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NHC Forecasts Tropical Storm Ian Will Hit Florida As Category 3 Hurricane https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nhc-forecasts-tropical-storm-ian-will-hit-florida-as-category-3-hurricane-2/ NHC forecasts Tropical Storm Ian will hit Florida as Category 3 hurricane saturday, I’m first morning meteorologist Derek Burress wanted to get you kind of *** more elaborate look at what’s going on within our tropical system in the caribbean, there’s *** look at it as of the eight o’clock, intermediate advisory maximum sustained winds at 45. And the storm system really bubbling up some decent convection today. Starting to look like it’s wanting to produce more circulation Overall, the trends this morning have been for this storm system to look better organized, feeding off of that very warm water and of course, the thus getting *** little more organized. Let’s talk about the overall forecast from the National Hurricane Center, expected to become *** hurricane neither late tomorrow or early on monday and then make its way towards cuba as *** borderline Category two or category three storm system approaching florida and moving into the gulf of Mexico as *** major hurricane Category three intensity. Now *** couple of things here, major hurricane status, that’s *** big storm. Um intensity models are probably the weakest in terms of the forecasting confidence and day four and five, the Wednesday thursday point of this are also particularly low in confidence overall, more so than even most tropical systems. And the reasoning is the overall weather pattern. Let me show you what’s steering this Okay, you’ve got our tropical system down in the Caribbean working toward the gulf and while Ian is working to the north, there’s *** cold front that’s working off to the south and when the two of them meet that will eventually steer the storm system. If this front is *** little weaker, it would allow in to go *** little further north before turning, If this front is *** little stronger, it would recurve in *** little sooner. So we really are looking at the dynamics here, both in terms of timing, on both things and in terms of intensity on both things. If IAN is *** little further north or *** little further south, if that cold front and overall trough is *** little weaker, *** little stronger, it all plays in. And that’s The same scenario as Charlie. If you followed back 18 years ago, I can’t believe it’s been that long. I remember this exact scenario when I was forecasting Charlie Uh covering central Florida weather 18 years ago and we also remember Charlie made kind of that last minute adjustment and that’s one of the big reasons why you have to know that these are not set in stone. It’s not over until it’s over. As *** matter of fact, *** lot of you may be asking is this Charlie 2.0 is what *** lot of people were asking and I mean, you know, I wouldn’t call it Charlie 2.0, but it certainly has some pretty significant memories or or will will make you think that there’s *** current location uh v in this blue line here is the path, the actual path of charlie. So when you kind of look to the future, *** reminder charlie went in here, the forecast for Ian is anywhere in here. So we don’t know exact yet, but one lesson we learned in charlie because at the time the forecast thinking was like Tampa and we know what kind of made that right hand turn. The one lesson we learned was you can’t focus on the skinny line, you’ve got to broaden it out and look the cone itself. And because of that, let’s just look where we are. In terms of the overall timeline in central florida. This, I made this graphic yesterday and it’s probably my favorite tropical graphic I’ve ever made because this really breaks it down into where we are. Alright, so for today, storm landfall confidence is low. In other words, we know it’s heading toward the eastern gulf. The models are zeroed in on that. Perfect. We understand that, but that’s about all we know right? There’s way too many variables in there. So for today, I want you and your family to just start thinking, huh? Okay. May have *** hurricane this week. May have nothing. I mean if it goes into the panhandle, we get nothing. If we get *** tropical system. Alright, what could that mean for us? Does that then mean I need to bring in my furniture or secure my patio furniture is the backyard *** mess and I need to do that, you know? Um Oh, I usually mow my yard midweek like me. Do I need to mow it now. Um do I have enough food and water in my hurricane supply kit? You know? We talked early hurricane season all about this, but this is *** very important thing, right? Keep that in mind tomorrow and monday. That’s when our confidence starts to go up and we start to zero in on some ideas. Oh all right, now we’re looking at this area of the coastline. Okay, so based on that, maybe I should start doing this or that or this or that and then Tuesday, Tuesday morning is fine but like late Tuesday the weather is gonna start to get *** little crummy er assuming the worst of the weather kind of works in our general direction. All right. And then Wednesday kind of the worst of the weather is moving through the area, so confidence is low, but we’re going to be getting there these next couple of days. Okay. It’s very, very important to know. Alright, Alright. So when then do we think that the worst of the weather could be moving into the area based on current thinking from the hurricane center, Tuesday evening, the worst of the weather starts in south florida and this can and will shift Wednesday morning in our area and then Wednesday evening in north. But again, there is particular lack of guidance helping us day four and five, we’re gonna get there tomorrow and monday I think we’ll get there but we’re not there yet. Okay, so again, just, just to repeat what we’re looking at our entire area under the cone, the cone of confidence, meaning we are confident the storm will be in that cone now, of course, for planning purposes it meaning the entire peninsula is in that cone, but we’ll hone it in, give it *** couple of days time. We are well ahead of the curve. We’re doing great now, we just need to let the models do their thing. Hurricane Hunters have nearly round the clock missions in today, so we will be getting plenty of data. Alright? Stay with west to west Two News west dot com for the very latest updates throughout the day and evening. First, right here on west dot com and the west to mobile app. GET LOCAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. Privacy Notice NHC forecasts Tropical Storm Ian will hit Florida as Category 3 hurricane ABOVE: WESH 2 Meteorologist Eric Burris tracks timing of Ian in extended forecastTropical Depression Nine strengthened into Tropical Storm Ian Friday night. This system is forecast to hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane next week.As of 11 a.m. Saturday, Tropical Storm Ian was expected to strengthen rapidly throughout the weekendIan had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was located 270 miles south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 520 miles east-southeast of Grand Cayman. The system was moving west at 15 mph. See the latest maps, models and paths here “Rapid intensification is forecast Monday through Wednesday over some very warm water,” WESH 2 Meteorologist Tony Mainolfi said. “GFS model continues to be slower and west of Euro with the forecast cone between these two models tonight. Intensity forecasts remain very impressive in the Category 2 – Category 4 range.”The NHC advises hurricane conditions are possible in the Cayman Islands by early Monday. The Florida Keys and South Florida can expect heavy rains to begin as early as Monday. Some flash and urban flooding is possible with this rainfall, according to the NHC.”A turn toward the northwest is forecast on Sunday, followed by a north-northwestward turn on Monday and a northward motion on Tuesday. On the forecast track, the center of Ian is forecast to move across the central Caribbean Sea today, pass southwest of Jamaica on Sunday, and pass near or over the Cayman Islands Sunday night and early Monday. Ian will then approach western Cuba late Monday and emerge over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday,” the National Hurricane Center said. WESH 2 Hurricane Survival Guide 2022Surviving the season: Everything you need to know this hurricane season in Florida SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT:A Hurricane Watch is in effect for…* Cayman IslandsA Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for…* JamaicaA Hurricane Watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area. A watch is typically issued 48 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds, conditions that make outside preparations difficult or dangerous.A Tropical Storm Watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours. The National Weather Service has urged Florida residents and visitors to gather supplies and keep tracking the forecast.Prepping for the storm: Related: DeSantis declares State of Emergency for dozens of Florida countiesRelated: Seminole County begins sandbag preps ahead of tropical storm arrivalKNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WATCH IS ISSUEDStay tuned to WESH 2 News, WESH.COM, or NOAA Weather Radio for storm updates.Prepare to bring inside any lawn furniture, outdoor decorations or ornaments, trash cans, hanging plants, and anything else that can be picked up by the wind.Understand hurricane forecast models and cones.Prepare to cover all windows of your home. If shutters have not been installed, use precut plywood.Check batteries and stock up on canned food, first-aid supplies, drinking water, and medications.The WESH 2 First Warning Weather Team recommends you have these items ready before the storm strikes.Bottled water: One gallon of water per person per dayCanned food and soup, such as beans and chiliCan opener for...

Elton John ‘flabbergasted’ And Teary After Biden Surprises Him With Medal https://digitalarkansasnews.com/elton-john-flabbergasted-and-teary-after-biden-surprises-him-with-medal/ LONDON — British singer Elton John was left teary eyed and “flabbergasted” after being awarded a surprise national humanities medal by President Biden, following a concert at the White House on Friday night. John, 75, who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, has become a globally renowned singer, pianist and songwriter. He has also championed various charities and humanitarian causes, especially those tackling HIV/AIDS. Flanked by the president and first lady, John, wearing his signature red-tinted spectacles, looked visibly shocked as he first spotted the medal, covering his face with his hands in disbelief. “I’m never flabbergasted but I’m flabbergasted and humbled and honored by this incredible award from the United States of America,” he said, overcome, moments after clutching Jill Biden’s hand and later hugging her husband. “I will treasure this so much.” The Grammy-winning singer praised “America’s kindness to me as a musician,” calling it “second to none,” and vowed his new medal would push him to redouble his efforts to help eradicate the illness that impacts more than 38 million people globally, according to the World Health Organization. Biden, a big fan, described John as a “tidal wave,” quoting Irish poet Seamus Heaney, and praised his “incredible career.” With the White House as his backdrop, John opened with “Your Song” followed by classic tracks: “Tiny Dancer,” “Rocketman,” “Crocodile Rock,” and closed with the jaunty “I’m Still Standing.” The concert on the South Lawn, entitled “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” was part of his farewell tour, as the singer prepares to hang up his mic after a glittering 50-year career. It was also an event to honor “everyday history-makers in the audience,” according to the White House, among them teachers, military families and LGBT+ advocates. John dedicated “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” to Ryan White and his mother Jeanne White-Ginder, who attended the concert. Her son lost his life to AIDS-related complications after a blood transfusion and died in 1990, just a month before his high school graduation. The legendary singer launched the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, which has raised over $450 million so far and funded programs across four continents. In between songs, John spoke to the audience about his hope to help eradicate the virus by 2030. Among the estimated 2,000 guests at the musical event were former first lady Laura Bush, tennis champion Billie Jean King, British ambassador to the United States Karen Elizabeth Pierce, and John’s husband, David Furnish. Members of Biden’s administration including transport secretary Pete Buttigieg and defense secretary Lloyd Austin were also at the concert. John has previously performed at the White House in 1998 alongside Stevie Wonder at a state dinner for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Other artists who have performed at the coveted venue include Patti LaBelle, opera star Andrea Bocelli and the Jonas Brothers. He has sold more than 300 million records worldwide, according to his official website, and carried out more than 4,000 performances in over 80 countries. He became Sir Elton John after being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 and has been a close ally of Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, defending them in the press after the criticism they received for stepping back from senior royal duties. John reworked “Candle In The Wind” following the death of Harry’s mother in 1997, which went on to break records, selling over 33 million copies as people across the world mourned. Earlier this week, John told fans while onstage in Canada that he was “very sad” to learn of the death of the queen, praising the late monarch’s decency and noting she had for decades “worked bloody hard.” His medal from Biden will sit alongside his Legion d’Honneur given to him by French President Macron in 2019. Read More Here

Pharoah Sanders 1940 – 2022 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/pharoah-sanders-1940-2022/ The legendary tenor saxophonist was a member of John Coltrane’s final ensembles. By Scott Bernstein Sep 24, 2022 • 7:27 am PDT Legendary jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders died on Saturday morning at age 81. The death of the groundbreaking musician, who was a member of John Coltrane’s final ensembles, was confirmed in a message shared by his label, Luaka Bop. The note from Luaka Bop read: We are devastated to share that Pharoah Sanders has passed away. He died peacefully surrounded by loving family and friends in Los Angeles earlier this morning. Always and forever the most beautiful human being, may he rest in peace. Pharoah was born Farrell Sanders in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 13, 1940. He started playing tenor saxophone while enlisted at Scipio Jones High School in North Little Rock. Opportunities were limited for the saxophonist in his home state due to racism. “In Arkansas you had to play behind the curtain. They didn’t want to see black people,” Sanders told his manager Anna Sala in a 2019 interview for Pollstar. “They fed us, we had our little place where we ate, but they didn’t allow white people in there. Most of the jobs I played, a lot of parties and weddings, that’s how it was.” The saxophonist left for Oakland in 1959 and stayed for two years before hitchhiking to New York City in search of more opportunities. It was there he met a number of luminaries including Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Sun Ra with whom he found much in common musically. It was Sun Ra who encouraged Sanders to adopt the Pharoah moniker. John Coltrane tapped Sanders to join his band in 1965. Pharoah initially recorded with Coltrane in June 1965 for Ascension, an album released the following year that saw Coltrane move towards the free jazz movement of which Pharoah was fond of and became closely associated with. Sanders remained a member of Coltrane’s bands, including his final ensemble, through Trane’s death in 1967 and contributed to such albums as Om, Kulu Sé Mama, Meditations and Expression. Pharoah also pushed boundaries with his own music, releasing over 30 albums as a bandleader. His solo debut album, Pharoah’s First, came out in 1965. While Sanders worked primarily as leader of his own ensembles following John Coltrane’s death, he also worked for a brief time with John’s widow, Alice Coltrane. Sanders most commercially successful work was released by the Impulse Records label in the late 1960s and early 1970s. An example of his “sheets of sound” style and distinctive forays into spiritual jazz is the 32-minute “The Creator Has A Master Plan” composition from his 1969 album, Karma, co-composed with vocalist Leon Thomas. The tenor saxophonist continued to explore new sounds throughout the 1970s and 1980s with a stint on the California-based label Theresa in the ‘80s especially fruitful. The next decade found Sanders working with collaborators such as student Robert Stewart and Gnawa-based musician Mahmoud Guinia on the Bill Laswell-produced LP, The Trance Of Seven Colors. Verve Records then brought Pharoah back to a major label starting with Message From Home in 1995. But Sanders left the label after the release of 1998’s Save Our Children. The tenor saxophonist kept busy on the road in the ensuing years and in 2020 teamed with electronic music producer Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra on Promises. The 2021 release marked Sanders’ first major new album in nearly two decades. The Creator Has A Master Plan The Creator Has A Master Plan 00:00:00 JamBase Collections Obituaries Read More…

Watch: Trump Bashes What He Says Are Radical Democrats https://digitalarkansasnews.com/watch-trump-bashes-what-he-says-are-radical-democrats/ Current leader of fight nation USA President Joe Biden appears to be having some problems at the moment. It is no longer clear if he is in fact the Commander-In-Chief and tensions have broke out this year between he and former President Trump who has gone into detail on the current administration this weekend: It is not clear if Trump will run for President in 2024. What is clear is America is certainly in a state of change and very likely Republicans will continue to have success. Certainly the longer the rocketing crime and violence goes up in America. Peaceful voting at the ballot box will be up to the people of America to decide what happens next. Related For Latest Fight News Click Below: Read More Here

An Iconic Soap With Two Weird Claims To Fame — “It Floats” And It's “99 And 44⁄100% Pure” https://digitalarkansasnews.com/an-iconic-soap-with-two-weird-claims-to-fame-it-floats-and-its-99-and-44%e2%81%84100-pure-2/ New York (CNNBusiness)Walk into a Walmart, Target, any drugstore chain in your neighborhood or a corner bodega for New York City dwellers, and chances are you’ll find an Ivory Soap bar, or a pack of 10 bars for under $5, sitting on the shelf. This iconic cake of soap, invented almost 150 years ago, has become a part of Americana largely by advertising its two strange merits: “It Floats” and it’s “99+44⁄100% Pure.” The original product is a no-frills, plain white, mild-scented bar soap with the name “IVORY” etched into it in script. Impressively, it has stayed exactly that way for 143 years — barring the addition of an Aloe scented variety, and is also still around. Ivory soap’s longevity flies in the face of a notoriously fickle market for personal beauty products where new trends can appear and disappear in a flash. So why has Ivory Soap stood the test of time? One theory is because of its clever advertising and branding. Ivory Soap packaging famously, and relentlessly, touts the attributes of purity and buoyancy. “That’s brilliant execution,” said David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding, a branding expert who has helped name such popular consumer products as “Swiffer,” “Blackberry” and “Dasani.” “Just think about it. How many other soaps can you think of that tout an attribute that’s analogous to “It Floats?” said Placek. “I can’t think of another. It makes you remember it because it also makes you think about other soaps that don’t float.” Because Ivory Soap’s taglines have remained consistent and endured for over a century and through generations of consumers, they’ve seeped into the subconscious, said Placek. “Even if you’ve not used Ivory Soap you know about it and you remember it,” he said. The need for floating soap Ivory Soap is the brainchild of Procter & Gamble. Not the huge multinational consumer brands conglomerate that it is today, but of two individuals — Harley Procter (son of P&G cofounder William Procter) and James N. Gamble (son of P&G’s other cofounder, James Gamble). It was in the late 19th century, a period when river bathing was prevalent among large swaths of the population. Now imagine losing your grip on a bar of soap when you’re immersed waist-deep in murky water. But what if there was a soap bar that could float? An AdAge article about Ivory Soap’s invention explained how Gamble at the time was trying to create a new type of gently formulated soap. The R&D process inadvertently created a batch of soap that was found to float because air bubbles got trapped inside. Gamble, according to P&G’s website, recognized the “floating soap” could revolutionize the washing experience in more ways than one. He initially thought the floating soap could be used both for laundry and for washing up. Over time, the soap bar primarily became a bath soap. Naming the soap was another story. According to P&G legend, Harley Procter came upon the word “ivory” while attending church and thought it perfectly fit the new soap’s look and feel and both men adopted “Ivory Soap” as the name. P&G launched the soap in 1879 hyping it not only as a soap bar that floated but for its purity. That claim, according to the company, hinged on a study of the soap by chemistry professors at the request of the inventors. One study showed the soap had only a small amount of impurities — 56/100 of a percent — of a non soap material in it. So they decided to play that up in Ivory Soap’s advertising, rounding it up to create its second iconic tagline — “99 and 44-100% pure.” P&G maintains that while it continues to innovate its Ivory Soap, the product is still made with a simple formula free of dyes and parabens meant to gently cleanse the skin. It has, however, extended the brand to other products. In the 1950s, according to the AdAge article, P&G launched a light-duty dishwashing detergent under the Ivory brand, followed by liquid hand soaps in the 1980s and moisturizing body washes in 1996 with the introduction of Ivory Moisture Care. Today, the Ivory personal care portfolio also includes baby care products, hair and body washes and deodorant. Ivory soap has become so iconic that in 2001 P&G donated a collection of its Ivory Soap artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution, including its earliest advertising and a bar of unused soap from the 1940s. Lexicon Branding’s Placek said Ivory Soap is a product way ahead of its time. “It was ‘pure’ before pure, clean and simple products became as popular as they are with consumers today,” he said. Read More Here

Hillary Clinton Likens Trump Supporters To Nazis https://digitalarkansasnews.com/hillary-clinton-likens-trump-supporters-to-nazis/ Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the debate stage on Oct. 6, 2016. Getty Images First it was deplorables, now it’s Nazis. Hillary Clinton offered a sharp rebuke of former President Trump’s most recent campaign event in Ohio, saying it reminded her of a Nazi rally. “I remember as a young student, you know, trying to figure out, how people get basically brought in by Hitler. How did that happen? I’d watch newsreels and I’d see this guy standing up there ranting and raving, and people shouting and raising their arms. I thought, ‘What’s happened to these people?’” Clinton said Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. “You saw the rally in Ohio the other night, Trump is there ranting and raving for more than an hour, and you have these rows of young men with their arms raised. I thought, ‘What is going on?’” Clinton criticized Trump supporters on Friday. ZUMAPRESS.com Trump attended a Youngstown, Ohio rally for candidate J.D. Vance on Saturday, Sept. 17. Getty Images Clinton was alluding to a Sept. 17 rally in Youngstown, Ohio, for GOP senate candidate J.D. Vance, which Trump attended. Video from the event shows a number of his supporters raising their arms with the index finger pointing upward — which some took as a reference to a salute associated with the Qanon conspiracy theory. Others wondered if they might have simply been signaling “No. 1” to punctuate a point Trump made in his speech. “My fellow citizens, this incredible journey we’re on together has only just begun, and it is time to start talking about greatness for our country again. We are one movement, one people, one family, and one glorious American nation,” Trump said as dramatic music played. Audience members put their index finger up to symbolize America First while Trump speaks. Getty Images Trump at the Ohio rally last weekend. AP Clinton has frequently derided the billionaire and his supporters, most famously calling them a “basket of deplorables” during the campaign. “It seems like perpetual-failed-candidate Hillary Clinton’s basket of deplorables has run stale, not unlike herself,” Trump rep Taylor Budowich told Fox News in a statement. “It’s pathetic, it’s divisive, and it is further cementing her legacy of cringe.” Read More Here

Georgia Voting Equipment Breach At Center Of Tangled Tale https://digitalarkansasnews.com/georgia-voting-equipment-breach-at-center-of-tangled-tale-2/ By: By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The tale of breached voting equipment in one of the country’s most important political battleground states involves a bail bondsman, a prominent attorney tied to former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and a cast of characters from a rural county that rarely draws notice from outsiders. How they all came together and what it could mean for the security of voting in the upcoming midterm elections are questions tangled up in a lawsuit and state investigations that have prompted calls to ditch the machines altogether. Details of the unauthorized access of sensitive voting equipment in Coffee County, Georgia, became public last month when documents and emails revealed the involvement of high-profile Trump supporters. That’s also when it caught the attention of an Atlanta-based prosecutor who is leading a separate investigation of Trump’s efforts to undo his loss in the state. Since then, revelations about what happened in the county of 43,000 people have raised questions about whether the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Georgia have been compromised. The public disclosure of the breach began with a rambling phone call from an Atlanta-area bail bondsman to the head of an election security advocacy group involved in a long-running lawsuit targeting the state’s voting machines. According to a recording filed in court earlier this year, the bail bondsman said he’d chartered a jet and was with a computer forensics team at the Coffee County elections office when they “imaged every hard drive of every piece of equipment.” That happened on Jan. 7, 2021, a day after the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and two days after a runoff election in which Democrats swept both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats. The trip to Coffee County, about 200 miles south of Atlanta, to copy data and software from elections equipment was directed by attorney Sidney Powell and other Trump allies, according to deposition testimony and documents produced in response to subpoenas. Later that month, security camera footage shows, two men who have participated in efforts to question the results of the 2020 election in several states spent days going in and out of the Coffee County elections office. The footage also shows local election and Republican Party officials welcoming the visitors and allowing them access to the election equipment. The video seems to contradict statements some of the officials made about their apparent involvement. The new information has made Coffee County, where Trump won nearly 70% of the vote two years ago, a focal point of concerns over the security of voting machines. While there is no evidence of widespread problems with voting equipment in 2020, some Trump supporters have spread false information about machines and the election outcome. Election security experts and activists fear state election officials haven’t acted fast enough in the face of what they see as a real threat. The copying of the software and its availability for download means potential bad actors could build exact copies of the Dominion system to test different types of attacks, said University of California, Berkeley computer scientist Philip Stark, an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the voting machines lawsuit. “This is like bank robbers having an exact replica of the vault that they’re trying to break into,” he said. Stark said the risks could be minimized by using hand-marked paper ballots and rigorous audits. Dominion says its equipment remains secure. Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, the group that sued over the state’s voting machines, said the state has been slow to investigate. She was on the receiving end of the phone call from the bail bondsman. The state, she said, has been “repeatedly looking the other way when faced with flashing red lights of serious voting system security problems.” State officials say they’re confident the election system is safe. All Coffee County election equipment that wasn’t already replaced will be swapped out before early voting begins next month, the secretary of state’s office said Friday. State officials also noted they were deluged by false claims after the 2020 election. “In retrospect, you can say, well what about this, this and this,” said Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office. “In real time, no, there was no reason to think that.” In late January 2021, a few weeks after the computer forensics team visited, security video shows a secretary of state’s office investigator arriving at the Coffee County elections office. He and the elections supervisor walk into the room that houses the election management system server. Seconds later, Jeff Lenberg, who has been identified by Michigan authorities as being part of an effort to gain access to voting machines there, is seen walking out of that room. Asked whether Lenberg’s presence in the room with sensitive election equipment raised concerns for the investigator, secretary of state’s office spokesperson Mike Hassinger said the investigator was looking into an unrelated matter and didn’t know who Lenberg was. Security video also showed another man, Doug Logan, at the office in mid-January. Logan founded a company called Cyber Ninjas, which led a discredited review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona. In May 2021, Coffee County’s new elections supervisor raised concerns with the secretary of state’s office after finding Logan’s business card by a computer. The election supervisor’s concerns were referred to an investigator, but he testified that no one ever contacted him. Hassinger said the secretary of state’s office responds to allegations when they are raised but that “information about unauthorized access to Coffee County’s election equipment has been kept hidden” by local officials and others. Much of what is known was uncovered through documents, security camera video and depositions produced in response to subpoenas in the lawsuit filed by individual voters and the election security advocacy group. The suit alleges Georgia’s touchscreen voting machines are not secure and seeks to force the state to use hand-marked paper ballots instead. The recently produced evidence of a breach wasn’t the first sign of problems in Coffee County, which caused headaches for state election officials in the hectic weeks following the 2020 election. It’s likely that turmoil helped opened the door for Trump’s allies. In early December 2020, the county elections board declined to certify the results of a machine recount requested by Trump, saying the election system had produced inaccurate results. A video posted online days later showed the former county elections supervisor saying the elections software could be manipulated; as she spoke, the password to the county election management system server was visible on a note stuck to her computer. At the end of December, Cathy Latham, the Coffee County Republican Party chair who also was a fake elector for Trump, appeared at a state legislative committee hearing and made further claims that the voting machines were unreliable. Within days of that hearing, Latham said, she was contacted by Scott Hall, the bail bondsman, who had been a Republican observer during an election recount. Latham testified in a deposition that Hall asked her to connect him with the Coffee County elections supervisor (who later was accused of falsifying timesheets and forced to resign). A few days later, on Jan. 7, Hall met with a computer forensics team from data solutions firm SullivanStrickler at the Coffee County elections office. The team copied the data and software on the election management system server and other voting system components, a company executive said in a deposition. The company said it believed its clients had the necessary permission. Invoices show the data firm billed Powell $26,000 for the day’s work. “Everything went smoothly yesterday with the Coffee County collection,” the firm’s chief operating officer wrote to Powell in an email. “Everyone involved was extremely helpful.” Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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Fort Smith, AR Ranks As One Of The Poorest Big Cities In The Country https://digitalarkansasnews.com/fort-smith-ar-ranks-as-one-of-the-poorest-big-cities-in-the-country/ Large cities and metropolitan areas have long been hubs of economic activity and prosperity in the United States. Large employers that can pay enough to attract top talent from around the country often have operations in places like Austin, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. As a result, these cities, and many others like them, have a high concentration of high-income residents. But while some American cities stand out for the economic opportunity they offer, many others are notable for the opposite reason. There are 384 metropolitan areas in the United States, and in dozens of them, incomes are far lower than average, and serious financial hardship is widespread. The typical household in the Fort Smith metro area, which spans parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma, earns $49,065 a year – the 27th lowest among the 384 U.S. metropolitan areas with available data, and about $20,650 less than the national median household income of $69,717. Fort Smith also has a higher-than-average poverty rate. An estimated 19.6% of the metro area population live below the poverty line, compared to 12.8% of all Americans nationwide. Across broad populations, incomes tend to rise with educational attainment, and in the Fort Smith area, only 20.3% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 35.0% of all Americans in the same age group. All data in this story is based on one-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey. Rank Metro area Median household income, 2021 ($) Poverty rate, 2021 (%) Adults with a bachelor’s degree, 2021 (%) 1 Beckley, WV 38,737 22.7 20.4 2 Valdosta, GA 42,233 27.6 22.3 3 Sumter, SC 43,210 20.3 22.0 4 Morristown, TN 43,213 19.5 18.2 5 Greenville, NC 44,450 22.5 33.6 6 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 44,818 29.3 20.0 7 Monroe, LA 45,001 27.2 23.9 8 Las Cruces, NM 45,178 19.4 30.1 9 Gadsden, AL 45,298 16.8 18.2 10 Anniston-Oxford, AL 46,524 19.8 19.4 11 Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ 46,616 18.2 15.1 12 Decatur, IL 46,807 17.6 19.0 13 Pine Bluff, AR 46,826 15.0 23.3 14 Alexandria, LA 47,032 19.9 21.6 15 Homosassa Springs, FL 47,197 16.1 20.8 16 Goldsboro, NC 47,595 19.9 20.3 17 Dothan, AL 47,665 19.5 20.5 18 Hot Springs, AR 47,694 13.4 23.8 19 Farmington, NM 47,819 26.7 15.6 20 Jonesboro, AR 47,935 21.0 28.7 21 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX 48,115 24.7 20.6 22 Shreveport-Bossier City, LA 48,164 21.4 25.8 23 Sebring-Avon Park, FL 48,564 13.4 18.3 24 Albany, GA 48,659 18.7 23.0 25 Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA 48,771 16.9 21.9 26 Grants Pass, OR 48,785 16.7 21.0 27 Fort Smith, AR-OK 49,065 19.6 20.3 28 Danville, IL 49,091 20.9 15.9 29 Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH 49,362 16.9 22.5 30 Lawton, OK 49,422 20.1 24.3 31 Mobile, AL 49,691 17.9 22.3 32 Florence, SC 49,724 19.3 21.4 33 Hinesville, GA 49,733 19.3 20.8 34 College Station-Bryan, TX 49,927 23.4 38.1 35 Texarkana, TX-AR 50,070 18.1 20.9 36 Terre Haute, IN 50,440 18.0 19.7 37 Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH 50,456 17.3 22.7 38 Muncie, IN 50,497 18.1 24.5 39 Saginaw, MI 50,606 21.8 22.5 40 Carbondale-Marion, IL 50,953 17.1 28.9 41 El Paso, TX 51,002 20.1 26.0 42 Johnson City, TN 51,119 15.1 29.8 43 Mansfield, OH 51,158 12.3 17.4 44 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA 51,194 16.6 25.0 45 Cumberland, MD-WV 51,440 13.5 22.8 46 Lima, OH 51,497 15.5 18.5 47 Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL 51,639 17.4 24.8 48 Rocky Mount, NC 51,769 15.1 21.2 49 El Centro, CA 51,809 16.4 13.5 50 Laredo, TX 51,867 22.4 20.6 Originally published on 247wallst.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. Pocatello will have its first ever ‘Walk to End Alzheimer’s’ event this weekend. Read more The Idaho State volleyball team staged a spectacular comeback Thursday night, rallying from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Northern Colorado, 3-2. Read more Four people are dead after an accident between Fort Hall and Pocatello Wednesday night. Read more A Bonneville County man has been arrested after the SWAT team was called to a neighborhood for a report of an aggravated assault. Read more We’re always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what’s going on! Sep 30 Oct 1 Oct 7 Oct 14 Have questions about receiving our station using an antenna? Read More Here

Architects Selected To Oversee Remodeling Of Central Arkansas Library System’s Main Library https://digitalarkansasnews.com/architects-selected-to-oversee-remodeling-of-central-arkansas-library-systems-main-library/ LITTLE ROCK — A group of architects has been selected to jointly spearhead the upcoming remodeling of the Central Arkansas Library System’s Main Library in downtown Little Rock. Witsell Evans Rasco, Polk Stanley Wilcox and Mark Mann of Stocks Mann Architects will oversee the redesign. According to a written report that Central Arkansas Library System Executive Director Nate Coulter prepared for a board meeting Thursday, a committee of staff, board members and library supporters from the community reviewed the qualifications of architects and made the selection. “All of these architects were involved in one way or another with the original construction at Main [Library] in 1994-1996. Last week they met with some CALS staff to start considering the implications for library operations during an extensive remodel,” Coulter wrote. “The most significant of the immediate tasks are hiring a contractor and determining which services will remain available at Main during the remodeling.” Lance Ivy, the library system’s director of facilities and operations, said at the board meeting Thursday that the next big step is doing requests for qualifications for the contractors. The planned redesign is a product of the library system’s May 24 special election in Little Rock. At that time, voters approved lowering and extending a capital-improvement property tax levy in Little Rock from 1.8 to 1.3 mills and refinancing bonds. Last year, Little Rock voters approved an equivalent increase to the library system’s millage rate in the capital city that funds operations and maintenance, raising it from 3.3 to 3.8 mills. With an expected $22 million drawn from the bond refinancing, in addition to the redesign of the Main Library, officials at the library system plan to purchase a bookmobile and make other upgrades. Witsell Evans Rasco as well as Polk Stanley Wilcox recently conducted an initial architectural study from which library system board members were shown preliminary renderings in June of what the Main Library could look like post-remodeling. Coulter wrote in his report that bond underwriters at the firm Crews & Associates believe the library system remains on track for a late-October sale of the bonds. The remodeling work at the Main Library may take between 12-18 months once it begins, Coulter wrote, “depending on how much of the building is closed to the public while the work is done.” Coulter has said that the remodeling work might not begin until the middle of next year. Read More…

AP News In Brief At 6:04 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-in-brief-at-604-a-m-edt-3/ As Ukraine worries UN, some leaders rue what’s pushed aside UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In speech after speech, world leaders dwelled on the topic consuming this year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting: Russia’s war in Ukraine. A few, like Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, prodded the world not to forget everything else. He, too, was quick to bring up the biggest military confrontation in Europe since World War II. But he wasn’t there to discuss the conflict itself, nor its disruption of food, fuel and fertilizer markets. “The ongoing war in Ukraine is making it more difficult,” Buhari lamented, “to tackle the perennial issues that feature each year in the deliberations of this assembly.” He went on to name a few: inequality, nuclear disarmament, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who have been living in limbo for years in Bangladesh. Russians strike Ukraine as Kremlin-staged votes continue KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities Saturday as Kremlin-orchestrated votes continued in occupied regions of Ukraine to pave the way for their annexation by Moscow. Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the Russians targeted infrastructure facilities in the Dnieper River city, and one of the missiles hit an apartment building, killing one person and injuring seven others. The Russian forces also struck other areas in Ukraine, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. The British Defense Ministry said that Russia was targeting the Pechenihy dam on the Siverskyy Donets River in northeastern Ukraine following previous strikes on a dam on a reservoir near Kryvyi Rih, causing flooding on the Inhulets River. “Ukrainian forces are advancing further downstream along both rivers,” the British said. “As Russian commanders become increasingly concerned about their operational setbacks, they are probably attempting to strike the sluice gates of dams, in order to flood Ukrainian military crossing points.” West: More sanctions, isolation if Putin carries out threats WASHINGTON (AP) — How do American leaders and their allies intend to respond if President Vladimir Putin seeks to escalate his way out of a bad situation on Ukraine’s battlefields, and makes good on renewed threats of annexing territory or even using nuclear weapons? At least to start with, by trying to double down on the same tactics that have helped put Russia in a corner in Ukraine, U.S. and European leaders have made clear: more financial penalties and international isolation for Russia, more arms and other backing for Ukraine. That won’t necessarily be easy. It’s been tough enough staying the current course of persuading all of dozens of allies to stick with sanctions and isolation for Putin, and persuading more ambivalent countries to join in. Global financial and energy disruptions from Russia’s war in Ukraine already promise to make the coming winter a tough one for countries that have depended on Russia for their energy needs. And there’s no sign of U.S. or NATO officials matching Putin’s renewed nuclear threats with the same nuclear bluster, which in itself might raise the risks of escalating the conflict to an unimaginable level. Even if Putin should act on his nuclear threat, President Joe Biden and others point, without details, to an ascending scale of carefully calibrated responses, based on how far Russia goes. To start with, “they’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been,” Biden told CBS’ “60 Minutes” just ahead of Putin’s new wartime measures and renewed nuclear threat. Georgia voting equipment breach at center of tangled tale ATLANTA (AP) — The tale of breached voting equipment in one of the country’s most important political battleground states involves a bail bondsman, a prominent attorney tied to former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and a cast of characters from a rural county that rarely draws notice from outsiders. How they all came together and what it could mean for the security of voting in the upcoming midterm elections are questions tangled up in a lawsuit and state investigations that have prompted calls to ditch the machines altogether. Details of the unauthorized access of sensitive voting equipment in Coffee County, Georgia, became public last month when documents and emails revealed the involvement of high-profile Trump supporters. That’s also when it caught the attention of an Atlanta-based prosecutor who is leading a separate investigation of Trump’s efforts to undo his loss in the state. Since then, revelations about what happened in the county of 43,000 people have raised questions about whether the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Georgia have been compromised. The public disclosure of the breach began with a rambling phone call from an Atlanta-area bail bondsman to the head of an election security advocacy group involved in a long-running lawsuit targeting the state’s voting machines. Puerto Ricans seething over lack of power days after Fiona SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Half of Puerto Rico is without power more than five days after Hurricane Fiona struck — including an entire town where not a single work crew has arrived. Many on the U.S. territory are angry and incredulous, and calls are growing for the ouster of the island’s private electricity transmission and distribution company. Fuel disruptions are worsening the situation, forcing grocery stores, gas stations and other businesses to close and leaving apartment buildings in the dark because there is no diesel for generators. Many are questioning why it is taking so long to restore power since Fiona was a Category 1 storm that did not affect the entire island, and whose rain — not wind — inflicted the greatest damage. “It’s not normal,” said Marcel Castro-Sitiriche, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez. “They have not given a convincing explanation of what the problem is.” China using civilian ships to enhance navy capability, reach BANGKOK (AP) — A Chinese scientific ship bristling with surveillance equipment docked in a Sri Lankan port. Hundreds of fishing boats anchored for months at a time among disputed islands in the South China Sea. And ocean-going ferries, built to be capable of carrying heavy vehicles and large loads of people. All are ostensibly civilian ships, but experts and uneasy regional governments say they are part of a Chinese civil-military fusion strategy, little concealed by Beijing, that enhances its maritime capabilities. China’s navy is already the world’s largest by ship count, and has been rapidly building new warships as part of a wider military expansion. It launched its first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier in June, and at least five new destroyers are on the way soon. The buildup comes as Beijing attempts to exert broader influence in the region. It is increasing its military activities around the self-governing island of Taiwan, seeking new security agreements with Pacific islands and building artificial islands in disputed waters to fortify its territorial claims in the South China Sea, which the U.S. and its allies have challenged. The civilian vessels do more than just augment the raw numbers of ships, performing tasks that would be difficult for the military to carry out. The AP Interview: Marcos wants to ‘reintroduce’ Philippines NEW YORK (AP) — Looking to “reintroduce the Philippines” to the world, new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ambitious plans for his nation on the international stage and at home — if, that is, the twin specters of pandemic and climate change can be overcome or at least managed. And if he can surmount the legacies of two people: his predecessor, and his father. He also wants to strengthen ties with both the United States and China — a delicate balancing act for the Southeast Asian nation — and, like many of his fellow leaders at the United Nations this week, called on the countries that have caused global warming to help less wealthy nations counteract its effects. Marcos, swept into office this spring, is already drawing distinctions both subtle and obvious between himself and his voluble predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who alienated many international partners with his violent approach to fighting drug trafficking and the coarse rhetoric he used to galvanize supporters. Asked if Duterte went too far with his lethal drug crackdown, Marcos redirected the criticism toward those who carried out the plan. Shapiro wages drama-free Pa. campaign amid big personalities CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, is perhaps best known as an election denier who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. John Fetterman, the Democrat hoping to flip the state’s Senate seat, has revolutionized how campaigns use social media. And Dr. Mehmet Oz was a TV celebrity long before he launched a GOP Senate campaign. And then there’s Josh Shapiro. In one of the most politically competitive states in the U.S., the Democratic contender for governor is waging a notably drama-free campaign, betting that a relatively under the radar approach will resonate with voters exhausted by a deeply charged political environment. But Shapiro faces a test of whether his comparatively low-key style will energize Democrats to rally against Mastriano, who many in the party view as an existential threat. The GOP candidate, who worked to keep Donald Trump in power and overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, supports ending abortion rights and would be in position to appoint the secretary of state, who oversees elections in this state that is often decisive in choosing presidents. The tension of Shapiro’s strategy was o...

Shapiro Wages Drama-Free Pa. Campaign Amid Big Personalities – The National Herald https://digitalarkansasnews.com/shapiro-wages-drama-free-pa-campaign-amid-big-personalities-the-national-herald/ CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, is perhaps best known as an election denier who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. John Fetterman, the Democrat hoping to flip the state’s Senate seat, has revolutionized how campaigns use social media. And Dr. Mehmet Oz was a TV celebrity long before he launched a GOP Senate campaign. And then there’s Josh Shapiro. In one of the most politically competitive states in the U.S., the Democratic contender for governor is waging a notably drama-free campaign, betting that a relatively under the radar approach will resonate with voters exhausted by a deeply charged political environment. But Shapiro faces a test of whether his comparatively low-key style will energize Democrats to rally against Mastriano, who many in the party view as an existential threat. The GOP candidate, who worked to keep Donald Trump in power and overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, supports ending abortion rights and would be in position to appoint the secretary of state, who oversees elections in this state that is often decisive in choosing presidents. The tension of Shapiro’s strategy was on display during a recent swing through this small city, a dot in deeply Republican south central Pennsylvania. He spent 10 minutes ticking through his record as a two-term attorney general and his policy goals if he becomes governor, such as expanding high-speed internet and boosting school funding. But he also acknowledged that he knew what was on the minds of audience members, noting how his wife gives him a simple reminder every morning: “You better win.” The 49-year-old Shapiro then became more explicit about the implications of a Mastriano win. “This guy is the most dangerous, extreme person to ever run for governor in Pennsylvania and by far the most dangerous, extreme candidate running for office in the United States of America,” Shapiro told the crowd in Chambersburg, Mastriano’s home base in his conservative state Senate district. Shapiro is managing something of a two-pronged campaign, one built for a conventional election year and another aimed at the tense political environment in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing abortion rights. Last month, Shapiro released a TV ad statewide that discussed a case he brought as attorney general against a contractor who agreed to repay wages after Shapiro’s office accused it of stealing from workers. Then, he’s also aired TV ads describing Mastriano as a threat to democracy, pointing out that Mastriano watched at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as pro-Trump demonstrators attacked police. “It was there that day that my opponent sided with the angry mob, marched to the Capitol, breached the police lines, and he did so with one purpose, all of them: they didn’t want your votes to count,” Shapiro told an audience in Gettysburg, prompting one woman to call out, “He’s a traitor.” That message isn’t lost on the Democrats who go see Shapiro. “I think this is just a critical election,” said Marissa Sandoe, 29. “I think this election will determine whether we still have a democracy in this nation.” Shapiro later shrugs off suggestions that, for his supporters, the grist of normal-year gubernatorial politics is being drowned out by existential issues, like saving democracy. “I’m focused like a laser beam on making Pennsylvanians’ lives better,” Shapiro said. The first midterm of a new administration is often challenging for the president’s party. But for now, polls suggest Shaprio is leading Mastriano and he also has a significant fundraising advantage. Shapiro has run more than $20 million worth of TV ads, while Mastriano has run hardly anything, and nothing since the primary. Campaigning in the state where Biden was born, Shaprio may benefit from a recovery in Biden’s approval. The president’s popularity nationally has improved to 45% from 36% in July, although concerns about his handling of the economy persist, according to a September poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Republican Party leaders who initially criticized Mastriano as being too extreme to win the fall general election say he could still win, despite his flaws, if the electorate is angry enough over inflation to check every box against Democrats as a vote against Biden. But Republicans acknowledge Mastriano is running a race focused largely on his right-wing base, instead of reaching out to the moderates who often put winners over the top in one of America’s most politically divided states. Mastriano has gotten institutional fundraising help, including events headlined by state party leaders, Donald Trump Jr. and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but Republican strategists have whispered that the fundraisers aren’t well-attended and Mastriano went on Facebook this week to complain about a lack of support from “national-level Republican organizations.” “We haven’t seen much assistance coming from them and we’re 49 days out,” Mastriano said. At campaign events, Mastriano promises to be a pro-energy governor and bus migrants to Biden’s home in Delaware, and he warns that Shapiro is pursuing an extreme agenda. “If we’re extreme about anything, it’s about loving our constitution,” Mastriano told a rally crowd in nearby Chambersburg earlier this month. For his part, Shapiro is gamely going about the campaign, taking advantage of Mastriano’s weaknesses. The Democrat will be a guest in early October at the annual dinner of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, a group accustomed to endorsing Republicans for governor. Mastriano hasn’t accepted even its invitation to speak to its board, something Shapiro already did. Building-trades unions that work on power plants, pipelines and refineries in a coal and natural gas powerhouse haven’t heeded Mastriano’s promises that “we’re going to drill and dig like there’s no tomorrow.” Instead, they have accepted Shapiro’s middle-of-the-road stance on energy and attacked Mastriano’s support for right-to-work policies as anathema even to rank-and-file members who vote Republican. “Here’s one thing my members get: They’ll never, ever be with someone who is for right-to-work, ever,” said James Snell, the business manager of Steamfitters Local 420 in Philadelphia. Shapiro is also taking centrist positions that might help inoculate himself against Mastriano’s attacks. The race got personal, with Mastriano repeatedly criticizing Shapiro’s choice of a private school for his children — a Jewish day school — as “one of the most privileged, entitled schools in the nation.” Shapiro, a devout conservative Jew, responded that Mastriano — who espouses what scholars call Christian nationalist ideology — wants to impose his religion on others and “dictate to folks where and how they should worship and on what terms.” Shapiro dug deeper on Mastriano, saying he speaks in “anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic tropes every day.” Mastriano calls those distractions from Shapiro’s record as attorney general and failure to stem rising homicides in Philadelphia. Still, Shapiro is drawing crowds on Mastriano’s turf, far from his power base in Philadelphia’s upscale suburbs. It is fertile ground, said Marty Qually, a Democratic county commissioner in Adams County, which includes Gettysburg, because Democrats are riled up like he’s never seen before and even Republicans there tell him they cannot accept Mastriano’s Christian nationalism or hard-line abortion stance. It speaks volumes that Shapiro is campaigning in small towns, and not in Democratic strongholds: It means that he’s comfortable with where the race is, Qually said. “Some folks here said: ‘Why do you want to go to Franklin County? That’s where the other guy’s from,’” Shapiro told the crowd in Chambersburg. “Let me tell you something. I’m glad I came. Ya’ll are making me feel at home.” Read More Here

Trump Advisers Panicked DOJ Investigation Is Moving 'perilously Fast': Report https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-advisers-panicked-doj-investigation-is-moving-perilously-fast-report/ Read More Here

Fiona Makes Landfall In Canada, Leaving Hundreds Of Thousands Without Power https://digitalarkansasnews.com/fiona-makes-landfall-in-canada-leaving-hundreds-of-thousands-without-power/ One of the strongest storms ever to hit Canada slammed into Nova Scotia’s coastline early Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. Former Hurricane Fiona made landfall early on Saturday morning over Guysborough county on the northeast corner of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada’s weather service said. There were maximum sustained winds of almost 81 mph, while peak gusts of over 100 mph were detected, it added. It is the lowest pressured land falling storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center, which also described hurricane-force gusts battering the area. More than 40% of the population in Nova Scotia is affected by power outages, according to utility company Nova Scotia power. Previously a hurricane, the National Hurricane Center declared that Fiona morphed into a post-tropical cyclone as it bolted north, exhibiting characteristics of storms with both tropical and high-latitude pedigree. Irrespective of its technical designation, forecasters cautioned that the storm would be a blockbuster. “This storm will be a severe event for Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec,” the Canadian Hurricane Center wrote Friday. The federal agency previously said the storm had the potential to become “historic” and “a landmark weather event.” The storm was forecast to be so serious that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau postponed a visit to Japan, where he planned to attend Shinzo Abe’s funeral, at the last minute on Friday. Hurricane warnings cover most of Nova Scotia as well as Prince Edward Island and western Newfoundland, where meteorologists predict 3 to 6 inches of rain, with up to 10 inches in some areas, and hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph. Tropical storm warnings extend from New Brunswick to eastern Quebec to northern Newfoundland, where rainfall could reach 5 inches and winds at least 39 mph. The center also predicted a considerable ocean surge, or storm-driven rise in water above normally dry land, causing coastal flooding. It predicted a “rough and pounding surf” with waves up to 26 to 40 feet (8 to 12 meters). Ahead of the storm’s arrival, Nova Scotia, home to about 1 million people, was preparing Friday for the worst. Nova Scotia Power warned of widespread power outages, with trees still in full bloom and soils relatively soft, and activated its emergency operations center. And the blackouts could be lasting, as crews will wait for winds to calm before they safely begin repairs, said Dave Pickles, the utility’s chief operating officer. Fiona, which brought devastating flooding to Puerto Rico and cut power to the entire island, is the latest marker of an Atlantic hurricane season that started slow but has suddenly turned active. The storm is one of five systems meteorologists are watching in the Atlantic basin, including one that organized into Tropical Storm Ian Friday night and could soon become a threat to Florida as a hurricane. Jason Samenow contributed to this report. Read More Here

TV And Streaming Picks For September 24, 2022: How To Watch College Football Week 4 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/tv-and-streaming-picks-for-september-24-2022-how-to-watch-college-football-week-4/ All Times Eastern Australian Rules Football  AFL Women’s — Round 5 Adelaide Crows vs. Greater Western Sydney Giants — FS2, 1 a.m. (Sunday) Basketball Women’s FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Group B, Sydney SuperDome, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Mali vs. France — ESPN+, 12:20 a.m. (Sunday) Australia vs. Serbia — ESPN+, 3:50 a.m. (Sunday) Japan vs. Canada — ESPN+, 6:20 a.m. (Sunday) CFL Week 16 Toronto Argonauts at Ottawa Redblacks — TSN1/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5/ESPN+,  7 p.m. Calgary Stampeders at BC Lions — TSN1/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5/ESPN+, 10 p.m. College Football Week 4 Clemson at Wake Forest — ABC, noon URI at Pittsburgh — ACC Network, noon South Florida at Louisville — ACC Regional/Bally Sports, noon Central Michigan at Penn State — Big Ten Network, noon Buffalo at Eastern Michigan — CBS Sports Network, noon Missouri at Auburn — ESPN, noon Baylor at Iowa State — ESPN2, noon TCU at SMU — ESPNU, noon East Tennessee State at Robert Morris — ESPN+, noon Fruman at Charleston Southern — ESPN+, noon Kent State at Georgia — ESPN+/SEC Network Plus, noon Maryland at Michigan — Fox, noon Duke at Kansas — FS1, noon Bowling Green at Mississippi State — SEC Network, noon Columbia at Georgetown — ESPN+, 12:30 p.m. Harvard at Brown — NESNplus/ESPN+, 12:30 p.m. Morehead State at Stetson — ESPN3, 1 p.m. San Diego at Valparaiso — ESPN3, 1 p.m. Holy Cross at Colgate — ESPN+, 1 p.m. Lafayette at Penn — NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus/ESPN+, 1 p.m. Marist at Drake — ESPN3, 2 p.m. Fordham at Ohio — ESPN+, 2 p.m. Grambling State at Bethune-Cookman — ESPN+, 2 p.m. Merrimack at Delaware State — ESPN+, 2 p.m. Mississippi Valley State at Jackson State — ESPN+, 2 p.m. North Dakota State at South Dakota — ESPN+, 2 p.m. Saint Francis at Norfolk State — ESPN+, 2 p.m. UMass at Temple — ESPN+, 2 p.m. Yale at Cornell — ESPN+, 2 p.m. Stony Brook at Richmond — NBC Sports Washington/FloSports, 2 p.m. UCLA at Colorado — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Los Angeles/Pac-12 Mountain, 2 p.m. South Dakota State at Missouri State — ESPN3, 3 p.m. Western Carolina at Samford — ESPN3, 3 p.m. Central Arkansas at Southeast Missouri — ESPN+, 3 p.m. Idaho State at Northern Colorado — ESPN+, 3 p.m. Lehigh at Princeton — ESPN+, 3 p.m. North Dakota at Southern Illinois — ESPN+, 3 p.m. Notre Dame at North Carolina — ABC, 3:30 p.m. Middle Tennessee at Miami (FL) — ACC Network, 3:30 p.m. Minnesota at Michigan State — Big Ten Network, 3:30 p.m. Florida at Tennessee — CBS, 3 p.m. Florida International at Western Kentucky — CBS Sports Network, 3:30 p.m. Texas at Texas Tech — ESPN, 3:30 p.m. Indiana at Cincinnati — ESPN2, 3:30 p.m. James Madison at Appalachian State — ESPN+, 3:30 p.m. Central Connecticut State at Albany — FloSports, 3:30 p.m. Elon at William & Mary — FloSports, 3:30 p.m. Monmouth at Villanova — FloSports, 3:30 p.m. Toledo at San Diego State — FS1, 3:30 p.m. Texas Southern at Texas-San Antonio — Stadium, 3:30 p.m. Georgia Tech at Central Florida — ESPNU, 4 p.m. Eastern Kentucky at Austin Peay — ESPN+, 4 p.m. Idaho at Northern Arizona — ESPN+, 4 p.m. Jacksonville State at Nicholls — ESPN+, 4 p.m. Montana State at Eastern Washington — ESPN+, 4 p.m. Northern Iowa at Western Illinois — ESPN+, 4 p.m. Portland State at Montana — ESPN+, 4 p.m. Virginia University of Lynchburg at North Carolina Central — ESPN+, 4 p.m. New Hampshire at Towson — FloSports, 4 p.m. Oregon at Washington State — Fox, 4 p.m. Sacramento State at Colorado State — Mountain West Network, 4 p.m. Tulsa at Mississippi State — SEC Network, 4 p.m. Lamar at Northwestern State — ESPN+, 4:30 p.m. Eastern Illinois at Murray State — ESPN+, 5 p.m. Arizona at Cal — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Arizona/Pac-12 Bay Area, 5:30 p.m. Akron at Liberty — ESPN+, 6 p.m. Alabama A&M at Florida A&M — ESPN+, 6 p.m. Arkansas State at Old Dominion — ESPN+, 6 p.m. Ball State at Georgia Southern — ESPN+, 6 p.m. Mercer at Gardner-Webb — ESPN+, 6 p.m. Navy at East Carolina — ESPN+, 6 p.m. Rice at Houston — ESPN+, 6 p.m. Wofford at Kennesaw State — ESPN+, 6 p.m. Hampton at Delaware — FloSports, 6 p.m. UNLV art Utah State — CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m. Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX) — ESPN, 7 p.m. Northern Illinois at Kentucky — ESPN2, 7 p.m. Houston Christian at Texas State — ESPN3, 7 p.m. Incarnate Word at Southeastern Louisiana — ESPN3, 7 p.m. Davidson at Presbyterian — ESPN+, 7 p.m. Lindenwood at Tennessee-Martin — ESPN+, 7 p.m. Louisiana Tech at South Alabama — ESPN+, 7 p.m. North American at Texas A&M-Commerce — ESPN+, 7 p.m. Southern Mississippi at Tulane — ESPN+, 7 p.m. Tarleton at North Alabama — ESPN+, 7 p.m. Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Alcorn State — HBCU Go, 7 p.m. Iowa at Rutgers — FS1, 7 p.m. Marshall at Troy — NFL Network, 7 p.m. Wisconsin at Ohio State — ABC, 7:30 p.m. UConn at North Carolina State — ACC Regional/Bally Sports, 7:30 p.m. Florida Atlantic at Purdue — Big Ten Network, 7:30 p.m. Miami (OH) at Northwestern — Big Ten Network, 7:30 p.m. Charlotte at South Carolina — ESPNU, 7:30 p.m. New Mexico at LSU — ESPN+/SEC Network Plus, 7:30 p.m. Vanderbilt at Alabama — SEC Network, 7:30 p.m. Boston College at Florida State — ACC Network, 8 p.m. Hawai’i at New Mexico State — Bally Sports Arizona/FloSports, 8 p.m. Louisiana at Louisiana-Monroe — ESPN+, 8 p.m. Mississippi College at McNeese — ESPN+, 8 p.m. Utah Tech at Southern Utah — ESPN+, 8 p.m. Western New Mexico at Abilene Christian — ESPN+, 8 p.m. Kansas State at Oklahoma — Fox, 8 p.m. USC at Oregon State — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Los Angeles/Pac-12 Oregon, 9:30 p.m. Weber State at Cal-Davis — ESPN+, 10 p.m. Wyoming at BYU — ESPN2, 10:15 p.m. Western Michigan at San Jose State — CBS Sports Network, 10:30 p.m. Utah at Arizona State — ESPN, 10:30 p.m. Stanford at Washington — FS1, 10:30 p.m. College GameDay live from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN — ESPN/ESPNU, 9 a.m. Big Noon Kickoff live from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI — Fox, 10 a.m. B1G Tailgate live from Penn State University, State College, PA — Big Ten Network, 10 a.m. SEC Nation live from Texas Live, Globe Life Field, Arlington, TX — SEC Network, 10 a.m. ACC Huddle — ACC Network, 11 a.m. This Week in SEC Football — CBS Sports Network, 11 a.m. Big Noon Kickoff live from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI — FS1, 11 a.m. Pac-12 Tailgate — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Oregon, 1 p.m. The Pregame — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Los Angeles/Pac-12 Mountain/Pac-12 Oregon, 1:30 p.m. College Football: The Drive to Atlanta — CBS, 2:30 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ABC, 3 p.m. College Football Today — CBS, 3 p.m. ACC Huddle — ACC Network, 3 p.m. B1G Live: Football Game Break — Big Ten Network, 3 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ESPN, 3 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ESPN2, 3 p.m. SEC Now — SEC Network, 3 p.m. Fox College Football Extra — Fox, 3:30 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ABC, 6:30 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ESPN, 6:30 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ESPN2, 6:30 p.m. ACC Huddle — ACC Network, 6:30 p.m. B1G Live: Football Postgame — Big Ten Network, 6:30 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ABC, 7 p.m. SEC Now — SEC Network, 7 p.m. Fox College Football Extra — Fox, 7:30 p.m. Pac-12 Game Break — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Oregon, 9 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ESPN, 10 p.m. College Football Scoreboard — ESPN2, 10 p.m. B1G Live: Football Postgame — Big Ten Network, 10:30 p.m. SEC Football Final — SEC Network, 10:30 p.m. ACC Huddle — ACC Network, 11 p.m. The Final Drive — Big Ten Network, 11 p.m. Football Postgame — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Los Angeles/Pac-12 Oregon, 1 a.m. (Sunday) College Football Final — ESPN2, 1:15 a.m. (Sunday) Pac-12 After Dark — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Los Angeles/Pac-12 Oregon, 1:30 a.m. (Sunday) Inside College Football — CBS Sports Network, 2 a.m. (Sunday) College Volleyball Women’s Air Force at Boise State — Stadium College Sports Central, 2 p.m. Pepperdine at BYU — BYUtv, 3 p.m. UNLV at Wyoming — Stadium College Sports Pacific, 3 p.m. Oklahoma at Texas — Longhorn Network, 8 p.m. Arizona at Utah — Pac-12 Insider, 9 p.m. Golf PGA Tour Presidents Cup, Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte, NC United States vs. International Day 3 (Foursomes) — Golf Channel/Peacock, 7 a.m. Day 3 (Foursomes) — NBC/Peacock, 8 a.m. Day 3 (Fourball) — NBC/Peacock, 1 p.m. Live From the Presidents Cup — Golf Channel, 6 p.m. LPGA Tour NW Arkansas Championship, Pinnacle Country Club, Rogers, AR 2nd Round Featured Groups: Nordqvist & Kim Groups — ESPN+, 9 a.m. Main Feed — Golf Channel, noon PGA Tour Champions Pure Insurance Championship, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, CA 2nd Round — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. One Shot Away — CBS, 2 p.m. Horse Racing America’s Day at the Races — FS2, 4:45 p.m. Mixed Martial Arts Combate Global — Women “Reina o Nada,” Flyweights, Univision Mediapro Studios, Miami, FL Lucero Acosta vs. Mariel Celimen — Univision/TUDN, 11 p.m. MLB American League Boston at New York Yankees — MLB Network/NESN/YES, 1 p.m. Toronto at Tampa Bay — Sportsnet/Bally Sports Sun, 6 p.m. Anaheim at Minnesota — MLB Network/Bally Sports West/Bally Sports North, 7 p.m. Cleveland at Texas — MLB Network/Bally Sports Great Lakes/Bally Sports Southwest, 7 p.m. Detroit at Chicago White Sox — Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Chicago, 7 p.m. Houston at Baltimore — AT&T SportsNet Southwest/MASN, 7 p.m. Seattle at Kansas City — Root Sports/Bally Sports Kansas City, 7 p.m. National League Atlanta at Philadelphia — Bally Sports South/NBC Sports Philadelphia, 4 p.m./MLB Network, 5 p.m. (joined in progress) Washington at Miami — MASN2/Bally Sports Florida, 6 p.m. Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh — Marquee Sp...

Guns Found At Airports Nearing Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/guns-found-at-airports-nearing-record/ Transportation Security Administration officers process passengers at a security screening area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash., in this May 18, 2020 file photo. (AP/Elaine Thompson) WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration is on pace this year to again set a record for the number of guns intercepted at airport security checkpoints, underscoring a persistent challenge for security officials amid brisk gun sales in the United States. So far this year, TSA officers have already discovered more than 4,600 guns at airport checkpoints, and about 87% of them were loaded, according to the agency. Last year, the TSA found nearly 6,000 guns at airport checkpoints, which itself was a record. TSA agents have found 25 guns so far this year during security screenings at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock, with 33 found last year, 22 in 2020 and 23 in 2019, said Patricia Mancha, spokeswoman for TSA’s Southwest Region, which includes Arkansas and Texas. At Northwest Arkansas National Airport in Highfill, agents have found 11 guns and a gun barrel so far this year, said Andrew Branch, the airport’s chief operating officer. That compares with 21 in 2021, six in 2020 and 11 in 2019, Mancha said. The number of guns discovered at security checkpoints has been trending upward for more than a decade, with the only decrease coming during the pandemic. The slew of guns found at the nation’s airports this year has come as air travel in the United States is nearing a return to pre-pandemic levels. Gun sales in the country have surged in recent years, suggesting that some travelers might be unfamiliar with the rules for carrying firearms while traveling by plane. “Entering a checkpoint with a firearm, particularly a loaded one, is an expensive mistake,” said Carter Langston, a TSA spokesperson. When a gun is found at a checkpoint, the TSA does not seize it. Instead, agents are instructed to call law enforcement to handle the situation. There is no federal criminal penalty for passengers caught with a gun at a checkpoint, but the TSA can impose a fine of up to about $14,000 and the loss of PreCheck membership — which allows for expedited security screening — for up to five years. When TSA agents find a firearm during a security screening at Clinton National Airport, Little Rock police officers at the airport respond and are tasked with determining if the traveler had criminal intent in bringing their gun through security, department spokesman Sgt. Eric Barnes said. Usually, people simply forgot they had a gun in their bag, and so long as they own the weapon legally, they can often return it to their vehicle, Barnes said. Northwest Arkansas National Airport’s policy toward travelers found with a weapon hasn’t changed. Last year, Russell White, the airport’s chief of police, said officers typically transport both the firearm and its owner to the police department where “basic checks” are done to make sure the passenger isn’t a felon and that the person can legally possess the weapon, as well as to determine whether the firearm isn’t stolen. “If everything’s good with it, what we do is either let them take it back to their car or we will hold it and they can pick it up when they come back,” he said. However, police do provide information about the person to the TSA, which determines whether to impose a civil penalty, White said. Potential criminal charges, if any, vary by state. In recent years, police at Clinton National Airport have reevaluated their procedure in handling these incidents, Barnes said, adding that the charge of carrying a weapon, a misdemeanor that travelers who can legally own a gun could face in these instances, requires evidence of criminal intent. If there is evidence of a crime, people are taken to the Pulaski County jail and booked, Barnes said. Penalties for having loaded firearms, or unloaded firearms with accessible ammunition, in a carry-on bag range from $3,000 to $10,000 the first time and $10,000 to $13,910, for repeat violations, Mancha said. For unloaded firearms, it’s $1,500 to $2,475. In Texas, law enforcement officials often tell travelers to get out of line, lock their guns in their cars and return to try to catch their flights. In New York, however, the discovery of a gun at a checkpoint will most likely end with the passenger in handcuffs. The severity of any criminal charges can also differ based on whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. In Florida, for example, someone with a concealed-carry permit stopped at an airport checkpoint can be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor. A passenger without one could face a felony for carrying a concealed weapon. WHERE THEY WERE FOUND Guns were discovered at 268 of the country’s airports last year, according to the TSA, and the 10 airports with the largest number of them were all in the South or the West. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport led the nation with 507 guns found. Last year, a gun was accidentally discharged at a checkpoint at the Atlanta airport, causing a panic among travelers. U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., was briefly detained by police this spring after trying to bring a loaded gun through airport security in Charlotte — the second time in a just over a year that he had been found with a gun at an airport checkpoint. While guns cannot be brought onto planes in carry-on baggage, they are allowed to be transported in checked baggage. Those firearms must be unloaded and locked in a hard-sided case. Aidan Johnston, the director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, a gun-rights group, said that many passengers found with guns at airport checkpoints were in a stressed state because they were traveling and might not have been thinking about the location of their gun. He suggested that the increase in guns found at checkpoints could be driven in part by first-time gun owners who may not be familiar with the rules of traveling with a firearm. Johnston said he did not support states’ punishing travelers for an honest mistake, but he encouraged gun owners to take on the responsibility of educating themselves about the TSA’s requirements. “I think gun owners should go out and learn the rules for how to take a firearm from one place to another and how to take a firearm through an airport,” Johnston said. Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun control group, said the rise in guns found at airports was “the logical result of record gun sales and states weakening gun safety laws with extreme policies like permitless carry, which encourage guns anywhere, for anyone, no questions asked.” The TSA has tried to do more to keep guns from getting past security checkpoints. In March, the agency announced that it was investing about $780 million in CT scanners that would help it better detect weapons, explosives and other objects by creating 3D images of carry-on items. The issue has also come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill. At a hearing in February, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., called for the TSA to explore additional ways to deter travelers from bringing guns to airport security checkpoints. She said the increase in unruly passengers and the rise in guns at airports were a “toxic combination.” Watson Coleman, the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on transportation security, has proposed legislation intended to address the uptick in guns found at checkpoints. Her bill would establish minimum fines for repeat or serious violations and require increased signage at airports to warn passengers against bringing firearms through security screening. In a statement, Coleman cited the incident at the Atlanta airport last year and added, “If nothing is done, it is only a matter of time until tragedy occurs and lives are lost.” Information for this article was contributed by Mark Walker of The New York Times, by Grant Lancaster of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and by Ron Wood of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Read More…

Official Says Tourism Returns To Prepandemic Numbers In Arkansas, Discusses Plans For Future https://digitalarkansasnews.com/official-says-tourism-returns-to-prepandemic-numbers-in-arkansas-discusses-plans-for-future/ Marty Golofski (right), a volunteer docent, leads a group tour on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, during fee free day at the Fort Smith National Historic Site in downtown Fort Smith. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton) FORT SMITH — State tourism numbers have rebounded from the pandemic, according to the director of Arkansas Tourism. Travis Napper met with Fort Smith’s Advertising and Promotions Commission on Thursday to discuss the economic impact of 2021 and what’s being done to improve tourism across the state. He said the overall theme is The Future is Bright for Arkansas. Napper said almost 90% of Arkansas Tourism money comes from the 2% lodging tax, which has been surpassing the record high each quarter this year. He said the past five or six consecutive months’ collections have been record highs for that month, with June being the best month ever for collection. Napper said overall collections benefit local tourism and lodging and vice versa. He said tourism’s new normal is at a faster pace than it was before covid-19. Tourism spending has returned to about $8 million, a 33% increase compared to 2020, and visitor volume increased 41%. Hot Springs National Park is among the nation’s top 40 most visited parks, Napper said. One number that’s still lower compared to 2019 is hospitality and tourism employment rates, which are 5% lower than 2019 but 23% more than in 2020. “Despite being down 5% in the number of jobs that we’re creating, we were up a little over 1% on the payroll tied to those jobs,” Napper said. “When we’re talking about recruitment or retention of those kind of jobs going forward, one of the biggest things has always been the wage level is low. So the fact that we’ve recovered on payroll but we haven’t recovered on the amount of people, that’s a good sign, which hopefully will improve our ability to keep people in these jobs going forward.” Napper said Arkansas Tourism received a grant from the Economic Development Administration to create a plan to see how state tourism can operate better and what to be looking at for the future. Tim Jacobsen, executive director of the Fort Smith Arkansas Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city is hosting a meeting for the new plan from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Thursday at the convention center mainly to discuss travel and tourism. The bureau is also working in collaboration with the state to bring bloggers, travel writers and influencers to the River Valley to share area tourism opportunities with their followers, he said. Arkansas Tourism is working with destination analysts on software personal identification, which is a survey for potential and existing travelers in order to categorize them based on interests to better market to those interests, as well as see what areas could be improved, Napper said. “So you might have your family travelers, adventure travelers, RV travelers, park-goers, history lovers, foodies, whatever those may be, and through this survey you’ll learn what resonates most and best with those about what we have to offer in Arkansas,” Napper said. “I believe our residents come first, in that what we produce is good for our residents as far as that tax, but also the quality of life. The things that bring visitors here are the same things that our locals like to participate in and experience and do.” Read More Here

NOT REAL NEWS: A Look At What Didn't Happen This Week https://digitalarkansasnews.com/not-real-news-a-look-at-what-didnt-happen-this-week-2/ By The Associated Press A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts: ___ Ad misleads on treaty regulating global arms trade CLAIM: President Joe Biden just announced that he is adding the U.S. as a signatory to the United Nations “Small Arms Treaty,” which would “establish an international gun control registry” in which other countries can “track the ‘end user’ of every rifle, shotgun, and handgun sold in the world.” THE FACTS: There is no “U.N. Small Arms Treaty.” A separate U.N. agreement, the Arms Trade Treaty, regulates the international trade of a range of weapons, but does not track domestic gun sales. The false claim about an “international gun control registry” was shared in a Facebook advertisement by a gun rights group stoking fears about threats to the Second Amendment. The group, the “American Firearms Association,” claims in its Facebook ad that Biden “has just announced that he is adding America as a signatory to the U.N. Small Arms Treaty, setting the stage for a full ratification vote in the U.S. Senate.” “The U.N. Small Arms Treaty would establish an international gun control registry, allowing Communist China, European socialists, and 3rd World dictators to track the ‘end user’ of every rifle, shotgun, and handgun sold in the world,” continues the post, which links to a petition asking for users’ contact information. The post calls on supporters of the Second Amendment to oppose the treaty. But there is no treaty called the “U.N. Small Arms Treaty,” and the treaty that is being referenced does not record private gun sales in any country, experts say. The actual treaty, the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, deals not only with small arms such as rifles and pistols, but battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships and more, the AP has reported. The U.N. in 2013 adopted the treaty to keep weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists and human rights violators. The treaty prohibits countries that ratify it from exporting conventional weapons if they violate arms embargoes, or if they promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. It does encourage its parties to maintain national records regarding exports of conventional arms and says such records should include the “end user.” But that’s a recommendation about recording exports that a country makes to another country, not gun sales to individuals within a country, said Jennifer Erickson, an associate professor of political science and international studies at Boston College. Experts note that the treaty was written to explicitly make clear it has no bearing on domestic gun rights or sales. The treaty’s preamble, for example, states that the agreement is “Reaffirming the sovereign right of any State to regulate and control conventional arms exclusively within its territory, pursuant to its own legal or constitutional system.” The U.N. has “no gun control registry in terms of private ownership, whatsoever,” Erickson said. Erickson said the U.S. government already uses “end-use” monitoring by recording where it sends weapons. “There is only in the Arms Trade Treaty a focus on cross-border transfers, so not domestic sales or ownership,” said Rachel Stohl, vice president of research programs at the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank focused on international security. “It’s really looking at sales between governments. And it applies to the entire range of conventional weapons, not just small arms and light weapons.” The U.S. signed the treaty in 2013, though the Senate never ratified it — which means the country is a signatory of the agreement, but not an official party and bound by it. In 2019, Trump announced that he was revoking the country’s status as a signatory, though that move was symbolic. The U.N. still lists the U.S. as a signatory to the treaty, though in a footnote online it acknowledges that, in a July 2019 communication, the U.S. said it did not intend to become a party to the treaty and that it has no legal obligations in relation to it. Contrary to the ad’s claim, Biden has not yet taken any action to reverse the U.S.’s public position on the treaty, Stohl said. An inquiry to one of the directors of the American Firearms Association was not immediately returned. — Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed this report. ___ Baseless claims about safety of mRNA vaccines circulate online CLAIM: Humans and other mammals injected with an mRNA vaccine die within five years. THE FACTS: There is no scientific evidence to suggest humans or other mammals given an mRNA vaccine die within five years, experts told the AP. Social media users are reviving concerns that mRNA-based vaccines, including those that are used to combat COVID-19, are extremely deadly. “No mammal injected with mRNA has ever survived longer than 5 years. The die-off has begun,” one user on Twitter wrote in a post that’s been liked or shared more than 17,000 times. But there’s no scientific proof that the mRNA vaccination shortens life expectancy or has led to mass die offs in humans or other mammals since research began on them decades ago, experts told the AP “Nothing of the scale suggested has happened,” Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told the AP. “The vast majority of the millions who have been injected are doing just fine.” Vaccines utilizing messenger RNA, or mRNA, teach cells how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response that protects a person from becoming seriously ill from a disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The molecule was first discovered in the early 1960s and research into its uses in medical treatment progressed into the 1970s and 1980s, according to Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health. A flu vaccine based on mRNA was tested on mice in the 1990s, but the first vaccines for rabies and influenza weren’t tested on humans until recently. Kuritzkes said no deaths from those vaccines were reported in those trials. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of people worldwide have been inoculated against COVID-19 in the last couple of years and reports of death after vaccination remain rare. Healthcare providers are required to report any death after a COVID-19 shot to the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause. More than 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the U.S. from December 2020 through last week, according to the CDC. During that time, there have been more than 16,500 preliminary reports of death, or 0.0027% of those that have received a COVID-19 vaccine. Of those, the CDC has identified just nine deaths causally associated with rare blood clots caused by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is not mRNA based like those produced by Pfizer and Moderna. Kuritzkes also notes that mRNA only lasts in the body for a short period of time before rapidly degrading, making it unlikely that it would cause long term effects. “The fact that we’re just now getting to the five-year mark for some of the earliest studies is not evidence that people die from the vaccines,” he said. “Just evidence that five years have yet to elapse for many trials. Sort of like saying nobody who voted in the 2020 presidential election has lived more than five years.” — Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report. ___ Video of traffic at the Finnish-Russian border misrepresented CLAIM: Video shows lines of cars waiting at the Russian-Finnish border after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists on Wednesday amid the war in Ukraine. THE FACTS: The video was filmed at the Vaalimaa border crossing point between Russia and Finland on Aug. 29, weeks before Putin announced the partial mobilization of Russian reservists to Ukraine. Following Putin’s announcement, social media users misrepresented a video showing traffic at the border crossing point in Finland, about a three hour drive from St. Petersburg, Russia. The original video, which was posted to YouTube and TikTok on Sept. 19, shows a long line of cars at the border crossing point. Social media users then took the clip out of context, falsely claiming that it captured Russians fleeing to Finland. “#Breaking: just in – The traffic jam at the border with#Russia/#Finland has pilled up to 35KM and is rising by the hour, it is the only border who is still open for Russian civilians with shengen visas, after#Putin announced he will send 300.000 new troops to#Ukraine,” a tweet with more than 2.7 million views falsely claimed. Igor Parri, the TikTok user who posted the original video confirmed to The Associated Press in an email that he filmed it on Aug. 29. He sent the AP the original video to verify that he filmed it and noted that the video “was just depicting the quite typical line” at the border. The Finish border authority on Wednesday publicly responded to the claims circulating widely on social media, noting that traffic conditions at the border remained normal. “Situation at Finnish Russian border is normal, both at green border and in border traffic,” Matti Pitkäniitty, a senior official with the Finnish border authority wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “Just talked to our officers in charge. There is normal queuing in border traffic…” Pitkäniitty then tweeted on Thursday that traffic from Russia was at a “higher level than usual,” but was comparable to weekend traffic. In a statement to repo...

GM Crafty Press https://digitalarkansasnews.com/gm-crafty-press/ The GM Crafty Press looks to be very similar to the superb Cricut EasyPress Mini but this tiny heat press lacks that brand’s attention to detail. This is a chunkier, heavier and less approachable gadget that, while decent, fails to match the standards laid down by Cricut. I’d recommend paying a little more for the Cricut EasyPress Mini of you’re planning on using your small heat press for sewing or quilting projects as well as heat transfer vinyl designs. For Cheaper than the competition Has a very long lead Against Heavy and chunky design Lacks a pointed base Takes longer to heat up than Cricut The GM Crafty Press is a tiny heat press device designed to help sewists, quilters and crafters with intricate jobs and small projects. It follows on the heels of one of my favourite heat press machines, the Cricut EasyPress Mini, but at almost halve the price the GM  Crafty Press is an enticing little gadget. I scored 5/5 in my Cricut EasyPress Mini review, so the GM Crafty Press has a big task ahead of it – that price point of £31.99 is enticing. On paper this little heat press has some good features, such as three heat settings (190°C / 374°F, 160°C / 320°F, and 140°C / 284°F) and a smooth Teflon coated base. Heat press machines like the GM Crafty Press are generally used to press designs onto fabrics, we have a guide to the best heat press machines to get you started. I’d also recommend reading up on the best Cricut materials to gauge the kind of heat transfer vinyl you’ll need – these materials can be used with any heat press machine. Continue reading to find out what I think of the GM Crafty Press. To review this product I used it on a number of craft projects over the course of two weeks, if you want to find out more about our general review process read how we test craft and sewing machines. GM Crafty Press review: in the box The GM Crafty Press comes with a useful heavy cotton bag for safe storage (Image credit: Future) As you’d expect the GM Crafty Press is very basic when it comes to what’s in the box; the heat press is small and well packaged to avoid damage. What is nice is the GM Crafty Press comes with a heavy fabric cotton storage bag to keep the heat press clean and tidy when not in use.  Also, this heat press comes with a small water spray bottle for filling with ironing water to make pressing seams a little easier. Of course, when heat transferring designs onto fabrics you won’t need this. GM Crafty press review: design and build Unlike the excellent Cricut EasyPress Mini, the GM Crafty Press lacks a pointed tip and is generally larger (Image credit: Future) When it comes to design and build the GM Crafty Press stumbles. While it’s a sturdy and well-made product that meets all of the required safety standards, I find the moulding is too thick and chunky – in use the gap to fit your fingers isn’t as large and well-placed as that of the Cricut EasyPress Mini. This may sound like a small detail, but when you’re using this heat press device to iron down small seams and fiddly pieces of fabric, you can’t grip it naturally. The base is thicker than the Cricut EasyPress Mini too, which again means that it’s harder to work on intricate sewing and quilting projects. The GM’s base measures 10.6cm x 6.2cm making it larger than the 8.2cm x 4.8 cm of the Cricut EasyPress Mini, and it also doesn’t come to a neat point like the Cricut device; instead the GM Crafty Press is rounded to a blunt curve so not ideal for sewists. I also find the base a little rougher than the smooth finish of the Cricut EasyPress Mini, which will make heat pressing designs onto fabric less efficient. It’s a small irk but one that crafters will come to find irritating as it can cause wastage. GM Crafty Press review: in use The GM Crafty Press is good for basic heat press design projects but too cumbersome for sewing (Image credit: Future) As I’ve covered earlier, the GM Crafty Press has a larger and more rounded base than the leading small heat press, the Cricut EasyPress Mini. This means that while it’s a good size for pressing designs onto fabrics using heat transfer vinyl it’s not the best gadget for sewists and quilters looking to flatten open seams and press small sections of fabric for stitching. Heating the device takes a couple of minutes, which is longer than the seconds it takes the Cricut. More importantly, while Cricut is all about ease-of-use with automatic heat settings, here you need to manually adjust the heat across its three temperatures and it’s a little unclear. Some will find this more helpful as you can control the settings, but if you’re pressing vinyl it’s a little unnecessary.   Fundamentally it’s the larger, chunkier and heavier design that fails to grab me; the Cricut EasyPress Mini’s neat build means I can adapt how I hold it per my use – from as an iron to an almost pen-like approach – whereas the GM Crafty Press can only be held like a typical iron.  GM Crafty Press review: price and verdict When it comes to price the GM Crafty Press holds a trump card; at a bargain $39.99 / £31.99 roughly half the price of the Cricut EasyPress Mini ($69.99 / £59.99). If you’re simply after a small heat press to use with heat transfer vinyl then the GM Crafty Press is an okay option, though I have issues with the slightly rougher finish to the base and the three temperature settings feel needlessly complex. Personally, I use a small heat press device like this to help with pressing open seams in my sewing projects. For this the GM Crafty Press can’t compete with Cricut’s device, which is smaller, pointed and heats faster and more evenly.  If you’re just looking for a good heat press machine, I’d also recommend something like the smallest Cricut EasyPress 2 mode, which is now reduced as the newer Cricut EasyPress 3 has been released. And if you’re after a tiny heat press device, the Cricut EasyPress Mini is still the best around. Read more: These are the best Cricut machines The best Brother ScanNCut machines How to make money with Cricut Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1 *Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription Join now for unlimited access Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1 GM Crafty Press The GM Crafty Press looks to be very similar to the superb Cricut EasyPress Mini but this tiny heat press lacks that brand’s attention to detail. This is a chunkier, heavier and less approachable gadget that, while decent, fails to match the standards laid down by Cricut. I’d recommend paying a little more for the Cricut EasyPress Mini of you’re planning on using your small heat press for sewing or quilting projects as well as heat transfer vinyl designs. Julie Dean is a former doctor and occupational therapist by profession which inspired her to start sewing and quilting as a therapeutic activity. She is passionate about her craft and has been quilting and using Cricut for over five years. As well as selling her own work on Etsy Julie has taken commissions for interior design agencies to create bespoke quilts, including Beata Heuman (opens in new tab). Julie’s work has appeared in Architectural Digest (opens in new tab). Read More Here

NHC Forecasts Tropical Storm Ian Will Hit Florida As Category 3 Hurricane https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nhc-forecasts-tropical-storm-ian-will-hit-florida-as-category-3-hurricane/ LET US GET THE LATEST UPDATE AS WE TRACK TROPICAL STORM AND. CAM TRAN AND ERIC BURRIS ARE IN THE BUILDING. WHERE THE STORM AT HOW STRONG IS IT? ERIC: IT IS NOT CARIBBEAN SEA WITH WIND AT 45 MILES AN HOUR. IT IS EXPECTED TO GET STRONGER OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS AND WE ARE ENTERING INTO SOME OF THE ABSOLUTE HOTTEST WATERS IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN. WATER TEMPERATURE IS RUNNING 87 TO 88 DEGREES. EXPECT THAT INTENSITY TO BUILD. HERE IS A LOOK AT THE FORECAST CONE. OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS GETTING STRONGER AND BECOMING A HURRICANE AS IT PASSES THE ATTICA MAN’S AS IT APPROACHES CUBA — PASSES THE CAYMANS AND AS IT APPROACHES CUBA IT BECOMES CATEGORY 2. WEDNESDAY AT 2:00 A.M., WIND AT 200 MILES AN HOUR. A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT HOW THIS REMINDS THEM OF CHARLIE AND IF THERE IS ONE LESSON FROM CHARLIE IS NOT TO FOCUS ON THE LINE, BUT THE CONE ITSELF. AFTER IT PROGRESSES IT MOVES INLAND AND GRADUALLY WEAKENS. THURSDAY SUMMER AND WEAKENING AS IT MOVES OVER LAND. THE FORECAST MODELS ARE IN AGREEMENT OVER CUBA AND THEN THEY SPREAD OUT OVER FLORIDA. WE HAVE NOT KAIDEN ON A LAND FAR — KEYED IN ON A LAND POINT. THE REASON IT IS NOT KEYED IN HAS TO DO WITH A BIGGER WEATHER PATTERN. WE HAVE IAN LIFTING UP AND THERE IS A BIG DRAW FROM CANADA AND AS THE TWO OF THEM INTERACT WE START TO FINE TUNE THE FORECAST. BUT THE TROUGH IS A LITTLE STRONGER OR WEAKER AND IN A LITTLE QUICKER — IAN A LITTLE QUICKER OR SLOWER DEPENDS. ONE KEY INGREDIENT WILL BE TO HURRICANE HUNTERS. YOU’RE WATCHING THEM TAKING OFF INTO THE STORM SYSTEM. AS THAT PLAYS OUT WE WILL GET MORE INFORMATION AND MORE INFORMATION INTO THE COMMUNITY MODELS. — COMPUTER MODELS. CAM TRAN GIVES US MORE ON WHAT THE MODELS ARE SAYING. CAM: WE ARE WATCHING FOR POTENTIAL IMPACTS AND ONE OF THE BIG ONES WAY THINGS WILL BE THE BRAIN. IT DEPENDS ON THE TRACK SYSTEM. EUROPEAN MODEL HAS BEEN MORE BULLISH HUGGING THE WEST COAST AND THE PLANS THAT THE PENINSULA BRINGING MY RAINFALL. AN EASTERN TRACK RAINFALL. THIS IS REALLY FRIDAY MORNING AND YOU CAN SAY THAT SOME ABOUT, THE DARK RED AFTER THE WEST OF THE METRO IN ANYWHERE BETWEEN EIGHT TO 12 INCHES PROBABLY AMERICAN J.A. HAPP HAS A MORE WESTERLY TRACK MEANING LESS IMPACT AT HOME. MAMMA CAN GFS HAZMAT AREAS TALKING ABOUT THREE TO FIVE INCHES AS MUCH AS FIVE TO EIGHT INCHES. SOME OF THE COASTLINES HAVE EIGHT INCHES. WE HAVE SOMETHING THAT WE ARE KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON THE SYSTEMS AND MODELS. WE ARE ALSO — MATH — ALSO WATCHING THE CHANCELLOR HURRICANE FORCE WIND AND SOME AREAS COULD FEEL THEM AS EARLY AS WEDNESDAY MORNING AND POSSIBLY OVER CENTRAL FLORIDA UNTIL THURSDAY MORNING. BACK AT HOME WE ARE TRACKING SEVERAL THINGS BUT I CAN TELL YOU THAT NOW IS THE TIME TO PREPARE AND TODAY IS THE DAY TO GET SUPPLIES. TOMORROW AND MONDAY WE SHOULD BE DONE WITH SUPPLIES AND HURRICANE KIDS. TUESDAY IS WHEN WE ARE EXPECTING THE HYBRIDS. BACK AT HOME IT IS QUIET. IT IS LOOKING QUIET THROUGH THE DAY SO TODAY IS THE DAY TO GET THE HURRICANE KIDS READY SO RAIN CHANCES ARE LOWER. TEMPERATURES LOOKING AT 70. 76 AND ORLANDO. — IN ORLANDO. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 80’S THANKS TO MICHAEL FRONT. THE CURRENT RISK IS — BIRTHDAYS ARE NOT LOOKING BAD. TOMORROW A 30% RANGE CHANCE AND THEN WE UP THE INTO MIDWEEK AS WE TRACK POSSIBLE IMPACTS. LOOKING AT THE EXTENDED WEATHER FORECASTS. USE THESE DAYS TO GET YOURSEL NHC forecasts Tropical Storm Ian will hit Florida as Category 3 hurricane Tropical Depression Nine strengthened into Tropical Storm Ian Friday night. This system is forecast to hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane next week.As of 5 a.m. Saturday, Tropical Storm Ian had strengthened while moving west over the Central Caribbean and was moving west at 14 mph.Ian had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was located 315 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 600 miles east-southeast of Grand Cayman. See the latest maps, models and paths hereThe NHC advises hurricane conditions are possible in the Cayman Islands by early Monday.The Florida Keys and South Florida can expect heavy rains to begin as early as Monday. Some flash and urban flooding is possible with this rainfall, according to the NHC.”Rapid intensification is forecast Monday through Wednesday over some very warm water,” WESH 2 Meteorologist Tony Mainolfi said. “GFS model continues to be slower and west of Euro with the forecast cone between these two models tonight. Intensity forecasts remain very impressive in the Category 2 – Category 4 range.”The National Weather Service has urged Florida residents and visitors to gather supplies and keep tracking the forecast. SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT:A Hurricane Watch is in effect for…* Cayman IslandsA Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for…* JamaicaA Hurricane Watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area. A watch is typically issued 48 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds, conditions that make outside preparations difficult or dangerous.A Tropical Storm Watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours. Related: Seminole County begins sandbag preps ahead of tropical storm arrivalKNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WATCH IS ISSUEDStay tuned to WESH 2 News, WESH.COM, or NOAA Weather Radio for storm updates.Prepare to bring inside any lawn furniture, outdoor decorations or ornaments, trash cans, hanging plants, and anything else that can be picked up by the wind.Understand hurricane forecast models and cones.Prepare to cover all windows of your home. If shutters have not been installed, use precut plywood.Check batteries and stock up on canned food, first-aid supplies, drinking water, and medications.The WESH 2 First Warning Weather Team recommends you have these items ready before the storm strikes.Bottled water: One gallon of water per person per dayCanned food and soup, such as beans and chiliCan opener for the cans without the easy-open lidsAssemble a first-aid kitTwo weeks’ worth of prescription medicationsBaby/children’s needs, such as formula and diapersFlashlight and batteriesBattery-operated weather radioWHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WARNING IS ISSUEDListen to the advice of local officials. If you are advised to evacuate, leave.Complete preparation activitiesIf you are not advised to evacuate, stay indoors, away from windows.Be alert for tornadoes. Tornadoes can happen during a hurricane and after it passes over. Remain indoors, in the center of your home, in a closet or bathroom without windows.HOW YOUR SMARTPHONE CAN HELP DURING A HURRICANEA smartphone can be your best friend in a hurricane — with the right websites and apps, you can turn it into a powerful tool for guiding you through a storm’s approach, arrival and aftermath.Download the WESH 2 News app for iOS | AndroidEnable emergency alerts — if you have an iPhone, select settings, then go into notifications. From there, look for government alerts and enable emergency alerts.If you have an Android phone, from the home page of the app, scroll to the right along the bottom and click on “settings.” On the settings menu, click on “severe weather alerts.” From the menu, select from most severe, moderate-severe, or all alerts.PET AND ANIMAL SAFETYYour pet should be a part of your family plan. If you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them too. Leaving pets behind, even if you try to create a safe space for them, could result in injury or death.Contact hotels and motels outside of your immediate area to see if they take pets.Ask friends, relatives and others outside of the affected area whether they could shelter your animal. ORLANDO, Fla. — Tropical Depression Nine strengthened into Tropical Storm Ian Friday night. This system is forecast to hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane next week. As of 5 a.m. Saturday, Tropical Storm Ian had strengthened while moving west over the Central Caribbean and was moving west at 14 mph. Ian had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was located 315 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 600 miles east-southeast of Grand Cayman. See the latest maps, models and paths here The NHC advises hurricane conditions are possible in the Cayman Islands by early Monday. The Florida Keys and South Florida can expect heavy rains to begin as early as Monday. Some flash and urban flooding is possible with this rainfall, according to the NHC. “Rapid intensification is forecast Monday through Wednesday over some very warm water,” WESH 2 Meteorologist Tony Mainolfi said. “GFS model continues to be slower and west of Euro with the forecast cone between these two models tonight. Intensity forecasts remain very impressive in the Category 2 – Category 4 range.” This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. So, let’s talk rain. How much are we talking next week through Friday? Colors say some good soaking rain… and the ground is already really saturated… Live team coverage next over on CW18! Join the team! pic.twitter.com/hXTKihXTO5 — Eric Burris (@EricBurrisWESH) September 24, 2022 The National Weather Service has urged Florida residents and visitors to gather supplies and keep tracking the forecast. SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT: A Hurricane Watch is in effect for… * Cayman Islands A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for… * Jamaica A Hurricane Watch means ...

‘I Am Not A Terrorist’, Says Donald Trump At Rally Amid Legal Battles https://digitalarkansasnews.com/i-am-not-a-terrorist-says-donald-trump-at-rally-amid-legal-battles/ Former US president Donald Trump at a scoffed rally in North Carolina on Friday scoffed at the suggestion that he and his supporters are dangerous and extreme. “They want to call us domestic terrorists,” Donald Trump said. “Can you believe it? I’m not a terrorist”, he added. Embroiled in multiple criminal investigations, Donald Trump accused the Joe Biden administration of using FBI resources and taking them “away from fighting crime and using them for partisan political investigations.” Fuming, Donald Trump also said that there is now “great anger” in US because of multiple investigations against him and his supporters following the January 6 2021 Capitol riot. “Never forget all of this torment. persecution and oppression is not happening because of anything we’ve done wrong,” Trump said. Read more: Trump slams New York state attorney general after fraud lawsuit filed Donald Trump’s remarks came after President Joe Biden’s recent speech in Philadelphia, during which he described Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) movement as extreme and dangerous. “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Maga Republican represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic”, Biden had said. ABOUT THE AUTHOR When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, “What is the purpose of journalism in society?” Subscribe to our best newsletters Read More Here

Fiona Makes Landfall, Slams Canada's Atlantic Coast With Severe Winds And Rain https://digitalarkansasnews.com/fiona-makes-landfall-slams-canadas-atlantic-coast-with-severe-winds-and-rain/ (CNN)Hurricane Fiona, now referred to as a post-tropical cyclone, has made landfall in Nova Scotia, racing through Canada’s Atlantic seaboard early Saturday in what could be a “landmark” weather event for the country. An unofficial barometric pressure of 931.6 mb was recorded at Hart Island, which would make Fiona the lowest pressure land-falling storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre. Wind observations on Beaver Island in eastern Nova Scotia were recorded at 94 mph (152 km/h). Parts of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island started to feel the storm’s arrival Saturday morning as winds and rains extending far from the storm’s center knocked out utilities. More than 376,000 customers across Nova Scotia have lost power so far, according to the region’s power outage center. Residents in New Brunswick, southern Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador additionally face severe weather as Fiona tracks north at more than 40 mph (65 km/h) following its landfall between Canso and Guysborough in eastern Nova Scotia. Fiona is expected to pass through Cape Breton Island on Saturday morning and reach the southeastern Labrador Sea by evening. “The storm is producing severe winds and very heavy rainfall,” the Canadian Hurricane Centre said before landfall. “Wide spread gusts of 80-110 km/h (50-68 mph) have been so far reported over Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Iles-de-la-Madeleine, with a peak gust to 144km/h (90 mph) over Beaver Island, Nova Scotia.” Fiona weakened slightly on Friday to a Category 2 storm yet is still expected to bring damaging storm surges, heavy rain and severe wind. Fiona had been a Category 4 storm early Wednesday over the Atlantic after passing the Turks and Caicos and remained so until Friday afternoon. Officials along the Atlantic seaboard have urged those in Fiona’s path to be on high alert and prepare for the impact of the storm, which has already claimed the lives of at least five people and shut off power for millions as it battered multiple Caribbean islands this week. Homes and water infrastructure across Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Turks and Caicos were heavily damaged and many residents are still trying to recover. Fiona is on track to be an “extreme weather event” in eastern Canada, threatening with about two months’ worth of rainfall, forecasters in Canada said Friday. “This could be a landmark event for Canada in terms of intensity of a tropical cyclone,” and it could even become Canada’s version of Superstorm Sandy, said Chris Fogarty, Canadian Hurricane Centre manager. Sandy in 2012 affected 24 states and all of the eastern seaboard, causing an estimated $78.7 billion in damage. Fiona became post-tropical before making landfall, arriving at the same time as a trough of low pressure and cold air to the north — much like Sandy did, according to Bob Robichaud of the Canadian Hurricane Centre. “What these things tend to do, they tend to grow in size tremendously, which is again what Fiona is doing as well,” he said Friday. “Sandy was larger than Fiona is expected to be even. But the process is essentially the same — where you have two features kind of feeding off each other to create one strong storm like we’re going to see overnight and into tomorrow.” Hurricane-force winds can extend up to 185 miles out from Fiona’s center and tropical-storm-force winds up to 345 miles out, according to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Storm surge will be ‘significant,’ officials say In the days leading up to Fiona’s expected arrival, officials ramped up services to assist those in need and implored residents to take caution. “It has the potential to be very dangerous,” said John Lohr, the minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office for Nova Scotia, on Thursday. “Impacts are projected to be felt across the province.” Residents should brace for damaging winds, high waves, coastal storm surge and heavy rainfall, which may lead to prolonged power outages, Lohr said. Emergency officials have encouraged people to secure outdoor items, trim trees, charge cell phones and create a 72-hour emergency kit. Shelters for residents have been established throughout Nova Scotia, including multiple in Halifax County, according to officials. The area has not seen a storm this intense for about 50 years, according to Fogarty. “Please take it seriously because we are seeing meteorological numbers in our weather maps that are rarely seen here,” Fogarty said. Prince Edward Island officials also implored residents to prepare for the worst as the storm looms. Tanya Mullally, who serves as the province’s head of emergency management, said one of the most pressing concerns with Fiona is the historic storm surge it is expected to unleash. “Storm surge is certainly going to be significant. … Flooding that we have not seen nor can we measure against,” Mullally said Thursday during an update. Canadian Hurricane Center modeling suggests the surge “depending on the area, could be anywhere from 1.8 to 2.4 meters (6-8 feet),” said Robichaud. The northern portion of the island stands to bear the brunt of the storm due to the direction of the winds, which will likely cause property damage and coastal flooding, Mullally said. All provincial campgrounds, beaches and day-use parks as well as the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park were closed Friday, the Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office said. CNN’s Derek Van Dam, Haley Brink, Aya Elamroussi, Theresa Waldrop and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report. Read More Here

In-Person Voting Starts In Minnesota, 3 Other Early States https://digitalarkansasnews.com/in-person-voting-starts-in-minnesota-3-other-early-states-2/ By Steve Karnowski and Christina A. Cassidy – Associated Press Friday, September 23, 2022 MINNEAPOLIS — In-person voting for the midterm elections opened Friday in Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming, kicking off a six-week sprint to Election Day in a landscape that has changed much since the pandemic drove a shift to mail balloting in the 2020 presidential contest. Twenty people voted in the first hour as Minneapolis opened its early voting center, taking advantage of generous rules that election officials credit with making Minnesota a perennial leader in voter turnout. First in when the doors opened was Conrad Zbikowski, a 29-year-old communications and digital consultant who said he has voted early since at least 2017. “I like to vote early because you never know what might happen on Election Day,” said Zbikowski, displaying his civic pride with a T-shirt that bore the sailboat logo of the City of Lakes. “You might get sick, you might get COVID, you might get in a car crash, there’s many things that can happen. But what you do have control over is being able to vote early and getting that ballot in.” The start of in-person voting comes as the nation continues to grapple with the fallout from nearly two years of false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump due to widespread fraud and manipulation of voting machines. Those conspiracy theories, promoted by a constellation of Trump allies in the campaign, on social media and at conferences held across the country, have taken a toll on public confidence in U.S. elections. They’ve also led to tightening of rules that govern mail ballots in several Republican-led states as well as an exodus of experienced election workers, who have faced an onslaught of harassment and threats since the 2020 election. But nearly two years since that election, no evidence has emerged to suggest widespread fraud or manipulation while reviews in state after state have upheld the results showing President Joe Biden won. PHOTOS: In-person voting starts in Minnesota, 3 other early states Saturday also is the deadline by which election officials must send ballots to their military and overseas voters. North Carolina started mailing out absentee ballots Sept. 9. Early in-person voting is offered in 46 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. States may use different ways to describe it, with some calling it in-person absentee voting or advanced voting. In some cases, it mirrors Election Day voting with polling locations equipped with poll workers and voting machines. Elsewhere, it involves voters requesting, completing and submitting an absentee ballot in person at their local election office. Early voting periods vary by state, with some offering as few as three days and others extending to 46 days. The average is 23 days, according to the conference of legislatures. This year, voting will unfold in a much different environment than two years ago, when the coronavirus prompted a major increase in the use of mail ballots as voters sought to avoid crowded polling places. States adopted policies to promote mail voting, with a few states opting to send mail ballots to all registered voters and others expanding the use of drop boxes. While some have made those changes permanent, others have rolled back them back. For instance, Georgia will have fewer drop boxes this year and has added ID requirements to mail ballots under legislation pushed by Republican state lawmakers. In Wyoming, a steady stream of voters filed into the lone early polling place in Cheyenne, which offered a refuge from winds that toppled a “Vote Here” sign. About 60 people had voted there by midday, Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee said. “It’s less people and we don’t have to worry,” said one early voter, Brent Dolence of Cheyenne. “Things move faster and you don’t have to wait so much.” Unlike elsewhere in the U.S., poll workers in Laramie County haven’t been subjected to threats and harassment, Lee said, but they’ve received plenty of questions from voters about machines and the county’s lone ballot drop box. “They’re really looking at things and asking questions,” Lee said. “In a good way. You know, wanting information. They’re curious.” Minnesota’s ballot includes races for governor and other statewide offices, with control of the Legislature at stake, too. Zbikowski declined to say for whom he voted. But he said he doesn’t take the right to vote for granted, given that his family came to America from Russia when it didn’t have free elections. As a part-time poll worker – he was off-duty Friday- he said he’s seen Minnesota’s safeguards firsthand and has full confidence in the integrity of the process. Other early voters included first-timers Ronald Johnson and his wife, Judith Weyl, who voted on Election Day in 2020. They both said they voted a straight Democratic ticket. “It just feels like this election is so important, life is so busy, I just wanted to have closure on this as quickly as possible,” Johnson said. Johnson, a 74-year-old mental health counselor, said he wanted to support candidates who will preserve a Minnesota election system that he said has integrity. He said he “absolutely” supports the state’s chief elections officer, Secretary of State Steve Simon, over GOP challenger Kim Crockett, who has called the 2020 election a “train wreck” and has advocated for a return to voting mostly on Election Day. Simon, in contrast, calls the 2020 election “fundamentally fair, honest, accurate and secure,” and defends the changes that he oversaw to make voting safer in the pandemic. “We really care about protecting democracy,” said Weyl, 73. Aaron Bommarito, a 48-year-old teacher who also said he voted a straight Democratic ticket, said he has no concerns about his votes being counted properly and has “absolute confidence in the system.” He said voting early was a spur-of-the moment decision. He just happened to be driving by the voting center and seized the moment. “I dropped my two kids off at school, and the ‘Vote Here’ sign was the next thing I saw,” he said. Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC. Read More Here

PREP FOOTBALL: Williams Enjoys Big Performance In Mounties’ Victory https://digitalarkansasnews.com/prep-football-williams-enjoys-big-performance-in-mounties-victory/ ROGERS — The continued gain of confidence for junior quarterback Dane Williams has been noticeable with each game for Rogers Coach Chad Harbison. Williams’ growth as a first-year starting quarterback continued Friday night in perhaps his best performance this season. He finished with four total touchdowns to lead the way in a 35-7 victory against Fort Smith Southside in the 7A-West Conference opener for both teams at Whitey Smith Stadium. “The offense is just set up to get the ball to all these playmakers,” Williams said. “It’s very versatile in a lot of ways. I think that makes us hard to stop. I just want to stick to the game plan and get the ball to these dudes to make plays. They make it easy for me.” Williams finished 15-of-17 passing for 240 yards with 3 touchdowns, and he added a rushing score. Running back Jacob Jenkins finished with 143 yards and a score on just 12 touches. Ty Cunningham led the receivers for Rogers, finishing with 95 yards on 2 catches with a touchdown. Mabry Verser had 8 catches for 77 yards and a score. Graycen Cash hauled in 4 passes for 58 yards and a touchdown. Rogers (4-0, 1-0) took the opening possession and turned the ball over on downs. But the offense found plenty of success after that, rolling up a 35-0 halftime lead. The Mounties, who are 4-0 for the first time since 2012, got the ground game going early and often turning to Jenkins. He cashed in the first touchdown of the game for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Williams capped the next drive with a 7-yard quarterback draw to make it a 14-0 lead and end the first-half scoring. That’s when the defense made perhaps the biggest play of the game. Southside was able to get the ball down to the Rogers 10, but the Mounties were able to swing the momentum with a goal-line interception by Marcus Mounce. Rogers took full advantage of that turnover and made it a 21-0 lead when Cash caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Williams. “That play got us going because it looks like they are going to score and make it a one-score game,” Harbison said. “But we get the stop and we take it for a touchdown. I think our defense set the tone early for us. They have been playing like that all year.” A 82-yard touchdown catch by Cunningham made it a 28-0 lead in the second quarter. He caught a short pass then made his way to the end zone with his speed and elusiveness. The Mounties’ defense, which allowed 125 first-half yards, came up big again just before halftime. Ashton Alston caught an interception with less than three minutes to play before the break. One play later, Rogers scored to cap its first-half scoring with a 35-0 advantage. Verser caught a touchdown over the middle of the defense for a 19-yard touchdown from Williams. “They all bring different qualities to the table, and you love that as a quarterback,” Williams said of his receivers. “Ty is really hard to tackle in open space. That was on display with his score. Graycen is very shifty and can work himself open. Mabry is just a big physical guy that makes plays as well.” Southside (1-3, 0-1) avoided the shutout in the second half with a 57-yard touchdown run by quarterback Carter Zimmerman. Read More Here

CAC Survives Hall In Battle Of Winless Teams https://digitalarkansasnews.com/cac-survives-hall-in-battle-of-winless-teams/ Two winless high school football teams looked like winners for 48 minutes. The Central Arkansas Christian Mustangs walked from Little Rock’s Scott Field on Friday night with a 21-19 victory over the Little Rock Hall Warriors, but their 4A-4 Conference win was hard earned and in jeopardy to the end. “Hall never quit,” CAC Coach Tommy Shoemaker said. “Both teams made a lot of mistakes, but this was big for us.” CAC (1-4, 1-2) took a 21-12 lead sophomore Jake Wooten’s 1-yard touchdown run with 2:52 left in the game. Seemingly unfazed, Hall (0-4, 0-3) responded on the fifth play of its following drive with a 57-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Jakorei Carter to sophomore receiver Cam Marable that cut CAC’s lead to 21-19 with 55.7 seconds left. Sophomore kicker Sergio Luna’s subsequent onside-kick attempt was fielded by CAC sophomore Lincoln Kein to complete the contest. “We just couldn’t take advantage of our opportunities,” Hall Coach Jim Withrow said. Hall controlled much of the second half. Still, it was stopped or stopped itself from potential go-ahead scores throughout. Hall had 1st-and-10 at the CAC 18 on the second half’s opening drive but turned the ball over on downs, and CAC’s halftime lead of 14-12 remained intact. Hall was at 1st-and-10 at the CAC 34 on its next possession, but Marable fumbled away a 23-yard reception at the CAC 11. Two plays later, junior defensive lineman Terrance Bobo intercepted a pass and returned it to within one foot of the CAC end zone. After a low snap led to 4-yard loss, it was followed by a 1-yard run, a procedure penalty, and an incomplete pass. Luna’s 25-yard field goal attempt was blocked. “We were so close,” Withrow said. CAC answered with a 10-play, 87-yard drive completed by Wooten’s touchdown, and it held a two-score lead late in the fourth quarter. When the game ended, as Hall exited its sideline to greet the winners at mid-field, Withrow addressed his team. “They played hard,” he said. “We played hard. We didn’t make enough plays.” They made a few, including Marable’s 96-yard interception return that gave Hall a 12-7 lead with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter. “If Cam isn’t named a super sophomore, then there shouldn’t be super sophomores,” Withrow said. CAC sophomore quarterback Grayson Wilson completed 8 of 15 passes for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns. He rushed for 54 yards on nine carries. CAC freshman running back Jacob Henry led all rushers with 97 yards on 15 carries. “We’re a very young team,” Shoemaker said.”Hopefully we can build on this.” Read More…

CAMPAIGN ALMANAC: Grassley, Franken Argue Tax Policy Claims In New Grassley Ad https://digitalarkansasnews.com/campaign-almanac-grassley-franken-argue-tax-policy-claims-in-new-grassley-ad/ COURIER DES MOINES BUREAU A new ad from incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s campaign targets Democratic candidate Mike Franken’s tax positions, saying the retired Navy admiral would raise taxes if elected. The ad mentions several areas where it claims Franken would raise taxes, including income, the estate tax, capital gains, and Social Security. In a press release, Franken’s campaign said several of the claims in the ad are false. “At a time of record-breaking inflation contributing to Iowans’ soaring cost of living, Iowans need a senator who will provide tax relief, not tax hikes,” Grassley’s campaign spokesperson Michaela Sundermann said in a statement. The ad points to comments Franken made in an Iowa PBS debate for several of the claims, including saying he would repeal tax breaks passed under President Donald Trump in 2017. All income brackets saw tax cuts from that law, but the cuts were more concentrated with higher earners. It says those comments show Franken is in favor of raising the estate tax and cutting the Child Tax Credit, which were both included in Trump’s tax law. In a press release, Franken’s campaign said the candidate is in favor of making sure the estate tax is not “used as a tax dodge for massive inheritances.” But, he would not increase the estate tax “on regular Iowans, including our farmers, by one penny.” On the Child Tax Credit, Franken’s campaign said the candidate is not in favor of cutting that tax credit. He said on Iowa Press that after cutting the Trump tax cuts he would “piecemeal some of the other leftover ones that were in the Build Back Better.” Franken said in Cedar Rapids this week he is in favor of removing the cap on Social Security tax, requiring everyone to pay the same rate for Social Security, regardless of income. Workers and their employers are currently required to contribute 6.2 percent of their income to Social Security up to $147,000. On increasing income taxes, Grassley’s campaign pointed to a quote from a Winterset campaign event, in which Franken said, “Remember the ‘70s where those that made a lot of money paid 70 percent tax? Now, it’s not that. And the write-offs are ridiculous. We can do this.” Franken’s campaign said the comments stem from support for a Medicare for All system. The system, they said, would save taxpayers money because they would not have to pay for health insurance premiums. “No matter how much Senator Grassley tries to mislead Iowans to cover up his own record, the truth is clear: Adm. Franken’s tax plan will lower costs for working Iowans, while ensuring the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share to strengthen our economy, improve our infrastructure, and create better schools,” Franken’s spokesperson C.J. Petersen said. REYNOLDS GUEST SPEAKER: Wesley Hunt, a U.S. Army veteran and candidate for the U.S. House in Texas, will be the special guest speaker at Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ fifth annual Harvest Festival, her campaign fundraiser. “Wesley loves this country and he has been on the front lines of defending freedom during his time in the U.S. Army,” Reynolds said in a campaign news release. “Now he’s running for Congress and fighting to build and grow the future of our nation’s conservative movement.” Hunt is running for Congress in a Texas district that leans strongly toward Republicans. Reynolds’ Harvest Festival is scheduled for 4 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Tickets for the event, which start at $50, can be purchased at reynoldsharvestfestival.com. Photos: 2022 Cedar Falls Homecoming Pep Rally A member of the Cedar Falls boys’ golf team hypes up the crowd at a pep rally. Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier A Cedar Falls senior high fives Cedar Falls cross country team member Colin Johnson after he spoke during the homecoming pep rally. Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Cedar Falls seniors participate in a school spirit cheer. Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Cedar Falls High School held its 2022 homecoming pep rally on Friday ahead of the Tigers upcoming football game against Muscatine. Ethan Petrik, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Read More Here

Comment: One Vote Shows Little Seperates GOP And Its Fringe | HeraldNet.com https://digitalarkansasnews.com/comment-one-vote-shows-little-seperates-gop-and-its-fringe-heraldnet-com/ By Jonathan Bernstein / Bloomberg Opinion The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed its updated version of the Electoral Count Act, the archaic and loophole-filled law governing how Congress certifies presidential elections. The Senate has yet to act on its own version, which is similar, but with 10 co-sponsors from each party, it appears to be well on its way to passage, and there’s every possibility that a reconciled bill will be signed into law later this year. So much for the good news. The less good news is what the House passage of the bill — on close to a party-line vote, with only nine Republicans joining all Democrats — says about the state of the Republican Party. As it turns out, when it comes to defending democracy, so-called mainstream Republicans may not be so different from extremist Republicans. This difference was the topic of intense debate in the Democratic Party this year. The party supported some extreme candidates in Republican congressional primaries, on the theory that they would be easier to defeat in the general election. Critics said the practice was irresponsible and risked the possibility of putting people who would be a threat to U.S. democracy in Congress. Wednesday’s vote doesn’t completely end that debate. But it does demonstrate that most mainstream Republicans are not interested in defending the Constitution; either because they are radicals themselves, or because they won’t stand up to those who are. The House debate of the Electoral Count Act demonstrated exactly why Democrats may have been justified in their meddling. With only a handful of exceptions, most notably Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, a cosponsor of the bill, Republicans rejected the bill. Indeed, the party whipped against it, indicating that opposing this reform — opposing a key defense against a future coup — was an official party position. Why? Few Republicans who participated in the House debate cited anything about the bill itself. Most of them talked more about inflation, crime, migrants and how President Biden was ruining the nation. This bill, they said, was an attempt to distract Americans from their real problems. Earlier reporting by Axios offered a more plausible reason: It quoted Republicans who opposed the bill because Cheney supported it. And their problem with Cheney is that she voted to impeach Donald Trump, and has participated in the Jan. 6 committee. If that’s really their reason, what does that say about them? The obvious implication is that some of those Republicans are perfectly happy with a vulnerable election process; and the rest aren’t willing to fight for one. Not against Trump; not against Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and the other radicals who are the real leaders of the House Republicans; not against Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin and the other leaders of the Republican Party. So the problem isn’t just the extremists; it’s the rank-and-file Republican politicians. It means that there’s just not much of a difference between a House Republican conference with a few more radicals and one with a few more mainstream members. During the floor debate, many Republicans questioned why the bill was being rushed. The answer is obvious: There’s a very good chance that Republicans will have a House majority in January, and no one expects them to move similar legislation. Yes, things are different on the Senate side, where more Republicans may vote for it. Still, there’s a good argument that the more House Republicans are elected, the more U.S. democracy is in danger. (And for whatever it’s worth, in all six districts where Democrats meddled and the more extreme Republican was nominated, the Democrat is likely to win.) Meanwhile, it remains absolutely critical that House Democrats and the bipartisan Senate group resolve their differences and pass a bill quickly. Well-written laws may not be able to completely stop coup plotters. But there’s no excuse for not making it as difficult as possible for them. Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics. Read More Here

Elton John In Tears As President Biden Surprises Him With Medal At White House Gig https://digitalarkansasnews.com/elton-john-in-tears-as-president-biden-surprises-him-with-medal-at-white-house-gig/ Sir Elton John has played for Joe Biden and about 2,000 fans on the White House lawn as part of his farewell tour, with the singer in tears as the president awarded him a medal. Introducing the star, Mr Biden said: “Like so many Americans, our family loves his music. It’s clear Elton John’s music has changed our lives.” The president said in his 2017 book that he sang Crocodile Rock to his son Beau when he was a child, and again when he was dying of cancer. Sir Elton performed the song at Friday’s gig, as well as tracks such as Tiny Dancer, Rocketman and Your Song. Nurses, teachers, emergency services workers and LGBTQ activists were among the audience at the show, intended to honour what the White House called “everyday heroes”. The singer, 75, said the performance was the “icing on the cake” of his decades-long career. Elton had previously declined to play for former president Donald Trump’s inauguration but appeared in his element at Friday’s gig. And there was a surprise too – with President Biden awarding him the National Humanities Medal. “I’m flabbergasted,” said a tearful Sir Elton. “I will treasure this.” “I don’t know how to take a compliment very well,” he added. “But it’s wonderful to be here amongst so many people who have helped my AIDS foundation and my heroes, the ones that work day to day on the front line.” Image: It was an emotional night for the 75-year-old singer. Pic: AP Image: Pic: AP In between songs, Elton gave shout-outs to the likes of ex-president George W Bush for his administration’s plan to tackle AIDS – and former first lady Laura Bush was in the audience. The singer’s foundation has raised more than £400m to combat the virus around the world since being set up in 1992. Elton is in the middle of a farewell tour that includes a show in Washington on Saturday and gigs across America until mid-November. It heads to Australia and New Zealand at the end of the year before heading to Europe in March – where dates include nine days at London’s O2 Arena. Read More Here

After Declaring That He's 'not A Terrorist' Trump Uses North Carolina Rally To Vilify New York Attorney General Letitia James https://digitalarkansasnews.com/after-declaring-that-hes-not-a-terrorist-trump-uses-north-carolina-rally-to-vilify-new-york-attorney-general-letitia-james/ Former President Donald Trump bashed the NY AG who filed a suit against him and his family business. His remarks came at a Friday rally where he also lifted up his children, who were named in the suit. Trump called Letitia James “racist” and said her actions were “gross prosecutorial misconduct.”  Loading Something is loading. At a Friday rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, former President Donald Trump took the time to lift up three of his children in response to a new fraud suit filed against him. During the rally in support of GOP Senate candidate Rep. Ted Budd, Trump said he and his fellow MAGA Republicans are not “terrorists” and claimed President Joe Biden “is cognitively impaired and in no condition to lead our country, which may very well end up in World War III.”  But Trump spent more time berating New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has filed a massive fraud lawsuit against the Trump Organization. The James’ office said “Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to further enrich himself and cheat the system” and “repeatedly and persistently manipulated the value of assets to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization.” The suit follows a three-year probe into Trump and his business dealings. Trump on Friday called James “racist” — an accusation he’s also made on multiple other occasions — and referred to her actions as “gross prosecutorial misconduct.”  The attorney general is accusing him, his children, and the Trump Organization of years of financial fraud. The case is just one of many legal problems Trump faces, including the investigation into mishandled classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and the probe into the January 6 insurrection.  At the rally, Trump defended his children who were named in the suit, apparently reading off a teleprompter: “Ivanka, Ivanka is a very good person. Don Jr., he’s a good person. Eric. Eric. These are good people.” He added: “This crazy radical leftist nutjob James should be going after the killers, the gangbangers, the drug dealers.” James’ office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Read More Here

Hillary Clinton Compares Trump To Hitler In Disturbing Interview https://digitalarkansasnews.com/hillary-clinton-compares-trump-to-hitler-in-disturbing-interview/ In a stinging interview Friday one-time presidential candidate Hillary Clinton compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, and his political rallies to Nazi gatherings. She zeroed in on Trump’s rally last week in Youngstown, Ohio, where members of the crowd raised a stiff-armed, one-finger QAnon salute to the former president in a gesture chillingly reminiscent of the “heil Hitler” salute. The QAnon gesture stands for WWG1WGA, or: “Where We Go One We Go All.” Donald Trump disciples raise a disturbing stiff-armed one-finger salute to the former president at his his Ohio rally last week. Gaelen Morse via Reuters “I remember as a young student, you know, trying to figure out how people get basically brought in by Hitler. How did that happen?” Clinton asked during an onstage interview at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. “I’d watch newsreels and I’d see this guy standing up there ranting and raving, and people shouting and raising their arms. I thought, ‘What’s happened to these people?’” she added. “You saw the rally in Ohio the other night,” Clinton noted. “Trump is there ranting and raving for more than an hour, and you have these rows of young men with their arms raised. What is going on?”POh She added: “I think it is fair to say we’re in a struggle between democracy and autocracy.” Clinton was hardly the only one to see similarities between Trump and Hitler rallies. Retired four-star U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey also compared Trump’s Ohio rally to a 1936 rally held by Hitler in Nuremberg, Germany. “The crowd is similar to a Nuremberg rally 1936,” McCaffrey tweeted after the rally. “A lawless Trump in office in [the] 2024 election would slide us into autocracy and deny our Constitutional safeguards. This is our greatest danger as a nation since 1860.” Astonishing Trump language. The crowd is similar to a Nuremberg rally 1936. A lawless Trump in office in 2024 election would slide us into autocracy and deny our Constitutional safeguards. This is our greatest danger as a nation since 1860. VOTE. https://t.co/XVGK0yYKdv — Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) September 18, 2022 Read More Here

Signs Of Torture, Mutilation On Bodies At Izium Mass Burial Site: Ukraine Officials | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/signs-of-torture-mutilation-on-bodies-at-izium-mass-burial-site-ukraine-officials-cnn/ CNN  —  Ukrainian officials say they have finished exhuming bodies from a mass burial site in Izium – and that of the 436 bodies found, 30 showed signs of torture. In a gruesome reminder of the human cost of Russia’s invasion, most of the bodies showed signs of a violent death, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration. “There are bodies with a rope around the neck, with hands tied, with broken limbs and with gunshot wounds. Several men had their genitals amputated,” Syniehubov said in a Telegram post on Friday. “All this is evidence of the terrible torture to which the occupiers subjected the residents of Izium.” Syniehubov added that most of the bodies were civilians and only 21 were military. Izium, which sits near the border between the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, was subject to intense Russian artillery attacks in April before it was occupied. It then became an important hub for the invading military during five months of occupation. Ukrainian forces took back control of the city this month, delivering a strategic blow to Russia’s military assault in the east. Russian forces were forced to flee the strategic eastern city after Ukrainian forces began a new offensive eastward through the Kharkiv region. While Ukraine’s offensive successfully regained thousands of square miles of territory, it also uncovered evidence of the horrors suffered by civilians and soldiers at the hands of Russian troops. Syniehubov said this wasn’t the only mass burial ground that had been discovered. There are at least three more in other liberated areas of the Kharkiv region, he said. He added that each of the bodies recovered has a separate story, and he vowed to find out the circumstances of each of their deaths “so that their relatives and friends know the truth and the killers are punished.” “All crimes of the occupiers will be documented, and the perpetrators will pay for what they have done,” Syniehubov said. He thanked the 200 people – including forensic experts, police officers, and employees of the State Emergency Service – who had been working there everyday for their “morally difficult but necessary work.” Read More Here