Linda Beard Rogers https://digitalarkansasnews.com/linda-beard-rogers/
Linda Beard Rogers, 66, of Magnolia passed away Thursday, September 15, 2022 at her home.
Linda was born on March 20, 1956 in Beaumont, TX. She was a teacher for Magnolia Specialized Services and a member of the Pentecostals of Magnolia. She enjoyed playing the piano and singing. She was a homemaker, who loved cooking for her family and friends. Her family thought of her as a wonderful mother, grandmother and sister.
Linda was preceded in death by her parents, Prince and Ava Mozell (Cowen) Beard; and brothers, Elmer Beard and Clifton Beard.
She is survived by her two sons, Justin (Stacy) Carnline of El Dorado and Jordan Carnline of Magnolia; two grandchildren, Tristan Carnline and Landon Carnline of El Dorado; two sisters, Dorothy Forse of Baytown, TX and Suzette (Jerry) Grimes of Lufkin, TX; a host of nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends.
A memorial service will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday, September 18, 2022 at the Pentecostals of Magnolia with Pastor Jason Wylie officiating.
Memorial donations may be made to the Pentecostals of Magnolia, P.O. Box 1152, Magnolia, AR 71754.
Cremation services were provided by Lewis Funeral Home, Inc., in Magnolia.
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Hurricane Warning Issued For Puerto Rico Ahead Of Tropical Storm Fiona | CNN
Hurricane Warning Issued For Puerto Rico Ahead Of Tropical Storm Fiona | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/hurricane-warning-issued-for-puerto-rico-ahead-of-tropical-storm-fiona-cnn/
CNN —
Tropical Storm Fiona was starting to whip the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on approach Saturday and may strike the latter as a hurricane Sunday, posing significant flooding and mudslide threats, forecasters say..
A hurricane warning is in effect for Puerto Rico, reflecting forecasters’ belief that it will strengthen to a hurricane – with sustained winds of at least 74 mph – by the time it’s near or over the island Sunday night.
Hurricane watches, meanwhile, are in effect for the US Virgin Islands as well as parts of the Dominican Republic, the National Hurricane Center said.
Fiona, having pelted Guadeloupe and other northeastern Caribbean islands with heavy rain and winds Friday and early Saturday, was centered over the Caribbean about 90 miles south-southeast of St. Croix of the US Virgin Islands as of 2 p.m. ET Saturday, the NHC said.
It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph – short of the 74 mph threshold for a Category 1 hurricane, though strengthening is expected as the weekend progresses.
Outer bands already were hitting the Virgin Islands and parts of Puerto Rico early Saturday afternoon, causing some showers and storms. More than 80,000 homes and businesses were without power on Puerto Rico around 2 p.m. ET, according to PowerOutage.us.
“The center of Fiona is expected to move near or south of the Virgin Islands (Saturday) evening, approach Puerto Rico (Saturday night), and move near or over Puerto Rico Sunday night” before moving near the Dominican Republic on Monday, the hurricane center said.
The storm “is likely to be near or at hurricane strength while it moves near Puerto Rico,” the hurricane center said.
One of Fiona’s biggest threats is the rain it’s expected to dump, especially on Puerto Rico: generally 12-16 inches, with 20 inches in isolated areas there, forecasters say.
“These rains are likely to produce flash and urban flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain, particularly southern and eastern Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic,” the hurricane center said.
CNN Weather
Tropical storm conditions – including winds of at least 39 mph – were expected to reach the US and British Virgin Islands starting Saturday afternoon and spread across Puerto Rico on Saturday night.
Hurricane conditions were expected on Puerto Rico on Sunday and Sunday night – and are possible on the US Virgin Islands on Saturday night, the hurricane center said.
The storm also could be at hurricane strength when it passes over or near the Dominican Republic on Monday, forecasters said.
Fiona became a tropical storm over the Atlantic on Wednesday before entering the eastern Caribbean on Friday.
CNN Weather
Here is how much rain is expected in certain locations over the next few days, according to the hurricane center:
• Leeward Islands, including Guadeloupe, and the northern Windward Islands: 2-4 inches on top of what they’ve already received.
• British and US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico: 4-6 inches, with isolated areas of 10 inches possible.
• Puerto RIco: 12-16 inches, with isolated areas of 20 inches possible.
• Dominican Republic: 4-8 inches, with isolated areas of 12 inches possible. particularly on the far eastern coast.
• Haiti: 1-3 inches, with isolated maximum totals of 4 inches.
• Turks and Caicos: 4-6 inches.
CNN Weather
A flood watch is in effect through Monday afternoon for the US Virgin Islands and parts of Puerto Rico, the National Weather Service said.
Storm surges – ocean water pushed onto land – of 1 to 3 feet also are possible for Puerto Rico’s southern coast. Surges of 1 to 2 feet are possible for the US Virgin Islands, the hurricane center said.
This is the first time in more than three years that Puerto Rico has been issued a hurricane watch or warning. The last time was in August 2019, when Hurricane Dorian passed the island as a Category 1 storm.
A few tropical storms have passed the island since then, but Dorian was the last storm at hurricane strength to pass within 50 miles, CNN meteorologists said.
Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico nearly five years ago – making landfall as a Category 4 storm on September 20, 2017 – killing several thousand people and tearing apart an antiquated power grid, leaving more than 1 million people without electricity or running water for months.
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Which Airports And Airlines Use TSA PreCheck? The Points Guy
Which Airports And Airlines Use TSA PreCheck? – The Points Guy https://digitalarkansasnews.com/which-airports-and-airlines-use-tsa-precheck-the-points-guy/
September 17 2022
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12 min read
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Since 2013, TSA PreCheck has allowed users to avoid the sometimes inevitable hassle of waiting in an airport security line, coupled with the annoying process of removing your shoes, laptop and other items from your carry-on bag.
Thanks to a TSA PreCheck-only line, you don’t have to worry about doing any of that, rather you simply load your luggage onto the carousel and pass through the old-style walk-through machines. For just a small fee of $85 for a five-year membership, TSA PreCheck allows preapproved, low-risk travelers to expedite their way through airport security at 200-plus U.S. airports.
Ninety-five percent of PreCheck users waited less than five minutes to get through airport security in August, per data from the Transportation and Security Administration. But whether you can experience PreCheck in all its glory depends on the airport you are departing from and the airline you are flying.
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Currently, more than 200 U.S. airports and 85 domestic and foreign airlines participate in the program, which is outlined below.
Before you book your next flight, consider enrolling in TSA PreCheck and remember that several credit cards cover the program application costs.
Also, double-check this guide to verify your airport and airline both participate, before entering your Known Traveler Number at the time of booking, to ensure the green precheck symbol appears on your boarding pass.
For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
Which airports have TSA PreCheck?
A Transportation Security Administration PreCheck sign is displayed as travelers carry baggage through a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport. PATRICK T. FALLON/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES.
As of September 2022, TSA PreCheck is available at more than 256 U.S. airports. Given its scope, it’s likely that TSA PreCheck will be available at the airport you are traveling from.
Below is a full list, outlined by region and state:
Northeast
Pennsylvania: Altoona-Blair County Airport (AOO), Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE), Bradford Regional Airport (BFD), DuBois Regional Airport (DUJ), Erie International Airport (ERI), Harrisburg International Airport (MDT), Johnstown-Cambria County Airport (JST), Lancaster Airport (LNS), Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE), Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), University Park Airport (UNV), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport (AVP), Williamsport Regional Airport (IPT).
New Jersey: Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).
Rhode Island: T. F. Green Airport (PVD).
New York: Albany International Airport (ALB), Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF), Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), Stewart International Airport (SWF), Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR), Westchester County Airport (HPN).
Connecticut: Bradley International Airport (BDL), Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN).
Massachusetts: Boston Logan International Airport (BOS).
Vermont: Burlington International Airport (BTV).
New Hampshire: Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT).
Maine: Portland International Jetport (PWM).
South
Oklahoma: Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport (LAW), Tulsa International Airport (TUL), Will Rogers World Airport (OKC).
Texas: Abilene Regional Airport (ABI), Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport (BRO), Corpus Christi International Airport (CRP), Dallas Love Field Airport (DAL), Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), East Texas Regional Airport (GGG), Easterwood Airport (CLL), El Paso International Airport (ELP), George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Jack Brooks Regional Airport (BPT), Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport (GRK), Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE), Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport (AMA), San Angelo Regional Airport (SJT), San Antonio International Airport (SAT), Tyler Pounds Regional Airport (TYR), Valley International Airport (HRL), Waco Regional Airport (ACT), Wichita Fall Municipal Airport (SPS), William P. Hobby Airport (HOU).
Arkansas: Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport (LIT), Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM), Jonesboro Municipal Airport (JBR), Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA), Texarkana Regional Airport (TXK).
Louisiana: Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR), Lafayette Regional Airport (LFT), Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), Shreveport Regional Airport (SHV).
Mississippi: Golden Triangle Regional Airport (GTR), Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport (GPT), Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport (PIB), Jackson-Medgar Wiley, Evers International Airport (JAN), Meridian Regional Airport (MEI).
Alabama: Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Huntsville International Airport (HSV), Mobile Regional Airport (MOB), Montgomery Regional Airport (MGM), Northwest Alabama Regional Airport (MSL).
Georgia: Augusta Regional Airport (AGS), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV).
Tennessee: McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS), Mckellar-Sipes Regional Airport (MKL), Memphis International Airport (MEM), Nashville International Airport (BNA), Tri-Cities Regional Airport (TRI).
Kentucky: Blue Grass Airport (LEX), Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), Louisville International Airport (SDF).
South Carolina: Charleston International Airport (CHS), Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE), Florence Regional Airport (FLO), Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), Hilton Head Island Airport (HXD), Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR).
Mid-Atlantic/Southeast
Florida: Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB), Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV), Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), Key West International Airport (EYW), Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami Seaplane Base (MPB), Northeast Florida Regional Airport (SGJ), Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP), Orlando International Airport (MCO), Orlando Melbourne International Airport (MLB), Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Palm Beach International Airport (PBI), Pensacola International Airport (PNS), Punta Gorda Airport (PGD), Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (SRQ), Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE), Tallahassee International Airport (TLH), Tampa International Airport (TPA), Vero Beach Regional Airport (VRB).
North Carolina: Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO), Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Wilmington International Airport (ILM).
Virginia: Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (CHO), Lynchburg Regional Airport (LYH), Newport News Williamsburg International Airport (PHF), Norfolk International Airport (ORF), Richmond International Airport (RIC), Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA), Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (SHD), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).
West Virginia: Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport (PKB), Morgantown Municipal Airport (MGW), North Central West Virginia Airport (CKB), Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW), Yeager Airport (CRW).
Maryland/Washington, D.C.:Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
Travelers go through the TSA PreCheck line at Miami International Airport. JOE RADELLE/GETTY IMAGES
Midwest
North Dakota: Bismarck Municipal Airport (BIS), Devils Lake Regional Airport (DVL), Dickinson Theodore Roosevelt Regional Airport (DIK), Grand Forks International Airport (GFK), Hector International Airport (FAR), Jamestown Regional Airport (JMS), Minot International Airport (MOT), Sloulin Field International Airport (ISN), Williston Basin International Airport (XWA).
South Dakota: Aberdeen Regional Airport (ABR), Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP), Sioux Falls Regional Airport (FSD).
Nebraska: Omaha Eppley Airfield (OMA).
Kansas: Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT).
Minnesota: Bemidji Regional Airport (BJI), Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport (BRD), Duluth International Airport (DLH), Falls International Airport (INL), Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP), Rochester International Airport (RST), Thief River Falls Regional Airport (TVF).
Iowa: Des Moines International Airport (DSM), Southeast Iowa Regional Airport (BRL), The Eastern Iowa Airport (CID).
Missouri: Kansas City International Airport (MCI), Springfield-Branson National Airport (SGF), St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL).
Wisconsin: Appleton International Airport (ATW), Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA), Chippewa Valley Regional Airport (EAU), Dane County Regional Airport (MSN), General Mitchell International Airport (MKE), Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB), La Crosse Regional Airport (LSE), Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport (RHI).
Illinois: Central Illinois Regional Airport (BMI), Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago Rockford International Airp...
Trump Documents Case: Judge Dearie's Appointment As Special Master Welcomed Across Board
Trump Documents Case: Judge Dearie's Appointment As Special Master Welcomed Across Board https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-documents-case-judge-dearies-appointment-as-special-master-welcomed-across-board/
WASHINGTON: When Florida Judge Aileen Cannon appointed Raymond J. Dearie, a former Chief Federal Judge in New York, to sort through more than 11, 000 documents – including classified materials – that FBI agents seized from former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence last month, jurists across both the Republican and Democrats side hailed the move.
The 78-year-old Dearie, a former Chief Federal Judge in New York and the then President Ronald Reagan appointee, was described by his peer group lawyers and colleagues as an exemplary jurist who is well suited to the job of special master, having previously served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), which oversees sensitive national security cases.
The Department of Justice also said he was acceptable to them after Judge Cannon rejected two candidates proposed by them.
In 2015, Dearie took the unusual step of reducing the prison sentences of three convicted Canadian terrorists, saying he had been “haunted” by the case and his growing sense that their sentences were unfair. Under federal law, Dearie had been required to sentence the men to 25-year terms for conspiring to acquire missiles on behalf of the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group fighting the government of Sri Lanka. He later cut those sentences to 15 years.
While the DOJ has been hit by Florida Judge Cannon’s ruling to slow down investigation into Trump’s classified documents case until Dearie reviews the documents in public interest to prevent reputational harm with a possible indictment of the former President, the DOJ has continued to maintain that a special master is legally unnecessary and should not be charged with reviewing any of the 100 or so seized documents marked as classified.
Appointing a special master to review these documents, prosecutors argued in numerous court filings, would slow down a criminal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information and could pose a national security risk, according to multiple reports in the media outlets.
Here’s everything you need to know about Dearie and what he will be doing in this high-profile and unusual investigation.
What is a special master? A special master is an impartial outside expert who can essentially be viewed as a judge’s helper, said David R. Cohen, an attorney and longtime special master. In theory, the special master can help with whatever a judge needs.
In this case, Cannon appointed a special master to sort through the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago on August 8 to see if any should be shielded from criminal investigators because of attorney-client or executive privileges.
How did Judge Cannon choose Dearie? When Cannon granted Trump’s request to appoint a special master earlier this month, she asked the Justice Department and Trump’s legal team to jointly submit a list of potential candidates. In a subsequent joint filing, the Justice Department named two judges as candidates. Trump’s side proposed a lawyer who is not a judge, and Dearie. Trump’s lawyers then told the judge they did not believe any of the Justice Department’s candidates would be suitable special masters. The Justice Department said they thought Dearie would be acceptable. Days later, Cannon named Dearie for the high-profile job.
Is Dearie still working as a judge? Yes, Dearie still serves as a judge in Brooklyn federal court, albeit on senior status, which means he can take a reduced caseload if he chooses. He has also recently signalled that he plans to leave the bench. It is not immediately clear if the appointment will speed his departure from Brooklyn federal court or if court administrators will work out some other accommodation for the unusual dynamic of a judge appointing another judge a special master.
What will he do as a special master in this case? The Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers have held drastically different positions on what the special master should do in this case. Trump wants the special master to search through all the seized documents – including the classified ones – to see if any are protected by attorney-client or executive privileges and should not be used in the investigation.
On the other side, the Justice Department has questioned whether Trump, who is no longer President, can even invoke executive privilege – a power that Presidents can assert to shield communications from courts, Congress, or the public.
Either way, the Justice Department did not want classified documents to be part of the special master review, saying that privilege would not apply to them or to the unclassified documents, and that delaying investigators’ access to those sensitive documents could pose national security risks.
Ultimately, Cannon ruled in Trump’s favour. She also denied a bid by prosecutors to allow them to use the seized material in their ongoing criminal investigation before Dearie conducts his review.
How long does Dearie have to complete the job? Cannon ordered Dearie to complete his review by November 30. She said he should prioritise sorting through the classified documents, though she did not provide a timeline as to when that portion must be completed.
The Justice Department had asked in a previous court filing for the review to be completed by October 17. And Trump’s lawyers had said a special master would need 90 days to complete a review.
Does Dearie have the necessary clearance to sift through these highly classified materials? Because Dearie previously served on the FISA court, it will probably not take much time or effort to get him authorised to review the classified material, and he may not have to travel far to look at them. New York City has a number of federal facilities in which Dearie could review highly classified material, which is important since the storage and safekeeping of such documents is the crux of the case.
Can Dearie get help for his review? In theory, yes. Special masters typically have others help them review documents. But in this case, staff assistance could be complicated by the 100 classified documents, and whether any potential assistants have the necessary security clearances. It is possible that Dearie could end up reviewing that material on his own, and hiring others to help him with the non-classified documents.
Now what? The Justice Department is expected to file an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. Depending on what part of Cannon’s decision the government challenges, the appeal may or may not interfere with the special master’s review.
Once Dearie completes his review, he would deliver his recommendations to Cannon on what documents should be shielded from investigators. It’s up to Cannon to decide whether she will follow those recommendations.
Trump documents case: Judge Dearie’s appointment as special master welcomed across board
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Matt Gaetz Sought 'pre-Emptive' Trump Pardon Over DOJ Sex-Trafficking Investigation: Report
Matt Gaetz Sought 'pre-Emptive' Trump Pardon Over DOJ Sex-Trafficking Investigation: Report https://digitalarkansasnews.com/matt-gaetz-sought-pre-emptive-trump-pardon-over-doj-sex-trafficking-investigation-report/
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US: 'Special Master' Appointed To Oversee Donald Trump's Case Dubbed 'fair & No-Nonsense'
US: 'Special Master' Appointed To Oversee Donald Trump's Case Dubbed 'fair & No-Nonsense' https://digitalarkansasnews.com/us-special-master-appointed-to-oversee-donald-trumps-case-dubbed-fair/
Raymond Dearie, a senior US district judge, has been appointed as the “special master” to review documents that have been seized by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials from former President Donald Trump’s Florida house – Mar-a-Lago. According to reports, the 78-year-old Dearie has been characterised as a fair and seasoned legal operator who “does not tolerate nonsense.” Earlier on September 15, US district judge Aileen Cannon appointed Dearie as the “special master” to oversee the ongoing legal battle between Trump and the Department of Justice, The Guardian reported.
According to reports, both parties are arguing whether criminal investigators should have access to dozens of boxes of official records, including extremely sensitive US data, that the former President concealed at his Florida house after leaving the White House. “Dearie works incredibly well with parties but doesn’t tolerate nonsense. He will not allow parties, or attorneys, to play games, or play fast-and-loose with the rules,” Richard Garbarini, a New York-based civil lawyer, told Politico. Notably, Dearie was one of two nominees put out by former President Trump for the position.
Justice Department objects to Dearie’s appointment as ‘special master’
Meanwhile, the Justice Department objected to the decision by US District Judge Cannon, arguing that authorities had already finished their assessment of possibly classified documents and there was no need for an outside legal expert. The Justice Department also requested a federal appeals court to overturn a judge’s ruling that prevented it from temporarily evaluating a set of secret documents that had been found at Trump’s house during the FBI search. The department claimed that the judge’s hold had hampered the government’s efforts to safeguard the country’s security and interfered with its investigation.
FBI’s raid at Trump’s Florida house
Earlier in January 2022, the National Archives, which is in charge of gathering presidential material, recovered the items which sparked a months-long Justice Department investigation into whether Trump was unlawfully holding secret materials at his house in Florida. According to the Presidential Records Act, which was adopted in 1978, White House records must be preserved as the US government’s property. Meanwhile, former FBI officials have claimed that possession of the government’s records by Trump was a “potential crime” that led to the raid at his house on August 8.
Image: AP
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Analysis | Ex-Governors Test Whether Civil Discourse Is Possible Or Productive
Analysis | Ex-Governors Test Whether Civil Discourse Is Possible — Or Productive https://digitalarkansasnews.com/analysis-ex-governors-test-whether-civil-discourse-is-possible-or-productive/
Watching television news after 7 p.m. on almost any night, Bill Haslam says, is “unbearable, or at least it is for me. Because it’s just totally, ‘I’m trying to get you to be as outraged as you can about the things that I already know that you’re outraged about.’”
Haslam is like many Americans who are exhausted after half a dozen years of nonstop political conflict and news cycles that bleed from one into another and another. Unlike most Americans, Haslam and his friend Phil Bredesen are trying to offer some counterprogramming.
Haslam is a Republican who served as governor of Tennessee from 2011 to 2019. Bredesen is a Democrat who served for the eight years preceding Haslam’s tenure. Both are also former mayors in Tennessee — Haslam in Knoxville and Bredesen in Nashville — and both come from a business background.
Their politics are different, though as a conservative Democrat, Bredesen isn’t always all that far away from the moderately conservative (in today’s GOP) Haslam. By temperament they are temperate; their political style is oriented toward finding solutions rather than scoring points for cable television. Each has had some difficulty adjusting to the current state of their respective parties.
Neither Haslam nor Bredesen is a shouter, so they have come together not to shout but to talk — to talk not about the latest outrage that has caused the Twittersphere to light up but about some real issues and whether it’s possible to find real common ground in this divided nation.
They have launched a podcast called “You Might Be Right”; that’s a reference to something another Tennessee politician, former Republican senator Howard Baker, said to remind his fellow partisans that the other person might be right some of the time. The podcast is housed at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee.
The world is awash in podcasts, and the Haslam-Bredesen experiment in civil discourse echoes discussions that can be found in many places around the country, though often in places where people tend to agree with one another and less often across the barricades of what constitutes daily political life.
Their expectations are understandably modest. They are beginning with what they call a test flight, a series of conversations with pairs of guests, after which they will review and tweak. They have put off conversations about some of the most difficult topics — abortion or the teaching of America’s history of slavery and racism — until a second season.
A bigger challenge, perhaps, is whether these kinds of forums and formats are capable of producing more than just civil discussion. Generating understanding of opposing viewpoints is one thing. Reaching beyond easy compromise or lowest-common-denominator agreement to generate fresh and unorthodox thinking about issues that have been debated forever is another.
Right now they are hoping simply to create both a model for civilized debate aimed at finding some agreement for solving public policy problems and some encouragement for others in the public arena to turn conversation into, say, legislation.
“There are certainly plenty of people in politics for whom it’s all about. ‘I just need to keep exciting my base and stay elected,’ ” Bredesen said. “I also believe there’s a lot of people in politics today who genuinely want to find some common ground and give some progress on some of these difficult issues. It’s more a matter of getting the camel’s nose under the tent here.”
The two governors talked with The Post about their hopes for the project, a day after they had recorded a session that featured two former Republican senators from Tennessee, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, who debated (or at least discussed) their opposing views about the Senate filibuster. Alexander remains a defender, but Corker now sees a need to reform it, believing, Haslam said, that the Senate is so hamstrung that even decisions made on 51-49 votes are better than doing nothing.
Bredesen has been out of office now for almost more than a decade. He said one change he has seen, drawing from his experience as both a mayor and governor, is that state and local issues that once were seen as just that and therefore more disconnected from national debates have become increasingly nationalized. Whether issues of education or even local election campaigns, he said, “those issues have gotten much more tied up with this national positioning” by the two major parties.
For Haslam the biggest differences between when he was first running for governor and today is the pernicious influence of social media’s growth and influence, a common diagnosis. “We all know you don’t get likes and retweets by saying something that’s not critical or not that inflammatory,” he said. “People figured out the more inflammatory I am, the more I get retweeted, the more I get liked. And I honestly think that has dramatically changed politics.” Few would disagree.
Bredesen, who governed as a Democrat in a region of the country that was becoming more conservative and staunchly Republican, was often at odds with his own party while in office. He said the Democrats have “moved so far to the left” nationally that “you have to just carefully insulate yourself” to survive. He tried to do just that when he ran for the Senate in 2018. It didn’t work. He lost by double digits to now-Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R).
Haslam was the first Republican governor to have Republican majorities in the legislature. However, it wasn’t always an easy relationship, with legislators sometimes further to the right than the governor. “We’ve lost some of the benefit in Tennessee that we had when you had two strong parties that were debating and arguing with each other and when you had to win two elections, not just one,” he said. “Ultimately, I’m a proud Republican, but it does change when the only thing you have to worry about is your primary.”
Bredesen has long lived in Tennessee but grew up in Upstate New York. Both places today, he said, are part of Trump country. “I just know a lot of people who find that attractive,” he said. “And when you peel it back, it is almost a cultural phenomenon of people feeling that government has not served them and hasn’t solved problems. And their response to it is — it’s almost a bomb-throwing response. But I think there’s enormous frustration among reasonable people that problems are not being solved in a way that benefits them.”
The podcast that Bredesen and Haslam are starting could easily be drowned out by that which draws the most attention in politics today, the noise of a divided electorate, the hostility that is now in the open, as well as genuine concerns about the turmoil caused by former president Donald Trump and related threats to democracy. The two ex-governors want to focus on issues that divide people but that still might be subject to broader consensus than cable TV debates might suggest.
But they are realists. “I guess we’re under no illusions that we’re going to solve all the country’s problems in our podcast,” Haslam said. “But I’d say this, and I think at the heart of a lot of the issues you talked about is this incredible passion really on both sides of the country. And I think that passion is ignited a lot by folks who feel like, you know, I have to fight about this, and don’t really understand what’s the other side of the argument.”
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Gaetz Sought Pardon Related To Justice Department Sex Trafficking Probe
Gaetz Sought Pardon Related To Justice Department Sex Trafficking Probe https://digitalarkansasnews.com/gaetz-sought-pardon-related-to-justice-department-sex-trafficking-probe/
Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told a former White House aide that he was seeking a preemptive pardon from President Donald Trump regarding an investigation in which he is a target, according to testimony provided to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Johnny McEntee, according to people familiar with his testimony, told investigators that Gaetz told him during a brief meeting “that they are launching an investigation into him or that there’s an investigation into him,” without specifying who was investigating Gaetz.
McEntee added that Gaetz told him “he didn’t do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.” Gaetz told McEntee that he had asked White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a pardon.
Asked by investigators if Gaetz’s ask for a pardon was in the context of the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, McEntee replied, “I think that was the context, yes,” according to people familiar with the testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The testimony is the first indication that Gaetz was specifically seeking a pardon for his own exposure related to the Justice Department inquiry into whether he violated sex trafficking laws. His public posture in the final months of the Trump presidency was much less specific, repeatedly calling for broad preemptive pardons to fend off possible Democratic investigations.
McEntee testified that Gaetz met him briefly one evening and discussed the issue of a pardon but McEntee could not recall whether their conversation happened before or after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, according to people familiar with the testimony.
The Justice Department’s investigation into whether Gaetz paid for sex, paid for women to travel across state lines to have sex, and had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, was opened in the final months of the Trump administration with then-Attorney General William P. Barr’s approval. The probe stemmed from a federal investigation of Gaetz’s friend who is now a convicted sex trafficker. Gaetz has denied paying for sex or having sex with a minor as an adult.
McEntee did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Neither Meadows nor his lawyer immediately responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Gaetz refused to address McEntee’s testimony or whether Gaetz discussed a pardon with McEntee or Meadows and instead responded that Gaetz never directly asked Trump for a pardon.
“Congressman Matt Gaetz discussed pardons for many other people publicly and privately at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “As for himself, President Trump addressed this malicious rumor more than a year ago stating, ‘Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon.’ Rep. Gaetz continues to stand by President Trump’s statement.”
The House select committee also declined to comment.
Gaetz has not been charged with any crimes but Joel Greenberg, a Gaetz associate and former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., pleaded guilty last Spring to six criminal charges, including sex trafficking of a minor. Greenberg agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors and testify in court, and has been providing investigators with information about Gaetz since 2020, The Washington Post previously reported.
“The last time I had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, I was 17,” Gaetz had previously said. On Nov. 25, 2020, weeks after Trump lost the election, Gaetz told Fox News that Trump “should pardon everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic if he has to.”
Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to White House chief of Staff Mark Meadows, told the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack that she recalled Gaetz and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) both advocating for a “blanket pardon” for lawmakers who attended a Dec. 21, 2020, meeting at the White House to discuss efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In the previously aired testimony, she said they also advocated for pardons for “a handful of other members that weren’t at the December 21st meeting.”
Hutchinson added that Gaetz, however, “was personally pushing” for a pardon “since early December.” But the focus of that pardon request was not clear from Hutchinson’s testimony. “I’m not sure why Mr. Gaetz would reach out to me to ask if he could have a meeting with Mr. Meadows about receiving a presidential pardon,” she added.
Brooks, who put a request for a pardon in an email to a White House aide at the time, defended his actions in a statement after Hutchinson’s testimony saying, “There was a concern Democrats would abuse the judicial system by prosecuting and jailing Republicans” for objecting in Congress to the certification of the election.
Eric Herschmann, a former Trump White House lawyer, told investigators that he also believed that Gaetz was requesting a pardon, according to an excerpt of the deposition played during one of the committee’s public hearings.
“The general tone was, we may get prosecuted because we were defensive of, you know, the president’s positions on these things,” Herschmann recalled. “The pardon that he was discussing requesting was as broad as you can describe, from beginning — I remember he’s — from the beginning of time up until today for any and all things. Then he mentioned Nixon. And I said Nixon’s pardon was never nearly that broad.”
Gaetz ultimately did not receive a pardon from the former president.
Read More Here
NHC Issues Hurricane Warning For Puerto Rico Tropical Storm Fiona Maintains 60 Mph Winds
NHC Issues Hurricane Warning For Puerto Rico, Tropical Storm Fiona Maintains 60 Mph Winds https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nhc-issues-hurricane-warning-for-puerto-rico-tropical-storm-fiona-maintains-60-mph-winds/
Storm surge and a deluge from Tropical Storm Fiona plagued the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe with at least two people reportedly washed away by rising waters as the system threatened Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday.
In the 11 a.m. update on Saturday, the NHC said Fiona was maintaining 60 mph winds with higher gusts. The NHC has issued a hurricane warning for Puerto Rico.
The system grew in strength after passing by the northern Leeward Islands. Its center was located about 130 miles southeast of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands moving west at 8 mph.
Heavy rain will spread west to the British and U.S. Islands and Puerto Rico today, the Dominican Republic on Sunday, and the Turks and Caicos on Monday night.
This infrared radar shows Tropical Storm Fiona on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. (NOAA – GOES-East)
Its tropical-storm-force winds extend out 125 miles.
Fiona strengthened Friday evening after it passed into the northeastern Caribbean Sea, according the National Hurricane Center, and could gain hurricane strength by Monday.
Torrential rain left behind heavy road damage on Guadeloupe with video on Twitter showing fast-moving floods flowing down streets up to washed out roads and streets flooded up to 2 feet washing away cars.
Projected rainfall had been more than 8 inches in some parts of the island.
Government officials with the French overseas department said two people were missing swept away by rising waters overnight.
“On the forecast track, the center of Fiona is expected to move near or just south of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico today through Sunday, and approach the southern or eastern coast of the Dominican Republic Sunday night and Monday,” said NHC hurricane specialist Brad Reinhart.
Already under a tropical storm warning, hurricane watches were issued for Puerto Rico as well as for parts of the Dominican Republic.
Warnings remain in place for the U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy, St. Martin and parts of the Dominican Republic.
The system’s updated path forecasts it to travel away from Florida, while gaining hurricane strength ahead of landfall on the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. It’s expected to keep hurricane strength as a Category 1 system with 75 mph winds and gusts up to 90 mph as it passes over the island, approaching the Turks and Caicos and threatening the southern Bahamas early next week.
The threat of heavy rains and possible flooding faces many of the islands with as much as 16 inches in Puerto Rico and 12 inches in the Dominican Republic possible.
Saturday’s new five-day forecast has it curving even more to the north and into the Atlantic Ocean, and gaining strength as a Category 2 system by Wednesday with 90 mph sustained winds.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, a tropical wave was detected Thursday midway between the west coast of Africa and the Lesser Antilles islands. The weather system is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms, and is predicted to slowly develop late this weekend and early next week when it turns northward over the central subtropical Atlantic. The NHC gives it a 20% of forming in the five days.
Also, the NHC has dropped chances of formation to 0% for a frontal low over the western Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles west-northwest of Bermuda, which emerged Friday morning.
The tropical outlook as of 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. (National Hurricane Center)
Despite the low chances, their emergence coincides with Colorado State University’s release of its tropical prediction for the next two weeks, saying the tropics could get much busier with a 50% chance of above-average activity taking place. CSU also gave a 40% chance of normal activity taking place and a 10% chance of below-average activity.
Fiona could become the season’s third hurricane following hurricanes Daniella and Earl earlier this month.
What had been forecast to be an above average tropical season was mostly quiet in July and August before picking up steam on Sept. 1.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1-Nov. 30.
Read More Here
Obituaries In Fort Smith, AR | Times Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/obituaries-in-fort-smith-ar-times-record-26/
Leslie Clark
Leslie Ray Clark, age 74 of Altus, Arkansas died Thursday September 15, 2022 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Leslie was born December 26, 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama to Leonard and Maddie Clark. Leslie is survived by one daughter, Faye Hurt; one step son, Richard Brice; one sister, Betty Rice; four grandchildren, Kris Hurt, Deidre Doss, Eli Hurt, and Nick Hurt; six great grandchildren, Paislee, Maelyn, and Ezekiel Doss, McKinley, Parker, and Luka Hurt. Visitation will be 2:00 P.M. Sunday September 18, 2022 at Shaffer Funeral Home in Ozark. Funeral Service will be 10:00 A.M. Monday, September 19, 2022 at Shaffer Funeral Home To leave an online memorial visit www.shafferfuneralhomeweb.com
Posted online on September 17, 2022
Published in Southwest Times Record
Read More Here
Sugar Bears Defeat Little Rock And UAPB In Tiger Brawl University Of Central Arkansas Athletics
Sugar Bears Defeat Little Rock And UAPB In Tiger Brawl – University Of Central Arkansas Athletics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/sugar-bears-defeat-little-rock-and-uapb-in-tiger-brawl-university-of-central-arkansas-athletics/
Memphis – The Sugar Bears got off to a hot start in Memphis at the Tiger Brawl versus in-state foe Little Rock. While the Trojans were up 6-3 early, the Sugar Bears got red hot and rattled off 11 unanswered points to comfortably control set one, 14-6. The Trojans would try to climb back into the game, but the Sugar Bears never relented, taking the first set by a score of 25-16. The first match was completely a team effort, no players from UCA had eye-popping statistics in set one, but all six on the floor put in an incredible effort, allowing UCA to take an early lead.
The Trojans had better luck in the second set, but the Sugar Bears always found an answer. UCA once again found themselves in front early, forcing Little Rock to take a time out with the Sugar Bears leading 9-6. The Sugar Bears then jumped out to a 16-9 lead before Little Rock went on a run of their own to make it a 16-14 game. UCA dug deep and answered with a 3-0 run of their own capped by a Lexie Gregory ace, forcing another Little Rock timeout. Freshman Alexis McDaniel was crucial down the stretch, pitching in back-to-back aces that helped the Sugar Bears close out the second set, 25-18.
UCA hoped to put this match away up two sets, and to do so, they would need a strong start once again. UCA didn’t pull away early, but they hung in and then eventually found themselves with a 13-6 lead and forced Little Rock to take a timeout. Out of the break, Little Rock went on a 4-0 scoring run that UCA countered with a 7-0 run to make it a 21-12 score. The Trojans and Sugar Bears traded points until finally, the Sugar Bears came out victorious with a score of 25-17.
Sophomore Lilly Taylor continues to come on strong this season, as she led the Sugar Bears with 7 kills. Alexis McDaniel and Lexie Gregory each had 3 aces, and Marissa McKelvey had 26 assists in the game.
For the second match-up of the evening, the Sugar Bears took on Memphis. Trailing by a few points, the Sugar Bears had a rough start to the first set but never let Memphis get too far ahead. The Sugar Bears gave up the first set to Memphis, giving them a 1-0 lead. Mackenzie Vernon led with 4 kills for set one.
In the second set, the Sugar Bears started strong with a 3-0 lead to start the set. The two teams took turns earning points until Memphis had a 4-0 score run making the score 8-11. The Sugar Bears lost momentum, and Memphis took the second set 15-25.
In set three, the Sugar Bears fought hard to stay a point or two behind Memphis, eventually tying the set 19-19. After bouncing points back and forth, Memphis took the lead and took the third set 23-25.
The Sugar Bears took on their last opponent of the tournament on Saturday morning for the 9:00 a.m. game. In set 1, Arkansas-Pine Bluff had a strong start, setting the score to 8-3 by the Central Arkansas timeout. The Sugar Bears gained momentum and tied the set 10-10 after a 3-0 score run and took the lead to continue that run 5-0 to make a 10-12 score. Sugar Bears kept their momentum, and at the next Arkansas-Pine Bluff timeout, UCA led 14-20. The Sugar Bears take the set with a 16-25 score after four Sugar Bear kills were made by Kendall Haywood and Allison Holloway and two kills by Lilly Taylor.
In set two, the Sugar Bears kept the same momentum with a 3-0 scoring run with two service aces by Lexie Gregory. At an Arkansas-Pine Bluff timeout, the Sugar Bears held the lead 9-14 after a Mackenzie Vernon kill. The Sugar Bears earned the second set with a score of 17-25. Caylan Koons and Mackenzie Vernon scored the last two points with Sugar Bear kills.
In set three, the Sugar Bears started strong and held their momentum with a 9-0 scoring run for a 7-16 lead over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The rally included kills by April Conant, Jamiryana Hall, and Mackenzie Vernon. The Sugar Bears continued strong and won the set 18-25 with a Lilly Taylor kill and secured the match 3-0.
The Sugar Bears will travel to Jacksonville, Ala., for their next ASUN conference game with Jacksonville State on Friday, September 23rd at 6:00 p.m.
Follow the Sugar Bears on Twitter @ucavball
Read More…
Yeshiva University Cancels All Clubs After It Was Ordered To Allow An LGBTQ Group
Yeshiva University Cancels All Clubs After It Was Ordered To Allow An LGBTQ Group https://digitalarkansasnews.com/yeshiva-university-cancels-all-clubs-after-it-was-ordered-to-allow-an-lgbtq-group/
People walk by the campus of Yeshiva University in New York City on Aug. 30. The school told students in an email that it was pausing all student clubs on campus. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
toggle caption
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
People walk by the campus of Yeshiva University in New York City on Aug. 30. The school told students in an email that it was pausing all student clubs on campus.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Yeshiva University says it’s pausing all student clubs on campus just days after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a lower court ruling that ordered the school to recognize an LGBTQ group.
In an unsigned email to students, the New York City school said that, considering upcoming Jewish holidays, “the university will hold off on all undergraduate club activities while it immediately takes steps to follow the roadmap provided by the US Supreme Court to protect YU’s religious freedom. Warm wishes for a Shannah Tovah.”
Earlier this week the Supreme Court told Yeshiva to go back to New York state court to continue its legal battle with the YU Pride Alliance, an LGBTQ student group that wants to be officially recognized by the university.
The YU Pride Alliance sued the school last year after Yeshiva refused to officially recognize it, claiming that it conflicted with the school’s interpretation of the Torah.
A New York state court ruled that the university had to recognize the club, and the Supreme Court has left that ruling in place for now.
Pride group lawyer calls Yeshiva’s decision “shameful”
Katie Rosenfeld, an attorney for the YU Pride Alliance, said the decision to cancel all club activities “rather than accept one LGBTQ peer support group on campus is a throwback to 50 years ago when the city of Jackson, Mississippi closed all public swimming pools rather than comply with court orders to desegregate.”
“We are confident that YU students will see through this shameful tactic and stand together in community,” Rosenfeld added in a statement.
Yeshiva University did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment.
Earlier in the week, Yeshiva University President Rabbi Ari Berman said in a statement that the school would continue to press its case in court.
“Every faith-based university in the country has the right to work with its students, including its LGBTQ students, to establish the clubs, places and spaces that fit within its faith tradition. Yeshiva University simply seeks that same right of self-determination,” Berman said.
Read More Here
Trump News Live: Trump Posts Fat-Shaming Pic Of Old Ally Ahead Of Ohio Rally Amid New Mueller Revelations
Trump News – Live: Trump Posts Fat-Shaming Pic Of Old Ally Ahead Of Ohio Rally, Amid New Mueller Revelations https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-news-live-trump-posts-fat-shaming-pic-of-old-ally-ahead-of-ohio-rally-amid-new-mueller-revelations/
Jen Psaki says Democrats ‘love to be opposed’ to Donald Trump ahead of midterms
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot will likely not release its report about the attempted insurrection before the midterms, but at the same time chair Bennie Thompson says October “won’t be a quiet period” and some information will be “pushed out” ahead of the election in the form of an interim report, Axios reported.
Meanwhile, a Florida judge has appointed Donald Trump’s nominee as special master in the Justice Department’s investigation into top secret papers seized by FBI agents from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Judge Raymond Dearie will now review materials seized during the raid of the former president’s estate after Mr Trump successfully demanded someone be appointed.
The Department of Justice’s request to resume its criminal investigation into the classified documents was also rejected with Judge Aileen Cannon saying she was not willing to accept the government’s assertions that nearly 100 documents taken from Mr Trump’s estate were classified.
Meanwhile, the former president has been lashing out on Truth Social attacking “absolute loser” Senator Mitch McConnell for being the Democrats’ “lapdog”, and posting a nasty photo fat-shaming former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
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Will the Jan 6 committee bring an October surprise for midterms?
The House select committee investigating the riot on January 6 will likely not release its report about the attempted insurrection before the election, Axios reported. But that doesn’t mean it could not make news before 8 November.
Chairman Bennie Thompson told reporters that he didn’t want the committee to be “perceived as a partisan committee … we’ve been fairly free of those kind of complaints, and we would not want to interfere with the election.”
At the same time, the chairman said that the time before 28 September, before the House leaves for campaign season, “won’t be a quiet period” and “the goal is to have … some information pushed out, obviously, before the November election,” though the committee might have an interim report during that time.
Eric Garcia reports from Capitol Hill.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 15:00
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Fox News poll: Trump was wrong over Mar-a-Lago papers
A new Fox News poll shows a solid two-thirds majority of voters believe it was “inappropriate” for former president Donald Trump to have taken a stash of more than 11,000 documents belonging to the government at the end of his term in the White House.
The survey also found that just 26 per cent of US voters believe Mr Trump’s actions were “appropriate,” compared with the 65 per cent who said it was not.
Andrew Feinberg looked at the survey.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 14:15
1663417800
Just like Dr Oz… Doug Mastriano was registered to vote in New Jersey until last year
Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, was registered to vote in neighbouring New Jersey until he launched his gubernatorial campaign last year, The New Jersey Globe reported.
Mr Mastriano, whom former president Donald Trump endorsed in the gubernatorial primary, reportedly was registered to vote in the state neighbouring Pennsylvania until 2021, when election officials changed his voter status to inactive.
Eric Garcia has the story.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 13:30
1663415100
Trump tried twice to appoint loyalists as AG to fire Mueller, book reveals
Former president Donald Trump was so intent on firing the Department of Justice special counsel charged with investigating his 2016 campaign’s potential ties with Russia that he offered the job of attorney general to two members of his cabinet on condition that they would carrying out his wish.
In their upcoming book The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021, authors Peter Baker and Susan Glasser report how Mr Trump responded to then-White House counsel Don McGahn’s refusal to order the firing of ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller by asking members of his cabinet to relieve then-attorney general Jeff Sessions and promptly sack the widely-respected ex-prosecutor.
Andrew Feinberg has the story for The Independent from Washington, DC.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 12:45
1663412400
Trump amplifies and openly embraces QAnon conspiracy theories
After winking at QAnon for years, Donald Trump is overtly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to it grows.
On Tuesday, using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.” In QAnon lore, the “storm” refers to Trump’s final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television.
As Trump contemplates another run for the presidency and has become increasingly assertive in the Republican primary process during the midterm elections, his actions show that far from distancing himself from the political fringe, he is welcoming it.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 12:00
1663409700
The FBI seizure of Mike Lindell’s phone — Everything we know so far
MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell makes a lot of outrageous claims related to the 2020 election, but this one was serious.
On Tuesday, the millionaire businessman and prominent 2020 election denier said he had his phone seized by the FBI in Minnesota while driving through a fast-food pickup window, which the agency later confirmed.
Here’s everything you need to know about what happened.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 11:15
1663406100
Trump helped release drug prisoners but now he wants to execute them
After helping release people convicted of drug crimes, Donald Trump now wants the death penalty for those same offences. Experts and the people given a reprieve by the former president warn The Independent’s Josh Marcus and Alex Woodward against the dangers of his rhetoric.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 10:15
1663402500
Lindsey Graham called Trump ‘a lying motherf***er’, book reveals
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham attempted to defend his defence of then-president Donald Trump’s conduct during his first impeachment, describing him to a pair of veteran Washington reporters as a liar and using expletives.
In their upcoming book The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021, authors Peter Baker and Susan Glasser recall how they met with Mr Graham outside a Washington DC steakhouse less than 48 hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into whether Mr Trump had extorted the president of Ukraine in a now-infamous July 2019 phone call. The Independent obtained a copy ahead of its 20 September publication date.
Andrew Feinberg reports on the South Carolina senator’s colourful choice of words.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 09:15
1663398900
Nevada’s GOP governor nominee says he would fight against national abortion ban
Nevada’s GOP governor nominee said Thursday he would fight against a national abortion ban if congress were to pass one.
“It’s the vote of the people within the state of Nevada, and I will support that,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, who is anti-abortion, said in a press gaggle next to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin after the two spent the day campaigning across the state. “That is an issue that doesn’t need to be in politics.”
Nevada voters codified the right to abortion up to 24 weeks into law in a 1990 referendum vote.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 08:15
1663395300
ICYMI: Judge picks Trump’s nominee as special master in Mar-a-Lago probe
A Florida Judge has appointed Donald Trump’s nominee as special master in the FBI investigation into top secret papers seized by agents from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Judge Raymond Dearie will now review materials seized during the raid of the former president’s estate in August after Mr Trump successfully demanded one be appointed.
The request was approved by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Mr Trump, and Judge Dearie was a candidate that the Justice Department had said earlier this week that it could also accept.
Graeme Massie reports.
Oliver O’Connell17 September 2022 07:15
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Trump Documents Case: Judge Dearie's Appointment As Special Master Welcomed Across Board | World
Trump Documents Case: Judge Dearie's Appointment As Special Master Welcomed Across Board | World https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-documents-case-judge-dearies-appointment-as-special-master-welcomed-across-board-world/
Washington: When Florida Judge Aileen Cannon appointed Raymond J. Dearie, a former Chief Federal Judge in New York, to sort through more than 11,000 documents – including classified materials – that FBI agents seized from former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence last month, jurists across both the Republican and Democrats side hailed the move.
The 78-year-old Dearie, a former Chief Federal Judge in New York and the then President Ronald Reagan appointee, was described by his peer group lawyers and colleagues as an exemplary jurist who is well suited to the job of special master, having previously served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), which oversees sensitive national security cases.
The Department of Justice also said he was acceptable to them after Judge Cannon rejected two candidates proposed by them.
In 2015, Dearie took the unusual step of reducing the prison sentences of three convicted Canadian terrorists, saying he had been “haunted” by the case and his growing sense that their sentences were unfair. Under federal law, Dearie had been required to sentence the men to 25-year terms for conspiring to acquire missiles on behalf of the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group fighting the government of Sri Lanka. He later cut those sentences to 15 years.
While the DOJ has been hit by Florida Judge Cannon’s ruling to slow down investigation into Trump’s classified documents case until Dearie reviews the documents in public interest to prevent reputational harm with a possible indictment of the former President, the DOJ has continued to maintain that a special master is legally unnecessary and should not be charged with reviewing any of the 100 or so seized documents marked as classified.
Appointing a special master to review these documents, prosecutors argued in numerous court filings, would slow down a criminal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information and could pose a national security risk, according to multiple reports in the media outlets.
Here’s everything you need to know about Dearie and what he will be doing in this high-profile and unusual investigation.
What is a special master? A special master is an impartial outside expert who can essentially be viewed as a judge’s helper, said David R. Cohen, an attorney and longtime special master. In theory, the special master can help with whatever a judge needs.
In this case, Cannon appointed a special master to sort through the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago on August 8 to see if any should be shielded from criminal investigators because of attorney-client or executive privileges.
How did Judge Cannon choose Dearie? When Cannon granted Trump’s request to appoint a special master earlier this month, she asked the Justice Department and Trump’s legal team to jointly submit a list of potential candidates. In a subsequent joint filing, the Justice Department named two judges as candidates. Trump’s side proposed a lawyer who is not a judge, and Dearie. Trump’s lawyers then told the judge they did not believe any of the Justice Department’s candidates would be suitable special masters. The Justice Department said they thought Dearie would be acceptable. Days later, Cannon named Dearie for the high-profile job.
Is Dearie still working as a judge? Yes, Dearie still serves as a judge in Brooklyn federal court, albeit on senior status, which means he can take a reduced caseload if he chooses. He has also recently signalled that he plans to leave the bench. It is not immediately clear if the appointment will speed his departure from Brooklyn federal court or if court administrators will work out some other accommodation for the unusual dynamic of a judge appointing another judge a special master.
What will he do as a special master in this case? The Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers have held drastically different positions on what the special master should do in this case. Trump wants the special master to search through all the seized documents – including the classified ones – to see if any are protected by attorney-client or executive privileges and should not be used in the investigation.
On the other side, the Justice Department has questioned whether Trump, who is no longer President, can even invoke executive privilege – a power that Presidents can assert to shield communications from courts, Congress, or the public.
Either way, the Justice Department did not want classified documents to be part of the special master review, saying that privilege would not apply to them or to the unclassified documents, and that delaying investigators’ access to those sensitive documents could pose national security risks.
Ultimately, Cannon ruled in Trump’s favour. She also denied a bid by prosecutors to allow them to use the seized material in their ongoing criminal investigation before Dearie conducts his review.
How long does Dearie have to complete the job? Cannon ordered Dearie to complete his review by November 30. She said he should prioritise sorting through the classified documents, though she did not provide a timeline as to when that portion must be completed.
The Justice Department had asked in a previous court filing for the review to be completed by October 17. And Trump’s lawyers had said a special master would need 90 days to complete a review.
Does Dearie have the necessary clearance to sift through these highly classified materials? Because Dearie previously served on the FISA court, it will probably not take much time or effort to get him authorised to review the classified material, and he may not have to travel far to look at them. New York City has a number of federal facilities in which Dearie could review highly classified material, which is important since the storage and safekeeping of such documents is the crux of the case.
Can Dearie get help for his review? In theory, yes. Special masters typically have others help them review documents. But in this case, staff assistance could be complicated by the 100 classified documents, and whether any potential assistants have the necessary security clearances. It is possible that Dearie could end up reviewing that material on his own, and hiring others to help him with the non-classified documents.
Now what? The Justice Department is expected to file an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. Depending on what part of Cannon’s decision the government challenges, the appeal may or may not interfere with the special master’s review.
Once Dearie completes his review, he would deliver his recommendations to Cannon on what documents should be shielded from investigators. It’s up to Cannon to decide whether she will follow those recommendations.
(IANS)
Read More Here
Mark Meadows Claimed Boxes Held At Mar-A-Lago Contained Only 'news Clippings'
Mark Meadows Claimed Boxes Held At Mar-A-Lago Contained Only 'news Clippings' https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mark-meadows-claimed-boxes-held-at-mar-a-lago-contained-only-news-clippings/
According to the Post, National Archives attorney Gary Stern spoke with former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin. Philbin told Stern that he had spoken to Meadows about concerns Trump had left the White House with presidential records. But according to Meadows, Trump didn’t have anything. Just that dozen boxes of clippings.
According to Meadows and Philbin, “Trump’s team was aware of no other materials.”
This is an enormous lie. First, there was the simply quantity of the documents Trump ferried away. The National Archives got 15 boxes back in January. The FBI took more documents in July. And FBI agents took 12 boxes in the search at Mar-a-Lago. On top of that, we know they didn’t take everything. Donald Trump and Mark Meadows may not be excessively clever, but there should be an assumption they can tell the difference between twelve and more than thirty.
Then comes the actual nature of the documents. Even if Judge Aileen Cannon chooses not to believe the FBI, the National Archives have already stated that they found more than 150 classified documents just in the materials that were handed to them in January. That was before another stack of classified documents was handed over in July. And before the FBI carried out it’s search in August. In all, there were over 300 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
And, thanks to that one photo provided in a DOJ filing, we not only know that Trump has atrocious taste in carpet, but that these documents were clearly marked as containing some of the most sensitive information in existence.
It’s hard to mistake these for news clippings.
The blatantly obvious nature of the documents that Trump stole—and the fact that he kept many of the classified documents not among the boxes in storage, but in his office—shows that he absolutely knew what he had. Trump knew what he was taking. He also knew how critical it was to national security. He just didn’t care. Because he knew what it was worth.
A spokesperson for Meadows has responded to the Post story with a statement that Meadows, “did not personally review the boxes at Mar A Lago and did not have a role in examining or verifying what was or wasn’t contained within them.” It’s too bad that’s not what he told Philbin.
If Meadows didn’t personally review the boxes, but he told Philbin they contained only ‘news clippings,’ then where did he get that information? Meadows deserves a chance to explain. Under oath.
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Confronting Israeli Apartheid Zionist Propaganda In Montreal
Confronting Israeli Apartheid, Zionist Propaganda In Montreal https://digitalarkansasnews.com/confronting-israeli-apartheid-zionist-propaganda-in-montreal/
A call to action against the participation of Israel Premier Tech in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. (Photo: via Samidoun)
By Yves Engler
Montréal is a bastion of Israeli nationalist ideology. People of conscience must disrupt their activities, confronting the reality of Palestinian dispossession and apartheid.
At the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, three weeks ago, Montréal-born Sylvan Adams told the Jerusalem Post, “Israel belongs to all Jews. Israeli born, or Israeli immigrants such as my wife and myself, but also to each and every Jew in the Diaspora. Israel belongs to all of us.”
The Montréal-born billionaire’s perspective may appeal to Jewish supremacists but how about non-Jews who’ve lived there for dozens of generations? Or the refugees Israel expelled to create a “Jewish state”? And is the territory that belongs to a Montréal Jew the 1948 border, the land Israel has controlled for a half century, or many times bigger as some Zionists have claimed?
Adams is a proponent of what B’Tselem has labeled “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea” (an area in which Jews are a minority). He aggressively promotes what Israel’s leading human rights group, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many others have labeled an apartheid state.
Adams funds various projects promoting apartheid. He instigated an initiative with the explicitly racist Jewish National Fund and helped with a think tank led by Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel that promotes the Abraham Accords, which seek to normalize relations between the occupying power and regional governments. Last month he told the evangelical site ALL ISRAEL NEWS, “the Evangelical Christians are probably better friends of ours than many American Jews and even Israeli Jews who take Israel for granted. We have no better friends in the entire world.”
Adams’ most noteworthy contribution to the “regime of Jewish supremacy” has been to spend large sums on headline-grabbing sports and cultural events in the hopes of whitewashing Israeli racism and violence. On Monday Adams told the Jerusalem Post, “I am not trying to convince the haters and the antisemites,” but rather sway the largely uninformed and apolitical. His aim is to portray Israel as a “normal modern Western country” that is “open, tolerant, and diverse, and free, and democratic.”
In recent years, Adams has plowed tens of millions of dollars into Israeli bike racing initiatives as well as a Madonna performance, space launch and Argentina football match. “My projects are intended to reach out to really large audiences”, Adams told The Times of Israel. “If we take the Giro as an example, because bike racing takes place outdoors, they got to see the entirety of our country from Acre in the north all the way down to Eilat in the south, and in an unvarnished way — without preaching to them. We’re just reaching out to sports fans and saying: Here we are, this is what we look like.” Beyond whitewashing apartheid and colonial violence, Adams said his “second goal is to engender national pride and happiness and cohesion amongst our people.”
On Sunday, September 11, 25 of us rallied against the participation of the Adams’ sponsored Israel – Premier Tech team in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. During the bike race, Adams was directly challenged on his support for apartheid. Ultimately, he jogged away from questioners.
Adams grew up in Montréal and his family made hundreds of millions of dollars in Québec and Canadian real estate (he’s reportedly worth US$1.7 billion). But now he’s using this wealth to push back against those opposed to the brutal siege of Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. His Israeli nationalism is pathological and deeply rooted in Montréal.
Adams has contributed to a number of charities in Montréal that raise money for projects in Israel. Montréal is home to “Canadian Friends” of Hebrew University, Tel-Aviv University, Technion and Ben-Gurion University. It’s also home to a charity supporting non-Israelis who join the IDF and Canadian Friends of Yad L’Achim, which campaigns against Jewish and Palestinian/Muslim intermarriage.
With the public subsidizing about half the cost of private schooling in Québec, nearly 50% of Jewish children in Montréal attend Jewish schools. In 2016 Adams donated $15 million to Herzliah High School. On its website the Montréal school boasts of its “Israel Engagement initiative”, which “focusses on three key areas: Appreciating our homeland. Engaging with Israel. Advocating for Israel”. They teach the kids about the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and “most important, students will develop skills and strategies to advocate for Israel at CEGEP [college], on university campuses and beyond.”
A number of Montréal schools actively promote the Israeli military. Montréal’s largest Jewish school, Hebrew Academy, shows movies that celebrate the Israeli military; students send gifts to IDF bases; Israeli emissaries lead kindergarten classes in “fun IDF programs”.
An April 2020 article from the school website notes, “following a nod to HA alumni serving in the IDF and a prayer for Chayalei Tzahal [IDF] by School Rabbi Eddie Shostak, Head of School Dr. Laura Segall relayed that her parents both served in the IDF.” That month, Hebrew Academy also posted a video to its Facebook page of alumni currently serving in the IDF. Under the caption “A meaningful video featuring our HA alumni who are serving in the Israel Defense Forces,” a half-dozen alumni spend 12 minutes telling students about the importance of serving in the armed forces of the Israeli state.
The school considers joining the IDF a special accomplishment. Last year Hebrew Academy posted a picture of three young men to its Facebook page with the caption: “Mazel tov to class of 2018 alumni Michael Kuperstok, Nathan Bebuzru and Yehuda Besner who are enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces this week. We are beyond proud of you!”
In the paper “Good Jewish Citizens: Israel or Zionist education the key to saving North American Jewish Identity?” Bonnie K. Goodman holds up Montréal Jewish schooling as a successful model. “To combat the crisis,” Goodman writes, “American Jews might look up north to Montreal, Quebec. The second-largest Jewish community in Canada has the lowest intermarriage rates and the highest number of students attending day schools and summer camps.
The city is also home to an Israel engagement program arming their high school graduating class with the tools necessary to confront the anti-Israel college world and advocate for Israel. The curriculum creates a Zionist education that fosters its graduates to not only be knowledgeable Jews but good citizens versed in one of the most critical elements of Civil Judaism support and ties to Israel.”
Those of us who understand the truth about Israel have a responsibility to counter nationalist lies and promotion of apartheid every opportunity that presents itself, here in Montréal or wherever we live.
– Yves Engler is the author of Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and a number of other books. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit his website: yvesengler.com.
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People Line Up Prior To Trump’s Youngstown Visit https://digitalarkansasnews.com/people-line-up-prior-to-trumps-youngstown-visit/
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – People began lining up early to see former President Donald Trump in Youngstown.
He’s visiting the Covelli Centre to campaign with Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, who hopes to defeat Tim Ryan in the general election.
While a crowd lined up Saturday morning before gates opened around 8 a.m., there was also a traveling group that was camping out at the location on Friday. They came from all over — Indiana, Tennessee, Connecticut, Florida and near Cleveland — and some have been in Youngstown since early this week.
Trump plans to speak at 7 p.m., but guest speakers will begin delivering remarks at 4 p.m. Among those speakers are J.D. Vance and Representatives Jim Jordan and Bill Johnson.
One rally organizer says tickets are not required, but rally goers were encouraged to sign up on the website.
We’ll be live streaming the event on our website, so check back here for live updates.
Hanna Erdmann contributed to this report.
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Earlier Referendum Attempted To Ban Voting Electronic Machines In Jacobus
Earlier Referendum Attempted To Ban Voting Electronic Machines In Jacobus https://digitalarkansasnews.com/earlier-referendum-attempted-to-ban-voting-electronic-machines-in-jacobus/
People have been attempting to force a public decision on removing electronic voting machines in York County for longer than had been previously reported.
A March petition would have put a referendum on the use of electronic voting machines in Jacobus on the general election ballot.
Ultimately, that petition, which received the necessary number of signatures, was rejected by the county Board of Elections.
More: Election-denying ‘patriot’ groups trying to vote out voting machines across Pa.
More: Voter referendum to throw out Dominion voting machines falls short of signatures
More: York City schools consider weapon-sniffing dog; superintendent says she doesn’t want to bury more students
A letter written by York County solicitor Michelle Pokrifka cites case law in an explanation of why the Board of Elections rejected this proposal.
“The York County Board of Elections would also reject any future local referendum regarding the discontinuance of electronic voting systems or machines for the same reason unless there were changes in the federal and state laws that revived the allowance of local referendums on these topics,” her letter reads.
Local referendums require signatures from local electors totaling 10% of the vote total from the most recent November general election.
The letter cites a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision as legal justification for the rejection. Kuznik v. Westmoreland County Bd. of Commissioners in 2006
“The Supreme Court determined that local referendums on the continued use of an electronic voting system are no longer a valid option in municipalities because they were overruled by the higher authority of the requirements of the federal HAVA and the state constitutional law,” Pokrikfa’s letter reads.
Another petition attempting a referendum that would have placed electronic voting machines on the county’s general election ballot failed earlier this month.
President Commissioner Julie Wheeler and Commissioner Ron Smith did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Commissioner Doug Hoke said there had been a lot of requests about local referendums regarding elections.
“I’ve heard a lot from other commissioners, and there are the same thing in other areas that people are requesting ballots to get on,” Hoke said Friday.
Elections Director Julie Haertsch did not respond to a request for comment. An email indicated she would be out of the office until Sept. 19.
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Attempts to ban electronic voting machines have become prevalent among activists who act at the behest of former President Donald Trump and his allies who continue to claim without proof the 2020 election was stolen.
Reporting from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette indicates that there have been attempts in at least 16 counties to get similar referendums on county ballots, including in Butler and Washington.
However, no group succeeded in getting the required 10% signature total
— Reach Matt Enright via email at menright@yorkdispatch.com or via Twitter at @Matthew_Enright.
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King Charles III And Prince William Visit People Queuing To See Queen's Coffin
King Charles III And Prince William Visit People Queuing To See Queen's Coffin https://digitalarkansasnews.com/king-charles-iii-and-prince-william-visit-people-queuing-to-see-queens-coffin/
London (CNN)King Charles III and Prince William, the Prince of Wales, greeted members of the public queuing to see the Queen’s lying-in-state on Saturday on a surprise walkabout in London.
The royals were spotted shaking hands with well-wishers near Lambeth Bridge. Prince William appeared to be in high spirits as he talked to the crowd and asked several people how long they had been waiting.
Some mourners shouted “hip hip hooray” and “God save the King” as Charles passed.
One woman held up a Paddington Bear toy to Charles; the fictional bear has become associated with the Queen since she appeared in a sketch alongside the character during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
People have been queuing for hours to view the Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin since she began lying-in-state at Westminster Hall on Wednesday.
The line was nearing total capacity on Saturday, the government said. At lunchtime on Saturday, the government’s queue tracker said the current wait time was 14 hours.
Earlier on Saturday, Charles III visited Metropolitan Police headquarters in the Lambeth borough of London to thank police and emergency services officials involved in the planning and implementation of events since the death of the late Queen.
Monday’s funeral for the Queen will be the “largest single policing event” that London’s Metropolitan Police force has ever undertaken, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said during a media briefing on Friday.
The Queen’s grandchildren — including Princes William and Harry — are expected to stand vigil by her coffin later on Saturday.
On Sunday, King Charles will host a reception at Buckingham Palace for “Heads of State and official overseas guests” ahead of the state funeral for the late Queen.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan, received an invitation to that reception by mistake, a source with knowledge of what happened told CNN.
As an official state occasion, the Palace said the King would be accompanied by working members of the Royal Family only. The source told CNN that they “imagined” that an administration error had occurred. The couple was not “disinvited” from the reception, as some media outlets have reported.
A spokesperson for the Sussexes did not comment.
To get updates on the British Royal Family sent to your inbox, sign up for CNN’s Royal News newsletter.
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Trump: US Justice Department Appeals Judges Mar-A-Lago Investigation Hold
Trump: US Justice Department Appeals Judge’s Mar-A-Lago Investigation Hold https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-us-justice-department-appeals-judges-mar-a-lago-investigation-hold/
The justice department asked a federal appeals court on Friday to lift a judge’s order that temporarily barred it from reviewing a batch of classified documents seized during an FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida home last month.
The department told the 11th circuit US court of appeals in Atlanta that the judge’s hold, imposed last week, had impeded the “government’s efforts to protect the nation’s security” and interfered with its investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago. It asked the court to remove that order so work could resume, and to halt a judge’s directive forcing the department to provide the seized classified documents to an independent arbiter for his review.
“The government and the public would suffer irreparable harm absent a stay” of the order, department lawyers wrote in their brief to the appeals court.
US district judge Aileen Cannon’s appointment of a so-called special master to review the documents, and the resulting legal tussle it has caused, appear certain to slow by weeks the department’s investigation into the holding of classified documents at the Florida property after Trump left office. The justice department has been investigating possible violations of multiple statutes, including under the Espionage Act, but it remains unclear whether Trump, who has been laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run, or anyone else might be charged.
The FBI says it took about 11,000 documents, including roughly 100 with classification markings found in a storage room and an office, while serving a court-authorized search warrant at the home on 8 August. Weeks after the search, Trump lawyers asked a judge to appoint a special master to conduct an independent review of the records.
Cannon granted the request last week, assigning a special master to review the records and weed out any that may be covered by claims of attorney-client or executive privilege. She directed the department to halt its use of the classified documents for investigative purposes until further court order, or until the completion of the special master‘s work.
On Thursday night, she assigned Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the federal court based in Brooklyn, to serve in the role. She also declined to lift her earlier order, citing ongoing disputes about the nature of the documents that she said merited a neutral review by an outside arbiter.
“The Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion,” she wrote.
The justice department on Friday night told the appeals court that Cannon’s injunction “unduly interferes with the criminal investigation”, prohibiting investigators from “accessing the seized records to evaluate whether charges are appropriate”. It also prevents the FBI from using the seized records in its criminal investigation to determine which documents, if any, were disclosed and to whom, the department said.
Though Cannon has said investigators are free to do other investigative work that did not involve a review of the documents, the department said on Friday that that was largely impractical. Noting the discovery of dozens of empty folders at Mar-a-Lago marked classified, it said the judge’s hold appeared to bar it from “further reviewing the records to discern any patterns in the types of records that were retained, which could lead to identification of other records still missing”.
The department also asked the appeals court to reject Cannon’s order that it provide the newly appointed special master with the classified documents, suggesting there was no reason for the arbiter to review highly sensitive records that did not involve questions of legal privilege.
“Plaintiff has no claim for the return of those records, which belong to the government and were seized in a court-authorized search,” department lawyers wrote. “The records are not subject to any possible claim of personal attorney-client privilege. And neither Plaintiff nor the court has cited any authority suggesting that a former President could successfully invoke executive privilege to prevent the Executive Branch from reviewing its own records.”
Cannon has directed Dearie to complete his work by 30 November and to prioritize the review of the classified documents. She directed the justice department to permit the Trump legal team to inspect the seized classified records with “controlled access conditions” something government lawyers said on Friday was needless and harmful.
On Friday, Dearie, a former federal prosecutor, scheduled a preliminary conference with Trump lawyers and justice department lawyers for Tuesday afternoon.
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Why It's Time To Start Paying With $2 Bills https://digitalarkansasnews.com/why-its-time-to-start-paying-with-2-bills/
New York (CNN Business)Inflation has made it hard to buy much with a buck these days.
“If you had a $2 bill, perfect,” said Heather McCabe, a writer and $2 bill evangelist who runs the blog Two Buckaroo chronicling her spending with twos and other people’s reactions. “It’s a very useful thing to pay for a small amount.”
Yet the $2 note is the unloved child of paper currency.
It’s considered a curiosity to some and scorned by others in the United States. The myths around the $2 bill — nicknamed “Tom” by fans because it features Thomas Jefferson’s portrait on the front — are endless. Many Americans think $2 bills are rare, are not printed anymore or have gone out of circulation.
Wrong.
The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) will print up to 204 million $2 bills this year, based on an annual order from the Federal Reserve System. There were 1.4 billion $2 bills in circulation in 2020, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve.
But $2 bills account for just 0.001% of the value of the $2 trillion worth of currency in circulation.
BEP doesn’t have to request new $2 bills each year, like it does for other bills. That’s because $2 bills are used so infrequently and last longer in circulation. The Fed orders them every few years and works down the inventory.
“Many Americans have pretty dubious assumptions about the $2 bill. Nothing happened to the $2 bill. It’s still being made. It’s being circulated,” McCabe said. “Americans misunderstand their own currency to the extent they don’t use it.”
Bad luck
The United States first issued $2 bills beginning in 1862, around the time the federal government first started printing paper money. Alexander Hamilton’s portrait was on the two until a new series was printed in 1869 with Jefferson.
But the deuce was unpopular and never gained a foothold with the public.
A major reason: The the $2 bill was considered bad luck. Superstitious people would rip off the corners of the bill to “reverse the curse,” making the bills unfit to use.
“He who sits in a game of chance with a two-dollar bill in his pocket is thought to be saddled with a jinx,” the New York Times said in a 1925 article. “They have been avoided as ill-starred.”
The two was also known for keeping controversial company. It was associated with gambling, where it was the standard bet at racetracks, and prostitution.
And during the nineteenth century, crony candidates frequently used $2 bills to bribe voters. Someone holding a $2 bill was thought to have sold a vote to a crooked politician.
The Treasury Department during the 1900s tried unsuccessfully several times to popularize the use of the $2 bill. In 1966, it gave up and discontinued printing the bills “because a lack of public demand.”
But a decade later, as the United States approached the bicentennial, the Treasury designed a new $2 bill series with a portrait of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back.
The aim was to cut the number of $1 bills in circulation and save the Treasury money on production costs.
But the relaunch in 1976 failed. People viewed the new version as a collector’s item and hoarded them instead of going out and spending them.
The Postal Service offered to stamp them only on April 13, the first day they were issued in honor of Jefferson’s birthday, unintentionally adding to the idea that they were commemorative bills -— a misconception that continues to this day.
“The press and public now tend to link the $2 bill with the Susan B. Anthony dollar under the general heading of ‘fiascos,'” the New York Times said in 1981.
There’s no rational reason why $2 bills aren’t as popular as other bills, said Paolo Pasquariello, a professor of finance at the University of Michigan. But people exhibit a preference for multiples of 1 and 5, he said.
Another reason $2 bills never took off: Cash registers, invented in the late 1800s, were never designed with a place to hold them, so cashiers didn’t know where to stash them.
“There wasn’t an alteration of cash registers for $2 bills,” said Heather McCabe. “The infrastructure of paying for things didn’t change. There was not an adjustment of how people work with that bill.”
If cash registers had a familiar slot for $2 bills, the bill would be more popular, she argued.
$2 subculture
But there are people who swear by $2 bills. In fact, communities and subcultures have developed around them.
US Air Force pilots who fly U-2 spy planes always keep a $2 bill in their flight suits.
Since the 1970s, fans of Clemson University’s Tigers football team have paid and tipped with $2 bills -— “Tiger Twos” — in other cities’ restaurants, bars, shops and hotels. The tradition started as a way to prove to Georgia Tech in Atlanta that it would benefit the city to schedule games against Clemson.
“There is a degree of popularity to them. There is a sense of excitement,” said Jesse Kraft, a curator at the American Numismatic Society. “But as far as putting them back into circulation, that’s the key that’s missing.”
Kraft is a proponent of adopting $2 bills more widely.
He notes that it’s about half as expensive for the Treasury to print a $2 bill than higher denominations, which come with costlier security features on the paper. It’s also more efficient to print $2 bills than $1 bills because the Treasury can print twice as much for the same amount of money and requires less storage.
John Bennardo, who made a 2015 film about $2 bills called “The Two Dollar Bill Documentary,” has made it his mission to “educate people and enlighten them and start using $2 bills in their life.”
In short, he concludes, $2 bills are underappreciated in the United States and a way for strangers to meet and engage.
“You will get remembered if you use a $2 bill,” Bennardo said. “It has this ability to connect people in way that other bills don’t. It opens up a dialogue between you and the cashier.”
“It’s a practical bill with inflation. But it’s social currency as well.”
CNN’s Harry Enten contributed to this article.
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AP News In Brief At 6:04 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-in-brief-at-604-a-m-edt-2/
Pressure on Russian forces mounts after Ukraine’s advances
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Western defense officials and analysts on Saturday said they believed the Russian forces were setting up a new defensive line in Ukraine’s northeast after Kyiv’s troops broke through the previous one and tried to press their advances further into the east.
The British Defense Ministry said in a daily intelligence briefing that the line likely is between the Oskil River and Svatove, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The new line comes after a Ukrainian counteroffensive punched a hole through the previous front line in the war and recaptured large swaths of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia.
Moscow “likely sees maintaining control of this zone as important because it is transited by one of the few main resupply routes Russia still controls from the Belgorod region of Russia,” the British military said, adding that ”a stubborn defense of this area” was likely, but that it remained unclear whether the Russians would be able to withstand another concerted Ukrainian assault.
Ukrainian forces, in the meantime, continue to cross the key Oskil River in the Kharkiv region as they try to press on in a counteroffensive targeting Russian-occupied territory, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Man arrested after ‘disturbance’ as line to see queen swells
LONDON (AP) — Thousands of people spent London’s coldest night in months huddled in line to view the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, and authorities warned Saturday that arriving mourners face a 24-hour wait.
Police arrested a man after what the force described as a “disturbance” Friday night in Parliament’s Westminster Hall, where the queen’s coffin is lying in state, draped in her Royal Standard and capped with a diamond-studded crown.
Parliamentary authorities said someone got out of the queue and tried to approach the coffin on its platform. The Metropolitan Police force said a man was detained for a suspected public-order offense.
The tide of people wanting to say goodbye to the queen has grown steadily since the public was first admitted to the hall on Wednesday. On Friday, authorities temporary halted letting more visitors join the end of the line, which snakes around Southwark Park some 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Parliament.
Overnight, volunteers distributed blankets and cups of tea to people in line as the temperature fell to 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit).
Royal fans give London tourism a bump amid UK economic woes
LONDON (AP) — Royal fans have poured into the heart of London to experience the flag-lined roads, pomp-filled processions and, above all, brave a mileslong line for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to bid adieu to Queen Elizabeth II, who died after an unprecedented seven decades on the throne. And while they’re here, they’re packing hotels, restaurants and shops.
Visitors crowding into central London from as far away as the U.S. and India for the historic moment are giving a boost to businesses at a time when the British economy is facing a cost-of-living crisis fueled by the highest inflation in four decades and predictions of a looming recession.
“This is the history, you know, this happens once in the lifetime,” said Kanakkantt Benedict, who was visiting from India with his wife and filed past the queen’s flag-draped coffin this week. “So we became a part of it.”
The pomp and pageantry leading up to the funeral for Britain’s longest-reigning monarch underscored the royal family’s power as a global attraction, from an elaborate military procession for her crown-topped coffin drawing live viewers around the world to piles of flowers filling up Green Park near Buckingham Palace and gift shops hastily churning out souvenirs commemorating the queen’s life as people clamor for mementos.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to pay tribute to the queen in the four days that her body lies in state ahead of her state funeral Monday, pushing up demand for hotel rooms in central London that in some cases have doubled in price.
In Yemen, Queen’s death recalls memories of colonial past
ADEN, Yemen (AP) — In 1954, large crowds turned out for a historic visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Aden. At the time, this city on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula was a colony of the British Empire and was one of the busiest and most important ports in the world.
Now the queen’s death after a 70-year reign has prompted some Yemenis to remember a part of history not often evoked.
Her death has brought waves of grief and sympathy from around the globe. But it has also raised calls for a re-examination of the death and deprivation inflicted by Britain’s colonial rule in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
In Aden, now the second largest city in Yemen, many remember colonial rule as a time of oppression that entrenched some of the problems still plaguing the city and the country, which has been devastated by civil war since 2015.
Some today still remember Elizabeth’s visit with admiration and credit British rule with advances in the country. Hassan al-Awaidi, a university student, knows his grandfather was among those waving from the street when the queen and her husband, Prince Phillip, passed by.
Voter challenges, records requests swamp election offices
Spurred by conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, activists around the country are using laws that allow people to challenge a voter’s right to cast a ballot to contest the registrations of thousands of voters at a time.
In Iowa, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller had handled three voter challenges over the previous 15 years. He received 119 over just two days after Doug Frank, an Ohio educator who is touring the country spreading doubts about the 2020 election, swung through the state.
In Nassau County in northern Florida, two residents challenged the registrations of nearly 2,000 voters just six days before last month’s primary. In Georgia, activists are dropping off boxloads of challenges in the diverse and Democratic-leaning counties comprising the Atlanta metro area, including more than 35,000 in one county late last month.
Election officials say the vast majority of the challenges will be irrelevant because they contest the presence on voting rolls of people who already are in the process of being removed after they moved out of the region. Still, they create potentially hundreds of hours of extra work as the offices scramble to prepare for November’s election.
“They at best overburden election officials in the run-up to an election, and at worse they lead to people being removed from the rolls when they shouldn’t be,” said Sean Morales-Doyle of The Brennan Center for Justice, which has tracked an upswing in voter challenges.
Abrams’ strategy to boost turnout: Early voting commitments
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — Stacey Abrams, Georgia Democrats’ nominee for governor, is launching an intensive effort to get out the vote by urging potential supporters to cast in-person ballots the first week of early voting as she tries to navigate the state’s new election laws.
The strategy, outlined to The Associated Press by Abrams’ top aides, is a shift from 2018, when she spent generously in her first gubernatorial bid to encourage voters to use mail ballots. It also moves away from Democrats’ pandemic-era emphasis on mail voting, a push that delivered Georgia’s electoral votes to President Joe Biden and helped Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win concurrent U.S. Senate runoffs to give Democrats control of Capitol Hill.
Republicans, including Abrams’ opponent, Gov. Brian Kemp, answered in 2021 with sweeping election changes that, among other provisions, dramatically curtailed drop boxes for mail ballots, added wrinkles to mail ballot applications and ballot return forms, and made it easier to challenge an individual voter’s eligibility. But it also expanded in-person voting.
“It’s self-evident we have to have a big early vote in-person,” said Abrams campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo, arguing the new mail ballot procedures make it risky for Democrats to rely too heavily on that option. “What’s not self-evident,” Groh-Wargo continued, “is how the hell you do that.”
Primary elections this midterm season have suggested a national decline in mail balloting, which spiked in 2020 because of COVID-19. Still, Abrams’ approach, which is shared by some liberal voting rights activists, represents a pivot from Democrats’ pre-COVID tactics and demonstrates how the left intends to try to maximize their votes in jurisdictions where Republicans remain in control of election procedures.
Hungary faces reckoning with EU that could cost it billions
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — After his headline performance at Hungary’s Sziget Festival last month, pop star Justin Bieber held a grandiose party for his staff in a luxurious countryside setting — a 19th century castle owned by the son-in-law of the country’s prime minister.
The castle, to the critics of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is emblematic of the corruption, nepotism and largesse of which the populist leader and his government have been accused for years — the kinds of behavior which now threaten to cost Hungary billions in European Union funding.
Standing beside the iron gates of Schossberger Castle this week, an independent Hungarian lawmaker who has made a name for himself as an anti-corruption crusader snapped pictures of the structure and its expansive manicured grounds.
A former member of Orban’s ruling Fidesz party, Akos Hadhazy left the nationalist-populist party in 2013 after becoming aware of what he describes as a clientelistic system of unchecked corruption taking shape in the Central European nation.
“When Fidesz came to power, I saw more and more that a very s...
AP News Summary At 7:45 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-745-a-m-edt/
Pressure on Russian forces mounts after Ukraine’s advances
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Western defense officials and analysts say said they believe Russian forces are setting up a new defensive line in Ukraine’s northeast after Kyiv’s troops broke through the previous one and tried to press their advances further into the east. The British defense ministry said that the line likely was between the Oskil River and Svatove, southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The new line comes after a Ukrainian counteroffensive punched a hole through the previous front line and recaptured large swaths of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Ukrainian forces are continuing to cross a key river as they try to press on in a counteroffensive targeting Russian-occupied territory in the country’s northeast, according to a Washington-based think tank.
Thousands wait in cold to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II
LONDON (AP) — Thousands of people have spent London’s coldest night in months huddled in line to view the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II. Authorities warn that arriving mourners face a 16-hour wait. Queen Elizabeth II’s eight grandchildren are due to stand vigil beside her coffin on Saturday at Parliament’s Westminster Hall. Members of the public kept silently streaming into the hall as King Charles III and his three siblings stood vigil around their mother’s flag-draped coffin for 15 minutes on Friday evening. Police arrested a man after what the force described as a “disturbance.” Parliamentary authorities said someone tried to approach the coffin on the platform where it is lying in state.
Royal fans give London tourism a bump amid UK economic woes
LONDON (AP) — Hotels, restaurants and shops are packed as royal fans pour into the heart of London to experience the flag-lined roads, pomp-filled processions and brave a mileslong line for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to bid adieu to Queen Elizabeth II. Visitors crowding into central London from as far away as the U.S. and India for the historic moment are giving a boost to businesses at a time when the British economy is facing a cost-of-living crisis fueled by the highest inflation in four decades and predictions of a looming recession. The overall economic boost might be limited because Monday has been declared a public holiday for the queen’s funeral. But experts said renewed interest in the royal family could sustain tourism demand.
In Yemen, Queen’s death recalls memories of colonial past
ADEN, Yemen (AP) — There are few remaining reminders that the Yemeni port city of Aden was once a British colony. But the death of Queen Elizabeth II has prompted some Yemenis to remember a colonial rule that oppressed many and deepened divisions inside the country. Elizabeth passed by the city, on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, in 1954 in a visit current generations remember their grandfathers talking about. Some credit the British era with bringing order and organization to Aden. But many say that the chaos of Yemen’s civil war today is no reason to feel nostalgia for a colonial occupation.
Voter challenges, records requests swamp election offices
Election conspiracy theorists are flooding local election offices with voter challenges and public records requests. The wave of inquiries is adding to the already heavy workload those offices face as they scramble to prepare for November’s elections. Election officials say many of the challenges they’re receiving contest the presence on voter rolls of people who already are being removed or have the right to be registered. At a minimum, it takes time for election offices to record all the challenges. And if some of the targeted voters cast ballots in November, there could be a fight over whether to count their votes.
Abrams’ strategy to boost turnout: Early voting commitments
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is launching an intensive effort to get out the vote by urging potential supporters to cast in-person ballots the first week of early voting as she tries to navigate the state’s new election laws. The strategy, outlined to The Associated Press by Abrams’ top aides, is a shift from 2018, when she spent generously in her first gubernatorial bid to encourage voters to use mail ballots. It also moves away from Democrats’ pandemic-era emphasis on mail voting, a push that delivered Georgia’s electoral votes to President Joe Biden and helped Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win concurrent U.S. Senate runoffs.
Hungary faces reckoning with EU that could cost it billions
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s nationalist-populist government is facing a reckoning with the European Union after nearly a decade of accusations that it has failed to uphold the EU’s democratic values. The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, appears set to impose financial penalties against Hungary on Sunday over corruption concerns and alleged rule-of-law violations. Hungary is one of the largest net beneficiaries of EU funds in the 27-nation bloc, and the sanctions could cost Budapest billions and cripple its already ailing economy. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has denied the commission’s accusations. A lawmaker who is a former member of Orban’s party alleges the government has channeled large sums of EU money into the businesses of politically connected insiders.
US asks appeals court to lift judge’s Mar-a-Lago probe hold
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to lift a judge’s order that temporarily barred it from reviewing a batch of classified documents seized during an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home last month. The department made the request Friday with the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta. It says the judge’s hold is impeding the “government’s efforts to protect the nation’s security” and interfering with its investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago. It says the hold needs to be lifted immediately so work can resume.
Biden meets with families of Whelan, Griner at White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden met with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American detained in Russia, Paul Whelan. The meetings Friday at the White House are the first face-to-face encounter between the president and the relatives of Griner and Whelan. Administration officials say the sessions are meant to underscore Biden’s commitment to bringing home Americans held overseas and to establish a personal connection, but are not an indication that negotiations with Russia for their release have reached a breakthrough. A national security spokesman told reporters Friday that the U.S. had made a serious offer to get the Americans home but the Russians had not responded to that offer.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan hold talks to end border fighting
MOSCOW (AP) — The security chiefs of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have sat down for talks to stop fighting on the border between the two countries that has killed at least 24 people and wounded over 100. The Kyrgyz border service announced the new round of talks as the two ex-Soviet nations traded blame for shelling that resumed Saturday morning after a respite overnight. The fighting started Wednesday for no obvious or publicly announced reason. An attempt to establish a cease-fire on Friday afternoon quickly failed. Kyrgyzstan’s Health Ministry says the bodies of 24 people killed in the clashes were delivered to hospitals in the Batken region. It wasn’t immediately clear whether there were any casualties on Tajikistan’s side.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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News In Brief https://digitalarkansasnews.com/news-in-brief-3/
Minority business leaders honored in LR
Five Central Arkansas leaders and businesses were honored Friday as the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce recognized the economic contributions of minority businesses.
The awards concluded a celebration for Minority Enterprise Development Week in the region. Fifteen entrepreneurs were selected as finalists and awards were given to minority business leaders that excel in their field as well as advocates and organizations dedicated to supporting these businesses.
Beatriz Mondragon with the Arkansas Minority Health Commission won minority mentor of the year. Kandi Hughes was named outstanding young professional. Tristan Wilkerson of Think Rubix was recognized as top executive minority of the year and the emerging minority business of the year was Gilmer’s Learning Solutions. Think Rubix also was cited as minority business of the year.
“Things aren’t always fair but it’s up to us to try and do everything we can to make it fair, fair for all,” chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Jay Chesshir said on the importance of developing minority businesses and entrepreneurs.
— Andrew Moreau
Soda Health raises $25M from investors
Bentonville health care technology firm Soda Health recently raised $25 million in a Series A round of investor funding.
The company said the money came from an investor group made up of Light-speed Venture Partners, Define Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners USA.
Robby Knight, Soda Health’s chief executive and a co-founder, said the company matches people who have personalized supplemental insurance benefits with the retailers, businesses or organizations that provide those services.
Soda Health then gives the insured person a prepaid debit card to use with these service providers.
As an example, Knight said some people need transportation to their medical appointments.
“We would connect the member with services like Uber and Lyft to provide them with transportation,” Knight said.
“We believe an individualized approach is vital,” said Knight, who was a social worker before joining Walmart Inc. in positions focused on health care strategies.
“We ensure each person is matched with the right benefits and are able to adapt as their needs and health status change,” Knight said.
— Serenah McKay
Arkansas Index ends the week at 754.18
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Friday at 754.18, down 31.10.
Shares of Simmons First National Corp. rose 0.64% to lead the index Friday. Shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services fell 4.34% and ArcBest Corp. shares fell 3.5%.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
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Tropical Storm Fiona A Flood Threat To Caribbean; Hurricane Watch Issued For Puerto Rico | The Weather Channel
Tropical Storm Fiona A Flood Threat To Caribbean; Hurricane Watch Issued For Puerto Rico | The Weather Channel https://digitalarkansasnews.com/tropical-storm-fiona-a-flood-threat-to-caribbean-hurricane-watch-issued-for-puerto-rico-the-weather-channel/
Tropical Storm Fiona will move through the northeastern Caribbean.
It will produce flooding rain and strong wind gusts in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Fiona could become a hurricane when it is near Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
It’s far too soon to tell if this system will ever become a mainland U.S. threat.
Tropical Storm Fiona is producing flooding rainfall and strong wind gusts in the northeastern Caribbean and it may strengthen into a hurricane as it tracks near Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
Here’s what we know about Fiona’s threats to the Caribbean and what the storm could mean down the road for the mainland United States.
Latest Status And Forecast
Fiona’s center has entered the northeastern Caribbean after passing over Guadeloupe. Tropical-storm-force conditions will continue in the northern Leeward islands Saturday morning.
The storm continues to fight some unfavorable upper-level winds (wind shear) and dry air.
The worst of the rain and gusty winds are occurring on the central Lesser Antilles now after the center has passed because most of the thunderstorm activity is on the eastward side of the system due to wind shear.
On this track, Fiona will move near or just south of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico this weekend, then into Hispaniola Sunday night or Monday. A slightly more favorable environment may allow for some intensification this weekend and Fiona could strengthen into a hurricane as it tracks near Puerto Rico and Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti).
After that, uncertainty grows because of that possible land interaction, but some intensification is expected once Fiona reaches the waters north of Hispaniola.
Projected Path
(The red-shaded area denotes the potential path of the center of the tropical cyclone. It’s important to note that impacts (particularly heavy rain, high surf, coastal flooding, winds) with any tropical cyclone usually spread beyond its forecast path.)
Caribbean Threats
A hurricane watch has been issued for Puerto Rico, meaning hurricane conditions are possible within the next 48 hours.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect for the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla, Saba and St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy and St. Martin and for portions of the Dominican Republic. Tropical storm conditions are expected in the warning area within 36 hours.
Tropical storm watches have been issued for portions of the southern coast of the Dominican Republic. This means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the next 48 hours.
Areas from the Leeward Islands to Puerto Rico to eastern Hispaniola to the Turks and Caicos could see rain totals of 4 to 10 inches (locally higher) from Fiona. That heavy rain could trigger dangerous flooding and mudslides this weekend into early next week, particularly over mountainous terrain. Up to 16 inches is possible, particularly across eastern and southern Puerto Rico.
Rainfall Forecast
(This should be interpreted as a broad outlook of where the heaviest rain may fall and may shift based on the forecast path of the tropical cyclone. Higher amounts may occur where bands of rain stall over a period of a few hours. )
Some modest storm surge is possible on east and south-facing shores this weekend in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hispaniola. In addition, rip currents and rough surf are likely.
Is Fiona A Mainland U.S. Threat?
The bottom line is that the mainland U.S., especially from Florida to the rest of the Southeast coast, should just monitor the forecast for now since it’s too soon to tell if Fiona will eventually become a threat.
That’s because Fiona faces the obstacles mentioned earlier, including wind shear, dry air and potential track over some mountainous Caribbean islands such as Hispaniola.
Among the wide range of possibilities include:
-Intensifying sooner, and therefore curling north into the central Atlantic Ocean far off the U.S. East Coast, similar to Hurricane Earl last week.
-Minimal strengthening in the next several days, continuing west to west-northwest, then curling north later, much closer to or over the Bahamas and possibly the Southeast U.S. later next week.
For now, the National Hurricane Center forecast calls for Fiona to gain some strength by early next week, which would allow it to make a gradual northward turn near Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos.
However, as frequently happens in hurricane season, this forecast may change. Check back with us at weather.com for the latest updates to this forecast in the days ahead.
Regardless of what happens, now is a good time to make sure you have a plan in place before a hurricane strikes. Information about hurricane preparedness can be found here.
More from weather.com:
12 Things You May Not Know About Your Hurricane Forecast
7 Things Florida Newcomers Should Know About Hurricane Season
The Florida Peninsula’s Luck Since Hurricane Irma Won’t Last
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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How To Watch Missouri State Vs. Arkansas Live Online On September 17 2022: TV Channels/Streaming
How To Watch Missouri State Vs. Arkansas Live Online On September 17, 2022: TV Channels/Streaming https://digitalarkansasnews.com/how-to-watch-missouri-state-vs-arkansas-live-online-on-september-17-2022-tv-channels-streaming/
On Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 7:00 PM EDT, the #10 Arkansas Razorbacks face the Missouri State Bears from Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR. The game is airing exclusively on ESPN+.
Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Missouri State Bears
When: Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 7:00 PM EDT
TV: ESPN+
Stream: Watch with Subscription to ESPN+
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You can watch the Arkansas vs. Missouri State game with a subscription to ESPN+. Since it isn’t available on live TV, you won’t be able to watch it with DIRECTV STREAM, fuboTV, Sling TV, or YouTube TV. However, you can watch it with Hulu Live TV, which now includes ESPN+ with their $69.99 a month plan.
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If you’re looking to stream College Football games this season, ESPN+ will stream more than 500 games featuring teams from the SEC, Big 12, The American, ACC, C-USA, MAC and Sun Belt, and more. But, depending on what game you want to watch, we’re going to breakdown what you can and cannot stream with a subscription to ESPN+.
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Live TV Streaming Option
Missouri State vs. Arkansas Game Preview: No. 10 Arkansas to face Missouri State, former coach Petrino
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — The last image of Missouri State coach Bobby Petrino in Fayetteville is one Arkansans would like to forget.
Neck in a brace and face bruised fresh off a motorcycle accident, Petrino sat in front of reporters one final time in Northwest Arkansas back in 2012. It was the onset of a well-documented scandal, which led to his firing and years of struggles for the Razorbacks.
Petrino returns when his Bears visit the No. 10 Razorbacks on Saturday. He’s not sure how the trip will affect him.
“I think we’ll see when I get there,” he said. “I’m sure there will be some feelings and emotions when I step in the stadium, but it’s really not about me. It’s about our football team.”
The Bears hadn’t been to the playoffs since 1990 before Petrino arrived, but he has taken them back to back-to-back years and has them ranked No. 5 in the FCS, three seasons removed from winning a single game.
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman was also hired in 2020 and tasked with a full rebuild. He inherited a team with 19 straight SEC losses. Since then, he has elevated the Razorbacks to a top 10 ranking two straight years. That hasn’t been done since the Petrino era.
“Sam’s done a great job,” Petrino said. “When you watch them play, first and foremost you see that they have deep beliefs in what they’re doing. … What he’s done with that program — he’s done a great job.”
Petrino’s return is a coincidence. When the schools agreed to play in August 2016, Petrino was coaching Louisville. The game was originally slated for 2021 but had to be pushed back to 2022 after the Razorbacks scheduled a game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Per NCAA rules, FBS teams are allowed only to count one win over an FCS team per season toward bowl eligibility.
BEEN-THERE BEARS
Last year, the Bears took Oklahoma State down to the wire in Stillwater, a team ranked No. 7 in the FBS by year’s end. Trailing 23-16 in the game’s final 30 seconds, the Bears drove into the red zone with a chance to tie.
“They’ve got a good team,” Pittman said. “They almost beat Oklahoma State last year at the beginning of the year and Oklahoma State beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, so we know that we have to be ready for a fine team coming in here.”
PROUD OF THE POLL
Following the AP Top 25 poll release Sunday, Pittman tweeted a graphic of the Razorbacks’ No. 10 designation. Some replies didn’t settle well with Pittman.
“I think it’s a big deal, I do,” Pittman said of the ranking. “Everybody looks at the negative all the time, you know. I got some responses, ‘Well it doesn’t matter.’ Well, I ain’t tweeting it out to you guys, or a 50-year-old man, I’m trying to use it as recruiting. We’re proud of it.
“That doesn’t mean that’s where we want to stay. It’s hard to be in the top 10. We’ve done it two years in a row. Yeah, I’m proud of it. I sure am. When it came out, I was smiling ear-to-ear.”
OTHER FAMILIAR FACES
Petrino isn’t the only person returning to Fayetteville.
Jordan Jones, a three-star class of 2016 recruit out of Smackover, Arkansas, spent 2016-19 with the Razorbacks. He earned a bachelor’s degree before transferring to Cincinnati. He was part of the Bearcats’ playoff team in 2021-22, then landed in Springfield this offseason to play his final season with the Bears.
Between redshirt years, injury-ridden seasons, and the extra COVID-19 year, he has been on a Division I roster since 2016.
Missouri State defensive backs coach Tramain Thomas played for Petrino at Arkansas. He was second-team All-SEC at safety in 2010.
SCOTT SETTING RECORDS
Bears junior receiver Tyrone Scott racked up 1,110 receiving yards in 2021, the most ever in a single season for Missouri State. His chemistry with quarterback Jason Shelley has not skipped a beat to begin 2022.
In the season opener at Central Arkansas, he hauled in eight receptions for 160 yards, followed with 96 against Tennessee-Martin. He’s already risen to the 17th-most receiving yards in Missouri State history and could set the school record (2,221 yards) if he’s able to stay healthy and maintain production.
CLEANING THINGS UP
Pittman was not pleased with his team’s 10 penalties for 122 yards last week.
“That number should be anywhere from two to six,” he said. “They’re going to call a couple holdings. I get it. But now 10? That’s on me. I, evidently, let that go at practice. I didn’t think I had, but evidently I have. I promise you it’s an emphasis.”
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How Oklahoma State Safety Sean Michael Flanagan Thrives With Football Fishing
How Oklahoma State Safety Sean Michael Flanagan Thrives With Football, Fishing https://digitalarkansasnews.com/how-oklahoma-state-safety-sean-michael-flanagan-thrives-with-football-fishing/
STILLWATER — Sean Flanagan floated in the clear, blue water of the Caribbean in awe of his son nearly 30 feet below.
Sean Michael Flanagan was going to catch the lobster at the end of his dive.
Even the professional free-diving instructor was impressed as Oklahoma State’s safety dove 30 feet, spotted the crustacean, came up and dove back down for it, catching the lobster on the first try.
“It was a trip,” Sean said. “His determination, man …”
He paused to think more of the May vacation with his son.
“When he goes all in on anything, it’s 100%,” Sean added.
Like fishing. Like football.
For Sean Michael Flanagan, there is rarely anything better. He’s enjoyed fishing his entire life, never turning down a new adventure.
More:Why Oklahoma State football coaches couldn’t lie about mismatch vs. Savannah State in 2012
And he’s finally getting his chance on the football field with the Cowboys.
Through two games this season, the redshirt senior has been a big factor in a new-look secondary. He’s now a starter when No. 8-ranked OSU hosts FCS Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 6 p.m. Saturday.
“It means I’ve progressed since I got here,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan has eight tackles while splitting time with sophomore Kendal Daniels, who was listed as the starter on the initial depth chart before Flanagan took over the role.
Also a special teams star, Flanagan has emerged as a leader as well.
“It’s the Moneyball effect,” OSU defensive coordinator Derek Mason said. “He’s one of those guys who’s been in the program, played on special teams, was sort of a Swiss Army knife when somebody went down and somebody had to step up.
“I think now, he’s a phenomenal athlete. He’s just growing into his own. There are gonna be guys this season who maybe had smaller roles that are having to step into bigger roles. He’s one of those guys. Not only is he having to take a bigger role on special teams, but he’s having to take a greater role within the defense, because he’s played in it. He has experience.”
This is what Flanagan envisioned from a young age.
He started playing football in the second grade in Charleston, Arkansas, 23 miles southeast of Fort Smith.
There is just one stoplight. The population is just shy of 3,000 people.
And football is the lifeblood.
More:Barry Hinson, Brand Squad have Oklahoma State’s NIL rising: ‘Haven’t even started to climb yet’
Friday nights are a spectacle. The entire community shuts down and attends each game.
Flanagan was a beloved three-sport star. But he especially excelled on a football field.
He played safety and linebacker. He played receiver, running back and even quarterback in certain packages. He punted. He returned punts and kickoffs.
All while leading Charleston deep into the playoffs, even making the title game as a junior.
“Sean did anything and everything he wanted to in football,” former Charleston coach Greg Kendrick said. “You always hear the expression, ‘Jack of all trades, master of none.’ Well, Sean was a Jack of all trades and master of all.”
Flanagan initially committed to Arkansas in high school. A lifelong Razorbacks fan, it was a dream come true.
Then head coach Bret Bielema was fired.
Flanagan reopened his recruitment after his senior year and ultimately signed with the Cowboys. And he immediately faced the wrath of Razorbacks fans until Charleston began firing back online to fans.
“It was really disheartening,” Sean Flanagan said. “The whole town came to his defense and just shut them all down. It was a unique time.”
Flanagan immediately found comfort in Stillwater.
Though the population is more than 16 times larger with more than 50,000 people, Flanagan fit right in on and off the field.
More:Will Oklahoma State football’s Gunnar Gundy throw first career pass as a Cowboy?
With the Cowboys, he battled injuries his second year. He became a primary special teams player.
Still, there were times when he considered leaving in the transfer portal. Flanagan and his father had serious conversations about it. Ultimately, Flanagan wanted to stay.
“We know at the end of the day education is paid for and he’s getting a once-in-a-lifetime experience no matter what,” Sean said. “I’ve just always tried to raise him to be thankful and humble. No matter the situation, there’s always good in anything.”
Flanagan found the good at OSU, it just took more time than hoped.
“He keeps his head down and doesn’t really say much,” OSU safety Thomas Harper said. “But he’s a key piece to this defense. He’s just a good example of everybody else to look up to and follow.”
Away from the field, Flanagan is right at home.
An avid fisherman, he often fishes with tight end Braden Cassity, who has a boat Flanagan “labels over the top” because it has a mud motor and eight LED lights.
“Thank goodness because now I get to get on it,” Flanagan joked.
Flanagan is unafraid of new fishing methods. He recently did handline fishing for catfish, simply because he was tired of using a rod and reel.
More:Why Mike Gundy says Oklahoma State football team has ‘like 10-year vets in the NFL’
He’s considered noodling. He loves bow fishing.
The adrenaline each time is a rush. But it’s also a nice getaway.
Each Monday during the fall, fishing is his outlet.
Sometimes, the destination is Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn’s pond. Or it’s a river, usually the Cimarron, Arkansas or Illinois.
All have fish. None have football.
“I get to free myself,” Flanagan said.
On those Mondays — OSU’s scheduled off day each week of the season — he escapes and resets.
It’s the perfect hobby for a stoic, small-town college football player.
“Get to get away, get away from football, which isn’t always a bad thing,” Flanagan said.
Jacob Unruh covers college sports for The Oklahoman. You can send your story ideas to him at junruh@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @jacobunruh. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
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Voter Challenges Records Requests Swamp Election Offices
Voter Challenges, Records Requests Swamp Election Offices https://digitalarkansasnews.com/voter-challenges-records-requests-swamp-election-offices-2/
Posted: September 17, 2022 – 6:38am
Spurred by conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, activists around the country are using laws that allow people to challenge a voter’s right to cast a ballot to contest the registrations of thousands of voters at a time.
In Iowa, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller had handled three voter challenges over the previous 15 years. He received 119 over just two days after Doug Frank, an Ohio educator who is touring the country spreading doubts about the 2020 election, swung through the state.
In Nassau County in northern Florida, two residents challenged the registrations of nearly 2,000 voters just six days before last month’s primary. In Georgia, activists are dropping off boxloads of challenges in the diverse and Democratic-leaning counties comprising the Atlanta metro area, including more than 35,000 in one county late last month.
Election officials say the vast majority of the challenges will be irrelevant because they contest the presence on voting rolls of people who already are in the process of being removed after they moved out of the region. Still, they create potentially hundreds of hours of extra work as the offices scramble to prepare for November’s election.
“They at best overburden election officials in the run-up to an election, and at worse they lead to people being removed from the rolls when they shouldn’t be,” said Sean Morales-Doyle of The Brennan Center for Justice, which has tracked an upswing in voter challenges.
The voter challenges come as activists who believe in the election lies of former President Donald Trump also have flooded election offices across the country with public records requests and threats of litigation, piling even more work on them as they ready for November.
“It’s time-consuming for us, because we have to consult with our county attorneys about what the proper response is going to be,” said Rachel Rodriguez, an elections supervisor in Dane County, Wisconsin, which includes Madison, the state capital.
She received duplicate emails demanding records about two weeks ago: “It’s taking up valuable time that we don’t necessarily have as election officials when we’re trying to prepare for a November election.”
Michael Henrici, the Democratic commissioner of elections in New York’s Otsego County, received a single-line email last week warning of unspecified “election integrity” litigation, then a follow-up complaining he hadn’t responded.
“These aren’t people with specific grievances,” Henrici said. “They’re getting a form letter from someone’s podcast and sometimes filling in the blanks.”
Multiple investigations and reviews, including one by Trump’s own Department of Justice, found no significant fraud i n the 2020 presidential election, and courts rejected dozens of lawsuits brought by Trump and his allies. But Trump has continued to insist that widespread fraud cost him re-election. That has inspired legions of activists to become do-it-yourself election sleuths around the country, challenging local voting officials at every turn.
In Linn County, Iowa, which includes the city of Cedar Rapids, Miller said he and the auditors who run elections in the state’s other 98 counties have been deluged with both records requests and voter challenges.
“The whole barrage came in a two-week period,” Miller said, following the tour by Frank, who uses mathematical projections to make claims of a vast conspiracy to steal the election from Trump, “and it’s happening to auditors across the state.”
Election offices routinely go through their voter rolls and remove those who have moved or died. Federal law constrains how quickly they can drop voters, and conservative activists have long complained that election officials do not move swiftly enough to clean up their rolls.
The recent challenges stem from activists comparing postal change-of-address and other databases to voter rolls. Election officials say this is redundant, because they already take the same steps.
Sometimes the challenges come after election conspiracists go door-to-door, often in heavily minority neighborhoods, seeking evidence that votes were cast improperly in 2020.
Texas’ heavily Democratic Harris County, which includes Houston, received nearly 5,000 challenges from a conservative group that went door-to-door checking voter addresses. The election office said it dismissed the challenges it legally had to review before the election and will finish the remainder after Nov. 8.
Activists in Gwinnett County, which stretches across the increasingly Democratic northern Atlanta suburbs, spent 10 months comparing change-of-address and other databases with the county’s voter rolls. They submitted eight boxes of challenges last month. About 15,000, they said, were complaints that specific voters improperly received mail ballots in 2020. Another 22,000 were for voters they contend are no longer at their registered address.
There are so many challenges that election officials have yet to even count them all. But Zach Manifold, Gwinnett’s election supervisor, said that, in every single mail ballot complaint the office has sampled, the voter properly received a mailed ballot.
But if any of the address-challenged voters do try to cast a ballot in November, the county’s elections board will need to decide whether that vote should count. They’ll only have six days to make a decision, as they have to certify their vote total by the Monday after Election Day under Georgia law.
Manifold estimated his office has a month to log and research the challenges, before mail ballots go out for the November elections: “It is a tight window to get everything done,” he said.
Many of the large counties facing voter roll challenges are places where President Joe Biden beat Trump in 2020, including Gwinnett and Harris. Yet those behind the effort dispute the notion that they are targeting Democratic-leaning counties and say they’re working on behalf of all voters. In Florida’s Nassau County, for example, Trump won with more than 72% of the vote.
“They should be glad that the voter rolls are being cleaned up so they can make sure their votes count,” said Garland Favorito, a conservative activist who has teamed up with supporters of Trump’s election lies and is helping with voter challenges in Georgia.
Favorito said more challenges are coming in other Georgia counties.
Under legislation passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature, there are no limits on the number of voter challenges that can be filed in Georgia. Most states implicitly set restraints on challenges, said Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center. They require a complainant to have specific, personal information about the voters they target and establish penalties for making frivolous challenges.
Florida is an example. Its voter challenge law only permits the filing of challenges 30 days before an election, requiring election officials to contact each voter challenged before Election Day. It is a misdemeanor to file a “frivolous” challenge. But voter challenges almost derailed Florida’s primary last month in heavily-Republican Nassau County, in the northeastern part of the state.
Two women who belonged to a conservative group, County Citizens Defending Freedom, dropped off the nearly 2,000 challenges at the county elections office six days before the Aug. 23 primary.
Luckily for the office, the challenges were filed in an incorrect format. Elections Supervisor Janet Adkins told the activists they would review them, anyway — after the primary.
“To take away a person’s right to vote is a very serious thing,” Adkins said.
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Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.
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