Fox News' Bret Baier Responds To Book's Report That He Wanted To Rescind His Network's Arizona Call In 2020: 'I Never Said The Trump Campaign 'was Really Pissed''
Fox News' Bret Baier Responds To Book's Report That He Wanted To Rescind His Network's Arizona Call In 2020: 'I Never Said The Trump Campaign 'was Really Pissed'' https://digitalarkansasnews.com/fox-news-bret-baier-responds-to-books-report-that-he-wanted-to-rescind-his-networks-arizona-call-in-2020-i-never-said-the-trump-campaign-was-really-pissed/
The book “The Divider” recounts Bret Baier pushing Fox to rescind its decision to call Arizona for Biden.
Baier tells Insider the “full context” of his email was not reported in the book.
The authors stand by their book and note that his statement doesn’t deny the accuracy of the email they reported.
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Fox News anchor Bret Baier responded to a new book’s portrayal of an email he wrote after the 2020 presidential election, pushing for the network to rescind its decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden and “put it back in his column.”
“His column,” according to “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,” refers to Donald Trump’s wins in the 2020 election, which never included Arizona.
Baier didn’t address this noteworthy line of his email in his statement to Insider, but he said via a Fox News spokesperson “The full context of the e-mail is not reported in this book.”
“I never said the Trump campaign ‘was really pissed’– that was from an external email that I referenced within my note,” his statement says. “This was an email sent AFTER election night.”
He said he also noted that he supported the Decision Desk’s call and would defend it.
The book recounts Baier’s email to Jay Wallace, the president and executive editor at Fox, after the news organization decided on election night to call Arizona for Biden ahead of other networks. Baier was “ready to give into” pressure from the Trump White House, wrote New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser.
“‘It’s hurting us,'” he wrote, according to the book. “‘The sooner we pull it — even if it gives us major egg — and we put it back in his column the better we are in my opinion.'”
Baier, in his statement to Insider, wrote that vote margins in Arizona “narrowed significantly” in the days immediately following the election, and “I communicated these changes to our team along with what people on the ground were saying and predicting district by district.”
“I wanted to analyze at what point (what vote margin) would we have to consider pulling the call for Biden,” he wrote. “I also noted that I fully supported our decision desk’s call and would defend it on air.”
Glasser, in an email to Insider, said she and Baker stand by their reporting and noted that Baier’s statement doesn’t deny the accuracy of the email they reported.
“In addition, it’s especially notable that Baier wrote in the email that it would be better for Fox News ‘to put it [Arizona] back in [Trump’s] column,'” she wrote. “In fact, Arizona was never in Trump’s column.”
In the book, Glasser and Baker called this particular statement from Baier “stunning.”
“The leading news anchor for Fox was pushing not just to say Arizona was too close to call but to pretend that the president had won it,” they wrote.
Here is Baier’s full statement:
Through a FOX News spokesperson, Bret Baier said, “The full context of the e-mail is not reported in this book. I never said the Trump campaign ‘was really pissed’ – that was from an external email that I referenced within my note. This was an email sent AFTER election night. In the immediate days following the election, the vote margins in Arizona narrowed significantly and I communicated these changes to our team along with what people on the ground were saying and predicting district by district. I wanted to analyze at what point (what vote margin) would we have to consider pulling the call for Biden. I also noted that I fully supported our decision desk’s call and would defend it on air.”
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DOJ Charges 47 People With Stealing $250 Million From Pandemic Program Meant To Provide Meals To Needy Children
DOJ Charges 47 People With Stealing $250 Million From Pandemic Program Meant To Provide Meals To Needy Children https://digitalarkansasnews.com/doj-charges-47-people-with-stealing-250-million-from-pandemic-program-meant-to-provide-meals-to-needy-children/
(CNN)The Justice Department on Tuesday announced charges against 47 people accused of stealing $250 million from a federal program designed to provide meals for needy children during the pandemic.
According to the department, the scheme is the largest Covid-19-related fraud uncovered by investigators to date. The defendants are facing a range of charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and paying and receiving illegal kickbacks.
The defendants, prosecutors said, set up a network of shell companies connected to the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding our Future, to exploit the federal child nutrition program, which is designed to provide meals to children from low-income families. The program was expanded by Congress at the start of the pandemic to allow more organizations to participate.
“Feeding Our Future employees recruited individuals and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout the state of Minnesota,” the Justice Department said in a release. “These sites, created and operated by the defendants and others, fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed.”
The Department of Justice alleges that despite Feeding Our Future’s knowledge of their own fraudulent claims, they still submitted them to the Minnesota Department of Education, which administered and oversaw the federal program for the state.
“This was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” said US Attorney Andrew M. Luger for the District of Minnesota. “These defendants exploited a program designed to provide nutritious food to needy children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, they prioritized their own greed, stealing more than a quarter of a billion dollars in federal funds to purchase luxury cars, houses, jewelry, and coastal resort property abroad.”
“The company went from receiving and disbursing approximately $3.4 million in federal funds to sites under its sponsorship in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021,” part of the indictment read. “In all, Feeding Our Future fraudulently obtained and disbursed more than $240 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds during the Covid-19 pandemic,” it continued.
The defendants claimed to be feeding thousands of children per day, prosecutors said. To keep up the ruse, the defendants allegedly submitted false invoices for food served to the children and lists of fake names to show who was fed.
Additionally, the Minnesota Department of Education was given “false assurances” that Feeding Our Future was serving the meals as claimed after the department “attempted to perform necessary oversight regarding the number of sites and amount of claims being submitted,” according to the DOJ.
According to prosecutors, the defendants used the proceeds of the scheme to buy real estate in Minnesota, Kenya and Turkey, luxury cars, jewelry, to fund international travel, and more.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Luger said an unspecified number of people were arrested in the morning, but some defendants are not presently in the US.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Shawna Mizelle contributed to this report.
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Hard Times Hit Beyond Meat https://digitalarkansasnews.com/hard-times-hit-beyond-meat/
Beyond Meat, the Nasdaq-traded Los Angeles-based producer of plant-based meat substitutes with a manufacturing facility in Columbia, is having difficulties.
Beyond Meat (BYND) shares hit an all time low on Monday, falling for the fifth consecutive day to $17.26. It has tumbled 74% this year and 93% from its all-time closing high of $234.90 in July 2019. It went public at $25 in May 2019.
Beyond Meat reported disappointing second-quarter results in August and gave a downbeat outlook for the full year, based on dwindling demand for its products. It reported a $97 million net loss in the second quarter, and free cash flow at a loss of $278 million.
Beyond Meat uses research developed at the University of Missouri to make a soy-based meat substitute that mimics the taste and feel of real meat. In 2018 it relocated a pilot-scale factory in Maryland to Columbia to be closer to the researchers who developed the technology. Its new facility in the Lemone Industrial Park expanded its manufacturing footprint to 100,000 square feet and was expected to generate more than 250 jobs. The company did not take advantage of any local tax abatement incentives when it expanded.
Doug Ramsey, COO of Beyond Meat.
Unrelated, but making matters worse, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Doug Ramsey, 53, of Fayetteville, AR, was arrested Saturday on charges of terroristic threatening and third-degree battery after an incident at a parking garage near Razorback Stadium following Arkansas’ victory over Missouri State.
About 10 p.m. Saturday an officer was dispatched to the stadium and found “two males with bloody faces” at the scene. The officer spoke with both parties and a witness and determined that Ramsey was allegedly in the traffic lane of the structure, attempting to leave, when a Subaru “inched his way” in front of Ramsey’s Bronco, making contact with the front passenger’s side tire. Ramsey got out of his vehicle and allegedly “punched through the back windshield of the Subaru,” according to a police report.
The owner of the Subaru told police that Ramsey “pulled him in close and started punching his body.” According to the report, Ramsey also “bit the owner’s nose, ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose.” The victim and the witness also reported hearing Ramsey “threaten to kill” the owner of the Subaru. Occupants of both vehicles got out and helped separate the parties. Ramsey was arrested at 10:27 p.m. and booked into the Washington County jail.
Ramsey was named the COO of Beyond Meat in December 2021. He has an appearance in Fayetteville District Court scheduled for October 19.
Beyond Meat was founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown, who continues to serve as CEO. Its initial products were launched in 2012 and currently include plant-based options in the beef, pork and poultry categories. Its products are available in about 118,000 retail and foodservice outlets in more than 80 countries worldwide.
On the day of its IPO in 2019, the company was valued at $3.8 billion and was the best-performing public offering by a major U.S. company in almost two decades. As of June 2021, Beyond Meat had a market cap of $9.44 billion. In November 2020, Beyond Meat announced sales had only grown by 2% year-on-year compared to an expected increase of 40% due to the impact of COVID-19 on foodservice sales.
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Beyond Meat Suspends Operating Chief After Arrest For Allegedly Biting Man's Nose
Beyond Meat Suspends Operating Chief After Arrest For Allegedly Biting Man's Nose https://digitalarkansasnews.com/beyond-meat-suspends-operating-chief-after-arrest-for-allegedly-biting-mans-nose/
Douglas Ramsey
Source: Washington County, Arkansas
Beyond Meat said its operating chief Doug Ramsey has been suspended, effective immediately, after he was arrested Saturday evening for allegedly punching a man and biting his nose.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that Jonathan Nelson, the company’s senior vice president of manufacturing operations, will oversee Beyond’s operations activities on an interim basis.
Ramsey, 53, was charged with terroristic threatening and third-degree battery and booked in the Washington County jail after allegedly assaulting a driver in a parking garage near Razorback Stadium.
Ramsey allegedly punched through the back windshield of a Subaru after it made contact with the front tire of Ramsey’s car, according to a preliminary police report obtained by CNBC. The Subaru owner then got out of his car, and Ramsey allegedly started punching him and bit his nose, “ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose,” according to the report. The victim and a witness also alleged that Ramsey told the Subaru owner he would kill him.
Ramsey has been Beyond Meat’s chief operating officer since December. The news of his arrest after a University of Arkansas football game brought more scrutiny to the vegan food company, which has been struggling with disappointing sales and investor skepticism over its long-term growth prospects. The stock has fallen 75% this year, dragging its market down to $1.02 billion. Just three years ago, the company was valued at $13.4 billion.
Prior to joining Beyond Meat, Ramsey spent three decades at Tyson Foods, overseeing its poultry and McDonald’s businesses. Beyond Meat was relying on his experience to help the company successfully pull off big launches, particularly with fast-food companies like Taco Bell owner Yum Brands and McDonald’s.
Ramsey did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
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Beyond Meat Executive Charged With Biting A Man In Fight
Beyond Meat Executive Charged With Biting A Man In Fight https://digitalarkansasnews.com/beyond-meat-executive-charged-with-biting-a-man-in-fight/
Photo: This photo provided by Washington County, Arkansas shows Douglas Ramsey. Officials say Ramsey, a vegan food products company executive has been charged with felony battery and making a terroristic after a fracas outside a football game in which he’s accused of biting a man’s nose. Ramsey, Beyond Meat Chief Operations Officer, is accused in the road rage attack outside Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, game in Fayetteville between the Arkansas Razorbacks and Missouri State Bears. (Washington County, Arkansas Sheriff’s Office via AP)
A top executive at plant-based food company Beyond Meat has been charged with felony battery after a fight outside a college football game in which he was accused of biting a man’s nose.
Doug Ramsey was also charged with making a terroristic threat after the attack Saturday in a parking garage outside a University of Arkansas football game in Fayetteville.
According to a police report, Ramsey was angered when another driver inched in front of him in a traffic lane and made contact with the front passenger wheel on Ramsey’s Ford Bronco SUV.
The police report alleges that Ramsey got out of his vehicle and punched through the back windshield of the other driver’s car. The driver told police that he got out of his car and Ramsey pulled him close and began punching him. Ramsey also bit the tip of the other driver’s nose, ripping the flesh, according to the police report.
The driver and witnesses told police that Ramsey threatened to kill the other man. Occupants of both vehicles got out and separated the two men.
Washington County court records show Ramsey was released Sunday on $11,085 bond. A court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 19.
Ramsey, 53, spent more than 30 years at Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods before joining Beyond Meat as chief operating officer late last year. He held top leadership positions at Tyson, including president of its poultry division and president of its global McDonald’s business.
At Beyond Meat, he has guided partnerships with fast food companies including McDonald’s and KFC.
Beyond Meat didn’t respond to email and telephone messages left by The Associated Press.
Beyond Meat shares fell 2% Tuesday to $16.68, close their 52-week low of $16.51.
The El Segundo, California-based company has been struggling this year as customers dealing with soaring grocery bills have bypassed its higher-priced products. McDonald’s also recently ended a U.S. trial of its McPlant meatless burger developed with Beyond Meat without confirming any future plans for the product.
Beyond Meat laid off 4% of its workforce in August.
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Protests Flare Across Iran In Violent Unrest Over Woman's Death
Protests Flare Across Iran In Violent Unrest Over Woman's Death https://digitalarkansasnews.com/protests-flare-across-iran-in-violent-unrest-over-womans-death/
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Supreme leader’s representative vows to follow up case
Mahsa Amini died after being detained by morality police
Death sparks angry protests around Iran including capital
DUBAI, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Protests raged for a fourth straight day across Iran on Tuesday and authorities said three people had been killed during unrest over the death of a young woman in police custody.
The death last week of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who was arrested by morality police for “unsuitable attire” unleashed a flood of simmering anger over numerous issues including rights, security and an economy reeling from international sanctions.
It is some of Iran’s worst unrest since street clashes last year over water shortages. The Iranian government accuses foreign agents and unspecified terrorists of instigating the violence.
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In an apparent effort to defuse tensions, an aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei paid condolences to Amini’s family, saying that Khamenei was affected and pained by her death.
“All institutions will take action to defend the rights that were violated,” Khamenei’s representative in the Kurdistan province, Abdolreza Pourzahabi, said while visiting Amini’s family home in Kurdistan province, state media reported.
“As I promised to the family of Ms. Amini, I will also follow up the issue of her death until the final result,” Pourzahabi said.
Amini fell into a coma and died while waiting with other women held by the morality police, who enforce strict rules in the Islamic Republic requiring women to cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothes in public.
Her father said she had no health problems and that she suffered bruises to her legs in custody and holds the police responsible for her death.
Demonstrations broke out in Kurdistan and spread on Monday and Tuesday to several other provinces in northwestern Iran.
Late on Tuesday state media reported “limited rallies” in several cities where it said demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans, threw rocks at police vehicles and damaged public property.
Videos posted on social media websites on Tuesday purported to show demonstrations in provinces across Iran, including several regions that had so far been untouched by the unrest.
Reuters could not independently verify those videos.
The deadliest unrest has taken place in the Kurdistan region, where state officials and activist websites have reported at least three people killed.
People protest outside Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology following death of a woman in custody, in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022 in this still image taken from a video obtained by REUTERS.
Kurdish human rights group Hengaw said the three people who died were killed n Monday when security forces opened fire.
The governor of Kurdistan province said the deaths were suspicious and blamed unspecified terrorist groups.
“A citizen of (the city of) Divandarreh was killed with a weapon that isn’t used by the armed forces. Terrorist groups are looking to kill,” Esmail Zarei Koosha said in comments reported by the semi-official Fars news agency.
Tehran Governor Mohsen Mansouri accused foreign agents of fomenting the violence in the country’s capital. He said citizens of three foreign countries were arrested during gatherings overnight.
‘AMINI, REST IN PEACE’
The protests, sparked by Amini’s death, have “shed light on the groundswell of issues that ordinary Iranians face every day related to security, freedom”, said Sanam Vakil of the Chatham House think-tank.
“I don’t think this is an existential challenge to the regime … because the system in Iran has a monopoly of force, a well-honed security strategy that it is already implementing,” she added.
Protesters marched through Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Monday chanting “Mahsa Amini, Rest in Peace”, according to a video posted by the widely followed 1500tasvir Twitter account, which publishes footage it says it receives from the public.
In one large protest in Tehran, a crowd of demonstrators wearing black shouted, “Oh the day when we will be armed”, according to another video posted by 1500tasvir overnight.
Reuters was unable to verify the videos.
Protesters took to the streets elsewhere in Tehran chanting anti-Khamenei slogans and police fired tear gas to disperse them, the semi-official Fars news agency reported in a rare admission by state-affiliated media of the scale of unrest.
Activist social media accounts including 1500tasvir said the demonstrations had spread to multiple areas across northwestern and central Iran such as Tabriz, Arak and Isfahan.
Hengaw said there were protests in 13 cities on Monday and that 250 people had been arrested.
Reuters could not independently verify those reports.
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Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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One Year Later Growing Global Perils As Biden Returns To UN | News Channel 3-12
One Year Later, Growing Global Perils As Biden Returns To UN | News Channel 3-12 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/one-year-later-growing-global-perils-as-biden-returns-to-un-news-channel-3-12/
By AAMER MADHANI
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is confronting no shortage of difficult issues as he travels to New York this week for the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.
The Russian war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture. European fears that a recession could be just around the corner are heightened. Administration concerns grow by the day that time is running short to revive the Iran nuclear deal and over China’s saber-rattling on Taiwan.
When he addressed last year’s General Assembly, Biden focused on broad themes of global partnership, urging world leaders to act with haste against the coronavirus, climate change and human rights abuses. And he offered assurances that his presidency marked a return of American leadership to international institutions following Donald Trump’s “America First”-driven foreign policy.
But one year later, global dynamics have dramatically changed.
Stewart Patrick, senior fellow and director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Washington think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in an analysis that Biden’s task this year is “immense” compared to his first address to the U.N. as president.
“Last year, the U.S. leader won easy plaudits as the ‘anti-Trump,’ pledging that ‘America was back,’” Patrick said. “This year demands more. The liberal, rules-based international system is reeling, battered by Russian aggression, Chinese ambitions, authoritarian assaults, a halting pandemic recovery, quickening climate change, skepticism of the U.N.’s relevance, and gnawing doubts about American staying power.”
In a tightly packed visit to New York for the 77th General Assembly, Biden is set to address world leaders, meet with the new British Prime Minister Liz Truss and prod allies to do their part to help the U.N. meet an $18 billion target to replenish the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. He’ll also host heads of state at a reception and plans to make a significant announcement on global food security.
Beyond diplomacy, the president is scheduled to squeeze in a pair of political fundraisers. This year’s gathering comes less than eight weeks before pivotal midterm elections in the United States.
His Wednesday address is expected to have a heavy focus on Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops in recent weeks have retaken control of large stretches of territory near Kharkiv that were seized by Russian forces earlier in the nearly 7-month-old war.
But even as Ukrainian forces have racked up battlefield wins, much of Europe is feeling painful blowback from economic sanctions levied against Russia to punish Moscow for its invasion. A vast reduction in Russian oil and gas has led to a sharp jump in energy prices, skyrocketing inflation and growing risk of Europe slipping into a recession.
“The main thrust of his presentation when it comes to Ukraine will really be about the United Nations Charter, about the foundational principle at the heart of that charter that countries cannot conquer their neighbors by force. cannot seize and acquire territory by force,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said of Biden’s plans for his address to world leaders.
Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition, a conservative foreign policy group, said it’s important for Biden to make a robust case to allies — and U.S. lawmakers who will be watching his speech closely — that the investment they’ve collectively made in arming Ukraine and the pain that Europe’s economy is enduring will ultimately pay off.
“He should be trying to compel and demonstrate how … American support and allied support has been instrumental in helping to bring on this sort of renewed wave of success for the Ukrainians, but that it is very dependent on that continuing not only from the United States, but I think especially from European partners,” said Filipetti, who served as senior policy adviser for the U.S. mission to the United Nations during the Trump administration.
At the White House, there’s also growing concern that Russian President Vladimir Putin might further escalate the conflict after recent setbacks.
Biden, in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday, warned Putin that deploying nuclear or chemical weapons in Ukraine would result in a “consequential” response from the United States. The administration first warned in March, just weeks into the war, that Russia might seek to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.
“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” Biden warned. “It would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.”
Biden’s visit to the U.N. also comes as his administration’s efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal appears stalled.
The deal brokered by the Obama administration — and scrapped by Trump in 2018 — provided billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for Iran’s agreement to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to extensive international inspection.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who is also set to address the U.N. assembly this week, told “60 Minutes” that Tehran would offer no concessions to reach a deal.
“The new administration in the U.S., they claim that they are different from the Trump administration,” Raisi said. “They have said it in their messages to us. But we haven’t witnessed any changes.”
Sullivan said no breakthrough with Iran is expected during the General Assembly. At the same time, Republicans, a few Democrats and Israeli officials are pressing the administration to abandon the nuclear deal.
Sullivan said that Biden would make clear in his speech that a deal can still be done “if Iran is prepared to be serious about its obligations.” He added that administration officials would be consulting with fellow signatories of the 2015 deal on the sidelines of this week’s meeting.
“I think our allies will be curious to see, does the president want to change direction?” said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on foreign policy and national security. “Does he want to return to some sort of a pressure path, reconstitute a multilateral campaign of pressure?”
This year’s U.N. gathering is back to being a full-scale, in-person event after two years of curtailed activity due to the pandemic. In 2020, the in-person gathering was canceled and leaders instead delivered prerecorded speeches; last year was a mix of in-person and prerecorded speeches.
While China’s Xi Jinping won’t be present, his country’s conduct and intentions will loom large during the leaders’ talks.
Last month, the U.N. human rights office raised concerns about possible “crimes against humanity” in China’s western region against Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic groups. Beijing has vowed to suspend cooperation with the office and blasted what it described as a Western plot to undermine China’s rise.
Meanwhile, China’s government on Monday said Biden’s statement in the “60 Minutes” interview that American forces would defend Taiwan if Beijing tried to invade the self-ruled island was a violation of U.S. commitments on the matter, but it gave no indication of possible retaliation.
The White House said after the interview that there has been no change in U.S. policy on Taiwan, which China claims as its own. That policy says Washington wants to see Taiwan’s status resolved peacefully but doesn’t say whether U.S. forces might be sent in response to a Chinese attack.
Tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan have been heightened since Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last month, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to travel to the island since House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited in 1997.
Follow AP coverage of the U.N. General Assembly at https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly
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AP News Summary At 2:49 P.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-249-p-m-edt/
UN chief: World is ‘paralyzed’ and equity is slipping away
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In an alarming assessment, the head of the United Nations is telling world leaders that nations are “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction” and aren’t ready or willing to tackle major challenges. Speaking at the opening of the General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting, Antonio Guterres pointed to the war in Ukraine and multiplying conflicts around the world, the climate emergency and “suicidal war against nature,” the dire financial situation of developing countries, and many reversals in U.N. goals for 2030 including to end extreme poverty and provide quality education for all children.
4 Ukrainian regions schedule votes this week to join Russia
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The separatist leaders of four Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine say they are planning to hold referendums this week for the territories to become part of Russia as Moscow loses ground in the war it launched. The votes will be held in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. The announcement of the balloting starting Friday came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that they were needed. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also said that folding Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine into Russia itself would make their redrawn frontiers “irreversible” and enable Moscow to use “any means” to defend them.
Feds: Minnesota food scheme stole $250M; 47 people charged
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal authorities have charged 47 people in what they’re calling the largest fraud scheme yet to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by stealing and defrauding the government of $250 million. Documents made public Tuesday charge the defendants with counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and bribery. Prosecutors say the defendants created companies that claimed to be offering food to thousands of low-income children across Minnesota, then sought reimbursement through a federal program. But prosecutors say few meals were actually served, and the defendants used the money to buy luxury cars, property and jewelry. This year, the U.S. Justice Department has made prosecuting pandemic-related fraud a priority and has stepped up enforcement actions.
Trump legal team balks at judge’s declassification questions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team has told a special arbiter it doesn’t want to answer questions about the declassification status of documents seized from the Trump’s Florida home. It says that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted. Lawyers for Trump and for the Justice Department are to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday before the arbiter to review the roughly 11,000 documents — including about 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s lawyers also asked a federal appeals court to leave in place an order that temporarily barred the Justice Department from using the classified documents in its criminal investigation.
‘Serial’ host: Evidence that freed Syed was long available
The creator of a true-crime podcast that helped free a Maryland man imprisoned for murder said that she feels a mix of emotions over how long it took authorities to act on evidence that’s long been available. Podcast host Sarah Koenig released a new episode of “Serial” on Tuesday, a day after a judge vacated Adnan Syed’s conviction and allowed him to walk out of court after more than two decades. Koenig noted that all of the evidence cited in prosecutors’ motion to overturn the conviction was available since 1999. She argued that the case against Syed involved “just about every chronic problem” in the system.
Fiona wallops Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico still stunned
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is blasting the Turks and Caicos Islands as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remain without electricity or running water. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the British territory’s capital island. The government had imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas. The storm could raise seas by 5 to 8 feet above normal. Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and was moving north-northwest at 9 mph early Tuesday. The Hurricane Center says the storm is likely to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.
Ad spending shows Dems hinging midterm hopes on abortion
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights. The spending underscores how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before midterm elections. The most intense period of campaigning is only just beginning, and Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms. The spending figures are based on an Associated Press analysis of data provided by the nonpartisan research firm AdImpact.
Mexico’s earthquake coincidence drives anxiety for many
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The parents of children killed when a school collapsed during Mexico’s 2017 earthquake were celebrating a Mass in their memory, And then the ground began to shake again, as people cried out: “No, not again! My God, not again!” In the end, the magnitude 7.6 quake caused relatively little damage in the capital on Monday, though it killed two in the Pacific coast state of Colima. Three powerful earthquakes have struck Mexico on Sept. 19 — in 1985, 2017 and 2022. That unlucky coincidence has made many feel the date is somehow cursed, though scientists say it’s purely coincidence.
Beyond Meat executive charged with biting a man in fight
A top executive at plant-based food company Beyond Meat has been charged with felony battery after a fight outside a college football game in which he was accused of biting a man’s nose. Doug Ramsey was also charged with making a terroristic threat after the attack Saturday in a parking garage outside a University of Arkansas football game. According to a police report, Ramsey was angered when another driver inched in front of him in a traffic lane and made contact with the front passenger wheel on Ramsey’s SUV. Beyond Meat hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
US stocks fall broadly ahead of key Fed decision on rates
Stocks are falling broadly on Wall Street and Treasury yields are mostly rising ahead of a key decision on interest rates by the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 fell 1.4% Tuesday. The Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell. Traders are waiting to see how far the Fed will raise interest rates at its meeting that ends Wednesday. The Fed has been raising the cost of borrowing money in hopes of slowing down the hottest inflation in four decades. Traders worry the Fed may overshoot its goal and slow down the economy so much it causes a recession.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Trump Legal Team Balks At Judges Declassification Questions
Trump Legal Team Balks At Judge’s Declassification Questions https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-legal-team-balks-at-judges-declassification-questions-3/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team has told a newly appointed independent arbiter that it does not want to answer his questions about the declassification status of the documents seized last month from the former president’s Florida home, saying that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted.
Lawyers for Trump and for the Justice Department are to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday before a veteran judge named last week as special master to review the roughly 11,000 documents — including about 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.
Ahead of the status conference, Raymond Dearie, the special master, requested the two sides to submit a proposed agenda and also provided a draft plan for how he envisions the process moving forward over the next two months.
Trump’s lawyers signaled in a Monday evening letter their objection to several aspects of that draft plan, including a request from Dearie that they disclose to him and to the Justice Department information about the classification status of the seized documents.
The resistance to the judge’s request was notable because it was Trump’s lawyers, not the Justice Department, that had requested the appointment of a special master to conduct an independent review of the documents so that any material covered by claims of legal privilege could be segregated from the investigation — and because the former president’s team’s recalcitrance included an acknowledgment that the probe could be building toward an indictment.
Trump has maintained without evidence that all of the records were declassified; his lawyers have not echoed that claim, though they have asserted that a president has absolute authority to declassify information.
In the letter, Trump’s lawyers say the time for addressing that question would be if they file a motion seeking the return by the Justice Department of some of the property taken from Mar-a-Lago.
“Otherwise, the Special Master process will have forced the Plaintiff to fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.” the lawyers wrote.
The Trump team also asked the judge to consider pushing back all of the deadlines for his review.
Also Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers asked a federal appeals court to leave in place a different judge’s order that temporarily barred the Justice Department from using the classified documents it seized as part of its criminal investigation. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, in the same order appointing the special master, directed the department to halt its use of the records until Dearie does his own review.
The Justice Department challenged that order Friday to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, saying the ruling had impeded the investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump lawyers on Tuesday called those concerns overblown, saying the Justice Department has not yet proven that the records remain classified and arguing that, in any event, investigators could still do other work on the probe even without scrutinizing the seized records.
“Ultimately, any brief delay to the criminal investigation will not irreparably harm the Government,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “The injunction does not preclude the Government from conducting a criminal investigation, it merely delays the investigation for a short period while a neutral third party reviews the documents in question.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Trump Legal Team Balks At Judges Declassification Questions
Trump Legal Team Balks At Judge’s Declassification Questions https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-legal-team-balks-at-judges-declassification-questions-2/
FILE – An aerial view of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 31, 2022. A federal judge has appointed Raymond Dearie, a veteran New York jurist to serve as an independent arbiter and review records seized during an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s home last month. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team has told a newly appointed independent arbiter that it does not want to answer his questions about the declassification status of the documents seized last month from the former president’s Florida home, saying that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted.
Lawyers for Trump and for the Justice Department are to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday before a veteran judge named last week as special master to review the roughly 11,000 documents — including about 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.
Ahead of the status conference, Raymond Dearie, the special master, requested the two sides to submit a proposed agenda and also provided a draft plan for how he envisions the process moving forward over the next two months.
Trump’s lawyers signaled in a Monday evening letter their objection to several aspects of that draft plan, including a request from Dearie that they disclose to him and to the Justice Department information about the classification status of the seized documents.
The resistance to the judge’s request was notable because it was Trump’s lawyers, not the Justice Department, that had requested the appointment of a special master to conduct an independent review of the documents so that any material covered by claims of legal privilege could be segregated from the investigation — and because the former president’s team’s recalcitrance included an acknowledgment that the probe could be building toward an indictment.
Trump has maintained without evidence that all of the records were declassified; his lawyers have not echoed that claim, though they have asserted that a president has absolute authority to declassify information.
In the letter, Trump’s lawyers say the time for addressing that question would be if they file a motion seeking the return by the Justice Department of some of the property taken from Mar-a-Lago.
“Otherwise, the Special Master process will have forced the Plaintiff to fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.” the lawyers wrote.
The Trump team also asked the judge to consider pushing back all of the deadlines for his review.
Also Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers asked a federal appeals court to leave in place a different judge’s order that temporarily barred the Justice Department from using the classified documents it seized as part of its criminal investigation. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, in the same order appointing the special master, directed the department to halt its use of the records until Dearie does his own review.
The Justice Department challenged that order Friday to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, saying the ruling had impeded the investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump lawyers on Tuesday called those concerns overblown, saying the Justice Department has not yet proven that the records remain classified and arguing that, in any event, investigators could still do other work on the probe even without scrutinizing the seized records.
“Ultimately, any brief delay to the criminal investigation will not irreparably harm the Government,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “The injunction does not preclude the Government from conducting a criminal investigation, it merely delays the investigation for a short period while a neutral third party reviews the documents in question.”
_____
Sisak reported from New York.
Follow AP’s coverage of the search at Mar-a-Lago at https://apnews.com/hub/mar-a-lago
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AP News Summary At 1:53 P.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-153-p-m-edt/
UN chief: World is ‘paralyzed’ and equity is slipping away
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In an alarming assessment, the head of the United Nations is telling world leaders that nations are “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction” and aren’t ready or willing to tackle major challenges. Speaking at the opening of the General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting, Antonio Guterres pointed to the war in Ukraine and multiplying conflicts around the world, the climate emergency and “suicidal war against nature,” the dire financial situation of developing countries, and many reversals in U.N. goals for 2030 including to end extreme poverty and provide quality education for all children.
One year later, growing global perils as Biden returns to UN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is confronting difficult issues as he travels to New York this week for the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. The Russian war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture. Europe fears a recession could be around the corner. Administration officials are concerned that time is running short to revive the Iran nuclear deal and worry about China’s saber-rattling on Taiwan. Biden is set to address world leaders, meet with new British Prime Minister Liz Truss and prod allies to do their part to help the U.N. meet an $18 billion target to replenish a global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
4 Ukrainian regions schedule votes this week to join Russia
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The separatist leaders of four Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine say they are planning to hold referendums this week for the territories to become part of Russia as Moscow loses ground in the war it launched. The votes will be held in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. The announcement of the balloting starting Friday came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that they were needed. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also said that folding Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine into Russia itself would make their redrawn frontiers “irreversible” and enable Moscow to use “any means” to defend them.
Fiona wallops Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico still stunned
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is blasting the Turks and Caicos Islands as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remain without electricity or running water. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the British territory’s capital island. The government had imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas. The storm could raise seas by 5 to 8 feet above normal. Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and was moving north-northwest at 9 mph early Tuesday. The Hurricane Center says the storm is likely to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.
Feds: Minnesota food scheme stole $250M; 47 people charged
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal authorities have charged 47 people in what they’re calling the largest fraud scheme yet to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by stealing and defrauding the government of $250 million. Documents made public Tuesday charge the defendants with counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and bribery. Prosecutors say the defendants created companies that claimed to be offering food to thousands of low-income children across Minnesota, then sought reimbursement through a federal program. But prosecutors say few meals were actually served, and the defendants used the money to buy luxury cars, property and jewelry. This year, the U.S. Justice Department has made prosecuting pandemic-related fraud a priority and has stepped up enforcement actions.
Trump legal team balks at judge’s declassification questions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team has told a special arbiter it doesn’t want to answer questions about the declassification status of documents seized from the Trump’s Florida home. It says that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted. Lawyers for Trump and for the Justice Department are to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday before the arbiter to review the roughly 11,000 documents — including about 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s lawyers also asked a federal appeals court to leave in place an order that temporarily barred the Justice Department from using the classified documents in its criminal investigation.
‘Serial’ host: Evidence that freed Syed was long available
BALTIMORE (AP) — The creator of a true-crime podcast that helped free a Maryland man imprisoned for murder said that she feels a mix of emotions over how long it took authorities to act on evidence that’s long been available. Podcast host Sarah Koenig released a new episode of “Serial” on Tuesday, a day after a judge vacated Adnan Syed’s 2000 conviction and allowed him to walk out of court. Koenig noted that all of the evidence cited in prosecutors’ motion to overturn the conviction was available since 1999. She argued that the case against Syed involved “just about every chronic problem” in the system.
Iran faces global criticism, protests over woman’s death
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is facing international criticism over the death of a woman held by its morality police, which ignited three days of protests across the country. An Iranian official said Tuesday that three people had been killed by unnamed armed groups in the Kurdish region of the country where the protests began. It was the first official confirmation of deaths linked to the unrest. The U.N. human rights office called for an investigation. The United States, which is trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, called on the Islamic Republic to end its “systemic persecution” of women. Italy also condemned her death. Iran dismissed the criticism as politically motivated.
Ad spending shows Dems hinging midterm hopes on abortion
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights. The spending underscores how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before midterm elections. The most intense period of campaigning is only just beginning, and Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms. The spending figures are based on an Associated Press analysis of data provided by the nonpartisan research firm AdImpact.
Minnesota Ojibwe harvest sacred, climate-imperiled wild rice
ON LEECH LAKE, Minnesota (AP) — Wild rice, or manoomin in Ojibwe, is sacred to Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region because it’s part of their creation story and because for centuries, even a handful made a difference between life and starvation during harsh winters. But changing climate, invasive species, and pollution are threatening the plant, even as its cultivated sibling rises in popularity nationwide. Those threats make it crucial to teach young tribe members to harvest wild rice respecting both the rituals and the environment. That’s what the Leech Lake Tribal College was doing last week in north-central Minnesota, taking students ricing for the first time on the vast waterway.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Herschmann Warned Trump Of Potential Legal Trouble If He Didn
Herschmann Warned Trump Of Potential Legal Trouble If He Didn https://digitalarkansasnews.com/herschmann-warned-trump-of-potential-legal-trouble-if-he-didn/
WASHINGTON – A former White House lawyer cautioned former President Donald Trump last year that he could face legal consequences if he did not give back government documents he took when he left office.
In a meeting sometime in late 2021, Herschmann warned Trump against keeping the documents, The New York Times reported, citing people familiar with a conversation between the men.. Trump did not make any promises about returning the documents, according to the Times.
Herschmann defended Trump at his first impeachment trial and also testified to the Jan. 6 committee investigating the attack on the Capitol in June.
Trump returned 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives in January, and the National archives reported in February.
Speci: Special master asks Trump lawyers about records declassification before Tuesday conference
Court documents released since the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida indicated that Trump kept classified documents marked “secret” and “top secret.”
The FBI seized documents as part of an ongoing investigation that may involve criminal laws forbidding improper removal of sensitive documents and obstruction of justice.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has blocked the Justice Department’s review while a special master she appointed reviews all 11,000 documents seized at Mar-a-Lago for personal papers or communications with lawyers. The special master, Raymond Dearie, set a Tuesday meeting with lawyers for Trump and the government to outline a schedule for reviewing the documents.
Trump lawyers Tuesday refused to say whether he declassified documents that were seized by the FBI in his Florida estate, as Trump has claimed.
Trump cautions about indictment: Trump warns of ‘big problems’ if he’s indicted over handling of classified documents
Herschmann testimony: Jan. 6 hearing takeaways: Rioter regret, a push to seize voting machines, Trump called witness
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In A First Health Panel Calls For Routine Anxiety Screening In Adults
In A First, Health Panel Calls For Routine Anxiety Screening In Adults https://digitalarkansasnews.com/in-a-first-health-panel-calls-for-routine-anxiety-screening-in-adults/
In a nod to the nation’s pressing mental health crisis, an influential group of medical experts for the first time is recommending that adults under age 65 get screened for anxiety.
The draft recommendations, from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, are designed to help primary care clinicians identify early signs of anxiety during routine care, using questionnaires and other screening tools.
Anxiety disorders are often unrecognized and underdetected in primary care: One study cited by the task force found the median time for initiating treatment for anxiety is a staggering 23 years.
While the task force’s initial deliberations on anxiety screening predated the coronavirus pandemic, the new guidance comes at a critical time, said task force member Lori Pbert, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, Mass.
“Covid has taken a tremendous toll on the mental health of Americans,” Pbert said. “This is a topic prioritized for its public health importance, but clearly there’s an increased focus on mental health in this country over the past few years.”
In April, the task force made similar recommendations to begin anxiety screening in children and teens, ages 8 to 18. The proposal announced Tuesday focuses on young and middle-aged adults, including those who are pregnant or postpartum, citing research showing that screening and treatment can improve anxiety symptoms in those younger than 65.
But the guidance, somewhat surprisingly, stops short of recommending anxiety screening for people 65 and older.
One reason: many common symptoms of aging, such as trouble sleeping, pain and fatigue, can also be symptoms of anxiety. The task force said there wasn’t enough evidence to determine the accuracy of screening tools in older adults, which may not be sensitive enough to distinguish between anxiety symptoms and conditions of aging.
The task force advised clinicians to use their judgment in discussing anxiety with older patients. The task force also reiterated an earlier recommendation that adults of all ages undergo routine screening for depression.
The task force, an independent panel of experts appointed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, wields enormous influence, and while its advice isn’t mandatory, the panel’s recommendations often change the way doctors practice medicine in the United States.
Some doctors questioned how the recommendations would play out in the real world, where mental health providers say they already can’t meet patient demand, and patients complain of waiting months for an appointment with a therapist.
“Screening is great, but with a dire shortage in the workforce, it’s perplexing unless there are plans for increased funding of clinicians,” said Eugene Beresin, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and executive director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds.
Global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25 percent during the first year of the pandemic, the World Health Organization reported earlier this year. By the end of 2021, the WHO said, “the situation had somewhat improved but today too many people remain unable to get the care and support they need for both pre-existing and newly developed mental health conditions.”
Anxiety, with its telltale dread and gut-wrenching, heart-pounding, palm-sweating physical signs, can manifest in a number of distinct diagnoses, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder and others.
Together, these make up the most common mental illnesses in the United States, afflicting 40 million adults each year, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Treatment can include psychotherapy, notably cognitive behavioral therapy; antidepressant or anti-anxiety medications; as well as various relaxation, mindfulness and desensitization therapies, physicians said.
The panel also considered the benefits of screening patients for suicide risk but concluded that even though suicide is a leading cause of death among adults, there is “not enough evidence on whether screening people without signs or symptoms will ultimately help prevent suicide.”
Still, the panel urged providers to use their own clinical judgment to determine whether individual patients should be screened for suicide risk.
For primary care physicians, already in the throes of a “crisis” of burnout, pandemic-driven stress and their own mental health challenges, adding yet another screening test to a long list of clinical tasks may feel burdensome.
“If primary care providers are asked to screen for one more thing, we are going to break without more resources,” said a nurse practitioner in Northern California, who asked not to be named because she didn’t have permission from her clinic to speak about the issue.
Ticking off current requirements, like verifying up-to-date screenings for cervical, colon and breast cancer, as well as food insecurity, domestic violence, alcohol and tobacco use, she said everything must be packed into a 15-minute appointment, while also treating patients with complex, chronic conditions.
“It just feels wrong if people are positive for depression or anxiety, and we don’t have the mental health support to help them,” said the practitioner.
But Mahmooda Qureshi, an internal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that additional support for patients suffering from depression or anxiety will help.
“After 2020, it’s the rare patient who is not anxious,” said Qureshi, who noted that she now routinely asks patients, “How’s your stress?” “We have found that when it comes to mental health, if we don’t ask, often we don’t know.”
The task force acknowledged the challenges of delivering mental health care to all those in need, adding that fewer than “half of individuals who experience a mental illness will receive mental health care.”
The panel also cited “racism and structural policies” that disproportionately affect people of color. The panel noted that Black patients are less likely to receive mental health services compared to other groups, and that misdiagnosis of mental health conditions occurs more often in Black and Hispanic patients.
Pbert said the latest guidance is just one step in addressing the urgent mental health needs of patients. “Our hope is that this set of recommendations can bring awareness of the need to create greater access to mental health care throughout the country,” she said, as well as highlight “gaps in the evidence so funders can support critically needed research in these areas.”
The proposed recommendations are open for public comment through Oct. 17, after which the task force will consider them for final approval.
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Number Of Global Ultra High Net Worth Individuals Hits Record High
Number Of Global Ultra High Net Worth Individuals Hits Record High https://digitalarkansasnews.com/number-of-global-ultra-high-net-worth-individuals-hits-record-high/
The ranks of the global “ultra high net worth” (UHNW) individuals swelled by 46,000 last year to a record 218,200 as the world’s richest people benefited from “almost an explosion of wealth” during the recovery from the pandemic.
The number of UHNW people – those with assets of more than $50m (£43.7m) – jumped in 2021 as the super-rich benefited from soaring house prices and booming stock markets, according to a report by investment bank Credit Suisse. The number of people in the UHNW bracket has increased by more than 50% over the past two years.
The huge increase in wealth of the richest 0.00004% of the world’s adult population comes as billions of low- and middle-income people – many of whom saw their savings wiped out during the pandemic – struggle to cope with soaring food and energy prices.
“The strong rise in financial assets resulted in an increase in inequality in 2021,” the report by Credit Suisse, which helps manage the fortunes of many of the world’s richest people, said. “The rise in inequality is probably due to the surge in the value of financial assets during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Wealth per adult increased by more than $100,000 in New Zealand last year (Change in wealth per adult (USD), 2021, biggest gains and losses)
Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report found that “the recovery of macroeconomic activity in a low interest environment produced exceptionally favourable conditions for household wealth growth during 2021”.
“We estimate that global wealth totalled $463.6tn at the end of 2021, a rise of $41.4tn (9.8%),” the report said. “Wealth per adult grew by $6,800 (8.4%) during the course of the year to reach $87,489, close to three times the level recorded at the turn of the century.”
Anthony Shorrocks, an economics professor and an author of the report, said there had been “almost an explosion of wealth last year … Probably higher than any other year we have ever recorded”.
The increase in wealth has not been distributed fairly. The richest 1% of the global population increased their share of all the world’s wealth for a second year running to 46%, up from 44% in 2020.
The number of US dollar millionaires increased by 5.2 million during 2021 to a total of 62.5 million – just under the 67 million population of the UK. Shorrocks said the number of millionaires was becoming so large that it was becoming “an increasingly irrelevant measure of wealth”.
More than a third of the millionaires live in the US, which is home to 24.5 million millionaires, or 39% of the world’s total.
The number of US millionaires increased by 2.5 million – almost half of all new millionaires minted across the world. “This is the largest increase in millionaire numbers recorded for any country in any year this century and reinforces the rapid rise in millionaire numbers seen in the US since 2016,” the report said.
China is in second place, with 10% of the world’s millionaires, ahead of Japan with 5.4%, the UK (4.6%) and France (4.5%).
Switzerland was once again named the richest country in terms of mean average wealth per adult at $700,000, ahead of the US at $579,000.
However, the inequalities in those countries are highlighted when the median average wealth per adult is examined. Switzerland falls to sixth place with a median wealth of $168,000 and the US drops to 18th place with $93,000. Australia is top of the median wealth table with $274,000.
UK adults have a mean wealth of $309,000 (14th place) and a median wealth of $142,000 (ninth place).
The country with the biggest jump in mean average wealth was New Zealand, which saw a $114,000 average increase to $472,000.
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City Seeks Public Input On Amenities For New Underwood Park
City Seeks Public Input On Amenities For New Underwood Park https://digitalarkansasnews.com/city-seeks-public-input-on-amenities-for-new-underwood-park/
Underwood Park / Photo: Craig Underwood
City of Fayetteville officials would like to hear from the public to find out what amenities and programming residents would like to see at the new Underwood Park in west Fayetteville.
Officials will host a public input session beginning at 10 a.m. on Sat., Sept. 24 in the former pro shop building on site at the park, located at 2514 W.Lori Drive, off of Dean Soloman Road.
Landscape architects from Ecological Design Group, along with members of the city’s Parks & Rec., Natural Resources, and Cultural Affairs Departments will be on hand to listen, answer questions, and host the sessions designed to gather ideas from the public on what they’d like to see at the new park.
“This is a meeting to dream big before the realities of site and budgets are considered,” said Park Planning Superintendent Ted Jack. “Together, let us imagine tomorrow’s parks.”
Underwood Park is located on the site of the former Razorback Golf Course property on Dean Solomon Road on land donated to the city by locals Craig and Laura Underwood.
The park includes 38 acres donated by the Underwood family, and another 20 acres that are available through a recent lease agreement that provides for public use at no cost. As city development progresses to the south, additional land will be dedicated in order to meet the city’s park land dedication requirement. Once complete, the park will include just over 65 acres.
The public input session on Saturday will take place from 10 a.m. until noon.
For those that can’t be in attendance, an online survey seeking input is also available on the city’s website.
More information about the project, including including data gathered through the planning process and a timeline, visit fayetteville-ar.gov/imagine.
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Kremlins New Hail Mary Shows Putin Is More Panicked Than Ever
Kremlin’s New Hail Mary Shows Putin Is More Panicked Than Ever https://digitalarkansasnews.com/kremlins-new-hail-mary-shows-putin-is-more-panicked-than-ever/
After weeks of battlefield setbacks in Ukraine, Moscow appears to have buckled under pressure and plowed ahead with a new phase in the war: urgent “referendums” to annex stolen Ukrainian land and harsh prison terms for defiant troops.
The double whammy began with the announcement early Tuesday that Russia’s State Duma passed legislation introducing stricter punishments for any troops who “voluntarily” surrender on the frontline or refuse to follow orders.
Deserters would get up to 15 years behind bars, while those who surrender face a 10-year sentence. Those who refuse to follow the orders of their commanders face three years.
The legislation, which for the first time also adds the concepts of “mobilization, martial law and wartime” to the Russian Criminal Code, has widely been seen as the first step to launching full-scale mobilization.
After unanimous approval by the State Duma, the legislation will be sent to the Federation Council on Wednesday, according to state media. With the Federation Council also expected to get on board, the new prison terms will come into force as soon as Putin signs the bill–which could happen as soon as Wednesday.
Bizarrely, the legislation was already marked as having been approved at all stages in the government portal as of Wednesday afternoon.
While the move is widely seen as a way for the Kremlin to shore up troops, it was almost immediately met with panicked calls for Russian troops to ditch the war now before it’s too late.
“We call on Russian service members at military bases and on the front to refuse participation in the ‘special operation’ or surrender as soon as possible. This is most likely your last chance—and you need to use it in the next day,” the anti-war movement Vesna wrote in an open letter. A dozen other anti-war groups also are said to have signed on to the appeal.
While Russian social media channels erupted with terrified posts about the prospects of mobilization, Russian proxy leaders in occupied parts of Ukraine announced, almost in unison, that they will be holding “referendums” on joining Russia beginning this week.
“We have set a course for reunification, a return to Russia. And we will not turn away from it,” Vladimir Saldo, Moscow’s puppet leader in Kherson, announced in a video message.
Referendums are now set to be held in Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia from Sept. 23-27.
While the Kremlin has long feigned helplessness when it comes to the “referendums”—claiming they are being done at the initiative of residents living in those occupied areas—it didn’t take long for news to trickle out about Russians being forced to take part in the vote.
Inmates at two Rostov penal colonies have already been ordered to vote in favor of the Ukrainian territories becoming part of Russia, according to the independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit.
Two sources cited by the news outlet said prison officials at one facility ordered all inmates with Ukrainian passports to vote, while the entire inmate population was ordered to do so at the other.
The apparently frantic efforts to rush through the referendums mark a complete 180 from Russia’s plans just a couple weeks ago, when the Kremlin repeatedly postponed plans for the votes after failing to seize enough territory or win enough support. Sources cited by Meduza at that time said Vladimir Putin had set his sights on Nov. 4 after he became “tired of waiting.”
But by mid-September, even that date no longer seemed feasible after Ukrainian forces won back territories throughout the east thanks to multiple surprise counter-offensives that literally sent Russian troops fleeing.
It was apparently those humiliating defeats that pushed the Kremlin to act now.
“There is a mindset now to do everything very quickly,” a source close to the Russian presidential administration was quoted telling Meduza on Wednesday.
Sources cited by the outlet said Putin’s sudden change of plans was the result of a pressure campaign by high-ranking Russian officials who want to ramp up the war efforts against Ukraine and go as far as introducing mobilization. They were reportedly amped up by concerns Ukraine might soon retake territories currently occupied by Russia.
“They’ve influenced Putin, and here we go, it’s all hands on deck,” one source said.
Their thinking, according to three sources cited by Meduza, is that the referendums will stop further Ukrainian counter-offensives because, as one of them put it, Ukraine “won’t risk attacking on Russian territory.”
If Ukraine’s counter-attacks continue, they said, Russian authorities plan to use the new legislation to impose martial law and a partial mobilization.
It’s not clear how Russia intends to annex territories that are not even fully under their control.
As the Institute for the Study of War noted Tuesday, on the eve of Russia’s latest bombshell announcements, the idea that Russia can win the upper hand in the war by partially annexing Ukrainian land is “incoherent.”
Such partial annexation would “place the Kremlin in the strange position of demanding that Ukrainian forces unoccupy ‘Russian’ territory, and the humiliating position of being unable to enforce that demand,” the Washington, D.C.-based think tank wrote.
Many of Putin’s closest cronies have nonetheless appeared to view the latest moves as a major turning point, with RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan leading the charge on Twitter: “Judging by what is happening and still about to happen, this week marks either the eve of our imminent victory, or the eve of nuclear war.”
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WalletHub: Arkansas Ranks Third Unhappiest State In The Nation
WalletHub: Arkansas Ranks Third Unhappiest State In The Nation https://digitalarkansasnews.com/wallethub-arkansas-ranks-third-unhappiest-state-in-the-nation-2/
Little Rock downtown skyline with a bridge and the Arkansas River in the foreground at dusk.
Little Rock downtown skyline with a bridge and the Arkansas River in the foreground at dusk.
by: Miriam Battles
Posted: Sep 20, 2022 / 11:53 AM CDT
Updated: Sep 20, 2022 / 11:53 AM CDT
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas is known for many great things including its lakes, diamond mine and being the overall Natural State. However, a new study shows that it is among the unhappiest states in the United States.
According to WalletHub, Arkansas ranked 48 out of 50 in a list of the happiest states in America. Breaking down the study, researchers determined each state’s ranking based on 30 key metrics including emotional and physical well-being, work environment, community and depression rate.
With one representing the best conditions, Arkansas received a score of 47 in emotional and physical well-being. The Natural State received a 46 in work environment and a 31 in community and environment. The study also noted that Arkansas was one of the top states with the highest depression rate among adults.
Louisiana ranked just below Arkansas while West Virginia took the title of the unhappiest state in the nation, according to the study.
To view the full report on the happiest states in America, visit WalletHub.com.
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Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Hello White House. Biden Invites Elton John To Perform
Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road. Hello, White House. Biden Invites Elton John To Perform https://digitalarkansasnews.com/goodbye-yellow-brick-road-hello-white-house-biden-invites-elton-john-to-perform/
By Eric McDaniel | NPR
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Elton John attends the photocall for the movie “Rocketman” during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2019 in Cannes, France.
Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
President Joe Biden will host musician Elton John for a performance on the South Lawn of the White House Friday for an event called “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme.”
The president and first lady Jill Biden will also offer remarks.
John, billed by the administration as a “music legend and global humanitarian,” will perform in celebration of the “healing and unifying power of music,” the White House said in a statement.
The administration has also invited a group of people they have termed “everyday history-makers”: teachers, nurses, mental health advocates and other front-line workers.
Elton John said no to Trump’s inauguration
John, a British citizen, previously performed at a White House state dinner during the Clinton administration — but declined an invitation to perform at Trump’s 2017 inauguration and Friday’s performance could come as a thumb in the eye for the former president.
“I have given it at lot of thought, and as a British National I don’t feel that it’s appropriate for me to play at the inauguration of an American President,” John told Trump’s inaugural team in an email, according to the New York Times. “Please accept my apologies.”
John had previously performed at one of Trump’s wedding ceremonies and his music is a fixture at Trump’s rallies.
Memorably, the singer’s 1971 multi-platinum hit “Tiny Dancer” boomed behind Trump as he learned that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died.
The title for Friday’s event, “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” is drawn from Seamus Heaney’s poem “The Cure of Troy.” It’s often quoted by Biden, including when he accepted the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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Potential Jurors Quizzed On Trump In Inaugural Chair's NYC Trial
Potential Jurors Quizzed On Trump In Inaugural Chair's NYC Trial https://digitalarkansasnews.com/potential-jurors-quizzed-on-trump-in-inaugural-chairs-nyc-trial/
What to Know
The question came up this week during jury selection at the New York City trial of wealthy businessperson Tom Barrack, who is accused of working as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates to influence the president’s foreign policy.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan told prospective jurors Trump’s name would come up often at the trial, and even floated the idea that he might testify. Cogan pressed them on whether they could be fair in a case infused with politics and shadowy international business dealings.
Some potential jurors said it was asking too much because of their distaste for the former president.
Potential jurors in the criminal trial of Donald Trump’s inaugural committee chair have been quizzed by the judge on a tricky topic: What do they think of the former president?
The question came up this week during jury selection at the New York City trial of wealthy businessperson Tom Barrack, who is accused of working as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates to influence the president’s foreign policy.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan told prospective jurors Trump’s name would come up often at the trial, and even floated the idea that he might testify. Cogan pressed them on whether they could be fair in a case infused with politics and shadowy international business dealings.
Some potential jurors said it was asking too much because of their distaste for the former president.
“To be frank, I don’t think so,” one man said when asked whether could remain impartial. “For the sake of the trial, I could, but it would be challenging.”
Asked the same question, another replied, “That would be tough. That would be difficult.”
News
Both men were dismissed.
A woman survived the cut in the first round of questioning despite being called out about her answer on a questionnaire asking her to name a public figure that she least admired and why: “Donald Trump. No explanation needed.”
When the judge told her, “I’m going to need a little more explanation than that,” she insisted she could set aside her feelings and be a fair juror.
There were some Trump supporters in the pool of potential jurors, including one man who said he liked the former president because he was “a strong backer of Israel.” Others claimed they had no opinion about Trump at all.
Jury selection continued Tuesday. Opening statements could begin as soon as Wednesday once the lawyers and judge settle on a final panel of jurors.
Barrack, a close personal friend of Trump for decades, raised $107 million for Trump’s inaugural celebration following the 2016 election. The event was scrutinized both for its lavish spending and for attracting foreign officials and businesspeople looking to lobby the new administration.
Barrack was arrested last year and released on $250 million bail.
The Los Angeles-based private equity manager was a key figure in UAE investments in a tech fund and real estate totaling $374 million. Prosecutors say that while he was nurturing those business deals, Barrack helped UAE leaders influence Trump during his campaign for president and after he was elected.
Those efforts included drafting a speech for Trump that praised a member of the country’s royal family, passing information back to the Emiratis about how senior U.S. officials felt about a boycott of Qatar, and promising to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates if he were appointed as an ambassador or envoy to the Middle East.
Such an appointment “would give ABU DHABI more power!” Barrack wrote in one message obtained by federal prosecutors.
Barrack has said he is innocent. His lawyers said his contacts with the Emirates were not a secret and had been disclosed to Trump’s campaign and administration.
As he arrived at the courthouse Monday for the start of jury selection, Barrack told reporters he had faith jurors would acquit him.
“I believe in the system,” he said.
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AP News Summary At 12:46 P.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1246-p-m-edt/
4 Ukrainian regions schedule votes this week to join Russia
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The separatist leaders of four Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine say they are planning to hold referendums this week for the territories to become part of Russia as Moscow loses ground in the war it launched. The votes will be held in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. The announcement of the balloting starting Friday came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that they were needed. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also said that folding Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine into Russia itself would make their redrawn frontiers “irreversible” and enable Moscow to use “any means” to defend them.
UN chief: World is ‘paralyzed’ and equity is slipping away
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In an alarming assessment, the head of the United Nations is telling world leaders that nations are “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction” and aren’t ready or willing to tackle major challenges. Speaking at the opening of the General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting, Antonio Guterres pointed to the war in Ukraine and multiplying conflicts around the world, the climate emergency and “suicidal war against nature,” the dire financial situation of developing countries, and many reversals in U.N. goals for 2030 including to end extreme poverty and provide quality education for all children.
Fiona wallops Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico still stunned
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is blasting the Turks and Caicos Islands as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remain without electricity or running water. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the British territory’s capital island. The government had imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas. The storm could raise seas by 5 to 8 feet above normal. Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and was moving north-northwest at 9 mph early Tuesday. The Hurricane Center says the storm is likely to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.
Trump legal team balks at judge’s declassification questions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team has told a special arbiter it doesn’t want to answer questions about the declassification status of documents seized from the Trump’s Florida home. It says that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted. Lawyers for Trump and for the Justice Department are to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday before the arbiter to review the roughly 11,000 documents — including about 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s lawyers also asked a federal appeals court to leave in place an order that temporarily barred the Justice Department from using the classified documents in its criminal investigation.
‘Serial’ host: Evidence that freed Syed was long available
BALTIMORE (AP) — The creator of a true-crime podcast that helped free a Maryland man imprisoned for murder said that she feels a mix of emotions over how long it took authorities to act on evidence that’s long been available. Podcast host Sarah Koenig released a new episode of “Serial” on Tuesday, a day after a judge vacated Adnan Syed’s 2000 conviction and allowed him to walk out of court. Koenig noted that all of the evidence cited in prosecutors’ motion to overturn the conviction was available since 1999. She argued that the case against Syed involved “just about every chronic problem” in the system.
Ad spending shows Dems hinging midterm hopes on abortion
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights. The spending underscores how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before midterm elections. The most intense period of campaigning is only just beginning, and Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms. The spending figures are based on an Associated Press analysis of data provided by the nonpartisan research firm AdImpact.
Officials: 6 injured in Chicago apartment building explosion
CHICAGO (AP) — Officials say at least six people were rushed to hospitals after being injured when an explosion Tuesday tore through the top floor of a Chicago apartment building. The explosion at the four-story, 36-unit apartment building occurred shortly before 9:30 a.m., officials said. At least 10 ambulances were on the scene, according to the Chicago Fire Department. The department requested help searching the structure. No cause of the explosion had been determined. The department said in a series of tweets that the Chicago police bomb squad and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on their way as well.
With Griner in jail, WNBA players skip Russia in offseason
SYDNEY (AP) — Top WNBA players are finding other places to compete this winter, not wanting to go back to Russia after the arrest and conviction of Brittney Griner on drug possession charges and the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones are going to Turkey. Courtney Vandersloot is headed to Hungary. All three were part of the same Russian super team as Griner. That club won five EuroLeague titles in the past eight seasons and has been dominant for nearly two decades with former greats DeLisha Milton Jones and Diana Taurasi playing there. Nearly a dozen WNBA players competed in Russia last winter and none are heading back in the upcoming WNBA offseason.
With ceremonies over, King Charles III faces biggest task
LONDON (AP) — The cannons have sounded; the bells have rung; the mourners have paid their respects. Now King Charles III faces the task of preserving a 1,000-year-old monarchy that his mother nurtured for seven decades but that faces an uncertain future. The challenge is immense. Personal affection for the queen meant that the monarchy’s role in British society was rarely debated in recent years. But now that she’s gone, the royal family faces questions about whether it is still relevant in a modern, multi-cultural nation that looks very different than it did when Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952.
US adults should get routine anxiety screening, panel says
An influential health guidelines group says U.S. doctors should regularly screen adults for anxiety. It’s the first time the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended anxiety screening in primary care for adults without symptoms. The report released Tuesday is open for public comment until Oct. 17. The group usually affirms its draft guidance. Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health complaints, affecting about 40% of U.S. women at some point in their lives and more than 1 in 4 men. The panel’s guidance often determines insurance decisions.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Analysis | Disputes Over Trade Cloud Bidens U.N. General Assembly Trip
Analysis | Disputes Over Trade Cloud Biden’s U.N. General Assembly Trip https://digitalarkansasnews.com/analysis-disputes-over-trade-cloud-bidens-u-n-general-assembly-trip/
Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1976, Playboy magazine released its profile of Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter. In one memorable answer to a question about his religious beliefs, Carter said: “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”
Disputes over trade cloud Biden’s U.N. General Assembly trip
President Biden is off today to New York and the annual diplomatic cacophony that is the United Nations General Assembly — call it the UNGA din. In a speech to world leaders on Wednesday, he’s expected to return to his theme of the global tug-of-war between democrats and autocrats.
But while Biden is all-but certain to celebrate the way the United States and its partners have stayed together on Ukraine, two trade disputes with some of America’s closest allies in Europe and Asia could be nagging irritants, and perhaps even spoil his unity party.
The first dispute is the better known of the two. It centers on the Northern Ireland protocol, and it’s likely to be central when Biden sits down Wednesday with British Prime Minister Liz Truss on the sidelines of UNGA.
Simplifying, but:
One important aspect of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of deadly violence in Northern Ireland was demilitarizing the border with Ireland, while European Union rules meant goods and people could cross freely.
But Britain voted in 2016 to quit the European Union (Brexit!), so suddenly Northern Ireland (Brexited) and Ireland (still in the E.U.) might have had to build the border back up, and institute customs and immigration controls.
That would have been hugely disruptive to the post-1998 relationship, leading some to fear about a renewal of violence.
The protocol basically set up a system by which goods are checked when they arrive from Britain into Northern Ireland, instead.
Biden, a proud Irish American who strongly supports the protocol, has warned that any changes to it must be negotiated between London and Brussels. Truss’s new government sees the protocol as economically disruptive and a blow to sovereignty — and hasn’t ruled out making unilateral changes absent major concessions from the E.U.
Biden’s leverage is Britain’s desire, after Brexit hurt its economic ties to Europe, to expand trade with the United States — a fact White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre underlined in a briefing earlier this month.
“There is no formal linkage on trade talks between the U.S. and the U.K. and the Northern Ireland Protocol,” she said. “But efforts to undo the Northern Ireland Protocol would not create a conducive environment.”
Upon arriving in New York today, Truss said a new trade deal was unlikely in the “short to medium term.”
The second dispute has spent less time in American headlines, but it also has the potential to grow into something significant. This one is about unhappiness among several major allies — notably South Korea — about the Inflation Reduction Act.
The law, which Biden is touting as a signal Democratic achievement with the midterm elections coming up, provides billions of dollars in incentives to shift the domestic production of electric vehicles and the batteries that make them go to U.S. soil.
While that’s meant in part as a blow to China, some U.S. allies are profoundly unhappy at what they understandably see as discrimination against their products.
Here’s one example, from Christian Davies and Song Jung-a this weekend in the Financial Times, for which they interviewed South Korean trade minister Ahn Duk-geun.
“The Biden administration’s abrupt withdrawal of subsidies for South Korean electric vehicles is threatening to undermine trust in the US, Seoul’s trade minister has warned, as trade tensions grow between the allies. Seoul is furious that EVs manufactured by Hyundai in South Korea will be excluded from generous consumer tax credits contained in the Inflation Reduction Act …”
“When this new law was enacted and signed by President Biden, and [it became clear that] that company was being discriminated against, thissituation provoked emotional and political repercussions,” Ahn said.
Back in May, when Biden visited South Korea, Hyundai announced it would invest billions into manufacturing of electric vehicles and batteries in Georgia. “But Hyundai’s Georgia plant is not scheduled to begin production until 2025 — making it ineligible for [IRA] subsidies until then,” the FT reported.
Bilateral talks are looking to “minimize the damage,” the FT quoted Ahn as saying.
“’We don’t want to aggravate the problem by adopting similar retaliatory measures,’ said Ahn, who reiterated South Korea’s position that left open the possibility of taking action at the World Trade Organization.”
“But you never know, if the situation gets really serious, we are flexible too.”
Working it out behind the scenes?
And it’s not just South Korea.
Earlier this month, South Korea’s the Hankyoreh newspaper reported Sept. 7 that “Working-level staff from Korea, Japan, Germany, the UK and Sweden’s embassies to the US met last week” to discuss cooperating with each other on the IRA.
In a statement Monday night, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the White House understands some allies “have concerns” about how the tax credits will work and pledged to keep “working with our partners to better understand their concerns and keep open channels of engagement on these issues.”
A National Security Council official also shared a list of meetings on the subject between senior Biden aides, including U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, and officials from Japan, the European Union and South Korea.
See you at UNGA!
Sen. Graham says abortion ‘not a states’ rights issue’
“His remarks during an appearance on ‘Fox & Friends’ on Fox News are directly at odds with what he said on the issue in May, when it appeared the Supreme Court was on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision,” John Wagner and Azi Paybarah report.
Trump lawyers, Justice Dept. to meet with Mar-a-Lago special master
“Lawyers for Donald Trump are scheduled to meet Tuesday with federal prosecutors and the special master appointed at the request of the former president to review documents seized from his Florida home,” Perry Stein, Devlin Barrett and Shayna Jacobs report.
4 Ukrainian separatist regions plan votes to join Russia
“Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans Tuesday to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia. The concerted and quickening Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war against Ukrainian forces successfully battling to wrest back territory,” Reuters‘ Jon Gambrell reports.
Mark your calendar: This week in Washington
On Wednesday, the 13th annual Congressional Football Game will take place at Audi Field. The game will raise money for the U.S. Capitol Police Memorial Fund, Our Military Kids, and A Advantage 4 Kids and the Boys & Girls Club of America. Tickets are available here.
On Friday, Elton John is scheduled to perform on the South Lawn. Biden and first lady Jill Biden will both make remarks.
The White House said in a statement Tuesday that the concert would “celebrate the unifying and healing power of music, commend the life and work of Sir Elton John, and honor the everyday history-makers in the audience, including teachers, nurses, frontline workers, mental health advocates, students, LGBTQ+ advocates and more.”
Lunchtime reads from The Post
Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled a new generation of social media influencers
“The 2020 election and its turbulent aftermath fueled a powerful generation of online influencers, a Washington Post data analysis has found, producing sky-high follower counts for an array of conservatives who echoed Trump’s false claims of election fraud, known as the ‘big lie.’ Some doubled or tripled their audiences on Twitter, while others saw even larger gains — catapulting, like [former Fox News producer Kyle Becker,] from relative obscurity to online fame,” Elizabeth Dwoskin and Jeremy B. Merrill report.
“These accounts amassed followers despite vows by Big Tech companies to police election disinformation, The Post found. And they have gone on to use their powerful megaphones to shape the national debate on other subjects, injecting fresh waves of distortion into such culture-war topics as transgender rights and critical race theory.”
Trump lawyers acknowledge Mar-a-Lago probe could lead to indictment
“In Monday’s filing, Trump’s lawyers wrote that they don’t want [Judge Raymond J. Dearie, the newly appointed special master.] to force Trump to ‘fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment without such a requirement being evident in the District Court’s order’ — a remarkable statement that acknowledges at least the possibility that the former president or his aides could be criminally charged,” Perry Stein and Devlin Barrett report.
For the first time in 230 years, Congress has full U.S. Indigenous representation
“Rep. Mary Peltola’s election to the U.S. House of Representatives made history in several ways. With her recent swearing-in, it became official for the first time in more than 230 years: A Native American, a Native Alaskan and a Native Hawaiian are all members of the House — fully representing the United States’ Indigenous people for the first time, according to Rep. Kaiali’i Kahele of Hawaii. Now, there are six Indigenous Americans who are representatives in the House,” NPR‘s Jaclyn Diaz reports.
Biden scrambles to shore up Latino support. Is it too late?
“Biden and Democrats have delivered on a number of policy...
Anthony Gomes Bernard Allison Excited For Return To Hot Springs For Big Steam Music Festival
Anthony Gomes, Bernard Allison Excited For Return To Hot Springs For Big Steam Music Festival https://digitalarkansasnews.com/anthony-gomes-bernard-allison-excited-for-return-to-hot-springs-for-big-steam-music-festival/
A photo illustration showing undated handout photos of Anthony Gomes, left, and Bernard Allison. – Submitted photos
Anthony Gomes and Bernard Allison are the headliners for this weekend’s Big Steam Music Festival, which grew out of the now-defunct Hot Springs Blues Festival.
Gomes, a Canadian blues guitarist who performed at the 2017 Hot Springs Blues Festival, returns to headline Friday night’s lineup, which includes the Port City Blues Society Players, Charlotte Taylor & Gypsy Rain, and Trey & Jason.
“We love Hot Springs,” Gomes said. “We’ve played there a number of times. We’ve done a festival there before. It’s a real cool spot, man. … We’re just stoked to get back down there.”
A two-sport athlete in high school focused on academics, Gomes was introduced to the guitar as a 14-year-old.
“My dad bought me a guitar for my 14th birthday, just to round me out as a Renaissance man, if you will,” he said. “He’s old school … ‘You should know the arts,’ and ‘You should have a sport,’ and all this stuff. Well, that became his worst nightmare because I just fell in love with the guitar. I loved everything about music, and I always had, but for whatever reason, I just didn’t have an outlet or an instrument at home.”
While his original desire was not to become a professional musician, especially learning the instrument much later than most of his friends, he was able to find some success, but it did not come easy. The 52-year-old musician said he had to get over hearing the word “no” and learn how to say it.
[Video not playing? Click here to watch » youtube.com/embed/vM1wc0WX-NY]
He remembered a call he made to the president of the Toronto Blues Society asking how to be a professional blues musician.
“He said, ‘Oh, no. You can’t be a professional musician; you just play the music for the love.’ And I hung up the phone, and I went, ‘No, he’s wrong.’ So every step of the way.”
Backing Gomes on bass is Jacob Mreen with Chris Whited on drums.
“They’re killer players,” Gomes said. “They bring a lot of energy and fire and professionalism. Those guys, if we don’t play a 10 out of 10 show, they’re miserable. You know, if we give the crowd a 9.5. … Oh, man, come to the next show because, you know, they just have this conviction and this desire to give back to the fans.”
Allison, the son of the late blues guitarist Luther Allison, will close out the two-day festival as Saturday’s headliner, following the Chad Marshall Band, Akeem Kemp, and Tullie Brae. While his father was born in Arkansas, it has been several years since Allison made his way to the Spa City.
“When I first moved back from Europe, we used to come down quite often, down in Hot Springs, and I did Little Rock, Fort Smith quite often,” Allison said. “But since, I’d say, almost the last 10 to 12 years we’re strict, pretty much a dominant European touring act, so I pretty much only play in the States during the summer festival period, and kind of just restrict most of my heavy touring to Europe, since we’ve already established that.”
The youngest of nine children, Allison taught himself guitar in secret, listening to his father’s recordings.
“I actually played guitar for almost, I’d say, close to three years before I even told my dad that I was playing,” he said. “I just kind of kept it hush-hush because I wanted to be able to play something in full for him, which was his very first recording called ‘Underground.’ So I learned all of that, and … he actually caught me playing in the basement. He had woke up early, and I didn’t have enough time to put the guitar and amp away.”
His father insisted on an education for the young blues guitarist, but the music was never far away. Both Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan were close friends of the family and “took me under their wing,” Allison said.
Allison was the only one of his siblings to gravitate towards the blues, but all of them were musicians, just with different leanings. The family inspiration, as well as the background of Allison’s bandmates, has influenced his music, bringing something beyond the standard 12-bar blues sound to his songs.
“My musicians, they all come from different channels, not one of them came from blues,” he said. “What blues they do know comes from me, and I tried to tell them, I said, ‘I like you because you’re not that blues person. I’ve got that covered. You’re teaching me the other genres.’ … And It’s not all about my ideas. It’s a group process. I don’t want to take all the credit because I share live and recording with all of my guys.”
Gates open both days at 4 p.m. with Friday’s show starting at 4:45 p.m. with the Port City Blues Society Players with each group playing an hour before Gomes takes the stage at 8:30 p.m. The final day of the festival opens with the Chad Marshall Band with Allison closing out the event at 8:30 p.m.
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Trump Legal Team Balks At Judge's Declassification Questions
Trump Legal Team Balks At Judge's Declassification Questions https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-legal-team-balks-at-judges-declassification-questions/
By Eric Tucker and Michael R. Sisak, Associated Press
Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 | 8:47 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s legal team has told a newly appointed independent arbiter that it does not want to answer his questions about the declassification status of the documents seized last month from the former president’s Florida home, saying that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted.
Lawyers for Trump and for the Justice Department are to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday before a veteran judge named last week as special master to review the roughly 11,000 documents — including about 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.
Ahead of the status conference, Raymond Dearie, the special master, requested the two sides to submit a proposed agenda and also provided a draft plan for how he envisions the process moving forward over the next two months.
Trump’s lawyers signaled in a Monday evening letter their objection to several aspects of that draft plan, including a request from Dearie that they disclose to him and to the Justice Department information about the classification status of the seized documents.
The resistance to the judge’s request was notable because it was the Trump team, not the Justice Department, that had requested the appointment of a special master to conduct an independent review of the documents so that any material covered by claims of legal privilege could be segregated from the investigation — and because the Trump team’s recalcitrance included an acknowledgment that the probe could be building toward an indictment.
Trump has maintained without evidence that all of the records were declassified; his lawyers have not echoed that claim, though they have asserted that a president has absolute authority to declassify information.
In the letter, Trump’s lawyers say the time for addressing that question would be if they file a motion seeking the return by the Justice Department of some of the property taken from Mar-a-Lago.
“Otherwise, the Special Master process will have forced the Plaintiff to fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.” the lawyers wrote.
The Trump team also asked the judge to consider pushing back all of the deadlines for his review.
Also Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers were to respond to a Justice Department’s appeal of a different judge’s order barring the department at least temporarily from using the classified documents it seized as part of its criminal investigation. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, in the same order appointing the special master, directed the department to halt its use of the records until Dearie can complete his work.
_____
Sisak reported from New York.
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Potential Jurors Quizzed On Trump In Inaugural Chair's Trial
Potential Jurors Quizzed On Trump In Inaugural Chair's Trial https://digitalarkansasnews.com/potential-jurors-quizzed-on-trump-in-inaugural-chairs-trial/
NEW YORK — (AP) — Potential jurors in the criminal trial of Donald Trump’s inaugural committee chair have been quizzed by the judge on a tricky topic: What do they think of the former president?
The question came up this week during jury selection at the New York City trial of wealthy businessperson Tom Barrack, who is accused of working as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates to influence the president’s foreign policy.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan told prospective jurors Trump’s name would come up often at the trial, and even floated the idea that he might testify. Cogan pressed them on whether they could be fair in a case infused with politics and shadowy international business dealings.
Some potential jurors said it was asking too much because of their distaste for the former president.
“To be frank, I don’t think so,” one man said when asked whether could remain impartial. “For the sake of the trial, I could, but it would be challenging.”
Asked the same question, another replied, “That would be tough. That would be difficult.”
Both men were dismissed.
A woman survived the cut in the first round of questioning despite being called out about her answer on a questionnaire asking her to name a public figure that she least admired and why: “Donald Trump. No explanation needed.”
When the judge told her, “I’m going to need a little more explanation than that,” she insisted she could set aside her feelings and be a fair juror.
There were some Trump supporters in the pool of potential jurors, including one man who said he liked the former president because he was “a strong backer of Israel.” Others claimed they had no opinion about Trump at all.
Jury selection continued Tuesday. Opening statements could begin as soon as Wednesday once the lawyers and judge settle on a final panel of jurors.
Barrack, a close personal friend of Trump for decades, raised $107 million for Trump’s inaugural celebration following the 2016 election. The event was scrutinized both for its lavish spending and for attracting foreign officials and businesspeople looking to lobby the new administration.
Barrack was arrested last year and released on $250 million bail.
The Los Angeles-based private equity manager was a key figure in UAE investments in a tech fund and real estate totaling $374 million. Prosecutors say that while he was nurturing those business deals, Barrack helped UAE leaders influence Trump during his campaign for president and after he was elected.
Those efforts included drafting a speech for Trump that praised a member of the country’s royal family, passing information back to the Emiratis about how senior U.S. officials felt about a boycott of Qatar, and promising to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates if he were appointed as an ambassador or envoy to the Middle East.
Such an appointment “would give ABU DHABI more power!” Barrack wrote in one message obtained by federal prosecutors.
Barrack has said he is innocent. His lawyers said his contacts with the Emirates were not a secret and had been disclosed to Trump’s campaign and administration.
As he arrived at the courthouse Monday for the start of jury selection, Barrack told reporters he had faith jurors would acquit him.
“I believe in the system,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Serial Podcast Reveals What Led Prosecutors To Rethink Adnan Syed Case Follow Live
Serial Podcast Reveals What Led Prosecutors To Rethink Adnan Syed Case – Follow Live https://digitalarkansasnews.com/serial-podcast-reveals-what-led-prosecutors-to-rethink-adnan-syed-case-follow-live/
Who is Jay Wilds?
Adnan Syed’s 2000 conviction relied heavily on testimony from his friend Jay Wilds, who claimed that Syed confessed to killing Lee and enlisted his help in digging a hole to bury her body in Leakin Park, Baltimore.
Wilds said that he went along with it because Syed threatened to tell the police that he was running a drug operation, which he feared would land him with hefty jail time.
The Serial podcast raised questions about the reliability of his testimony, saying that he had changed his story multiple times – particularly about where he was when he saw Lee’s body.
In 2019, Wilds spoke out publicly for the first time in an interview with The Intercept where he continued to maintain that he saw Lee’s body and helped Syed dispose of it.
However, he changed parts of his story once again, saying that he first saw Lee’s body in the trunk of a car outside his grandmother’s house – and not in the car park of a local Best Buy as he said at trial.
He claimed that he lied to police to protect his grandmother, as he was dealing drugs out of her home at the time.
“I didn’t tell the cops it was in front of my house because I didn’t want to involve my grandmother,” he said.
“I believe I told them it was in front of Cathy’s [a psuedonym] house, but it was in front of my grandmother’s house. I know it didn’t happen anywhere other than my grandmother’s house.
“I remember the highway traffic to my right, and I remember standing there on the curb. I remember Adnan standing next to me.”
He added: “At the time I was convinced that I would be going to jail for a long time if he [Adnan] turned me in for drug dealing, especially to high school kids. I was also running [drug] operations from my grandmother’s house. So that would ruin her life too. I was also around a bunch of people earlier the day [at Cathy’s], and I didn’t want them to get fucked up with homicide.”
Syed has accused Wilds of lying throughout the trial.
In the filing to throw out Syed’s conviction, Baltimore prosecutors raised doubts about the reliability of Wilds as a witness.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 16:50
What we know about two alternate suspects in 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee
Adnan Syed walked out of court a free man on Monday, after an almost year-long investigation uncovered new evidence about the possible involvement of two alternative suspects in the 1999 slaying of student Hae Min Lee.
On Monday, Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn vacated the 41-year-old’s conviction “in the interest of justice”, granted him a new trial and ordered him to be released under home detention while the investigation into Lee’s murder continues.
His release came days after Maryland prosecutors made a bombshell request for his conviction to be quashed.
On Wednesday – after more than two decades behind bars where Syed has continued to maintain his innocence of any involvement – Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby filed a motion to throw out his conviction.
She said that “the state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction” based on doubts about the validity of cellphone records as well as new information about two unnamed suspects.
Wednesday’s court filing did not name the two alternate suspects in the case, citing an ongoing investigation.
However, prosecutors said that the two alternate suspects were both known to the initial 1999 murder investigation and were not properly ruled out or disclosed to the defence.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Adnan Syed freed: What we know about two alternate suspects in ‘Serial’ murder
The Serial podcast named Ronald Lee Moore, a career criminal and accused murderer from Baltimore, as a suspect in Hae Min Lee’s slaying
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 16:19
Adnan Syed pictured enjoying new-found freedom
Adnan Syed has been pictured enjoying his new-found freedom at home with his family and supporters.
The 41-year-old, who was 17 when he was arrested and charged with murder, was released on Monday after 23 years behind bars.
His freedom comes after attorney and family friend Rabia Chaudry fought for years for his release, with his case finally gaining attention after she reached out to journalist Sarah Koenig.
Ms Koenig then went on to host the Serial podcast series about the case.
Ms Chaudry shared a photo of her and Syed smiling together inside his family home, following the judge’s ruling on Monday.
“I arise full of joy #WeFreedAdnan,” she tweeted on Tuesday morning.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 15:48
Maryland’s new Juvenile Reduction Act led to case landing on prosecutor’s desk
It all began when Maryland’s Juvenile Restoration Act took effect on 1 October 2021.
The law allows offenders who were juveniles at the time of the offence to apply to have their sentences reduced.
Under the law, the offence must have taken place when the individual was a minor and they must have served at least 20 years of the sentence.
Syed was 17 when he was arrested and charged with strangling Lee to death in 1999.
By 2022, he had spent 23 years behind bars.
As soon as the law came into effect, his attorneys applied for his sentence to be reduced.
His case landed on the desk of Becky Feldman, chief of the Sentencing Review Unit of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, to review the request and she became “bothered by the case”, according to the new episode of Serial released on Tuesday.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 15:15
Adnan Syed was losing ‘hope’ in freedom before shock release
Adnan Syed had been “trying to tamp down hope” that he would ever regain his freedom, before his shock release on Monday, it has been revealed.
In a new episode of the podcast Serial, Sarah Koenig revealed that the 41-year-old had recently been losing faith that his conviction would be overturned.
Syed was 17 when he was arrested and charged with strangling Hae Min Lee to death in 1999.
He had spent the last 23 years behind bars.
On Monday, a judge overturned his conviction and ordered his release.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 14:47
Serial reveals notes about another potential suspect led to conviction being tossed
The discovery of two handwritten notes about another potential suspect ultimately led to Adnan Syed’s conviction being tossed, according to a newly released Serial episode.
The podcast, which first propelled the case to global attention and cast doubts on Syed’s guilt back in 2014, published a new episode titled “Adnan is Out” on Tuesday morning – just hours after he walked out of court a free man.
In it, journalist Sarah Koenig revealed what finally led Baltimore prosecutors to rethink the 41-year-old’s conviction for the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
Earlier this year – 23 years on from the brutal murder – Becky Feldman, chief of the Sentencing Review Unit of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, had stumbled across two old, “messy” handwritten notes containing the name of another potential suspect.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Notes about potential suspect led to Syed conviction change, Serial reveals
Notes revealed two separate phone calls by two different people alerted prosecutors to another potential suspect more than two decades ago
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 14:14
Serial releases new episode about Adan Syed’s release
Serial, the hit podcast that propelled the case to international attention and cast doubts on Adnan Syed’s conviction, has released a new episode following his release.
The episode titled “Adnan is out” chronicles what led the prosecutor’s office to call for his conviction to be quashed.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 13:30
ICYMI: How one podcast cast doubt on Adnan Syed’s murder conviction
As Adnan Syed’s conviction is overturned, Clémence Michallon remembers the podcast that transformed a genre.
How Serial revolutionised true crime and cast doubt on Adnan Syed’s murder conviction
As Baltimore prosecutors ask for Adnan Syed’s conviction to be vacated, Clémence Michallon remembers the podcast that transformed a genre
Sravasti Dasgupta20 September 2022 13:00
ICYMI: Timeline of Adnan Syed’s legal battle
More than two decades on from his arrest for the murder of his former girlfriend, Adnan Syed has finally walked free from prison.
Now, prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to drop the charges or to retry Syed.
Rachel Sharp reports on the case that has rumbled on for more than two decades:
Timeline of the murder of Hae Min Lee and legal battle of Adnan Syed
Syed’s sudden release marks just the latest twist in a case that has rumbled on for more than two decades
Sravasti Dasgupta20 September 2022 12:02
‘Leftovers at home never tasted so good’
After 23 years in prison, Adnan Syed seems to be enjoying some of the simpler things after his high-profile 1999 murder coniviction was vacated.
Rabia Chaudry, a lawyer and friend of the Syed family, posted a video on Monday afternoon showing the 41-year-old enjoying some leftover dumplings.
Josh Marcus20 September 2022 10:30
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Stock Market News Today: Dow Tumbles 300 Points; Treasury Yields Keep Rising https://digitalarkansasnews.com/stock-market-news-today-dow-tumbles-300-points-treasury-yields-keep-rising/
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Last Updated: Sep 20, 2022 at 11:58 am ET
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Arkansas: 2022 Peak Fall Color Forecast https://digitalarkansasnews.com/arkansas-2022-peak-fall-color-forecast/
When will Arkansas eventually get fall colors?
FOR MORE ON WHEN TO EXPECT THEM, WE GO TO CHIEF METEOROLOGIST DARBY BYBEE. WELL, HEY, FALL IS PRETTY MUCH UPON US NOW, EVEN THOUGH IT’S NOT FEELING LIKE IT. VERY HOT, OF COURSE, THIS WEEKEND. GETTING HOTTER AS WE GO INTO THE WEEK. AND SOME FOLKS PROBABLY AREN’T EVEN THINKING ABOUT THIS ANYMORE. BUT, WE’RE ALREADY STARTING TO SEE A LITTLE BIT OF THAT COLOR CHANGE. YOU KNOW, IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, THERE’S PROBABLY A TREE HERE OR THERE THAT’S STARTING TO CHANGE COLOR. AND THERE WILL ALWAYS BE THOSE TREES THAT CHANGE REALLY EARLY, OR CHANGE REALLY, REALLY LATE. BUT, WHEN WE SHOW YOU THESE MAPS … BEEN TWEAKING THIS MAP OVER THE YEARS HERE AND THERE … BUT, WHEN WE SHOW THESE MAPS, IT’S ABOUT THE MOST COLOR EXPECTED DURING THESE TIMEFRAMES ON AVERAGE. OF COURSE, THIS YEAR, WE DID HAVE THAT VERY DRY SUMMER. WE DID SEE A LOT OF RAIN LATE IN THE SUMMER THAT HELPED US OUT IMMENSELY. IT COULD HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE COLORS THIS YEAR. BUT, I DON’T THINK IT’S GOING TO HAVE A HUGE IMPACT. I THINK WE’RE STILL GOING TO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL FALL, AND HERE’S WHEN WE EXPECT THOSE COLOR CHANGES. NOW, EARLIEST IS THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE OZARKS AND THE OUACHITAS … LATE OCTOBER, INTO THAT FIRST WEEK IN NOVEMBER, AND SOMETIMES AS LATE AS THE NOVEMBER 10TH TIMEFRAME. ON AVERAGE, THAT’S WHEN WE’RE EXPECTING THOSE BEST COLORS AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS. NOW, DOWN WHERE THE REST OF US LIVE FOR THE MOST PART … WE’RE LOOKING AT NORTHWEST ARKANSAS, OUTSIDE THE HIGHEST ELEVATIONS OF THE OUACHITAS … IS GENERALLY THE VERY, VERY END OF OCTOBER INTO THAT FIRST ABOUT 12 DAYS OF NOVEMBER. WITHIN THAT RANGE, YOU HAVE YOUR BEST COLORS AND USUALLY IT PEAKS SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE RIGHT THERE FOR THE VERY BEST OF THE BEST. BUT, THAT’S YOUR RANGE. IN THE RIVER VALLEY, NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA, MUCH OF OKLAHOMA … GENERALLY NOVEMBER 2ND TO THE 15TH, IN THAT RANGE IS WHEN YOU HAVE SOME OF YOUR THE MOST COLOR AND SOME OF THE BEST COLOR. AND I THINK THIS WILL BE A PRETTY GOOD SEASON. IF YOU’VE GOT FRIENDS AND FAMILY OUTSIDE THE AREA, INVITE THEM ON UP DURI
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When will Arkansas eventually get fall colors?
Fall has technically arrived in Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley, even though it may not feel like it.We are starting to see a little bit of color change. In your neighborhood, there is probably a tree here or there that is starting to change color. There will always be trees that change really early or really late. We had a very dry summer until the end of the season when we saw a lot of rain. That could have an impact on the peak colors this year, but not likely a huge impact.We’re still going to have a beautiful fall.The higher elevations of the Ozarks and Ouachitas will change color first. The best colors there come in late October and the first week of November, on average.Northwest Arkansas will see the best colors at the very, very end of Oct. into the first 12 days of November. It usually peaks somewhere right in the middle of that time frame.The River Valley and northeast Oklahoma usually see the best colors from Nov. 2 to Nov. 25.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —
Fall has technically arrived in Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley, even though it may not feel like it.
We are starting to see a little bit of color change. In your neighborhood, there is probably a tree here or there that is starting to change color. There will always be trees that change really early or really late.
We had a very dry summer until the end of the season when we saw a lot of rain. That could have an impact on the peak colors this year, but not likely a huge impact.
We’re still going to have a beautiful fall.
The higher elevations of the Ozarks and Ouachitas will change color first. The best colors there come in late October and the first week of November, on average.
Northwest Arkansas will see the best colors at the very, very end of Oct. into the first 12 days of November. It usually peaks somewhere right in the middle of that time frame.
The River Valley and northeast Oklahoma usually see the best colors from Nov. 2 to Nov. 25.
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Obituaries In Fort Smith, AR | Times Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/obituaries-in-fort-smith-ar-times-record-32/
Ethel Phillips
Ethel Lavern Phillips, 63 of Fort Smith, AR. passed away on September 17, 2022 in Fort Smith, AR. She was born on July 27, 1959. Arrangements are pending under the direction of Lewis Funeral Chapel in Fort Smith, AR.
Posted online on September 20, 2022
Published in Southwest Times Record
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Trump's Lawyers Are 'painted Into A Corner' As They Face Special Master Grilling: Former FBI Agent
Trump's Lawyers Are 'painted Into A Corner' As They Face Special Master Grilling: Former FBI Agent https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trumps-lawyers-are-painted-into-a-corner-as-they-face-special-master-grilling-former-fbi-agent/
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