Digital Arkansas News

National Archives Says It’s Still Missing Records From Trump Officials https://digitalarkansasnews.com/national-archives-says-its-still-missing-records-from-trump-officials/ The National Archives has told the House Oversight Committee that it has not yet recovered all of the records from Trump administration officials that should have been transferred under the Presidential Records Act. The archives will consult with the Department of Justice “on whether ‘to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed,’ as established under the Federal Records Act,” acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall said in a letter sent on Friday to the committee’s chairwoman, Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.). Steidel Wall added that the archives has been unable to obtain federal records related to “non-official electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts.” Presidential advisers are required to forward such messages to their official accounts under the law, she noted. “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” Steidel Wall wrote, according to the letter provided to The Washington Post. Steidel Wall cited the ongoing lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on behalf of the National Archives against former Trump adviser Peter Navarro over failing to turn over private emails involving official White House business during his stint serving in the Trump administration. Under the Presidential Records Act, the immediate staff of the president, the vice president and anyone who advises the president must preserve records and phone calls pertaining to official duties. Although the latest letter referred to Trump officials, the spotlight on former president Donald Trump and the documents he kept after leaving the White House has increased since a court-approved FBI search of the Mar-a-Lago Club on Aug. 8. The FBI has recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year: 184 in a set of 15 boxes sent to the National Archives and Records Administration in January; 38 more handed over by a Trump lawyer to investigators in June; and more than 100 additional documents found in the Aug. 8 search. In September, Maloney had asked the archives to assess whether Trump has surrendered all presidential records or classified materials. In her latest letter, Steidel Wall deferred to the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation. Maloney said she found the latest disclosure troubling. “The National Archives has confirmed to the Oversight Committee that they still have not received all presidential records from the Trump White House,” Maloney said in a statement. “Presidential records are the property of the American people, and it is outrageous that these records remain unaccounted for 20 months after former President Trump left office.” Read More Here

Meta Exec And Former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Books $2.5 Million Profit On House Sale In Tony Atherton, Calif. https://digitalarkansasnews.com/meta-exec-and-former-u-k-deputy-prime-minister-books-2-5-million-profit-on-house-sale-in-tony-atherton-calif/ Liz Lucking Also on Nick Clegg’s to-do list: deciding whether Donald Trump, the former U.S. president, is allowed back on Facebook Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the U.K., current president for global affairs at Meta Platforms (META) and the man who will decide whether to allow Donald Trump back on Facebook, has just sold his posh home in California’s Silicon Valley for $11.56 million. See:Trump’s Facebook ban may end as soon as January 2023, Meta executive says And:Facebook parent Meta is no longer one of 10 most valuable U.S. companies. Here’s what just overtook it The five-bedroom house, in Atherton — one of the most expensive towns in the U.S. — spans just over 5,000 square feet and “makes a commanding first impression,” framed by verdant lawn and white roses, according to the property’s listing with Hadar Guibara of Christie’s International Real Estate Sereno. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Loaded with traditional appeal from the oak hardwood floors, to classic millwork and architectural ceilings, the two-story home has a neutral interior palette. On the main level are grand formal rooms, an office, a “tremendous kitchen and family room combination,” and a bedroom suite. The rest of the bedrooms, including a multiroom primary suite, are upstairs, the listing said. Elsewhere on the property is a one-bedroom guest house, a pool and loggia with a fireplace. The former Liberal Democrat party chief snapped up the place with his wife, international lawyer Miriam González Durántez, in 2018 for $9 million, records with PropertyShark show. Atherton’s 94027 ZIP Code, where this home is located, is one of the wealthiest in the U.S. and an “enclave for Silicon Valley power players,” according to the Wall Street Journal, which noted the five-square-mile town — some 35 miles south of San Francisco — has a population of 6,915 and median household income above $250,000. The median home price in the affluent enclave stood at $6.16 million as of August, down 9.3% year over year, according to Redfin data. Clegg, 55, served as deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015 and as leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. He joined Meta — then simply known as Facebook — in 2018 and now serves as vice president of global affairs and communications. Last week, he explained at an event held by news outlet Semafor in Washington, D.C, that he will make the decision on whether to reinstate Donald Trump’s Facebook account when his ban from the platform — a result of his violating the company’s incitement of violence policy — expires next year. “It’s not a capricious decision,” he said. “We will look at the signals related to real-world harm to make a decision whether at the two-year point — which is early January next year–whether Trump gets reinstated to the platform.” Read on:Facebook hastily switched off safeguards after Biden beat Trump, helping pave path to deadly Capitol riot: whistleblower Also:Meta Platforms agrees to pay for personal security for outgoing COO Sheryl Sandberg -Liz Lucking (END) Dow Jones Newswires 10-01-22 1848ET Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Read More Here

Trump At Center Of Oath Keepers Novel Defense In Jan. 6 Case https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-at-center-of-oath-keepers-novel-defense-in-jan-6-case-2/ 6:55PM Obituaries PGe PG Store Archives Classifieds Classified Events Jobs Real Estate Legal Notices Pets MENU SUBSCRIBE LOGIN REGISTER LOG OUT MY PROFILE Home News Local Sports Opinion A&E Life Business Contact Us NEWSLETTERS ACCOUNT Subscribe Login Register Log out My Profile Subscriber Services Search SECTIONS HOME Homepage This Just In Chats Weather Traffic Event Guide PG Store PGe Video Photos The Digs RSS Feeds NEWS News Home Crimes & Courts Election 2022 Politics Education Health & Wellness COVID-19 Transportation State Nation World Weather News Obituaries News Obituaries Portfolio Science Environment Faith & Religion Social Services LOCAL Local Home City Region East North South West Washington Westmoreland Obituaries Classifieds Legal Notices Real Estate SPORTS Sports Home Steelers Penguins Pirates Sports Columns Gene Collier Ron Cook Joe Starkey Paul Zeise Pitt Penn State WVU North Shore Drive Podcast Riverhounds Maulers NFL NHL MLB NBA NCAA College Sports High School Sports OPINION Opinion Home Editorials Letters Op-Ed Columns PG Columnists Insight A&E A&E Home Celebrities Movies TV & Radio Music Concert Listings Theatre & Dance Art & Architecture Books Events LIFE Life Home Food Dining Recipes Drinks Buying Here Homes & Gardens goodness Random Acts of Kindness Seen Outdoors Style & Fashion Travel Holidays BUSINESS Business Home Building PGH Your Money Business Health Powersource Workzone Tech News Business / Law Other Business Consumer Alerts Business of Pittsburgh Top Workplaces OTHER PGe NEWSLETTERS PG STORE ARCHIVES CLASSIFIEDS OBITUARIES JOBS LEGAL NOTICES REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS EVENTS PETS CONTACT US / FAQ CONTACT US ADVERTISING CAREER OPPORTUNITIES TOP Email a Story Your e-mail: Friends e-mail: Read More Here

Venezuela Frees 7 Jailed Americans In Swap For 2 Maduro Relatives https://digitalarkansasnews.com/venezuela-frees-7-jailed-americans-in-swap-for-2-maduro-relatives/ WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Venezuela on Saturday freed seven Americans, including five oil executives, in exchange for two relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro jailed in the United States on drug convictions, U.S. officials said. The swap included executives of Citgo Petroleum held for years, in addition to U.S. Marine veteran Matthew Heath and another U.S. citizen named Osman Khan. They were exchanged for two of Maduro’s wife’s nephews, who were arrested in 2015. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the “wrongfully detained” Americans would soon be reunited with their relatives. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com “Today, we celebrate that seven families will be whole once more. To all the families who are still suffering and separated from their loved ones who are wrongfully detained – know that we remain dedicated to securing their release,” Biden said. The prisoner transfer, which one U.S. official said took place at an airport in an unspecified third country, followed months of secretive talks with Maduro’s socialist government, which is under strict U.S. sanctions, including on the OPEC nation’s energy sector. It came at a time when Washington is under growing pressure to do more to secure freedom for dozens of Americans held abroad. Much of the Biden administration’s focus has been on Russia’s detention of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American, Paul Whelan. Maduro’s government said in a statement that as a result of talks that started in March two young Venezuelans “unjustly” held in the United States were freed, as well as a group of U.S. citizens who were subject to Venezuelan court proceedings and were released for “humanitarian reasons.” The freed Americans were all in stable health and “overjoyed to be heading home,” while the two Venezuelans were en route back to the South American country, a senior Biden administration official told reporters in a telephone briefing. ‘PAINFUL DECISION’ Biden approved the exchange weeks ago, making a “tough decision, a painful decision” that the release of the two Venezuelans was essential to securing the Americans’ freedom. U.S. officials have previously said in private that Maduro wanted to use the detainees as bargaining chips. The swap, which included Biden granting clemency to the two Venezuelans who U.S. authorities had dubbed the “narco nephews,” has not altered Washington’s policy toward Venezuela, a senior administration official said. The Biden administration has only slightly eased Trump-era sanctions on Venezuela, saying it will consider more significant steps if Maduro returns to negotiations with the Venezuelan opposition and there is progress toward free elections. An increased flow of Venezuelan oil to world markets could help replace some of the Russian supplies hit by international sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, experts say. The five employees of Houston-based Citgo, who had been detained in Venezuela in 2017, were Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo and Jose Pereira. Also released was Heath, a former Marine hospitalized following what his family said was a suicide attempt in June. He had been held since 2020 on terrorism charges, which he denied. Khan was identified as a Florida man who had been arrested in January. In return, the Unites States freed two of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores’ nephews, Franqui Flores and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores. The two, arrested in Haiti in 2015 in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation, were convicted in 2016 on U.S. charges that they tried to carry out a multimillion-dollar cocaine deal. They were each sentenced in 2017 to 18 years in prison. The prisoner handover, the largest since Biden took office in January 2020, occurred in “a country in between Venezuela and the United States” after the men arrived in separate planes, a senior U.S. official said. Citgo welcomed the news that the executives were free, saying in a statement it was “grateful to the leaders in Washington who helped bring about their release.” A Venezuelan court in 2020 sentenced the executives, accused of embezzlement, money laundering and conspiracy, to prison terms ranging from eight to 13 years. They and the company maintained their innocence, and the U.S. State Department called the charges “specious.” “We applaud President Biden for having the courage to make this deal and encourage him and the administration to continue building upon the momentum,” said Jonathan Franks, spokesperson for the Bring our Families Home campaign, which advocates for Americans wrongfully held overseas. At least four other Americans are still detained in Venezuela, including two former U.S. Army Special Forces members, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, who were arrested in 2020 in connection with a botched raid aimed at ousting Maduro. Venezuela released two jailed U.S. citizens in March following a visit to Caracas by the highest-level U.S. delegation in years. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Matt Spetalnick; Aditional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Luc Cohen, Kanishka Singh and Gary McWilliams; Editing by Diane Craft, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

American Prisoners Are Released From Venezuela And Iran https://digitalarkansasnews.com/american-prisoners-are-released-from-venezuela-and-iran/ Caracas let go seven Americans in a trade for two nephews of Venezuela’s first lady who had been convicted on drug charges. Separately, Tehran freed its longest-held American prisoner. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. The Americans released by Venezuela included several executives of the Citgo oil refining company, who had been detained more than four years ago.Credit…Jorge Arreaza, via Associated Press Oct. 1, 2022Updated 5:58 p.m. ET WASHINGTON — Seven Americans held in Venezuela for years were on their way home Saturday after President Biden agreed to grant clemency to two nephews of Cilia Flores, Venezuela’s first lady, who were sentenced in 2017 to 18 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States, officials said. At the same time, Iran on Saturday released Siamak Namazi, a 51-year-old dual-national Iranian American businessman who has been jailed since 2015, on a renewable furlough and lifted the travel ban on his father, Baquer Namazi, an 85-year-old former official for the United Nations, according to the family’s lawyer. A senior official in the Biden administration said the timing of the two announcements was coincidental. American officials said the two Venezuelans known as the “narco nephews” — Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas — were flown to a third country on Saturday at the same time that a plane carrying the Americans landed in the same country, which officials would not name. A senior administration official called the president’s action to grant clemency “a tough decision and a painful decision,” but said it was the only way to convince Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to release the Americans. Officials declined to say whether the prisoner swap represented a thaw in the strained relationship between the United States and the Maduro-led government in Venezuela. The United States has imposed sanctions on Mr. Maduro’s government as it presses for negotiations between Mr. Maduro and Juan Guaidó, the former National Assembly leader, whom the United States considers Venezuela’s legitimate interim president. The release of the Namazis comes as negotiations over returning to a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities have bogged down. American officials have long insisted that prisoner talks are not connected to the talks to revive the 2015 deal. Image Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, in a photo provided by their family.Credit…Babak Namazi, via Reuters The White House made no official mention of the actions by Iran on Saturday. In a statement, Mr. Biden did not mention the release of the Venezuelan drug smugglers. But he welcomed home the Americans: Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, Jose Pereira, Matthew Heath, and Osman Khan. “These individuals will soon be reunited with their families and back in the arms of their loved ones where they belong,” Mr. Biden said in the statement. “Today, we celebrate that seven families will be whole once more.” The announcement was the latest in a series of prisoner swaps that Mr. Biden has agreed to since taking office, in an aggressive attempt to bring home Americans that the State Department has designated as wrongfully detained abroad. But it is also likely to be another flash point in the debate about whether it is a good idea to release criminals convicted of significant crimes in exchange for the detained Americans. In April, Mr. Biden agreed to swap Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot, for Trevor Reed, an American held in Russia since 2019. Mr. Biden has authorized officials to release Viktor Bout, who is known as the “Merchant of Death” and is serving a 25-year prison sentence for conspiring to sell weapons, in exchange for detained Americans Paul N. Whelan, a businessman, and Brittney Griner, a professional basketball player. Officials have said that the Russian government has not said whether it will accept that deal. In his statement, Mr. Biden said he is continuing to work for the release of other Americans. “To all the families who are still suffering and separated from their loved ones who are wrongfully detained — know that we remain dedicated to securing their release,” he said. The Americans who had been held in Venezuela included five members of a group known as the “Citgo 6.” They were executives of the Citgo oil refining company who were detained more than four years ago. One member of the group was released in March after a team of Americans from Mr. Biden’s administration flew to Venezuela, officials said. Two other Americans — Mr. Heath, who was detained in 2020, and Mr. Khan, who was detained at the beginning of this year — were also among those released by Venezuela on Saturday. Asked whether the release of the Venezuelan drug smugglers would prompt Mr. Maduro to detain more Americans, the senior administration official said he hoped the Venezuelan president and others would realize that the president’s decision was a “rare” action that is not likely to be repeated often. In Iran, it was unclear what had prompted the release of the Namazis. “We’ve been working on a furlough for years, he would be eligible for furlough after he served more than half his term. This has been long coming,” said Jared Genser, the pro bono lawyer for the Namazi family. “We are not there yet, we are not going to rest until all the Namazis are able to return to the U.S. and their long nightmare finally comes to an end.” Mr. Genser said the younger Mr. Namazi’s furlough, while renewable, lasts for just seven days. “He still needs to be able to leave Iran and return to the United States,” Mr. Genser said. “We hope and pray that will happen soon, but there has been no agreement between the U.S. and Iran to release all the American hostages.” António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations, said in a statement on Saturday that he was grateful that the senior Mr. Namazi, a former senior official for UNICEF, was permitted to leave Iran for medical treatment abroad following Mr. Guterres’s appeal to President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran. Mr. Namazi is scheduled to have an operation on Monday for blockage in one of the main arteries in his brain, according to Mr. Genser. “We will continue to engage with the Iranian authorities on a range of important issues, including the regional situation, sustainable development and the promotion and protection of human rights,” said a U.N. spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, in a statement. Iran’s decision to show leniency to the Namazis comes amid nationwide protests against the government that have gone on for two weeks and show no sign of abating. Iran had resisted for years appeals to release the Namazis from the U.N. and from international activists, human rights groups and other countries. On Saturday, antigovernment protests continued across Iran, with crowds chanting for an end to the Islamic Republic’s rule, according to videos posted on social media. Thousands of students staged demonstrations at university campuses across the country demanding the release of their jailed classmates. Iranians in the diaspora on Saturday held large protests in over 100 cities around the world in solidarity with the people of Iran and the 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, whose death in custody of morality police had sparked the protests. Michael D. Shearreported from Washington and Farnaz Fassihi from New York. Michael Crowley contributed reporting from Washington. Read More Here

Defense Seals Football's Win Over No. 7 Kentucky – Ole Miss Athletics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/defense-seals-footballs-win-over-no-7-kentucky-ole-miss-athletics/ OXFORD, Miss. – Some might call them two miraculous stops; others might say two good defensive plays. Call them what you will.   But late in a Southeastern Conference battle Saturday, Ole Miss recovered two Kentucky fumbles to preserve a dramatic 22-19 victory and move to 5-0 overall and 1-0 in SEC play. The Wildcats fell to 4-1 and 1-1.   With the Rebels clinging to a three-point lead, a 26-yard field goal by Jonathan Cruz their only points of the second half, it was the Ole Miss defense which saved the day.   A Kentucky drive that began with 10:14 on the game clock, ended 11 plays later with a fumble by quarterback Will Levis at the Rebel 18, forced by Austin Keys and recovered by A.J. Finley at the 21.   With two timeouts left and Ole Miss not able to move it, UK got the football back again, this time with 1:49 left to play. Five plays later at the UM 12, Levis was sacked for a 13-yard loss, forced by Jared Ivey and recovered at the 25 by Tavius Robinson.   Two kneel downs later by Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, and this one was over.    Ole Miss jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, but this one would be far from over. Dart was the key to the Rebels’ first scoring drive. In six plays from his own 35-yard line, the Rebel signal-caller had Ole Miss in the end zone. Zach Evans took it in from the 4 for his lone touchdown of the day. Cruz made the extra point and Ole Miss led 7-0 with 7:09 to go in the first quarter.   Highlights of the first scoring drive were a 12-yard scramble from Dart, followed by a 38-yard pass to Jordan Watkins down to the 4.   After Kentucky placekicker Matt Ruffolo missed a 39-yard field goal, Ole Miss moved downfield for another touchdown. Quinshon Judkins burst through the middle of the line and raced 48 yards for a touchdown, a beautiful run that had those in red and blue among the capacity crowd roaring their approval. The point after by Cruz made it 14-0 with 59 seconds remaining in the first quarter.   Scoring against a talented Kentucky defense would prove difficult for Ole Miss from that point on. But the Rebels’ own defense was also able to slow down a potent Wildcat offensive attack. However, UK did answer the two early touchdowns with one of its own.   Kentucky’s Barion Brown returned the kickoff from his own goal line to the Ole Miss 15 to set things up for the visitors. Christopher Rodriguez’s touchdown rush of 10 yards cut the UM lead to 14-6. The extra point attempt by Ruffulo was blocked by the Rebels’ Zxavian Harris, and the first quarter ended with Ole Miss up eight points.   After the Rebels’ subsequent drive stalled, Fraser Masin punted to Kentucky and the ball was downed at the 1-yard line. Tavius Robinson of Ole Miss was then credited with a sack as Levis delivered the football in the right flat – to nobody. The ruling was intentional grounding, and a safety was awarded to the Rebels for a 16-6 UM lead.   After Kentucky kicked to the Rebels, Dart to Malik Heath for 26 yards to the Wildcat 35 set the table for Ole Miss again. On third and eight, Dart kept the drive alive to the 25. But an offensive pass interference on Heath brought Ole Miss back to the 38.    On fourth and 20, Cruz connected on a 53-yard field goal, and Ole Miss led 19-6 with 7:03 to go before halftime. The kick was tied for sixth longest field goal in school history and the longest since Bryson Rose kicked a game-winner against Arkansas in Little Rock in 2012.   The Wildcats then drove it downfield for a touchdown to cut into the Rebels’ lead. A nine-play drive capped by a Levis to Robinson touchdown pass of five yards made the score 19-12. The extra point kick was not attempted with a bobbled snap and a tackle by Ole Miss. There was 1:23 left before halftime.   To open the third quarter, the Rebels and Wildcats traded three and outs, but UK got the better of field position in the exchange. Starting at the UM 49, the Wildcats soon scored on a 17-yard pass from Levis to Jordan Dingle. This time, Ruffolo was good on the extra point. It was 19-19 with 6:22 to go, and it was clearly anybody’s ballgame.   Ole Miss started a drive at its own 35 for what would be the game’s final points. With 2:19 to go in the third, a Cruz field goal of 26 yards put the Rebels back in front 22-19. The drive covered 57 yards in 13 plays.    Neither team was able to score after that, although both threatened. Perhaps the Rebels could have put the game away had they scored on an 11-play drive that had them first and goal at the 4. But on fourth and goal at the 5, a Dart pass was incomplete, and Kentucky took over with 10:14 to go.   That’s when things appeared to be in Kentucky’s favor as the Wildcats moved deep into Ole Miss territory twice more. That’s also when those two giant defensive plays by Ole Miss, which resulted in fumbles by Kentucky that the Rebels recovered, saved this one for the home team.   Ole Miss outgained the Wildcats 399 yards to 328, with passing yards about even – 220 for UK and 213 for UM. Ole Miss had 186 yards rushing and Kentucky 108.   Chris Rodriguez rushed 19 times for 72 yards and a touchdown to lead the Wildcats. Levis was 18-for-24 for 220 yards and two touchdowns.   For the Rebels, Dart was 15-for-29 for 213 yards with an interception. Judkins carried the football 15 times for 106 yards and a touchdown.   Heath led the Rebels in the receiving department with six catches for 100 yards. Defensively Troy Brown and Finley were credited with nine tackles each. Finley had six solo stops.   Ole Miss travels to Vanderbilt for its first SEC road game of the year,  next Saturday afternoon for a 3 p.m. game on the SEC Network.     Read More…

NYC Deflation: Adams’ Talk Is Getting Cheaper https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nyc-deflation-adams-talk-is-getting-cheaper/ With the sun setting on the Day of Atonement and the Gates of Repentance closing, the chief rabbi on the bimah, beating his breast and shedding tears, cries out to the congregation: “I am nothing, Almighty! Nothing!” The cantor beside the rabbi, taking his cue, prostrates himself and repeats: “Lord, forgive me for thinking I’m something! I’m nothing!” At the back of the synagogue, a janitor, caught up in the moment, joins their chorus: “I’m nothing! Absolutely nothing!” “Eh,” says the rabbi to the cantor, “now look who thinks he’s nothing.” Fake humility hasn’t been a problem for Mayor Adams, a self-made native son who demonstrably knows how to jawbone but who’s still working out how to wield vast administrative power after decades on the public stage in the mostly ceremonial roles of activist cop, state senator and borough president. Adams really is “the man in the arena” now, and like every new mayor who beat the odds and the doubters to win that job he seems turning to the same moves, and friends, that helped get him this far. Actions, not words. (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News) He’s still working out how to preside over an administration that can translate his talk into effective action, and playing for time with more of the performances that got him this far. So if a cheap shot at Iowa got him attention as a candidate, he’ll take a cheap shot at Kansas as mayor. Candidate Adams said the city felt out of control and he was the candidate who could make New York safe again, and to do that fairly. Mayor Adams — who said just after taking office that “on day one, I took the subway system, I felt unsafe,” when that was a critique of the previous administration—is now stressing the space between “the reality of violence and how we feel,” and how “3.5 million people use our subway system every day” with “an average of five felony crimes on the system per day.” But that’s about as many felony crimes per day as before the pandemic while ridership is still down around 30%. In a sense, Adams has the same problem as the leftist lawmakers he’s positioned himself in opposition to: It’s hard to keep fighting the power once you are the power. When the news is good, he trumpets his success. When it isn’t good, he talks about what Albany and Washington ought to do — though he’s shown little success so far in getting them to actually do those things. Railing about cynical Republican governors and calling on the feds to send more money here to cover the mounting cost of caring for asylum seekers as the city builds a giant tent to temporarily house some of them in Orchard Beach — getting erected by one of the firms that helped build Trump’s wall! — isn’t going to cut it. Trying to escape the bonds of New York City’s long-established right to shelter by saying that “this is not a shelter issue, this is a humanitarian, refugee, migrant crisis,” while the city is literally building shelters to address that crisis, isn’t going to cut it. Holding a press conference to trumpet a drop in shootings this summer compared to last — even as the total number of felonies is up by nearly 30% this year from last and the number of shootings is still way up from before the pandemic — but ending the NYPD’s regular monthly press conferences to answer tough questions about crime and the numbers isn’t going to cut it. The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon. Talking about “getting stuff done” isn’t going to cut it, but actually getting stuff done will. Adams can hang out with the boys all he wants while conducting official business as a guest in absurdly expensive members-only clubs with people who don’t show up on his public schedule while refusing to show the receipts for pricey dinners, private plane flights with Bitcoin billionaires and whatever else and, so long as he makes the city feel safe again and keeps its economy intact, most New Yorkers won’t care unless prosecutors start probing things. Actually, as Adams saw with his ally Bill de Blasio’s glide path to a second term after prosecutors publicly scolded him while reluctantly deciding not to charge him, most New Yorkers won’t really care even then. There’s no doubt that Adams can play the role of mayor. The question is if he can deliver on his promises. That’s why a poll this summer showed 53% of New Yorkers approved of his style — but just 29% said he was doing an excellent or good job. Being mayor of New York City is a long ways from nothing but it’s a tough job in the best of times and a much tougher one now after a pandemic washed away old norms and quite possibly marked the end of the city’s 30-year economic winning streak. It’d be a refreshing moment to perform some sincere humility about the challenges ahead and the shape we’re in. harry@thecity.nyc Read More Here

Michigan Republicans Look For Boost From Trump At Saturday Night Rally https://digitalarkansasnews.com/michigan-republicans-look-for-boost-from-trump-at-saturday-night-rally/ Warren — Top Michigan GOP nominees contended a Saturday night rally with former President Donald Trump in Macomb County would help motivate their party’s base and eventually benefit them on election night. At about 3:30 p.m., hundreds of people were entering the Macomb County Community College Sports and Expo Center in Warren to hear speeches from Trump, Republican candidate for governor Tudor Dixon and others. The event was taking place 38 days before a pivotal election, in which the GOP is hoping to unseat three Democrats who hold the battleground state’s top offices. Republican secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo said she was planning to use the event with Trump to energize supporters to go out and knock doors and talk to voters in her bid to unseat Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. “It galvanizes the troops,” said Karamo, an educator from Oak Park. “It gets people involved. It helps spread the message.” Dixon, a political commentator and businesswoman from Norton Shores, is taking on Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. And Republican Matt DePerno, a Kalamazoo lawyer, is opposing Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel. Karamo, Dixon and DePerno have all been endorsed by Trump and all are slated to speak at Saturday’s rally. The Democratic candidates have maintained leads in public polling. Whitmer was up by 13 percentage points, according to an Aug. 29 through Sept. 1 survey by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Dixon’s running mate, former state Rep. Shane Hernandez, participated in a tailgate in a parking lot outside the rally Saturday afternoon. Hernandez, R-Port Huron, said Trump’s appearance would bring excitement to the Michigan campaigns and get the grassroots of the party involved. “The message is what people are talking about at their kitchen table: education, public safety, the economy,” Hernandez said. Ads promoting Dixon would ramp up soon, Hernandez predicted. So far, Democrats have spent millions of dollars on TV commercials promoting Whitmer and criticizing Dixon’s opposition to abortion in almost all cases, but Dixon’s side has been relatively quiet. Trump won Michigan by less than 1 percentage point over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 but lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden by 3 points in 2020. Trump has repeatedly made unproven claims that fraud cost him the 2020 race in Michigan. However, bipartisan boards of canvassers, a series of court rulings and investigation by the GOP-controlled state Senate Oversight Committee have upheld the result. In a statement Saturday, the Michigan Democratic Party accused Dixon, whom Trump has endorsed, of having “a long history of pushing baseless lies about the integrity of the 2020 election.” “For years, Dixon has stoked public distrust in the democratic process and spread lies about Michigan’s elections with absolutely no proof to back up her claims,” the party’s statement said. Jack Lodato of Eastpointe said he came to Saturday’s rally to support Trump, whom he described as “my president.” He was wearing a shirt that suggested Trump would run again, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his running mate, in 2024. “I believe he’s going to run. And I think he’s going to win,” Lodato said. Also, waiting to enter the venue Saturday was Sharon Anderson, a retiree who traveled from Tennessee. Anderson said it was her 29th Trump rally and she camped outside three nights in anticipation of the event. Anderson said she came to support “the best president in the history of this country.” There were other Trump allies from out of state, including My Pillow founder Mike Lindell and Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, in Macomb County on Saturday. “I am traveling to as many of these rallies and to as many states as I can to support Republicans because I cannot believe what has happened to our country in less than two years,” Taylor Greene told reporters. Trump was scheduled to speak at about 7 p.m. Saturday night. DePerno predicted the Trump’s rally would have a “significant impact” on the Michigan races. Trump coming to the state would provide “at least a 4-point swing in terms of public perception or polling,” DePerno said. “It will energize the base to get out there over the next 39 days or so and work very hard, knocking on doors, making phone calls, passing out literature and connecting with the voters,” DePerno said. Trump last visited Michigan on April 2 for a rally in Washington Township. cmauger@detroitnews.com Read More Here

Vegas Survivors Signal Hope Even As Mass Shootings Persist https://digitalarkansasnews.com/vegas-survivors-signal-hope-even-as-mass-shootings-persist/ LAS VEGAS — It’s been five years since carnage and death sent his family running into the night, leaving them separated and terrified as a gunman rained bullets into an outdoor country music festival crowd on the Las Vegas Strip. The memories don’t fade, they sharpen, William “Bill” Henning said as he prepared for ceremonies in Las Vegas marking the date of the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre. “Chaotic and unreal,” he recalled. “A human stampede. People were bleeding and screaming and running. We all got separated. We didn’t know who was alive. That was the most difficult.” He’s now part of a survivor community thousands strong, one that’s helped him sort through the horror of what happened during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 850 were injured among a crowd of 22,000. In the years since, the grim drumbeat of mass shootings has continued: schools in Uvalde, Texas, and Parkland, Florida; grocery stores in Buffalo, New York, and Boulder, Colorado; bars in Dayton, Ohio, and Thousand Oaks, California; a city building in Virginia Beach, Virginia; a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Meanwhile, the debate over gun laws in the U.S. rages on, including a renewed challenge to the federal regulation sparked by the Las Vegas shooting. Nevada U.S. Rep. Dina Titus on Saturday called again for a federal law banning bump stocks, the devices used by the Las Vegas shooter that allow a semi-automatic rifle to fire repeatedly with just one pull of the trigger. They were outlawed by rule by the Trump Administration but face court challenges. And President Joe Biden also called for renewed efforts to tighten firearms laws Saturday while mourning the victims and praising residents who came together in the aftermath of the shooting. The president noted executive action he’s taken to crack down on ghost guns and rogue gun dealers and the passage of the first significant firearms legislation in 30 years. That bipartisan law signed by Biden in June in part boosts protections for domestic violence victims, funnels cash to states for firearms crime prevention and has money for mental health services. “But, we’re not stopping there,” Biden said in a statement. “I am determined to seize this momentum and work with Congress to enact further commonsense gun violence prevention legislation, including banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which have enabled shooters to slaughter so many innocents.” The Las Vegas massacre is part of a horrifying uptick of shootings with especially high numbers of people killed, said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston. Five of the nine mass shootings in modern U.S. history with more than 20 people killed have taken place since 2016, starting with the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and continuing through the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. “The severity of public mass shootings has increased in the past few years. That’s clear,” Fox said. “And worrisome.” Fox oversees a database maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks mass killings involving four or more people slain, not including the perpetrator. The information is drawn from media reports, FBI data, arrest records, medical examiners’ reports, prison records and other court documents. Watching the steady stream of shootings in the U.S. is tough for survivors, said Tennille Pereira, director of a Clark County recovery and support program called the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center. “I know when it keeps happening, people often express feelings of hopelessness,” Pereira said. “I think the big thing for Las Vegas is to be able to share with those other communities that healing does occur, and that there is hope.” For people like Henning, part of that hope has been the bond formed with other survivors. The retired computer technician was celebrating his 71st birthday at the Route 91 Harvest Festival with friends, his wife, daughter and three teenage grandchildren when the gunfire began. He suffered a knee injury while escaping that required surgery, but his group made it out without being struck by gunfire. “At first, the first few years, it’s not really sinking in,” he said. “The more we organize ourselves, the more that we see each other, it actually brings us back to how serious this situation was.” Many in Las Vegas who won’t name the man who police said fired 1,057 bullets from 32nd floor windows of the Mandalay Bay resort during a span of time now memorialized in a Paramount+ streaming service documentary called “11 Minutes.” “We don’t want to give him any more power, credibility, infamy,” Pereira said. “In this survivor population, words matter. We don’t use the word ‘anniversary.’ We use ‘remembrance.’ We try not to use the word ‘victims.’ We try to use the word ‘survivor.'” Police and the FBI spent months investigating and concluded that gunman Stephen Paddock acted alone, meticulously planned the attack and intentionally concealed his actions. He amassed an arsenal of 23 assault-style rifles in his hotel room, including 14 fitted with bump stock devices that help the weapons fire rapidly. Caches of weapons also were found at Paddock’s homes in Reno and Mesquite, Nevada. But he killed himself before police reached him, and local and federal officials said they never identified a clear motive for the attack. Shortly after the shooting, the administration of then-President Donald Trump banned bump stocks under the same federal laws that prohibit machine guns. Gun-rights advocates sued, saying the weapons didn’t qualify as machine guns and it would take an act of Congress to ban them. The ban has survived several court challenges. But a federal appeals court in New Orleans revived a case there in June, the same day the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling expanding gun rights. That case marked the high court’s first major gun decision in more than a decade and has sparked a wave of court challenges to gun laws around the country. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, survivors are working toward a permanent memorial on a corner of the former Las Vegas Strip festival ground. A sunrise remembrance ceremony is scheduled Saturday at the Clark County Government Center, and the names of those killed will be read 10:05 p.m. — the time the shooting started — at a downtown Las Vegas Community Healing Garden. Survivor Sue Nelson, 67, said she fled from her front-row seat and hid for hours on the Las Vegas Strip, forming deep bonds with others who escaped. She declared she has “survivor sorrow, not survivor guilt” because she didn’t do anything wrong. Nelson drives two hours to Las Vegas from her home in Lake Havasu, Arizona, for memorial events and gives out lapel pins shaped like little guitars and rubber wrist bands stamped with: “We Remember 10.1.17 #Honors58.” “I’m not afraid anymore,” she said. “It makes a big difference in healing when you’re not afraid anymore.” ___ Whitehurst reported from Washington. Read More Here

Russia’s Annexation Puts World ‘two Or Three Steps Away’ From Nuclear War https://digitalarkansasnews.com/russias-annexation-puts-world-two-or-three-steps-away-from-nuclear-war/ LONDON — President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of the annexation of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine signals the onset of a new and highly dangerous phase in the seven-month old war, one that Western officials and analysts fear could escalate to the use of nuclear weapons for the first time in 77 years. Putin has previously threatened to resort to nuclear weapons if Russia’s goals in Ukraine continue to be thwarted. The annexation brings the use of a nuclear weapon a step closer by giving Putin a potential justification on the grounds that “the territorial integrity of our country is threatened,” as he put it in his speech last week. He renewed the threat on Friday with an ominous comment that the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki created a “precedent” for the use of nuclear weapons, echoing references he has made in the past to the U.S. invasion of Iraq as setting a precedent for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. U.S. and Western officials say they still think it unlikely that Putin will carry out his threats. Most probably, they say, he is hoping to deter the West from providing ever more sophisticated military assistance to Ukraine while the mobilization of an additional 300,000 troops allows Russia to reverse or at least halt its military setbacks on the battlefield. But the threats appear only to have strengthened Western resolve to continue sending weapons to Ukraine and the Ukrainian military is continuing to advance into Russian-occupied territory. On Saturday, the Ukrainian army seized control of the eastern city of Lyman in an area ostensibly annexed by Russia on Saturday. The collapse of another Russian front line was greeted by calls for nuclear strikes by some military bloggers and political figures in Russia, including the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Putin. “More drastic measures should be taken, up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Kadyrov wrote in a comment on his Telegram channel. In all four regions that Putin said he was annexing — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — Russia only controls part of the territory. Now that the areas being fought over are regarded by Moscow as Russian, it is possible to chart a course of events toward the first use of a nuclear weapon since the 1945 atomic bombing of Japan. “It’s a low probability event, but it is the most serious case of nuclear brinkmanship since the 1980s” when the Cold War ended, said Franz-Stefan Gady, a senior fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “It is a very dangerous situation and it needs to be taken seriously by Western policymakers.” U.S. and European officials say they are taking the threats seriously. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that there would be “catastrophic consequences” if Russia resorts to the use of nuclear weapons. He refused to specify what those would be but said the precise consequences had been spelled out privately to Russian officials “at very high levels.” “They well understand what they would face if they went down that dark road,” he said. European officials say the threats have only strengthened their resolve to support Ukraine. “No one knows what Putin will decide to do, no one,” said a European Union official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject. “But he’s totally in a corner, he’s crazy … and for him there is no way out. The only way out for him is total victory or total defeat and we are working on the latter one. We need Ukraine to win and so we are working to prevent worst case scenarios by helping Ukraine win.” The goal, the official said, is to give Ukraine the military support it needs to continue to push Russia out of Ukrainian territory, while pressuring Russia politically to agree to a cease-fire and withdrawal, the official said. And the pressure is working, “slowly,” the official said, to spread awareness in Russia and internationally that the invasion was a mistake. India, which had seemed to side with Russia in the earliest days of the war, has expressed alarm at Putin’s talk of nuclear war and China, ostensibly Russia’s most important ally, has signaled that it is growing uneasy with Putin’s continuing escalations. But the annexation and the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of extra troops have also served as a reminder that the Western strategy hasn’t yet worked enough to convince Putin that he can’t win, said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who was based in Moscow until earlier this year. The West had been hoping that Ukrainian successes would force Putin to back down, but instead he is doubling down. “Time and again we are seeing that Vladimir Putin sees this as a big existential war and he’s ready to up the stakes if he is losing on the battlefield,” Gabuev said. “At the same time I don’t think the West will back down, so it’s a very hard challenge now. We are two or three steps away” from Russia failing to achieve its goals and resorting to what was once unthinkable. Those steps to secure its positions include Russia pushing hundreds of thousands more men onto the battlefield; escalating attacks on civilian targets and infrastructure in Ukraine; and perhaps also embarking on covert attacks on Western infrastructure. Although the United States and its European allies have refrained from making direct accusations, few doubt that Russia was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, said the E.U. official. “I don’t think anyone has doubts. It’s the handwriting of the Kremlin,” he said. “It’s an indication of, ‘look what is coming, look what we are able to do.’ ” Nuclear weapons would only likely be used after mobilization, sabotage and other measures have failed to turn the tide, and it’s unclear what Putin would achieve by using them, Gady said. Despite some wild predictions on Russian news shows that the Kremlin would lash out at a Western capital, with London appearing to be a favored target, it is more likely that Moscow would seek to use one of its smaller, tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield to try to gain advantage over Ukrainian forces, said Gady. The smallest nuclear weapon in the Russian arsenal delivers an explosion of around 1 kiloton, one fifteenth of the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which would inflict massive destruction but on a more limited area. Because the war is being fought along a vast, 1,500-mile front line, troops are too thinly spread out for there to be an obvious target whose obliteration would change the course of the war. To make a difference, Russia would have to use several nuclear weapons or alternatively strike a major population center such as Kyiv, either of which would represent a massive escalation, trigger almost certain Western retaliation and turn Russia into a pariah state even with its allies, Gady said. “From a purely military perspective, nuclear weapons would not solve any of Vladimir Putin’s military problems,” he said. “To change the operational picture one single attack would not be enough and it would also not intimidate Ukraine into surrendering territory. It would cause the opposite, it would double down Western support and I do think there would be a U.S. response.” That’s why many believe Putin won’t carry out his threats. “Even though Putin is dangerous, he is not suicidal, and those around him aren’t suicidal,” said Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe. Pentagon officials have said they have seen no actions by Russia that would lead the United States to adjust its nuclear posture. Robyn Dixon contributed to this report from Riga, Latvia War in Ukraine: What you need to know The latest: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees Friday to annex four occupied regions of Ukraine, following staged referendums that were widely denounced as illegal. Follow our live updates here. The response: The Biden administration on Friday announced a new round of sanctions on Russia, in response to the annexations, targeting government officials and family members, Russian and Belarusian military officials and defense procurement networks. President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Friday that Ukraine is applying for “accelerated ascension” into NATO, in an apparent answer to the annexations. In Russia: Putin declared a military mobilization on Sept. 21 to call up as many as 300,000 reservists in a dramatic bid to reverse setbacks in his war on Ukraine. The announcement led to an exodus of more than 180,000 people, mostly men who were subject to service, and renewed protests and other acts of defiance against the war. The fight: Ukraine mounted a successful counteroffensive that forced a major Russian retreat in the northeastern Kharkiv region in early September, as troops fled cities and villages they had occupied since the early days of the war and abandoned large amounts of military equipment. Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground from the beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work. How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating. Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video. Read More Here

Carter, Longest Living President, Marks 98th Birthday In Georgia Hometown https://digitalarkansasnews.com/carter-longest-living-president-marks-98th-birthday-in-georgia-hometown/ Former president Jimmy Carter is celebrating his 98th birthday Saturday by seeing family members and taking calls in his modest living room in Plains, Ga., the small town where he began his improbable campaign for the nation’s highest office nearly half a century ago. “Friends are calling, and family are around,” Jill Stuckey, the superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park and a family friend, said after visiting the former president Saturday morning. “He is remarkable.” Carter, who left the White House in 1981 after one term, has lived longer than any other U.S. president. He and his wife, Rosalynn, 95, greeted well-wishers in public last weekend during the annual Peanut Festival in Plains. A Secret Service agent drove the Carters around in a red convertible. The Carter family still owns farmland where peanut grows. “It was a gorgeous day. Everything came together,” said Stuckey, describing the event with the Carters’ children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren walking behind the car. “Some people’s jaws dropped when they saw them. People were clapping and some had tears.” Friends said that Carter is following the news about Hurricane Ian and praying for those who are suffering because of the storm. For decades, the Carters worked with Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable housing and helped rebuild destroyed homes after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Carter’s post-presidency stands apart for how simply he continues to live in his hometown of fewer than 800 people. After leaving Washington, he spent decades promoting human rights and democracy around the world, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. The Nobel committee cited “his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Until recently, he taught Sunday school in his local church. Carter has overcome serious health problems, including in 2015 when he was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain. After treatment, doctors said he defied the odds and announced later that year that he was cancer-free. To mark his birthday, thousands of people posted personal messages to an online “Happy Birthday, President Carter!” site set up by the Carter Center. “What strikes me is the depth of feeling people have for him,” said Matthew Degalan, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based Carter Center. “People look at him as a person of values and principles, and they miss that in politics today.” Many admirers note that Carter was a visionary for putting solar panels on the White House, even as some criticized him for it at the time. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who served on a submarine, Carter was expected to spend part of his birthday watching the Navy-Air Force football game and maybe his favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, according to friends. Last year, the Carters celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. The two are rarely apart, and they were in their living room, together, speaking with family and friends on his birthday. Read More Here

North Little Rock Teen Sentenced To 20 Years In Fatal June 2020 Shooting https://digitalarkansasnews.com/north-little-rock-teen-sentenced-to-20-years-in-fatal-june-2020-shooting/ A 19-year-old North Little Rock man has accepted a 20-year prison sentence for shooting two men, killing one of them, two years ago just after his 17th birthday. Sentencing papers filed Wednesday show D’Anthony Williams pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from first-degree murder, and first-degree battery in exchange for the 20-year sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson. Williams has been jailed since his arrest four days after Nicholas Shane Menchue was killed and Tyresse Key-Shawn Pride was wounded in a June 2020 shooting in the 2000 block of West Short 17th Street in North Little Rock. Authorities said Menchue, 19, of North Little Rock was shot in the back, likely as he was running away, with the bullet exiting his chest near his throat. He had been dead for some time when police found him in the street. Surveillance video from the area shows Williams and another teen, Jordan Clark, together in the area, both with guns, pointing the weapons while running shortly before midnight the previous night. Police knew that Pride, 22, of North Little Rock had shown up at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the neck about two hours after the video was recorded. Pride initially told police he’d been shot on West Scenic Street but refused to cooperate more, according to police. Pride later told investigators that he and Menchue had gotten into a confrontation with two teens he knew as “DA” and Jordan, with DA pulling a revolver and firing a weapon at them, court records show. Questioned by police, Clark said he was present when “everyone started shooting,” but he refused to answer further questions about who fired first, invoking his right to consult with a lawyer. According to police, Williams had denied being at the scene or carrying a gun until detectives showed him the video. Williams then acknowledged he’d been at the location with a gun. Called to court to testify at a hearing for Williams last year, Clark again invoked his right to not answer questions. Prosecutors were ready to offer Clark, 17, limited immunity for his trial testimony against Williams, court filings show. Last week, Pride, the shooting survivor, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading no contest to six felony charges: aggravated robbery, first-degree battery, committing a terrorist act, unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle and two counts of theft by receiving, one of them involving a stolen gun. The charges stem from arrests in Jacksonville, Little Rock and North Little Rock between June 2019 and July 2021. The robbery and battery charges were from the June 2021 holdup of Eric Davon Cooper, 25, at his North Little Rock home at Hemlock Court apartments, 400 N Palm St. According to police, Cooper was shot in the right side with his own gun while being robbed by a group of young men intent on stealing Cooper’s second gun, with Pride being identified by police as one of the assailants. The robbers got away with about $500. The terroristic act charge stems from a December 2020 shooting at the Spanish Jon Apartments, 5001 W. 65th St., in Little Rock. According to police, Kelvin Lamont Higgins Jr., 23, of Little Rock got Pride to fire shots into the bedroom of Higgins’ ex-girlfriend Tiwanna Dowell, 42. According to police, Dowell’s four children were in the apartment with her. Video surveillance shows Higgins pointing at the woman’s bedroom window while a man with him opens fire at the apartment. After he was arrested, Higgins identified Pride as the shooter. Higgins pleaded guilty to committing a terroristic act in August 2021 in exchange for a five-year prison sentence. The unlawful discharge count was from a July 2020 shooting on East Broadway in North Little Rock that police said targeted 24-year-old Victor Terrance Anderson of Jacksonville. Anderson told investigators that he and Pride were admiring each other’s pistols when Pride grabbed Anderson’s gun and made off with the weapon. While driving away, Pride fired a shot at Anderson, according to police. After his arrest, Pride said he’d paid Anderson $200 for the weapon and denied ever shooting at him. Read More…

Forum: Pritzker Considering SAFE-T Act Changes; Bailey Urges Full Repeal https://digitalarkansasnews.com/forum-pritzker-considering-safe-t-act-changes-bailey-urges-full-repeal/ Jerry Nowicki  |  Capitol News Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is considering changes to the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform to clarify provisions related to the end of cash bail in Illinois, while his Republican challenger, state Sen. Darren Bailey, continues to push for a full repeal. The candidates shared their thoughts Friday on those and other issues during a virtual forum organized by the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors. Questioners included representatives of Shaw Media, the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, The State Journal-Register in Springfield and Capitol News Illinois. Pritzker has frequently stated he believes cash bail must end in favor of a system that prioritizes an accused person’s risk of reoffending or fleeing prosecution, and the SAFE-T Act does so. But nearly all the state’s prosecutors have warned that the system replacing the current pretrial detention language is too limiting for judges. The end of cash bail and more: What’s in Illinois’ SAFE-T Act? Inaccurate claims surrounding the SAFE-T Act have been rampant, with Bailey stating Friday he believed the intent of it was to let people who are being held in lieu of bail out of jail once it takes effect. Nothing in the law says that will happen, although an Illinois Supreme Court task force has encouraged lawmakers to clarify language regarding what happens Jan. 1. “And so there are proposals that have been made to make clarifications in the law to make sure that people understand very well that, no, this law does not create non-detainable offenses. And that, no, people are not going to be let out of jail on Jan. 1 – that’s not what the law does,” Pritzker said. The governor stopped short of endorsing a bill that would make changes to the SAFE-T Act that was filed last week by Champaign Democrat Scott Bennett, a former prosecutor. But he said it contains “simple to understand” clarifying language. Bennett’s bill, among other things, would clarify that the end of cash bail applies to those arrested after Jan. 1, 2023. “I haven’t gone through every provision that he has proposed, but I know that Senator Bennett, who was a prosecutor, a Democrat from Champaign and Vermillion counties, is somebody who is very careful in the way he approaches issues like this and I’m always open to working with people who are rational and reasonable in their proposals,” he said. But lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return to the Capitol until Nov. 15, a week after Election Day. Bailey, a farmer from downstate Xenia, said he’d like to see the governor call a special session ahead of the election to consider SAFE-T Act changes. But he hasn’t proposed any in bill form, and he said he’d favor a full repeal. He pointed to several endorsements from law enforcement groups. “So if I were governor right now, and if I were sitting here and people across this state were as concerned as they are about their safety, I’d call a special session right now ….” Bailey said. “It’s an election year, Gov. Pritzker. You’ve got a perfect opportunity to have a little political ploy here. Call session back in and let’s talk and let’s come up with solutions.” Bailey’s opening remarks focused on public safety, lamenting the volume of shootings in the city of Chicago. He said “law and order’s out of control,” and he’d bring back “hope” for Illinoisans by addressing it. “We’re going to do that by restoring education,” he said. “Our schools have been decimated the last four years. And we’re going to do that by allowing men and women to thrive and work and raise their families here in Illinois like they were once able to do and that’s no longer the case.” His public safety agenda doesn’t include gun regulation. He reiterated that he wants the state Firearm Owners Identification Act repealed, calling the ID cards a money grab. “Illinois has the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. The problem is those laws aren’t being honored and they’re not being followed,” Bailey said. Pritzker countered that the FOID law gives Illinois more background check authority than does federal law. He also argued in favor of banning assault-style rifles both statewide and nationally. “That should not be legal in the state of Illinois. It shouldn’t be legal nationally,” he said of the rifles. “There’s no reason that someone needs an assault weapon. It doesn’t have a sporting use. It doesn’t have a defense use.” Pritzker criticized Bailey as a “Trump extremist” in his opening remarks while also focusing on his record of paying down state debt, increasing education spending, erasing a bill backlog, raising the minimum wage and protecting abortion rights. He touted a $1.8 billion tax relief plan that will send direct payments to most Illinoisans, eliminate a state grocery tax for a year, put off a gas tax increase until next year and expand the state’s earned income tax credit. It’s a proposal Bailey supported despite voting against the general budget framework every year he has been in office since 2019. He contended that Illinois hasn’t had a balanced budget in 30 years, criticizing Pritzker for growing state spending during his term. Bailey contended the 2019 operating budget was $34 billion, although records from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability show Illinois took in base revenues around $39 billion in Fiscal Year 2019, topping $40 billion with treasurer investments and interfund borrowing. State spending grew to $46.5 billion in the current operating budget, Fiscal Year 2023.  Bailey didn’t identify planned budget cuts but repeated his intent to install a new budgeting method to give more scrutiny to year-over-year spending.  “My administration will enact a zero-based budget where we will place knowledgeable, honorable, hardworking men and women as agency heads and they will begin to go to work with the zero-based budget and they will account for every dollar that’s going to be spent,” Bailey said. Bailey, who has the endorsements of the state’s anti-abortion groups, has been one of Illinois’ staunchest anti-abortion lawmakers. But he didn’t answer whether he’d sign a ban on the procedure. “Illinois has the most permissive abortion rights in the nation,” he said. “Women’s rights are well protected here. Nothing’s changing. I couldn’t change them on my own if I wanted to. Gov. Pritzker stays up at night and tries to think of new rights.” He criticized a law repealing a requirement that parents of minors seeking an abortion be notified and accused Pritzker of fearmongering before pivoting back to public safety. Pritzker said lawmakers continue to have working group discussions as to what new laws can be implemented to protect those rights, with some guidance from him.  “I’m focused and dedicated on preserving a woman’s right to choose and making sure that Illinois is a safe haven for people who seek to exercise what I think are basic constitutional rights over their own bodies,” he said. Bailey, who has passed two bills in the General Assembly since 2019, blamed that on the partisan makeup of the General Assembly and said as governor “communication and cooperation will be the key to my administration.” He also said Illinois has too many bills being filed and too many laws. Pritzker countered by pointing to the bipartisan accomplishments of his administration, including his first budget, the legalization of recreational marijuana and a $45 billion infrastructure plan that funded road, bridge, building and other projects across the state. It did so in part by doubling the motor fuel tax and expanding gambling. He also cited the infrastructure bill when asked how his administration prioritizes downstate communities. Bailey, he pointed out, voted against that plan. Pritzker specifically mentioned Shawneetown and Cairo port projects and a casino at the Walker’s Bluff resort, which he said will be major employers in southern Illinois. Bailey, who has frequently referred to Chicago as a hellhole, said he considers himself a voice for “the rest of Illinois,” criticizing “one-size-fits-all” legislation, citing the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act which he said was detrimental to downstate coal and gas plants, as well as consumer energy bills. Pritzker defended CEJA as a measure allowing the state to put new renewable energy on the grid while keeping nuclear plants open and at least partially addressing climate change, which has driven more frequent severe flooding events and been detrimental to downstate farmers. A full video of the candidate forum, which also included discussion of township governments and other topics, can be viewed here or at the link above. Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government that is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. Read More Here

Trump Escalates Attacks On McConnell With ‘DEATH WISH’ Post https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-escalates-attacks-on-mcconnell-with-death-wish-post/ Former president Donald Trump is facing blowback for an inflammatory online message attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that many viewed as a threat. “He has a DEATH WISH,” Trump posted late Friday on his Truth Social platform, criticizing McConnell for agreeing to a deal to fund the government through December. He also disparaged McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who served as Trump’s transportation secretary and was born in Taiwan, in racist terms, calling her “his China loving wife, Coco Chow!” The post marked a further escalation in an increasingly strained relationship between the two Republican leaders. Trump has repeatedly impugned McConnell’s negotiating positions and called on GOP senators to replace him as their leader. They often had a tense working relationship during Trump’s presidency and fell out in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when Trump refused to concede and tried to overturn the results, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. A Trump spokesman said it was “absurd” to interpret the post as a threat or call for violence, suggesting the reference to a death wish was “political” rather than literal. “Mitch McConnell is killing the Republican Party through weakness and cowardice,” spokesman Taylor Budowich wrote in a statement. “He obviously has a political death wish for himself and Republican Party, but President Trump and the America First champions in Congress will save the Republican Party and our nation.” Incendiary statements from Trump have repeatedly inspired his supporters to turn to violence. Jan. 6 rioters, in the moment and in court proceedings, have said they believed they were acting on Trump’s wishes. Lawmakers of both parties have faced increasing threats after crossing Trump. More recently, following Trump’s attacks on the FBI in response to a search of his Mar-a-Lago resort, a gunman tried to breach the bureau’s Cincinnati office while posting about it on Truth Social. He was later killed by police. “He knows exactly what he’s doing, and his recklessness knows no bounds,” prominent Republican lawyer Robert Kelner wrote on Twitter, responding to Trump’s latest post about McConnell. “Despicable.” Chao resigned from Trump’s Cabinet shortly after the Jan. 6 attack, saying the assault “deeply troubled me in a way I simply cannot set aside.” McConnell, in a speech after the following month’s impeachment trial, condemned Trump as “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” although he did not vote to convict. In this year’s primaries, McConnell tried unsuccessfully to recruit moderate Republican governors such as Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Doug Ducey of Arizona to run for the Senate. McConnell’s allies intervened in some races to oppose pro-Trump candidates, such as Eric Greitens in Missouri and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, but did not weigh in against Trump-endorsed candidates such as Blake Masters in Arizona and Herschel Walker in Georgia. McConnell has publicly lamented that some of the party’s nominees are making it harder to win back control of the chamber, although he has lately expressed more confidence in the party’s chances. Read More Here

Billy Eichner Revealed That Meghan McCain Blocked Him On Twitter, And I Suspect It Had To Do With A 2017 Meryl Streep Speech https://digitalarkansasnews.com/billy-eichner-revealed-that-meghan-mccain-blocked-him-on-twitter-and-i-suspect-it-had-to-do-with-a-2017-meryl-streep-speech/ The response is somewhat less surprising when you consider the very public argument they got into back in 2017. You might remember Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes speech that year — specifically, when she called out Trump for his mockery of a reporter with arthrogryposis. “It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back,” Meryl said at the time.  Read More Here

AP News Summary At 2:35 P.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-235-p-m-edt/ Russia withdraws troops after Ukraine encircles key city KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia says it has withdrawn its troops from the once-occupied city of Lyman, as Ukraine’s eastern counteroffensive recaptures more territory. Russia’s Tass and RIA news agencies, citing the Russian defense ministry, made the announcement. Lyman is 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Ukrainian forces had pushed across the Oskil River as part of a counteroffensive that saw Kyiv retake vast swathes of territory beginning in September. Lyman, a key transportation hub, had been an important site in the Russian front line for both ground communications and logistics. Now Ukraine can push further potentially into the occupied Luhansk region, which is one of four regions that Russia annexed Friday. Ian leaves dozens dead as focus turns to rescue, recovery FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers continue to search for survivors in flooded homes in Florida after Hurricane Ian’s passage earlier this week. Meanwhile, authorities in South Carolina began the long process of assessing damage Saturday. The powerful storm terrorized millions of people for most of the week and officials say it’s blamed for at least 27 deaths in Florida, three deaths in Cuba and one in North Carolina. But authorities say they expect the death toll to rise further. As of Saturday, more than 1,000 people had been rescued from flooded homes near Florida’s southwestern coast alone. Ian shows the risks and costs of living on barrier islands SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Experts say that Hurricane Ian is shining a spotlight once again on the vulnerability of the nation’s barrier islands and the increasing cost of people living on them. Florida’s Sanibel Island was hard hit by the storm. Homes were destroyed. Two people have been confirmed dead. And Sanibel’s lone bridge to the mainland collapsed. Barrier island communities like Sanibel anchor tourist economies that provide crucial tax dollars. But the cost of rebuilding them is often high because they’re home to many high-value properties. Jesse Keenan is a real estate professor at Tulane University. He questions whether such communities can keep rebuilding as hurricanes become more and more destructive from climate change. Russia blindfolds, detains Ukraine nuclear plant chief KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s nuclear power provider says Russian forces blindfolded and detained the head of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant hours after Moscow illegally annexed a swath of Ukrainian territory. In a possible attempt to secure Moscow’s hold on the newly annexed territory, Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, around 4 p.m. Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed treaties to absorb Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, including the area around the nuclear plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday that Russia told it that “the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily detained to answer questions.” Venezuela releases 7 jailed Americans; US frees 2 prisoners WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuela’s government has freed seven Americans imprisoned in the South American country in exchange for the release of two nephews of President Nicholas Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years by the United States on drug smuggling convictions. The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives imprisoned for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens that the Biden administration has ever carried out. It amounts to a rare gesture of goodwill by Maduro as he looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. after vanquishing most of his opponents and follows months of secretive talks, including repeated visits to Venezuela over the last year by Washington’s top hostage negotiator. Trump at center of Oath Keepers novel defense in Jan. 6 case WASHINGTON (AP) — The defense team in the Capitol riot trial of the Oath Keepers leader is relying on an unusual strategy with Donald Trump at the center. Lawyers for Stewart Rhodes are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before the riot were in preparation for orders he anticipated from the then-president. But those orders never came. Rhodes and four associates are accused of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of presidential power, culminating with Oath Keepers in battle gear storming the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Opening statements in the trial are set to begin Monday. Supreme Court poised to keep marching to right in new term WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court begins a new term on Monday at a time of diminished public confidence and justices sparring openly over the institution’s legitimacy. The court seems poised to push American law to the right on issues of race, voting and the environment. Back in June, the conservative majority overturned nearly 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion rights. Now, the court is diving back in with an aggressive agenda that appears likely to split the six conservative justices from the three liberals. Joining the nine-member court is new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black woman. Gunfire erupts again in Burkina Faso day after 2nd coup OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Gunshots rang out in Burkina Faso’s capital and soldiers deployed in the streets as tensions lingered a day after military officers overthrew the man who had seized power in a coup only nine months earlier in the West African nation. Uncertainty prevailed Saturday amid signs of lingering tensions in Ouagadougou, the capital. Roads remained blocked off and a helicopter could be heard flying overhead. The international community, meanwhile, condemned the ouster of Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba. The officers who seized control late Friday said Damiba had failed to improve the security situation in Burkina Faso, which has been struggling to tamp down violence by Islamic extremists. Ole Miss honors James Meredith 60 years after integration JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The University of Mississippi is paying tribute to James Meredith 60 years after integration. White protesters erupted into violence in 1962 as he became the first Black student to enroll in what was then a bastion of Deep South segregation. A local resident and a French journalist were killed in the violence on the Oxford campus. The 89-year-old Meredith was honored Saturday at an Ole Miss football game. The university is having several other events to mark six decades of integration. Meredith spoke at a celebration Wednesday, saying it was the best day he ever lived. But he also said problems remain and he wants people to abide by the Ten Commandments. Shying from Trump, ex-Maine Gov. Paul LePage seeks job back YARMOUTH, Maine (AP) — When then-Gov. Paul LePage endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016, LePage credited himself as a prototype for the insurgent candidate. Now, with LePage running for a third term after a brief retirement to Florida, he rarely talks about Trump in campaign events and media interviews, and LePage’s advisers say his hiatus from politics changed him. LePage’s efforts at distancing himself from Trump are particularly notable because LePage once invited comparisons to Trump — and made them himself. LePage is seeking to unseat Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in November and become the longest-serving governor in Maine’s history. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Read More Here

Russia's War In Ukraine | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/russias-war-in-ukraine-cnn-2/ ‘Utter ferocity’: See the devastating scene in a newly-liberated Ukrainian town 03:19 Russian troops withdrew from the key city of Lyman in the Donetsk region after being surrounded by Ukrainian forces, according to Russia’s defense ministry. It comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of four areas of occupied Ukraine — including the Donetsk region — in the largest forcible annexation of land in Europe since 1945. Western governments have announced a new wave of sanctions and vowed not to recognize the regions as part of Russian territory, saying so-called referendums held there are a “sham.” Ukrainian officials said more than 20 civilians — including 10 children — were killed in Russian shelling on a convoy of cars near the town of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military’s sudden and successful counter-attack in the Kharkiv region this month has left Russian forces controlling less Ukrainian land than they did after their first thrust into the country in February 2022, according to a CNN analysis of exclusive data from the Institute for the Study of War. Russia’s first massive push, which began on the night of Feb. 23, allowed it to secure or advance on one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, or about 119,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) of the total 603,500 square kilometers Ukraine claims and considers “temporarily occupied,” the analysis shows. Seven months after launching an invasion — one that Western officials thought would be over in days with an overrun Ukrainian capital — Russia controls roughly 3,000 square kilometers (about 1,864 miles) less land than it did in the first five days of the war, CNN found. (Unverified claims are excluded from the analysis.) In a move to secure what it still controls, the Kremlin on Friday claimed to annex four Ukrainian regions, of which it has only partial control, adding to the seizure and annexure of the region of Crimea in 2014. See how the advances stalled in this CNN interactive. Russian troops have withdrawn from the town of Lyman in eastern Ukraine to avoid being surrounded by Ukraine’s army, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Saturday. “In connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement, allied troops were withdrawn from the settlement of Krasny Liman to more advantageous lines,” the defense ministry said on social media platform Telegram. The Russian name for the town of Lyman is Krasny Liman. Russia state media reported that the reason for the withdrawal was due to Western-made artillery and intelligence. Russia-24 reporter Yevgeny Poddubny acknowledged the withdrawal and claimed the reason for it was that “the enemy used both Western-made artillery and intelligence from North Atlantic alliance countries.” Cars from a civilian convoy sit on the side of the road after Russian shelling in Kupiansk, Ukraine, in this photo released on October 1. (State Security Service of Ukraine/Handout/Reuters) The bodies of 22 civilians, including 10 children, were found following Russian shelling on a convoy of cars near the town of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine, the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said Saturday. “According to the data of investigators, the cars were shot by the Russian army on September 25, when civilians were trying to evacuate. Two cars burned completely. According to preliminary information, 22 people died, including 10 children. The investigation of the scene is ongoing,” the office said on the social media platform Telegram. “A pre-trial investigation was started,” the statement continued, adding that on Friday prosecutors of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) “and the police discovered a convoy of seven cars that had been shot dead near the village of Kurylivka, Kupiansk district.” The SBU confirmed on Telegram they would be investigating a “war crime” of a “civilian convoy in the so-called ‘grey zone’ between occupied Svatove in Luhansk region and liberated Kupiansk in Kharkiv region” where it said at least 20 people died, including 10 children, in “a brutal attack.” CNN could not independently verify the allegations.  There has been no official Russian response to the claims made by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office and SBU. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at a press conference on August 24, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Alexey Furman/Getty Images) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked his American counterpart Joe Biden on Saturday for signing a bill that approves an additional support to Ukraine of over $12 billion.   Zelensky thanked the United States for their “powerful act of solidarity” towards the Ukrainian people.  “The day before, the bill was backed by both houses of US Congress. We appreciate this powerful act of solidarity of the American people with Ukraine. And the bicameral and bipartisan support of our state,” Zelensky added.  The Ukrainian president emphasized the importance of the additional aid in the fight against Russia.  “The law provides the financing of defense programs, as well as powerful direct budget support to Ukraine. This help is more important today than ever. We must continue to jointly oppose the aggression of the Russian Federation,” Zelensky said.  A Russian vehicle is parked outside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, on September 1. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters) The director general of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been detained by a Russian patrol, the president of state nuclear company Energoatom, Petro Kotin, said in a statement on Saturday. Director General Ihor Murashov was in his vehicle on his way from the plant when he was “stopped, he was taken out of the car, and with his eyes blindfolded he was driven in an unknown direction. For the time being there is no information on his fate,” Kotin said.  “Murashov is a licensed person and bears main and exclusive responsibility for the nuclear and radiation safety of the Zaporizhzhya NPP,” Kotin said, adding that his detention “jeopardizes the safety of operation of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.” Kotin called on the Russians to release Murashov and urged the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi to “free” him. Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “strongly condemns the illegal detention” of Murashov in a statement released on its website Saturday.  “This crime is another manifestation of state terrorism from the side of Russia and a gross violation of international law. Russia should immediately free the Director General of the Zaporizhzhia NPP,” it said.   “We call on the international community, in particular the UN, the IAEA and the G7, to also take decisive measures to this end,” the statement added.  Some background: The Zaporizhzhia plant has been a focal point in the war, as both the Russians and Ukrainians have blamed each of shelling near Europe’s largest nuclear power station. Since early March, when Russia captured the plant, international and local experts have voiced grave warnings, not only for the safety of the plant’s workers, but also for fear of a nuclear disaster that could affect thousands of people in the surrounding area. The Ukrainian flag has been raised at one of the entrances to the town of Lyman in the eastern part of Ukraine. A video posted on social media and shared by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff shows two Ukrainian soldiers standing on a military vehicle attaching the flag with tape to a large sign with the word “Lyman.” “We are unfurling our country’s flag and planting it on our land. On Lyman. Everything will be Ukraine,” one of the soldiers said to the camera.  The town — an important rail network hub — has been in Russian hands since late May and has been a focus of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the east for at least a week. Even though Ukrainian soldiers appear to have a firm presence on the outskirts of the town, Ukrainian officials caution that heavy fighting continues. Serhii Cherevatiy, an army spokesman, told CNN that while Russian forces inside the town were de-facto encircled, the situation remained “dynamic.”  Russian forces had tried to form convoys to break through the encirclement, he told CNN, but their attempts had been unsuccessful. On Friday, Ukrainian forces claimed control over the village of Drobysheve, a settlement that neighbors Lyman. Retaking Lyman would give Ukrainian forces a platform to push further east toward towns like Kreminna and Rubizhne in the Luhansk region. Ukrainian soldiers near Lyman, Ukraine, on September 22.  (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times/Redux) Ukrainian forces have entered Stavky, a village neighboring Lyman in the Kramatorsk district of Donetsk, Serhii Cherevatyi, the military spokesperson for the eastern grouping of Ukrainian forces, told local media on Saturday. “The Russian group in the area of Lyman is surrounded. The settlements of Yampil, Novoselivka, Shandryholove, Drobysheve, and Stavky are liberated. Stabilization measures are ongoing there,” Cherevatyi said in a televised press conference.  “[The liberation] of Lyman is important, because it is another step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbass. This is an opportunity to go further to Kreminna and Severodonetsk. Therefore, in turn, it is psychologically very important,” he said.   Cherevatyi said the Ukrainian troops actions are setting the tone to “break the course of these hostilities.”  “Yes, there are many killed and wounded among them. However, the operation is not yet complete. And only after its completion, the headquarters will conduct an analysis and give more significant results,” he said. Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, also spoke Saturday with further details on the Lyman takeover, suggesting Russian forces had offered ...

Mass. Man Breaks Topsfield Fair Giant Pumpkin Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mass-man-breaks-topsfield-fair-giant-pumpkin-record/ But soon as I did that. Okay. Really? No, Okay. Massachusetts man breaks Topsfield Fair giant pumpkin record A Massachusetts man broke the Topsfield Fair giant pumpkin record with the size of his gourd, measured as part of the annual New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Contest. Jamie Graham of Tyngsborough had his pumpkin top the scales at 2,480 pounds. The previous record was 2,294.5 pounds, set by Alex Noel of Abington, Connecticut. The Salem News reports that Graham’s children dubbed the monster pumpkin Bear Swipe. Graham has been posting the pumpkin’s journey on his social media channels, including Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok accounts.Graham won $6,500 for first place and received a $2,022 bonus for breaking the fair’s record, the Salem News reported. Noel came in second place in this year’s contest with a pumpkin weighing 2,234 pounds.The New England Giant Pumpkin weigh-off began at Topsfield Fair in 1984. That year the winning pumpkin, grown by Wayne Hackney of New Milford, Connecticut, weighed 433 pounds. TOPSFIELD, Mass. — A Massachusetts man broke the Topsfield Fair giant pumpkin record with the size of his gourd, measured as part of the annual New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Contest. Jamie Graham of Tyngsborough had his pumpkin top the scales at 2,480 pounds. The previous record was 2,294.5 pounds, set by Alex Noel of Abington, Connecticut. The Salem News reports that Graham’s children dubbed the monster pumpkin Bear Swipe. Graham has been posting the pumpkin’s journey on his social media channels, including Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok accounts. Graham won $6,500 for first place and received a $2,022 bonus for breaking the fair’s record, the Salem News reported. Noel came in second place in this year’s contest with a pumpkin weighing 2,234 pounds. The New England Giant Pumpkin weigh-off began at Topsfield Fair in 1984. That year the winning pumpkin, grown by Wayne Hackney of New Milford, Connecticut, weighed 433 pounds. Read More Here

Rutledge Announces Suit Against Biden For Unlawfully Cancelling Debt https://digitalarkansasnews.com/rutledge-announces-suit-against-biden-for-unlawfully-cancelling-debt/ Posted 10/1/22 LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today announced a lawsuit against President Joe Biden, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and the U.S. Department of Education for … This item is available in full to subscribers. Attention subscribers We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you’ve not yet logged in to your account on this new site. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. Please log in to continue Need an account? Print subscribers If you’re a print subscriber, but do not yet have an online account, click here to create one. Non-subscribers Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber. Read More…

Trump Calls McConnell’s Wife ‘Coco Chow’ In Social Post https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-calls-mcconnells-wife-coco-chow-in-social-post/ U.S. President Donald Trump (C) talks to reporters during a cabinet meeting with (L-R) Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and others in the Cabinet Room at the White House October 17, 2018 in Washington, DC. Photo credit (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Former President Donald Trump called current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao “Coco Chow” in a Friday Truth Social post. As of Saturday morning, it had more than 17,000 likes. “He has a DEATH WISH,” said Trump of McConnell, a fellow Republican who represents Kentucky in the Senate. “Must immediately seek help and advise from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!” McConnell is married to Elaine Chao, who served as the U.S. secretary of transportation when Trump was president and as the secretary of labor under former President George W. Bush. Chao moved to the U.S. from Taiwan when she was 8 years old, Business Insider reported. Although Taiwan has been governed independently of mainland China since 1949, the People’s Republic of China “views the island as a renegade province and vows to eventually ‘unify’ Taiwan with the mainland,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations. This August, the Louisville Courier Journal reported that Trump called Chao “crazy” said she and McConnell were trying to “get rich on China!” According to the Stop AAPI Hate organization, incidents of race-related name-calling can “be traumatizing and damaging.” Trump began his post with “is McConnell approving all of these Trillions of Dollars worth of Democrat sponsored Bills, without even the slightest bit of negotiation, because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am strongly opposed to them, or is he doing it because he believes in the Fake and Highly Destructive Green New Deal, and is willing to take the Country down with him? In any event, either reason is unacceptable.” This message came after both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed legislation to keep the government funded through mid-December. McConnell voted in favor of the bipartisan legislation, which included funding for Ukraine, disaster relief and a low income heating program. CNN described it as a “direct attack” at McConnell ahead of the midterm elections. While McConnell’s term runs through 2027, other Republican legislators are running to keep their seats in November. Read More Here

Trump Once Told His Biracial Ex-Girlfriend That Her Intelligence Came 'from Her Dad, The White Side,' Book Claims https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-once-told-his-biracial-ex-girlfriend-that-her-intelligence-came-from-her-dad-the-white-side-book-claims/ Trump told his biracial ex-girlfriend that she gets her intelligence from her “white side.” The comments were made to model Kara Young after meeting her parents, according to a new book.The former president laughed at his comments while Young rebuffed the remark. Former President Donald Trump once told his girlfriend, who is biracial, that she gets her intelligence from her white father, according to a book. The new book “Confidence Man The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman detailed Trump’s past relationship with model Kara Young, Rolling Stone reported. Young and Trump dated in the late 1990s and frequented movie premieres and other social events in New York City. After Trump met Young’s mother, who is Black, and father, he made a joke insinuating that her looks come from her mother, but her intellect comes “from her dad, the white side,” the outlet reported, citing the book. Per the book,Trump laughed at his joke, but Young did not appreciate his comments, according to the report. Young opened up about another experience in 2017 where she said Trump was shocked that Tennis juggernauts Serena and Venus Williams were able to attract a diverse crowd to the US Open, Rolling Stone reported. “Why don’t you get” the food,” Trump asked the group, who was part of Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s staff. Ex-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus corrected Trump’s remarks and got the actual waitstaff. FOLLOW BUSINESS INSIDER AFRICA Our newsletter gives you access to a curated selection of the most important stories daily. Thanks for signing up for our daily insight on the African economy. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. Also join us across all of our other channels – we love to be connected! Unblock notifications in browser settings. Read More Here

Fox’s Jeanine Pirro Is Back In Hot Seat In $1.6 Billion Election Defamation Case https://digitalarkansasnews.com/foxs-jeanine-pirro-is-back-in-hot-seat-in-1-6-billion-election-defamation-case/ Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, shown here addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2017, has been placed at the center of a $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems over false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential elections. MIKE THEILER / AFP via Getty Images Dominion Voting Systems is putting Fox News star “Judge Jeanine” Pirro back on the legal hot seat in its clash with the network in a $1.6 billion defamation suit over baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 elections, NPR has learned. In documents filed Thursday in a Delaware courthouse, the voting tech company explicitly identified Pirro, a former Westchester County district attorney and New York state judge, as central to its case. Its filings argue that by questioning Pirro, Dominion can meet the key legal threshold of proving Fox showed “actual malice” when it broadcast false claims the firm sought to throw the race to Joe Biden over then-President Donald Trump. The case is at a pre-trial phase of the litigation, where both sides are able to obtain testimony and documentary evidence from key figures in a process called “discovery.” “Discovery has revealed that…Fox News host Jeanine Pirro help[ed] spread the verifiably false yet devastating lies against Dominion,” the company’s lawyers wrote in the legal documents. Earlier this month, NPR revealed that a Fox producer had warned colleagues in an email against putting Pirro on the air in the days after the election, saying she was pulling conspiracy theories from extremist conspiracy-minded websites to justify Trump’s lies. That was just one example of the vast cache of documents and testimony that Dominion has acquired. Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell made false allegations on Pirro’s show Now, Dominion is pointing to a November 14, 2020 segment in which Pirro invited on Trump’s campaign attorney, Sidney Powell, to make unsubstantiated claims that were disputed at the time and swiftly discredited. “She not only allowed Ms. Powell to air such nonsense, not only amplified it on her Justice with Judge Jeanine program,” Dominion’s attorneys wrote, “[but] Ms. Pirro’s conduct and role in the spread of this disinformation lies at the heart of Dominion’s claims.” Pirro is not named as a defendant in Dominion’s suit against Fox and its parent company, Fox Corp. Powell and others are being sued by Dominion separately. Powell alleged, among other claims, that computer codes were overwritten to manipulate Dominion software and that statistical and mathematical evidence showed votes were flipped from Trump to Biden. Those claims and others she made were false. Pirro did read Dominion’s denials on the air. Five days after the segment, the Dominion motion notes, Powell appeared at the Republican National Committee headquarters with Trump campaign attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, where they held a press conference at which they made nearly identical allegations. In the filings, Dominion’s attorneys write they had been asking for all relevant communications from Fox for months but that the network produced several directly relevant texts from Pirro just 13 hours before her deposition in late August. The attorneys said that meant they are only now able to question Pirro directly about the exchanges and are formally asking the presiding judge, Eric M. Davis of the Delaware Superior Court, to compel Pirro to sit for an additional deposition, under oath. Fox has argued the false claims were inherently newsworthy Fox News declined comment, as did its lead outside trial attorney, Dan Webb, through a network spokeswoman. In an earlier interview with NPR, Webb said that Fox News was merely covering inherently newsworthy claims by inherently newsworthy people – meaning a sitting president and his campaign lawyers and advisers contesting a presidential election. That newsworthiness, he argued, exists regardless of the accuracy or fairness of the claims. Fox’s fortunes looked shaky after the November 2020 elections because its research team made Fox the first network to project that Biden would win the key swing state of Arizona. That call enraged Trump, his campaign, and his followers. Dominion’s attorneys have argued that Fox knowingly or recklessly allowed its stars to make sweeping and false claims that the firm committed election fraud to regain the loyalty of its core audiences because it had started to bleed viewers to smaller right-wing competitors, particularly Newsmax and OAN, after the Arizona call. Dominion seeks employment contracts of Fox News executive and stars Court filings reviewed by NPR also show that Dominion is seeking to force Fox News to turn over the full employment contracts of 13 top network executives, including Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and Jay Wallace, Fox’s president and executive editor. Others named include Bill Sammon, a top Washington editor, who retired under duress after the election projection of Arizona for Biden; Irena Briganti, the network’s top publicity executive, and other senior producers and news executives. (Dominion’s motion was filed publicly, then removed and re-filed with all names redacted; NPR reviewed the first version of the motion before it was pulled from public view. The contracts would be sealed from public view.) In response, Fox’s attorneys wrote that “none [of the executives] have made any allegedly defamatory comments, appeared on any allegedly defamatory programs, or produced any allegedly defamatory shows.” “[Fox] maintains that this order is contrary to law, prejudicial to [Fox] and not proportional to the needs of this case,” Fox attorneys wrote. Dominion is presumably looking to examine how the executives’ compensation and bonuses are constructed, given those sharp ratings drops in late 2020. Dominion still has pending defamation suits against both smaller networks, Giuliani, Powell, and pillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell, an avid pro-Trump propagator of unfounded conspiracies about the election. The judge has set a deadline in mid-October for all discovery and depositions to conclude, with a few exceptions that could drag into November. Trump and Pirro have a tight bond. When she was briefly banished from the air in 2019 over anti-Muslim remarks, the then-president publicly called for her return. In 2020, she attended his bellicose Election Night address refusing to accept the results. Her weekend show did not air on Nov. 7, 2020, just after the elections, but the program resurfaced a week later, with the segment featuring Powell, and she repeatedly advanced Trump’s cause in the weeks and months that followed. In January, Pirro was elevated to become a full host of The Five, Fox’s popular weekday evening political chat show. She was not alone at Fox in promoting such claims of election fraud. A star-studded roster of current and former Fox News hosts have been deposed in the case, including Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. The network announced former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs was leaving Fox the day after another election technology company, Smartmatic, announced its own $2.1 billion defamation suit over similarly spurious claims. (That suit is pending.) Dobbs sat for a deposition as well. In addition to those of the Fox News executives, Dominion has petitioned to receive the employment contracts for Bartiromo, Carlson, Dobbs, Hannity and Pirro. Pirro was originally a named defendant in the Smartmatic defamation suit. She was dismissed from that suit. But she remains at the heart of the Dominion drama, which has a trial date of next April. Maddy Lauria contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. Read More Here

Former President Jimmy Carter Celebrates His 98th Birthday | CNN Politics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/former-president-jimmy-carter-celebrates-his-98th-birthday-cnn-politics/ Washington CNN  —  Jimmy Carter, the oldest living former US president, turns 98 on Saturday. Carter will celebrate quietly at home with his family, according to a spokesperson from The Carter Center. The Carter Center will host a series of virtual events to celebrate the former president’s birthday and legacy, and the public is encouraged to send him a virtual birthday message via his nonprofit. Carter became the oldest living US president in history after the passing of George H. W. Bush, who died in late 2018 at 94. In recent years, he has kept a low public profile due to the coronavirus pandemic but has continued to speak out about risks to democracy around the world, a longtime cause of his. He was a peanut farmer and US Navy lieutenant before going into politics, eventually serving one term as governor of Georgia and president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. The former Democratic president is widely revered for his championing of human rights. His brokering of the Camp David Accords with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978 remains central to his legacy. After his presidency, Carter has leaned further into human rights, and founded The Carter Center along with his wife, Rosalynn, in hopes of advancing world peace and health. The Carter Center has worked to advance democracy by monitoring foreign elections and reducing diseases in developing countries over the years. Carter himself has been a longtime volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to push for peace across the globe. Carter beat brain cancer in 2015 but faced a series of health scares in 2019, and consequentially underwent surgery to remove pressure on his brain. He has since recovered but his health woes forced him to give up his decades-long tradition of teaching Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Rosalynn Carter celebrated her 95th birthday in August. CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that the Carter Center is a nonprofit organization. Read More Here

Russia's Ukraine Invasion Is Backdrop To Election In Latvia https://digitalarkansasnews.com/russias-ukraine-invasion-is-backdrop-to-election-in-latvia/ VILNIUS, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Latvians were voting on Saturday in a parliamentary election, with opinion polls predicting that Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’s centre-right New Unity party will win the most votes, enabling him to continue his coalition with the conservative National Alliance. A victory for Karins could widen a growing rift between the Latvian majority and Latvia’s Russian-speaking minority over their place in society following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “I’m ready to continue being the prime minister, if that’s what the people say,” Karins told reporters in Riga on Saturday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Polls close at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT), with an exit poll released immediately afterwards. Results were expected by midnight (2100 GMT). The first Latvian head of government to survive a full four-year term, surveys show Karins benefitting from driving the country’s hawkish stance against Russia amid widespread national anger over the invasion of Ukraine. The election campaign was dominated by questions of national identity and security concerns, while urgent issues including soaring energy costs and high inflation were largely pushed aside. Election campaign poster depicting parliament member candidates from different political parties are seen in Jelgava, Latvia September 28, 2022. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins Karins told Reuters on Tuesday he believes the war in Ukraine has consolidated his NATO and European Union nation of 1.9 million. He said that if re-elected, he would integrate the Russian minority – a quarter of population – by having the country educate its children in the Latvian language. “We’re putting all of our focus on the youth, to make sure that regardless of what language is spoken at home, that the child grows up with all of the advantages of knowing our language, knowing our culture”, he said. Before Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, tens of thousands of Russian speakers in Latvia used to gather every May 9 around a monument in Riga to commemorate the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany in World War Two. Their gatherings were banned after the invasion and the 84-metre (275-foot) structure in the centre of the capital was demolished on orders from the government – which is dominated by ethnic Latvians and would prefer to bury the memories of the country being part of the former Soviet Union up to 1991. Popular TV broadcasts from Russia have been banned and the state language board has proposed renaming a central Riga street commemorating Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Karins’ government has put forward plans to switch all education to Latvian and to swiftly phase out instruction in Russian. The social democrat Harmony party, traditionally backed by Latvia’s Russian-speaking minority, received 19.8% of votes in the 2018 elections and became the largest opposition party in parliament. However, the latest opinion polls showed 7.3% support for Harmony. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius and Janis Laizans in Riga Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Elon Musk Unveils Prototype Of Tesla’s Humanoid Robot Optimus, Says It Will Cost Less Than A Car https://digitalarkansasnews.com/elon-musk-unveils-prototype-of-teslas-humanoid-robot-optimus-says-it-will-cost-less-than-a-car/ Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus, part of an effort to shape perception of the company as more than just a car maker. The Tesla CEO said the robot is expected to cost less than a car. Photo: Tesla Updated Oct. 1, 2022 10:46 am ET Elon Musk showed off a new humanoid robot Friday at a Tesla artificial-intelligence event, part of the chief executive’s effort to shape public perception of the company as more than an electric-vehicle maker. Mr. Musk first laid out the vision for the robot, called Optimus, a little more than a year ago at Tesla’s first-ever AI day. At the time, a dancer in a costume appeared onstage. This time, Mr. Musk presented a prototype at the gathering that unfolded late Friday in Palo Alto, Calif. Read More Here

Cha-Ching! Biden Embraces His Election-Year Fundraising Role https://digitalarkansasnews.com/cha-ching-biden-embraces-his-election-year-fundraising-role/ WASHINGTON — Whenever a donor’s unsilenced cellphone goes off at a fundraiser while President Joe Biden is talking, he has the same joke ready to go: It’s Donald Trump on the other line. “If that’s Trump calling me again, tell him I’m busy,” Biden said at an event this past week for the Democratic Governors Association, repeating a variation of the quip he also relayed during receptions in Illinois and New York earlier this year. The crowd of a few dozen, as they always do, chuckled as the president continued with the rest of his remarks. It’s one glimpse of Biden as fundraiser in chief — a man who schmoozes with aplomb while raking in millions at receptions that will be a fixture of his political schedule during the final stretch before Election Day, Nov. 8. At these events, celebrities are spotted and alcohol is consumed, while Biden gets the one-on-one interactions he had missed for much of his campaign and presidency due to COVID-19. The fundraisers — held in lavish Manhattan apartments, drab conference centers and backyard tents glammed up with chandeliers — have been one of the most visible ways Biden has been deployed this election year at a time when his approval ratings remain underwater and many Democrats aren’t eager to stand by him on the campaign trail. “Joe Biden is Joe Biden. He’s real, he’s down to earth, if he knows the people in the room … he’s even more relaxed,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., a close ally. “He gets all kinds of questions, he answers them honestly, he probably gives his staff heart attacks.” So far this year, Biden has headlined 11 receptions to raise cash directly for the Democratic National Committee, and they have brought in more than $19.6 million, according to the committee. The events have ranged from a $300,000 haul at a yacht club in Portland, Oregon, to a cozy, 18-person affair (with four others on video screens) at Hotel Washington near the White House that took in more than $3 million. A pair of fundraisers at mansions in Southern California during the Summit of the Americas in June raked in $5 million in a matter of hours. Separate from the DNC events, Biden spoke at a fundraiser in September benefiting Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that brought in more than $450,000 for the state Democratic Party. The governors association event raised $1 million, and Biden was to have appeared on Tuesday at a fundraiser on behalf of Charlie Crist, the nominee for governor in Florida who has not been shy about wanting the president to campaign with him. That political trip was postponed due to Hurricane Ian. The DNC also enlists Biden for solicitations sent to its grassroots donor list, with emails signed by the president consistently raising the most money for the committee, party officials say. As of this past week, the DNC has raised more than $107 million, the most at this point in any year and an amount that Democratic officials credited in large part to Biden’s direct involvement. Biden seems to particularly relish the in-person interactions that a private fundraiser offers. A famously chummy politician, Biden makes sure at any big-dollar event that his hosts are made to feel special and recognized. For instance, at a late August fundraiser in the Washington suburbs, Biden first spent some time giving a child near the front of the gathering a bit of attention and then the president gave his remarks for several dozen big-dollar DNC supporters. “Honey, what’s your name?” Biden asked a little girl, sitting through what he joked had to be the most “boring” event. “Well, let me tell you something. Is that your daddy? He owes you big for having to sit here.” At a June fundraiser in Beverly Hills, California, at the home of billionaire media mogul Haim Saban, the president mused to Saban’s wife, Cheryl, that both men had “married way above our station.” And standing in the 65th-floor apartment of Henry and Marsha Laufer overlooking New York’s Central Park, Biden gushed over the “magnificent” view, noting: “I don’t know if there’s a better view in New York than here.” Indeed, the residence is a “piece of heaven” for the Laufers, who appeared fastidious about keeping their place spotless. Attendees checked their shoes – expensive Jimmy Choo mules and Saint Laurent pumps among them — at the door and listened to Biden while in socks or slippers provided by the couple. A small group of reporters in attendance were asked to place “booties” over their shoes to protect their hardwood floors and light-colored carpets. (None of the shoe rules applied to Biden, who kept his on and did not wear the disposable coverings.) At Biden fundraisers, celebrities such as the actor Robert De Niro (in New York) or filmmaker Ken Burns (in Boston) make the occasional cameo, although neither stayed long enough to hear the president speak. To donors, Biden’s comments, which can run from a few minutes to a half-hour, are a much more casual, off-the-cuff version of the campaign speech that he delivers in front of the cameras. Journalists have access to Biden fundraisers, although just with a notepad and pen, meaning cameras are barred. Especially as of late, Biden takes care to underline his administration’s accomplishments — a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, a bipartisan infrastructure law, a climate and health care bill that came after months of internal Democratic wrangling. He then stresses to donors how the upcoming November midterms are a choice, not just between keeping his achievements and Republicans unraveling them, but on other issues such as abortion and guns. While aides dispute that his message varies in more private settings, Biden frequently speaks extemporaneously and can be far less guarded than at his formal remarks at a lectern or on a stage. It’s been at fundraisers where Biden has invoked variations of fascism – be it “semi-fascism” or “tint of fascism” — to refer to Trump-fueled forces within the Republican Party that Biden has said are a threat to the nation’s democratic foundations. While his spokeswoman declined to assess the implications of the recent election in Italy, where a political party with neo-fascist roots won the most votes, Biden at the DGA fundraiser pointed to the results as he warned about the fate of democracy both in the United States and abroad. At the Laufers’ home, Biden – who tends to avoid talking about his faith when discussing policy — notably referenced the Catholic Church’s position while castigating Republicans who had pushed for broad bans on abortion. “I happen to be a practicing Roman Catholic. My church doesn’t even make that argument,” he said, referring to abortion bans that leave “no exceptions.” The quintessential Biden qualities — his candor and his warmth with the crowd — become more pronounced once the press is kicked out and audience members have a chance to ask Biden questions, say people who have attended such gatherings. The questions Biden gets vary from event to event and they veer from political strategy to the news of the day. During a Manhattan fundraiser at the home of businessman and social justice activist Henry Munoz, Biden was pressed on his plans on immigration and how he would describe his closing message to voters, as well as the impact of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to relay details of a private event. The bulk of Biden’s fundraising activity has been for the DNC, and Biden earlier this year greenlighted a $15 million transfer from it to the party’s House and Senate campaign committees, a sign of his personal investment in trying to ensure Democrats retain their majorities this fall. A White House official said Biden receives “quite a few” requests from Democratic candidates to appear at fundraisers, and aides work to accommodate as many as possible depending on his schedule and other factors. Whitmer took priority because she was a co-chair of both Biden’s presidential campaign and his inauguration. ___ Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics Read More Here

Judge Says Trump Can Hold Off On Affirming Accuracy Of FBI’s Mar-A-Lago Inventory https://digitalarkansasnews.com/judge-says-trump-can-hold-off-on-affirming-accuracy-of-fbis-mar-a-lago-inventory/ Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) by: Rebecca Beitsch Posted: Oct 1, 2022 / 10:48 AM EDT Updated: Oct 1, 2022 / 10:48 AM EDT U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon brushed aside an order from the special master in the Mar-a-Lago case requiring former President Trump to back his claims the FBI planted evidence in his home in an order that also extends the deadline for completing the review. The order from Cannon comes after Trump’s legal team penned a letter to Judge Raymond Dearie, the special master, complaining his “management plan exceeds the grant of authority from the district court on this issue.” In Thursday’s order Cannon agreed with Trump’s team, saying his attorneys would not be required to affirm the accuracy of the FBI’s inventory from Mar-a-Lago before getting a chance to review the records themselves. “There shall be no separate requirement on Plaintiff at this stage, prior to the review of any of the seized materials. …The Court’s Appointment Order did not contemplate that obligation,” Cannon wrote. Her order also extends the timeline to review the roughly 200,000 pages Trump stored at his home from Nov. 30 until Dec. 16. The shuffling of deadlines also allows other key filings from the Trump team to land after the midterms. Cannon sided with Dearie, who required the Trump team to be more specific about what types of executive privilege he wishes to assert over the documents. Trump’s team must now label each document to claim whether it could be covered by attorney-client privilege, executive privilege, and which presidential records he argues are his personal property.  But his team is not required to make those claims until shortly after the midterm elections. Dearie had required Trump’s team to make those claims on a rolling basis. If you have a news tip or a correction to the story you can email it to us through this link. If you would like to send a comment to the author of the story, you can find their email on our Meet the Team page. Read More Here

Trump Arrives For Michigan Rally Under Pressure https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-arrives-for-michigan-rally-under-pressure/ Former President Donald Trump is set to hold a rally in Michigan on Saturday night to support his endorsed candidates, who are down in the polls and as he continues facing mounting legal pressure. Trump is expected to speak at the Macomb County Community College Sports & Expo Center in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, to rally around candidates he has supported, including Tudor Dixon in the battleground state’s gubernatorial race. He is expected to speak at 7 p.m., and the rally will be streamed online by the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN). The Michigan rally comes a little more than a month ahead of the November 8 midterm elections. Michigan emerged as a key swing state in recent years—with Trump narrowly winning the state in 2016, and President Joe Biden flipping it back to Democrats in 2020. Both parties are hoping to sweep statewide offices, as well as win several competitive congressional races this year. Above, former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on September 23. Trump is set to hold a rally in Michigan on Saturday night to support his endorsed candidates, who are down in the polls and as he continues facing mounting legal pressure. Allison Joyce/Getty Images Trump’s Candidates Down in Polls as Midterms Approach Trump’s rally seeks to boost Republicans, who have been struggling to gain traction in polls. The gubernatorial race, where Dixon will face off against incumbent Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, is one of the most closely watched midterm races across the country. Whitmer became a foil to Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic, making her a top GOP target and popular governor among Democrats. Trump’s candidates were successful during Michigan’s primaries, with his preferred candidates winning the primaries in the gubernatorial, attorney general and secretary of state races. In Michigan’s Third Congressional District, Trump-backed John Gibbs also defeated incumbent Representative Peter Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. However, recent polling has raised questions about how his candidates will fare in the general election in the evenly divided state. Whitmer appears to be favored to defeat Trump-backed Dixon, according to polls. Whitmer leads by an average of 11.6 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s aggregate of recent polls. Dixon’s campaign, in a statement to Newsweek, touted a Trafalgar Group poll conducted from September 24 to 28 showing Whitmer leading Dixon by about 6 percentage points, though Trafalgar polls are seen as having a Republican tilt. “We are excited to welcome President Trump to Michigan this weekend as we build momentum heading into October. The latest polling numbers prove what we already know to be true – Gretchen Whitmer is vulnerable, the momentum is on our side, and our message is resonating with Michigan voters,” the statement said. However, other independent polls show Whitmer with a greater lead. A September 15 to 19 EPIC-MIRA poll, sponsored by the Detroit Free Press and WJRT-TV, showed Whitmer leading Dixon by about 16 percentage points. The poll also found Attorney General Dana Nessel with a 13-point lead over Trump-endorsed Matthew DePerno and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson with a 12-point lead over Kristina Karamo. Trump Lawsuits, Investigations Continue Piling Up The rally also comes as the former president faces several investigations and lawsuits that could threaten to impact a potential 2024 presidential run—though he remains popular among Republican voters. Trump maintains his innocence in each case, but the investigations could affect Republicans in the midterms. In September, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit alleging Trump and three of his children of engaging in business fraud. She accused them of committing “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentations,” as well as “grossly” inflating Trump’s net worth. Trump addressed the lawsuit during a rally in North Carolina last weekend, where he said James’ “only goal” was to go after him amid the competitive midterm elections. He also continues to face the Department of Justice‘s (DOJ) investigation into whether he improperly stored classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence following the FBI raid on the property in August. He was delivered a win this week by Judge Aileen Cannon, who overruled special master Judge Raymond Dearie’s request for him to testify about which documents he declassified before he left the White House. He also faces investigations into his conduct surrounding the 2020 election. He has claimed, without presenting substantial evidence, that widespread voter fraud was to blame for his loss. Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating whether his phone call in which he urged Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” more than 11,000 votes violated state law. Last month, she said the investigation could end in some people serving “prison sentences.” Newsweek reached out to the Whitmer campaign for comment. Read More Here

Environmental Justice Office Created https://digitalarkansasnews.com/environmental-justice-office-created/ LITTLE ROCK — The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas enforces federal laws that are designed to protect not just the American people, but also the nation’s natural resources. The substantial overlap that exists between protecting people and places prompted the Department of Justice to create an Office of Environmental Justice. Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Read More…

Donald Trump At Centre Of Oath Keepers Novel Defence In January 6 Case https://digitalarkansasnews.com/donald-trump-at-centre-of-oath-keepers-novel-defence-in-january-6-case/ Former US President Donald Trump (File photo: Reuters) The defence team in the Capitol riot trial of the Oath Keepers leader is relying on an unusual strategy with Donald Trump at the centre. Lawyers for Stewart Rhodes, founder of the extremist group, are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before the siege on Jan. 6, 2021, were in preparation for orders he anticipated from the then-president orders that never came. Rhodes and four associates are accused of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of presidential power from the Republican incumbent to Democrat Joe Biden, culminating with Oath Keepers in battle gear storming the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters. Opening statements in the trial are set to begin Monday. Rhodes intends to take the stand to argue he believed Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act to call up a militia to support him, his lawyers have said. Trump didn’t do that, but Rhodes’ team says that what prosecutors allege was an illegal conspiracy was “actually lobbying and preparation for the President to utilise” the law. It’s a novel legal argument in a trial that’s one of the most serious cases coming out of the Capitol attack. “This is an incredibly complicated defence of theory and I don’t think that it’s ever played out in this fashion in American jurisprudence,” one of Rhodes’ lawyers, James Lee Bright, told The Associated Press. The Insurrection Act gives a president broad authority to call up the military and decide what shape that force will take. Trump did float that kind of action at other points in his presidency. To succeed with this line of defense, Bright would have to convince a jury that Rhodes was waiting on the go-ahead from the president, which could be a major hurdle. Rhodes’ lawyers have argued Trump could have called up a militia in response to what he perceived as a conspiracy to deprive a class of persons in several states of their voting rights.” Rhodes published an open letter on the Oath Keepers’ website in December 2020 urging Trump use the Insurrection Act to stop the steal’ and defeat the coup. If Rhodes testifies, he could face intense questioning from prosecutors, who say his own words show the Oath Keepers would act no matter what Trump did. Bright said Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate, understands the risks of testifying but has insisted since the first day they met that he be able to speak his piece.” Rhodes and his associates Kelly Meggs, Thomas Caldwell, Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson are the first Jan. 6 defendants to be tried on seditious conspiracy, a rarely used Civil War-era charge that can be difficult to prove. The defense would have to convince the jury that the Oath Keepers really intended to defend the government, not use force against it, said David Alan Sklansky, a former federal prosecutor who’s now a professor at Stanford Law School. If you think you are plotting to help protect the government, there is an argument that that means you don’t have the required guilty mindset that’s necessary in order to be guilty of seditious conspiracy,” he said. Court records show the Oath Keepers repeatedly warning of the prospect of violence if Biden were to become president. The Oath Keepers amassed weapons and stationed armed quick reaction force teams at a Virginia hotel in case they were needed, prosecutors say. Among those likely to testify against Rhodes are three of his former followers, including one who has said Rhodes instructed them to be ready to use lethal force if necessary to keep Trump in the White House. Defense lawyers say the quick reaction force teams were defensive forces only to be used if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act. If Rhodes really wanted to lead a revolution, his lawyers say there was no better opportunity to deploy the quick reaction force than when hundreds of people were storming the Capitol. But the Oath Keepers never did. The conditions would never be better. Yet, Rhodes and the others left the Capitol grounds and went to Olive Garden for dinner, they’ve written in court papers. Rhodes never went into the Capitol and has said that the Oath Keepers who did acted on their own. The Insurrection Act is shorthand for a series of statues that Congress passed between 1872 and 1871 defining when military force can be used in the United States by the federal government, said University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck. The Act does give the president wide discretion to decide when military force is necessary, and what qualifies as military force, Vladeck said. The last time the Insurrection Act was used was in May of 1992, by President George H.W. Bush to call out the military to respond to Los Angeles riots after the acquittal of white police officers accused in the beating of Black motorist Rodney King. Even if Trump had acted, prosecutors would still have a strong case that the Oath Keepers tried to keep Congress from carrying out its responsibilities as part of the transfer of presidential power, Vladeck said. Even if the president could authorise their actions, the Oath Keepers could still have been as the law puts it forcibly opposing other elements of the government, he said. The government of the United States is more than just the president, Vladeck said. Michael Weinstein, a former Justice Department prosecutor, agreed that Rhodes’ argument is not likely to win over a jury. But that may not be his only goal. I think it’s going to be a little bit of a show trial for him, said Weinstein, now a criminal defense lawyer in New Jersey. This is his opportunity to really promote himself and his philosophy and make himself out to be a bit of a martyr.” Trump did talk about sending in U.S. troops to American cities in summer 2020 as protesters filled the streets in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer, an action that would have come under the Insurrection Act. He never did. Los Angeles-based defense lawyer Nina Marino said the Insurrection Act defense could work. I think it’s a great defense from the 1800s resurrected into 2022, she said. But she added: If there’s evidence that they would have done it anyway, then I think that really, really damages the defense. Prosecutors have already pointed to a message from December 2020 that Rhodes wrote, saying Trump needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.” Days before the riot, Rhodes warned that the final nail would be put in the coffin of this Republic, unless they fought their way out. “With Trump (preferably) or without him, we have no choice, Rhodes wrote in a chat, according to court papers. He added: Be prepared for a major let down on the 6-8th. And get ready to do it OURSELVES. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Subscribe to Business Standard Premium Exclusive Stories, Curated Newsletters, 26 years of Archives, E-paper, and more! First Published: Sat, October 01 2022. 19:17 IST Read More Here