m sorry. Trump is a legend, who else gets caught committing crimes with their own security cameras? Who are you? How are you really?” asked the host of “The Daily Show”. The comedian then jumped into character as Trump. “Hurry up, move those classified documents so I can hide them illegally from the FBI. But first, but first, let’s all wave to that flashing red light and tell it our names, Donald J. Trump, the ‘J’ stands for genius.” Watch Noah’s monologue here: fbq(‘init’, ‘1621685564716533’); fbq(‘track’, “PageView”); var _fbPartnerID = null; if (_fbPartnerID !== null) { fbq(‘init’, _fbPartnerID + ”); fbq(‘track’, “PageView”); } (function () { ‘use strict’; document.addEventListener(‘DOMContentLoaded’, function () { document.body.addEventListener(‘click’, function(event) { fbq(‘track’, “Click”); }); }); })(); Read More Here

Hutchinson OKs School Safety Commission’s Report, Asks Arkansas Lawmakers For Assistance https://digitalarkansasnews.com/hutchinson-oks-school-safety-commissions-report-asks-arkansas-lawmakers-for-assistance/ Gov. Asa Hutchinson holds a copy of the initial report from the Arkansas School Safety Commission during a press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, at the state Capitol in Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe) Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has approved the Arkansas School Safety Commission’s final report and written a letter to the General Assembly asking for assistance in helping schools adopt the panel’s recommendations. The Republican governor’s approval on Wednesday comes after four months of meetings and discussion among the committee made up of officials from the University of Arkansas’ Criminal Justice Institute, law enforcement agencies, the mental health field and schools. “It is important to note that while the findings of the School Safety Commission are recommendations — not requirements — districts are working to implement as many measures as possible,” Hutchinson said in the letter. Recommendations were finalized last month, when commission members unanimously approved that school districts should be required to include implementation status of the recommendations in their annual reports to the public. Hutchinson has said he hopes districts will use the updated recommendations when requesting funding legislators approved from a $50 million grant program during a special session in August that will be used to address recommendations made by the commission. “The Commission also made some recommendations that would require further support from the Arkansas legislature,” Hutchinson said in his letter. “While the aforementioned $50 million in state grant monies will aid in making needed improvements to school safety, recurring funding is necessary to fully implement the findings of the report.” The safety commission also recommended changing law to allow teachers and administrators to keep classroom doors and exits locked during school hours. “Your support is necessary to making this change,” Hutchinson told the General Assembly in his letter. [RECOMMENDATIONS: Read the finalized school safety report » arkansasonline.com/1014safety/] The 24-member commission submitted more than 50 recommendations from its five subcommittees that focused on mental health and prevention; law enforcement and security; audits, emergency operations plans and drills; physical security; and intelligence and communication. The recommendations include: • A school safety unit should be formed in the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education to better ensure school districts are appropriately implementing school safety-related laws, provide supports to districts in the implementation of school safety recommendations and assist schools in identifying gaps and needed resources to fill these gaps. • Legislators should consider recurring funding for school districts to implement the commission’s recommendations. • Additional funding should be provided to the Arkansas Center for School Safety to build the capacity of the center to provide training and resources to assist school districts and law enforcement agencies meeting school safety-related laws and recommendations. • Requiring school districts to include the implementation status of the commission’s recommendations in their annual report to the public. • All exterior and classroom doors to school buildings must remain closed and locked. • School districts should develop layered, two-way communication access between staff members and administrative staff via various platforms to ensure information sharing and improved alert processes. • School districts should develop capabilities to monitor communication platforms, on school-owned devices, to include social media outlets as they relate to threats or triggering phrases used by potential active attack suspects. • Law enforcement agencies are encouraged to develop educational programs and build relationships within their communities to encourage reporting and to identify suspicious activity by those with intent to commit harm. • Establish a basic statewide school information sharing program for cybersecurity incidents and threats. • Every campus must have a school safety coordinator, who is part of the district school safety security team. • Security assessments must be conducted every three years using SITE ASSESS. • Schools should conduct routine and unannounced safety checks at least monthly to evaluate policies and procedures. • Require school districts and law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over local school districts to conduct a full-scale critical incident exercise every three years. In addition, school districts should conduct tabletop exercise and lockdown drills at least annually. • Campuses should have an armed presence when staff and children are attending class or a major extracurricular activity. • The Arkansas School Safety Commission should recognize Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training as the standard active threat response training required for all law enforcement officers and commissioned school security officers. • The AR Center for School Safety should coordinate a planning group to focus on the development and implementation of a statewide school safety anonymous or confidential tip line. • All school districts that utilize an anonymous reporting system must establish a behavioral assessment team that follows best practices for team composition and process, and require all team members receive basic and advanced behavioral threat assessment training through the Arkansas Center for School Safety. • Districts should have access to a dashboard or similar system that would facilitate student data analysis for identifying at-risk behaviors, which would provide for early intervention that could offer additional academic, social or emotional support. Each recommendation came with justifications or implementation plans, including the recommendation that all campuses have an armed presence, which was one of the most contentious proposals. “The intent of the Arkansas School Safety Commission is to have armed security within each building,” the latest report states. “Based on past events, armed responders located within school buildings reduce the time an active shooter has to freely target the innocent.” The report states most school districts have an armed presence, but not on every school campus. “If there is an armed presence, it is periodically interrupted due to the school resource officer having responsibilities elsewhere in the district, or other responsibilities within the community that removes them from the school,” the report states. Schools also can use commissioned school security officers as a replacement for school resource officers. A commissioned school security officer can be private security or a school employee who has been certified by the Arkansas State Police to carry a gun on campus. Results of the 2022 School Safety Assessment survey found there are 87 school districts using a total of 528 commissioned school security officers. “Unfortunately, 60% of districts using [commissioned school security officers] have not adopted the enhanced requirements recommended by the Commission,” the report states. The recommendation to monitor communication platforms on school-owned devices was inspired by the 2021 Secret Service Averting Targeted School Violence Report, which said plotters of school violence often shared their intentions verbally, online or through audio recordings. The commission’s intelligence and communication subcommittee was presented with information regarding the Little Rock School District’s technology monitoring program. District systems reviewed 93,870 items and spent 806 man hours during the process, and ultimately identified 77 incidents that were deemed immediate response situations. “Having the ability to monitor devices being used at school or through the use of the district’s internet system is critical,” the report states. “It is just as important that once the potential suspects are identified that law enforcement have the means and investigative knowledge in monitoring and collecting evidence from the social media platforms in a legal and ethical manner.” The state’s original school safety commission, created in March 2018, submitted 30 recommendations in its 124-page report. Under the governor’s executive order, the current commission was charged with reviewing the previous commission’s report and providing an update on the status of school safety across Arkansas. Commission members were not allowed to discuss gun restrictions or laws and were limited to making recommendations on the criteria Hutchinson set in his executive order. Read More…

Being Subpoenaed By Jan. 6 Committee Wasn't Even The Worst Of Trump's Day | CNN Politics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/being-subpoenaed-by-jan-6-committee-wasnt-even-the-worst-of-trumps-day-cnn-politics/ CNN  —  Here’s how bad Donald Trump’s day was on Thursday. The House January 6 committee voted to subpoena him after laying bare his depraved efforts to overthrow the 2020 election and his dereliction of duty as his mob invaded the US Capitol. But that wasn’t the worst of it for the former President. The committee’s dramatic, though probably futile, effort to get Trump to testify was a mic drop moment to cap its last hearing before the midterm elections and came with a warning that Trump owes the nation an explanation for a day of infamy in January 2021. The hearing featured never-before-seen footage of congressional leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, huddled in a secure location during the insurrection grappling with the implications of the pro-Trump mob’s attack on the Capitol. It also featured almost pitiful accounts of the ex-President’s desperate attempts to avoid publicly admitting he was a loser in 2020 and made a case that his full comprehension of his defeat made his subsequent actions even more heinous. But the developments that could hurt Trump the most happened off stage. They reflect the extraordinary legal thicket surrounding the ex-President, who has not been charged with a crime, and the distance still left to run for efforts to account for his riotous exit from power and a presidency that constantly tested the rule of law. While Trump has frequently defied gathering investigative storms, and ever since launching his presidential campaign in 2015 has repeatedly confounded predictions of his imminent demise, there’s a sense that he’s sliding into an ever-deeper legal hole. As the House select committee hearing went on, the Supreme Court sent word from across the road that it’s got no interest in getting sucked into Trump’s bid to derail a Justice Department probe into classified material he kept at Mar-a-Lago. The court turned down his emergency request to intervene, which could have delayed the case, without explaining why. No dissents were noted, including from conservative justices Trump elevated to the bench and whom he often seems to believe owe him a debt of loyalty. For all the political drama that surrounds the continuing revelations over one of the darkest days in modern American history on January 6, it’s the showdown over classified documents that appears to represent the ex-President’s most clear cut and immediate threat of true criminal exposure. While television stations beamed blanket coverage of the committee hearing, more news broke that hinted at further grave legal problems the ex-President could face from another Justice Department investigation – also into January 6. Unlike the House’s version, the DOJ’s criminal probe has the power to draw up indictments. Marc Short, a former chief of staff for then-Vice President Mike Pence, was spotted leaving a courthouse in Washington, DC. Short had been compelled to testify to the grand jury for the second time, according to a person familiar with the matter, CNN’s Pamela Brown reported. Another Trump adviser, former national security aide Kash Patel, was also seen walking into an area where the grand jury meets. Patel would not tell reporters what he was doing. It’s often the case that Trump’s legal threats do not come one by one but instead pile up at the same time. CNN’s Brown had reported late on Wednesday that a Trump employee had told the FBI about being directed by the ex-President to move boxes out of a basement storage room at his Florida club after Trump’s legal team received a subpoena for any classified documents. The FBI also has surveillance footage showing a staffer moving the boxes. On the face of it, this development is troubling since it could suggest a pattern of deception that plays into a possible obstruction of justice charge. On the initial search warrant before the FBI showed up at Trump’s home in August, the bureau told a judge there could be “evidence of obstruction” at the resort. Still, David Schoen, who was Trump’s defense lawyer in his second impeachment, told CNN’s “New Day” that though the details of what happened at Mar-a-Lago raised troubling questions, they did not necessarily amount to a case of obstructing justice. But he added: “If President Trump or someone acting on behalf knew … that they didn’t have the right to have these documents in their possession, the documents belonged to the government or the American people, et cetera, and knowingly disobeyed the subpoena, knowingly hid the documents or kept the documents from being found, then that could theoretically constitute obstruction.” Trump’s day of deepening legal anxiety had started off with a jolt. On Thursday morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state court to block the Trump Organization from moving assets and continuing to perpetrate what she has alleged in a civil lawsuit is a decades-long fraud. “There is every reason to believe that the Defendants will continue to engage in similar fraudulent conduct right up to trial unless checked by order of this Court,” James wrote in an application for a preliminary injunction linked to her $250 million suit against Trump, his three eldest children and his firm. Trump has branded the James probe as a stunt and denied wrongdoing. The Justice Department hasn’t charged the former President, nor anyone else in its investigation over the Capitol insurrection. The House select committee cannot bring criminal charges, although it is discussing whether to send criminal referrals to the Justice Department. Trump has also blasted the DOJ’s investigation into classified documents unearthed during the FBI search of his residence at Mar-a-Lago as a witch hunt and political persecution. Those aren’t even the only probes connected to Trump. There is also the matter of yet another investigation in Georgia over attempts by the former President and his allies to overturn the election in a crucial 2020 swing state. As always, Trump came out fighting on Thursday, one of those days when the seriousness of a crisis he is facing can often be gauged by the vehemence of the rhetoric he uses to respond. First Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich mocked the unanimous 9-0 vote in the select committee to subpoena the former President for documents and testimony. “Pres Trump will not be intimidate(d) by their meritless rhetoric or un-American actions. Trump-endorsed candidates will sweep the Midterms, and America First leadership & solutions will be restored,” Budowich wrote on Twitter. Then the former President weighed in on his Truth Social network with another post that failed to answer the accusations against him, but that was clearly designed to stir a political reaction from his supporters. “Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST,’” Trump wrote. The former President has a point in asking why the panel waited so long to call him. But his obstruction of the investigation and attempts to prevent former aides from testifying means he is on thin ice in criticizing its conduct. And it is not unusual for investigators to build a case before approaching the most prominent potential target of a probe. Given the ex-President’s history of obstructing efforts to examine his tumultuous presidency, it would be a surprise if he does not fight the subpoena, although there might be part of him that would relish a primetime spot in a live hearing. Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, warned that the former President had an obligation to explain himself. “The need for this committee to hear from Donald Trump goes beyond our fact-finding. This is a question about accountability to the American people. He must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions,” Thompson said. The subpoena could also give the bipartisan committee some cover from pro-Trump Republicans who claim that it is a politicized attempt to impugn Trump that has not allowed cross-examination of witnesses. If it wished to enforce a subpoena, the committee would have to seek a contempt of Congress referral to the Justice Department from the full House. It took such a step with Trump’s political guru, Steve Bannon, who was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress and soon faces a sentencing hearing. But any effort to follow a similar path if Trump refuses to testify could take months and involve protracted legal battles. It’s unclear whether the Justice Department would consider this a good investment, especially given the advanced state of its own January 6 probe. And there’s a good chance the committee will be swept into history anyway, with Republicans favored to take over the House majority following the midterm elections. Given the slim chance of Trump complying with a congressional subpoena then, many observers will see the dramatic vote to target the ex-President as yet another theatrical flourish in a set of slickly produced hearings that often resembled a television courtroom drama. But the committee’s Republican vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, said the investigation was no longer just about what happened on January 6, but about the future. “With every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former President, we chip away at the foundation of our Republic,” said the Wyoming lawmaker, who won’t be returning to Congress after losing her primary this summer to a Trump-backed challenger. “Indefensible conduct is defended, inexcusable conduct is excused. Without accountability, it all becomes normal, and it will recur.” Read More Here

Greenwood Game Huge On Schedule https://digitalarkansasnews.com/greenwood-game-huge-on-schedule/ Lake Hamilton’s Izic Clenney (20) sheds a tackle by Little Rock Christian’s Jacob Field (1) Sept. 9 at Wolf Stadium. – Photo by Krishnan Collins of The Sentinel-Record Lake Hamilton’s annual football game against Lakeside is important for bragging rights and a good financial payday for the home team. In statewide prestige, it doesn’t stack up with Lake Hamilton vs. Greenwood. Those conference rivals, heretofore yoked in November and once in a December championship game, adorn today’s Week 7 schedule in Arkansas high schools. It’s included among the state’s top games this week by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette whose Northwest edition writer Henry Apple, a former Hot Springs co-worker, votes in the panel. That newspaper predicted a Greenwood sweep and not, I suspect, merely because the game is in Sebastian County. Lake Hamilton is 7-0 to Greenwood’s 5-1 and the Wolves are 5-0 in 6A-West to the Bulldogs’ 4-0, but one big number is in the home team’s favor. While accounting for the roster turnovers over the years, Greenwood’s seven straight victories over Lake Hamilton must be taken into consideration. The Bulldogs have won five straight this year after opening in a 41-27 road defeat to Stillwater, Oklahoma. They have been unstoppable since a 56-53 nail-biter against Class 7A neighbor Fort Smith Northside in Week 2, averaging more than 50 points against conference rivals Mountain Home, Siloam Springs, Van Buren and Greenbrier. Not every 6A-West team compares with Greenwood, Lake Hamilton or Little Rock Christian. One local man called a Lake Hamilton September opponent “maybe the worst team I’ve ever seen.” That is not likely to be heard again this season, certainly not tonight or in three weeks when the Wolves visit Pulaski Academy (6-0, 4-0), defending Class 5A champions and along with Bryant one of the state’s diamond stick pins in prep football. Lake Hamilton’s high ranking in the state polls stems from a combination of talent, tradition, coaching and 34-19 home victory over Christian in Week 3, its conference opener. Greenbrier, where college buddy and former Harding University coach Randy Tribble is in charge, is a common opponent; the Wolves took care of a new 6A-West member 33-14 at home, after the Bulldogs traveled for a 49-21 conquest. Chris Young has kept the Greenwood tradition going after the 2018 retirement of another Harding pal, Rick Jones. The school has become something of a feeder for the University of Arkansas while Lake Hamilton’s UA connection has dried up since Grant Garrett and Matt Wait played. Greenwood, hometown of Lake Hamilton icon and former coach Jerry Clay, once beat the Wolves in the playoffs. Greenwood, whether anyone on the Wolf Street campus says so, has become the marquee opponent on Lake Hamilton’s schedule. Since becoming regular-season conference rivals in 2016, the Bulldogs have won three games each in the series home and away and 48-24 for the 2020 6A championship at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium. Last year’s 35-0 game was especially grim, Tommy Gilleran saying later his losing team was not competitive on the road a week after a one-point home loss to Benton. Gilleran, a Lake Hamilton alum, probably knows Greenwood as well as the name of his wife. With a win tonight, the Wolves would be recognized as one of Arkansas’ best — and not just in Class 6A. Greenwood is a measuring stick for a number of teams, just as Lake Hamilton has proved in Garland County. Read More Here

North Korea Fires Missile, Flies Warplanes Near Border As South Imposes Sanctions https://digitalarkansasnews.com/north-korea-fires-missile-flies-warplanes-near-border-as-south-imposes-sanctions/ SEOUL, Oct 14 (Reuters) – North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast on Friday, South Korea’s military said, the latest in a series of launches by the nuclear-armed country amid heightened tensions. South Korea also scrambled fighter jets when a group of about 10 North Korean military aircraft flew close to their heavily fortified border, and North Korea fired some 170 rounds of artillery into “sea buffer zones” off its east and west coasts, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) condemned the North for escalating tensions, calling its moves a violation of a 2018 bilateral military pact that bans “hostile acts” in the border area. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Seoul imposed its first unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang in nearly five years, blacklisting 15 North Korean individuals and 16 institutions involved in missile development. The JCS issued a warning to North Korea, urging it to stop provocations and escalating tension. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told reporters that Pyongyang has been “indiscriminately carrying out provocations,” vowing to devise “watertight countermeasures.” Yoon’s spokesman said that his government respects inter-Korean agreements, and that scrapping the 2018 military pact hinges on Pyongyang’s behaviour. North Korea’s military issued a statement via state media KCNA early on Friday saying that it took “strong military countermeasures,” over South Korea’s artillery fire on Thursday. South Korea’s NSC said the firing was a “regular, legitimate” exercise. The incidents came after KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of two long-range strategic cruise missiles on Wednesday to confirm the reliability of nuclear-capable weapons deployed to military units. The unprecedented frequency of North Korea’s missile launches has raised concerns it may be preparing to resume testing of nuclear bombs for the first time since 2017. Some analysts do not expect any tests before neighbouring China concludes a key ruling Communist Party congress, which begins on Oct. 16. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it was aware of the latest missile launch and “it does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies.” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the North’s repeated missiles tests were “absolutely unacceptable,” and his country would “drastically strengthen” its defence. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said all parties should refrain from escalating tension and resume meaningful dialogue for a political solution. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un attends the opening ceremony of the Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm to mark the anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party, in North Korea, in this undated photo released on October 11, 2022 by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA via REUTERS/File Photo FLARING TENSION South Korea’s JCS said the latest missile was launched at 1:49 a.m. on Friday (1449 Thursday GMT) from the Sunan area near North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, and flew about 700 km (435 miles) to an altitude of 50 km at a speed of Mach 6. Japan’s coast guard also reported the launch, which was at least the 41st ballistic missile test by the North this year. The JCS said the aircraft incident occurred for about two hours from 8:30 p.m. on Thursday (1130 GMT), during which about 10 North Korean warplanes flew as close as 12 km (7 miles) north of the sea border and 25 km (15 miles) north of the Military Demarcation Line. It said the South Korean air force “conducted an emergency sortie with its superior air force, including the F-35A” and a proportional response manoeuvre. South Korea’s military will hold its annual Hoguk defence drills starting next week, including field training simulated to counter the North’s nuclear and missile threats, it added. In its latest sanctions, Seoul’s finance and foreign ministries singled out four officials at the North’s military think tank, and 11 at a trading company. The 16 entities blacklisted include rocket industry and naval transport agencies, as well as trading, construction and electronic firms. They aided the North’s weapons programmes and helped evade international sanctions by conducting research or supplying finance and materials through overseas workers, smuggling and ship operations, the ministries said. The General Staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army (KPA) accused the South of taking “provocative action” with the artillery fire, which lasted about 10 hours. “The KPA sends a stern warning to the South Korean military inciting military tension in the frontline area with reckless action,” its spokesman said, according to KCNA. The flaring tension revived fears in South Korea of a potential provocation by the North. Although there were no signs of panic among South Koreans, a Gallup poll released on Friday showed more than 70% of respondents said North Korea’s missile tests threatened peace, the highest since the North’s sixth nuclear test in 2017. North Korea has called its most recent series of missile tests, including an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan last week, a show of force against South Korean and U.S. military drills involving an aircraft carrier. Washington imposed new sanctions last week targeting a fuel procurement network supporting Pyongyang’s weapons programmes. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Josh Smith and Hyonhee in Seoul and David Brunnstrom in Washington; additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo and Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Grant McCool, Lincoln Feast, Gerry Doyle and Kim Coghill Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Republicans Admit To Trump’s Crimes On Jan. 6; We Just Need To Listen https://digitalarkansasnews.com/republicans-admit-to-trumps-crimes-on-jan-6-we-just-need-to-listen/ José Luis Villegas / AP Former President Donald Trump applauds while speaking at a rally at the Minden Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nev., Oct. 8, 2022. At a rally for Nevada Republicans on Saturday, Trump argued against the federal probe into the storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate by falsely suggesting that past presidents did the same thing. Friday, Oct. 14, 2022 | 2 a.m. How much more evidence do we need? After nine hearings, hundreds of taped interviews and dozens of live witnesses, the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol presented even more damning new evidence Thursday of disgraced former President Donald Trump’s plan to overthrow democracy. And yet, as Chair Bennie Thompson noted in his opening remarks, neither the committee itself nor the Democratic Party are the source of the majority of that evidence. Rather, dozens of principled Republican members of the Trump administration, as well as state officials, saw a threat to democracy that was so great that they made the decision to testify against Trump and his co-conspirators. Some came to that testimony kicking and screaming and dragging their feet. Others had hit their limit of Trump’s blatant disregard for truth, facts and the law. Regardless of why they testified, principled Republicans from every level of government and every corner of the country have laid out a compelling case that Trump not only knew of the plan to overthrow the results of the 2020 election and install himself as president, but that he orchestrated it down to the smallest detail. Even before Election Day, Trump was already writing speeches claiming mass election fraud and working with close advisers on a scheme to toss out millions of ballots that hadn’t yet been tabulated. When that plan didn’t work, he attempted to use his authority over the Justice Department to seize and manipulate voting equipment and ballot boxes in what can only be described as straight-up fraud. The Justice Department refused and his staff implored him to pursue a different path. So he filed lawsuits seeking to get judges to throw away ballots for him. But no dice. Dozens of judges from red and blue states alike — and even a few appointed by Trump himself — ruled in more than 60 cases. They all agreed: There was no evidence to support Trump’s claims of voter fraud and no reason to change the results or hold a new election, even if they had the power to do so, which they did not. Next up were state election officials whom he pressured to disregard the will of the people and “find” 11,000 votes. Nevada’s Barbara Cegavske stood strong in the face of that pressure and was punished by Trump’s acolytes for her honorable commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law. That’s how bad it is in today’s state Republican Party: They hate you if you uphold the law. Next came the big lie, Trump’s repeated claims that the election was stolen and that the people of the United States must rise up in defense of his crazed claims. Thousands of Trump supporters came to Washington, D.C., at Trump’s behest and tried to do exactly what he told them to do — to “stop the steal” and prevent Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders elected by the people from certifying the results of the election. They carried guns and flags and wore light armor as they physically broke through the doors and windows of the Capitol like a horde of zombies in search of fresh meat. But unlike zombies, they had brains, and they made a choice to commit an act of treason. If you doubt treason and overthrowing the government was on their mind, consider this: On the day of the insurrection, the traitors hung a noose on the lawn of the Capitol from which to hang the vice president of the United States and speaker of the House. As they searched the building looking for their victims, they stopped to defecate on the floor of the Capitol — they quite literally shat on the people’s house. Shat on the Constitution and the rule of law. Now, nearly two years later, those same people want us to believe they are defenders of freedom, democracy and the Constitution. After failing in their treasonous attempts at a coup, some insurrectionists and their sympathizers want us to elect them to the offices from which they can fulfill their antidemocratic visions. A recent Washington Post analysis found that a majority of GOP candidates for federal legislative and statewide executive offices — nearly 300 candidates in total — are actively spreading the lie that Joe Biden is not the president. In other words, they are still engaged in a coup. The committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was created to provide the country with a clear, fact-based record of the events surrounding that day and to seek legislative protections going forward. By doing nothing more than asking, they have convinced dozens of Republicans to turn on certain members of their own party and testify as to just how close we came to a constitutional crisis. Yet as the committee revealed Thursday, at least 30 people involved in the incident have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Think about that for a moment. The Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination only applies in circumstances where a person believes that their testimony might implicate them in criminal activity or a criminal conspiracy. That means 30 of Trump’s closest advisers and government officials are so convinced that they were involved in a crime that they have invoked their right to remain silent. We can’t force those people to testify any more than the committee can. Nor do we expect much to come of the committee’s decision to subpoena Trump. But we can still hold those insurrectionists running for office accountable by denying them the opportunity to make a repeat attempt Nov. 8. Don’t listen to us, listen to them. They’re telling you exactly who they are, what they believe, and what they are attempting to do. All we have to do is listen and pay attention to the evidence in front of us. Read More Here

AP News Summary At 4:42 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-442-a-m-edt/ Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump, shows startling new video WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to compel the former president to appear. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, says, “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player … the man who set this all in motion.” Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the last before next month’s congressional elections, the panel presented vivid new video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders pleading for help. And it outlined Trump’s multi-part plan to overturn his 2020 election loss. Russia to evacuate Kherson residents as Ukraine advances KYIV, UKRAINE (AP) — In a sign that continuing and sustained Ukrainian military gains along the southern front are worrying the Kremlin, Russia is promising free accommodation to residents of the partially occupied Kherson region who want to evacuate to Russia. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin made the announcement shortly after the Russia-backed leader of Kherson, one of four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Moscow last month, asked the Kremlin to organize evacuation from four cities in the region. Early Friday, Russia continued its targeted attacks on critical infrastructure across Ukraine. Multiple Russian missile strikes shook the Zaphorizhzhia region capital overnight as the city continued to be a focal point while Ukraine pushed its counteroffensive on the southern front. Police: 5 killed, including officer, in N. Carolina shooting RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police in North Carolina say that the suspect who killed five people in a shooting was a juvenile male. Raleigh Police Lt. Jason Borneo said that the suspect was taken into custody around 9:37 p.m. Thursday, hours after the shooting. His identity and age weren’t released. Authorities have said that he opened fire along a walking trail in a residential area northeast of downtown. Authorities say an off-duty police officer was among those slain. Two other people, including another police officer, were taken to hospitals. The officer was later released, but the other survivor remained in critical condition. Xi’s power in China grows after unforeseen rise to dominance Read More Here

Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas Trump, Shows Startling New Video https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jan-6-panel-subpoenas-trump-shows-startling-new-video/ WASHINGTON  — The House Jan. 6 committee voted unanimously Thursday to subpoena former President Donald Trump, demanding his personal testimony as it unveiled startling new video and described his multi-part plan to overturn his 2020 election loss, which led to his supporters’ fierce assault on the U.S. Capitol. With alarming messages from the U.S. Secret Service warning of violence and vivid new video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders pleading for help, the panel showed the raw desperation at the Capitol. Using language frequently seen in criminal indictments, the panel said Trump had acted in a “premeditated” way ahead of Jan. 6, 2021, despite countless aides and officials telling him he had lost. Trump is almost certain to fight the subpoena and decline to testify. On his social media outlet he blasted members for not asking him earlier — though he didn’t say he would have complied — and called the panel “a total BUST.” Watch: Thursday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing. “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6’s central player,” said Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the committee’s vice chair, ahead of the vote. In the committee’s 10th public session, just weeks before the congressional midterm elections, the panel summed up Trump’s “staggering betrayal” of his oath of office, as Chairman Bennie Thompson put it, describing the then-president’s unprecedented attempt to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. While the effort to subpoena Trump may languish, more a nod to history than an effective summons, the committee has made clear it is considering whether to send its findings in a criminal referral to the Justice Department. In one of its most riveting exhibits, the panel showed previously unseen footage of congressional leaders phoning for help during the assault as Trump refused to call off the mob. Video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., during the breach of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, is played as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. (Alex Wong/Pool Photo via AP) Pelosi can be seen on a call with the governor of neighboring Virginia, explaining as she shelters with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and others that the governor of Maryland has also been contacted. Later, the video shows Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders as the group asks the Defense Department for help. “They’re breaking the law in many different ways,” Pelosi says at one point. “And quite frankly, much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States.” The footage also portrays Vice President Mike Pence — not Trump — stepping in to help calm the violence, telling Pelosi and the others he has spoken with Capitol Police, as Congress plans to resume its session that night to certify Biden’s election. FILE – A photo of Vice President Mike Pence talking on the phone is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) The video was from Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, a documentary filmmaker. In never-before-seen Secret Service messages, the panel produced evidence that extremist groups provided the muscle in the fight for Trump’s presidency, planning weeks before the attack to send a violent force to Washington. The Secret Service warned in a Dec. 26, 2020, email of a tip that members of the right-wing Proud Boys planned to outnumber the police in a march in Washington on Jan. 6. “It felt like the calm before the storm,” one Secret Service agent wrote in a group chat. To describe the president’s mindset, the committee presented new and previously seen material, including interviews with Trump’s top aides and Cabinet officials — including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia — in which some described the president acknowledging he had lost. Ex-White House official Alyssa Farah Griffin said Trump once looked up at a television and said, “Can you believe I lost to this (expletive) guy?” Cabinet members also said in interviews shown at the hearing that they believed that once legal avenues had been exhausted, that should have been the end of Trump’s efforts to remain in power. “In my view, that was the end of the matter,” Barr said of the Dec. 14 vote of the Electoral College. But rather than the end of Trump’s efforts, it was only the beginning — as the president summoned the crowd to Washington on Jan. 6. A video of then-President Donald Trump speaking is displayed as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. (Alex Wong/Pool Photo via AP) The panel showed clips of Trump at his rally near the White House that day saying the opposite of what he had been told. He then tells supporters he will march with them to the Capitol. That never happened. “There is no defense that Donald Trump was duped or irrational,” said Cheney. “No president can defy the rule of law and act this way in our constitutional republic, period.” Thursday’s hearing opened at a mostly empty Capitol complex, with most lawmakers at home campaigning. Several people who were among the thousands around the Capitol on Jan. 6 are now running for congressional office, some with Trump’s backing. Police officers who fought the mob filled the hearing room’s front row. Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., left, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., second from left, and the rest of the House select committee members investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol arrive for a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) The House panel said the insurrection at the Capitol was not an isolated incident but a warning of the fragility of the nation’s democracy in the post-Trump era. “None of this is normal,” Cheney said. Along with interviews, the committee is drawing on the trove of 1.5 million pages of documents it received from the Secret Service, including an email from Dec. 11, 2020, the day the Supreme Court rejected one of the main lawsuits Trump’s team had brought against the election results. “Just fyi. POTUS is pissed,” the Secret Service message said. White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, recalled Trump being “fired up” about the court’s ruling. Trump told Meadows “something to the effect of: ‘I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out,’” Hutchinson told the panel in a recorded interview. Thursday’s session served as a closing argument for the panel’s two Republican lawmakers, Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who have essentially been shunned by Trump and their party and will not be returning in the new Congress. Cheney lost her primary election, and Kinzinger decided not to run. The committee, having conducted more than 1,000 interviews and obtained countless documents, has produced a sweeping probe of Trump’s activities from his defeat in the November election to the Capitol attack. Under committee rules, the Jan. 6 panel is to produce a report of its findings, likely in December. The committee will dissolve 30 days after publication of that report, and with the new Congress in January. At least five people died in the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath, including a Trump supporter shot and killed by Capitol Police. U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, left, and Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges listen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) More than 850 people have been charged by the Justice Department, some receiving lengthy prison sentences for their roles. Several leaders and associates of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been charged with sedition. Trump faces various state and federal investigations over his actions in the election and its aftermath. ___ Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Jill Colvin, Kevin Freking and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report. Read More Here

Chilling Footage Shows Lawmakers In The Midst Of Crisis As Rioters Charge US Capitol https://digitalarkansasnews.com/chilling-footage-shows-lawmakers-in-the-midst-of-crisis-as-rioters-charge-us-capitol/ © Provided by WION The probe panel investigating the January 6 Capitol violence unveiled new footage Thursday that shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  and other leaders reacting angrily to the situation. Pelosi can be seen sheltering in a safe location as rioters storm the Capitol building. The entire thing was filmed by Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, a documentary filmmaker. “There has to be some way,” she can be seen telling colleagues. “We can maintain the sense that people have that there is some security or some confidence that government can function and that you can elect the president of the United States.” Also Read | US Capitol attack probe panel subpoenas Donald Trump Then the lawmakers on the House floor can be seen putting on tear gas masks in preparation for a breach. “Do you believe this?” Pelosi said in disbelief to another Democratic leader, Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.  At one point, she can even be heard saying “I’m gonna punch him out,” referring to Donald Trump. Outside her office, a rioter can be seen pointing her finger and shouting, “We’re coming in if you don’t bring her out.” The speaker was then taken to a room with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said, “I’m gonna call up the effin’ secretary of DoD.” The video shows the situation inside the building in real-time and how ill–prepared certain agencies were when it came to tackling the problem at hand. They can be heard using angry words for Trump whose conduct put them in the terrbile situation.  In the video, Pelosi and Schumer negotiate with governors and defense officials to try to get the National Guard to the Capitol since the police was caught in a helpless situation and was receiving violent blows from the rioters. While it took hours for the National Guard to reach the Capitol, Trump did nothing to stop the attackers. ×   “As the president watched the bloody attack unfold on Fox News from his dining room, members of Congress and other government officials stepped into the gigantic leadership void created by the president’s chilling and steady passivity that day,” said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a committee member. Schumer called acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller and told him to send in the Maryland National Guard. “They’re breaking the law in many different ways,” Pelosi tells Schumer, “And quite frankly, much of it at the instigation of the president of the United States.” Microsoft and partners may be compensated if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. Read More Here

Nancy Pelosi 'wanted To Punch Trump' If He Came To Capitol Hill – Social News XYZ https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nancy-pelosi-wanted-to-punch-trump-if-he-came-to-capitol-hill-social-news-xyz/ Washington, Oct 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly wanted to “punch (Donald) Trump in the face and go to jail if he came to Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, when supporters of the former President invaded the Congress building. A new footage of the Speaker on the day of the riot shot by her daughter Alexandra Pelosi, a documentary filmmaker, showed an enraged Nancy Pelosi at the invasion on Capitol Hill’s saying: “If he (Trump) comes, I’m going to punch him out”. “I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m going to punch him out and I’m going to go to jail and I’m going to be happy,” she said. In the footage released by CNN on Thursday evening, Nancy Pelosi and others are seen scrambling to request help to secure the Capitol. She was furious with the former President over his plans to march to the Capitol. The footage showed Nancy Pelosi watching Trump’s speech at the “Save America” rally that preceded the riot, during which he said they were all going to march to the Capitol in protest of the 2020 presidential election results, media reports said. A staffer informs the Speaker that the secret service told Trump not to join the march to the Capitol because it would not be safe, adding, “so at the moment he is not coming but that could change”. Trump ultimately did not march to the Capitol with his supporters, but that march devolved into the mob that broke into the building, forcing lawmakers to flee, CNN reported. The footage followed Nancy Pelosi as she evacuated from the building, constantly making phone calls to request help to secure the Capitol and continue the election certification process. Shewas moved to a secure location at Fort McNair, along with Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell and Representatives Steny Hoyer and Kevin McCarthy. The footage shows Nancy Pelosi and Schumer scrambling to request help from the Trump administration, including the activation of the National Guard. Some of the footage was shown publicly for the first time earlier on Thursday, during the House select committee’s hearing. During the hearing, which may be the last, the committee voted unanimously to subpoena Trump for documents and testimony. Ultimately Vice President Mike Pence called up the National Guard for help while Trump remained reportedly inactive for 187 minutes. Source: IANS About Gopi Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc. He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources. When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any. He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz Read More Here

Cabot Freshman, Hometowner Win https://digitalarkansasnews.com/cabot-freshman-hometowner-win/ Pulaski Academy’s Anna Kate Nichols defeated Bentonville’s Lauren Pleiman in a sudden-death playoff Thursday to win the girls title at the state Overall golf tournament at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock. See more photos at arkansasonline.com/1014overall/ (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff) The simple formula for success became complicated on the final hole. But in the end, Miken Ashmore still had the right total. Ashmore, a freshman from Cabot, shot 1-over 73 to capture the boys title at the state Overall golf tournament on a sunny, windy Thursday afternoon at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock. Pulaski Academy junior Anna Kate Nichols, playing in her backyard, parred the first hole in a sudden-death playoff to beat Bentonville senior Lauren Pleiman for the girls crown. Ashmore, 14, overcame a rocky closing stretch to finish one stroke ahead of his Cabot teammate, senior Easton Denney, and Episcopal Collegiate junior Jackson McLaughlin. “It was very consistent,” Ashmore said, describing his round. “I just hit the middle of the fairway and the middle of the green and two-putted — like my coach told me to do.” Ashmore was 2-under after 15 holes, but he bogeyed No. 16 and double-bogeyed No. 18, a 518-yard par 5. On the closing hole, Ashmore said his drive found the rough, just short of a bunker, and he nearly hit his second shot into water that guards the left side of the fairway. Ashmore said he found more trouble trying to reach the green and eventually missed a 12-foot bogey putt. “I thought I needed to make that putt to have a shot at it,” Ashmore said. That’s because Denney, playing in the final threesome and four groups behind Ashmore, was positioned to win the title before he double-bogeyed No. 17, a 188-yard par 3, after hitting his tee shot in the water. Denney was medalist at the Class 6A state tournament. Ashmore tied for second as Cabot’s tradition-rich program finished runner-up to Fayetteville in the team competition. “To win this as a freshman is unbelievable,” said fourth-year Panthers Coach Matt Malham, son of the school’s Hall of Fame football coach, the now-retired Mike Malham. “For Miken to win it as a freshman — what do you say? That’s such a big honor. And to play in this, to get to even come to this Overall, is a big accomplishment. To win it as a freshman is huge.” Matt Malham praised Ashmore — just 5-7, 125 pounds — for his short game and mental approach. “He can get up and down out of a lot of spots, and he’s really good with course management,” Malham said. “He knows how to get around a golf course.” Ditto for Nichols, particularly at Pleasant Valley, her home venue. Nichols and Pleiman went to a sudden-death playoff after each shot 4-over 76. The playoff began at No. 1, a 338-yard par 4, but there was little drama after Pleiman hit her tee shot out of bounds. Nichols’ drive split the fairway, placed her short approach shot on the green and two-putted for par. “Obviously, I was just trying to hit it down the middle of the fairway, just stick to my plan and not really worry about what she was doing,” Nichols said. The result enhanced an already glowing resume for Nichols, the daughter of Joey Nichols, a highly decorated player on the Arkansas State Golf Association circuit. Anna Kate Nichols has been Class 4A state medalist the past two years and tied for second in the Overall as a freshman and was fourth last year. The Overall is traditionally played at Pleasant Valley, a course Nichols estimated she’s played “close to a thousand times.” “In a way, yes,” Nichols said, when asked if playing at Pleasant Valley was an advantage. “But also, it’s your home course and feel like you should play it well, so it puts a little bit of added pressure on. I think it an advantage to be playing on your home course because you know the greens and you just know what you’re doing.” Nichols said she plans to continue her career at the University of Arkansas upon graduation from Pulaski Academy.     Easton Denney of Cabot lines up a shot during the state Overall high school golf tournament Thursday at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock. Denney, who was a medalist at the Class 6A state tournament, placed second after shooting a 74. More photos at arkansasonline.com/1014overall/ (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)     Gallery: High School Overall Championship Read More…

Jimmy Fallon Draws Wacky Parallel Between Trump And Michael Myers https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jimmy-fallon-draws-wacky-parallel-between-trump-and-michael-myers/ Jimmy Fallon tied Donald Trump to “Halloween” villain Michael Myers and a new Burger King Whopper after the former president made false claims about other presidents’ record-storing habits. Fallon weighed in on the fraudulent claims Trump made during a campaign rally on Saturday where he pushed for the investigation and prosecution of former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama along with former Democratic rival, Hilary Clinton. On Sunday, Trump claimed that George H.W. Bush “took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant,” a remark that even took Bush’s son Jeb Bush by surprise. The case Trump appeared to cite was actually one from “the National Archives and Records Administration – not the former presidents themselves,” which used secure facilities to temporarily store documents, FactCheck.org said. The Bush claim stemmed from the archive’s usage of a former bowling alley and Chinese restaurant to hold Bush’s records during the construction of his presidential library in the ’90s. “Man, this guy just will not go away. Trump’s basically the real life version of Michael Myers,” quipped Fallon. Fallon also discussed Burger King’s new Ghost Pepper Whopper, a sandwich that features ghost pepper cheese, jalapeños and an orange bun. “That thing ain’t natural. I mean, seriously, why would you want a bun that’s freakishly, orange?” Fallon joked as he flashed an image of Trump. Watch the rest of “The Tonight Show” host’s segment below: This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related… Jimmy Kimmel Spots Trump’s Most ‘Embarrassing’ Moment From Jan. 6 Hearings Debate Audience Laughs When Sen. Ron Johnson Insists He Was ‘Set Up’ By The FBI Witness Who Said Trump Ordered Mar-A-Lago Files Moved Is ID’d As Former White House Aide Read More Here

Russia’s Airstrikes, Intended To Show Force, Reveal Another Weakness https://digitalarkansasnews.com/russias-airstrikes-intended-to-show-force-reveal-another-weakness/ On Monday, Russia fired 84 missiles, many at Ukrainian civilian infrastructure targets, causing power outages in many cities. On Tuesday, Russia launched another 28 cruise missiles. And on Thursday, the Ukrainian Armed Forced General Staff said Russia had hit more than 40 settlements since the day before. In all, more than three dozen people were killed. But no matter how many times Russia fires at Ukraine, pro-war Russian nationalists want more, even though targeting civilian infrastructure is potentially a war crime. “It has to be done constantly, not just once but for two to five weeks to totally disable all their infrastructure, all thermal power stations, all heating and power stations, all power plants, all traction substations, all power lines, all railway hubs,” said Bogdan Bezpalko, a member of the Kremlin’s Council on Interethnic Relations. “Then, Ukraine will descend into cold and darkness,” Bezpalko said on state television. “They won’t be able to bring in ammunition and fuel and then the Ukrainian army will turn into a crowd of armed men with chunks of iron.” But the hawks, who are demanding publicly on TV broadcasts and on Telegram to know why Russia does not hit more high value targets, won’t like the answer: The Russian military appears to lack sufficient accurate missiles to sustain airstrikes at Monday’s tempo, according to Western military analysts. “They are low on precision guided missiles,” said Konrad Muzyka, founder of Gdansk, Poland-based Rochan Consulting said, offering his assessment of Russia’s sporadic air attacks. “That is essentially the only explanation that I have.” Even as NATO allies on Thursday said they would rush additional air defenses to Ukraine, the experts said the reason Russia had yet to knock out electricity and water service across the country was simple: it can’t. Since May, Russia’s use of precision guided missiles (PGMs) has declined sharply, with analysts suggesting then that Russian stocks of such missiles may be low. Tuesday’s attacks mainly used air-launched cruise missiles, which are slower than Iskander guided missiles and easier for Ukraine to shoot down, according to Muzyka. In March, the Pentagon reported that Russia’s air-launched cruise missiles have a failure rate of 20 to 60 percent. “If Russia had a limitless supply of PGMs, I think that they would still strike civilian targets, because that’s what the Russian way of warfare is,” Muzyka said. He said analysts did not have confirmed information about Russian missile stocks or production levels, and judgments were based on the decline in usage of PGMs and Moscow’s greater reliance on less accurate missiles. At least one person was killed in Zaporizhzhia in a new round of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine on Oct. 11, according to the State Emergency Service. (Video: The Washington Post) But a clue lies in Russia’s failure to destroy the kinds of targets that Ukraine is able to hit using U.S.-supplied HIMARS artillery. “If we take a look at what HIMARS has done to Russian supply routes, and essentially their ability to sustain war, they’ve done massive damage to Russia’s posture in this war,” Muzyka said. “So technically, you know, if the Russians had access to a large stock of PGMS, they could probably inflict a similar damage to Ukrainian armed forces, but they haven’t.” “They actually failed to,” he continued. “They even failed to interdict the main Ukrainian supply roads. They failed to destroy bridges, railway, railway intersections, and so on and so forth.” Russian President Vladimir Putin is juggling so many military problems that some Western analysts are already predicting Russia’s war will fail. Others say it remains too early to write Russia off, especially with hundreds of thousands of conscripted reinforcements potentially headed to the battlefield in coming weeks. Since day one, Russia has sustained shocking levels of battlefield casualties, battering military morale. It has suffered repeated defeats, including the failure to take Kyiv, a retreat from Snake Island, the rout in Kharkiv and loss of Lyman, a strategic transit hub. Ukrainian forces also continue to slowly recover territory in Kherson region, in their ongoing southern offensive. Russia’s military mobilization also remains in shambles, with angry draftees posting videos online almost daily, complaining of insufficient training and poor equipment. Moscow police raided hostels and cafes on Tuesday to grab men and deliver them to mobilization points, and military recruitment is continuing in Russian prisons, according to independent Russian media site SOTA. Lawrence Freedman, professor of war studies at King’s College London, wrote in a newsletter that Russia’s escalation of missile attacks on civilian targets Monday had achieved no clear military gain. “Russia lacks the missiles to mount attacks of this sort often, as it is running out of stocks and the Ukrainians are claiming a high success rate in intercepting many of those already used,” Freedman wrote. “This is not therefore a new war-winning strategy but a sociopath’s tantrum.” Putin’s “need to calm his critics also explains why he has lashed out against Ukrainian cities,” Freedman wrote. “The hard-liners have been demanding attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure for some time and they now have got what they wanted. But they will inevitably be disappointed with the results.” “These attacks could well be repeated, because it is part of the mind-set of Putin and his generals that enemies can be forced to capitulate by such means,” he added. “But stocks of Kalibr and Iskander missiles are running low.” Amid Russia’s military setbacks, striking at Ukraine’s power grid in recent days was designed to shock and terrify civilians, starve them of energy in the winter and break their will to resist, according to Maria Shagina, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank. Kyiv residents cleared debris from their homes and stores after a Russian missile attack on Oct. 10. (Video: Reuters) One apparent goal of Russia’s strikes on six electrical substations in Lviv, western Ukraine, was to stop Ukraine exporting electricity to Europe, Shagina said. The strikes also crippled the city’s power supply. “Now we’re seeing the escalation and weaponization of the critical infrastructure,” she said, adding that it was no accident that Russia had destroyed Ukraine’s capacity to export electricity to Europe at the same time Moscow has weaponized natural gas, cutting supplies to pressure European Union countries. “There is some intensification of the war, in terms that Russia doesn’t hide even the fact that they have attacked civilian infrastructure, critical infrastructure,” Shagina added. “They’re trying to escalate the war as much as they can.” Muzyka said Russia, ignoring international conventions, has consistently targeted civilian apartment blocks and infrastructure in two Chechen wars, in Syria and Ukraine. “Definitely they focus on the power grid as a way of making civilian lives miserable,” he said. “For Russians, striking civilian areas, residential areas and anything that can potentially impact the lives of civilians is a military objective, because for Russia, the war is total.” “Essentially what the Russians are trying to do is to wear down Ukrainians, decrease the morale, decrease the willingness to fight and from their point of view, hopefully increase the pressure on the Ukrainian government to enter negotiations with Russia,” he added. Ukraine has asked Western allies for state of the art air defense systems to protect its civilians and vital infrastructure. But even as NATO pledged more help, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that getting those systems to Ukraine would take time. “Unfortunately, the Western response is rather limited,” Shagina said, adding that Russia is trying “to use the full range of measures they can deploy against the West and Ukraine.” But no matter how harsh the attacks, the hawks in Russia say it is still not enough. Russian journalist Andrei Medvedev, a member of the Moscow city council, who runs a popular hard line nationalist pro-war Telegram channel, urged patience, saying the decision “to bomb Ukraine into the Middle Ages” had not yet been taken. Another hawk, Alexander Kots, the war correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda, who has his own influential pro-war Telegram channel, said he hoped the strikes signaled a new kind of warfare that would bombard Ukraine “until it loses its ability to function.” Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report. Read More Here

How Arkansas’ 2023 Football Commitments Are Faring https://digitalarkansasnews.com/how-arkansas-2023-football-commitments-are-faring-2/ How Arkansas’ 2023 football commitments are faring PS. NAME;HT;WT.;40;SCHOOL;TONIGHT RB ISAIAH AUGUSTAVE;6-2;200;Naples, Fla.;vs. Lely FOR SEASON 58-523 rushing, 5 TDs CB JAYLON BRAXTON;6-0;175;Frisco (Texas) Lone Star;Thurs. at Lebanon Trail FOR SEASON 27-408 receiving, 3 TDs, 19 TT, 6 PBU, 3-25 PR OL LUKE BROWN;6-6;315;Paris (Tenn.) Henry County;Open date FOR SEASON 101 pancake blocks LB CARSON DEAN;6-4;232;Carrollton (Texas) Hebron;vs. Flower Mound FOR SEASON 46 TT, 3 QB hits, 3 QB hurries, 11 TFL, 1 SA, 2 ints, 2 blocked kicks WR DAVION DOZIER;6-4;180;Moody, Ala.;vs. Leeds FOR SEASON 34-865 receiving, 15 TDs TE SHAMAR EASTER;6-5;225;Ashdown;vs. Nashville FOR SEASON 8-66 receiving, 5-116 rushing, 1 TD, 5 pancake blocks, 5 TT S CHRISTIAN FORD;6-0;187;McKinney, Texas;at Allen FOR SEASON DNP in first six games DL IAN GEFFRARD;6-6;365;Mableton (Ga.) Whitefield Academy;Open date FOR SEASON 33 TT, 8 TFL, 1 SA, 5 QB hurries, 1 RF TE JADEN HAMM;6-5;225;Eudora, Kan;vs. Tonganoxie FOR SEASON 7-99 receiving, 2 TDs, 1 2-pt conv, 26 TT, 3 TFL, 1 SA, 1 FF, 1 RF for TD, 1 batted ball, 1 blocked kick S DYLAN HASZ;5-11;180;Bixby, Okla;vs. Broken Arrow FOR SEASON 1-1 rushing, 1-9 receiving, 12 TT, 4 PBU, 1 int TE LUKE HASZ;6-4, 221;Bixby, Okla.;vs. Broken Arrow FOR SEASON 15-260 receiving, 4 TDs, 1-17 rushing, 1 TD, 1 2-pt conv DL KALEB JAMES;6-4;250;Mansfield, Texas;at Duncanville FOR SEASON 44 TT, 20 QB hurries, 6.5 SA, 13 TFL, 2 RF, 1 batted ball, 1 blocked FG DB RJ JOHNSON;6-2, 200;Atlanta Eagle’s Landing Christian;vs. Columbia FOR SEASON 30 TT, 2 TFL, 1 PBU, 1 int, 17-186 receiving, 1 TD, 1-4 PR DL STEPHEN JOHNSON;6-4;320;Fayetteville (Ga.) Whitewater;Thurs. at North Clayton FOR SEASON 50 TT, 10 TFL, 2 SA S TJ METCALF;6-1;188;Pinson (Ala.) Valley;vs. Shades Valley FOR SEASON 54.5 TT, 2 TFL, 9 PBU, 1 RF, 2 FF, 1 int, 4-91 receiving, 2 TDs OL PARIS PATTERSON;6-5;340;East St. Louis, Ill.;vs. Edwardsville FOR SEASON Helped team average 198 rushing yards per game DL QUINCY RHODES JR;6-7;260;North Little Rock;at Fort Smith Northside FOR SEASON 35 TT, 5 TFL, 6 SA, 18 QB hurries, 1 PBU, 4 exceptional plays LB ALEX SANFORD;6-3;240;Oxford, Miss.;vs. Clinton FOR SEASON 55 TT, 4 TFL, 3 QB hurries, 3 SA, 2 RF, 2 FF, 1 PBU QB MALACHI SINGELTON;6-1;225;Kennesaw (Ga.) North Cobb;vs. Wheeler FOR SEASON 22-43-201 passing, 1 TD, 2 ints, 29-197 rushing, 1 TD LB BRAD SPENCE;6-3;232;Houston Klein Forest;at Klein Collins FOR SEASON 48 TT, 5 SA, 7 TFL, 11 QB hurries OL JOEY SU’A;6-4, 309;Bentonville;vs. Fayetteville FOR SEASON Graded 85%, 27 pancake blocks, no sacks allowed WR MICAH TEASE;6-0, 180;Tulsa Washington;at Grant FOR SEASON 24-666 receiving, 7 TDs, 3-15 rushing, 4 TT, 1 TFL CB DALLAS YOUNG;6-1, 185;Gardendale, Ala.;vs. Woodlawn FOR SEASON 49 TT, 2 TFL, 2 SA, 4 PBU LAST WEEK ISAIAH AUGUSTAVE (7-87 rushing, 2 TDs in 41-23 victory over Barron Collier); JAYLON BRAXTON (5-53 receiving in 42-0 victory over Centennial); LUKE BROWN (13 pancake blocks in 24-20 victory over Paducah Tilghman); CARSON DEAN (DNP in 28-13 loss to Plano); DAVION DOZIER (4-34 receiving, 1 TD in 42-14 victory over St. Clair County); SHAMAR EASTER (1-8 receiving, 3 TT in 48-21 loss to Malvern); CHRISTIAN FORD (Open date); IAN GEFFRARD (6 TT, 1 TFL in 35-24 loss to Elbert County); JADEN HAMM (3 TT, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 1 FF, 1 RF for TD in 55-7 victory over Schlagle); DYLAN HASZ (5 TT, 1 int, 1 PBU, 1-9 receiving in 77-14 victory over Enid); LUKE HASZ (4-97 receiving, 1 TD in 77-14 victory over Enid); KALEB JAMES (13 TT, 2 sacks, 1 TFL, 5 QB hurries, 1 RF in 31-13 victory over Cedar Hill); RJ JOHNSON (2 TT, 2 TFL in 48-23 victory over Redan); STEPHEN JOHNSON (10 TT in 27-23 loss to Trinity Christian); TJ METCALF (9 TT, 2 TFL, 1 int, 1 PBU in 29-22 loss to Center Point); PARIS PATTERSON (Helped Flyers rush for 228 yards in 80-0 victory over Alton); QUINCY RHODES JR. (7 TT, 2 QB hurries in 50-6 victory over LR Southwest); ALEX SANFORD (18 TT, 1 TFL, 1 QB hurry, 1 FF in 26-16 loss to Germantown); MALACHI SINGELTON (DNP in 33-6 victory over Walton); BRAD SPENCE (7 TT, 1 PBU in 17-14 victory over Klein Cain); JOEY SU’A (Graded 91%, 5 pancake blocks, no sacks allowed in 42-7 victory over Rogers Hertiage); MICAH TEASE (5-240 receiving, 3 TDs in 47-0 victory over Tahlequah); DALLAS YOUNG (3 TT in 34-14 victory over Minor) Read More Here

'Sad And Tragic Day': Off-Duty Officer, 4 Others Dead In Raleigh Mass Shooting; Suspect In Custody https://digitalarkansasnews.com/sad-and-tragic-day-off-duty-officer-4-others-dead-in-raleigh-mass-shooting-suspect-in-custody/ RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Raleigh Police said a suspect is in custody hours after a mass shooting that left five people dead, including an off-duty police officer. Police announced at a 10:45 p.m. news conference that the suspected shooter is a juvenile who is a White male and is in the hospital. RPD Lt. Jason Borneo said he could not provide any other details. There is a news conference scheduled for Friday morning. “This is a sad and tragic day for the City of Raleigh,” a visibly emotional Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said at an earlier news conference Thursday night. Gov. Roy Cooper was present at the late news conference. “Terror has reached our doorstep. The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh,” Cooper said. WATCH: Gov. Cooper among those at late evening briefing He thanked law enforcement agencies for their bravery and work in capturing the shooter after losing one of their own. Officers first responded around 5:13 p.m. Thursday to an active shooting call near the Neuse River Greenway in the Hedingham neighborhood near Osprey Cove Drive and Bay Harbor Drive. An off-duty Raleigh police officer was shot and killed. Another officer who was shot has been released from the hospital. A K-9 officer was also shot but he suffered what Baldwin said were non-life-threatening injuries. Baldwin said two people were transported to WakeMed, including the K-9 officer who was shot in the knee and released from the hospital late Thursday evening. The civilian victim was in critical condition as of late Thursday. “All of us in Raleigh right now need to come together,” Baldwin said. “We need to support those in our community who have suffered a terrible loss; a loss of a loved one. We need to support the family of the police officer who was killed and also the police officer who was shot.” The mayor urged all who are “watching or listening” to reach out to those you love and let them “know you care.” “We must do more We must stop this mindless violence in America. We must address gun violence,” Baldwin said. “We have much to do and tonight, we have much to mourn.” WATCH: Raleigh officials give update on shooting Cooper tweeted that he had talked to Mayor Baldwin and was deploying state resources to assist at the scene. “DPS is providing any needed resources as requested in this investigation and working with local law enforcement to stop this shooter,” said NCDPS Secretary Eddie M. Buffaloe Jr. ATF Special Agents also responded to the scene. Police reportedly cornered the suspect in a barn off Buffaloe Road, a law enforcement source told ABC11. Police would only say that the suspect was “contained” before tweeting Thursday night that the suspect was in custody. Officers were working at least four separate crime scenes. “It’s a very tragic day for us and we ask for your prayers during this very challenging time for us,” Borneo said. Borneo said Police Chief Estella Patterson was away at a conference but had been kept up to date on developments. She was expected to fly back to Raleigh overnight. WATCH: Residents being allowed back into neighborhood People who live and work in that area were advised to remain in their homes and to contact 911 if they see anything or anyone suspicious. Residents who were on their way home were allowed to go into the neighborhood Thursday evening after waiting for several hours. Others who arrived later were told by police that it would be several more hours before they could get into the Eagle Trace Drive area. A resident who spoke to ABC11 said the neighborhood was in shock. “A lot of police activity, honestly I was actually in the house with my child, my oldest child, and we were hearing a lot of sirens and it was like, kind of alarming because it was more than a couple,” Victoria McGraw said. “The most alarming part had to be my youngest daughter, she was with her dad, and he just kept calling me, like what was going on, and he was seeing a flood of police officers coming in and that’s when I looked outside and there were police officers up and down the street.” McGraw said she stepped outside and saw officers waving to neighbors to go into their houses. WATCH: Hedingham resident recounts confusion as officers swarmed scene “One of the officers informed me that there was some gunman around,” McGraw said. Copyright © 2022 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved. Read More Here

CNN Obtains Footage Of Pelosi Saying She’d 'punch Him Out' If Trump Went To Capitol On January 6 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/cnn-obtains-footage-of-pelosi-saying-shed-punch-him-out-if-trump-went-to-capitol-on-january-6/ On Anderson Cooper 360 Thursday, CNN aired previously unseen footage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 6, 2021, both before and after the storming of the Capitol. At one point, while watching former President Trump’s speech at The Ellipse in which he told his supporters to march on the Capitol, saying he’d go with, Pelosi left no doubt about how she felt about the former president. “I hope he comes. I’m gonna punch him out,” Pelosi said. “This is my moment. I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds, I’m gonna punch him out and I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m gonna be happy.” In later footage, Pelosi is seen huddled with other members of Congress speaking with Acting Secretary of Defense Christophe Miller, who was appointed to the position after Trump had lost the election. Along with Pelosi is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who would later falsely blame Pelosi for the lack of security at the Capitol that day, when in fact it was Miller who stripped the commander of the D.C. National Guard of his ability to deploy troops just two days before the insurrection. Any troop deployment had to get the okay from Miller. In the video, Pelosi is seen urging Miller to allow the National Guard to secure the Capitol. “Just pretend for a moment it was The Pentagon or the White House or some other entity that was under siege,” Pelosi said to Miller. “You can logistically get people there as you make the plan, and you have some leadership of the National Guard there, they have not been given the authority to activate.” Read More Here

NJ Spotlight News | Jan. 6 Committee Shows New Testimony Against Trump, Allies | Season 2022 | PBS https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nj-spotlight-news-jan-6-committee-shows-new-testimony-against-trump-allies-season-2022-pbs/ Skip to Main Content Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You’ve just tried to add this video to My List. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. You’ve just tried to add this show to My List. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. Sign in with PBS Account Sign in with Google Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Apple By creating an account, you acknowledge that PBS may share your information with our member stations and our respective service providers, and that you have read and understand the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You have the maximum of 100 videos in My List. We can remove the first video in the list to add this one. You have the maximum of 100 shows in My List. We can remove the first show in the list to add this one. NJ Spotlight News Clip: 10/13/2022 | 6m 35s | Video has closed captioning. In the final public hearing on Thursday before the midterm elections, the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection made its strongest case yet, with the committee’s Republican vice chair saying that the majority of evidence collected shows the central cause of the deadly riot was one man — former President Donald Trump. Aired: 10/13/22 Rating: NR Report a Problem Before you submit an error, please consult our Troubleshooting Guide. Type of Error Please add more details Your report has been successfully submitted. Thank you for helping us improve PBS Video. NJ Spotlight News is a local public television program presented by THIRTEEN. Read More Here

Jan. 6 Panel Votes To Subpoena Donald Trump https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jan-6-panel-votes-to-subpoena-donald-trump/ The Jan. 6 committee also showed previously unseen footage of congressional leaders calling for help during the Capitol attack. Author: abc10.com Published: 11:25 PM PDT October 13, 2022 Updated: 11:25 PM PDT October 13, 2022 Read More Here

AP News Summary At 1:44 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-144-a-m-edt/ Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump, shows startling new video WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to compel the former president to appear. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, says, “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player … the man who set this all in motion.” Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the last before next month’s congressional elections, the panel presented vivid new video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders pleading for help. And it outlined Trump’s multi-part plan to overturn his 2020 election loss. Police: 5 killed, including officer, in N. Carolina shooting RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police in North Carolina say that the suspect who killed five people in a shooting was a juvenile male. Raleigh Police Lt. Jason Borneo said that the suspect was taken into custody around 9:37 p.m. Thursday, hours after the shooting. His identity and age weren’t released. Authorities have said that he opened fire along a walking trail in a residential area northeast of downtown. Authorities say an off-duty police officer was among those slain. Two other people, including another police officer, were taken to hospitals. The officer was later released, but the other survivor remained in critical condition. NKorea fires missile and shells, further inflaming tensions SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch happened early Friday but gave no further details. It’s the latest in a spate of missile launches by North Korea in recent days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says North Korea also flew warplanes near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There have been no reports of clashes between the two Koreas. North Korea’s military also issued a statement accusing South Korea of carrying out artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border Thursday. Ukraine gets more air defense pledges as Russia hits cities KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s allies have committed to providing advanced air defense systems to protect against Russia’s missile intensifying missile attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskky said Thursday such systems would “protect our sky from the terror of Russia” and help end the war. Responding to Zelenskyy’s pleas, Britain announced it would provide missiles for advanced NASAM anti-aircraft systems that the Pentagon plans to send to Ukraine. The U.K. is also providing hundreds of aerial drones. Russian forces attacked the Kyiv region with Iran-made kamikaze drones and fired missiles at civilian targets Thursday as payback for the bombing of a strategic bridge linking Russia with annexed Crimea. US migrant policy ‘bucket of cold water’ to some Venezuelans NECOCLI, Colombia (AP) — Venezuelan Gilbert Fernández still plans to cross the dangerous Darién jungle into Panama headed over land toward the U.S. despite Washington’s announcement that it will grant conditional humanitarian permits only to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants arriving by air. Fernández says that “the news hit us like a bucket of cold water.” The announcement also said that Venezuelans arriving by land at the Mexico-U.S. border would be returned to Mexico. Fernández spoke on a beach in Necoclí, a coastal town in Colombia where some 9,000 people, mostly Venezuelans, wait to board a boat to take them to the entrance of the Darién Gap. High court rejects Trump plea to step into Mar-a-Lago case WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected former President Donald Trump’s plea to step into the legal fight over the FBI search of his Florida estate. The justices did not otherwise comment Thursday in turning away Trump’s emergency appeal. Trump had pressed the court on an issue relating to classified documents seized in the search of Mar-a-Lago. The Trump team was asking the justices to overturn a lower court ruling and permit an independent arbiter, or special master, to review the roughly 100 documents with classified markings that were taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Ohio Dems press party to invest in high stakes Senate seat COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Democrats across Ohio are pleading for help in the state’s high-stakes Senate contest. They’re afraid they may lose a winnable election if national party leaders don’t make major investments in the coming days. So far, the most powerful groups in Democratic politics have prioritized Senate pickup opportunities in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania over Ohio. Democratic Senate contender Tim Ryan, a longtime congressman, says party leaders who don’t believe he can win “have no idea what’s going on out here.” Republican JD Vance has benefited from more than $30 million from outside Republican groups. By contrast, Ryan has benefited from roughly $2.5 million in outside spending. Black leaders rebuke Tuberville stance on reparations, crime As far as Jeremy Ellis is concerned, Republican Tommy Tuberville should know or learn more about the long history and struggles of the Black Alabama residents he represents in the U.S. Senate. Tuberville told people Saturday at an election rally in Nevada that Democrats support reparations for the descendants of enslaved people because “they think the people that do the crime are owed that.” His remarks — seen by many as racist and stereotyping Black Americans as people committing crimes — cut deeply for some, especially in and around Africatown, a community in Mobile, Alabama, that was founded by descendants of Africans smuggled in 1860 to the United States aboard a schooner called the Clotilda. Parkland school shooter spared from execution for killing 17 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life without parole for the 2018 massacre of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That sentence comes after the jury announced Thursday that it could not unanimously agree that Cruz should be executed. The decision ends a three-month trial that included graphic videos and photos, and heart-wrenching testimony from victims’ family members. Many family members shook their heads, looked angry or covered their eyes as the jury’s decision was read. Some parents sobbed as they left court. A judge will formally sentence Cruz on Nov. 1. Social Security benefits to jump by 8.7% next year WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Social Security recipients will get an 8.7% boost in their benefits in 2023. That’s a historic increase and welcome news for American retirees and others — but it’s tempered by the fact that it’s fueled by record high inflation that’s raised the cost of everyday living. The cost-of-living adjustment means the average recipient will receive more than $140 a month extra beginning in January.  It is meant to help cover the higher cost of food, fuel and other goods and services. But a separate government report Thursday showed prices accelerating again. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More Here

Union Silos Public Art Project Launches In Downtown Minot https://digitalarkansasnews.com/union-silos-public-art-project-launches-in-downtown-minot/ Local News Oct 14, 2022 Jennifer Brodal Staff Writer jbrodal@minotdailynews.com Union Silos Public Art project launches in Downtown Minot Australian-born visual artist and photographer Guido van Helten is the desired artist that a group of local Minot residents are raising money to commission for feature work in Minot. Helten’s current Monuments series specializes in large format mural painting. The artist will repurpose the exterior of the elevator at 318 1st Street Northeast, currently privately owned and used for various projects and retail space including lighting contractors Pretty Lights. “A project of this scope and scale has an incredible impact on the Minot community,” said Chelsea Gleich, project coordinator. “This will serve as a tourist attraction and help create a sense of place for the community. Plus, it will be a beautiful backdrop to everyday life in our city that reflects and celebrates the people who live here.” Helten’s current Monuments series specializes in large format mural painting. He has murals all over the world and currently in American cities including Fort Smith, Arkansas; Mankato, Minnesota; and Salina, Kansas. The proposed Minot project is to cost $350,000 and the Minot Area Council of the Arts is serving as the fiscal agent for the project. Tim Baumann, one of the other local organizers, said, “The fundraising starts now and the artist’s community engagement will begin in November 2022, and mural painting will begin in the summer of 2023.” Baumann said most of the inspiration for this project came from the city of Mankato, Minnesota, where Baumann’s inlaws are located. “This is amazing. We have a bunch of silos in downtown Minot. Wouldn’t that be a cool thing to have in our community? It has been in talks for a year and we are ready to press ‘go’ on it. We know we have enough community interest and a building,” said Baumann. Helten will create the design for the former Farmers Union Elevator Co., after community meet and greets, art workshops with local students, photography workshops, oral history collections and lectures/talks at Minot State University. For examples and more information of the artist’s work, visit guidovanhelten.com. The project has been given the working title, Union Silos, and all donations can be made to Minot Area Council of the Arts. For checks, include “silo arts” in the note. Donations are tax deductible and for online donations, visit www.ndunionsilos.com. Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox Read More Here

Trial: Trump Tweet About ‘wild’ Protest Energized Extremists https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trial-trump-tweet-about-wild-protest-energized-extremists-3/ FILE – Members of the Oath Keepers on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. A member of the Oath Keepers who traveled to Washington before the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol testified during the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, about a massive cache of weapons the far-right extremist group stashed in a Virginia hotel room. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the far-right Oath Keepers were ecstatic when then-President Donald Trump invited supporters to a “wild” protest in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress would be certifying the results of the 2020 election, according to messages shown Thursday during the seditious conspiracy trial for the militia group’s founder and four associates. During an FBI agent’s testimony, jurors saw a string of online posts that Oath Keepers members in Florida exchanged after Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, about a “big protest” at the upcoming joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. “Be there, will be wild!” Trump said. “He wants us to make it WILD,” Kelly Meggs, an Oath Keepers leader from Dunnellon, Florida, wrote in a message to other group members. “He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!! Sir Yes Sir!!!” Trump’s words appeared to energize Oath Keepers members. They used an encrypted messaging app to discuss their plans to be in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, when, after a Trump rally near the White House, a mob stormed the Capitol and disrupted Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over the Republican incumbent. “These will be flying Jan. 6 in front of the Capitol,” Meggs wrote in a post that included the image of an Oath Keepers flag. Graydon Young, an Oath Keepers member from Florida who has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, said he was going to Washington even though it “feels like a fool’s errand.” Oath Keepers founder and national leader Stewart Rhodes responded on Dec. 25, 2020, that he disagreed with that assessment. “Trump needs to know we support him in using the Insurrection Act,” Rhodes wrote. “And he needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.” Rhodes added that he believed the Secret Service would be “happy to have us out there” if Trump “calls us up as militia.” A key argument for Rhodes’ lawyers is that the Oath Keepers founder believed Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act, which gives the president broad authority to call up the military and decide what shape that force will take. Trump did float that kind of action at other points in his presidency. Meggs and Rhodes, who’s from Granbury, Texas, are on trial with Thomas Caldwell of Berryville, Virginia; Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville, Florida; and Jessica Watkins of Woodstock, Ohio. They are the first Capitol riot defendants to be tried on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors said was a plot to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power. The Civil War-era charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. As testimony continued Thursday, the House Jan. 6 committee played a recording at its public hearing of Watkins saying, “It has spread like wildfire that (Vice President Mike) Pence has betrayed us” and “100 percent” of the crowd would be going to the Capitol right after a Trump tweet that had criticized Pence, as the Senate’s presiding officer, for not delaying or rejecting the certification of the Electoral College vote by Congress. Defense lawyers have accused prosecutors of cherry-picking messages and have said there is no evidence the Oath Keepers had a plan to attack the Capitol. The trial started last Monday and is expected to last more than a month. Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet also was a focus of a July hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. One committee member, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., said the tweet “served as a call to action and in some cases as a call to arms.” A second, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said it “electrified and galvanized” Trump supporters, including the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and other far-right extremists. Several members of the Proud Boys, including former national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, also are charged with seditious conspiracy for their alleged roles in the Jan. 6 attack and await a trial in December. Thursday’s testimony for the Oath Keepers trial focused on members of the group’s Florida contingent and their communications in the days leading up to the riot. In a chat for Oath Keepers members in Florida on the Signal messaging app, Rhodes said they should adopt the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA,” which stands for “Where we go one, we go all.” QAnon is a conspiracy theory that has centered on the baseless belief that Trump was secretly fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping “deep state” enemies, Hollywood elites and prominent Democrats. “They come for one of us, they come for all of us,” Rhodes posted on Dec. 21, 2020. “When they come for us, we go for them.” Kelly Meggs responded: “It’s easy to chat. The real question is who’s willing to DIE.” Three days before the Capitol attack, Meggs sent a message to an associate that said, “1776 we are going to make history.” “What happened in 1776?” Justice Department prosecutor Louis Manzo asked FBI Special Agent Kelsey Harris. “The American revolution,” the agent replied. Newsletter Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. Read More Here

Republicans Hope For A 'new' Kris Kobach In Kansas AG Race https://digitalarkansasnews.com/republicans-hope-for-a-new-kris-kobach-in-kansas-ag-race/ TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kris Kobach, the Kansan with a national reputation as a hardline provocateur on immigration and voter ID laws, is trying to rebrand himself as a calmer, steadier voice in his comeback bid for elective office. Republicans hope the candidate for Kansas attorney general is a “new” Kobach. Many of them say he’s staying more on message with a better organized campaign after losing the 2018 race for Kansas governor and a 2020 U.S. Senate primary. Both of those losses were chalked up to disorganized campaigns and Kobach being too abrasive even for very Republican Kansas voters. The former Kansas secretary of state built a national profile — and created lasting political foes — as the go-to adviser for state and local officials wanting to crack down on illegal immigration. But his platform this year doesn’t mention immigration. The signature prop of his campaign for governor four years ago was a jeep painted with a U.S. flag design and equipped with a replica machine gun, and it’s nowhere to be seen this year. “There’s been some learning, trial and error, over time, and I think Kobach as a candidate has grown and become more disciplined,” said Moriah Day, a Republican and gun-rights activist who once worked for Kobach in the secretary of state’s office. “There are certainly advisers and others who have pushed hard for that discipline, and some of them have been together for a few cycles now.” Kobach’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 8 election is Chris Mann, who is making his first run for elective office. While Republicans have won 80% of statewide down-ballot races over the past 50 years, both parties see the Kobach-Mann contest as a toss-up because of Kobach’s political baggage. In this photo from Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, Kris Kobach, the Republican nominee for Kansas attorney general, makes a short speech at the start of a bus tour across Kansas for GOP candidates in Topeka, Kan. Many Republicans say they’re seeing a “new,” calmer, steadier Kobach this year after he lost the 2018 race for Kansas governor and a U.S. Senate primary in 2020. (AP Photo/John Hanna) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/John Hanna In this May 1998 family photo, Chris Mann, right, now the Democratic nominee for Kansas attorney general, stands with his father, left, in his new Lawrence police uniform, in Lawrence, Kansas. Mann would later be injured on duty and forced to give up his career as an officer before becoming a lawyer, a prosecutor in Kansas City, Kansas, and a national board member for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. (Chris Mann via AP) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS In this photo from Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, Kris Kobach, then the Kansas secretary of state and the Republican nominee for Kansas governor, rides in a parade in a jeep with a replica machine gun in Baldwin City, Kan. The jeep was the signature prop in Kobach’s campaign for governor that year, which he lost to Democrat Laura Kelly. (AP Photo/John Hanna) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/John Hanna In this photo from Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022, Chris Mann, the Democratic candidate for Kansas attorney general, answers questions as he stands out police headquarters in Lawrence, Kan. Mann is a former Lawrence police officer who was injured on duty and then became a local prosecutor and Mothers Against Drunk Driving national board member. (AP Photo/John Hanna) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/John Hanna PreviousNext Some of the baggage comes from Kobach advocating strict immigration laws years before Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 and upsetting not only immigrant rights advocates but GOP-leaning business and agricultural groups. Kobach also pushed the idea that droves of people could be voting illegally and championed a tough prove-your-citizenship rule for new Kansas voters, only to see the federal courts strike it down and order the state to pay voting rights attorneys $1.4 million. Kobach served as co-chairman of Trump’s short-lived presidential advisory commission on “election integrity” and promoted Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud. At the time, The Associated Press reported that Kobach oversaw an election system in Kansas that threw out at least three times as many ballots in the 2016 election as any similarly sized state did, fueling concerns about massive voter suppression should its practices become the national standard. Then there was his brand in his 2018 and 2020 races, the fighter who was even willing to take on GOP leaders. While Republicans across the U.S. have embraced a combative persona in Trump and other candidates, and Trump carried Kansas twice by wide margins, the state’s voters more often have favored candidates with an aw-shucks demeanor. The jeep with the machine gun became a symbol of how Kobach seemed not to care that he annoyed or angered some voters. He mocked what he called the “snowflake meltdown” the first time he rode it in a parade in 2018. Some are skeptical that Kobach has changed in any substantive way, and say he is not always on message. For example, his comments during campaign appearances sometimes veer into his plan to slowly and quietly maneuver to ban abortion. Kansas voters in August decisively rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have cleared the way for the Republican Legislature to tighten abortion restrictions or ban the procedure. Kobach backed the measure, which was GOP lawmakers’ response to a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision declaring access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state’s Bill of Rights. Kobach advocates amending the state constitution to elect Supreme Court justices rather than have governors appoint them. Eventually new, more conservative justices would overturn the 2019 ruling, he argues. Backers argue that Kobach’s views on abortion are well-known enough that he can’t backpedal now. But he’s pitching a proposal that faces big political hurdles, and some Republicans fear that talking about abortion will keep moderate Republicans and independents riled and boost Democratic turnout. Kobach has said he’ll defend existing abortion restrictions as attorney general, but his critics worry that he’ll hunt for new ways to curb access if he’s elected. “I thought we had a representative form of government, but it looks like Kris Kobach will certainly be willing to subvert the wishes of the voters when he has a chance,” said former Kansas House Majority Leader Don Hineman, a moderate Republican and western Kansas farmer. Democrat Mann, 46, was a police officer in his early 20s in the northeastern Kansas city of Lawrence, where he now lives. An on-duty accident involving a drunken driver ended his career in uniform and he then served as a prosecutor in nearby Kansas City, Kansas, as a state securities regulator and on the board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “I’m not in this to chase the spotlight or to grab attention like my opponent, and that’s all he’s going to do,” Mann said during an interview. Kobach, 56, said he’s learned from past campaigns and is delegating more tasks. For this year’s race, he hired Axiom Strategies, a prominent Kansas City-area GOP firm, and his chief consultant is a conservative state senator, J.R. Claeys, in good standing with top Kansas Republicans. And that jeep with the replica machine gun from four years ago? “That was a different time,” Kobach said, chuckling, noting that four years ago was “right in the middle” of Trump’s high-drama administration. Kobach’s lower-key campaign appeals to William Hendrix, a 21-year-old Topeka resident who is treasurer for a local Young Republicans group. He predicted that as attorney general, Kobach would “cool down on the campaign-trail rhetoric.” “He’ll see the limitations of the office and also at the same time, what he can do with what he has,” Hendrix said. But Kobach also might appear more measured than in the past because if he loses this year, “it really could be, possibly, the end,” said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University in Topeka. Patrick Miller, an associate University of Kansas professor of political science, wondered whether Kobach seems less provocative because the attorney general’s race can’t command the same kind of attention his 2018 and 2020 races did. “All of that attention given to him in 2018 was an invitation for him to be very flamboyant as a politician,” Miller said. “Maybe losing had an effect on that and maybe he’s more cautious. Maybe, he’s more calculating.” Kobach has promised to spend each breakfast thinking about potential lawsuits against the Democratic president’s administration and during one Topeka event urged the crowd to chant, “Sue Biden.” The candidate himself goes back and forth on whether there’s a new Kobach. He says there is a little truth in the GOP buzz but some exaggeration, too. “I’m still my old self in the sense that I stick to my guns,” Kobach said. “I don’t back down.” ____ Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More Here