Pro-Trump OAN Founder Robert Herring Donates $20000 To DeSantis PAC: Report
Pro-Trump OAN Founder Robert Herring Donates $20,000 To DeSantis PAC: Report https://digitalarkansasnews.com/pro-trump-oan-founder-robert-herring-donates-20000-to-desantis-pac-report/
By Jackson RichmanSep 20th, 2022, 10:43 am
L: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images, R: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The owner of the Trump-supporting One America News Network, Robert Herring, reportedly donated $20,000 to a political action committee backing Ron DeSantis, a possible 2024 presidential candidate, in his re-election campaign for Florida governor.
The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona reported the donation on Monday, citing “election filings shared with Confider by the liberal American Bridge 21st Century PAC,” that went to Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC this month.
“The donation is especially notable considering OAN and Herring’s unyielding loyalty to [Donald] Trump and the many ways in which the former president has quietly stewed over the emergence of DeSantis as a wannabe heir to the MAGA throne,” noted The Daily Beast.
Herring defended the donation.
“It means that we support De Santis as a vice President,” he told the Beast. “I believe that President Trump was the greatest President in My eighty years.”
Meanwhile, OAN has struggled to maintain its presence on cable. The fringe network has mostly been relegated to streaming services – including Pluto TV, Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV – as its last cable provider, Verizon, stopped carrying OAN last month. DirectTV stopped carrying OAN in April.
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GOP Senate Candidates Flee Trump’s Lie https://digitalarkansasnews.com/gop-senate-candidates-flee-trumps-lie/
Just one month ago, New Hampshire Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc boldly and emphatically declared his belief that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and stolen.
“I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Trump won the election, and, damn it, I stand by my letter,” he said in a debate. “I’m not switching horses, baby. This is it.”
Last week, upon advancing through New Hampshire’s primary election, his views completely flipped.
“I’ve done a lot of research on this and I’ve spent the past couple weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party, and I have come to the conclusion — and I want to be definitive on this — the election was not stolen,” he said on Fox News. “Elections have consequences, and, unfortunately, President Biden is the legitimate president of this country.”
One of the political realities over the last two years is that while many Republican elected officials and candidates themselves don’t actually believe Donald Trump’s narrative about the 2020 election being stolen from him, they are sufficiently fearful of a political base that actually does believe that that they have to publicly pronounce a belief they don’t hold.
We’ve seen plenty of flashes of this over time. Last month, Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters scrubbed from his campaign website the claim that, “The 2020 election was a rotten mess — if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today…”
Likewise, many Californians remember Republican gubernatorial recall candidate Larry Elder’s swift reversal from telling the Sacramento Bee editorial board that Biden won the 2020 “fairly and squarely.”
Once Elder started feeling the heat from his supporters who want to believe otherwise, he changed his tune and tried to split the difference, “Do I believe there were shenanigans in the 2020 presidential election? Yes. But it’s time to focus on retaking the White House in 2024.”
As this editorial board has written since November 2020, President Trump and his supporters have been clinging to a range of conspiratorial gibberish to legalistic nothingburgers. All 50 states certified their own results, not a single state audit revealed outcome-altering discrepancies and courts rejected virtually all legal challenges to the election results.
And yet, former President Trump continues to rail in a hysterical manner about the illegitimacy of the 2020 election.
This editorial board has been and will continue to be critical of the Biden administration when it is merited, which is often. But we once again encourage Republicans clinging to the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen to catch up with reality.
Trump’s self-serving narratives shouldn’t continue to drag the GOP and the American conservative movement down the drain.
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Large Aftershocks After 7.6 Magnitude Earthquake In Mexico Follow Live
Large Aftershocks After 7.6 Magnitude Earthquake In Mexico – Follow Live https://digitalarkansasnews.com/large-aftershocks-after-7-6-magnitude-earthquake-in-mexico-follow-live/
7.5 magnitude earthquake hits Mexico’s pacific coast
An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 struck the Michoacán region in Mexico on Tuesday, a day after two people were killed in another powerful quake.
Monday’s earthquake, measured at a magnitude of 7.6, struck on the anniversary of two previous earthquakes that caused enormous damage and killed hundreds or thousands of people in 1985 and 2017.
One of the victims died after being crushed by the facade of a department store in the Pacific port of Manzanillo, while another was found dead at a mall.
The tremor passed without that level of tragedy, despite heightened nerves from a nationwide annual earthquake drill that occurred less than an hour before.
The tsunami alert, which was issued immediately after the quake, was revised later in the day.
Authorities said the tsunami threat has “largely passed”, with minor sea fluctuations of up to 0.3 metres above and below the normal tide to continue for the next few hours.
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A Virginia County Maneuvers To Protect A Confederate Statue At Its Courthouse
A Virginia County Maneuvers To Protect A Confederate Statue At Its Courthouse https://digitalarkansasnews.com/a-virginia-county-maneuvers-to-protect-a-confederate-statue-at-its-courthouse/
MATHEWS, Va. — A referendum last fall on whether to preserve the Confederate statue outside this county’s historic 1830 courthouse was resounding, with more than 80 percent of voters in favor. But some worried that the monument’s prominent public location still wasn’t safe.
So the Mathews County Board of Supervisors is considering a more permanent solution: Deed the municipal ground under the statue to a private group, such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, to protect it from future changes in public sentiment.
Of all the reckonings with icons of the Lost Cause that have gripped Virginia for the past two years — from Charlottesville deciding to melt down Robert E. Lee to Richmond loaning other bronze generals to a museum in California — this is a new twist, a sign of the enduring power of the Civil War’s legacy.
Officials at the state’s Department of Historic Resources said they are not aware of any other locality in Virginia exploring such a step. Opponents say giving control over a public site to a private heritage group sets an alarming precedent.
“The long-term implications are really far-reaching, because this group could do whatever it wanted with that piece of land,” said Kaitlin Banner, deputy legal director of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs. “The government would lose all control despite the fact that it’s right in the middle of the historic courthouse square.”
The lawyers group signed onto a letter to the county last week warning of possible legal action on behalf of the local chapter of the NAACP. Transferring the land to a pro-Confederate group sends “unquestionable messages that the Mathews County Board of Supervisors endorses white supremacy and supports the second-class status of Black people,” the lawyers wrote.
The letter has turned up the heat on an idea that has been kicking around in Mathews for months. Turnout is expected to be heavy for a public hearing Wednesday night on the general topic of transferring public property to private groups. The hearing originally had been scheduled to take up the statue specifically, but board members last month — in the face of fiery public discussion — decided to slow the process.
“Let me tell you something, the NAACP jumped the gun on this thing,” county supervisor Dave Jones said last week in an interview. There will be no vote Wednesday on what to do about the statue, he said.
But not everyone is convinced.
“We don’t know what action they could take,” said NAACP chapter president Edith Turner.
Confusion has built since last fall’s referendum, in a county of some 8,600 residents that’s roughly 8 percent Black. Even though the voters’ message was clear, and despite the fact that the statue has not been targeted by graffiti or other protest damage, some residents and county supervisors have been on a crusade to save it from any possible future calamity.
One day last week, Jones stood outside the old courthouse and said he “would never vote to move the monument from its place,” though that has not been an issue.
He denied that Wednesday’s hearing is even related to the statue, and said the flap over giving the site to preservationists is overblown. He pledged that he “will not vote to transfer that monument to the SCV” or the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the two groups that erected it in 1912 and have offered to take it over this year.
But minutes later, Jones and Mathews County Board of Supervisors chair Paul Hudgins — who had joined him in the shade under a willow oak tree — were a bit more vague. Would they transfer ownership to some other group who might protect it where it stands?
“We can give ownership to anything, it isn’t no law against it,” Jones said.
“That’s a conversation to be had at a later date,” Hudgins said.
“That’s right,” Jones said.
Turner, the NAACP president, is Black and a teacher who was born and raised in Mathews County. She gives her age as “over 60,” and said she was in about fourth grade when the local schools were integrated. She attended Lee-Jackson Elementary, named for the Confederate generals.
Two years ago, Turner was proud when her daughter spearheaded an effort to rename the school. It’s now known as Mathews Elementary. In response, someone placed a giant Confederate flag on private property across the street.
Confederate battle flags wave by the roadway along several entrances to Mathews County, a fact that Turner said discourages friends and family who might want to visit. “But I feel comfortable here because I’m from here,” she said.
Renaming the school, though, was an unwelcome taste of change for some residents of Mathews who have looked with horror at statues coming down in other parts of the state.
Ben Richardson, 61, grew up in Mathews on property that’s been in his family since the 1700s. Like many in this countryside of marshes and creeks along the Chesapeake Bay, he spent most of his life on the water, on tugboats and oil tankers.
He had ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, he said, and for the Confederacy. The statue is not racism, it’s just history, he said. And the groups that erected it should own it and protect it.
“People just want to open up a can of worms,” Richardson said, sitting outside his Pudding Creek Carvings art shop in a “Good Vibes” T-shirt. “I think the statue ought to stay where it is … and the land, that should be deeded to them.”
The statue itself is the figure of a generic Civil War soldier atop a column. The base reads “Our Confederate soldiers” on one side, and “In memory of the soldiers and sailors of Mathews County Va.” on another.
It stands about 15 feet from the corner of the old courthouse, which anchors a square featuring historic buildings including a jail and a clerk’s office.
Several local residents said they had seldom paid much attention to the statue until 2017, after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, when people supporting Confederate heritage began showing up around the statue to show support for it.
After 2020, when the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police provoked a national movement for racial justice, Confederate supporters would festoon the ground around the statue’s base with small Confederate battle flags.
Some in the county objected, and the board of supervisors warned that the flags couldn’t be placed in the ground because that was public property.
For a time, though, the statue itself was thought to belong to the SCV and UDC. Many of the Confederate statues around the state were placed about a century ago by those heritage groups, and a handful continue to be owned by them despite being located on public property.
In Alexandria, for instance, a Confederate statue was taken down at the request of the UDC and returned to the group for safekeeping.
According to research compiled by staffers at the Mathews Public Library, the county’s memorial was spearheaded by a group called the Mathews County Monument Association made up of seven members from the UDC and seven from the SCV, who raised money from the public to finance it.
But both of those local chapters died out or disbanded long ago, the research showed. Today’s groups were reconstituted in recent years, and the research found no evidence that the statue was ever passed on to them.
At last month’s board of supervisors meeting, a representative of the UDC submitted a letter that seemed to acknowledge the county’s ownership.
Neither the UDC nor members of the SCV could be reached for comment for this story. But two supporters spoke out strongly at the August meeting.
Bobby Dobson, who is a member of the county school board, blamed former governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, for stirring up trouble about monuments and said the fact that a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis is displayed vandalized and prone in Richmond’s Valentine museum is “a disgrace.”
“Now everybody seems like you want to remove” statues, Dobson said. Noting that the county’s referendum in support of the monument was nonbinding, he said the Mathews statue needs permanent protection. “God bless the fallen Southerners,” he concluded, “and God bless Robert E. Lee.”
Joey Taylor, president of the local chapter of the SCV, said his group wants to take ownership of the monument because “we believe that if this is not done then these people on the left will do their very best to destroy this because that’s what they want.”
Neither Dobson nor Taylor could be reached for comment.
Mathews County Administrator Ramona Wilson, who took office in April when the controversy was already in full swing, said in an interview that she remains uncertain about the status of the statue itself. “We don’t know who owns it at this point,” she said.
The next step hinges on Wednesday night’s public hearing. If residents fully support transferring public property to private interests, she said, the board will schedule a hearing on deeding the land under the statue.
If the public opposes the concept, she said, “I think then it’ll just go away.”
But Jones and Hudgins, the board members, made clear that the statue itself isn’t going anywhere.
The county is going to install video surveillance, Hudgins said.
“If they want to come try to tear it down, they got to go through us, and we’ll take all measures,” Jones said.
“This is not Richmond,” Hudgins said, “I can tell you that.”
Jones agreed. “This is not Richmond.”
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Dow Drops 300 Points As Fed Two-Day Policy Meeting Begins, Rates Surge https://digitalarkansasnews.com/dow-drops-300-points-as-fed-two-day-policy-meeting-begins-rates-surge/
Stocks slid on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting and Wall Street looked ahead to another large rate hike due out Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 352 points, or 1.14%. The S&P 500 shed 1.19% and the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.1%.
The Federal Open Markets Committee begins its September meeting on Tuesday, where central bankers are expected to announce a 0.75 percentage point rate hike on Wednesday. Stocks have tumbled in recent weeks as comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and an unexpectedly hot August consumer price index report caused traders to prepare for even higher rates until inflation cools.
Rates marched higher on Tuesday with the yield on the 2-year Treasury note notching a fresh high dating back to late 2007. The yield on the 10-year Treasury traded at 3.593% — near levels not seen since 2011.
Meanwhile, Ford shares slumped 9% after it announced that supply chain issues would cost the automaker an extra $1 billion in the third quarter.
“Heightened fear of recession risk has helped to keep US policy rate pricing inverted from early 2023 to early 2026 and may help to explain why equity volatility is higher than the macro landscape would generally predict,” wrote Goldman Sachs’ Dominic Wilson in a note to clients Tuesday. “Even so, markets will need to adjust significantly further if the more hawkish view of the labor market is right.”
Wilson said the S&P 500 needs to trade within the 2,900 to 3,375 range and 5-year yields between 4.5-5.4% if the Fed needs to see higher unemployment to gain confidence that inflation will fall.
Housing market data released Tuesday showed an unexpected jump in starts for August, although building permits saw the biggest decline since April 2020.
During a choppy trading session on Monday, stocks rose in the afternoon to snap a two-day losing streak and claw back some of their recent losses.
Ford tumbles 9% after supply chain warning
Shares of Ford fell 9% in early trading after the automaker said on Tuesday evening that supply chain issues would cost the company $1 billion in the third quarter.
Supply problems have plagued automakers since the start of the pandemic in 2020, as rolling shutdowns in China have presented a series of challenges. At the same time, Ford and other automakers have pledge to spend billions on the transition to electric vehicles, pressuring their bottom lines in the near term.
Other auto stocks were also under pressure, with Stellantis falling 2.6% and General Motors sliding more than 3%.
— Jesse Pound
Stock open lower as the Fed’s September meeting begins
Stocks opened lower on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 252 points, or 0.82%. The S&P 500 shed 0.85% and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.67%.
All S&P 500 sectors also dipped into negative territory, led to the downside by materials and industrials.
— Samantha Subin
Permits tell the real housing story, and it’s not a good one, economists says
A much higher than expected jump in housing starts for August masks underlying weakness in the real estate market, according to Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Housing starts soared 12% higher from the previous month, far greater than the 0.3% Dow Jones estimate. However, building permits plunged 10%, much worse than the expectation for a 4.4% drop.
Shepherdson said the permits number tells the real story of a housing market mired in a deep slump.
“As a general rule, when starts and permits move in opposite directions, trust the permits numbers, which lead and usually are less noisy,” he said. “In short, ignore the headline starts numbers. The collapse in single-family permits is the real story, and it has much further to go.”
The industry has come under pressure as the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates, driving the 30-year mortgage rate above 6%. The Fed is expected to raise rates another 0.75 percentage point when it releases its decision Wednesday.
—Jeff Cox
U.S. dollar hits fresh high ahead of Fed meeting
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the currency against a basket of others, hit a fresh high of 110.181 Tuesday as investors brace for the Federal Reserve’s September meeting, where the group is expected to deliver another aggressive rate hike.
It’s the highest the index has been since Sept. 16 when it hit a high of 110.26. The dollar also hit a record high of 10.8979 against the Swedish krona, notching the highest level against the currency in more than two decades.
The dollar also gained against the Euro. The Euro slipped to 0.9959 against the dollar.
—Carmen Reinicke, Gina Francolla
August read on housing starts comes in stronger than expected
U.S. homebuilding increased in August, a surprise to the upside as rising rents boosted construction of multi-family housing units.
Housing starts rebounded 12.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.575 million units last month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. That marked the biggest gain since March 2021, when starts gained 19.65%. Economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast housing starts to increase 0.3% to 1.45 million.
Meanwhile, building permits decreased 10% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.517 million, compared to expectations of a 4.4% decline.
— Tanaya Macheel
Stocks making the biggest moves in the premarket: Ford, Change Healthcare, Norwegian Cruise Line and more
These are some of the stocks making the biggest moves in premarket trading.
Ford – The automaker’s stock fell 4.5% in the premarket after it warned that quarterly earnings would take a hit of about $1 billion from increased supplier costs and parts shortages.
Norwegian Cruise Line – Norwegian jumped 3% in the premarket after Truist Financial upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold,” pointing to a decrease in cancellations and subsequent rebookings at lower prices.
Change Healthcare – The health care technology firm’s stock rallied 7.5% in premarket action after a federal judge ruled against the Justice Department’s antitrust challenge to UnitedHealth’s (UNH) planned $13 billion acquisition of the company.
Check out the other stocks moving in the premarket here.
— Peter Schacknow, Samantha Subin
2-year Treasury yield hits fresh 15-year high
The yield on the 2-year U.S. Treasury note notched a fresh 15-year high on Tuesday as traders looked ahead to a decision out of the Federal Reserve’s rate-hike meeting.
The yield on the policy-sensitive 2-year Treasury gained about 3 basis points, reaching 3.977% — a level it had not hit since late 2007.
Yields move inversely to prices, with one basis point equal to 0.01%.
— Samantha Subin
Barclays downgrades Nike ahead of earnings report
Ongoing inventory and demands issues make now a good time to steer clear of Nike heading into the company’s earnings release next week, Barclays says.
“We downgrade shares of NKE to Equal Weight based on: 1) our bearish Wholesale sector demand risk thesis, 2) continued volatility in the Greater China (“China”) market, 3) excess NA inventory creating heightened operating risk, 4) potential demand erosion in both NA and EMEA, and 5) FX headwinds, primarily in Europe,” analyst Adrienne Yih wrote in a note to clients.
Shares of Nike fell more than 2% in premarket trading.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full downgrade here.
— Sarah Min
Western Digital gets downgraded at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank analyst Sidney Ho downgraded Western Digital shares to hold from buy, citing weakening demand for the data storage company.
“We believe WDC’s F1Q (Sep) revenue and EPS are tracking below the low end of guidance, and F2Q (Dec) outlook are also likely to be meaningfully below current Street estimates,” Ho wrote in a Monday note.
Western Digital shares dipped more than 1% after the downgrade.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Sarah Min
German producer prices soar 45.8% year-on-year in August
German producer price inflation hit 45.8% year-on-year in August, the federal statistics office said on Tuesday, driven by soaring energy prices.
The reading vastly outstripped a Dow Jones consensus forecast of 37.9%, while on a monthly basis, the producer price index rose 7.9% against a forecast of 1.6%.
The PPI reading excluding energy, however, was 0.4% on the month and 13% on the year.
– Elliot Smith
Sweden’s central bank launches 100 basis point rate hike, says ‘inflation is too high’
Sweden’s Riksbank on Tuesday launched a 100 basis point hike to interest rates, taking its main policy rate to 1.75%, as it warned that “inflation is too high.”
In a statement, the central bank said soaring inflation was “undermining households’ purchasing power and making it more difficult for both companies and households to plan their finances.”
Read more here.
– Elliot Smith
European markets choppy as Fed meeting gets underway
European markets were choppy on Tuesday, struggling to build on the previous session’s broadly higher trade.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 fell 0.7% by late morning, having given back opening gains of more than 0.9%. Basic resources fell 1.9% to lead losses while autos bucked the downward trend to add 0.6%.
– Elliot Smith
CNBC Pro: Fund manager says the bear market is going to get ‘nasty’
Fund manager Cole Smead believes the stock market is still in the early innings of a bear market — and warns that it won’t be a “garden variety” one.
But, he is not losing any sleep over it. Here’s why:
Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Zavier Ong
China keeps key lending rates unchanged
The People’s Bank of China kept its one-year and five-year loan prime rates (LPR) unchanged, in line with predictions in a Reuters poll.
The one-year loan prime rate remains at 3.65%, and the five-year rate closely tied to...
Effectiveness Of Bevacizumab Step Therapy For Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration Eye
Effectiveness Of Bevacizumab Step Therapy For Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration – Eye https://digitalarkansasnews.com/effectiveness-of-bevacizumab-step-therapy-for-neovascular-age-related-macular-degeneration-eye/
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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/
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 / 07:39 AM CDT
Updated: Sep 20, 2022 / 07:40 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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Utica Music Series Receives $90K Grant For 3 More Years
Utica Music Series Receives $90K Grant For 3 More Years https://digitalarkansasnews.com/utica-music-series-receives-90k-grant-for-3-more-years/
Recently announced by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, Utica Music Series (Monday Nite in Utica) has been awarded a multi-year Levitt AMP Grant Award of $90K. Thus, in matching funds to present a free outdoor music series in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Since 2016, the Levitt AMP Utica Music Series has activated Kopernik Park in Oneida Square. By transforming it into a welcoming, inclusive destination and a venue where diversity is abounded from the stage to audience.
The Levitt AMP Grant Awards is an exciting, multi-year matching grant opportunity bringing the joy of free, live music to towns and cities with a population of up to 250,000 people. The Levitt Foundation has expanded the program from an annual matching grant of $25K, into a three-year matching grant of $30K per year for a total grant award of $90K.
“Emerging from the pandemic, we have all witnessed the importance of community and connection on our well-being, and free, live music in public spaces is a powerful way to bring people together of all ages and backgrounds. Expanding the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards into a multi-year, $90K grant and inviting additional towns and cities into the program was inspired in part by the positive impact Utica Monday Nite is having on the local community,” says Sharon Yazowski, Executive Director of the Levitt Foundation.
“We look forward to the continued impact of the Levitt AMP Utica Music Series, which has transformed Kopernik Park into a community destination beyond the free concerts, creating a joyful and welcoming space for the entire community, from new to lifelong residents alike.”
Sharon Yazowski, Executive Director of the Levitt Foundation
From Main Street communities to rural towns in the heart of Appalachia to historic state capitals, the 18 returning Levitt AMP grant recipients hail from across the country including rural towns with populations of less than 10,000 like Whitesburg, Ky.; Galva, Ill.; Earlham, Iowa; Shenandoah Junction, W.Va.; Soldotna, Alaska; St. Johnsbury, Vt.; and Middlesboro, Ky.*; to mid-sized cities like Berea, Ky.; Carson City, Nev.; Gallup, N.M.; Ocala, Fla.; Sheboygan, Wis.*; Stevens Point, Wis.; Utica, N.Y.; and Woonsocket, R.I.; to larger cities spanning the country including Fort Smith, Ark.; Springfield, Ill.; and Trenton, N.J.*
Berea, Kentucky (population: 15,773)
Carson City, Nevada (population: 55,244)
Earlham, Iowa (population: 1,382)
Fort Smith, Arkansas (population: 87,788)
Gallup, New Mexico (population: 21,637)
Galva, Illinois (population: 2,539)
Middlesboro, Kentucky (population: 9,242)*
Ocala, Florida (population: 60,021)
Sheboygan, Wisconsin (population: 48,153)*
Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia (population: 1,382)
Soldotna, Alaska (population: 4,705)
Springfield, Illinois (population: 167,601)
St. Johnsbury, Vermont (population: 5,815)
Stevens Point, Wisconsin (population: 26,144)
Trenton, New Jersey (population: 83,387)*
Utica, New York (population: 59,984)
Whitesburg, Kentucky (population: 2,215
Woonsocket, Rhode Island (population: 41,616)
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Donald Trump https://digitalarkansasnews.com/donald-trump-2/
Eric Tucker and Michael R Sisak, Associated Press
20 September, 2022 14:23
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 documents seized last month from the former president’s Florida home, saying the issue could be part of the former president’s defence if he is indicted.
Lawyers for Mr 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 about 11,000 documents — including 100 marked as classified — taken during the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8.
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.
Mr Trump’s lawyers signalled in a Monday evening letter their objection to several aspects of the draft plan, including a request from Mr 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 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 investigation could be building toward an indictment.
Mr 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, his 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 defence to the merits of any subsequent indictment,” the lawyers wrote.
The Trump team also asked the judge to consider pushing back all the deadlines for his review.
Also on Tuesday, Mr Trump’s lawyers are to respond to a Justice Department’s appeal against a different judge’s order barring the department at least temporarily from using the classified documents it seized as part of its criminal investigation.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, in the same order appointing the special master, directed the department to halt its use of the records until Mr Dearie can complete his work.
20 September, 2022 14:23 World news
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Ad Spending Shows Dems Hinging Midterm Hopes On Abortion
Ad Spending Shows Dems Hinging Midterm Hopes On Abortion https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ad-spending-shows-dems-hinging-midterm-hopes-on-abortion/
By STEVE PEOPLES and AARON M. KESSLER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights, underscoring how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before the November midterm elections.
With the most intense period of campaigning only just beginning, Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s more than twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue this year, “character,” and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms.
The estimated spending figures, based on an Associated Press analysis of data provided by the nonpartisan research firm AdImpact, reveal the extent to which Democrats are betting their majorities in Congress and key governorships on one issue. That’s even as large majorities of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction and the economy is in poor condition.
The advertising numbers also reveal just how sharply Republicans have shied away from abortion in their paid advertising in the weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a decades-long goal of the GOP. (The AdImpact data captures every single time a campaign ad is aired on TV, and estimates a cost associated with those airings.)
Since the high court’s decision in June to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion, roughly 1 in 3 television advertising dollars spent by Democrats and their allies have focused on abortion. Much of the spending is designed to attack Republicans on the ballot this fall who have long opposed abortion rights and are currently engaged in a state-by-state push to restrict abortion rights or outlaw the practice altogether.
The Democrats’ unprecedented investment in abortion messaging on TV this year through Sept. 18 is larger than the Republican Party’s combined national investment in ads relating to the economy, crime and immigration.
“With less than 60 days until the election, we refuse to stand by while out-of-step, anti-choice Republicans try to control our bodies and our futures and simultaneously lie about it to voters,” said Melissa Williams, executive director of Women Vote!, an outside group that has invested more than $4 million in abortion-related ads this year. “We are ensuring that each voter knows the candidates that stand with them and against them in protecting this right.”
The Democrats’ overwhelming focus on abortion may not be surprising given the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the wave of Republican-backed abortion bans in more than a dozen states that followed. But the strategy still marks a sharp departure from the party’s focus in recent years on former President Donald Trump and other issues like the economy, education and health care.
In the 2018 midterm elections, for example, Democrats spent less than $6 million on abortion-related television advertising. That’s compared to the $51 million that Democrats invested in Trump-related ads, $49 million on health care and $46 million on education, according to AdImpact.
Jessica Floyd, president of American Bridge, a Democrat-allied super PAC running abortion-related advertising in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, described abortion as “the ultimate health care issue” for women and families. The Supreme Court decision and the subsequent Republican push to ban abortion in some states, she said, represent “an actual rolling back of rights, which is unprecedented.”
“It’s a very powerful motivator,” Floyd said. “It flies in the face of everything we know voters care about — especially the voters who will decide this election.”
Television advertising data reveals that Republicans, too, have invested millions of dollars in abortion messaging. But most of those ads ran during the primary phase of the campaign this spring and summer as Republican candidates touted their anti-abortion credentials. The number of Republican ads aired referencing abortion has gone down each month since May.
As the calendar has shifted to the fall general election, the gulf between Democratic and Republican spending on abortion ads has grown even wider. So far this month, for example, Democrats and their allies have aired more than 68,000 ads on TV referencing abortion — more than 15 times as many as their Republican counterparts. They’ve spent an estimated $31 million on such ads compared with the GOP’s outlay of only $2.8 million. That’s even as Republican leaders such as GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel acknowledged in a recent interview that her party cannot allow Democrats to control the narrative on abortion.
“It’s very clear that that’s the only thing that Democrats have to run on, right? They don’t run on a good economy. They can’t run on community being safer. They can’t run on education,” McDaniel said. “So what are they going to do? They’re going to make everything about abortion, which means we’re going to have to talk about it as Republicans do.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., irked Republican leaders last week by proposing a national ban on abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy. It was the kind of legislation Republicans on Capitol Hill have supported for several years. But this year, it was viewed as an unwelcome reminder to voters just eight weeks before Election Day that some Republicans in Congress hope to adopt national abortion restrictions if given the chance.
McDaniel encouraged Republicans instead to go on offense on abortion by highlighting Democrats’ resistance to any limitations, a position she argued is out of step with most voters. And while Republican leaders and candidates are increasingly making that argument when asked, the party has yet to devote many resources to the issue in the one place most voters hear from GOP candidates: their screens.
Democrats, meanwhile, have released a new wave of abortion-related ads targeting statewide Republican candidates across North Carolina, New Mexico, Minnesota, Arizona, Colorado and Florida. Abortion is also a regular topic for state legislative candidates in competitive districts in California and Florida. Republican House candidates are under attack for opposing abortion rights in congressional districts in upstate New York, Connecticut, Michigan and Indiana.
In some cases, Republican candidates are being hit with multiple abortion-related ads running simultaneously on their local television stations.
One of them is Wisconsin’s Republican candidate for governor, Tim Michels, who has been the focus of abortion-related attack ads from three groups so far this month, including his opponent, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Each of the three ad campaigns features Michels confirming that he opposes abortion rights even in cases of rape or incest.
“Is that the divisive radical you want as your governor?” the narrator asks in one ad produced by the Evers campaign.
Michels’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s much the same in Nevada, where Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the nation. This month, at least two anti-Republican groups and the Cortez Masto campaign itself were running abortion-related ads against GOP challenger Adam Laxalt.
Cortez Masto’s campaign featured a doctor saying that Republicans are trying to interfere with women’s health care decisions.
“For doctors like me, it is our job to make sure women have the support they need to make decisions that are right for them. But Adam Laxalt disagrees,” the doctor says on one ad.
In an op-ed last month, Laxalt tried to push back against the flood of abortion-related advertising against him.
“Cortez Masto and her allies are spending millions of dollars in campaign ads trying to … make you believe in a falsehood that I would support a federal ban on abortion as a U.S. senator, or that I am somehow ‘anti-woman’ because I value, support and defend life at all stages,” he wrote. “For my entire adult life, I have held the view that the Supreme Court should return the issue of abortion to the people and let them decide the issue on a state-by-state basis.”
Abortion has been a big focus in Nevada’s Senate contest so far, but other elections have seen far more abortion-related advertising.
The AdImpact data shows that the most TV ads aired this year referencing abortion took place in the Pennsylvania and Arizona Senate races, followed by gubernatorial contests for Illinois, Georgia and Wisconsin. (The now-defeated Kansas constitutional amendment ballot measure, while a unique election, also saw some of the most ads.)
Georgia’s Democratic nominee for governor, Stacey Abrams, ran an ad campaign for much of August into September attacking Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, using the words of several women speaking directly to the camera.
“He supports a total ban, even if I’m raped, a victim of incest,” the women say. Another woman is almost crying when she says, “Under Kemp, I could be investigated and imprisoned for a miscarriage.”
Kemp spokesperson Tate Mitchell pushed back against the accuracy of the ads, charging that “Stacey Abrams and her campaign are lying in an effort to scare people and distract voters from her dangerous agenda for Georgia.”
Democrats in several swing states are aggressively leaning in to some leading Republicans’ opposition to abortion exceptions in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother at risk.
Cliff Schecter, a veteran Democratic ad maker and founder of Blue Amp Strategies, said Democrats are “messaging much better around abortion” this year.
“It’s not just liberal women anymore, or even moderate women. It’s conservative women who are horrified by this,” Schecter said of the new abortion restrictions being implemented ac...
GOP-Led Voting Changes Are On The Rise Making Elections More Vulnerable To Meddling: Analysts
GOP-Led Voting Changes Are On The Rise, Making Elections More Vulnerable To Meddling: Analysts https://digitalarkansasnews.com/gop-led-voting-changes-are-on-the-rise-making-elections-more-vulnerable-to-meddling-analysts/
(WASHINGTON) — There’s a tension between voter access and voting security, but that balance has been tipping decidedly one way in the recent political environment in which false claims that Donald Trump didn’t lose the 2020 election have muddied the waters, according to many experts who are raising alarms about proposed election-related laws.
Since the last presidential election, conservative state legislators across the country have enacted or introduced a flurry of bills that would increase restrictions to the election system — with a focus, in 2022, on changing how races are run and regulated — according to several nonpartisan organizations who describe themselves as advocating for democracy.
Experts from the States United Democracy Center, the Brennan Center for Justice and other groups who spoke with ABC News tied this growing amount of legislation to the false election fraud allegations that Trump and his supporters’ have been spreading since Joe Biden’s victory in 2020.
Since Trump was defeated by Biden, Trump has continued to claim — without evidence — that his election was marred by ineligible voters, fake votes cast by mail and other problems.
The pro-democracy groups told ABC News that hundreds of GOP-authored bills on voting and elections have already been considered during the 2022 legislative sessions in various states, consistent with a similar trend seen in 2021.
The measures from the past two years would purge some people from voter rolls, restrict mail-in ballot access and early voting — which was heavily emphasized by many states during the COVID-19 pandemic — as well as tighten ID requirements to vote, allow politicians to oversee local election boards and more, according to pro-democracy watchdogs.
The bills introduced at the state level would generally make it harder for eligible Americans to register to vote, cast their ballots and stay on voter rolls in comparison to existing laws, according to the Brennan Center. Joanna Lydgate, the co-founder and CEO of the States United Democracy Center, also specified that restrictive bills introduced over the past two years touch every aspect of current voting systems.
“Through these bills, legislators are kind of trying to take control over practically every step of the electoral process,” she said.
Only a fraction of proposed legislation typically gets signed into law, according to experts. But the “political bluster” of bills churning through statehouses will have an impact on expert-run elections systems that have successfully operated for decades, Lydgate told ABC News.
“In a lot of cases these are really poorly designed bills … it can lead to a lot of really unworkable situations. It can lead to confusion and chaos,” Lydgate said.
Fair Fight Deputy Executive Director Esosa Osa said that in her group’s view, there was a “new dynamic of shifting power over election administration from state and local election officials to more partisan actors, and there’s hyper criminalization of voting.” Fair Fight was founded by Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in 2014.
“If you consider the ability to vote, the ability to register to vote, to cast a ballot, and to have that ballot counted fairly — we are seeing all three aspects of that attack,” Osa told ABC News.
But John Fortier, a voting and elections expert for the conservative-aligned American Enterprise Institute, noted that some of the election bills come with nuance such as attempts to return elections back to in-person models after the COVID-19 pandemic rather than to create entirely new sets of restrictions.
“Do I think that some of the major bills that are being considered and passed through are really aimed at cutting down turnout? I don’t think they are aimed that way,” he told ABC News.
State legislatures are “not as interested in moving to kind of a Washington state, Oregon, 100% voting-by-mail model,” Fortier said.
In his view, increasing election security doesn’t always involve tightening access to elections themselves.
“I think it is true that Republicans have a lens of looking at elections where they prioritize more integrity issues,” he said. “You can imagine cases where that gets in the way of access, but I don’t think they’re always as contradictory as one thinks.”
For example, Georgia enacted a sweeping 2021 election bill that was criticized by some advocates for increasing regulations on mail voting. But the law also imposed requirements to try and keep poll lines shorter and increase the availability of poll workers.
By the numbers
Fair Fight said that in 2022 they have counted almost triple the amount of election-related legislation they’d tallied during 2011, the last year they marked a highpoint for restrictions on who can vote and how.
In the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 — before the crescendo of unsupported claims by Trump and his allies about problems with elections — the Brennan Center had tallied more pro-voter reforms than anti-voter restrictions.
In 2018, the Brennan Center counted at least 12 states that advanced a combined total of at least 20 bills expanding voting access in comparison to five states that advanced a combined total of at least six bills restricting voting access.
In 2019, 46 states introduced or carried over 688 bills expanding access compared to 29 states introducing or carrying over at least 87 bills restricting voting access.
And in 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and with many people in isolation, the Brennan Center counted 57 restrictive bills before state legislatures, while 29 states had introduced at least 188 bills to expand access.
Another report, published through a partnership between the nonpartisan voter organizations States United Democracy Center, Law Forward and Protect Democracy, echoed what Fair Fight and the other groups assessed as increasing restrictions on elections.
This new report tallied at least 244 bills introduced in 33 states that would interfere with election administration as of July 31. Twenty-four of those bills have become law, or adopted, across 17 states. That’s up from 229 bills identified in May and 216 bills spanning 41 states during the entirety of the 2021 legislative year.
Arizona and Wisconsin were the two states identified in the report with more than 30 anti-democratic bills introduced or under consideration, according to the report. Every other state
An additional analysis, published in May 2022 from the Brennan Center, reported similar findings for 2022 but tallied additional bills in 2021 — 440 in 49 states — that carried provisions to restrict voting access during the legislative sessions.
“The sheer volume and certainly the growth of the trend is cause for concern,” Lydgate, with the States United Democracy Center, said. “This is a national trend.”
These bills, Osa said, “highlight the broader political ecosystem that we are in following the 2020 election and the big lie” about Trump’s loss.
Opposing views
Simple conclusions about the entire country are hard to draw, however. Despite the influx of restrictive voting legislation moving through Statehouses across the country, there are some efforts to expand voting access as well.
Many state legislatures this year also took steps to broaden voting rights and election access, according to the Brennan Center. The group counted at least 596 of what they termed “expansive” bills in 44 states and Washington, D.C. Most of those proposals would allow for easier voter registration, a process to seek voting rights restoration for those convicted of crimes and easier mail-in voting in states like Arizona, Connecticut, New York and Oregon.
Elsewhere, however, some states have tightened their regulations — though supporters of such moves say it’s about security and smooth election administration.
In 2021, states like Georgia, Florida and Iowa passed sweeping omnibus bills that included election measures like shortening the period for requesting an absentee ballot or adding ID requirements for absentee ballots.
After Georgia saw record-breaking turnout during the March 2021 primary elections — the first test of Democratic predictions that the heightened requirements would actually turn people away from the polls — members of the GOP denounced the attacks as so much smoke.
“[Stacey] Abrams and President Biden lied to the people of Georgia and the country for political gain,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. “From day one, I said that Georgia’s election law balanced security and access, and the facts have proved me right.”
Osa from Fair Fight, and the Brennan Center, however, said that as primary turnout grew in Georgia, so did the turnout gap between white and Black voters.
What worries experts now
The experts who spoke with ABC News called attention to certain kinds of standalone state bills being proposed this year: those that would shift election oversight to partisan legislatures instead of nonpartisan election officials; those that would require political reviews of elections that might delay their certifications; and those that would create “unworkable burdens” or even threat of criminal penalties for election officials.
The democracy experts who spoke with ABC News also expressed concern over the rise of 2020 election deniers — including those, as state legislators, who spearheaded new voting rules — who are now high-profile GOP candidates in the 2022 midterms.
In Arizona, for example, state Rep. Mark Finchem introduced a bill to decertify Arizona’s 2020 election, which Biden won. Finchem also introduced legislation to require hand tabulation of ballots and audits of election systems. He’s now the Republican nominee f...
Trump's Attorneys Against Denoting Declassified Docs To Special Master
Trump's Attorneys Against Denoting Declassified Docs To Special Master https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trumps-attorneys-against-denoting-declassified-docs-to-special-master/
The attorneys have issued a 4-page letter to the special master explaining their position.
A receipt of the property seized by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. (Reuters)
Donald Trump’s attorney in a filing on Monday night said they do not want to reveal to the court-appointed special master which documents seized at Mar-A-Lago were declassified or not.
Trump’s attorneys, who wrote a 4-page letter to the special master, pushed back against Senior US district judge Raymond Dearie’s proposal that they turn in “specific information regarding declassification” to him for review.
Dearie issued an order on Friday which calls both parties to convene in the federal courthouse in New York for a preliminary conference.
In response, the attorneys said that until or unless they rule fighting the search warrant by the FBI, or if they decide to offer it as a defense after any potential incident for indictment, they will not be disclosing details regarding the declassification nature of the documents. Such details, moreover, would also be shared with the Justice Department.
“It was all declassified,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month. Legal experts, however, said that it would be irrelevant if the documents are declassified or not, depending on the charges filed.
Lawyers at the Justice Department in their letter proposed that Dearie’s review of the material on Monday begin first by scanning the seized documents, and having Trump’s attorneys review 500 pages a day, marking each document as privileged or not. Based on this, prosecutors can agree or disagree and lodge them to the special master who, interestingly, was appointed by Trump himself.
A federal judge made November 30 a deadline for Dearie to conclude his review and classifications.
Read next: Trump against US Gov’s decision to keep Mar-a-Lago papers from review
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Post Politics Now: Biden To Plug Campaign Finance Bill Head To New York For Fundraiser
Post Politics Now: Biden To Plug Campaign Finance Bill, Head To New York For Fundraiser https://digitalarkansasnews.com/post-politics-now-biden-to-plug-campaign-finance-bill-head-to-new-york-for-fundraiser/
Today, President Biden plans to plug a Senate bill that would require super PACs and so-called “dark money” groups to disclose donors who give $10,000 or more during an election cycle. After the event at the White House, the president is scheduled to head to New York ahead of his address Wednesday to the U.N. General Assembly. Biden’s schedule Tuesday night includes an appearance in New York at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.
In the House, the Rules Committee is expected to advance legislation that aims to prevent future presidents from trying to overturn election results through Congress. The full House could vote on the bill later this week. The Senate is expected to consider its own version of the legislation, inspired by President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 election results.
Your daily dashboard
Noon Eastern time: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security adviser Jake Sullivan brief reporters. Watch live here.
1:45 p.m. Eastern: Biden delivers remarks on the Disclose Act. Watch live here.
1:55 p.m. Eastern: Vice President Harris delivers remarks at South Carolina State University’s Fall Convocation in Orangeburg, S.C.
7:30 p.m. Eastern: Biden participates in a DNC fundraiser in New York.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
Analysis: House to move quickly on Electoral Count Act bill. When will Trump weigh in?
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The House is moving quickly on a bill to overhaul the Electoral Count Act, the 19th-century law governing the certification of presidential elections.
Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer say that Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) unveiled their bill Monday, and the House is expected to vote on it on Wednesday, where it is expected to pass with the support of Democrats and at least a few Republicans.
Our colleagues write:
The Senate released its version in June, but the earliest it would be brought up for a vote is after the midterm elections during the “lame duck” session.
The speed at which it is being ushered through the House is, in part, to put Republicans on the record ahead of the midterms.
Then-President Trump tried to exploit the law’s ambiguities in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results by pressuring Vice President Pence to reject electors from certain states.
Pence declined, but Trump’s effort culminated on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters backing his false claims of widespread election fraud attacked police and ransacked the Capitol.
You can read the full analysis here.
On our radar: Biden to tout bill requiring disclosure of super PAC donors
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President Biden on Tuesday is seeking to give a boost to legislation that would require super PACs and s0-called “dark money” groups to disclose donors who give $10,000 or more during an election cycle.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that his chamber would vote on the legislation, branded as the Disclose Act, later this week, saying it is needed to address a “cancer” in the nation’s campaign finance rules.
Citizens United and subsequent Supreme Court rulings permit super PACs and certain types of tax-exempt groups, such as 501(c)(4) nonprofits, to spend unlimited sums in elections. Under current law, many of those groups are not required to disclose their donors.
The latest: Biden’s claim that ‘pandemic is over’ complicates efforts to secure funding
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President Biden’s surprise declaration that the coronavirus pandemic is “over” has thrown a wrench into the White House’s efforts to secure additional funding to fight the virus and persuade Americans to get a new booster shot, while fueling more Republican criticism about why the administration continues to extend a covid “emergency.”
The Post’s Dan Diamond reports that Biden’s comments, which aired Sunday on “60 Minutes,” reflect growing public sentiment that the threat of the virus has receded even as hundreds of Americans continue to die of covid each day. Dan writes:
On our radar: A landmark Supreme Court fight over social media now looks likely
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Conflicting lower court rulings about removing controversial material from social media platforms point toward a landmark Supreme Court decision on whether the First Amendment protects Big Tech’s editorial discretion or forbids its censorship of unpopular views.
The Post’s Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow write that the stakes are high, not just for government and the companies, but because of the increasingly dominant role that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook play in American democracy and elections. Per our colleagues:
Take a look: In Nevada, Democrats seek to link Laxalt to ‘Big Oil’
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The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is out with a new 30-second ad Tuesday linking the Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, Adam Laxalt, to deep-pocketed oil companies.
A man in a T-shirt sitting inside a garage says Laxalt “tried to block a fraud investigation into a Big Oil company” and that “oil executives” spent “millions on his campaign.” The man also says Laxalt “made millions” at a “fancy” lobbying firm “that works for Big Oil.”
The ad broadly echoes attacks made earlier by the Democratic senator Laxalt is trying to unseat, Catherine Cortez Masto. When Laxalt was Nevada’s attorney general, he joined Republican attorneys general in opposing a probe by New York’s attorney general, who, according to PolitiFact, looked into “whether oil companies had made fraudulent disclosures about climate change.”
Noted: Video appears to undercut Trump elector’s account of alleged voting-data breach in Georgia
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On Jan. 7, 2021, a group of forensics experts working for lawyers allied with President Donald Trump spent eight hours at a county elections office in southern Georgia, copying sensitive software and data from its voting machines.
The Post’s Jon Swaine and Emma Brown report that under questioning last month for a lawsuit, a former Georgia Republican Party official named Cathy Latham said in sworn testimony that she briefly stopped by the office in Coffee County that afternoon. She said she stayed in the foyer and spoke with a junior official about an unrelated matter at the front desk.
The latest: Trump lawyers acknowledge Mar-a-Lago probe could lead to indictment
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The Justice Department and lawyers for Donald Trump filed separate proposals Monday for conducting an outside review of documents seized at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, with key disagreements over how the process should work and Trump’s team acknowledging that the criminal probe could lead to an indictment.
The Post’s Perry Stein and Devlin Barrett report that both sides referenced a “draft plan” given to them by Judge Raymond J. Dearie, the newly appointed special master. Per our colleagues:
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North Little Rock Man Pleads Guilty In Hit-And-Run That Killed Sherwood Bicyclist With Fort Smith Connections
North Little Rock Man Pleads Guilty In Hit-And-Run That Killed Sherwood Bicyclist With Fort Smith Connections https://digitalarkansasnews.com/north-little-rock-man-pleads-guilty-in-hit-and-run-that-killed-sherwood-bicyclist-with-fort-smith-connections/
LITTLE ROCK — The man who killed a Sherwood bicyclist in a hit-and-run collision three years ago pleaded guilty Monday to felony counts of negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an injury accident, with his punishment to be decided at a later date.
The charges together carry up to 42 years in prison for offenders with at least one prior felony conviction. The man who pleaded guilty, 54-year-old Cecil Daren Ferrell of North Little Rock, has two 2007 drug-related convictions from Bradley County, court records show.
Ferrell pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, a Class B felony, and leaving the scene, a Class D felony, an arrangement negotiated by senior deputy prosecutor Leigh Patterson and defense attorney Richard Hughes.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 4 by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson. Ferrell, arrested in March 2020, eight months after the fatal collision, has been jailed ever since.
The victim, John Daniel Mundell, a 59-year-old newlywed and father of six, was biking south on Arkansas 107 about 20 minutes before sundown in July 2019 when he was hit from behind north of Millers Point Court by a driver who fled the scene. Not even two months married, Mundell died four days later.
Sherwood police reported that Mundell was wearing his helmet and bright reflective clothing, and that his bike was equipped with a clear forward-facing light on the front and a rear-facing flashing red light under his seat. The lights were still on when police arrived.
Mundell, a small businessman with his own vinyl siding company, was a biking enthusiast who regularly raced. He belonged to the River Valley Cycling Club in Fort Smith and also ran marathons. In September 2020, the Arkansas Highway Commission marked with signs the section of Arkansas 107, a mile south of the intersection of Brockington Road, as the John D. Mundell Memorial Highway.
Investigators were able to find surveillance video of Mundell on his bike and were further able to trace his route through a telephone app.
Video allowed police to determine a suspect vehicle, a silver Hyundai Elantra with minor damage to the right front corner, with investigators publicizing the vehicle to try to find out who was driving it.
Almost five months had passed before Ferrell came to their attention, court filings show. The turning point came when North Little Rock police directed Sherwood detectives to a 2001 Elantra that resembled the car in the video, with the right-side damage but also damage to the windshield that looked like it could have been caused by a large object striking it, court filings show.
The car’s owner, Donald Franklin, told investigators he had bought the car from his father, who in turn had bought it from a former employee whom he knew as Darren Ferrell, according to court records. The senior Franklin said Ferrell said he had gotten into some trouble with the vehicle and needed to get rid of it.
Ferrell went to police in January 2020, about two months before his arrest, telling investigators he’d bought the car sometime in the summer of 2019. He told investigators he never let anyone borrow the car but had left it in Crossett in July 2019 — about two weeks before Mundell was killed — with the keys in the ashtray.
Ferrell said the front damage came from hitting an orange traffic barrel, but he did not know what had happened to the windshield, beyond saying that the damage had existed a long time.
Investigators also got information from a woman who said she saw an apparently drunk man driving the Elantra in Mayflower with a man passed out in the front passenger seat, around the time of the collision. The car was not damaged then, the woman said.
Police tracked down that passenger, who said he was with Ferrell in the car when Ferrell hit someone on a bicycle on their way back from Mayflower. According to court files, the passenger said both he and Ferrell had been drinking heavily at the time.
The passenger told police he had been asleep during the drive when he was awakened by a loud pop. When he asked Ferrell what had happened, Ferrell said he had hit a traffic barrel, and the passenger said he had gone back to sleep.
Ferrell dropped him off at home that night, the passenger said, telling police he saw the Elantra windshield damage the next day and realized it couldn’t have been caused by a traffic barrel. He said he confronted Ferrell about the windshield, according to court records. That’s when Ferrell told him about hitting a bike rider, the witness told police.
After police arrested Ferrell, he denied any wrongdoing, stating he did not remember any collision and regularly suffers from blackouts.
Read More…
More Than 1 Million Were Left Without Running Water After Hurricane Fiona Ripped Through The Dominican Republic. It's Only Expected To Get Stronger | CNN
More Than 1 Million Were Left Without Running Water After Hurricane Fiona Ripped Through The Dominican Republic. It's Only Expected To Get Stronger | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/more-than-1-million-were-left-without-running-water-after-hurricane-fiona-ripped-through-the-dominican-republic-its-only-expected-to-get-stronger-cnn/
03:14 – Source: CNN
In 2017 Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. See why some say Fiona is worse
CNN —
Hurricane Fiona is continuing its ruinous path Tuesday after devastating Puerto Rico with flooding rain then ripping through the Dominican Republic, where more than a million people were left without running water and dozens of homes were destroyed.
Nearly 800 people were brought to safety by emergency workers in the Dominican Republic, according to the country’s emergency management director of operations, Juan Manuel Mendez. At least 519 people were taking refuge in the country’s 29 shelters Monday, he said.
The eye of the hurricane slammed into the nation early Monday, battering communities with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. That’s after the storm wreaked havoc across Puerto Rico Sunday and into Monday, leaving the US territory in a blackout and bringing destruction not seen on the island since Hurricane Maria in 2017, officials said.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Alejandro Granadillo/AP
Streets are flooded on Salinas Beach after Hurricane Fiona moved through Salinas, Puerto Rico, Monday, September 19.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters
Children play in a flooded street in the aftermath of Fiona in Salinas Monday.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
-/AFP/Getty Images
A man looks at a flooded street in the Juana Matos neighborhood of Cataño, Puerto Rico.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters
A member of the Puerto Rico National Guard searches for people to rescue in Salinas.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters
Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard rescue a woman stranded in her house in Salinas.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Jose Rodriguez/AFP/Getty Images
A woman stands outside her flooded house in Salinas.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters
A man walks past a Puerto Rican flag painted on a door in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Peñuelas.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Stephanie Rojas/AP
Residents affected by Hurricane Fiona rest at a storm shelter in Salinas.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Alejandro Granadillo/AP
A woman clears debris on her flooded property in Salinas.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Alejandro Granadillo/AP
Nelson Cirino looks at his bedroom after the winds of Hurricane Fiona tore the roof off his house in Loíza, Puerto Rico, Sunday.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters
People clear a road from a fallen tree in Yauco, Puerto Rico, Sunday.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Alejandro Granadillo/AP
Nelson Cirino secures the windows of his home as the winds of Hurricane Fiona blow in Loíza.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
NOAA/AP
This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Fiona in the Caribbean Sunday.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Ricardo Rojas/Reuters
Workers of the Social State Plan prepare food rations in preparation for Fiona in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Sunday.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Alejandro Granadillo/AP
Jetsabel Osorio stands in her house damaged five years ago by Hurricane Maria in Loíza on Saturday.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Alejandro Granadillo/AP
Residents attach protective plywood to a window of their home in preparation for the arrival of Fiona in Loíza Saturday.
Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams Caribbean
Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters
Boats sit secured to mangroves as Fiona approaches in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, Saturday.
At least three people have died the severe weather, including one in the French territory of Guadeloupe and two in Puerto Rico, according to officials.
In Puerto Rico, a 58-year-old man was swept away by a swollen river behind his home in Comerío and another man in his 30s died in a fire accident that occurred while he was trying to put gasoline in his generator while it was turned on, officials said.
As of Monday afternoon, at least 1,018,564 customers across the Dominican Republic had no access to running water as 59 aqueducts were out of service and several others were only partially functioning, according to Jose Luis German Mejia, a national emergency management official.
Some were also without electricity Monday as 10 electric circuits went offline, emergency management officials said. It’s unclear how many people are impacted by the outages.
Heavy rainfall continued to soak eastern regions of the Dominican Republic Monday evening and life-threatening flooding is expected to continue into Tuesday.
Fiona intensified into a Category 3 storm as it moved away from the Dominican Republic’s northern coast early Tuesday with sustained winds whipped up to 115 miles per hour with gusts as strong as 130 miles per hour, according to the hurricane center.
The designation now classifies Fiona as a major hurricane, the first of the Atlantic season.
But the most powerful stages of the storm may be yet to come, as Fiona is expected to escalate into as high as Category 4 by the time it is expected to pass near or to the west of Bermuda on Thursday night.
The storm’s center will likely continue to push northward, moving near or to the east of Turks and Caicos on Tuesday, according to the forecast.
Hurricane conditions will likely be seen in Turks and Caicos Tuesday and by late Monday or early Tuesday the Bahamas are anticipated to be under tropical storm conditions, the hurricane center said.
Even as a tropical storm warning was lifted over Puerto Rico, the island continued to be lashed by the hurricane’s outer bands, soaking regions already struggling under dangerous flooding and destruction.
As Tuesday marks the 5-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic landfall, some who lived through the 2017 crisis say Fiona’s flooding destruction could be even more severe.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a business owner in Puerto Rico told CNN that his neighborhood had still not finished its recovery from Maria when Fiona struck. But this time, he says, the flooding brought even deeper damage to their homes.
“A lot of people – more than (during) Maria – lost their houses now … lost everything in their houses because of the flooding,” Gonzalez told CNN’s Leyla Santiago. “Maria was tough winds. But this one, with all the rain, it just destroyed everything in the house.”
Most of the damage inflicted on the island is rain-related, Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi told CNN Monday evening.
More than 1.2 million customers are still in the dark as of early Tuesday, according to estimates from PowerOutage.us, which notes updated information on restoration efforts is limited.
Pierluisi said he hopes it will be “a matter of days” to restore power for most customers. The company that oversees the territory’s power grid, LUMA Energy, previously said transmission line outages were contributing to the blackout, and on Monday said it had restored power to over 100,000 customers.
Critically, power was restored to one of Puerto Rico’s most vital medical facilities on Monday, according to the territory’s health secretary Dr. Carlos Mellado López.
“The power system at all the hospitals in the Medical Center Complex has been restored,” Mellado said in a Sunday night tweet. “Our patients are safe and receiving the medical care they need.”
Many of those without power also have no water, as rain and flooding impacts to filtration systems left only about 35% of customers with water service as of Monday, the governor said.
Emergency crews battled against unrelenting rain to rescue approximately 1,000 people as of midday Monday, said Maj. Gen. José Reyes, adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard.
In addition to the hundreds of Puerto Rican National Guard members aiding in rescue and recovery efforts, the White House said Monday that President Joe Biden told Pierluisi during a phone call that federal support will increase in the coming days.
“As damage assessments are conducted, the President said that number of support personnel will increase substantially,” the White House said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul also announced the state would send 100 state troopers to assist relief efforts in Puerto Rico. She also said teams from New York Power Authority are available to help with power restoration.
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Cryptoverse: After Merge Ether Heads For A $20 Billion Shanghai Splurge
Cryptoverse: After Merge, Ether Heads For A $20 Billion Shanghai Splurge https://digitalarkansasnews.com/cryptoverse-after-merge-ether-heads-for-a-20-billion-shanghai-splurge/
Souvenir tokens representing cryptocurrency networks Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Ripple plunge into water in this illustration taken May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Sept 20 (Reuters) – The Merge came, saw and conquered. Not that you’d guess from crypto prices.
The Ethereum blockchain’s mega-upgrade finally went live on Sept. 15, moving it to a less energy-intensive “proof of stake” (PoS) system with hardly a hiccup. read more
Even though anticipation of the event had seen ether rise about 85% from its June doldrums, it has since sunk 19%, hit along with bitcoin and other risky assets by investor angst over inflation and central-bank policy.
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Nonetheless, many market players are bullish about the long-term prospects of Ethereum and its native cryptocurrency.
“Previously, we have talked to sovereign wealth funds and central banks to help build their digital asset allocations… but direct investment has been voted down due to energy concerns,” said Markus Thielen, chief investment officer at asset manager IDEG Limited.
“With Ethereum moving to PoS, this clearly solves this last pillar of concern.”
Some crypto investors are now turning their attention to the next event that could shake up prices.
The next significant upgrade for Ethereum is the “Shanghai”, expected by market participants in around six months’ time, which is aimed at reducing its high transaction costs.
It would allow validators, who have deposited ether tokens on the blockchain in exchange for a yield, to withdraw their staked coins, to hold or sell.
There’s a lot at stake: over $20 billion of ether deposits are currently locked up, according to data provider Glassnode.
The staked ether crypto coin – viewed as a bet on Ethereum’s long-term success as it cannot be redeemed until Shanghai happens – is trading at nearly parity with ether at 0.989 ether, according to CoinMarketCap data, indicating confidence in future upgrades.
The coin had dropped as low as 0.92 in June.
PURGE AND SPLURGE
Beyond Shanghai, a slew of other upgrades are planned for Ethereum, which co-founder Vitalik Buterin has nicknamed “the surge”, “verge”, “purge” and “splurge”.
The primary focus of future upgrades is likely to be on the blockchain’s ability to process more transactions.
“Because the Merge was delayed for several years, investors, traders, and end-users have a great deal of trepidation around when Ethereum will meaningfully scale,” said Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at blockchain-focused bank Galaxy Digital.
Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at EY, said: “Ethereum’s future needs to, and will, scale to hundreds of millions of transactions a day.”
Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics
ETHEREUM KILLERS
The Merge’s primary goal was to reduce Ethereum’s energy usage as cryptocurrencies come under fire for their massive carbon footprint. The blockchain’s energy consumption was cut by an estimated 99.95%, the developers claim, which could tempt powerful institutional investors, formerly constrained by environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns.
The Merge and future upgrades also dent the investment appeal of so-called “Ethereum killer” blockchains like Solana and Polkadot, said Adam Struck, CEO of venture capital firm Struck Crypto.
However, institutional investors aren’t jumping in just yet, as a fearsome macro environment chills the waters of risk appetite.
Longer-term, though, the switch to PoS is expected to decrease the rate at which ether tokens are issued – potentially by up to 90% – which should drive up prices.
Additionally, annual yields of 4.1% for staking ether tokens to validate transactions could prove tempting for investors.
However, while the proof-of-stake method allows for these lucrative yields, many crypto purists point out that it moves Ethereum away from a purely decentralized model as the biggest validators could exercise greater influence over the blockchain.
For the time being, however, the Ethereum world might be advised to enjoy the Merge moment.
“There may be volatility in the days to come,” said analysts at Kaiko Research. “But for now the community can take a well-earned victory lap.”
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Reporting by Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pravin Char
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
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World Bids A Final Farewell To The Queen https://digitalarkansasnews.com/world-bids-a-final-farewell-to-the-queen/
The United Kingdom and the world bid one final farewell to Queen Elizabeth II in London. Also in the news: Puerto Rico begins its recovery after Hurricane Fiona thrashed the island, and the special master in the Mar-a-Lago case will get to work.
Good morning! I’m Steve Coogan, filling in one more time for Nicole Fallert. Before we dive into the news.
Here is Tuesday’s news:
Up first: Adnan Syed was released from prison after 22 years Monday. Would his murder conviction have been overturned without the ‘Serial’ podcast? Read more
Britain, world bid a final farewell to Queen Elizabeth II
The United Kingdom and much of the world spent Monday mourning Queen Elizabeth II, who was celebrated at a funeral at Westminster Abbey and brought to her final place of rest, St. George’s Chapel. With the funeral and a private burial service Monday evening concluded, a period of Royal Mourning is set to last for the next seven days, according to the new king’s wishes. The queen was laid to rest in an intimate ceremony in Windsor, where she was reunited with her husband, Prince Philip, and her parents. In contrast to the pageantry of her state funeral, officials said the queen’s internment was a “deeply personal family occasion.” Read more
“We liked Lizzy”: London was transformed into a pageant of both mourning and celebration
Poignant moments: They ranged from emotional royals to the funeral wreath
The royals in attendance: See King Charles III, Prince Harry and others present
Viral moment: A man dropped piece of paper on ground near coffin during queen’s funeral
Princess Kate, daughter Charlotte honor the queen with sweet details: How funeral guests dressed for the solemn affair
Westminster Abbey in London: See Queen Elizabeth II at the iconic church where she was married, crowned, laid to rest
Royal news right in your inbox: Subscribe to Keep Calm and Carry On, a newsletter answering all of your questions about the royal family following Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
Puerto Rico recovers from Hurricane Fiona as storm moves on
Hurricane Fiona smashed Puerto Rico Monday with rain and winds that triggered mudslides, “catastrophic” flooding and a power outage affecting the entire island. Over 1,000 water rescues were performed, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said. Even as the storm reached the Dominican Republic, it continued to slam Puerto Rico with rain – more than 30 inches in some parts. Read more
Where is Fiona now? By early Tuesday, Fiona was drifting away from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and heading toward the Turks and Caicos Islands where a hurricane warning is in effect, the National Hurricane Center said. Fiona packed maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, making it a Category 3 storm.
See the people and places impacted: Hurricane Fiona floods homes and streets in Puerto Rico
Video: Fiona leaves floods, power outages
Previous coverage: Hurricane Fiona makes landfall on Puerto Rico’s southwest coast
More news to know now:
A strange coincidence: A major earthquake strikes Mexico on Sept. 19 for the third time since 1985, this time a magnitude 7.6
“Nothing more … than a photo op.”: Texas authorities said they are opening an investigation into how 48 Venezuelan migrants were “lured” to board flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard under a plan orchestrated by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Moving on: Countries consider breaking away from the British crown now that Queen Elizabeth II’s reign is over
What we know: Alaskan officials rush to provide aid in flooded, remote villages
Another “SNL” departure: Chris Redd becomes the latest cast member of the NBC comedy sketch series to exit ahead of Season 48
On today’s 5 Things podcast, hear a recap of yesterday’s funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker.
Special Master in Mar-a-Lago case to hold first session with Trump lawyers, DOJ
Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master assigned to review material the FBI seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, is scheduled to hold his first court conference Tuesday with lawyers for Trump and the Department of Justice. Both sides said in filings Monday night that Dearie had distributed a draft case management plan for the review. Pending the outcome of a separate DOJ appeal, Dearie is expected to determine whether federal prosecutors will remain barred from reviewing some of the seized material in a criminal investigation of Trump. Read more about Judge Dearie
Meet Raymond Dearie: He’s the special master in the DOJ’s probe into Trump’s handling of documents
“The government and the public would suffer irreparable harm absent a stay”: US asks appeals court to lift judge’s order in probe of classified documents
President not briefed: Biden says he doesn’t know what national secrets are contained in Mar-a-Lago documents
Official jailed in killing of Las Vegas journalist Jeff German due in court
Robert Richard Telles, the Clark County, Nevada, public administrator, is due to face a judge on a murder charge Tuesday in the stabbing death of Jeff German, a Las Vegas investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of Telles and his managerial conduct. Telles has remained jailed without bail since his Sept. 7 arrest in the Sept. 2 slaying of German, a veteran Las Vegas Review-Journal staff writer. A criminal complaint accuses Telles, 45, of “lying in wait” for German, who prosecutors say was stabbed seven times. Read more on the case
Jeff German confronted the power players of Sin City: It may have gotten him killed.
Additional case details: A DNA match led to elected official’s arrest in death of reporter
I left Las Vegas. Jeff German stayed, and paid with his life: More from Detroit Free Press columnist Neal Rubin
Just for subscribers:
Democracy ‘in jeopardy’: Experts discuss the state of U.S. politics, what could happen and what to do
It’s everywhere: Sea-level rise’s surprising reach damaging more than East Coast shoreline
Propaganda of the digital age: How memes are weaponized to spread disinformation
Biden says the COVID pandemic “over”: Could that put some emergency aid programs at risk?
These articles are for USA TODAY subscribers. You can sign up here. Already a subscriber and want premium content texted to you every day? We can do that! Sign up for our subscriber-only texting campaign.
MLB: Judge, Pujols get back to pursuits of home run history
After an off day Monday, the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge and the St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols will resume their chases at home run history Tuesday. Judge, who hit his 58th and 59th home runs Sunday, can become the first American League player since Roger Maris in 1961 to hit 60 home runs in a season. He can break the AL record with three more homers. The Yankees face the Pittsburgh Pirates at home. The 42-year-old Pujols, who is retiring at the end of the season, is trying to become the fourth major leaguer to reach 700 home runs. The Cardinals will play on the road against the San Diego Padres. Read more on Judge’s chase
Aaron Judge home run tracker: The Yankees slugger chases league history
Following Albert Pujols: Can he hit the 700-home run milestone?
MLB power rankings: Dodgers are baseball’s first to 100 wins. Who’s going to join them?
A little something different
An apparent fashion faux pas: First lady Jill Biden is being criticized for wearing a fascinator instead of a hat to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral
Is Trump embracing QAnon more openly? A salute from the crowd and the music played at an Ohio rally suggest closer ties
‘The Voice’ is back! Camila Cabello makes her coaching debut on the NBC series and snags the first four-chair turn singer
Long recovery begins: Actor Eugenio Derbez opens up about his recent accident and says doctors “needed to reconstruct my arm”
“Monday Night Football” doubleheader: Allen, Bills demolish Titans in their home opener | Hurts, defense shine in Eagles’ dominating win over the Vikings
Photo of the day: All eyes on London for the queen’s funeral
Endless rows of Union Jacks. Acres of red Beefeater uniforms. Forests of raised arms with cellphones snapping and filming. Flowers everywhere, whether laid in neat piles or pelting the black Jaguar hearse as it glided through town. London was transformed Monday.
All to celebrate the final moments in the storied life of Queen Elizabeth II. A woman who made history. Read more
Click here to see dozens of more photos of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and the scene in London.
Steve Coogan is an audience editor at USA TODAY. Sign up for the email here. Support journalism like this – subscribe to USA TODAY here.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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The Jolt: Trump Eyeing Georgia Rally After Warnock-Walker Debate
The Jolt: Trump Eyeing Georgia Rally After Warnock-Walker Debate https://digitalarkansasnews.com/the-jolt-trump-eyeing-georgia-rally-after-warnock-walker-debate/
The Jolt: Trump eyeing Georgia rally after Warnock-Walker debate The Atlanta Journal Constitution
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'Donald Trump Is More Dangerous Than Ever': Conservative Waves Red Flag After Latest Appearance
'Donald Trump Is More Dangerous Than Ever': Conservative Waves Red Flag After Latest Appearance https://digitalarkansasnews.com/donald-trump-is-more-dangerous-than-ever-conservative-waves-red-flag-after-latest-appearance/
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Battle To Liberate Occupied Luhansk Leaves Proxy Leaders Worried; Top Official Urges Vote On Joining Russia
Battle To Liberate Occupied Luhansk Leaves Proxy Leaders Worried; Top Official Urges Vote On Joining Russia https://digitalarkansasnews.com/battle-to-liberate-occupied-luhansk-leaves-proxy-leaders-worried-top-official-urges-vote-on-joining-russia/
Top Russian official says breakaway regions must hold votes to join Russia
Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, has said that it is “essential” for Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine to hold referenda on becoming a part of Russia.
Medvedev, now deputy chair of the Security Council of Russia, claimed that the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) would have their interests protected if they became a part of Russia.
“Referendums in the Donbas are essential, not only for the systematic protection of residents of the LPR, DPR and other liberated territories, but also for the restoration of historic justice,” Medvedev said in a message on Telegram.
“Encroachment on the territory of Russia is a crime, the commission of which allows you to use all the forces of self-defense,” Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev.
Alexey Nikolsky | Afp | Getty Images
“After their implementation and the acceptance of new territories into Russia, the geopolitical transformation in the world will become irreversible,” he added, implying that becoming a part of Russia would enable Moscow to justify defending such territories, which are already seen as under Moscow’s control.
“Encroachment on the territory of Russia is a crime, the commission of which allows you to use all the forces of self-defense,” he said, adding “that is why these referendums are so feared in Kyiv and in the West. That is why they need to be carried out.”
Medvedev’s comments come after the separatist leaders of the DPR and LHR stepped up calls to hold immediate votes on joining Russia, calls that come as Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast of the country starts to spread, putting pressure on the Luhansk, a region Russia claimed to have fully occupied in July.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia likely to have relocated submarines away from Crimea
Russia has almost certainly relocated its Kilo-class submarines from their home port in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea to southern Russia, according to the latest intelligence update from Britain’s Ministry of Defense.
“The command of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has almost certainly relocated its KILO-class submarines from their home port of Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai, southern Russia,” the ministry said on Tuesday.
The Russian Navy’s Kilo-class submarine Rostov-na-Donu B-237 enters the Bosphorus Strait en route to the Black Sea on Feb. 13, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Dia Images | Getty Images News | Getty Images
This is highly likely due to a heightened security threat level following an increased Ukrainian long-range strike capability, the ministry added, and following recent attacks on the fleet headquarters and its main naval aviation airfield.
“Guaranteeing the Black Sea Fleet’s Crimea basing was likely one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s motivations for annexing the peninsula in 2014. Base security has now been directly undermined by Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine,” the ministry said.
— Holly Ellyatt
Battle to liberate occupied Luhansk proceeds as Russian proxies look worried
Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast of the country continues, with the region of Luhansk believed to be no longer under the full control of Russian forces.
One Ukrainian official stated on Monday that Kyiv’s forces had retaken control of the village of Bilohorivka in Luhansk. Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said on Telegram on Mondat that Bilohorivka “has been cleared and is completely under the control of the Armed Forces.”
“We should all be patient in anticipation of the large-scale deoccupation of Luhansk region. This process will be much more difficult than in Kharkiv region. There will be a hard fight for every centimeter of Luhansk land. The enemy is preparing for defense,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities and their proxies appear to be worried about Ukraine’s gains in an area of the country where there are two self-proclaimed “republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk.
A photo taken on June 17, 2022, shows a destroyed school in the village of Bilohorivka not far from Lysychansk in the Luhansk region which was seized by Russian forces in early July.
Anatolii Stepanov | Afp | Getty Images
Denis Pushilin, head of the Russia-backed separatist Donetsk region, called on his fellow separatist leader in Luhansk on Monday to combine efforts aimed at preparing a speedy referendum on joining Russia.
In a video posted on his telegram channel, he told Luhansk People’s Republic leader Leonid Pasechnik in a phone call that “our actions should be synchronized.”
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said the desire to hold a rapid referendum “suggests that Ukraine’s ongoing northern counter-offensive is panicking proxy forces and some Kremlin decision-makers.”
The ISW’s analysts said referenda would be “incoherent” as “Russian forces do not control all of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.”
“Partial annexation at this stage would … place the Kremlin in the strange position of demanding that Ukrainian forces un-occupy ‘Russian’ territory, and the humiliating position of being unable to enforce that demand. It remains very unclear that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be willing to place himself in such a bind for the dubious benefit of making it easier to threaten NATO or Ukraine with escalation he remains highly unlikely to conduct at this stage,” they said.
— Holly Ellyatt
UK says it will match current support for Ukraine in 2023
The U.K.’s newly elected prime minister Liz Truss is expected to announce a multibillion-pound stimulus package to help people with soaring energy prices.
Carl Court / Staff / Getty Images
The U.K. has announced that in 2023 it will meet or exceed the amount of military aid spent on Ukraine this year.
Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss is expected to announce during a visit to the United Nations in New York this week that leaders “must put an end to Putin’s economic blackmail by removing all energy dependence on Russia,” acording to a pre-released statement by the government.
Truss will use her visit to New York this week to solidify the U.K.’s “commitment to Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity, with the announcement that the UK will match or exceed our record 2022 military support to Ukraine next year,” the government said.
The U.K. said Ukraine’s gains in the conflict in the last couple of weeks amounted to “a significant moment in the war” and said this success is evidence of what the Ukrainian people can do with the backing of fellow democracies.
Missile strikes near Ukraine nuclear plant, IAEA says
A. Russian serviceman guards an area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in territory under Russian military control, southeastern Ukraine, May 1, 2022.
AP
An explosion near a Ukraine power plant damaged windows and power lines but did not impact the operation of the three reactors there, Kyiv told the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday.
The blast from the shelling occurred about 300 meters, or 984 feet, from the industrial site of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant in Mykolaiv Province, the IAEA said in a press release.
No staff were injured by the missile, which impacted three power lines that were swiftly reconnected, Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom told the IAEA.
Ukrainian authorities reportedly called the shelling an act of “nuclear terrorism” by Russia.
The IAEA also said its experts discovered that a power line used to supply electricity to another nuclear plant, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, had been disconnected Sunday.
Zaporizhzia, located in southeastern Ukraine, is Europe’s largest power plant, and has six reactors that are currently in a “cold shutdown state,” the IAEA said. The plant still receives the electricity it needs for essential safety functions, but it now does not have access to back-up power from the Ukrainian grid, the IAEA experts said.
The disconnected power line transferred electricity from the Ukrainian grid through the switchyard of a nearby thermal power station, the IAEA said. It was not immediately clear how the line was disconnected.
“The situation at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant remains fragile and precarious,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in the press release.
“Last week, we saw some improvements regarding its power supplies, but today we were informed about a new setback in this regard. The plant is located in the middle of a war zone, and its power status is far from safe and secure. Therefore, a nuclear safety and security protection zone must urgently be established there,” Grossi said.
— Kevin Breuninger
Mon, Sep 19 20223:41 AM EDT
Putin relying increasingly on volunteer and proxy forces for Ukraine combat: ISW
Russia is relying more and more on volunteer and proxy forces for its combat operations in Ukraine, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
“(Russian President) Putin’s souring relationship with the military command and the Russian (MoD) may explain in part the Kremlin’s increasing focus on recruiting ill-prepared volunteers into ad-hoc irregular units rather than attempting to draw them into reserve or replacement pools for regular Russian combat units,” the ISW said.
Part of this, it said, is due to Putin “bypassing the Russian higher military command and Ministry of Defense (MoD) leadership throughout the summer and especially following the defeat around #Kharkiv Oblast.”
— Natasha Turak
Mon, Sep 19 20223:41 AM EDT
Russian troops strike nuclear power plant; reactors still intact
Russian forces struck a nuclear power plant...
What New York And All America Owes Puerto Rico https://digitalarkansasnews.com/what-new-york-and-all-america-owes-puerto-rico/
As Hurricane Fiona devastated Puerto Rico this weekend, many New Yorkers spent the night frightened and frantically trying to reach their families and friends 1,600 miles away. Sadly, this has become a familiar routine due to decades of neglect and lack of investment by a federal government seemingly allergic to following through for our fellow Americans.
Sunday night, the island was slammed with nearly 30 inches of rain. Hitting the electricity grid, the storm plunged all of Puerto Rico into darkness. Power is in the process of being restored, but this triggered painful memories of what happened when Hurricane Maria touched land in 2017 or Hurricane Irma shortly before that, or Tropical Storm Erika a few years before that.
As governor, I was very aggressive in helping Puerto Rico and in turn, New Yorkers opened their hearts and wallets to help our brothers and sisters in their time of need. This is not surprising as New York City is home to more Puerto Ricans than any place outside Puerto Rico.
They are part of our community, our neighbors and our brothers and sisters.
Downed power lines on road PR-743 in Cayey ,Puerto Rico as the island awoke to a general power outage on September 19, 2022 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Jose Jimenez/Getty Images)
Mother Nature has been harsh to Puerto Rico, there is no doubt. But our federal government has also been harsh to Puerto Rico, and that is something that must be remedied. After Maria, then-Gov. Ricardo Rosselló intelligently used the moment to build back better. Much like New York after Superstorm Sandy, the goal was not to replace what was, but to seize the opportunity to renew and modernize.
New York’s advocacy was helpful in securing a federal aid package of approximately $42.5 billion.
A key element of the plan was to transform Puerto Rico’s electric power grid with state-of-the-art modern grid technologies. The power system in Puerto Rico has long been outdated and in need of replacement. Using what we learned from recovering from Sandy, we proudly worked with our counterparts in the Puerto Rican government to develop a solid, reality-based plan that was to be funded with federal recovery aid.
That was five years ago.
One may ask, what has happened since in terms of actual progress? The answer: very little. The federal government has been bureaucratic and painfully slow in actually administering the funding. Every few months, a federal agency will visit Puerto Rico and issue a press release announcing incremental progress. The federal administration has working groups, and congressional members issue their own press releases supporting Puerto Rico. And, of course, they never hesitate to offer thoughts and prayers.
But the bottom line is that very little progress has actually been made. The rebuilding plan sits on the shelf, the money is tied up in the federal bureaucracy and on the ground in Puerto Rico, the situation is basically the status quo. Under Trump, no significant aid went out the door. Biden reversed that policy, but practically speaking, very little of this aid has reached the island. There is a real lack of urgency, as Sunday’s devastation proved.
This phenomenon is not unique to Puerto Rico. Our federal government tends to focus on the crisis of the moment. Follow-up almost always fades.
Federal officials see a press release as progress. It’s not. Progress is actually getting something done — achieving results, which is much more difficult than rhetoric.
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Let us use this current crisis as a reminder of the forgotten promises made to Puerto Rico. The White House and Congress should demand to know why so little has actually been done even though funding is not an issue.
Even if the recovery and restoration are quicker than the last storm, we are still using the grid from the last storm and the next storm is still coming — only Mother Nature knows how bad it will be.
Puerto Rico should be a showcase for the federal government to demonstrate that it is still capable of making a difference. This is not to say that the Puerto Rican government doesn’t share the blame. There have been government disruptions and complaints of corruption. They must likewise commit themselves to expediting performance.
Any major project that is undertaken poses many obstacles. It is the nature of change. Building a new LaGuardia and JFK airport, opening the Second Ave. subway, the new Tappan Zee Bridge, building the Long Island arena, hardening our own power grid after Sandy — all posed seemingly insurmountable challenges at the time; but that is the art form of government.
Let’s seize the day and commit ourselves to the proposition that this will be the last storm to hit Puerto Rico before the modernization and infrastructure is completed. Compassionate leadership is empathy in action.
Yes, we offer Puerto Rico our thoughts and prayers, but even more, we should offer Puerto Rico capacity and progress.
Cuomo was the 56th governor of New York and a former secretary of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Perfectly Reasonable Question: Can We Trust The Polls?
Perfectly Reasonable Question: Can We Trust The Polls? https://digitalarkansasnews.com/perfectly-reasonable-question-can-we-trust-the-polls/
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Pollsters are setting sail yet again this year. Is it a little scary? Yes. Credit…Adam Dean for The New York Times
Last Monday, I wrote about the early “warning signs” in this year’s Senate polling. Then three days later, I helped write up the results of a new national survey: a New York Times/Siena College poll showing Democrats up by two percentage points in the generic ballot among registered voters.
If you thought that was a touch contradictory, you’re not alone. One person tweeted: “Didn’t you just write that the polls are an illusion? Why should we believe this one?”
It’s a perfectly fair question, and it’s one I encounter regularly: Should I believe these polls — or not? It’s also a surprisingly complicated question to answer.
This may sound obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: We believe our polls provide valuable information about voters and the state of the election. These polls are time-consuming, expensive and stressful, with considerable mental health and reputational costs when they wind up “wrong.” We would not be making this effort if we believed they were doomed to be useless.
There are warning signs, yes — and we’ll track them in this newsletter. I do not think you should unquestioningly “believe” polls, at least not in the sense that you “believe” figures from an encyclopedia. Polls are not exact measurements, like the diameter of the Earth or the speed of light. They are imprecise estimates — and even the classic margin of error seriously understates the actual degree of uncertainty.
But despite all the limitations, a 2020 polling error is not inevitable, either. In fact, our most recent survey showed some small signs of encouragement that 2022 polls may not be like those of 2020.
Polling errors at sea
I spent a week on a lake in Ontario last month, so forgive me for analogizing polling failures to a different kind of catastrophe: a boat capsizing in a violent storm.
Like a rickety boat in a storm, the polling error in the last cycle required both difficult conditions — whether it’s rough waves or the lower likelihood that Trump voters participate in surveys — and a polling vessel that simply couldn’t handle the adversity.
Nonetheless, we’re setting sail yet again this year.
Is it a little scary? Yes. We pollsters are stuck with the same boats that flipped last time. We would like to buy something sturdier, but there isn’t anything better on the market. That’s not to say that we aren’t making changes, but many of our best ideas are the equivalent of tightening the screws and patching holes. Even with such changes, we can’t be confident that our ships today will withstand the storm we experienced in 2020.
But are we doomed? No. For example, there’s a credible theory that the pandemic contributed to polling error, as safety-conscious liberals were more likely to be home during lockdowns (and answered telephone calls) while conservatives went out and lived their lives. With the lockdowns over, those tendencies may be, too.
The State of the 2022 Midterm Elections
With the primaries over, both parties are shifting their focus to the general election on Nov. 8.
Echoing Trump: Six G.O.P. nominees for governor and the Senate in critical midterm states, all backed by former President Donald J. Trump, would not commit to accepting this year’s election results.
Times/Siena Poll: Our second survey of the 2022 election cycle found Democrats remain unexpectedly competitive in the battle for Congress, while G.O.P. dreams of a major realignment among Latino voters have failed to materialize.
Ohio Senate Race: The contest between Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, J.D. Vance, appears tighter than many once expected.
Pennsylvania Senate Race: In one of his most extensive interviews since having a stroke, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee, said he was fully capable of handling a campaign that could decide control of the Senate.
There’s also a credible theory that Donald J. Trump himself is an important factor. If so, polling could be more “normal” with him off the ballot.
What you’ve read to this point is the nautical version of an analysis written by Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, who argued that the polls may not be wrong this fall. Although the piece is sort of framed as a rebuttal to mine, I don’t really disagree with any of it. Consider it recommended reading.
A favorable data point from our most recent poll: response rates by party
There’s one big difference between polling after 2020 and setting sail the day after a storm: The sailor can probably find a weather forecast.
We don’t get poll error warnings, but last week’s newsletter pointed to something about as close as it gets: surprising Democratic strength in exactly the same places where the polls overestimated Democrats last time. If you’ll permit this metaphor to continue, it’s an ominous cloud on the horizon. Dark clouds don’t necessarily mean there will be a fierce storm, but if there were going to be a storm, we’d see some dark clouds first. Similarly, this pattern in the state polling is exactly what we would expect to see if the polls were going to err in the same way they did two years ago.
This week, I can report a new measurement of the conditions facing pollsters: whether Democrats or Republicans were likelier to respond to our latest Times/Siena survey.
I wasn’t systematically tracking this in fall 2020 — this data is not always easy to collect and process, especially with everything else going on. But if I had been tracking the response by party, it would have been another warning sign.
Looking back at our data from September and October 2020, white Democrats were 20 percent likelier to respond to Times/Siena polls than white Republicans. This disparity most likely betrayed a deeper problem: Trump voters, regardless of party, were less likely to respond to our polls.
On this front, I have good news: The response rate by party is more balanced so far this cycle. In the national poll we released last week, white Democrats were only 5 percent likelier to complete the survey than white Republicans. That’s back down near the level of our October 2019 polling, when our early survey of a projected Biden-Trump contest came eerily close to the final result among likely voters. In those battleground state polls, white Democrats were 6 percent likelier to respond than Republicans, compared with a 23 percent gap in the fall 2020 polling of those same states.
This is a good sign. Maybe — just maybe — our poll last week was closer to the mark than polls have been in recent cycles.
But what if it’s wrong anyway?
Still, it’s worth imagining what might happen if the polls are off again by the same 2020 margin.
Republicans would have been the ones leading our poll last week by two points among registered voters, instead of Democrats. It would certainly be a different race, but the story might not read very differently. We’d probably still characterize the contest as fairly competitive at the outset of a general campaign. That’s a little different than in 2020, when a four-point error made the difference between a Biden landslide and a fairly competitive race.
If you think about it, there are a lot of cases when a 2020-like polling error can be quite tolerable. Does it make a huge difference whether 46 percent or 50 percent of Americans think the economy is good or excellent rather than poor or bad? What about whether Mr. Trump is at 54 percent or 58 percent in an early test of the 2024 primary? In contrast, polls of close partisan elections can be extremely sensitive: whether Mr. Biden has 46 percent or 50 percent of the vote could be the difference between a decisive eight-point victory or a clear victory for Mr. Trump, given the recent skew of the Electoral College.
And it’s also worth noting that the polls contain valuable information, even when they miss on the horse race. In 2016, for instance, the pre-election polls showed Mr. Trump’s huge gains among white voters without a college degree.
And last cycle, they showed Mr. Trump’s gains among Hispanics. These trends uncovered by polls continue to have import. If you missed it over the weekend, my colleagues analyzed the results of our poll that focused on Hispanics, in this article, based on these cross-tabs.
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Susan J. Demas: Dixons 'parents Rights Message: You're Only A Real Mom If You Vote GOP Michigan Advance
Susan J. Demas: Dixon’s 'parents’ Rights’ Message: You're Only A Real Mom If You Vote GOP ⋆ Michigan Advance https://digitalarkansasnews.com/susan-j-demas-dixons-parents-rights-message-youre-only-a-real-mom-if-you-vote-gop-%e2%8b%86-michigan-advance/
Just over 20 years ago, I gave birth to my first child early on in my journalism career.
In the years that followed, I would be told by several editors, some who were trying to be helpful and others who appeared to still reside in the Stone Age, that my decision to start a family with my husband was a very bad professional move.
I pushed on, as women have to do, and worked my way into covering state and national politics. By that time, I was a single mom who had no choice but to bring my daughter to night and weekend events I was expected to cover (which some of my male colleagues sniped was unprofessional, as they happily left most of the parenting to their wives).
Gretchen Whitmer being sworn into the state Senate while holding her daughter, Sydney | Whitmer photo
At one event, I saw then-state Sen. Gretchen Whitmer juggling her kids and we locked eyes, as moms who get the struggle do. I went back to my office and mentioned that moment. An older male reporter rolled his eyes and declared: “I knew she wasn’t a serious person and would never go anywhere in politics when she got pregnant after getting elected.”
That was about 15 years ago. That punditry, of course, hasn’t aged well, as Whitmer is now the 49th governor of Michigan.
Her journey there wasn’t an easy one. For years, Democratic Party leaders had tried to woo her to run for higher office, but Whitmer repeatedly demurred while her daughters were young.
When she did take the leap to seek the 2018 gubernatorial nomination, Whitmer battled intense sexism, both from pundits who couldn’t stop comparing her to Michigan’s only (at that time) female governor, Jennifer Granholm, and from Democratic leaders who fretted a woman couldn’t win after then-President Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 victory here.
Throughout her governorship, Whitmer has endured creepy coverage of her wardrobe and blatant misogyny from GOP leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake), who’s dismissed her as “bats–t crazy” and bizarrely bragged about “spanking” her on pandemic orders.
This year, some pundits have trumpeted the gubernatorial election as a feminist triumph, with Whitmer facing right-wing commentator Tudor Dixon.
And indeed, women’s rights are at the forefront, with abortion as the No. 1 issue in Michigan polling, following the Supreme Court sending shockwaves by overturning Roe v. Wade.
Whitmer and Dixon are firmly on opposite sides on the issue, with the governor going to court to ensure the state’s 1931 law criminalizing abortion doesn’t go into effect, while Dixon backs the law and doesn’t favor exceptions for rape, incest or the mother’s health. She’s gone so far as declaring she doesn’t support abortion for a 14-year-old rape survivor because there’s “healing through that baby.”
But any hopes of this race being an uplifting celebration of female empowerment were dashed when one of Dixon’s first public statements after winning the Aug. 2 primary was: “It’s time to elect a real woman in Michigan.”
But any hopes of this race being an uplifting celebration of female empowerment were dashed when one of Dixon’s first public statements after winning the Aug. 2 primary was: ‘It’s time to elect a real woman in Michigan.’
– Susan J. Demas
You could dismiss that as just a weird thing to say — because it was — from a political novice.
But Dixon and Republicans have been giddily doubling down.
At a party “unity” luncheon after the primary, Michigan GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock referred to Dixon as a “younger, smarter and hotter” version of Whitmer.
First of all, what an insult to Dixon. The most important thing for any candidate is to stand on their own, but the leader of Dixon’s party casually diminished her as a “version” of her opponent — one who Maddock disparages all the time.
This also could have been a perfect opportunity for Dixon to take the high road and talk about how she and Whitmer may have big policy differences, but she doesn’t support ad hominem attacks. She could have lifted up the historic nature of a gubernatorial contest between two women.
It also would have been a clear message to Republican leaders fed up with Maddock’s classless antics that Dixon was the kind of reasonable politician they could invest in and fight for.
But instead, Dixon smiled and took no issue with Maddock’s comments reducing both women to sex objects, a sign that nothing’s really off-limits this election.
Photo via Canva
Indeed, in her Aug. 2 victory speech, Dixon announced: “This is going to be an epic battle between a conservative businesswoman and mother, and a far-left birthing parent and career politician.”
Let’s upack that. First of all, there’s the usual political doublespeak and exaggeration. Dixon naturally is overplaying her strengths — her business career was a few years at her father’s steel factory that struggled to pay its bills before shutting down completely. She interestingly ignores her careers in film and online commentary, as well as the fact that Whitmer has been an attorney and taught at the University of Michigan, in addition to being governor, a county prosecutor and a leader in the House and Senate.
But Dixon’s real message is that she is a Mom, while Whitmer is a mere birthing vessel. And it’s really an attack on all women who don’t neatly fit into Dixon’s conservative mold.
I guess the heartburn, stretch marks, sleepless nights and hours of labor don’t count for women unless you vote Republican. Neither do all the times we’ve bandaged our kids’ owies, helped with math homework and comforted them when they were bullied in school.
What a kick in the face to millions of moms in Michigan and beyond.
Most of us don’t look at parenthood as part of some epic, neverending political war. It’s simply the best, most challenging and most important job we have.
Part of Dixon’s extremely personal attack is, of course, rooted in health professionals using more inclusive language. But it goes far beyond that. Like several Republicans who ran for governor, Dixon was inspired to after Whitmer’s early COVID health orders, which have been credited with likely saving tens of thousands of lives.
Dixon complained about the struggles of homeschooling kids — which, ironically, is championed by her biggest supporter, Trump’s former education secretary, Betsy DeVos — and emerged as a vocal supporter of the right-wing “parents’ rights” movement.
Most of us don’t look at parenthood as part of some epic, neverending political war. It’s simply the best, most challenging and most important job we have.
– Susan J. Demas
A small group of right-wing activists — some of whom don’t even have kids in the districts they’ve protested — have snared attention for flooding school board meetings to complain about COVID health rules (which are now largely a thing of the past). They’ve also gotten books banned on race and LGBTQ+ issues and don’t want those issues talked about in schools.
It’s always seemed less about concern for children and more about angry adults trying to turn everything into a political bloodsport.
Thanks to funding from national right-wing groups, they’ve had some successes in Michigan and across the country. Republicans make the case that these are “real parents” and the only ones worth listening to — as opposed to the vast majority of us who are just trying to keep our kids safe, healthy and happy during a pandemic that’s killed more than 1 million Americans and an attempted 2021 coup at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
As a former PTA member, the only disagreements I recall were over which restaurant to hold a fundraiser at so we could buy some more instruments for the music program. I can’t imagine trying to do something to help your kids and getting screamed at by people who want to get their 15 seconds of fame on Fox News and even dealing with violent threats against your family.
Parenting is a really tough job for anyone, in any time. The last thing we need is politicians — especially someone like Dixon who wants to run the entire state — declaring war on parents who aren’t in lockstep with her on everything.
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Parkview’s Thomas Enjoyed UA Visit https://digitalarkansasnews.com/parkviews-thomas-enjoyed-ua-visit/
Little Rock Parkview 4-star basketball prospect Dallas Thomas said he saw some similar faces during his unofficial visit to the University of Arkansas on Saturday.
The visit was his first since visiting the Hogs last year for the Razorback football team’s victory over Texas. Seeing some of the current players and experiencing the Hogs’ 38-27 come-from-behind victory over Missouri State on Saturday highlighted the trip.
“Getting to reunite with the players, I was around all the players,” Thomas said. “It was good vibes. The football game was obviously nice. It was boost that we won. The environment was crazy, as always.”
Thomas, 6-8, 175 pounds, has scholarship offers from Arkansas, Ole Miss, Missouri, Auburn, Memphis, Illinois, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech, St. John’s and others.
He and Arkansas’ heralded freshman guard Nick Smith Jr. hung out during the trip.
“We were just going around the campus at first and then we went to his house, housing area and we were just talking about how he liked it,” Thomas said. “He told me it was a nice environment. I just appreciate having that moment and sitting down and talking to him.”
Thomas averaged about 14.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 blocks per game for the Patriots as a sophomore. He played for the 16-under Bradley Beal Elite in spring and summer basketball.
ESPN rates him a 4-star recruit, the No. 11 small forward and No. 33 prospect in the nation for the 2024 class. He is the No. 1 recruit in the state for his class.
“With a long and ‘slim’ frame, Thomas has all the tools that could take him a long way in the game with development and patience,” ESPN national recruiting director Paul Biancardi said. “His shooting stroke is effective from long range as it exudes balance and footwork. His ability to find the open pocket of space for his pull-up jumper is hard to guard. In the open floor, his offensive conversion game is fluid and direct as he puts pressure on the defense. A terrific long-term prospect.”
Two other 2024 prospects also visited Arkansas on Saturday: ESPN 5-star point guard David Castillo and 4-star small forward Jalen Shelley. Castillo also visited the Hogs for the Texas game last year, and that’s when he and Thomas hit it off.
“Game recognizes game,” Thomas said. “I saw Dave play a couple times and I saw him on the visit and we just talked. Just real cool thoughts. We clicked.”
They’ve considered the possibility of playing together in college.
“We discussed it. I would love to play with Dave,” Thomas said. “I feel like his game and my game mesh together well. We would be able to feed off each other, so he’s definitely a point guard I would love to play with on the collegiate level.”
Thomas said he, Castillo and Shelley were impressed while watching the Hogs practice.
“I was definitely impressed with the high intensity,” Thomas said. “The attention to detail was one thing that really impressed me. I liked the fact they got up a lot of shots.”
His main communication has been with Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman, assistant coach Gus Argenal and recruiting coordinator Ronnie Brewer Jr.
“I obviously was able to talk to Coach Muss and take pictures with him,” Thomas said. “Gus Argenal and Ronnie Brewer, I talked to them a lot, too. Ronnie Brewer showed us around. I had a sit-down talk with Gus about the things he liked and the things I needed to improve on.”
Thomas also said he is looking to make his way back to Fayetteville.
“I definitely want to go back for a basketball game and see what it’s like during the season,” he said.
He has an official visit set for Missouri on Oct. 1. He said Arkansas is in a good spot with him after Saturday’s visit.
“Arkansas has always been top of my list, one of the schools I’m considering the most,” he said.
Email Richard Davenport at rdavenport@arkansasonline.com
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Sweden's Central Bank Launches 100 Basis Point Rate Hike Says 'inflation Is Too High'
Sweden's Central Bank Launches 100 Basis Point Rate Hike, Says 'inflation Is Too High' https://digitalarkansasnews.com/swedens-central-bank-launches-100-basis-point-rate-hike-says-inflation-is-too-high/
Sweden’s Riksbank launched a 100 basis point hike to interest rates on Tuesday as it looks to rein in inflation.
Mikael Sjoberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Sweden’s Riksbank on Tuesday launched a 100 basis point hike to interest rates, taking its main policy rate to 1.75%, as it warned that “inflation is too high.”
In a statement, the central bank said soaring inflation was “undermining households’ purchasing power and making it more difficult for both companies and households to plan their finances.”
The sharp hike comes as the U.S. Federal Reserve begins its two-day monetary policy meeting, with markets broadly expecting a 75 basis point increase as policymakers strive to get soaring prices under control.
The Riksbank said monetary policy will need to be tightened further to bring inflation back to its 2% target, and forecast further rises to interest rates over the next six months.
“The development of inflation going forward is still difficult to assess and the Riksbank will adapt monetary policy as necessary to ensure that inflation is brought back to the target,” it said.
Although global factors such as residual imbalances after the Covid-19 pandemic and soaring energy prices due to Russia’s war in Ukraine have driven prices skyward, the Riksbank executive board said strong economic activity in Sweden has also contributed.
Swedish consumer price inflation rose to 9% annually in August, its highest level since 1991 and exceeding the Riksbank’s previous forecast in June.
“Rising prices and higher interest costs are being felt by households and companies, and many households will have significantly higher living costs,” the Riksbank said.
“However, it would be even more painful for households and the Swedish economy in general if inflation remained at the current high levels.”
The comments echoed the recent line taken by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who said the U.S. economy will need to face “some pain” in order to prevent inflation inflicting greater long-term damage.
This is a breaking news story, please check back later for more.
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Video Appears To Undercut Trump Electors Account Of Alleged Voting-Data Breach In Georgia
Video Appears To Undercut Trump Elector’s Account Of Alleged Voting-Data Breach In Georgia https://digitalarkansasnews.com/video-appears-to-undercut-trump-electors-account-of-alleged-voting-data-breach-in-georgia/
On Jan. 7, 2021, a group of forensics experts working for lawyers allied with President Donald Trump spent eight hours at a county elections office in southern Georgia, copying sensitive software and data from its voting machines.
Under questioning last month for a civil lawsuit, a former Georgia Republican Party official named Cathy Latham said in sworn testimony that she briefly stopped by the office in Coffee County that afternoon. She said she stayed in the foyer and spoke with a junior official about an unrelated matter at the front desk.
“I didn’t go into the office,” Latham said, according to a transcript of her deposition filed in court. She said she had seen in passing a pro-Trump businessman who was working with the experts. She said they chatted for “five minutes at most” — she could not remember the topic — and she left soon after for an early dinner with her husband.
Surveillance video footage reviewed by The Washington Post shows that Latham visited the elections office twice that day, staying for more than four hours in total. She greeted the businessman, Scott Hall, when he arrived and led him into a back area to meet the experts and local officials, the video shows. Over the course of the day, it shows, she moved in and out of an area where the experts from the data forensics firm, SullivanStrickler, were working, a part of that building that was not visible to the surveillance camera.
She took a selfie with one of the forensics experts before heading out at 6:19 p.m.
A Post examination found that elements of the account Latham gave in her deposition on the events of Jan. 6 and 7, 2021, appear to diverge from the footage and other evidence, including depositions and text messages. Many of those records, including Latham’s Aug. 8 deposition, were filed in a long-running federal civil court case involving election security in Georgia.
During the 2020 election and its aftermath, Latham was a member of the Georgia Republican Party’s executive committee and sat on its election confidence task force. She was also chairwoman of the Coffee County Republican Party. She was one of the “fake electors” who signed unauthorized certificates in a bid to keep Trump in power after his 2020 election defeat.
In response to questions from The Post, Latham’s lawyers said, “Failing to accurately remember the details of events from almost two years ago is not lying.” They have said she did not take part in the copying or in anything improper or illegal.
Her attorneys Robert D. Cheeley and Holly A. Pierson wrote in a court filing last week that the alleged security breach was “actually less of a breach or criminal undertaking and more of a permissible exercise of the County Elections Board’s authority.”
They wrote that “the parties involved plainly believed that they had the authority to authorize it and the authority to do it, and that belief seems to be at least reasonable and likely accurate, which negates any possible criminal intent.”
The surveillance footage shows that Latham appeared to introduce the SullivanStrickler team to local officials when they arrived that day. She then watched as they began looking at county voting equipment, it shows.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and a grand jury in Atlanta are probing the incident in Coffee County, a Republican stronghold about 200 miles south of Atlanta. Federal and state prosecutors are also investigating the “fake elector” scheme, in which Latham and dozens of other Republicans in battleground states signed certificates proclaiming Trump the rightful winner.
The Coffee County episode is one of several alleged breaches of voting equipment since the 2020 election. In each instance, Trump supporters — often with the help of like-minded local officials — sought access to voting equipment to hunt for evidence that the election was rigged.
Access to voting machines is typically tightly restricted, and some security analysts fear that such breaches — including the copying of voting software that is also used elsewhere — risk exposing the systems to hackers.
Details about what happened in Coffee County, including the surveillance video reviewed by The Post, have surfaced largely because of a lawsuit brought against Georgia by several voters and the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance. The plaintiffs say the state’s voting system is unconstitutionally insecure, which state officials deny. The plaintiffs have subpoenaed documents and testimony from a number of individuals, including Latham.
Sidney Powell, the Trump-allied attorney who was billed for the work, has not directly responded to questions from The Post about Coffee County. “Prior reports of my involvement were seriously misrepresented,” she said in an email.
Records obtained by the plaintiffs show that Powell signed contracts for the forensics experts’ elections work. The SullivanStrickler team updated her by email on the work in Coffee County and billed her more than $26,000, according to the records.
Coffee County was among a handful of locations across the nation where Trump and his advisers pounced on minor errors or rumors of voting-machine irregularities in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
After Coffee County elections supervisor Misty Hampton discussed concerns about Dominion Voting Systems machines at a Nov. 10 elections board meeting, a Trump campaign staffer emailed her seeking information available under public records law. The county refused to certify its results after a statewide recount on Nov. 30, claiming that the machines showed inconsistent results. State investigators later concluded that the discrepancies had been caused by human error.
A local news outlet published a video that featured Hampton purporting to show how she could “flip” votes from one candidate to another. It went viral. Trump’s team later cited Coffee County in its campaign to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
In her deposition, Latham said that some time between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Jan. 6, after she had worked a full day as a high school teacher — and as Trump supporters were attacking the U.S. Capitol — she received a call from Hall, the businessman.
Hall had been “looking into the election on behalf of the President,” Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer told Trump campaign officials on Nov. 20, 2020, in an email obtained by The Post. The email centered on problems with absentee ballots and did not mention Coffee County or voting machines.
In her deposition, Latham said Hall asked her to connect him to Hampton. She did not know why and did not ask, she said.
“Because that had been a hectic day. I hadn’t had any sleep, all the stuff had been happening, I had been getting phone calls left and right I was answering. I was tired, I wanted to go home,” Latham said. She said she then briefly telephoned Hampton to put her in touch with Hall.
“I would have called Misty and I said, ‘Well, let me give you his email,’” Latham said, adding: “I sent her the email. That’s all I remember doing.”
The new surveillance footage shows that Latham and Hampton were together inside the office during this time. Latham arrived at the office at 3:58 p.m. and had at least three phone calls between 4 p.m. and 4:40 p.m.
At 4:26 p.m., Hampton texted Eric Chaney, a member of the county elections board that employed her, records show. “Scott Hall is on the phone with Cathy about wanting to come scan our ballots from the general election like we talked about the other day,” she wrote.
Latham’s husband joined them at the office at 5 p.m., the footage shows, and later brought in takeout food. The Lathams and Hampton all left the office shortly before 7:40 p.m.
The following morning, Latham exchanged text messages with SullivanStrickler’s chief operations officer, Paul Maggio, as the team drove to Coffee County, records show, coordinating who would fetch Hall from the airport.
Latham also updated Hampton on the visitors’ movements.
“Team left Atlanta at 8. 5 members led by Paul Maggio. Scott is flying in,” Latham wrote Hampton in a text message at 9:26 a.m.
“Yay!!!!” Hampton replied.
In her deposition, Latham said she was just passing on information that Hall asked her to share with Hampton. She said she didn’t know why Maggio and Hall were coming to Coffee County.
Latham said she also worked a full day at Coffee High School on that day, Jan. 7, before briefly visiting the elections-office foyer after about 4 p.m., for reasons unrelated to SullivanStrickler’s work there.
Latham said she could see people behind the front desk but that she wasn’t paying attention to who they were and she remained on the other side of the partition. “There were people in there, and I get uncomfortable when there’s others,” she said.
External surveillance footage made public earlier this month showed that Latham arrived at the office at 11:37 a.m. that day. Three SullivanStrickler employees arrived at the elections office soon after. They were later joined by a fourth colleague. They intended to collect whatever data possible from the county’s voting machines, emails and billing records show.
Cheeley, Latham’s attorney, previously told The Post that Latham did not remember all the details of that day but testified truthfully. He said she did recall visiting the office after school “to check in on some voter review panels from the runoff election” that had been held for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats earlier that week.
Latham described herself to SullivanStrickler as an elections official, an executive from the company said during a deposition on behalf of the firm this month. A lawyer for Latham said something must have been taken out of context or misunderstood because Latham has never been a...
Violence Erupts In Iran After Woman Dies In morality Police Custody
Violence Erupts In Iran After Woman Dies In ‘morality Police’ Custody https://digitalarkansasnews.com/violence-erupts-in-iran-after-woman-dies-in-morality-police-custody/
Security forces cracked down on protesters demonstrating across Iran over the death of a young woman in the custody of its so-called morality police, allegedly killing five.
The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from western Iran, during a visit to the capital this month has stirred outrage over the government’s increasingly strict enforcement of ultraconservative dress codes for women. Amini was detained as she exited a metro station, and she suffered a heart attack and slipped into a coma while in custody, state-affiliated media said. Her family insisted that she had no previous health problems, and activists asserted that she may have been beaten by police.
Monday marked the third day of unrest across Iran, with protests in numerous places, including Tehran, the capital. Two people were killed as security forces fired on protesters in the Kurdish city of Saqez — Amini’s hometown — while two more died in the town of Divandarreh, and a fifth was killed in Dehgolan, according to Hengaw, a rights watchdog. The claims could not immediately be independently verified by The Washington Post.
In Tehran, photos from the scene of one protest showed demonstrators crowded around a burning motorcycle. Videos posted on social media appeared to show protesters injured after clashing with authorities. Internet access was restricted in parts of the country.
Iran hasn’t confirmed any deaths during the protests. The semiofficial Fars News Agency reported that demonstrators were dispersed by security forces in a number of cities, and that the leaders of some of the protests were arrested by police.
A senior morality police official, Col. Ahmed Mirzaei, was suspended after Amini’s death, according to Iran International, a London-based news channel. Officials denied those claims, the Guardian reported. The Interior Ministry previously ordered an investigation into Amini’s death at the behest of archconservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
The police commander of the greater Tehran area told reporters that Amini was walking in a park and wearing a hijab that was not suitable. He said she didn’t resist detention and even made jokes in the police van. The headscarf and other conservative dress have been compulsory for women since Iran’s 1979 revolution.
Raisi is in New York this week, where he will address the U.N. General Assembly about the country’s relations with the West. He told reporters at the Tehran airport that he has no plans to meet with President Biden on the sidelines of the event, the Associated Press reported. Indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal appear to be close to stalling.
Raisi, a hard line cleric who assumed office last year, has called for strict enforcement of the dress codes. Last month, a video appeared to show a woman detained by Iran’s increasingly assertive guidance patrols being thrown from a speeding van.
The government crackdown sparked a protest movement over the summer by Iranian women, who photographed themselves without headscarves and posted the pictures on social media.
Kareem Fahim contributed to this report.
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AP News Summary At 3:36 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-336-a-m-edt-3/
UN chief warns global leaders: The world is in ‘great peril’
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that the world is in “great peril.” And he says world leaders meeting in-person for the first time in three years at the U.N. General Assembly must tackle conflicts and climate catastrophes, increasing poverty and inequality, and divisions among major powers that have gotten worse since Russia invaded Ukraine. The U.N. chief also cited the “immense” task not only of saving the planet but of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Guterres’ “state of the world” speech will be “a sober, substantive and solutions-focused report card.”
Strengthening Fiona barrels toward Turks and Caicos Islands
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona is barreling toward the Turks and Caicos Islands as it threatens to strengthen into a Category 3 storm, prompting the government to impose a curfew. Forecasters say Fiona could become a major hurricane late Monday or on Tuesday, when it was expected to pass near the British territory. Premier Washington Misick, who was in London attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, urged people to take every needed precaution. The intensifying storm also kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Ukraine, using captured Russian tanks, firms up its lines
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is now deploying captured Russian tanks to solidify its gains in the northeast amid an ongoing counteroffensive. That’s according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. The institute, citing a Russian claim, said that Ukraine had been using left-behind Russian T-72 tanks as it tries to push into the Russian-occupied region of Luhansk. Earlier this month, Ukraine launched its counteroffensive, pushing into territory around its second-largest city of Kharkiv. Videos and photos showed Ukrainian troops seizing tanks, ammunition and other weaponry left behind by Moscow in an apparently chaotic withdrawal.
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.
Congress eyes strongest response yet to Jan. 6 attack
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are voting this week on changes to a 19th century law for certifying presidential elections. The measure is their strongest legislative response yet to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. A vote to overhaul the Electoral Count Act is expected Wednesday. A bipartisan group of senators is moving forward with a similar bill. The Senate Rules Committee will vote on its version of the legislation next week. Lawmakers in both parties have said they want to change the arcane law before it is challenged again.
Queen Elizabeth II mourned by Britain and world at funeral
LONDON (AP) — Britain and the world said farewell to Queen Elizabeth II with pomp and pageantry. Crowds massed in the streets of London and at Windsor Castle to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an era. The first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s drew world leaders and other royalty. Before the service, a bell tolled 96 times for each year of Elizabeth’s life. Royal Navy sailors pulled a gun carriage carrying her flag-draped coffin to Westminster Abbey before pallbearers carried it inside. Atop the coffin was a handwritten note from King Charles III. After a committal service at a chapel in Windsor Castle, the coffin was lowered into the royal vault.
Britain’s Truss doesn’t expect UK-US trade deal anytime soon
NEW YORK (AP) — Prime Minister Liz Truss has kicked off her first visit to the United States as Britain’s leader with an admission that a U.K-U.S. free trade deal is not going to happen for years. On her way to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Truss said “there (aren’t) currently any negotiations taking place with the U.S., and I don’t have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.” That’s a sharp contrast with the stance of her immediate predecessors, Boris Johnson and Theresa May. Both dangled the promise of a deal with the world’s biggest economy as one of the main prizes of Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Witnesses: Myanmar air attack kills 13, including 7 children
BANGKOK (AP) — A school administrator says government helicopters have attacked a school and village in Myanmar, killing at least 13 people including seven children. The number of children killed in the government attack last Friday in Sagaing region appears to be the highest since the army seized power in February 2021. The army’s takeover triggered mass nonviolent protests nationwide. The military and police responded with deadly force, resulting in the spread of armed resistance in the cities and countryside. The fighting has been especially fierce in Sagaing, where several military offensives have displaced more than half a million people, according to UNICEF.
‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed
BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore judge has ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for a 1999 murder that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.” Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn on Monday ordered that Syed’s conviction be vacated and she approved the release of the now-41-year-old who has spent more than two decades behind bars. Syed has always maintained that he never killed his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. The case received widespread attention in 2014 when “Serial” focused on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used. Last week, prosecutors filed a motion saying a lengthy investigation had uncovered new evidence that could undermine Syed’s conviction.
Energy crisis key to Italy’s election — but not conservation
MILAN (AP) — The energy crisis facing Italian industry and households is a top voter concern going into Sunday’s parliamentary elections as fears grow that astronomically high bills will shutter some businesses and force household rationing by winter. Never in an Italian election campaign has energy been such a central talking point. Candidates have sparred over whether debt-laden Italy, which has already spent more than 60 billion euros to help families, businesses and local governments, should incur yet more debt to finance new relief. They also disagree on whether Italy should consider reinvesting in new nuclear technologies. But no party is discussing whether to implement conservation measures, like many of Italy’s European neighbors.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Donald Trump News: Location Is Everything Biden Sitting In 14th Row At Queen's Funeral Trump Enjoys Donald Trump Mocks Joe Biden For 14th Row Seating At Queen Elizabeth Funeral Says Location Is Everything Globe News Insider
Donald Trump News: Location Is Everything… Biden, Sitting In 14th Row At Queen's Funeral, Trump Enjoys – Donald Trump Mocks Joe Biden For 14th Row Seating At Queen Elizabeth Funeral, Says Location Is Everything – Globe News Insider https://digitalarkansasnews.com/donald-trump-news-location-is-everything-biden-sitting-in-14th-row-at-queens-funeral-trump-enjoys-donald-trump-mocks-joe-biden-for-14th-row-seating-at-queen-elizabeth-funeral-says-locat/
September 20, 2022 Radhika 14th, America Headlines, america news, america news in hindi, Biden, Donald, Donald Trump, donald trump mocks joe biden, donald trump news, Elizabeth, enjoys, everything.., funeral, Global News, International News, Joe, Joe Biden, joe biden seating at queen elizabeth funeral, Latest america news, latest news, location, mocks, news, Queen, queen elizabeth funeral, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, Queens, row, seating, sitting, Trending news, Trump, trump location is everything
Washington: US President Joe Biden was placed on the 14th line at Windsor Castle at the funeral of British Queen Elizabeth II. Donald Trump took a dig at Joe Biden about this. President Joe Biden with his wife Jill Biden arrived in London to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. Trump said that everything is in place. He alleged that America’s reputation has eroded significantly during Biden’s two-year tenure. About 500 VVIP people from all over the world had reached the funeral of Queen Elizabeth. These included the Presidents of countries like America, India, France, besides the kings and emperors of many other countries. Queen Elizabeth is buried near the grave of her husband, Prince Philip.Trump’s sarcasm – place is everythingDonald Trump wrote on Truth Social that “This is what has happened to America in just two short years. No respect! However, it’s a good time for our president to get to know the leaders of some third world countries.” Not only in estate, in politics and in life, space is everything.” Trump added that “our hearts go out to the royal family, King Charles and the entire family. It’s a loss that leaves a deep wound and sometimes you feel like you’ll never be able to get over it. “So to all the people of England, to all the people of the United Kingdom, our hearts ache for you. You were lucky that the Queen was with you for 70 years.
Global leaders had arrived to pay tribute to the QueenOnly current heads of state were invited to the funeral service at St. George’s Chapel. People from the European royal family were also among those who came to pay tribute to the Queen. These included King Philip VI of Spain and Queen Letizia and Queen Margre II of Denmark. Apart from this, elected leaders like President of India Draupadi Murmu, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau were present. The current President and President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, leader of the Commonwealth, also arrived to pay tribute to the Queen.
Trump was not invitedHowever, Donald Trump was not invited to pay tribute to the Queen in London. The former President was invited by the British government for another memorial event in Washington which took place at the National Cathedral. Donald Trump was a fan of Queen Elizabeth II. He once said that he had automatic chemistry with Queen Elizabeth. After the death of the Queen, Trump called her a wonderful woman.
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