Obituaries In Fort Smith, AR | Times Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/obituaries-in-fort-smith-ar-times-record-67/
Charlene (Banning) Rowe, age 83 formally of Bonanza, passed away Sunday, October 9, 2022. Born October 7, 1939 to Lawrence and Ida Mae Banning. She married Joe Rowe, Sr. on April 6, 1957. Together they had eight children with one passing away at infancy. Charlene was a member of the Bonanza Assembly of God and the Women of Faith group. She was also a member of the Women’s Auxiliary and Bonanza Blues softball team. Charlene retired from Walmart after seventeen years of service.
She was proceeded in death by her parents Lawrence and Ida Mae Banning, brother William Banning, sister Barbara Uselton, daughter Carolyn Rowe, and grandson Eric Walker.
She is survived by her brother Lawrence, Jr. (Ruth) Banning of Bonanza, children Darlene (Don) Perkins of Waldron, Floyd (Debra) Rowe, John Rowe, Joe (Renita) Rowe, Vicky (Richard) Decker, all of Bonanza, Rebecca Walker of Fort Smith, Elizabeth (Lawrence) Woolsey of Ratcliff, 22 grandchildren, 49 great grandchildren, and 24 great-great grandchildren.
Charlene loved her family as well as her church family. She enjoyed watching her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in all their activities. She loved fishing and attending the car races at Tri-State Speedway. Charlene will be remembered for her wit and feistiness. She will be greatly missed by all of her loved ones.
Viewing will be Thursday, October 13 from 5-7pm, and Funeral Service will be 10am, Friday, October 14 both at Edwards Funeral Home. 201 North 12th Street, Fort Smith, AR 72901. Burial will be at Barling Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Grandsons: Michael Decker, Christifer Sherman, Eric Rowe, Titus Woolsey, Benjamin Woolsey, and Brandon Woolsey
Honorary Pallbearers will be remaining grandsons and grandson-in-laws.
Online condolences may be sent to: www.edwardsfuneralhome.com
Posted online on October 11, 2022
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Analysis | Trump Revels In The GOPs Fealty. Tim Ryan Wants To Make It A Campaign Issue.
Analysis | Trump Revels In The GOP’s Fealty. Tim Ryan Wants To Make It A Campaign Issue. https://digitalarkansasnews.com/analysis-trump-revels-in-the-gops-fealty-tim-ryan-wants-to-make-it-a-campaign-issue/
It’s one thing for former president Donald Trump to exercise dominion over the Republican Party, which he unquestionably does. It’s quite another for Trump to regularly rub that in Republicans’ faces and force them to kowtow to him — often quite publicly and degradingly.
That’s been the GOP’s unhappy reality over the past six years. Yet for perhaps the first time, a Democrat is actually seeking to use this highly visible dynamic against his Republican opponent.
At a debate Monday night, Ohio Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan (D) invoked his Republican opponent J.D. Vance’s tortured relationship with Trump.
But rather than focus on Vance’s evolution from harsh Trump critic to enthusiastic backer, he focused more on Trump’s having later gloated about it.
At a rally in Ohio last month, Trump subtly brought up Vance’s past criticisms while reinforcing that he has ultimately brought the ambitious young political newcomer to heel.
“J. D. is kissing my ass! He wants my support so much,” Trump said, adding: “I think he’s running, J.D., on an ‘I love Donald Trump’ policy. Yeah, he said some bad things about me, but that’s before he knew me, and then he fell in love.”
At the debate Monday, Ryan noted that Vance later appeared onstage and spoke approvingly of the visit from the man who had just spoken of him in those terms. He said this showed not only that Vance would do what Trump and Vance’s other benefactors wanted but that it was most concerning because it showed a lack of dignity.
“I don’t know anybody I grew up with, I don’t know anybody I went to high school with, that would allow someone to take their dignity like that and then get back up onstage,” Ryan said. “We need leaders who have courage to take on their own party. And I’ve proven that. And he was called an ass-kisser by the former president.”
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) calls out GOP Senate opponent J.D. Vance for being too subservient toward Donald Trump:
“We need leaders who have courage to take on their own party … He was called an ‘ass-kisser’ by the former president.” pic.twitter.com/LPGt5xXYnx
— The Recount (@therecount) October 11, 2022
Ryan later returned to the point, saying, “I’m for Ohio. I don’t kiss anyone’s ass like him. Ohio needs an ass-kicker not an ass-kisser.”
Trump’s comments at the rally were lighthearted. But this is merely the latest in a long line of examples of Trump’s very publicly putting his fellow partisans in their places — a routine that they sometimes go along with willingly, and other times less so.
When former New Jersey governor Chris Christie dropped out of the 2016 presidential primary and endorsed Trump, Trump soon inflicted upon him several indignities. They included having Christie awkwardly stand behind him at a particularly loquacious Super Tuesday news conference, seeming to joke about Christie’s weight, a campaign aide apparently making up a story about Christie fetching McDonald’s for Trump, and Trump needling Christie for having campaigned for president so much — even as Christie was being criticized for absenteeism as governor of New Jersey.
At a 2017 event, the White House seated the president next to Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) — who in 2016 said he was “99 percent against Trump” — although Heller didn’t yet support Trump’s proposal to repeal Obamacare. Trump turned to Heller and assured him that he would ultimately be onboard, adding, “Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?”
Sure enough, Heller embraced both the ultimate “skinny repeal” bill and Trump in his 2018 reelection campaign, which he lost.
Trump offered somewhat similar comments to Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) during a meeting with senators on gun control in 2018 — although in that instance he did not say the GOP senators were beholden to him, but rather that they were “afraid” and “petrified” of the National Rifle Association.
Then there was Vice President Mike Pence trying to set the world record for praising your boss the most times in a span of three minutes, Trump’s saying that critical Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) had sought his counsel about seeking reelection, and Trump’s dangling the secretary of state job in front of vociferous critic Mitt Romney, only to yank it away after he had made his point about Romney’s kissing his ring.
This has also taken the form of those spurned by Trump nonetheless bending over backward to seek his approval.
Former Trump administration attorney general Jeff Sessions sought a return to the Senate by emphasizing his work with Trump, despite Trump’s repeatedly deriding him and effectively running him out of office. Sessions even ran an ad that The Washington Post summarized accordingly: “Jeff Sessions basically begs Trump for mercy in his first Senate ad.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) responded to Trump’s endorsing her primary opponent by recording a video in front of Trump Tower pledging her fidelity.
And, in perhaps the starkest example, Wisconsin state Senate candidate Chris Kapenga (R) last year responded to Trump’s criticisms of him by pleading with Trump to correct the record. Kapenga added that “the power of your pen to mine is like Thor’s hammer to a Bobby pin.” He also asked to be invited to golf with Trump and promised to continue wearing his Trump socks and Trump-Pence face mask regardless of whether Trump responded to his concerns about being impugned.
And none of this, it bears emphasizing, includes all the ways in which Republicans have more subtly contorted themselves to remain in Trump’s good graces — such as supporting a plot to overturn the 2020 election that they knew was baseless and foolhardy, criticizing Trump for the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, and then shortly thereafter pretending none of it ever happened.
But will Ohio voters care about this? Certainly, it’s a state that has trended red during the Trump era, as much of the Rust Belt has. And a recent Siena College poll showed more voters there like Trump (44 percent) than President Biden (39 percent). The idea of a GOP nominee being a reliable vote for Trump’s agenda is probably something Ohioans like more than voters in a lot of other states with competitive Senate races. In many ways, this line of attack might be more valuable to Ryan as a potential rallying cry for the left.
But whether moderate or even slightly conservative-leaning voters want Vance to reflexively support Trump could be another matter. For all Trump’s domination of the GOP, the percentage of Republicans who define themselves as party-first rather than Trump-first has increased since the 2020 election, and moderate voters can still decide races like the one in Ohio. Ryan can credibly argue that he has proved himself more willing to buck his party. Even Monday, he called for Biden not to seek reelection in 2024 — something that would be unthinkable from the likes of Vance in reference to Trump.
What’s clear is that jabs like the one Trump made at Vance’s expense last month reinforce that he is much more interested in demonstrating GOP fealty than he is in boosting his fellow Republicans to help them win. And he’ll keep doing it because it’s vital to his own political prospects, drawing an ever-more-subservient crop of Republicans into politics.
Which is why we should expect way fewer criticisms a la J.D. Vance circa 2016 and a whole lot more gestures akin to what Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake did this weekend.
This is a real photo of Kari Lake vacuuming the red carpet before meeting Donald Trump.
A member of Kari team told us she insisted on personally making sure the carpet was spotless out of “respect for the office of the President of the United States.”
This is servant leadership pic.twitter.com/FNzduy223x
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 10, 2022
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Trump News Live: Save America Donations Are funding Trump Legal Defence As McCarthy Jan 6 Calls Emerge
Trump News – Live: Save America Donations Are ‘funding Trump Legal Defence’ As McCarthy Jan 6 Calls Emerge https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-news-live-save-america-donations-are-funding-trump-legal-defence-as-mccarthy-jan-6-calls-emerge/
A report in The Washington Post reveals that half of the money raised by Donald Trump’s Save America political action committees has been spent on his legal bills and two nonprofits employing former members of his administration rather than Republican congressional campaigns.
The group has contributed about $8.4m so far directly to Republican campaigns and committees while devoting $7m to the former president’s lawyers and another $2m to the two nonprofits.
Meanwhile, an extract from an upcoming book on the GOP’s support for Mr Trump has revealed new details of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s infamous call with Mr Trump during the January 6 Capitol riot.
According to Politico, when Mr Trump told Mr McCarthy that the people storming the building were “more upset” than his party about the supposed theft of the election, Mr McCarthy responded: “More upset? They’re trying to f***ing kill me!”
Key points
JD Vance slated for ‘kissing Trump’s ass’
McCarthy told Trump Jan 6 rioters were trying to kill him – report
Cassidy Hutchinson is ‘cooperating’ with Atlanta judge’s probe of Trump
Trump claims Bill Clinton ‘lost’ the nuclear codes
Report: Trump lawyer Christina Bobb cooperating with Justice Department
Ideas for Trump response to George Floyd murder included Kanye West church service
18:30 , Oliver O’Connell
In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by police officers in May 2020, White House staff wanted to show that then-president Donald Trump was engaged in the broader national conversation about racial discrimination, according to Maggie Haberman’s new book.
This reportedly included the suggestion that Kanye West lead a “healing church service on the South Lawn” of the White House.
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pushed back saying that Trump supporters did not like the rapper, Haberman writes, and so the idea went nowhere.
Save America PAC spends almost half funds on Trump lawyers, report says
18:00 , Oliver O’Connell
The Washington Post reports that half of the money raised by Donald Trump’s Save America PAC has been spent on his legal bills and two nonprofits employing former members of his administration rather than Republican congressional campaigns.
Per the Post:
The group has contributed about $8.4 million so far directly to Republican campaigns and committees, while devoting $7 million to Trump’s lawyers and another $2 million to the nonprofits, which employ former members of his administration, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Legal fees are expected to climb, Trump advisers say, as he employs a growing retinue of lawyers to fend off federal, state and county-level investigations.
Christina Bobb: a perspective
17:30 , Andrew Naughtie
The news that Trump lawyer Christina Bobb has talked to investigators probing the Mar-a-Lago documents came with a crucial detail: the false statement she signed included a disclaimer that the information she was testifying to had been “provided” to her, rather than coming from her directly.
This has left many onlookers pointing out that Ms Bobb would not have insisted this be added just in case it became relevant…
More on the Clinton nuclear codes story
17:00 , Andrew Naughtie
As the documents found by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago are reviewed by a court-appointed special master, Mr Trump has turned to another line of defence: pointing to former presidents’ supposed mishandling of sensitive documents.
His latest claim, or rather the latest he has recirculated, is an old story alleging that Bill Clinton briefly mislaid the nuclear codes at the end of his presidency.
Mr Trump shared the story on Truth Social in the form of a tweet from Buzz Patterson, who served as a senior military aide to Mr Clinton from 1996 to 1998, during which time he was one of a handful of people who carried the so-called “nuclear football”.
But is the story true – and if it is, what bearing, if any, does it have on the current imbroglio?
Read more:
Did Bill Clinton really ‘lose’ the nuclear codes as Trump claimed?
ICYMI: Trump lawyer has talked to feds in Mar-a-Lago probe
16:30 , Andrew Naughtie
According to NBC News, one of Donald Trump’s attorneys, Christina Bobb, met with federal investigators on Friday to provide information on two other attorneys who had a hand in submitting a false statement to the government.
The Friday meeting reportedly ended with Ms Bobb naming Mr Trump’s previous lead counsel, Evan Corcoran, as the person who drafted a false certification telling the Department of Justice that the ex-president had turned over all classified documents in his possession.
Ms Bobb, who was one of Mr Trump’s official custodians of records at the time, also named Trump lawyer Boris Epshteyn as having been involved in the discussions leading up to submission of the false statement but did not have a role in drafting it.
Andrew Feinberg has more:
Trump lawyer cooperating with Justice Department on missing documents case
Trump-backed candidate apparently flailing as Libertarian rises
16:00 , Andrew Naughtie
Among the several Trump-backed candidates who are struggling to pull even in supposedly winnable races is Arizona’s Blake Masters, who has become a controversial figure thanks to his history of racist online posts and extreme positions.
Now, a new poll has shown that his support has still not improved – and that instead, Libertarian Party candidate Marc Victor is apparently gaining ground.
Even assuming that all of Mr Victo’s voters are in fact reluctant Republicans who will “come home” to Mr Masters in November, the 15 points he garners in the poll would only just put Mr Masters ahead of his Demcoratic rival, incumbent Mark Kelly.
Kinzinger backs state-level Democratic candidates
15:00 , Andrew Naughtie
Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans sitting on the January 6 select committee, has issued a batch of endorsements – and is backing a list of Democrats.
Specifically, he is getting behind nominees for secretary of state posts and governorships, the two offices that in every state carry the most power when it comes to overseeing and influencing the execution and certification of election results.
Among the states where Mr Kinzinger is weighing in is Pennsylvania, whose GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano attended Donald Trump’s 6 January rally and has repeatedly propagated conspiracy theories about the “theft” of the 2020 election.
Cassidy Hutchinson reportedly testifies in Georgia election probe
14:30 , Andrew Naughtie
The former White House aide whose bombshell testimony gave House January 6 committee members a window into former president Donald Trump’s actions on the day of the Capitol riot is reportedly cooperating with a Georgia-based criminal probe into Mr Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election there.
According to CNN, former Mark Meadows assistant Cassidy Hutchinson is now aiding Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney Fani Willis’ ongoing probe into whether Mr Trump or his associates violated Georgia election laws by pressuring Peach State officials to throw out ballots after Mr Trump became the first Republican to lose there in decades.
Andrew Feinberg has the latest.
Ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson reportedly testifies in Georgia election probe
GOP trying to weaken Democrats’ grip on Texas border
14:00 , Andrew Naughtie
As Democrats embark on another October blitz in pursuit of flipping America’s biggest red state, Republicans are taking a swing of their own: making a play for the mostly Hispanic southern border on 8 November after years of writing off the region that is overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats.
Read more:
GOP makes push to weaken Democrats’ grip on Texas border
The story behind Trump’s claim that Bush senior stashed documents in a bowling alley
13:30 , Andrew Naughtie
Donald Trump accused former president George HW Bush of hiding classified documents in a “bowling alley” during a rally in Arizona on Sunday.
Mr Trump claimed that many former presidents had stored millions of pages of documents in warehouses “with damaged main doors”.
The former president said that senior Bush “took millions and millions of documents to a former bowling alley pieced together with what was then an old and broken Chinese restaurant”.
“They put them together. And it had a broken front door and broken windows. Other than that it was quite secure,” Mr Trump added.
Maroosha Muzaffar has more.
The story behind Trump’s claim that Bush senior stashed documents in a bowling alley
Report: Trump lawyer now cooperating with DoJ on missing documents case
13:00 , Andrew Naughtie
The right-wing TV anchor-turned-attorney for former president Donald Trump, who signed a false certification telling the Department of Justice that the ex-president had turned over all classified documents in his possession, is now cooperating with federal prosecutors in the investigation into Mr Trump.
According to NBC News, attorney Christina Bobb met with federal investigators and provided information on two other attorneys who had a hand in submitting the statement to the government.
Andrew Feinberg has the story.
Trump lawyer cooperating with Justice Department on missing documents case
The most important races to watch in the midterm elections
12:30 , Oliver O’Connell
Election Day is less than a month away and the 2022 midterm races are entering their final sprint.
Republicans are still hope that Americans’ frustration with inflation and the economy, as well as rising crime, will obfuscate their concerns about the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v Wade.
Conversely, Democrats hope to make abortion a centre...
Orbán: Trump Offers ‘hope For Peace’ In Ukraine https://digitalarkansasnews.com/orban-trump-offers-hope-for-peace-in-ukraine/
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a panel discussion organised by publisher houses about ‘Storm over Europe – the Ukraine war, the energy crisis and geopolitical challenges’ in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called for a cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia as he accused the U.S. of fueling the war and said former President Trump offers the best “hope for peace.”
Speaking at a forum in Berlin hosted by news outlet Berliner Zeitung and Cicero Magazine, Orbán, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said any cease-fire in the war must be negotiated between the U.S. and Russia.
“It would be better if the public didn’t hear what I’m saying now,” the Hungarian leader said, according to Cicero Magazine. “The cease-fire does not have to be between Russia and Ukraine but between Russia and the USA.”
Orbán made clear he was on the side of Ukraine because Russia violated international law, but he urged an immediate cease-fire, saying, “Otherwise tens of thousands will die and the war will be carried to Europe.”
“I belong to the peace camp, so I am for an immediate cease-fire, no matter what the Ukrainians think of it,” he said. “That distinguishes me from those who want to derive decisions from Ukrainian interests.”
The Hungarian prime minister, a darling of conservatives in the U.S. who appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the summer in Texas, also argued that President Biden has escalated tensions with Moscow while appearing to back Trump’s efforts to de-escalate.
“That’s why Joe Biden went too far with his comments about Putin,” Orbán said, per Cicero Magazine. “The hope for peace is Donald Trump.”
Trump has used his political prestige to slam Biden’s handling of the war in public appearances and on Truth Social, including at an Arizona rally over the weekend.
“We must demand the immediate negotiation of the peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, or we will end up in World War III and there will be nothing left of our planet all because stupid people didn’t have a clue,” Trump said. “They really don’t understand … what they’re dealing with. The power of nuclear. They have no idea what they’re doing.”
Trump has offered few suggestions for what the U.S. should do to end the war in Ukraine other than calling for a cease-fire and posting that he would “head up” a group on negotiations.
Biden, meanwhile, warned of “Armageddon” after Putin threatened he could deploy nuclear weapons amid humiliating setbacks for Russia in the war and domestic disturbances at home.
American public support for Ukraine remains high, and Congress has provided billions of dollars to the nation in security and financial aid.
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Fact Check: National Archives Debunks Trump's False Claim About Bush Documents | CNN Politics
Fact Check: National Archives Debunks Trump's False Claim About Bush Documents | CNN Politics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/fact-check-national-archives-debunks-trumps-false-claim-about-bush-documents-cnn-politics/
Washington CNN —
First, former President Donald Trump tried a false claim about the document-handling practices of former President Barack Obama. Now, Trump is making the same false claim about other former presidents.
In August, after the FBI recovered classified documents and numerous other presidential records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and resort in Florida, Trump declared that Obama had taken millions of presidential documents to Chicago. The National Archives and Records Administration quickly debunked his assertion, explaining it was NARA itself, not Obama, that took the documents to a NARA-managed facility in the Chicago area.
03:13 – Source: CNN
Trump tried using Obama as a defense after FBI search. Hear why it doesn’t work
Then, at rallies in Nevada and Arizona this weekend, Trump not only repeated the false claim about Obama but added near-identical dishonesty about previous presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Most dramatically, Trump said, “George H.W. Bush took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant; where they combined them. So they’re in a bowling alley slash Chinese restaurant.” Trump added, “A Chinese restaurant and a bowling alley. With no security and a broken front door.”
Trump also claimed that “Bill Clinton took millions of documents from the White House to a former car dealership in Arkansas” and that “George W. Bush stored 68 million pages in a warehouse in Texas.”
Facts First: All of these Trump claims are false. George H.W. Bush did not take millions of documents to a former bowling alley and Chinese restaurant. Rather, the National Archives and Records Administration took Bush’s presidential documents to this facility prior to the opening of the Bush presidential library in the same city. Trump’s claims about Clinton and George W. Bush are inaccurate in precisely the same way: NARA, not the former presidents themselves, put the documents in temporary storage at NARA-managed facilities at the former car dealership in Arkansas and the warehouse in Texas. And Trump was also wrong that there was “no security” at the facility where the elder Bush’s documents were housed: the facility was heavily secured, according to a news report at the time.
So there is no equivalence between Trump’s handling of presidential documents and those of his predecessors. In the others’ cases, the presidential documents were in NARA’s possession and stored securely and professionally. In Trump’s case, the presidential documents found in haphazard amateur storage at Mar-a-Lago were in Trump’s own possession, despite numerous attempts by both NARA and the Justice Department to get them back.
NARA sent CNN a statement on Tuesday, after the initial publication of this article, confirming that Trump’s claims are false.
The statement said that NARA had possession of Bush, Bush, Clinton, Obama and Ronald Reagan presidential records after those presidents left office and that NARA moved the records to temporary facilities NARA leased near the locations of their future presidential libraries. The statement continued: “All such temporary facilities met strict archival and security standards, and have been managed and staffed exclusively by NARA employees. Reports that indicate or imply that those Presidential records were in the possession of the former Presidents or their representatives, after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading.”
Trump urged the authorities to “look into what took place” with George H.W. Bush and presidential documents. But there is nothing of substance to investigate: the National Archives and Records Administration has been forthright since the 1990s about where it temporarily stored Bush documents before his permanent library opened. In fact, the NARA official who was in charge of the transition of the Bush documents to the permanent library publicly joked about the temporary facility at the time.
“I’ve told reporters this for the last four years: It’s not just a bowling alley; it’s a bowling alley and a Chinese restaurant,” David Alsobrook said.
While the temporary College Station, Texas, location made for a fun story, there was nothing unusual about NARA’s use of such a building. NARA needs lots of space to house presidential documents before presidents’ permanent libraries are built, so it finds and modifies large nearby facilities that often have formerly housed other activities.
Someone listening to Trump’s rally comments might have pictured documents from the first Bush administration being scattered carelessly in bowling lanes. But that’s not what happened. The Washington Post reported in 1993: “There aren’t any lanes anymore. No gutters, no pins, no beer. Thanks to a rush remodeling job after last November’s election, there are a few simple offices, a massive, fire-resistant vault and row after row of steel shelves filled with cardboard boxes and wooden crates.”
As NARA’s Tuesday statement said, there was also extensive security. The Associated Press reported in 1994: “Uniformed guards patrol the premises. There are closed-circuit television monitors and sophisticated electronic detectors along walls and doors. Some printed material is classified and will remain so for years; it is open only to those with top-secret clearances.”
Robert Holzweiss, who began working on the George H.W. Bush library in 1996 and is now deputy director, told People magazine for an article in early 2022: “When I got involved the temporary facility for the Bush museum was in College Station, Texas, in an old bowling alley. Without the alleys it was perfect, it was like a warehouse. They just built a secure space within to house the classified material.”
Bush died in 2018. His son Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who ran against Trump in 2016 for the Republican presidential nomination, wrote on Twitter in response to Trump’s claims about the late president: “I am so confused. My dad enjoyed a good Chinese meal and enjoyed the challenge of 7 10 split. What the heck is up with you?”
Trump’s rally claims about former presidents Clinton and George W. Bush are false for the exact same reason as Trump’s claims about Obama and the elder Bush are false.
That former Balch Motor Company building in Little Rock, Arkansas, where millions of Clinton presidential documents were stored? Again, it was the National Archives and Records Administration that took the documents to this facility, which NARA managed, in advance of the opening of Clinton’s library in the same city.
That warehouse in Lewisville, Texas where millions of the younger Bush’s presidential documents were stored? It was a NARA-managed facility, used to store documents while Bush’s permanent library was being readied in nearby Dallas.
Update: This article has been updated to add NARA’s Tuesday statement.
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Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson Appointed Chair Of National Education Association
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson Appointed Chair Of National Education Association https://digitalarkansasnews.com/arkansas-governor-asa-hutchinson-appointed-chair-of-national-education-association/
by: Alex Kienlen
Posted: Oct 11, 2022 / 11:50 AM CDT
Updated: Oct 11, 2022 / 11:50 AM CDT
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The governor of Arkansas has been appointed to a chairmanship role in national education policy.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Tuesday that he had been selected as chairman of the Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan national organization working with state policymakers and educators in developing policy.
Hutchinson will lead the ECS Executive Committee alongside Brittney Miller, Nevada state assemblymember; Margie Vandeven, Missouri’s commissioner of education; and Jeremy Anderson, president of the Education Commission of the States. The Executive Committee provides strategic direction and oversight for the management, operations and financial policies of the Education Commission of the States, ECS stated.
ECS stated that Hutchinson’s term on the executive committee will run through July 2023. It is not a full-time position.
“It is an honor to have been selected as chairman of ECS,” Hutchinson said. “Arkansas has been a leader in education from computer science to pandemic learning, and I am excited for the opportunity to work with other leaders to secure our children’s future.”
As ECS chairman, Hutchinson will lead the chair’s initiative. He stated he would focus on expanded computer science education.
The governor had led a similar computer science initiative as chairman of the National Governors Association. His chairman’s initiative to expand K-12 computer science education was signed by 50 state and territorial governors, the most ever for such an initiative.
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Trump Lawyer Who Vouched For Documents Meets With FBI
Trump Lawyer Who Vouched For Documents Meets With FBI https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-lawyer-who-vouched-for-documents-meets-with-fbi/
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for former president Donald Trump who signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government has spoken with the FBI, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Christina Bobb told federal investigators during Friday’s interview that she had not drafted the letter but that another Trump lawyer who she said actually prepared it had asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian of Trump’s records, said the person, who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The process is of interest to investigators because the Justice Department says the letter was untrue in asserting that all classified records sought by the government had been located and returned. Though the letter, and 38 documents bearing classification markings, were presented to FBI and Justice Department officials during a June 3 visit to Mar-a-Lago, agents returned to the Florida estate with a search warrant on Aug. 8 and seized about 100 additional classified records.
According to an August court filing, the signed certification letter was presented to investigators who visited Mar-a-Lago on June 3 to collect additional classified material from the home. The Justice Department had weeks earlier issued a subpoena for the records after it says it developed evidence that more classified documents remained at the estate beyond those contained in 15 boxes recovered in January by the National Archives and Records Administration.
The letter produced for investigators asserted that, in response to the subpoena, “a diligent search was conducted of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida” and that “any and all responsive documents accompany this certification.” The letter also included the caveat that the statements in it were true “based upon the information that has been provided to me.”
FILE – President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is seen from the media van in the presidential motorcade in Palm Beach, Fla., March 24, 2018, en route to Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Christina Bobb, a lawyer for former president Donald Trump who signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government has spoken with the FBI, according to a person familiar with the matter. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Carolyn Kaster
At the time, the FBI was presented with an envelope containing 38 documents with classification markings, including at the top-secret level. But agents began to suspect that they had not received the entire stash of records, and returned two months later with a warrant.
Bobb told the FBI that the letter was actually drafted and prepared by another of Trump’s lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, and that he had asked her to sign it in her capacity as custodian of the records, according to the person.
Corcoran did not immediately return an email and phone message on Tuesday. Spokespeople for the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment, and Bobb did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
The interview was first reported by NBC News. The person familiar with it said it was a voluntary discussion with investigators and did not take place before a grand jury, and that she is not regarded as a target of the investigation.
The Justice Department has said that, beyond investigating possible crimes in the retention of the documents themselves, it is also investigating whether anyone sought to obstruct its probe. It is not clear if anyone will be charged.
_____
Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Russian Military exhausted Putins Judgment flawed U.K. Spy Chief Says
Russian Military ‘exhausted,’ Putin’s Judgment ‘flawed,’ U.K. Spy Chief Says https://digitalarkansasnews.com/russian-military-exhausted-putins-judgment-flawed-u-k-spy-chief-says/
LONDON — The United Kingdom’s top spy chief warned in a rare public speech Tuesday that Russian forces in Ukraine are overstretched and “exhausted” — and that President Vladimir Putin is committing “strategic errors in judgment.”
The assessment from Jeremy Fleming, head of the secretive GCHQ, Britain’s intelligence, cyber and security agency, comes after Putin drafted reservists to bolster his war effort and claimed a “massive strike” across Ukraine this week. The missile attacks hit energy facilities and civilian infrastructure across the country, including in the heart of Kyiv, in retaliation for a weekend explosion on Russia’s strategic Crimean Bridge.
“Russia’s forces are exhausted. The use of prisoners to reinforce, and now the mobilization of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation,” Fleming said in an address to the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.
“Far from the inevitable Russian military victory that their propaganda machine spouted, it’s clear that Ukraine’s courageous action on the battlefield and in cyberspace is turning the tide,” Fleming added.
Ukraine’s military has launched successful counteroffensives with the help of Western weapons, recapturing swaths of land previously held by Russian forces.
Putin’s “decision-making has proved flawed,” Fleming said, and he has “little effective internal challenge” from Russia’s military and political elite.
“We know — and Russian commanders on the ground know — that their supplies and munitions are running out,” he said.
Britain’s Defense Ministry has become a daily source of information since Russia invaded its neighbor in February, churning out frequent bite-sized updates on social media analyzing Moscow’s military strategy and war effort.
The move to be more transparent with intelligence follows a strategically unusual decision by Western intelligence agencies, including the U.S. intelligence community, to publicly share information about Putin’s plans — although it ultimately was not enough to deter the invasion.
By speaking out, Fleming told the BBC in an interview early Tuesday, his agency hopes to “illuminate the threat” and encourage public trust. He cautioned that the United Kingdom is not writing off the threat from Russia. The last 24 hours have proved Moscow still has a “very capable military machine,” he said, referring to the strikes on dozens of Ukrainian cities Monday.
However, he added, Russia is running low on munitions and troops, and “it’s certainly running short of friends.”
Putin last month announced a partial military mobilization of as many as 300,000 reservists for what he still terms Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. The decision sparked public panic, sending thousands of eligible men fleeing to borders and scrambling for flights to avoid being called up for deployment to the front lines.
Russians are “seeing just how badly Putin has misjudged the situation,” Fleming said. “They’re fleeing the draft, realizing they can no longer travel. They know their access to modern technologies and external influences will be drastically restricted. And they are feeling the extent of the dreadful human cost of his war of choice.”
A little more than a month after the war started, Fleming warned that Russian soldiers were low on morale and weapons and had, at times, refused orders and sabotaged their own equipment — painting a picture of chaos on Russia’s front lines even then.
Following this weekend’s attack on the Crimean Bridge, Moscow retaliated Monday by launching a wave of strikes that targeted parks, playgrounds and downtown areas far from the front lines, sparking outrage and killing at least 19 people, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Yet the strikes were cheered by backers of Putin. Viktor Bondarev, head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s upper house of parliament, called Monday’s strikes the beginning of “a new phase” and promised more “resolute” action to come.
Fleming also warned that Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons to reverse its losses in Ukraine are “very dangerous” and could lead to a “catastrophe.” However, he stressed, so far there have been no indicators of their deployment, and Putin has been “staying within the doctrine of their use.”
This is consistent with the views of U.S. officials, who say they think it unlikely that Putin will carry out his threats. President Biden nevertheless warned last week that Putin was “not joking” and called his nuclear threats the most serious “prospect of Armageddon” in 60 years.
The United Kingdom has three main intelligence services: MI6, the foreign intelligence service, popularized by the fictional spies James Bond and George Smiley; MI5, the domestic agency; and Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, the eavesdropping service. The entire intelligence community is famously secretive.
Fleming also spoke more broadly on global threats to security on Tuesday, singling out China’s bid to spread its influence through science and technology.
Saying this could be a “sliding doors moment in history,” Fleming accused China’s ruling Communist Party of seeking to create “client economies and governments.” He said China aims to bring countries into its sphere of influence by encouraging them to buy Chinese tech and incur what he called “hidden costs.”
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It's Bad Enough Mortgage Rates Are Over 7% Now It's Harder To Qualify For A Home Loan
It's Bad Enough Mortgage Rates Are Over 7% – Now It's Harder To Qualify For A Home Loan https://digitalarkansasnews.com/its-bad-enough-mortgage-rates-are-over-7-now-its-harder-to-qualify-for-a-home-loan/
JB Reed | Bloomberg | Getty Images
It’s a double whammy for would-be homebuyers. Not only are interest rates soaring, it’s getting harder to qualify for a loan.
The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage climbed over 7% at the end of last week, according to Mortgage News Daily, and is expected to hit around 7.125% on Tuesday. It’s been over 7% for several days.
Meanwhile, mortgage credit availability is now at the lowest level since March 2013, which was when housing was in a slow recovery from the financial crisis at the end of the prior decade. It fell for the seventh consecutive month in September, down 5.4% from August, according to a monthly index from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
While lenders may be desperate for business, as mortgage demand drops due to higher rates, they are also more concerned about a weaker economy, which could lead to higher delinquencies. Executives and economists have warned the U.S. could fall into a recession in the coming months as the Federal Reserve hikes rates to battle high inflation.
“There was a smaller appetite for lower credit score and high [loan-to-value] loan programs,” Joel Kan, a Mortgage Bankers Association economist, said in a release.
Mortgage delinquencies, at the moment, sit near record lows. While new foreclosure actions rose 15% from July to August, they were still 44% below pre-pandemic levels, according to Black Knight, a mortgage software and analytics company.
Credit availability fell the most for jumbo loans, which more borrowers today have to use due to higher home prices, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Higher prices also have more borrowers turning to adjustable-rate mortgages, because they offer lower interest rates. These loan rates can be fixed for up to 10 years, but they are considered riskier mortgages.
Borrowers are clearly concerned that mortgage rates will move even higher. While mortgage rates don’t follow the federal funds rate exactly, they are influenced heavily by the Fed’s policy.
“The Fed is determined to hike rates as high as it can and keep them there as long as it can, even if that means the economy suffers,” Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily, wrote on its website.
Graham noted the Fed is not considering mortgage rates or the housing market because home prices are overheated and a correction is “good and necessary.”
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Republicans And Bias In Midterm Polls https://digitalarkansasnews.com/republicans-and-bias-in-midterm-polls/
October 11, 2022 11:53 AM
REPUBLICANS AND BIAS IN MIDTERM POLLS. Republicans always believe the polls are slanted against them. That belief has sometimes caused them to misread big political races. In 2012, for example, a significant number of Republicans convinced themselves that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney was actually going to defeat incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama. There was a lot of talk about “unskewing” the polls. Then Obama beat Romney handily.
But there have also been some egregious examples of polling bias, or at least polling mistakes, in the years since Donald Trump entered national politics. On many occasions, pollsters have seemed unable to measure Trump’s appeal, especially in state-level polls. In 2016, the Trump vs. Hillary Clinton race, the polls showed Clinton winning in three states critical to Trump’s victory — Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin, the RealClearPolitics average of polls on Election Day showed Clinton winning by 6.5 points. In fact, Trump won by 0.7 points. In Michigan, the polls had Clinton up by 3.6 points. Trump won by 0.3 points. And in Pennsylvania, the polls showed Clinton ahead by 2.1 points. Trump won by 0.7 points.
In 2020, the Trump-Joe Biden race, even when the polls got the winner right, they were sometimes off by a lot. In Wisconsin, for example, the final RealClearPolitics average of polls showed Joe Biden winning by 6.7 points. In fact, Biden won by 0.7 points. And no Republican will forget the Washington Post-ABC News poll, published in late October, that showed Biden 17 points ahead of Trump. It was crazy — an embarrassment that pollsters should not soon forget.
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So what does all that mean for today? The midterm elections are one month away, and polls are everywhere. The question is: Do the polls have the same old problems?
We don’t know. But there are reasons to suspect problems persist. And now, RealClearPolitics has begun an exercise in comparing today’s midterm polls to the known errors of polls from 2016, 2018, and 2020. If it turns out the mistakes are happening again, the election results could be quite different from what pundits are counting on today.
RealClearPolitics took each contested midterm state and looked at the polling average today. Then it averaged the known polling error from 2016, 2018, and 2020 — two presidential elections and one midterm, all with Trump involved. Then it took that figure, the polling error, and applied it to today’s poll, just to see what things look like.
Start with the Pennsylvania Senate race. Today’s average of polls shows Democratic candidate John Fetterman ahead of Republican Mehmet Oz by 3.7 points. Then look at past Pennsylvania polls. At this point in each campaign, 28 days before Election Day, the 2016 polls showed Clinton over Trump by 8.6 points, the 2018 midterm polls showed Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) up by 16 points, and the 2020 polls showed Biden over Trump by 6.5 points. When compared with the final election results in those years, the polls at this point in the race underestimated Republican performance by 5.9 percentage points.
So is Oz really 3.7 points behind Fetterman? Maybe. But if the polls today are misreading the electorate in a way similar to past elections, Oz could actually be ahead by 2.2 points. Again, that is at this particular moment in the race, not on Election Day. But the polls might have the horse race wrong.
Other races might be closer than they seem. In New Hampshire, Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan leads Republican challenger Don Bolduc by 5.3 points in the RealClearPolitics average. But factor in the polls’ errors from past years, and Hassan’s lead is 0.9 points — a far more competitive race. In North Carolina, the RealClearPolitics average shows Republican Rep. Ted Budd leading Democrat Cheri Beasley by 1.5 points in the Senate race. Factor in the old mistakes, and Budd’s lead is 6 points.
Those are big differences. But there is one closely watched race where the polls, at least by this measure, appear to be right on the money. In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leads Republican Herschel Walker by 3.8 points. A look at the historical polls from 2016, 2018, and 2020 shows no difference from the final results of those years. Therefore, by this measure at least, Warnock’s 3.8-point lead over Walker is real. Remember, that is just a description of this point in the race, 28 days before Election Day, but Warnock’s lead is solid.
And in one race, the 2016, 2018, and 2020 polls actually underestimated Democratic performance. In Nevada today, Republican Adam Laxalt is leading Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto by 2.1 points. But past polls suggest that might be an overstatement and that Laxalt’s lead is actually 1.1 points. He is still ahead, but it’s a very close race.
What does all this tell us? In most of the races, even with historical error factored in, the Senate seat in question will not change parties. RealClearPolitics predicts Republicans will not lose any of the seats they already hold and will pick up seats in Arizona and Nevada — and thus win control of the Senate. Maybe so. A more cautious prediction would be one GOP pickup, the one in Nevada. And an even more cautious prediction would be no pickups at all, and a continued 50-50 tie, with functional Democratic control, in the Senate.
But we do know state polls have been seriously wrong in the past. Serious people are trying to understand how that happened and what it might mean for today’s midterm contests. And right now, it appears the picture could be somewhat better for Republicans than the polls say.
For a deeper dive into many of the topics covered in the Daily Memo, please listen to my podcast, The Byron York Show — available on the Ricochet Audio Network and everywhere else podcasts can be found. You can use this link to subscribe.
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Analysis | Biden Faces Allies' Ire At IRA https://digitalarkansasnews.com/analysis-biden-faces-allies-ire-at-ira/
Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1992, President George H.W. Bush, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, and businessman H. Ross Perot faced off in a three-way presidential debate.
Biden faces allies’ ire at IRA
President Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act” mostly gets headlines in the United States as his big legislative achievement, grist for the midterm-elections mill, and a major investment in fighting the climate crisis. Overseas, though, it’s getting a very different reception: Some close allies are upset.
One of the law’s main selling points is chilling the air between the United States and friends like Britain, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Sweden: Billions of dollars in incentives to shift the production of electric vehicles, and the batteries that make them go, to America.
While that’s largely meant as a blow to China, other countries with vibrant auto sectors — and electric-vehicle production — see the IRA as a blow to their domestic industry. After all, it’s a competition for “green” jobs of the future.
Three weeks ago, The Daily 202 chronicled South Korea’s very public unhappiness with the law (as well as assurances from both sides that they hoped to resolve their dispute).
And in early September, South Korea’s the Hankyoreh newspaper reported that “Working-level staff from Korea, Japan, Germany, the UK and Sweden’s embassies to the US met last week” to discuss cooperating with each other on the IRA.
The latest warning sign comes via Financial Times reporters Sam Fleming, Javier Espinoza and James Politi, who noted growing alarm in the European Union that the law “could prompt European companies to move production to the US.”
“Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition enforcer, said Brussels wants to use a meeting of the transatlantic Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in December as a vehicle to address a brewing dispute over America’s new rules contained in its Inflation Reduction Act, which became law in August. The hope, she told the Financial Times, was that this strategy would yield quicker results than legal action through the World Trade Organization.”
“‘As a matter of principle, you should not put this up against friends,’ Vestager said of provisions in America’s new Inflation Reduction Act that offer substantial incentives to bolster domestic production of electric cars and other green technologies. ‘You have what we see as an unbalanced subsidy.’”
(Later in the piece, the FT quotes an anonymous source as saying WTO action is “the stick” and TTC is “the carrot.” South Korea has also not ruled out using the WTO’s dispute-resolution mechanisms.)
Don’t get lost in the jargon. The word to remember is “jobs.” Officials in Europe (and Asia) worry about losing production to the United States, and with it coveted manufacturing jobs. Outsourcing and offshoring isn’t a political winner over there any more than it is over here.
(My colleague Maxine Joselow noted last month: “To qualify for the full credit, an EV must be assembled in North America and its battery minerals must be sourced from the United States or its free trade partners, among other requirements.”)
The FT also reported that Vestager said neither side wants to get into a subsidy race. And they quoted her as saying the United States “could have a better deal if the subsidies would be done in a way that is not discriminatory towards the E.U.”
They flagged that E.U. trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis is in D.C. this week. The IRA will be a likely topic of conversation, as well as the E.U.’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which taxes companies for carbon emissions outside Europe to deter companies from moving to places with looser pollution restrictions.
U.S. trade agenda in flux
The visit comes at an interesting time for the U.S. trade agenda.
Biden has famously kept in place the tariffs former president Donald Trump imposed on China, but he did roll back steel and aluminum tariffs on Europe. He hasn’t embraced traditional trade deals, which typically lower tariffs or expand market access in other ways.
In fact, to hear senior Biden aides tell it, he’s rejecting that entire traditional model, mindful of the economic disruptions that can result — and the potential political fallout.
“He’s looking to move beyond the old model of an FTA [free trade agreement] to a model that is actually more geared to today’s economic realities and to the lessons of the last 30 years,” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said recently.
But it’s little-noticed remarks last week from U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that really show the degree to which the administration has parted ways with the old Washington-based consensus and embraced critiques of free trade as a disruptive force.
“We have not sworn off market opening, liberalization, and efficiency. But it cannot come at the cost of further weakening our supply chains, exacerbating high-risk reliances, decimating our manufacturing communities, and destroying our planet,” she said in prepared remarks. “The need for correction is clear, and industrial policy is a part of that re-balancing effort.”
Europe would like to rebalance the rebalancing a bit.
Biden seeks to make his party’s case in prime-time TV interview
“Today, with the midterm elections only four weeks off, President Biden will seek to make his party’s case in a sit-down interview airing in prime time on CNN. The conversation with the network’s Jake Tapper offers Biden an opportunity to discuss the economy, abortion rights and other issues at top of mind for voters. Biden gives such interviews infrequently,” John Wagner and Mariana Alfaro report.
Orban says Trump is ‘hope for peace’ in Ukraine
“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday accused the United States of perpetuating the war in Ukraine by providing weapons and said there should be U. S-Russian negotiations to bring about a cease-fire,” Loveday Morris reports.
“Hope for peace is named Donald Trump,” he said, according to the official interpretation, saying that Biden had gone “too far” by saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not remain in power.
Poll: Majority in U.S. see relations with adversaries souring
“Two years into the Biden administration, 60% of U.S. adults say relations with adversaries will get worse, up from 26% four years ago at the same point in the Trump administration, according to the poll from the Pearson Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research,” the Associated Press‘s Ellen Knickmeyer and Nuha Dolby report.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
How Trump’s legal expenses consumed GOP donor money
“Donald Trump’s political operation has spent more money since he left office on lawyers representing the former president and a pair of nonprofits staffed by former Cabinet members than it has on Republican congressional campaigns, according to a review of financial filings,” Isaac Stanley-Becker and Josh Dawsey report.
“The group has contributed about $8.4 million so far directly to Republican campaigns and committees, while devoting $7 million to Trump’s lawyers and another $2 million to the nonprofits, which employ former members of his administration, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.”
Abortion rights advocates eye ballot measures for 2024
“Abortion rights advocates are exploring ballot measures to enshrine access to the procedure into state constitutions in 2024, including in a handful of Republican-led states with restrictions on the books,” Rachel Roubein reports.
“While in the early stages, discussions around whether to pursue an abortion rights ballot measure are occurring in states including Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado and Missouri, according to interviews with over a dozen advocates, liberal groups and others, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations.”
Government officials invest in companies their agencies oversee
“More than 2,600 officials at agencies from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, disclosed stock investments in companies while those same companies were lobbying their agencies for favorable policies. That amounts to more than one in five senior federal employees across 50 federal agencies reviewed by the Journal,” the Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Ballhaus, Brody Mullins, Chad Day, John West, Joe Palazzolo and James V. Grimaldi report.
(Some of) the details: “A top official at the Environmental Protection Agency reported purchases of oil and gas stocks. The Food and Drug Administration improperly let an official own dozens of food and drug stocks on its no-buy list. A Defense Department official bought stock in a defense company five times before it won new business from the Pentagon.”
‘Enough is enough’: Dems rage at Saudis over oil cut, vow to block weapons sales
“A top Democratic senator is vowing to block all future weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and urging the Biden administration to ‘immediately freeze all aspects’ of U.S. cooperation with the kingdom in response to its decision to cut oil production amid a global energy crisis set off by Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Politico‘s Andrew Desiderio and Connor O’Brien report.
“The message from Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who has veto power over foreign arms sales, comes amid the West’s outrage at OPEC+ for slashing its oil output — a move that the U.S. and other allied governments saw as a gift to Moscow as it suffers significant losses on the battlefield in Ukraine.”
In Puerto Rico’s troubled energy system, McKinsey gets paid by both government and vendors
“McKinsey & Co., the consulting powerhouse that advises not just Puerto Rico’s government but also the primary contr...
GOP Surrogates To Rally For Georgia's Herschel Walker In Show Of Unyielding National Party Support | CNN Politics
GOP Surrogates To Rally For Georgia's Herschel Walker In Show Of Unyielding National Party Support | CNN Politics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/gop-surrogates-to-rally-for-georgias-herschel-walker-in-show-of-unyielding-national-party-support-cnn-politics/
CNN —
The Republican cavalry is riding into Georgia on Tuesday for Senate nominee Herschel Walker, whose campaign was rocked last week by allegations the former football star – who supports a national abortion ban without exceptions – twice asked an ex-girlfriend to have the procedure and paid for it on the occasion she did.
Walker will be joined by Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the chair of the party’s Senate campaign arm, and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton at a stop in Carrollton, about an hour west of Atlanta, on a statewide bus tour as a show of strength from national Republicans for the Trump-backed nominee in one of their most important pick-up opportunities.
Their visit comes at a crucial moment in a race critical to both parties’ hopes of winning the 50-50 Senate. Most polling shows Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who’s running for a full six-year term, in a tight contest less than a month before Election Day.
Following the recent stories about Walker, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, helmed by Scott, plans to direct some of the $2.5 million in ad spending it is pulling out of New Hampshire to Georgia, while party leaders – including former President Donald Trump and Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel – are closing ranks in support of Walker.
Walker has denied reports from The Daily Beast and New York Times that, taken together, found that the Republican reimbursed a woman with whom he was in a relationship for a 2009 abortion and then, two years later, again sought for her to have the procedure after she became pregnant. She refused the second time and had a son, who she said is now 10 years old.
CNN has not independently confirmed the woman’s allegation about the abortion or that Walker urged her to terminate a second pregnancy. CNN has reached out to the Walker campaign for comment.
Walker denied the initial Daily Beast report and has repeatedly called the woman’s claims a “flat-out lie,” using the phrase at a news conference last week and in a fundraising email on Monday, in which he depicted himself as the victim of a smear campaign and compared himself to Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.
“Let me be clear: I have never paid for anyone to have an abortion. It’s a flat-out lie,” Walker wrote in the email, which accused “the Left” of engineering the reports about him, then added, “Their intimidation tactics didn’t work on Justices Thomas or Kavanaugh, and they’re not going to work on me.”
And in an interview with Breitbart published Tuesday morning, Walker accused his opponents of “trying to muddy up the water” in the final stretch of the campaign.
“The left is sort of scared because the people are going to vote for me because they know I care,” Walker said. “So they’re trying to do everything they can to turn the people against me, but I think the people know who I am.”
In comments to NBC News on Friday, Walker appeared to confirm that he knows the identity of the woman who claimed he paid for an abortion. However, he continued to deny any knowledge of the procedure.
“She has been angry at me for years and it is very difficult,” he told NBC, in what the outlet said was a brief interview.
The decision by Scott and Cotton to travel to Georgia for the rally underscores the GOP’s belief that the accusations against Walker have not done irreparable harm to his chances. Their visit also bolsters the GOP strategy of seeking to make Walker look like a victim unfairly maligned.
“The Democrats want to destroy this country, and they will try to destroy anyone who gets in their way. Today it’s Herschel Walker, but tomorrow it’s the American people,” Scott said in a statement sent to CNN on Saturday. “I’m proud to stand with Herschel Walker and make sure Georgians know that he will always fight to protect them from the forces trying to destroy Georgia values and Georgia’s economy, led by Raphael Warnock.”
McDaniel, the RNC chief, affirmed the party establishment’s backing in a Sunday fundraising pitch to supporters. After describing the reports as “concocted” and “nothing short of character assassination.”
“Herschel Walker will deliver a safer and more prosperous Georgia, and the RNC stands by our support of his campaign,” McDaniel wrote.
Walker also has the continued support of Trump, who accused the media of “slandering” the candidate in a social media post. A new super PAC launched by top Trump allies, MAGA Inc., has also committed nearly $1 million in new spending to the Georgia race, as part of a five-state, $5 million outlay on key Senate races.
Trump’s example has been central to Republicans’ response to the accusations.
Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise made specific reference to the former President while speaking to staffers last Tuesday, acknowledging that the first Daily Beast report was a setback, a source familiar with the remarks told CNN last week. But he also pointed to Trump’s victory in 2016 – alluding to the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which he spoke crudely about groping women – as evidence that Walker remained a viable candidate, also noting that the campaign had seen a surge in fundraising in the hours since Walker denied the initial allegations. (Paradise later denied referencing the “Access Hollywood” video.)
There has, however, been some hint of trouble in the Walker ranks. The campaign fired its political director, Taylor Crowe, last week. Two people familiar with the matter said the dismissal came amid suspicions Crowe was leaking information to the media. It is unclear if there were any other factors at play. Crowe did not respond to requests for comment.
While Republicans rally around Walker and hurl unsubstantiated accusations against Democrats and Warnock, with claims they are fabricating the woman’s allegations, the incumbent has been mostly quiet on the matter, refusing to directly attack or condemn his opponent.
“It’s up to Georgia voters. It’s not up to him, it’s not up to me,” Warnock told reporters after a Saturday rally in Columbus. “We do know that my opponent has trouble with the truth. And we’ll see how all this plays out, but I am focused squarely on the health care needs of my constituents, including reproductive health care.”
Pressed on whether he believes Walker’s denials, Warnock again demurred, saying that his view “is irrelevant because the people of Georgia will decide.”
In a statement to CNN on Tuesday morning ahead of the GOP event in Carrollton, Warnock’s campaign ignored the abortion controversy, instead focusing on Scott’s policy proposals.
“While Reverend Warnock fought to lower prescription drug costs for Georgia seniors and protect Social Security, Herschel Walker is campaigning with Rick Scott who’s fighting to cut Social Security for the more than 1.9 million Georgians who rely on it,” Warnock press secretary Sarafina Chitika said. “Georgia seniors deserve a senator who will stand up for them, not someone who sees a friend in a politician who wants to slash their benefits.”
National Democrats are taking a more aggressive tack.
On Tuesday morning, Georgia Honor, a group affiliated with the Democratic Senate Majority PAC, released a new ad highlighting past allegations of abuse against Walker.
The spot focuses on a variety of reported incidents, but centers on a specific charge by his son, Christian Walker, a conservative social media influencer, who recently tweeted that Walker “threatened to kill us” and that he and his mother had to “move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence.”
Walker won the GOP nomination in May despite some Republicans’ concerns over well-documented prior accusations that he threatened women. Walker has denied at least one of those allegations and has spoken publicly and written about his struggles with mental illness.
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Meyers Mocks Trump For Making Midterm Endorsement Speeches All About Him Like A Best Mans Drunken Toast (Video) IMDb
Meyers Mocks Trump For Making Midterm Endorsement Speeches All About Him, Like A Best Man’s ‘Drunken Toast’ (Video) – IMDb https://digitalarkansasnews.com/meyers-mocks-trump-for-making-midterm-endorsement-speeches-all-about-him-like-a-best-mans-drunken-toast-video-imdb/
Meyers Mocks Trump for Making Midterm Endorsement Speeches All About Him, Like a Best Man’s ‘Drunken Toast’ (Video)
11 October 2022
by Andi Ortiz
The Wrap
Donald Trump is on the campaign trail for several GOP candidates ahead of the midterm elections in a few weeks. But Seth Meyers can’t help but notice that most of the time, the twice impeached former president isn’t exactly campaigning for them.
“Even though Trump is theoretically supposed to be there to campaign for other candidates, he always, without exception, makes it about himself,” Meyers mocked on Monday night. “He’s like the best man at a wedding who gives a drunken toast about how awesome he is.”
Also Read:
Seth Meyers Relentlessly Mocks Revelations That Trump ‘Loudly Complained’ About Rudy Giuliani’s Bathroom Smells (Video)
Naturally, Seth broke out his Trump impression to act out exactly how he thought that speech might go, culminating in Trump’s beloved catchphrase, “Lock her up!”
But, using specific examples, the late night host called up footage from campaign stops Trump
See full article at The Wrap »
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BLESSED Share New Single https://digitalarkansasnews.com/blessed-share-new-single/
Progressive, avant-rock band Blessed release their galloping new single today – “Agoraphobia”. Their forthcoming album Circuitous is a rich, moving and committed piece of work that expands on the band’s eclectic discography.
Blessed have sharpened their strengths, bringing everchanging depth and expansion to their song craft. The result is a sweeping, hyperreal, industrial art-rock tragedy, rendered in walls of noise, controlled drums, meandering ambience, and staccato syncopation.
Of the latest single, singer / guitarist Drew Riekman states, “Dealing with moments of panic and crisis is confusing for the people around you. Especially if you’re suffering from something that doesn’t have heft in the common day to day world. Wide open spaces and being far from home is generally exciting for most, and touring was a vehicle for me to feel that same feeling a lot of the time. But with so much home time, I was enveloped again with a sensation that makes little sense to anyone else, and attempted to open the door a little to that isolation.”
Pulled from hours of jam material and hundreds of demos, Circuitous’s eight tracks sprawl and thrash and burst and fall, sometimes for nearly eight minutes – lyrically speaking to agoraphobia, isolation, grief, the hyper-control of capital and the numbness it breeds. Blessed recorded Circuitous during winter 2020-2021 at Vancouver’s Rain City Recorders with Matt Roach and Emily Ryan.
The record was mixed by John Congleton (Swans, St. Vincent, Wye Oak) and mastered by Greg Obis (Alabaster Deplume, Cloud Nothings). The group experimented with two different drum setups, eventually blending the two within a single song. The record builds on Blessed’s commitment to creativity, introducing more synthesizers, programming, MIDI, sequencers, and experimentation in arrangements.
Blessed’s longtime collaborator, digital artist Nathan Donovan, paired up with Jacob Dutton, to art direct and design all original art and videos for the record, centering on a nameless, childlike robot that embodies very specific, subtle and uncanny expressions. The robot appears on the record’s cover and in the video / visuals for previous acclaimed singles “Redefine” and “Anything”.
Since being established in 2015, Blessed has been on a relentless but precise creative trajectory, releasing three EPs, an LP, a 7″ split, and a remix EP. Their most recent, 2021 EP, iii, earned positive acclaim from the likes of Iggy Pop, Talkhouse, Premier Guitar and Pitchfork. They’ve crafted a jaw-dropping live show experience and this fall hit the road with Stuck in support of Circuitous – see below for a full list of dates and grab tickets here.
Circuitous sees its release at the end of this month – October 28 via Flemish Eye. To pre-order or save, go here.
Watch the new music video here:
BLESSED LIVE DATES
All Dates w/ Stuck
Nov 17th – Winnipeg, MB – The GoodWill
Nov 18th – Saskatoon, SK – The Black Cat
Nov 19th – Calgary, AB – Palomino
Nov 20th – Edmonton, AB – The Aviary
Nov 23rd – Vancouver, BC – The Red Gate
Nov 25th – Seattle, WA – Clock Out
Nov 26th – Portland, OR – High Water Mark
Nov 28th – Sacramento, CA – The Starlet Room
Nov 29th – San Francisco, CA – The Knockout
Nov 30th – Los Angeles, CA – Gold Diggers
Dec 1st – Long Beach, CA – Alex’s Bar
Dec 2nd – San Diego – The Comet
Dec 3rd – Phoenix – Valley Bar
Dec 4th – El Paso, TX – Mona
Dec 6th – Austin, TX – Hotel Vegas
Dec 7th – Denton, TX – Andy’s Bar
Dec 8th – Fayetteville, AR – Smoke And Barrel
Dec 9th – St Louis, MO – Heavy Anchor
Dec 10th – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
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Donald Trump Threatens More Lawsuits Against Media: Also Adds Jan. 6 Committee To His Potential Legal Targets
Donald Trump Threatens More Lawsuits Against Media: Also Adds Jan. 6 Committee To His Potential Legal Targets https://digitalarkansasnews.com/donald-trump-threatens-more-lawsuits-against-media-also-adds-jan-6-committee-to-his-potential-legal-targets/
John Eggerton | NextTV (Broadcasting + Cable)
Donald Trump says he plans to file lawsuits against “a large number” of news outlets, just as he has against CNN.
In an e-mail to supporters, the former president said those other news outlets — he did not identify them — were guilty of “lies, defamation, and wrongdoing,” including as it pertains to “The Big Lie.”
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Trump Lawyer Met With FBI In Mar-A-Lago Probe https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-lawyer-met-with-fbi-in-mar-a-lago-probe/
Trump lawyer met with FBI in Mar-a-Lago probe
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP)
A lawyer for former president Donald Trump who signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government has spoken with the FBI, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Christina Bobb told federal investigators during Friday’s interview that she had not drafted the letter but that another Trump lawyer who she said actually prepared it had asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian for Trump’s records, said the person, who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The process is of interest to investigators because the Justice Department says the letter was untrue in asserting that all classified records sought by the government had been located and returned. Though the letter, and 38 documents bearing classification markings, were presented to FBI and Justice Department officials during a June 3 visit to Mar-a-Lago, agents returned to the Florida estate with a search warrant on Aug. 8 and seized about 100 additional classified records.
According to a court filing last month, the signed certification letter presented to investigators who went to Mar-a-Lago on June 3 to recover classified material after earlier issuing a subpoena for them said that “a diligent search was conducted of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida” and that “any and all responsive documents accompany this certification.”
FILE – An aerial view of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 31, 2022. A federal judge has appointed Raymond Dearie, a veteran New York jurist to serve as an independent arbiter and review records seized during an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s home last month. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
The letter also included the caveat that the statements in it were true “based upon the information that has been provided to me.”
At the time, the FBI was presented with an envelope containing 38 documents with classification markings, including at the top-secret level. But agents began to suspect that they had not received the entire stash of records, and returned two months later with a warrant.
Bobb told the FBI that the letter was actually drafted and prepared by another of Trump’s lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, and that he had asked her to sign it in her capacity as custodian, according to the person.
Corcoran did not immediately return an email and phone message on Tuesday. Spokespeople for the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment, and Bobb did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
The interview was first reported by NBC News. The person familiar with it said it was a voluntary discussion with investigators and did not take place before a grand jury, and that she is not regarded as a target of the investigation.
The Justice Department has said that, beyond investigating possible crimes in the retention of the documents themselves, it is also investigating whether anyone sought to obstruct its probe. It is not clear if anyone will be charged.
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Nissan Takes $687 Mln Loss As Sells Russian Business For 1 Euro
Nissan Takes $687 Mln Loss As Sells Russian Business For 1 Euro https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nissan-takes-687-mln-loss-as-sells-russian-business-for-1-euro/
Cars are parked near an automobile assembly plant of the Japanese carmaker Nissan in Saint Petersburg, Russia, October 11, 2022. REUTERS/Igor Russak
Sale to Russian state-owned entity NAMI
Nissan has right to buy back business within six years
Renault sees 331 mln euro hit to H2 net income from move
TOKYO, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T) will hand over its business in Russia to a state-owned entity for 1 euro ($0.97), it said on Tuesday, taking a loss of around $687 million in the latest costly exit from the country by a global company.
The Japanese automaker transfer its shares in Nissan Manufacturing Russia LLC to state-owned NAMI, it said. The deal will give Nissan the right to buy back the business within six years, Russia’s industry and trade ministry said.
The deal makes Nissan the latest major company to leave Russia since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February. It also mirrors a move by Nissan’s top shareholder, French automaker Renault (RENA.PA), which sold its majority stake in Russian carmaker Avtovaz (AVAZI_p.MM) to a Russian investor in May.
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The sale to NAMI will include Nissan’s production and research facilities in St Petersburg as well as its sales and marketing centre in Moscow, the ministry said.
Nissan said it expected an extraordinary loss of around 100 billion yen ($687 million), but maintained its earnings forecast for the financial year ending in March.
Renault, which owns 43% of Nissan, estimated the decision by its Japanese partner would lead to a 331 million euro hit to its net income for the second half of 2022.
Nissan had suspended production at its St. Petersburg plant in March due to supply chain disruptions. Since then, the company and its local unit had been monitoring the situation, it said. But there was “no visibility” of a change to the external environment, Nissan said, prompting it to decide to exit.
Junior alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) is also considering exiting Russia, the Nikkei newspaper said. A spokesperson for Mitsubishi said nothing had been decided.
The exit comes as Nissan has embarked on a major shift in its relationship with Renault. The two said on Monday they were in talks about the future of their alliance, including Nissan considering investing in a new electric vehicle venture by Renault.
Those talks, which could prompt the biggest reset in the alliance since the 2018 arrest of long-time executive Carlos Ghosn, have also included the possibility of Renault selling some of its controlling stake in Nissan, two people with knowledge of the talks have told Reuters.
Renault reportedly sold its stake in Avtovaz for one rouble ($0.02).
The Nissan deal was “of great significance for the industry,” Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said in a statement.
($1 = 145.6200 yen)
($1 = 63.8500 roubles)
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Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov, Caleb Davis and Satoshi Sugiyama; Writing by Alexander Marrow and David Dolan; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Sirens Sound Across Ukraine As Russia Strikes Cities Again; Kyiv Asks Allies For Air Defense Weapons
Sirens Sound Across Ukraine As Russia Strikes Cities Again; Kyiv Asks Allies For Air Defense Weapons https://digitalarkansasnews.com/sirens-sound-across-ukraine-as-russia-strikes-cities-again-kyiv-asks-allies-for-air-defense-weapons/
Russia adds U.S. tech giant Meta to its banned list, blocking Facebook and Instagram use in the country
Budrul Chukrut | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Russia’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, added U.S. tech giant Meta to its list of “terrorists and extremists,” Interfax news agency reported.
A Russian court banned Meta and its activities in Russia, including Facebook and Instagram.
The court’s decision does not prohibit the activities of WhatsApp messenger, which is also owned by Meta, because it does not publicly disseminate information.
Meta considered the decision unreasonable and challenged it, but it was unsuccessful.
— Amanda Macias
Zelenskyy asks G-7 leaders for more air defense weapons
“This week, the largest part of the reports is the list of settlements liberated from the enemy within the scope of our ongoing defensive operation. The story of the liberation of Lyman in the Donetsk region has now become the most popular in the media. But the successes of our soldiers are not limited to Lyman,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Valentyn Ogirenko | Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed U.S. President Joe Biden and other G-7 leaders as they met virtually on Tuesday, asking the group to urgently provide Ukraine with more air defense weapons, Reuters reported.
Kyiv was widely expected to seek additional air defense weapons during the emergency meeting after Moscow ramped-up its missile strikes on various locations across Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday.
The attacks were unleashed after an explosion last weekend partially destroyed Russia’s prized Kerch Strait bridge linking the mainland and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
G-7 leaders are also expected to discuss the global energy crisis and how to implement an international cap on the Russian oil price.
Russia dismissed the G-7 meeting with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the mood of the G-7’s emergency meeting was “obvious and predictable.” “The confrontation will continue,” Peskov said.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia lashes out at Ukraine, but it’s ill-equipped to continue the war
Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilization begin their military trainings after a military call-up for the Russia-Ukraine war in Rostov, Russia on October 04, 2022.
Arkady Budnitsky | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Russia has dramatically ramped up its missile attacks on Ukraine in the last 48 hours, but experts say the country is running out of options — as well as supplies and munitions — on the battlefield.
Air raid sirens were once again sounding out across multiple regions in Ukraine Tuesday, with emergency services warning that more Russian strikes were highly likely. Ukrainian officials reported that energy infrastructure in the western city of Lviv had been hit earlier, while the city of Zaporizhzhia in the south was also targeted this morning.
The latest strikes come a day after a series of Russian attacks — launched in response to the bombing last weekend of Russia’s prized Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea — hit various Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv. The strikes left at least 19 people dead and over a hundred injured, the emergency services said.
Despite Moscow’s recent show of strength in the last day or so, experts say Russia’s forces are looking increasingly desperate and ill-equipped.
Read more here: Russia unleashes its anger on Ukraine with brutal strikes — but it has big problems on the battlefield
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia continues to pound Ukraine’s energy infrastructure
Smoke rises above the buildings after the Russian missile attack on the critical infrastructure of Lviv on Oct. 10, 2022. Russia launched 15 rockets in the Lviv region, some were shot down by air defense forces, the rest hit energy infrastructure facilities. Due to the rocket attack, Lviv was left without electricity, water and mobile communication.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Parts of Ukraine are still struggling with power outages as Russia says it is continuing to target energy infrastructure across the country.
President Zelenskyy said overnight that several hundred settlements remained without electricity after missile attacks yesterday and that authorities had made it a priority to restore power. Officials in Lviv, a major city in the west of Ukraine, reported more power outages Tuesday after Russian missiles targeted the city and wider region’s energy infrastructure.
“Missile attack on a critical infrastructure facility in Lviv. Part of the city is again blacked out,” Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on the Telegram messenger app.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kulebahas said such attacks were “creating unbearable conditions for civilians.”
Russia openly admits targeting such facilities.
On Tuesday, the country’s defense ministry issued a military update on Telegram stating that its forces continue to launch “massive” attacks “using high-precision long-range air and sea-based armament at the facilities of military control and energy system of Ukraine.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Top Russian official warns of the ‘danger of uncontrolled escalation’ in the war
A top Russian official warned of the danger of “uncontrolled escalation” if the West continues to support Ukraine, marking the latest threat to be issued by Moscow to Kyiv’s international allies.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia “will be forced to take adequate countermeasures, including of an asymmetric nature,” Ryabkov told Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti Tuesday, without detailing what those measures could be.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says the risk of direct clashes between Moscow and Washington have increased after the U.S. decision to supply more advanced rocket systems to Ukraine.
Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images
He said Moscow regretted “the ongoing large-scale assistance to Kyiv” from the West and said that while “a direct clash with the United States and NATO is not in Russia’s interests” there was a hope in Moscow “that Washington and other Western capitals are aware of the danger of uncontrolled escalation.”
Ryabkov’s comments are just the latest instance in a long line of saber-rattling by officials in Moscow, including President Putin, who has threatened to use nuclear weapons if the West continues to support Ukraine in the war, or if Russia deems there to be an existential threat to its territory.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia is running out of supplies and munitions, UK intelligence chief will say
The director of GCHQ, one of Britain’s top intelligence agencies, will say in an address today that Russia is running out of supplies and munitions while their forces are exhausted as Ukraine turns tide in the conflict.
GCHQ’s chief Jeremy Fleming is due to speak at the annual RUSI lecture in London on Tuesday afternoon. While his speech will largely focus on China and its impact on global security, he will touch upon the war in Ukraine and is expected to say:
“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Fleming will say, according to pre-released comments sent to CNBC by the intelligence, cyber and security agency.
“Russia’s forces are exhausted. The use of prisoners to reinforce, and now the mobilisation of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation,” he will say, adding that the Russian population is beginning to understand the reality surrounding the war.
“They’re seeing just how badly Putin has misjudged the situation. They’re fleeing the draft, realising they can no longer travel. They know their access to modern technologies and external influences will be drastically restricted. And they are feeling the extent of the dreadful human cost of his war of choice.”
Destroyed armored vehicles and tanks belonging to Russian forces, after they withdrew from the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region in Ukraine on Oct. 5, 2022.
Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Fleming is expected to say that far from “the inevitable Russian military victory that their propaganda machine spouted,” it’s becoming clear that Ukraine’s bravery on the battlefield and in cyberspace, counteracting Russian propaganda, is “turning the tide” in the war.
In the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision-making is looking increasingly flawed with “a high stakes strategy … leading to strategic errors in judgement.”
“Their gains are being reversed. The costs to Russia – in people and equipment are staggering,” Fleming is set to say.
— Holly Ellyatt
Using nuclear weapons against Ukraine will ‘cement’ Putin as a pariah, says former ambassador
The chances of Russian President Vladimir Putin deploying nuclear weapons against Ukraine is low, and would isolate him globally as a pariah, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor told CNBC.
“If President Putin were to use nuclear weapons against a nuclear disarmed Ukraine, this would turn the world against him,” said Taylor.
Taylor said he believes that China and India, along with the rest of the world, would “draw back in horror” if Russia were to resort to nuclear arms.
“This would, I think, further cement President Putin as a pariah. I think there’s no military reason to do it. There’s a lot of political reasons that he shouldn’t do it.”
When asked if there are any traction towards peace talks, Taylor said he does not reckon so, mainly because “the Russians are not at all interested.” There are also no indications that Putin is too committed to the invasion, he added.
— Lee Ying Shan
Missiles shot down over Kyiv region, official says
Several missiles have been sh...
Vote To Decide Future Of Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library
Vote To Decide Future Of Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library https://digitalarkansasnews.com/vote-to-decide-future-of-craighead-county-jonesboro-public-library/
Craighead County voters have an important choice on the upcoming ballot with regard to the library’s funding. Either voters continue things as they are or they cut the funding in half.
And like in most disagreements, each side raises valid points while somehow finding a way to ignore the opposing arguments.
The news continues now…
The news continues now…
Factual Background
The Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library’s (CCJPL) funding will be cut from 2 mills to 1 mill if voters decide to approve a millage cut on the ballot this November.
The group “Craighead Citizens Taxed Enough” gathered the required signatures needed for the measure to be put on the ballot. Iris Stevens is the coordinator of the group and also the coordinator of the NEA Tea Party. She is a retired English teacher.
“It started back in February or March of 2021,” Stevens said, asserting that the matter was not related to recent politics. “Another citizen and I got together and we were talking about the upcoming reassessments and how that was going to change. That person had been looking at a lot of the taxes in NEA and this will probably not going to be the only one we looked at.”
Are we paying more?
One of the bold points of “Craighead Citizens Taxed Enough” was that the CCJPL has $6 million in the bank. CCJPL Director Vanessa Adams clarified this was because they’re forward-funded. It’s a system they’ve used since the 1940s, she said, to protect both tax payers and the library.
“Forward-funded, according to our library definition, that all of the funding we received last year is what we are living on this year,” Adams said. “So all of the property tax, all of the millage we are receiving now this year, goes to fund us next year. It’s a brilliant format.”
This explains why the library has built a surplus fund. But with the library bringing in higher revenues than their operating expenses, the question shifts to if the library is overfunded. Library Director Adams says no. Citizen organizer Stevens says yes.
A county can levy up to 5 mills under Arkansas law for maintenance and operation of a library, authorized by Amendment 38 of the Arkansas Constitution. Any changes must be made by electors. Stevens said that Craighead County is unusually high at 2 mills when considering property values and size.
As a class 6 county (class 7 is the highest) Craighead County collects more mills for its library than other counties of similar size (source). However, it is critical to note that this still isn’t disproportionately high. Saline County collects 1.7 mills, Jefferson County 1.4 mills, and Garland County 1.6 mills. At 2 mills, Craighead would go from having one of the most well-funded to the least well-funded libraries, should funding be cut in half to 1 mill. Faulkner County and White County, also class 6 counties, collect 1 mill.
What Would Be Cut?
Both Jonesboro voters and Craighead County voters will be voting FOR the measure or AGAINST the measure, but each result has individual implications, Adams told NEA Report.
If the county cuts funding, all four library branches in the county will be forced to close. That includes Lake City, Brookland, Monette, and Caraway.
Stevens, without being able to provide evidence, disputed this and said that the branches would be unaffected. She said she is working on documents to prove this but they are not ready yet.
If the Jonesboro measure passes, operating funds for the library will be cut in half, Adams said, meaning far more visible consequences.
“We will potentially have to sell our book mobile,” Adams said. “We will have to cut hours. We won’t be available to the public when we are now. We will cut our programming. We do a lot of outreach programming to nursing centers, Alzheimer’s units, daycares, we will have to cut all of that.”
Stevens seemed to believe otherwise, in that the library could thrive and continue to adequately serve the community with the reduced millage. Although Adams and library proponents disagree, Stevens said inflation and the recent spike in appraisals across the area as a whole are big reasons why her group wants to cut funding to the library.
“We have a 40 year high in inflation with people seeing grocery prices going up a dollar or two a trip,” Stevens said. “Anywhere we can help them, I believe we need to. They’re the ones paying the bills and we need to make sure they’re not over paying.”
But a tax on property is generally one that isn’t felt as hard by those who can barely afford food. The tax increases based on how much value the property has. Of all taxes collected in Arkansas (state and local combined), 18.1% comes from property taxes. That’s the fifth lowest in the nation, according to TaxFoundation.org, where the average is 31%.
Stevens acknowledged this but indicated a trickle-down effect from the larger property owners could still be felt by those struggling to get by.
“The ones who own small homes and lower income are already in a pinch,” Stevens said. “So let’s raise their taxes more during reappraisal. When appraisals go up, the rent goes up for everyone. So this helps people who struggle to make the rent.”
Until the results come in on election night, no one can predict for certain which way the tax measure will go. A vocal contingent does seem to have rallied around the library in a social media push to “Save the Library.” The library director calls that encouraging and genuinely seemed positive about the prospects. But it was clear that a sour feeling wouldn’t go away for her at the mere concept, she said, of people wanting to defund a library that helps people who have nothing else.
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Lindauer Seeks New Leader For California Rural Legal Alliance Hunt Scanlon Media
Lindauer Seeks New Leader For California Rural Legal Alliance – Hunt Scanlon Media https://digitalarkansasnews.com/lindauer-seeks-new-leader-for-california-rural-legal-alliance-hunt-scanlon-media/
October 11, 2022 – Lindauer has partnered with California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. (CRLA) to find their next executive director. Senior consultant Diane Felicio, Ph.D. and consultant Elsa Gomes Bondlow are leading the assignment.
California Rural Legal Assistance seeks applications and nominations for the position of executive director. This is a pivotal moment in the organization’s history as Jose Padilla, the organization’s longstanding leader is retiring after more than four decades at the organization, with 38 years as executive director. The executive director is charged with the organization’s strategic leadership, management, and successful operation. This includes leading long-range strategic planning, major policy initiatives, board relationships, fund development, staff management, and program planning and oversight.
The successful candidate must possess a law degree, be licensed by the State Bar of California, or be admitted to the California bar at the start of their tenure as executive director. “This person must have a humble presence with a track record as a clear communicator, adept at balancing the need for transparency and collaboration with timely decision-making and follow-through,” said Lindauer. “This is a remarkable opportunity to join a justice-driven organization and provide the visionary leadership and organizational discipline needed to ensure that CRLA’s impact, community presence, and national status are preserved and advanced.”
California Rural Legal Assistance is a prominent legal services organization, nationally recognized for its large-scale impact on behalf of California’s low-income rural communities. Founded in 1966, CRLA provides free civil legal services, advocacy support, and educational resources to low-income rural residents across California. CRLA’s administrative office is in Oakland. The organization has 17 offices statewide.
Serving Non-Profits
Lindauer serves higher and secondary education, hospitals, academic research centers, think tanks, research facilities, and foundations, as well as advocacy, public service, social justice, and other mission-driven non-profits. The firm has led searches for the Boston YMCA, Center for Applied Special Technology, Healthy Minds Innovations/Center for Healthy Minds, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Cockrell School of Engineering, among others.
Deb Taft, chief executive officer, leads Lindauer with over 25 years of executive and senior-level experience across the non-profit sector, from education to healthcare/academic medicine to the youth service and voluntary sectors. Her expertise includes governance, strategic planning, fundraising, program and staff management, strategic marketing, analytics, and constituent engagement, as well as talent recruitment, retention, and development.
With over 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles, Dr. Felicio has served as a strategist, executive director, operations expert, fundraiser, crisis manager, and trusted advisor and relationship builder across a broad range of institutions in the non-profit and related sectors. Within these positions, she has been directly involved with recruitment activities across numerous roles including college and university faculty/deans/provosts/presidents, development professionals, and operations staff/ directors/executive directors, as well as board recruitment and governance.
Ms. Gomes Bondlow brings to Lindauer and its clients over 20 years of experience, as a connector, relationship builder, social justice activist, and social change strategist. In 2020, she co-founded the trust-based, woman of color-led, Social Equity Access Fund, which focused on providing basic needs while addressing the social determinants of health. Ms. Gomes Bondlow currently serves as a board member and co-chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee Women in Development of Greater Boston.
Recent Search
Lindauer recently assisted in the recruitment of Ben Johnson as the new president and CEO of the United States Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, AR. The assignment was spearheaded by Libby Roberts, senior vice president, and Megan Abbett, senior consultant. “In conducting a national search, we were looking for a new CEO with a proven track record of achievement in museum operations,” said Doug Babb, USMM board chairperson. “And that is exactly what we are getting with Ben Johnson. Over his 20-year museum career, Ben has served in nearly every capacity within the museum industry. He understands every aspect of museum operations because he has performed nearly every position.”
“Ben brings us the expertise we need to complete the fabrication and installation of the museum experience, hire, and train our museum staff, and develop a business plan for an operating museum,” said Mr. Babb. “We expect that with a new CEO with a track record of success in museum operations, we can accelerate our fundraising and open to the public next year.”
Related: The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence Selects Lindauer for CDO Search
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
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Senate Candidate J.D. Vance Defends Donald Trump In Debate With Rep. Tim Ryan
Senate Candidate J.D. Vance Defends Donald Trump In Debate With Rep. Tim Ryan https://digitalarkansasnews.com/senate-candidate-j-d-vance-defends-donald-trump-in-debate-with-rep-tim-ryan/
Free speech is democracy’s last line of defense. In these times of war, climate chaos, mass shootings, attacks on abortion rights, economic and racial injustice and threats to our democracy, we’re committed to shining a spotlight on abuses of power and amplifying the voices of the movement leaders, organizers and everyday people who are working to change the world. But we can’t do it alone. We count on you to make all of our coverage possible. Can you donate $10 per month to support Democracy Now!’s independent journalism all year long? Right now, a generous donor will DOUBLE your gift, which means your $10 donation this month will be worth $20 to Democracy Now! Please do your part right now. Every dollar counts. Thank you so much.
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WATCH: Kamala Harris Slams Republicans Over Migrant Busing Blames Trump For Border Crisis
WATCH: Kamala Harris Slams Republicans Over Migrant Busing, Blames Trump For Border Crisis https://digitalarkansasnews.com/watch-kamala-harris-slams-republicans-over-migrant-busing-blames-trump-for-border-crisis/
October 11, 2022 09:53 AM
Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) Monday night for dropping busloads of immigrants off outside her residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., over the past month.
During a rare late-night appearance on the talk show Late Night With Seth Meyers, Harris was asked about the busing situation after Abbott bused two other loads of immigrants to Harris’s residence last week.
KAMALA HARRIS’S MARIJUANA PROSECUTION RECORD SCRUTINIZED AFTER RECENT PARDONS
“I don’t think that, you know, playing games with people’s lives is the solution to this problem. But based on the record amount of arrests at the border, it is a problem,” Meyers said. “I think we look to our leaders at times like these. What is the path forward?”
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the annual Freedman’s Bank Forum at the Department of the Treasury in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Harris said Abbott’s response was a “dereliction of duty” and called on Abbott to help find a solution to the illegal crossings instead of dropping immigrants outside of her door. Harris also blamed the administration of former President Donald Trump for the crisis at the border, claiming the immigration system under Trump was broken.
“I just think it’s an absolute dereliction of duty,” Harris said. “If you see a problem and we agree that we need to address it, then if you’re a leader, participate in a solution. When we first came into office, the first bill that we proposed was for a pathway for citizenship, which was to fix a broken immigration system, which was broken under the previous administration.”
Harris added that the move was “political theater” and called on Abbott, Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ), and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who sent two flights of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard last month, to stop playing with people’s lives.
Kamala Harris accuses Republican governors of “dereliction of duty” for sending illegal immigrants to near her Washington, D.C. residence.
Then she blames Trump and claims it’s actually Biden who’s trying to “fix” illegal immigration (which is at record levels). pic.twitter.com/U23g36haXZ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 11, 2022
“Participate in the solution because we are offering solutions,” Harris said. “But instead, [we have] this gamesmanship with real human beings who trust us.”
Abbott announced in May that he would bring the border crisis to President Joe Biden and began offering free transportation to Washington. He initially dropped immigrants off several blocks from the Capitol but later expanded the busing operation to Chicago and New York City. The busing operation is in its sixth month.
The Republican governors have maintained that all three cities are “sanctuary” zones that for years have vowed to protect people illegally residing in the United States, adding that, therefore, they ought to be willing to accept the buses of immigrants.
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The mayors have rebuked Abbott and called for federal and state assistance to house those arriving in their cities temporarily.
Since Biden took office 20 months ago, the number of noncitizens arrested after illegally entering the country from Mexico has spiked from below 50,000 per month over the past decade to between 150,000 and 230,000 each month.
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Trump Records Lawyer Meets With FBI In Mar-A-Lago Probe
Trump Records Lawyer Meets With FBI In Mar-A-Lago Probe https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-records-lawyer-meets-with-fbi-in-mar-a-lago-probe/
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for former president Donald Trump who signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government has spoken with the FBI, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Christina Bobb told federal investigators during Friday’s interview that she had not drafted the letter but that another Trump lawyer who she said actually prepared it had asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian for Trump’s records, said the person, who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The process is of interest to investigators because the Justice Department says the letter was untrue in asserting that all classified records sought by the government had been located and returned. Though the letter, and 38 documents bearing classification markings, were presented to FBI and Justice Department officials during a June 3 visit to Mar-a-Lago, agents returned to the Florida estate with a search warrant on Aug. 8 and seized about 100 additional classified records.
According to a court filing last month, the signed certification letter presented to investigators who went to Mar-a-Lago on June 3 to recover classified material after earlier issuing a subpoena for them said that “a diligent search was conducted of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida” and that “any and all responsive documents accompany this certification.”
The letter also included the caveat that the statements in it were true “based upon the information that has been provided to me.”
At the time, the FBI was presented with an envelope containing 38 documents with classification markings, including at the top-secret level. But agents began to suspect that they had not received the entire stash of records, and returned two months later with a warrant.
Bobb told the FBI that the letter was actually drafted and prepared by another of Trump’s lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, and that he had asked her to sign it in her capacity as custodian, according to the person.
Corcoran did not immediately return an email and phone message on Tuesday. Spokespeople for the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment, and Bobb did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
The interview was first reported by NBC News. The person familiar with it said it was a voluntary discussion with investigators and did not take place before a grand jury, and that she is not regarded as a target of the investigation.
The Justice Department has said that, beyond investigating possible crimes in the retention of the documents themselves, it is also investigating whether anyone sought to obstruct its probe. It is not clear if anyone will be charged.
_____
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Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Parkland Shooter's Death Penalty Trial Nears Its End As The Prosecution And Defense Make Closing Arguments | CNN
Parkland Shooter's Death Penalty Trial Nears Its End As The Prosecution And Defense Make Closing Arguments | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/parkland-shooters-death-penalty-trial-nears-its-end-as-the-prosecution-and-defense-make-closing-arguments-cnn/
CNN —
Closing arguments began Tuesday morning in the sentencing trial of the Parkland school shooter – the last opportunity for prosecutors and defense attorneys to make their case before the jury that will help decide whether the gunman is sentenced to death or life in prison.
The imminent conclusion of the monthslong trial comes almost a year after Nikolas Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the February 14, 2018, massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 14 students and three school staff members were killed.
“What one writes, what one says, is a window to someone’s soul,” lead prosecutor Michael Satz said at the start of his closing argument, encouraging jurors to review the gunman’s online comments expressing his desire to carry out a mass killing and the searches he made for information about how to do so.
“What he wanted to do, what his plan was and what he did, was to murder children at school and their caretakers,” Satz said. “That’s what he wanted to do.”
Jury deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday, during which time jurors will be sequestered, per Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer.
Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, have argued Cruz’s decision to commit the deadliest mass shooting at an American high school was premeditated and calculated and not, as the defense has suggested, related to any mental disorders or developmental delays.
The state completed its rebuttal last week, which included video in which Cruz told clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Robert Denney he chose to carry out the shooting on Valentine’s Day because he “felt like no one loved me, and I didn’t like Valentine’s Day and I wanted to ruin it for everyone.”
Denney, who spent more than 400 hours with the gunman, testified for the prosecution he concluded Cruz has borderline personality disorder and anti-social personality disorder, but did not meet the criteria for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, as the defense has contended.
When read the list of names of the 17 people killed and asked if fetal alcohol spectrum disorder explained their murders, Denney responded “no” each time.
The defense, in seeking to present the jury with mitigating circumstances – reasons why Cruz should not be sentenced to death but to life in prison without the possibility of parole – has offered evidence of a lifetime of struggles at home and in school, including being born to a woman who abused drugs and alcohol while she was pregnant with Cruz.
If they choose to recommend a death sentence, the jurors must be unanimous, or Cruz will receive life in prison without the possibility of parole. If the jury does recommend death, the final decision rests with Judge Scherer, who could choose to follow the recommendation or sentence Cruz to life.
The lengthy trial – jury selection began six months ago, in early April – has seen prosecutors and defense attorneys present evidence of aggravating factors and mitigating circumstances, reasons Cruz should or should not be put to death.
Prosecutors have argued Cruz was “cold, calculative, manipulative and deadly” in carrying out the attack, which Satz called “planned” and “systematic” in his opening statement in July. The state pointed to seven aggravating factors, he said, including the fact the killings were “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.”
“These aggravating factors far outweigh any mitigating circumstances,” Satz said in July, “anything about the defendant’s background, anything about his childhood, anything about his schooling, anything about his mental health, anything about his therapy, anything about his care.”
Underscoring their argument, prosecutors presented evidence showing the gunman spent months searching online for information about mass shootings and left behind social media comments sharing his express desire to “kill people.”
Some of his Google searches included broad, generic terms, like “murder” or “shooting people.” Others indicated he sought information on specific mass shootings and the people who carried them out. He also searched for a map of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, from which he’d been expelled, and for information on “how long does it take for a cop to show up at a school shooting.” And on YouTube, Cruz left comments like “Im going to be a professional school shooter,” and promised to “go on a killing rampage.”
As part of the prosecution’s case, family members of the victims were given the opportunity to take the stand and offer raw and emotional testimony about how Cruz’s actions had forever changed their lives. At one point, even members of Cruz’s own defense team were brought to tears.
“Our family is broken. There is this constant emptiness,” Max Schachter, the father of 14-year-old victim Alex Schachter, testified.
“I feel I can’t truly be happy if I smile,” Schachter said. “I know that behind that smile is the sharp realization that part of me will always be sad and miserable because Alex isn’t here.”
But before the prosecution rested, jurors also visited the site of the massacre, Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ 1200 building, which had been sealed since the shooting to preserve the crime scene – littered with dried blood, Valentine’s Day cards and students’ belongings – for the trial.
In their own case, the public defenders assigned to represent Cruz asked the jury to take into account his troubled history, from a dysfunctional family life to serious mental and developmental issues, with attorney Melisa McNeill describing him as a “damaged and wounded” person.
“His brain is broken,” she said. “He’s a damaged human being.”
Among the first witnesses was Cruz’s older sister, Danielle Woodard, who testified their mother, Brenda Woodard, used drugs and drank alcohol while pregnant with him – something McNeill said made his brain “irretrievably broken” through no fault of his own.
“She introduced me to a life that no child should be introduced to,” she said. “She had no regards for my life or his life.”
The defense also called teachers and educators who spoke to developmental issues and delays Cruz exhibited as a young child, including challenges with vocabulary and motor skills. Various counselors and psychiatrists also testified, offering their observations from years of treating or interacting with Cruz.
Former Broward County school district counselor John Newnham testified Cruz’s academic achievements in elementary school were below expectations. Cruz would describe himself as “stupid” and a “freak,” Newnham said.
Despite these apparent issues, Cruz’s adoptive mother, the late Lynda Cruz, was reluctant to seek help, according to the testimony of a close friend who lived down the street from the family, Trish Devaney Westerlind.
Newnham’s testimony echoed that: While Lynda Cruz was a caring mother, after the death of her husband, she would ask for help but not use the support available.
“She was overwhelmed,” Newnham said. “She appeared to lack some of the basic foundations of positive parenting.”
Westerlind still accepts calls from Cruz and, says though he’s in his 20s, Cruz still talks like an 11-year-old child.
Cruz’s attorneys acknowledged as he grew older he developed a fascination with firearms, and school staff raised concerns about his behavior to authorities, McNeill said.
In June 2014, an adolescent psychiatrist and a school therapist at the school Cruz attended at the time wrote a letter to an outside psychiatrist treating Cruz, in which they expressed concern Cruz had become verbally aggressive and had a “preoccupation with guns” and “dreams of killing others.”
The psychiatrist, Dr. Brett Negin, who testified he treated Cruz between the ages of 13 and 18, said he never received the letter.
The defense’s case came to an unexpected end last month when – having called just 26 of 80 planned witnesses – public defenders assigned to represent Cruz abruptly rested, leading the judge to admonish the team for what she said was unprofessionalism, resulting in a courtroom squabble between her and the defense (the jury was not present).
Scherer went on to question Cruz about the decision to rest, making sure he had an opportunity to discuss it with his lawyers and understood it meant no one else, including his brother Zachary Cruz, would take the stand in his defense.
“Are you comfortable with the decision?” Scherer asked.
“Yes,” Cruz replied.
Defense attorneys would later file a motion to disqualify the judge for her comments, arguing in part they suggested the judge was not impartial and Cruz’s right to a fair trial had been undermined. Prosecutors disagreed, writing “judicial comments, even of a critical or hostile nature, are not grounds for disqualification.”
Scherer ultimately denied the motion.
Prosecutors then presented their rebuttal, concluding last week following a three-day delay attributed to Hurricane Ian.
As part of the rebuttal, one former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student testified Cruz had a backpack with a swastika drawn on it, along with the n-word and other explicit language.
Separately, clinical neuropsychologist Denney testified Cruz was “trying to look bad” in tests Denney administered to the shooter in March.
“Mr. Cruz is grossly exaggerating his self-report, in terms of severe psychiatric problems, severe memory problems, cognitive issues, physical problems – he is exaggerating all of it,” Denney testified.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the first name of defense attorney Melisa McNeill.
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The Ears Have It: Disneys Mouse-Inspired Hats Stay Hot
The Ears Have It: Disney’s Mouse-Inspired Hats Stay Hot https://digitalarkansasnews.com/the-ears-have-it-disneys-mouse-inspired-hats-stay-hot/
Before she made her first-ever Disney World trip this year, Grizzard purchased a “Ratatouille” headpiece online. But that wasn’t the end. “I just started following all this Instagram stuff, and everybody wears them. I was like, ‘Oh, well, I want to fit in.’” Others in her budding collection: Eeyore, “Star Wars” rebel ears and the basic red Minnie bow. “It’s mostly characters,” she said. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)
For decades, Disney fans have donned hats that signaled their allegiance. Two simple circles form ears and put wearers in Mickey Mouse mode.
The mouse-ear hats craze started in the 1950s with basic black, emulating the teenaged cast of “The Mickey Mouse Club,” an afternoon television sensation
“Wearing one of those hats made you part of a family, a club that anybody could be in,” said Robert Thompson, an author and founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
In recent years, the headwear designs have become more elaborate. Switching the cap-style base to a headband and adding a bow has made Minnie Mouse a merchandise maven. Disney’s prices for ears start at about $30, but designer or collectible pairs can run in the hundreds of dollars. A Vera Wang set introduced this summer goes for $600.
Bride-and-groom ear sets are common at Disney World. Ronald Miranda and Helen Lopez of Chicago wore theirs at Epcot after he proposed to her at Magic Kingdom. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)
“I grew up with a lot of Mickey ear hats. Of course, now my Minnie ear headband collection has been growing,” said Ashley Eckstein, who grew up in Orlando and is now a designer with Disney cred as the voice of Ahsoka Tano in animated “Star Wars” productions.
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“So I’m definitely a consumer, not only a designer of them,” Eckstein said. The company has asked her to create some ear styles, and she started with a Princess Leia look and proceeded with droid and Ahsoka looks. Her most recent set, now available at Walt Disney World, are ewok-inspired.
On a recent outing to the parks, “I saw so many people wearing the ears I design, and it just makes me so happy, you know, that they would (A) choose my design but (B) that my ears are bringing them joy,” Eckstein said.
Scott Chapman, who lives in Denver, wore a Kermit ear hat during a recent visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. He says he bought it about 15 years ago at Disneyland. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)
As part of the coverage of Disney World’s 50th anniversary, the Orlando Sentinel interviewed 50 people in four theme parks about the ear hats they were wearing that day.
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Some visitors coordinated their ears with their outfits or to the park or as a salute to a favorite Disney character. There are shiny, sequined options in the latest trendy colors, odes to food, rides, movies, countries and holidays. Some were homemade or purchased from third-party vendors or via Etsy.
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“A lot of that comes from the fact of everyone does want to coordinate their outfit from head to toe,” Eckstein said. “If they can’t find a pair of ears that coordinate with their outfit, then a lot of fans will just make it.”
Friends Melanie Barker (left) and Hannah LaCombe, who live in Little Rock, Arkansas, made several pairs of ears before their Walt Disney World trip. LaCombe’s headpiece is a salute to Marie in ‘The Aristocats’ while Barker’s ears are Rosetta-inspired. ‘They originally were about three times the size, and I kept paring them down because they were too heavy,’ Barker said. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)
The basic ear design are “the ultimate tabula rasa,” Thompson said.
“It’s no wonder why Etsy goes nuts with these,” he said. “You’ve essentially got blank circles. That is an invitation to bedazzle your way into whatever you want to do.”
But maybe it’s bigger than that, he said.
“Those ears are the portal into the souls of millions of Americans. The very fact that you could go up to them and then say all kinds of other things and either get hit in the face or told to get lost. Ask them about their ears and they invite you into their id,” Thompson said.
“Maybe that tells us more about the ears than anything else does, which is these things are transcendent. They’re beyond, you know, representation. They’re beyond brand symbol. They’ve become something else entirely.”
Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters or the Theme Park Rangers podcast at orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/theme-park-rangers-podcast.
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