Storm Lashes Alaskan Shore Bringing Severe Coastal Flooding And Prompting Evacuations | CNN
Storm Lashes Alaskan Shore, Bringing Severe Coastal Flooding And Prompting Evacuations | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/storm-lashes-alaskan-shore-bringing-severe-coastal-flooding-and-prompting-evacuations-cnn/
CNN —
The remnants of Typhoon Merbok have been battering Alaska’s western coast since late Friday, bringing flooding powerful enough to uproot buildings and forcing residents to seek shelter.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Saturday declared a disaster for impacted communities as heavy rains lashed the coast, filling roadways with water and debris.
By Saturday night, the governor was reporting impacts to roads, oil storage and possibly sea walls. Authorities were still assessing whether the storm affected water supplies and sewage systems in the state’s western towns, Dunleavy said in a Saturday night briefing.
About 450 residents in coastal communities have sought shelter in schools, according to Bryan Fisher, director of the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
There were no reports of injuries or fatalities related to the storm as of Saturday night, said Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe of the Alaska National Guard, adding that “there likely will be a military response” with aircraft ready to help with evacuations if necessary.
Water continues to surge early Sunday, with levels expected to peak above the high tide line of 3-5 feet at Deering, 4-6 feet at Kotzebue, and 5-7 feet at Shishmaref and Kivalina, according to the National Weather Service.
“These are concerning numbers,” NWS tweeted.
Coastal flood warnings continue across the western and northern coasts of Alaska through Sunday as several locations see extremely high water levels, according to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
The water will remain at or near peak levels for up to 24 hours in some locations. Winds are expected to weaken as the storm pushes inland but water levels along the coast are expected to remain elevated through Sunday.
The storm is shaping up to be the state’s strongest in over a decade, according to forecasters.
Creating a “very angry sea” in the city of Nome, according to the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, the storm has brought “waves and storm surge pushing into the community.”
The water level is still going up and is expected to peak Sunday afternoon before slowly receding, affecting the city’s population of over 9,800 people.
The water level in Nome stood at 8.47 feet Saturday night, down from a high of 10.52 feet earlier in the day. The levels exceeded those seen during significant storms in 2011 and 2004, according to the National Weather Service.
A floating building hit a 300-gallon tank in Nome around 6 p.m. local time, resulting in a spill, according to Jason Brune, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The scale of the spill was still unknown Saturday night.
Nome resident Simon Kinneen said he was driving past Snake River in the Belmont Point area when he saw a home float away.
“The wind came up high enough to float the house and the wind and surge blew the house to the northwest,” he told CNN.
In a video taken by Kinneen, an entire house is seen floating on the river before it gets lodged between the river and a nearby bridge.
In Golovin, where a few homes floated off of their foundation, residents were evacuated to a local school on higher ground Saturday, authorities said.
“Water is surrounding the school, homes and structures are flooded, at least a couple homes floating off the foundation, some older fuel tanks are tilted over,” the National Weather Service in Fairbanks tweeted.
Golovin has a population of about 175, according to the US Census Bureau and is located south of the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.
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Denver Big Man Duo Of 5-Star Baye Fall And 4-Star Assane Diop Reset Official Visits To Arkansas For Sept. 30-Oct. 2 Weekend
Denver Big Man Duo Of 5-Star Baye Fall And 4-Star Assane Diop Reset Official Visits To Arkansas For Sept. 30-Oct. 2 Weekend https://digitalarkansasnews.com/denver-big-man-duo-of-5-star-baye-fall-and-4-star-assane-diop-reset-official-visits-to-arkansas-for-sept-30-oct-2-weekend/
By Kevin McPherson
LITTLE ROCK — Two uber-talented cousins and teammates in 2023 5-star Baye Fall and 4-star Assane Diop have rescheduled their official visit to Arkansas for the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 2, according to their guardian and head coach Greg Willis.
The Accelerated Schools (Denver, Colo.) duo of Fall (6-11 forward / center) and Diop (6-10 combo forward) had initially scheduled their OV to Arkansas for the weekend of Sept. 16-18. The current-10th-ranked Football Hogs will host current-No. 2-ranked Alabama on Saturday, Oct. 1, at Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium in Fayetteville.
Both players were on an unofficial visit to Arkansas for the Hoop Hogs’ home win over Kentucky in February 2021.
The duo recently cancelled an OV to Texas that was set for Oct. 9-11, and there were plans to take an OV to Seton Hall on Sept. 28, although the latter may change given the new dates for their OV to Arkansas.
For more on their Razorbacks recruitment, please see the recent Hogville.net article below …
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
UPDATE / EDIT (Friday, August 19, 2022) …
By Kevin McPherson
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Razorbacks men’s basketball program will welcome in two 2023 uber-talented cousins for official visits on the weekend of Sept. 16-18 in 5-star Baye Fall and 4-star Assane Diop, according to a source.
Fall (6-11 forward / center, Accelerated Schools in Denver, Colo, composite national No. 11 / 5-star prospect) and Diop (6-10 3/4-combo forward, Accelerated Schools in Denver, Colo, ESPN national No. 46 / 4-star prospect) have been priority recruiting targets for Arkansas for more than a year, and the pair took an unofficial visit to Fayetteville to attend the Arkansas-Kentucky game in February before meeting with coaches at the basketball performance center following the Hogs’ win.
They were considering taking their OV’s to Arkansas the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 2 when the Football Hogs host Alabama, according to sources, and that date remains available if anything were to change with their current plans. The duo has also visited Seton Hall and Auburn. Fall has upcoming OVs planned to Rutgers (Sept. 1), Texas (Sept. 10), and Seton Hall (Sept. 28).
Fall and Diop will become the Hoop Hogs’ third and fourth official visitors from the class of 2023, joining Arkansas commit Layden Blocker (6-2 point guard, Little Rock native, Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kan., ESPN national No. 28 / 5-star prospect) who OV’ed on June 6-8 and Arkansas priority target Ron Holland (6-8 combo forward, Duncanville, Texas, ESPN national No. 4 / 5-star prospect) who OV’ed on June 9-11.
Fall released his Final 7 schools list on Friday: Arkansas, Colorado, Auburn, Texas, Seton Hall, Rutgers, and Kansas State. Diop recently named Arkansas among his top 8 college choices, a list that includes Auburn, Ohio State, Arizona State, Colorado, Seton Hall, Kansas State, and BYU.
Roughly two months following their OV to Arkansas, Fall and Diop will be back in the state as high school seniors when their Accelerated Schools team takes part in the Big Show Tip Off Showcase on Saturday, Nov. 19, at the new Fort Smith Northside basketball arena. A field of 10 teams will each play a single game as Accelerated Schools will take on 2021-22 national high school runner-up Link Academy (Mo.) at 8 p.m. CT as the nightcap of five games scheduled for that day.
Fall and Diop excelled competing on the Adidas 3SSB circuit was well as at Pangos All American, NBPA Top 100, and Adidas 3SSB All American camps in the spring and summer of 2022 as Arkansas coaches fanned out across the country to watch them compete. Head Hog Eric Musselman saw both compete multiple times in late July at the Adidas 3SSB Open Championships in Seal Beach, Calif.
Fall — he just competed a week ago in the Under Armour Next Elite 24 all star game in Chicago — made the Pangos All American Camp Top 30 all-star game in early June as well as being named 1 of 10 all star honorees from the NBPA Top 100 camp in early July, two events wrapped around Fall’s consistently superior play on the Adidas 3SSB circuit. During NBPA Top 100 Camp, Fall was the only player to average a double-double in championship tournament bracket play. He was also honored with an invite to the Adidas 3SSB All American Camp.
Long and athletic with a big motor and freakishly quick lift and long strides to rebound and block shots out of his area, Fall is a crafty interior scorer using footwork, quickness, elevation, and length to finish over defenders.
Diop also took part in Pangos, NBPA, and Adidas 3SSB All Americans camps as he consistently put up scoring and rebounding production in those events as well as Adidas 3SSB circuit events throughout the spring and summer. A versatile, face-up talent with perimeter skills, Diop might be one of the most underrated players in the country.
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Buncombe Asheville Property Transfers For Aug. 30-Sept. 9
Buncombe, Asheville Property Transfers For Aug. 30-Sept. 9 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/buncombe-asheville-property-transfers-for-aug-30-sept-9/
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Staff reports | Asheville Citizen Times
Sales filed in Buncombe County for Aug. 30-Sept. 9:
Asheville
171 Houston Circle, $90,000, Paul Holt to Abode Ventures LLC
55 S Market St Unit 311, $480,000, Laura R Olcheski to Terry Allan Cromer
317 Kimberly Ave., $800,000, Pinetree II LLC to Brendan M Ross Trust
185 Macon Ave Unit A6, $577,500, Caryl K Arckey to Sarah Rightmyer Repoley
455 Beaverdam Road, $375,000, Robin M. Mcclellan and W. Frederick Mcclellan to Jesame May Mcclellan
305 Piney Mountain Dr Unit G2, $285,000, Nancy B Seymour Living Trust Nancy B Seymour (trustee) to Howard Leonard Porter
26 Gudger Road, $295,000, Gudger Group LLC to Javier Baez Armenta
18 Cisco Road, $340,000, Sandra D Haynes and Dwight J Crawford to Daniel Delay
25 Indiana Ave., $299,000, Bobby R Stearns and Janice M Stearns to Thomas Martin Benson
16 Stonebridge Drive, $470,000, Norma R Buckingham Trustee to Mark John Godlewski
3206 Idle Hour Drive, $256,500, Hattie F Redmon and Cheryl Redmon Jones to Elizabeth F McCain
4 Pine Spring Drive, $421,000, Corbin Robert Rogers to Sarah N Levell
157 Druid Drive, $185,000, Shirley A Owenby to Thomas Tripp Shaw
615 Appeldoorn Circle, $250,000, Debbie Conklin to Lisa Marie Barrett
16 Dawson Place, $310,000, Christina Robinson Mclamb and Norman Shon Mclamb to Sarre-brook Inc
107 Carlyle Way, $225,000, Breanna Elizabeth Taylor and Grey Daniel Cook to Cynthia Betty Hopkins
3301 Timber Trail, $425,000, Eve P Fisher to Patrick C Earley Revocable Trust
22 Lancelot Lane, $370,000, Brett D Lisenbee and Benjamin E Crump to Madelaine W Heath
1068 Columbine Road, $905,000, Peter Seth Pollay and Martha P Jones to Colm Glynn
20 Arco Road, $450,000, Tyler Christian Coon and Roger Casas Coon to Morgan Kearney
43 Hollybrook Drive, $239,000, Margaret L Holmes to Jordan Chandler
4 Westview Ave., $242,500, Aurcilla P Hines to Charles T Roddy
134 S French Broad Ave., $785,000, Nancy Helm Estabrooks Living Trust Nancy Helm Estabrooks (trustee) to Gregory Boughey
3703 Trinity Court, $328,500, D Jean Stiemke to Janet McNamee
629 New Haw Creek Road, $419,500, Biddix Family Living Trust to Morgan Alden Marshall-clark
224 Leucothoe Lane, $650,000, Laurel C. And John W. Yoder 2020 Living Trust to Frederick C Hartley
153 Waynesville Ave., $150,000, McCourry Construction Inc to Mitesh Raichada
5 Ridgeview Drive, $660,000, Gail Loveland to Joan N Gilliland
142 Rock Hill Road, $425,000, Justin Powers Haughney and Catherine Marie Haughney to Johnnie Michael And Kristal Austin Living Trust
59 Shelburne Woods Drive, $118,000, Joanne Fox to Shelburne Woods Development LLC
114 Cisco Road, $578,000, Cameron Lane to Maria Magali Berilgen
8 Violet Hill Circle, $310,000, Mary Grace Pifer and Alethea Schaffer to Erin M Cotter
64 Malvern Walk, $1,100,000, Nathalie Reinelt and Stephen Todd Nagy to Peter-alexander Cameron-douglas
30 Trafalgar Circle, $400,000, RMAC Trust Series 2016-CTT to Richard S Mather
13 Bauhaus Court, $810,000, Mary Eugenia Lavigne to Craig S Harris
1 Swanger Road, $425,000, Peter Lorenz to Lindsey Hart
48 Carrier St., $450,000, Vanda H Robertson to Mardell Circle LLC
326 Stratford Road, $1,100,000, Carl D Leaven and Sharon N Leaven to Heather Hawkins
3 Pine Tree Road, $1,560,000, Pamela Cameron and Randy Cameron to Greg B Petersen
28 Stony Ridge, $940,000, Joanne Setzer to Duke Alan Johnson
206 Keasler Road, $213,000, Cindy Marie Fullbright to William P Huxley
130 Barnard Ave., $185,000, Victor Siem A Sjoe and Samara Rasmussen to Jonathan Beckhard Leyton
376 Hendersonville Road, $4,200,000, Biltmore Methodist Church Aka Biltmore United Methodist to Sycamore Temple Church Of God In Christ Inc
118 Joyner Ave., $700,000, Sheena E Heaslip and Thomas John Heaslip to Morgan Ashley Walker
0.2 acres on Marne Road, $208,000, Sally Baker to Stephen H Dewing
517 Westwood Place, $171,000, Jerry A McKinney to Michael Dubose
102 Moody Ave., $306,000, Timothy W Coyle and Nicole E Vigilante to Carol D Motley
294 State St., $360,000, Marian T Browning and Jamie A Browning to Onalee Smith
0.14 acres on Patton Ave., $375,000, Carlos E Pineda to Milestone 4 LLC
0.12 acres on Asheland Ave., $4,800,000, 86 Asheland LLC to Warp Technologies Inc
0.1 acres on Patton Ave., $255,000, Mary Kathryn Kelekci to Milestone 4 LLC
62 Grandview Road, $440,000, Virginia Rosenberg and Craig Deutsch to Chance M Muller
647 Town Mountain Rd Unit 408, $185,000, Franco A Bacigalupo and Leslie A Bacigalupo to Yarriv Diskin
1428 Patton Ave., $2,170,000, Rice Family Investments LLC to Roper Holdings LLC
0.46 acres on Asheland Ave., $4,800,000, 86 Asheland LLC to Warp Technologies Inc
44 Haw Creek Circle, $5,000, Arthur D Jarrett and Mary J Jarrett to Mary Jane Jarrett
3 S Oak Forest Drive, $600,000, Richard N Wrenn and Emily K Wrenn to Samuel Julian Walter Bennett
484 Merrimon Ave., $350,000, King Family Legacy Trust and Martin Dow Peterson Family Trust to UNC Asheville Foundation Real Estate LLC
158 Alpine Ridge Drive, $320,000, Michelle C Coffey-Carr to Nathan King Prather
86 Asheland Ave., $4,800,000, 86 Asheland LLC to Warp Technologies Inc
0.35 acres on Hansel Ave., $130,000, Tracy Britt Plemmons to P2427 Holdings LLC
7 Rosewood Ave., $590,000, Jacqueline A Larsen to Ashley Elisabeth MacPhaille
125 Clingman Ave Unit 207, $386,000, MCO Properties LLC to Kathie Lynn Jones
1 Hi Alta Ave., $332,000, Heather M Mann and Aras A Mann to Deborah Alford
12 Dearborn St., $899,000, Juli R Altschul and Sheldon Altschul to Sian Heye
518 Appeldoorn Circle, $220,000, Laura Alonso and Beatriz Alonso to Kathryn Helen Kuecker
14 Alice Clement Lane, $490,000, Scottie G Parks and Lezette Z Parks to Juan Carlos Granados
3 Jaks Ridge Drive, $540,000, Susan D Neff to Spokanovitch Revocable Trust
75 Zillicoa St., $2,500,000, 75 Zillicoa LLC to DRC Investments LLC
100 River Mill Drive, $42,100,000, River Mill Lofts LLC to Cs1031 River Mill Lofts Dst
21 Beaverbrook Road, $875,000, Louise Catherine Haas and Lawrence Hansen Haas to Gregory Schulz
89 Winston Ave., $93,500, Charlotte Jean Beachboard(le) to David Allen Beachboard
163 Old County Home Road, $285,000, Andrew S Ross and Laurel A Ross to Vivian Rodriguez
56 Bellevue Road, $275,000, Sylvia Stevens and Patricia A Stevens to Allen K Gray And M E Gray Living Trust
16 Dianthus Drive, $1,350,000, Matthew Hockman and Shana Hockman to Benjamin Davis
9 Maplewood Road, $475,000, Leigh A Condie Living Trust Leigh A Condie Trustee to Kurt Soster
99 S Skyloft Drive, $14,200,000, Skylofts LLC to Cs1031 Skylofts Dst
584 Fairview Road, $420,000, Luisa Holland and George Holland to 584 Fairview Road LLC
300 River Mill Drive, $42,100,000, River Mill Development LLC to Cs1031 River Mill Lofts Dst
Barnardsville
82 Arrowood Road, $62,000, Molly M Mcnichols Living Trust and LMT Realty LLC to MMM Investment Properties LLC
76 Arrowood Road, $62,000, Molly M Mcnichols Living Trust and LMT Realty LLC to MMM Investment Properties LLC
20.1 acres on Stoney Fork Road, $77,000, Terry William Banks and Christopher Lane Banks to Mandala Springs LLC
0.96 acres on Arrowood Road, $62,000, Molly M McNichols Living Trust and LMT Realty LLC to MMM Investment Properties LLC
88 Arrowood Road, $62,000, Molly M McNichols Living Trust and Lmt Realty LLC to MMM Investment Properties LLC
316 Martins Creek Road, $598,500, John J Johnson and Cynthia S Johnson to Alan Scott Groch
Biltmore Forest
343 Vanderbilt Road, $2,200,000, John F S Gunn and Kendal S Gunn to Lenore Montgomery Trust
9 Bourne Lane, $800,000, Glenn W Wilcox to Derek Weilbaecher
10 Greenwood Road, $2,490,500, Sarah B Stephenson Revocable Living Trust to Amended And Restated John F Boneparth Revocable Trust
Black Mountain
228 Allen Mountain Drive, $1,075,000, Mountain Ventures Incorporated to Michael Darrin Bailey
1 Llama Vista Court, $375,000, Shengwei Kao and Hwey-Nan Maa to Paul West
20 Keats Road, $790,000, Revocable Living Trust Of Jane Ellen Coates and Lynn Hawthorne Revocable Living Trust to Vivian K Dean
103 Disoway St., $550,000, Carrie Ann Myers to Carolina Barros
84 Camp Branch Road, $672,000, Robert David Kaylor to Patricia Crittenden
117 Brookhaven Drive, $525,000, James S Hook and Linda K Hook to Mary Capitola Harper
3 Settings Blvd., $44,500, Timothy W Harrison and Carol M Harrison to Sharon Lyn Scheel
28 Pearl St., $30,000, Sandra H Stafford (heirs) to Aaron Cody
15 Rushing Brook Lane, $385,000, Carol A Redmond to Frank Cappelli
106 Fairway Drive, $415,000, Bruce B Tannett and Sarah Tannett to Allan Graham
26 Wagon Trail, $165,000, Thomas Darrell Spencer and Mary Fran Spencer to Givens Highland Farms Inc
9 Roselyn Way, $449,500, Sophie Remm and Mikhail Remm to Jeffrey Bell
Broad River
902 Morgan Hill Road, $73,000, Lauria V Bell-Hughes and Randal R Hughes to David M Szen
3.61 acres on Living Waters Drive, $73,000, Lauria V Bell-Hughes and Randal R Hughes to David M Szen
39 Full Moon Trail, $399,000, Nancy Kay Brown to James Paul Hosfelt
East Buncombe
22 Wedgewood Terrace, $1,200,000, Jerry W Morris and Margaret P Morris to Terra Luxe 1 LLC
6 E Pond Road, $215,000, Anna Thompson and Charles Thompson to Meredith J Burns
64 Melissa Drive, $526,500, Daniel J Tanner and Ruth E Tanner to Jill Bielawski
Enka-Candler
14 Sagewood Drive, $865,000, Big Hills Construction LLC to Ethan Rice
122 Marathon Lane, $364,000, D R Horton Inc to Audrey Sarah Marks
22 Barclay Road, $570,000, John F Hamilton and Sandra M Hamilton to Sean Michael Bollinger
131 Ridge Road, $535,000, Bradford W Rogers to Michael F Kropf
0.6 acres on Barclay Road, $570,000, John F Hamilton and Sandra M Hamilton to Sean Michael Bollinger
104 Harrop Dun Court, $1,000,000, Katherine Lacy Jones to Claire Watson
12 Kingsmill Court, $969,000, Pet...
U.S., U.K Relations Enter Latest Chapter https://digitalarkansasnews.com/u-s-u-k-relations-enter-latest-chapter/
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive in London late Saturday to attend the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. (AP/Susan Walsh)
LONDON — President Joe Biden arrived in London to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth II at a time of transition in relations between the U.S. and U.K., as a new monarch and prime minister are settling in.
The hawkish approach of Prime Minister Liz Truss to Russia and China puts her on the same page as Biden. But the rise of Truss, 47, who once called the relationship “special but not exclusive,” could mark a decidedly new chapter in the trans-Atlantic partnership on trade and more.
Biden arrived Saturday in London and had been set to meet today with Truss. But the prime minister’s office said Saturday they would skip the weekend hello.
Instead, they will meet Wednesday in New York at the U.N. General Assembly, her office said, though Truss still planned to gather with other world leaders converging on London for the royal funeral. The White House confirmed the U.N. meeting just as the president boarded Air Force One.
Of high concern for Biden officials in the early going of Truss’ premiership is her backing of legislation that would shred parts of the post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland.
Analysts say the move could cause deep strain between the U.K. and the European Union, and undermine peace in Northern Ireland. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the move “would not create a conducive environment” for crafting a long-awaited U.S.-UK trade deal coveted by Truss and her Conservative Party.
“She’s signaled that she’s willing to go to the mattresses on this and that’s going to cause a rift not just between the U.K. and EU, but the U.K. and the U.S.,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a former senior State Department official in the Obama administration. “It’s one that’s going to keep the White House up at night.”
The two close allies now find themselves in a period of political uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic. Like Biden, King Charles III faces questions from the public about whether his age will limit his ability to faithfully carry out the duties of the monarch.
Charles, 73, and Biden, 79, discussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both attended a summit in Glasgow, Scotland. They also met at Buckingham Palace in June 2021 at a reception the queen hosted before a world leaders’ summit in Cornwall.
Truss finds herself, as Biden does, facing questions about whether she has what it takes to lift a country battered by stubborn inflation borne out of the coronavirus pandemic and exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unleashing chaos on the global energy market.
All the while, Britain — and the rest of Europe — is carefully watching to see what the upcoming U.S. midterm elections will bring for the Democratic American president after he vowed upon taking office that “America is back” to being a full partner in the international community after four years of Republican Donald Trump pushing his “America First” worldview.
“It certainly is a time of change and transformation in the U.K.,” said Barbara Perry, presidential studies director at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She added, “We don’t know what will happen in our midterms. We don’t know what will happen in 2024.”
Truss, a former accountant who was first elected to Parliament in 2010, hasn’t had much interaction with Biden. The U.S. president called her earlier this month to congratulate her. Truss, as foreign secretary, accompanied her predecessor, Boris Johnson, on a White House visit last year.
BUMPS ALONG THE WAY
It’s been more than 75 years since Winston Churchill declared there was a “special relationship” between the two nations, a notion that leaders on both sides have repeatedly affirmed. Still, there have been bumps along the way.
Tony Blair was derisively branded by the British tabloids as George W. Bush’s “poodle” for backing the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq. David Cameron and Barack Obama had a “bromance,” but Obama also had his frustrations with the Brits over defense spending and the U.K.’s handling of Libya after the 2011 ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan forged a close alliance in the midst of the Cold War, with the prime minister once telling students that the Republican president’s “really good sense of humor” helped their relationship. But there were difficulties too, such as when Thatcher and members of her Cabinet bristled at the Reagan administration’s initial neutrality in the Falklands War.
The White House wasn’t expecting Truss’s announcement in May, when she was foreign secretary, that the government would move forward with legislation that would rewrite parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The agreement was part of the U.K.’s 2020 Brexit withdrawal from the EU that was designed to avoid a hard north-south border with Ireland that might upset Northern Ireland’s fragile peace.
Now, in the first weeks of Truss’ premiership, Biden administration officials are carefully taking the measure of the new British leader. Analysts say there is some trepidation in the administration that undercutting the Northern Ireland protocol could plunge Europe into trade turmoil at a moment when Biden is working mightily to keep the West unified in confronting Russia over its aggression against Ukraine.
“Brexit could once again become the issue — the issue that can make it difficult for all of Europe to work together at a time when it is critical for Europe to work together,” Bergmann said. “If you’re the Biden administration, this is not the time for the two of your closest partners getting into fights.”
To be certain, there were areas of friction between Biden and Johnson, who had a warm rapport with former President Donald Trump.
Biden staunchly opposed Brexit as a candidate and had expressed great concern over the future of Northern Ireland. Biden once even derided Johnson as a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump.
Johnson worked hard to overcome that impression, stressing his common ground with Biden on climate change, support for international institutions and most notably by making certain Britain was an early and generous member of the U.S.-led alliance providing economic and military assistance to Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
The former prime minister also unsuccessfully pressed Biden starting days into his administration to begin negotiations on a new U.S.-U.K. trade deal just as the U.K. regained control over its national trade policy weeks before Biden took office and following the end of a post-Brexit transition period.
But Biden largely kept focus on his domestic to-do list in the early going of his presidency– passing trillions in spending on coronavirus relief, infrastructure and more — and put negotiations on trade deals on the back burner.
Elliot Abrams, chairman of the conservative foreign policy group Vandenberg Coalition, said Truss needs Biden to make a new U.S.-U.K. trade deal a priority. Queen Elizabeth’s funeral won’t be the setting for tough bilateral conversations, but it still marks a moment for the two leaders to begin taking stock of each other.
Truss, who succeeded Johnson after he was forced to resign in the face of a string of scandals, has lagged in the opinion polls. She also won her election with a smaller margin than her recent predecessors and is looking for an early win.
“I think if I were [Truss], I want recognition of the leading role Britain’s played, far more than any other country outside the United States in supporting Ukraine,” said Abrams, who served in senior national security and foreign policy roles in the Trump, George W. Bush and Reagan administrations. “And I think I’d want some positive economic message to give the British people, which could be that the free trade agreement negotiations are starting.”
FILE – U.S. President Barack Obama sits next to British Prime Minister David Cameron before the first working session of the North Atlantic Council at the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, July 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
This combination of photos shows U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Aug. 24, 2022, in Washington, left, and Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss at Westminster Hall, in the Palace of Westminster, in London on Sept. 12, 2022. The prime minister’s office said Biden and Truss will meet on Sunday, Sept. 18, at 10 Downing Street, one of several meetings that the new prime minister plans to hold with world leaders converging on London for Monday’s royal funeral. (AP Photo)
FILE – U.S. President Ronald Reagan, right, and Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, laugh together during a break from a session at the Ottawa Summit in this file photo dated July 21, 1981, at Government House in Ottawa, Canada. Thatcher and Reagan forged a close alliance in the midst of the Cold War, with the prime minister once telling students that the Republican president’s “really good sense of humor” helped their relationship. (AP Photo/File)
FILE – U.S. President George W. Bush, right, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair laugh together during the meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council at the NATO summit in Istanbul, Turkey, June 29, 2004. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
President Joe Biden waves as he stands at the top of the steps of Air Force One before boarding with first lady Jill Biden at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, as they head to London to attend the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. To commemorate the U.S. Air Force’s 75th Anniversary as a service the Bidens are wearing Air Force One jackets. (AP Photo/Susan W...
Prosecution Vs. Politics: Can AG Garland Pursue Trump Probes Without Influencing The Midterms?
Prosecution Vs. Politics: Can AG Garland Pursue Trump Probes Without Influencing The Midterms? https://digitalarkansasnews.com/prosecution-vs-politics-can-ag-garland-pursue-trump-probes-without-influencing-the-midterms/
Trump aides recently received a flurry of subpoeanas and prosecutors call the Mar-a-Lago document probe urgent, but DOJ wants to avoid appearance of political prosecution.
Garland said he would follow facts and law, but politics loom with midterms.
DOJ has tradition of not indicting political cases within 60 days of election, but not a firm rule.
Trump warns of “big problems” across the country if he is indicted.
WASHINGTON – As campaigns for the 2022 midterms and the investigations of Donald Trump each heat up, legal and political experts say Attorney General Merrick Garland must walk a tightrope between the two.
How does he oversee the inquiries without appearing to influence the elections?
Federal prosecutors traditionally try to avoid public disclosure of investigative steps in a political case within 60 days before an election. But a government watchdog debunked the policy in 2018, saying there is no Justice Department rule or regulation to delay investigations, just an informal practice.
Trump isn’t a candidate – yet. But he holds great influence over his supporters and his endorsements are coveted. He’s denied wrongdoing and said Thursday there would be unspecified “big problems” if he were indicted.
Garland has said repeatedly he would pursue the investigations wherever the facts and law lead. He’s also cautioned staffers against appearing to interfere with politics.
President Joe Biden has mostly avoided commenting on the Trump probes. But when Biden said last October that witnesses should be prosecuted for defying subpoenas from a House committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley pushed back.
The department would “make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law,” he said. “Period. Full stop.”
Federal investigations appeared to gather steam in recent weeks. A flurry of subpoenas from a D.C. grand jury into issues such as fake electors in the 2020 election and Trump’s fundraising after his loss. Prosecutors called the inquiry into documents seized at Mar-a-Lago urgent because dozens of records were marked classified.
But a federal judge paused the department’s criminal investigation while a special master reviews the records. Legal experts say any potential indictment of Trump or top aides is unlikely before the Nov. 8 election because grand juries are gathering evidence and witness testimony. Of course, if Trump declares himself a candidate for president in 2024 in the next eight weeks, that complicates the political calculations.
“They’re walking a fine line here between the midterms and the declaration of presidential candidates for 2024,” Claire Finkelstein, a law and philosophy professor at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, told USA TODAY. “I think that’s very, very tricky.”
‘Unwritten’ DOJ policy avoids political indictments 60 days before elections
The risk that an investigation could influence an election was illustrated in 2016. Then-FBI Director James Comey announced days before the election that he was reopening an investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails. She then lost to Trump.
Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general at the time, reported on a tradition of an “unwritten 60-day rule” for delaying overt investigative steps close to an election. But he found the practice was “not written or described in any Department policy or regulation.”
Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Horowitz’s team the general practice was not to take actions that might have an impact on an election, even if it wasn’t an election case. Matt Axelrod, a former principal associate deputy attorney general, said there wasn’t a 60- or 90-day rule, but “the closer you get to the election, the more fraught it is.”
The Justice Department has prosecuted Trump aides straddling that time frame. Political strategist Steve Bannon was convicted in July of contempt for defying a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee for documents and testimony. Peter Navarro, a former Trump trade adviser, faces trial on similar charges Nov. 16.
Kevin O’Brien, a former assistant U.S. attorney now at Ford O’Brien Landy LLP, told USA TODAY the Justice Department shouldn’t handicap its investigation with a non-binding tradition. Even if Trump were indicted in January 2023, sharing evidence and debating issues could easily delay a trial until November 2024,” O’Brien said.
“That would be disastrous for the country, if only because Trump would be free to run for president again,” O’Brien said. “The time left on the clock is beginning to cast a shadow on the Trump investigations.”
Garland: ‘No person is above the law’
Garland, a former federal appeals court judge, has said repeatedly he would follow investigations wherever the facts and the law lead. He has also taken steps to avoid the perception of political interference in investigations.
More than a year ago, Garland restricted contacts between the White House and the Justice Department. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to investigate whether the Trump White House meddled with the department, after revelations in a new book from a former federal prosecutor, Geoffrey Berman.
Garland issued new restrictions last month against department appointees attending partisan political events even in their personal capacities. Garland said that “under the new policy, non-career appointees may not participate in any partisan political event in any capacity.”
The attorney general’s efforts to keep his agency apolitical come as FBI agents seized 11,000 documents during a search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, including 54 marked “secret” and 18 “top secret.”
Garland, who personally approved the search, said the department never announced the operation – Trump did – and didn’t make the decision lightly. The search came after Trump surrendered 15 boxes of documents including classified records in January and federal authorities retrieved more classified documents under subpoena on June 3.
“Much of our work is by necessity conducted out of the public eye,” Garland said of the inquiry on Aug. 11. “We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations.”
Democratic lawmakers and some legal experts questioned the pace of the investigations more than a year and a half after Trump left office. But Garland has said repeatedly he would pursue investigations regardless of the target.
“No person is above the law in this country,” Garland told reporters July 20. “I can’t say it any more clearly than that. There is nothing in the principles of prosecution and any other factors which prevent us from investigating anyone – anyone – who is criminally responsible for an attempt to undo a democratic election.”
Legal expert: Investigations on ‘full boil’
For lack of Justice Department announcements, indirect clues suggest investigations are heating up on multiple fronts.
Dozens of subpoenas went out to Trump aides recently in the probes of fake electors and Trump fundraising after the 2020 election.
But the department didn’t announce the subpoenas or comment on them.
“This has bubbled along at a very low level and suddenly we’re on full boil,” said Finkelstein, the law professor. “I don’t think there will be any less investigations.”
Prosecutors have argued the investigation of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago is urgent because classified records were involved. But U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the Justice Department on Sept. 5 to temporarily halt its review of the documents as part of the criminal probe while a special master reviews the records for personal papers or those falling under attorney-client privilege.
The department appealed her pause in the probe, aiming to revive investigative access to about 100 classified documents, but accepted the special master. If the appeals court doesn’t lift the pause while the case is argued, the litigation could take months or longer to be resolved.
“It throws a pretty serious monkey wrench into the investigation and quite an illegitimate one,” Finkelstein said.
Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, called Garland “a bit like a chef preparing a dish no one will find unpalatable.”
“His acceptance of the special master candidate put forth by Trump’s lawyers is one example of the delicate seasoning game he is using,” Baker told USA TODAY. “Evenhandedness is the most prominent seasoning on Garland’s spice rack.”
Trump warns of ‘big problems’ for country if indicted
Trump remains popular among his political base among the Republican Party. Eight of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him have either retired or lost primary elections.
But it’s not clear whether that will translate into general election victories with Senate GOP nominees he’s endorsed: Blake Masters in Arizona, Herschel Walker in Georgia, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and J.D. Vance in Ohio.
The Senate: Control of the Senate is now a coin flip: These are the 7 midterm election races to watch
Trump blasted the investigations repeatedly as hoaxes, witch hunts and partisan scams. Trump told Hugh Hewitt on his radio show Thursday he had verbally declassified all the sensitive documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
“I did absolutely nothing wrong,” said Trump who added he would only be indicted “if they are just sick and deranged, which is always possible … They’ve weaponized the Department of Justice and FBI.”
But national security experts have said declassification doesn’t work that way because agencies dealing with the secret information must be notified to...
Royal Bling To Handmade: 70 Years Of Iconic Gifts US Presidents Exchanged With The Queen
Royal Bling To Handmade: 70 Years Of Iconic Gifts US Presidents Exchanged With The Queen https://digitalarkansasnews.com/royal-bling-to-handmade-70-years-of-iconic-gifts-us-presidents-exchanged-with-the-queen/
WASHINGTON – At a Buckingham Palace luncheon during George H. W. Bush’s first trip to Europe as president in 1989, he dined on duck with honey and brandy sauce and sipped the queen’s private port, Royal Vintage 1955.
On display in the ivory and gold Music Room overlooking the 45-acre palace garden were gifts received by Queen Elizabeth II, including a small silver bowl with three little feet.
The president asked what it was, his wife, Barbara Bush, later recounted in her diary.
“The Queen answered `I don’t know. You gave it to ME,’” Barbara Bush wrote.
During her more than 70-year reign, Elizabeth received several hundred gifts from the American people, according to Sally Goodsir, a curator with the Royal Collection Trust.
“The exchange is a gesture of goodwill, and the gifts are representative of traditional skills or of cultural significance,” Goodsir wrote in an article for the journal of the White House Historical Association.
The Tiffany silver box President Joe Biden gave the queen last year is engraved with both an image of Windsor Castle and floral emblems representing Washington, D.C., as well as the home states of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The queen’s many gifts to U.S. presidents – which they accept on behalf of the nation but can sometimes keep for themselves if not very valuable – included a silver engraved box for Ronald Reagan’s 31st wedding anniversary, a silver compact makeup case for President Gerald Ford’s daughter, Susan, and a coffee table for President Dwight D. Eisenhower engraved with a map of Allied positions on D-Day.
The gifts exchanged between the royal family and the White House are carefully considered, according to Kate Andersen Brower, author of “The Residence” and “First Women.” Gifts for the queen were picked by first ladies in close partnership with the State Department so that protocol is strictly followed, she said.
Still, Brower added, “they can have fun with it too.”
“Ranging from iPods to brooches, American presidents have found creative gifts for the person who literally has everything,” she said.
Here’s a look at some of the notable exchanges.
‘Used beans’ and ‘The Talking Hat’: Queen Elizabeth’s visits with presidents didn’t always go as planned
First gifts
An overmantle glass was among the first gifts from the future monarch, presented to President Harry S. Truman during her first visit to the United States as Princess Elizabeth in 1951 when the White House was being renovated. The piece consisted of an English candelabra and a three-part mirror with an oil painting of flowers set in a carved gilt frame. First installed above the fireplace in the State Dining Room, it was later moved to the queen’s Bedroom on the second floor of the White House.
Two years later, to commemorate her coronation, the queen gave Eisenhower a gold trimmed, bone china vase with the crests of the countries remaining in the British Commonwealth. Identical vases were made for each of the Commonwealth countries with an extra for the former colony and close ally America.
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‘Valued heirloom’
The first state dinner for Elizabeth was hosted by Eisenhower, during her 1957 trip to the United States for the 350th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.
Eisenhower and the queen already had a bond because, as a general and Supreme Allied Commander, he’d led the American forces in Britain during World War II, notes Anita McBride, a board member of the White House Historical Association.
“So much of her strength and resilience was formed in that period as a young princess,” said McBride, former chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush. “That was an interesting connection there for that American president and the young queen.”
Her gift to Eisenhower reflected that connection. The wooden coffee table is topped with a map tracing the paths used by the ships before the D-Day invasion.
“I shall deeply treasure the map table that you gave me,” Eisenhower later wrote to the queen. “It is a piece that will be a valued heirloom of the Eisenhower family for many generations to come.”
Made by hand
Before the queen’s 1957 visit, Eisenhower – an amateur artist – painted portraits of her then-two children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. He offered both to Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.
“Naturally, they selected the one of the prince,” Howard Young, a close friend of Eisenhower’s wrote in a 1969 letter to the director of Eisenhower’s presidential library. (Eisenhower had previously given the painting of Princess Anne to Young and he was turning it over to the library.)
Notably, the prince – now King Charles – became a painter himself.
Another budding artist, Susan Ford, put her photography skills to work during the royal visit in 1976. Ford gave Elizabeth and Princess Anne photos she had taken – a mountain scene for the queen and a snow scene for the princess. She received from the queen a makeup compact imprinted with the queen’s cipher, “EIIR.”
In Britain: Mourners wait more than 9 hours to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II
Royal bling
Elizabeth, who knows a thing or two about bling, gave an eye-catching, custom made brooch to First Lady Betty Ford during her visit to the United States for the nation’s bicentennial. A star burst of gold applied with five scattered diamonds and five Marquee diamonds radiates out from the center, which features the queen’s cipher.
Ford’s son Jack received gold cufflinks showing the crown along with her cipher.
Brooches were given in both directions during President Barack Obama’s 2011 visit to England. The Obamas gave the queen a vintage American-made brooch from 1950 featuring 14-karat yellow gold, diamonds and moss agate, which she pinned to her sequined evening gown.
First Lady Michelle Obama received a two-inch brooch with gold leaves and coral flowers in a red leather jewel box. That box was placed inside a larger box with the queen’s emblem that also included fine chocolates and tea. (Alas, the Secret Service doesn’t allow first families to sample any gifted food.)
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Camilla’s new title, explained: What’s the difference between queen and ‘Queen Consort’?
A gift for a ‘magic evening’
During a 1983 visit to the West Coast, Elizabeth hosted the Reagans on the royal yacht Britannia for their 31st wedding anniversary.
“It was a magic evening,” Reagan wrote in his diary.
The silver engraved box the queen gave the Reagans to commemorate the occasion sits on display in the private offices of the Reagan Library.
During the dinner toasts on the yacht, Reagan had joked: “I know I promised Nancy a lot when we were married, but how can I ever top this?”
The money behind the crown: What happens to Queen Elizabeth II’s personal assets?
Pickles the puppy
The most commonly exchanged gifts between the leaders may have been photographs, including those given to top aides. Multiple White House officials received a framed and signed photograph of the queen during President Donald Trump’s 2019 visit as had Obama aides during his administration.
For his 1961 visit to Buckingham Palace, President John F. Kennedy inscribed a photo of himself, presented in a silver frame by Tiffany that included the presidential seal.
The queen added a special touch for a photo she gave to Barbara Bush in 1989 – but the first lady almost spoiled the surprise.
Elizabeth had recently visited a Kentucky farm whose occupants included one of the puppies from Bush’s beloved dog Millie. Exchanging pleasantries with the royal family when the Bushes arrived at Buckingham Palace for their luncheon, Barbara Bush asked the queen if she had seen the puppy while at the farm.
“She said rather coolly that we’d talk about that later,” Bush recounted in her diary, “and I thought, ‘Oh my, you are not supposed to ask the Queen a direct question or something’.”
But during the luncheon, Elizabeth presented Bush with a signed photo of herself with “Pickles.”
“I was so thrilled that I almost cried,” Bush wrote. “There was our sweet little puppy. She looked so big. Nothing could have made me happier.”
‘Uniquely modern’
The gifts do not always go over as planned, at least not with the media. Some British commentators sniffed at the Obama’s choice of an iPod for the queen during a 2009 visit. American comics also took a shot.
“He gave her an iPod as a gift, which is perfect,’ said comedian Jimmy Kimmel. “Now she can listen to Lil Wayne on the treadmill without anyone bothering her.”
Rather than rap music, the iPod was actually loaded with footage of the queen’s 2007 visit to the U.S., an audio of Obama’s inauguration address, as well as numerous Broadway show tunes to accompany a rare Rodgers and Hart songbook. Elizabeth collected books and was found of musicals.
“I can imagine the queen must have appreciated the iPod because it was a uniquely modern unpretentious present,” Brower said.
Baseball bats and a mink coat
Presidents weren’t the only ones giving gifts to the queen.
During her 1957 trip to the United States, she was given a mink coat by a group of American fur farmers. The queen was wearing the fur when she walked onto the football field during a match between the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina, according to Sally Bedell Smith’s biography of the monarch.
In addition to being curious about American football, the queen also wanted to “see how American housewives shop for food,” after spotting a Giant supermarket on the way to the game, Smith wrote. She w...
Other Days https://digitalarkansasnews.com/other-days/
100 years ago
Sept. 18, 1922
TEXARKANA — C. C. Garner, a farmer living a few miles from the city on the Texas side, was held for the federal Grand Jury on a charge of violating the prohibition laws, following a hearing before United States Commissioner Graham yesterday…. He was alleged to have been found with a quantity of corn whiskey and mash in his possession. Garner also has been arrested on a similar charge on a warrant issued out of a justice court.
50 years ago
Sept. 18, 1972
• Five German Shepherds broke out of a pen enclosed in a six-foot high fence about 5:45 p.m. Sunday and attacked David Williams, 7 … the Pulaski County sheriff’s department said. Williams, the son of Mrs. Claudette Williams, received lacerations on his legs and arms and may have a broken arm…The dogs broke out of their pen after a pin came out of one of the gate hinges, deputies said. Williams and another boy were playing in the yard of T. J. Barnhart … when the dogs attacked Williams. The other boy went inside Barnhart’s house and told him about the attack. Barnhart said he went to the backyard and one dog was pulling one of William’s legs and another one was pulling on the arm. Barnhart said he threw stones at the dogs and fired a shot to make them leave Williams alone.
25 years ago
Sept. 18, 1997
• A former state parole officer is guilty of three counts of extortion and one count of attempted extortion, a federal jury decided Wednesday afternoon. Steven Andre Anthony, 29, of Little Rock was acquitted of three other charges of extortion. Each charge carried a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Anthony was arrested in November 1996 as part of a roundup called Operation Old Folks, during which some of the parolees he was supervising were arrested as part of a crack cocaine ring in the Little Rock area. “This man right here,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Harris said, pointing to Anthony, “acting as a parole officer, extorted money from Byron Leavy. He was supposed to be the good guy.” Harris described the extortion as a perfect scheme because the victims were criminals unlikely to be believed.
10 years ago
Sept. 18, 2012
• Garland County firefighters found 28 cats dead inside a house after a Monday morning fire, according to a Garland County sheriff’s office news release…The report said Danny Bugg, director of the Hot Springs Animal Services Division, received two complaints since 2010 about animals being abandoned at the house. A part of the house was cleaned after the first complaint in spring 2010…In addition to the 28 dead cats, firefighters responding to the house fire found 11 surviving cats. Animal services collected the dead cats and took the 11 cats to a veterinarian for treatment. Martin said in the news release that charges of cruelty to animals or animal neglect were being considered.
Read More…
Mulson Ward Competing For Sebastian County District 11 JP Position
Mulson, Ward Competing For Sebastian County District 11 JP Position https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mulson-ward-competing-for-sebastian-county-district-11-jp-position/
FORT SMITH — Zach Mulson, a Libertarian, and Jerry Ward, a Democrat, are running to serve as the new justice of the peace for the Sebastian County Quorum Court’s District 11.
One will replace Linda Murry on the Quorum Court in the Nov. 8 general election. Murry, a Democrat, filed to run Feb. 22 ahead of the May 24 primary election, but withdrew as a candidate March 7 for health reasons and to endorse Ward.
District 11 includes a majority of downtown Fort Smith along Garrison, Rogers, Towson and Wheeler avenues, along with other properties close to these major streets, according to a map provided by the county.
Mulson is a reload supervisor at United Parcel Service in Fort Smith. Mulson believes the policies he would like to pursue if elected, as well as his transparency about them, make him the better candidate.
Mulson said one of his major policies would be to ensure the budget documents included in the packets for Quorum Court meetings use visual tools like pie charts and bar graphs to make it easier for taxpayers to understand where county money is going. He would work to make the packets themselves easier to read and understand as well.
Mulson said he would address criminal justice reform by working to improve and maintain the current county jail, as well as reduce its incarceration rate, rather than build a new one. The jail has had crowding issues for years. Mulson is also in favor of giving county Sheriff’s Office deputies higher salaries over adding more deputies, arguing this would draw better candidates to these positions and, by extension, enable better policing in the county.
Mulson said his other priorities include using American Rescue Plan money to pay for programs to keep people out of jail, increasing public participation in local elections, preventing special interests from influencing county legislation and supporting constitutional sanctuary amendments.
Ward retired in 2017 after about 45 years of working in marketing and real estate.
Ward said his experience in the corporate world has educated him in areas touching on certain points he believes a justice of the peace needs to have. These include strategic and operational planning, financial planning and analysis, research, project and people management and negotiation.
Ward said if elected, he would prioritize the Quorum Court working with local school boards to be an advocate for excellence in education. He argued strong education is necessary to make Sebastian County attractive to potential companies looking to move, which would spur on economic development.
Ward said he would also like to see the Quorum Court work with state and city governments to reduce sales taxes on groceries, including the county’s. His reasoning is such a tax affects residents with lower income significantly more than those with higher income and reducing it would allow them to spend more money on groceries.
In addition, Ward said he would advocate Sebastian County getting more attention from the state in terms of money and infrastructure and work to make voting in elections more accessible for residents as a justice of the peace, among other things.
Early voting for the general election starts Oct. 24.
Sebastian County justice of the peace positions are two-year terms with an annual salary of $6,813, according to the county.
Zach Mulson
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Strong Earthquake Hits Southern Taiwan Building Collapses
Strong Earthquake Hits Southern Taiwan, Building Collapses https://digitalarkansasnews.com/strong-earthquake-hits-southern-taiwan-building-collapses/
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Train carriages derailed, two people trapped in building
Tsunami warnings cancelled, chip foundries unaffected
Quake follows 6.4 magnitude tremor on Saturday
TAIPEI, Sept 18 (Reuters) – A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the sparsely populated southeastern part of Taiwan on Sunday, the island’s weather bureau said, derailing train carriages and causing a convenience store to collapse.
The weather bureau said the epicentre was in Taitung county, and followed a 6.4 magnitude temblor on Saturday evening in the same area, which caused no casualties. read more
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude 7.2 and at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).
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The county government in Hualien, which sits next to Taitung, said two people were trapped in a building housing a convenience store that collapsed in Yuli, while rescue efforts were underway for three people who fell off a damaged bridge.
The Taiwan Railways Administration said three carriages came off the rails at Dongli station in eastern Taiwan after part of the platform canopy collapsed, and the roughly 20 passengers aboard had been evacuated and were uninjured.
The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for Taiwan after the tremor but later rescinded the alert. Japan’s weather agency also lifted an earlier tsunami warning for part of Okinawa prefecture.
The quake could be felt across Taiwan, the weather bureau said. Buildings shook briefly in the capital Taipei.
Science parks in the southern cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung, home to major semiconductor factories, said there was no impact on operations.
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes.
More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, while a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.
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Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Martin Quin Pollard, Sam Nussey and Anirudh Saligrama; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Christian Schmollinger
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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How Will S.H.I.E.L.D. Be Rebuilt After Secret Invasion?
How Will S.H.I.E.L.D. Be Rebuilt After Secret Invasion? https://digitalarkansasnews.com/how-will-s-h-i-e-l-d-be-rebuilt-after-secret-invasion/
Will S.H.I.E.L.D. be rebuilt after Secret Invasion
S.H.I.E.L.D. has been an extremely important organization in the history of Marvel comics. At the same time, it has also played a role in the MCU. Right from the first Iron Man movies, we saw Nick Fury approach Tony Stark in the post-credits scene. Eventually, we saw SHIELD play an important role in the final culmination of the Avengers movie. We have seen the might of S.H.I.E.L.D. with their helicarriers and quinjets. Then there are the extensive weapon systems created using the Tesseract in the organization’s underground bunker. Fans have been equally invested in this organization. They have rallied behind Maria Hill, Agent Phil Coulson and obviously the Boss himself Nick Fury. However, S.H.I.E.L.D. too has run into multiple obstacles. So what will happen to S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Secret Invasion Disney+ series?
The collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Captain America and Black Widow dismantle SHIELD
With Captain America: Winter Soldier, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s integrity came into question. We found out that it had been infiltrated by HYDRA. Even Nick Fury could not stop it. In fact, he too was in the dark about it for quite some time till his assassination was attempted by Winter Soldier. Eventually, he found out that his friend and World Security Council Secretary, Alexander Pierce was the leader of HYDRA. During the process of the movie, we follow Steve Rogers as he finds out to what extent HYDRA has taken over S.H.I.E.L.D. By the end of Winter Soldier, S.H.I.E.L.D. had pretty much collapsed. And Captain America destroying Arnim Zola’s technology released the information of hundreds of Agents including Black Widow and her controversial past. Steve Rogers insisted that the organization be disbanded especially after realizing how dangerous Project INSIGHT was and how it could rain fire on the world.
Alexander Pierce
However, the organization was kept alive by a few of its select Agents. SHIELD was somewhat restored as a government-sanctioned organization in Season 4 of the Agents of SHIELD TV series. But the question of whether this show is a part of the MCU timeline and canon or not is still unanswered.
Secret Invasion
Secret Invasion
This is an event where the shapeshifting Skrulls essentially planned to overtake Earth by infiltrating it. They would carry this out by slowly replacing superheroes and other members of society with their own people who could shapeshift. Nick Fury and Talos will have to stop this from happening in the upcoming Disney+ Series. We have seen a sneak peek of such an infiltration during Captain Marvel. This was when Fury and Carol Danvers had to weed out the impostor using clever and subtle hints. With the release of the trailer for Secret Invasion, fans have realized that S.H.I.E.L.D. might just come to the forefront once again.
Will S.H.I.E.L.D. return to its former glory?
Nick Fury will restore SHIELD
The trailer for Secret Invasion takes us back to SHIELD with what will most likely be a well-paced spy thriller. After returning back to Earth, it seems like Nick Fury is recruiting his own set of Agents and rebuilding SHIELD once again. This includes him meeting Maria Hill and Everett K. Ross, whom you might remember from Black Panther. He works from the shadows and makes his plans while wearing street clothes to blend in. His meeting grounds have become inconspicuous bars. What this denotes is a shift in the genre. Instead of large CGI-filled battles against otherworldly threats, Secret Invasion offers us skilled spycraft and a heightened sense of paranoia. In this way, Nick Fury could resume his journey as the Director of SHIELD. He can take control and restore the organization to its previous glory.
Everett K. Ross returns for Secret Invasion
In the meanwhile, it does seem like SHIELD is working in some capacity under the US Government. In Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we see Sharon Carter being offered a job in her old department. And we know that before being branded as an enemy of the state, she worked for SHIELD. She is returned her title of Agent Carter and is even welcomed “home” which can only mean one thing. SHIELD still exists. But it is in dire need of some leadership as Sharon Carter as Madripoor’s Power Broker surely has something up her sleeve.
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The End Of The Debate? Republicans Draw The Curtain On Political Theater
The End Of The Debate? Republicans Draw The Curtain On Political Theater https://digitalarkansasnews.com/the-end-of-the-debate-republicans-draw-the-curtain-on-political-theater/
The vast collections of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington contain two brown wooden chairs. Their backs have labels explaining that they were used by John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon in “the first face-to-face discussion between presidential candidates” at the CBS television studio in Chicago in 1960.
In short, the first televised presidential debate. And where America led, the rest of the world followed, copying the model of gladiatorial political combat as the ultimate format to help voters make up their minds.
But heading into the US midterm elections, the debate appears to be in decline, a casualty of fragmented digital media, a deeply polarised political culture and a democracy losing its sense of cohesion.
For many Republicans, ducking debates is a way to express disdain for a national media that former president Donald Trump has derided as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people”. Some Democrats have a different motive, refusing to share a platform with Republican election deniers peddling baseless conspiracy theories.
In Arizona, for example, Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Katie Hobbs has declined a debate with Republican Kari Lake, a telegenic Trump supporter who has pushed his “big lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
But Republicans are the main objectors. In Nebraska, gubernatorial candidate Jim Pillen has refused to debate Democrat Carol Blood. Pillen’s campaign manager, Kenny Zoeller, told the Nebraska Examiner that “he doesn’t do political theater”.
In the Pennsylvania’s governor’s race, Republican extremist Doug Mastriano has rejected a televised debate with an independent moderator. Instead he has reserved a hotel ballroom on 22 October and selected a partisan to referee: Mercedes Schlapp, who was strategic communications director in the Trump White House. Democratic rival Josh Shapiro has little incentive to accept.
In North Carolina, Ted Budd, who sat out four Republican primary debates in his Senate race, has said he will not accept an invitation from the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters to debate Democrat Cheri Beasley. Budd said he had accepted a cable debate invitation, but there is no agreement with Beasley about that appearance.
It is a sorry state of affairs for a time-honored tradition that America exported around the world. Even Britain, after decades of resistance, followed suit in 2010 with three leaders’ debates between prime minister Gordon Brown, Conservative David Cameron and Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg.
“Believe it or not, I watched all four of the Kennedy-Nixon debates and you could hear a pin drop anywhere you went,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “Everybody was watching. In fact, over 70m watched and the number of votes that year? 70m.
“But in the era of 400 channels, when polarization is so intense that the vast majority of voters already know for whom they’re voting, it doesn’t matter what happens in a debate or if there is a debate. The costs of not debating are very small. ”
The format is not quite dead yet.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman has agreed to one contest with Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, while in Georgia, Democrat incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker (who dodged primary debates) appear to be inching closer to a deal.
In Michigan, after prolonged wrangling, Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer and Republican nominee Tudor Dixon finally agreed to a single debate next month.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is set to debate Democratic challenger Charlie Crist but only once and only on a West Palm Beach TV station. In Texas, Republican governor Greg Abbott has granted a single debate to Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke – but it will be on a Friday night and competing for eyeballs with the high school American football season.
In each case, the enthusiasm to debate is underwhelming: candidates appear to be looking for an excuse not to do it in a divided America where the sliver of undecided voters offers diminishing returns.
They turn instead towards partisan echo chambers aimed at motivating turnout from their own bases. Republicans, in the particular, have been snubbing the mainstream media in favour of fringe rightwing outlets during the campaign so far. It is one more blow to the idea of communal experience, shared reality and the glue that holds democracy together.
Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said: “It’s dangerous because these televised debates at all levels have been one of the few good things about democracy in the modern era. People had to stand up there and defend themselves and say what they believed and let the voters take a good look at them.”
But Kamarck, who worked in the Clinton White House, remains optimistic that the shift is not permanent. “It is driven by a group of Republican candidates who are very inexperienced and ideological and know that they can’t do well in a debate because there’s so many things that they are for that are either unpopular or indefensible in terms of policy.
“What you see here is a Republican party that’s gone off the rails led by Donald Trump. It is this year’s crop of candidates who are not very serious people and can’t debate but I do think debates will return when the Republican party starts nominating normally qualified people to run.”
The acid test will come in 2024. From Ronald Reagan’s “There you go again” tease of Jimmy Carter, to George H W Bush’s ill-judged glance at his watch, to Trump’s apparent threat to jail Hillary Clinton, presidential debates have provided marquee moments even though, in truth, they may not have changed many minds.
There was an ominous sign earlier this year when the Republican National Committee, which has proved a cheerleader for Trump, voted unanimously to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates, which was founded in 1987 to codify debates as a permanent part of presidential elections.
Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan, who attended presidential debates over the past two cycles, said: “One of the great things about a debate is seeing a candidate have to deal with a question maybe that they didn’t think of or they didn’t plan for and, under pressure, how they address that.
“When we’re looking for candidates for these really important positions we want to see – how they answer the 3am phone call or deal with something unexpected. It’s pretty good on the job training and rehearsal for the actual job over an hour and a half. We have all these different ways in which to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of candidates and it’s just another one that is going by the wayside.”
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Our Work Ethic https://digitalarkansasnews.com/our-work-ethic/
I never knew during the summer of my 15th year whether the crawlspace I was about to enter to attach ventilation ducts would contain more centipedes or spiders.
But like it or not, the $1.75 an hour that Lee Daniel at his sheet metal and guttering business in Harrison was paying me for 40 hours of my labor weekly made it worthwhile. And I felt fortunate to earn it.
Certainly nothing in 1963 for adults to survive on. But more than enough to keep a teenager with a summer job satisfied with burgers, drive-in movies, pinball machines and those cherry phosphates at Kirby Drug Store.
Daniel’s company and the drugstore are gone now. What remains are my memories of how that job helped affirm a work ethic in me that has endured across the decades.
A career military father also played a fundamental role in explaining how we live in a nation where people are free to choose their jobs and the lives they want. But it was never acceptable to become lazy or a shirker.
Short of a handicap or dysfunction, one was expected to make their own way through skills they developed, thereby contributing to the good of our free society and their own vital sense of self-worth and respect.
Simply put, I was expected to become self-sufficient and establish realistic goals toward that end, whether it be education through a trade school, college or perhaps establishing my own business one day. Making a living to support myself and a family was a necessity.
So for that summer I took a flashlight and crawled into the dark and dankness beneath houses and climbed high ladders to hang gutters on homes in and around Harrison.
Little did I know that in six more years I’d spend another summer pacing back and forth as a parts inspector inside the stifling and sweaty Timex watch factory in Little Rock. There I regularly expressed empathy for the women on the boring and repetitive metal-punching machines who in careless moments sometimes removed parts of their fingers.
Yet here we were, day after day, brown lunch bags in hand, earning our hourly wages as part of America’s critical labor force.
So, did any of you look around as Labor Day came and went at all the factories, manufacturers and businesses of all forms desperate for someone (at this point, perhaps anyone breathing who will show up to work), even for jobs often paying as much as $15 an hour?
What the heck happened to us since I was 15? Of course, we’ve had the covid pandemic and all the resulting government assistance, but the ethic with what was such a vital part of our nation’s success clearly has changed.
Where and when did we make such a radical turn from an upward-bound, hardworking society with an ingrained work ethic to this?
There seems to be a feeling across America (you must sense it, too) that we have willingly exchanged the enormous benefits that self-sufficiency brings for the expectation that others are somehow now responsible for our financial well-being.
Societies worldwide show all too well that only works out well for those at the top.
I have a single, admittedly limited, view. Yet I can tell you with certainty the prevailing thought about labor in America as a teenager 55 years ago is a far cry from what we’ve allowed ourselves to embrace in 2022.
Not that long ago it was unheard of for Americans to shun $15-an-hour jobs … to do what with their idling lives? All the while they’re building nothing of value for themselves or, equally critical, our nation’s future.
Apparently we are not alone. The scourge of sloth is reported to be pretty much worldwide today.
We all can clearly see all the American employers desperate to acquire enough workforce to even conduct business. The signs are everywhere in Harrison.
Pierre Cléroux, the Chief Economist at the Business Development Bank of Canada, a financial institution devoted to entrepreneurship, says the widespread labor shortage isn’t primarily about the pandemic. “The main reason why we have difficulties [recruiting] is because we have an aging population,” he said.
To me that says too many youths in today’s work-eligible culture aren’t willing to.
Experts at the Center for Work Ethic Development have been quoted saying one reason for some workers’ poor work ethic is a bad attitude about themselves professionally, as well as their work and company.
While I don’t doubt there are many with jobs who are unhappy, those also are the ones who are or have been working.
My concern is the lack of motivation among many today to want to accept work even when a company is willing to offer higher wages. If that’s the case, where do we possibly go from here, America?
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master’s journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
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Its All Magic And Other Enchanting Quotes Of The Week
‘It’s All Magic’ And Other Enchanting Quotes Of The Week https://digitalarkansasnews.com/its-all-magic-and-other-enchanting-quotes-of-the-week/
“This defendant surreptitiously injected heart-stopping drugs into patient IV bags, decimating the Hippocratic oath.” — U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham, describing the charges against Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 59, who was arrested Wednesday. Police say Ortiz compromised IV bags for at least 10 patients. (Thursday, The Dallas Morning News)
“It’s always warmer, and you’re outside more. There’s the way we dress and the Southern sweetness that comes off as possibly flirting. … The next thing you know, you’re out in the parking lot at lunch and bad things are going on.” — Tommy Habeeb, the Dallas resident and former host of the reality television show Cheaters, presenting his theory on why Dallas topped a list of “most unfaithful cities” in the U.S., according to an analysis by a U.K.-based dating website. (Thursday, The Dallas Morning News)
“It’s all magic. We use the same principles in aerospace. At some point the magic has to happen.” — Joel Lagrone, an aerospace engineer at Lockheed Martin, who will be the new Santa Claus at NorthPark Center, on explaining flying reindeer to children. (Thursday, The Dallas Morning News)
“I’ve done a lot of research on this, and I’ve spent the past couple weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party, and I have come to the conclusion — and I want to be definitive on this — the election was not stolen.” — Don Bolduc, the Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, in a reversal of his campaign message two days after winning the primary. (Thursday, Fox News)
“President Trump had solved this, and Biden decimated everything that President Trump had done to fix the border. This is Biden’s fault. Pure and simple.” — Gov. Greg Abbott on the border crisis. (Tuesday, Fox News)
“There is no truth in this coverage. The advice being circulated is that all funerals booked for the 19th September proceed as arranged.” — Brendan Day, secretary of the U.K.’s Federation of Burial and Cremation Authorities, responding to rumors that the government had canceled all private funerals on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral. (Tuesday, The Associated Press)
“You took a lifetime of memories away from me. … He will never walk me down the aisle. He will never meet my kids. He will never meet my future husband. … He’s gone, … I forgive you, Jaime.” — Shelby Houston, daughter of slain Mesquite police officer Richard Houston II, speaking to Jaime Jaramillo, who was convicted of murdering her father. (Thursday, The Dallas Morning News)
“It’s exactly what we dreamt of … Look at all the children.” — Nancy Best, a longtime Klyde Warren Park board member, while children and families played in the water at the official opening of a water feature that bears her name. The $10 million interactive fountain is boasted to be the only one of its kind in the country. (Wednesday, The Dallas Morning News)
“Earth is now our only shareholder.” — Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, 83, in a letter announcing that he and his family had given away the multibillion-dollar outdoor apparel business, transferring ownership to a trust and a nonprofit organization focused on combating climate change. (Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal)
“Definitely from Austin!!!” — TikTok user robertm7575, one of hundreds who commented on a viral video of a woman swimming in the San Antonio River along the River Walk. Swimming is illegal there. No word on the identity of the swimmer nor whether she suffered fines or dysentery. (Monday, TikTok)
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In Avoiding Extremism, Dallas Gets It Right https://digitalarkansasnews.com/in-avoiding-extremism-dallas-gets-it-right/
Like many North Texans, I am amazed — and frustrated and angry — at the craziness we’re witnessing in Washington D.C. and many parts of the country. The extremes on both ends of the political spectrum have produced paralysis and division, leaving sanity in the dust.
I see a political system working wonderfully for both national political parties. The extreme positions and casting the other as the “enemy” are great for raising money. But that system and those parties are not working for you and me.
Revered institutions that we once trusted and still need have been reduced to little more than political machinations. In many places in the country, we see business leaders melt in the face of political pressure, and schools, at every level, becoming little more than social experiments run by political activists.
Against this backdrop, I am pretty happy with where I live and have raised my family. While being far from perfect or totally inoculated from the extremes we see in other parts of the country, we seem to be more the exception than the rule today.
So, I want to share some observations, and a hope, about our part of the world.
Soon, the Dallas region will be the third largest in the nation. Even though we don’t have a lot of mountains or an ocean or other geographic reasons for existing, people and businesses are moving here in big numbers. According to data from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, more than 8 million people now live in our area.
And with as much diversity as any place in the nation — more than 230 languages are spoken here — it seems we focus better on the worth of a person than the group they represent. We value each other. People still count more than politics.
We have gotten to this point because people and businesses take a pragmatic and balanced approach. We aren’t a city of extremes. Right here in the middle of the continent, we are a city of common ground. Instead of gridlock, you see a “can do” spirit.
Police
As an example of this pragmatic approach, there is an interesting comparison with our current mayor, Eric Johnson, and me. We come from different parties, but in the most fundamental responsibility of local government, there are amazing parallels.
Across the country, we are seeing politics and extreme agendas trump responsibility. Let’s be honest, “defund the police” and all that goes with it is political posturing, not a serious policy approach.
When I was mayor (back in the “dark ages”), we substantially increased police resources, expanding the force by 20%, the largest increase by a city of any size in decades. We saw the largest drop in crime in the nation, and we saw our city radically improve relative to other major U.S. cities.
Today, Johnson is similarly increasing police resources. At a time when many cities led by extreme policies are seeing dramatic increases in crime, particularly violent crime, we stand nearly alone in witnessing declining crime.
I took great pride in watching our current police chief, Eddie García, testify recently in Washington D.C. with other large-city chiefs. While those other chiefs were dancing on eggshells, trying to be politically correct, he was no-nonsense. To paraphrase him: We are going to do our job, do it well with the highest standards and focus on reducing crime in Dallas, period.
Schools
I’m passionate about education. Schools across the country, from elementary to those of higher learning, seem more interested in promoting social agendas than educating our kids. Meanwhile, other countries (read China) are reinforcing the fundamentals of a future world: math, communications, science, technology.
Losing focus on the real function of schools cannot end well.
Except for a few isolated suburbs, the divisions between parents and schools seem to be much less dramatic here. Educators seem to be much more interested in improving education rather than conducting social experiments.
Public-private cooperation
While there is always a natural friction between the public and private sector, they actually work pretty well together in North Texas.
Think of the impact of Klyde Warren Park, an infrastructure project made possible by significant private donations. Think of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, substantially funded by private donations. Think of the city and private sector working together to change the operations of the Dallas Zoo, and the difference that has made. And think of the convention center hotel, which needed public impetus but has put our hospitality industry back on top, with private sector jobs and an explosion of private hotel business, in spite of the naysayers at the time.
It is amusing to see business leaders across the country myopically following extreme political agendas. Many sway back and forth, reacting to small, extreme constituencies.
Here, by contrast, I know a CEO that runs a high-profile Fortune 500 company. He makes decisions based on real economics and a future perspective devoid of politics and a Wall Street crowd ignorant of the importance of long-term capital investment.
He takes a reasonable, but rare, approach to the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) movement. ESG is a corporate philosophy that focuses companies on environmental and sustainability issues. It’s a viewpoint that has merit, but has been overtaken by politics and special-interest agendas. This CEO ignores all that and uses common sense, making real improvements but tying them to the needs and performance of his business and its people. His company is a leader in diversity too, not because there are television cameras around but because it’s the right thing to do and it makes sense. And he is investing locally because he knows that makes the most sense for our country and his business.
My sense is that he is pretty representative of our business leaders here. They don’t knee-jerk to the political extremes, different from what we see of many business leaders on the coasts.
And while we can easily criticize the local media, I think it’s different here. Think of a large East Coast newspaper that penalizes its staff for even thinking of opposing views. Here, we still have folks who will actually engage and encourage real, thoughtful debate. (They may even publish this!) In office, I often disagreed with journalists, but there was never a time the local press didn’t thoughtfully hear me out.
Working together
I play golf with a retired surgeon. Politically, we agree on almost nothing. In the close confines of a golf cart, we can spend four hours discussing, debating and arguing many issues, and laughing about the crazies on both our sides. At the end, though, we have enormous respect for each other, both wanting a great country and city that actually work, and we know we need to work together to accomplish that.
And this brings me to the hope I’d like to offer.
My hope is that we, here in North Texas, will continue to be pragmatic, figure out what works and actually put the interest of our neighbors ahead of political goals and personal agendas. That will be very different than we see elsewhere.
Tom Leppert was mayor of Dallas from 2007-2011 and former chairman/ CEO of The Turner Corporation, a general building company, and Kaplan Inc., an education provider. He wrote this for The Dallas Morning News.
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Column: Election Integrity Is At Risk https://digitalarkansasnews.com/column-election-integrity-is-at-risk/
“Nobody knows anything.”
That’s the first line in “Adventures In the Screen Trade,” William Goldman’s excellent book about writing scripts for Hollywood films. He continues:
“Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”
Goldman’s assessment of the movie business could as well apply to the November elections. The educated guess — in that particular performance venue — is that Republicans will take control of both House and Senate this year. In normal times, the party that loses the presidential election bounces back in the off-year vote. But these are not normal times.
The Supreme Court’s scuttling of Roe v. Wade has women registering to vote in unusually high numbers. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bill to set a federal ban on abortions after 15 weeks has unsettled his colleagues. In Republican Kansas, a ban on abortions was overwhelming rejected by voters. Could that one issue change the odds?
After two years of trying to reason with two holdouts, the Democratic Party was finally able to pass President Biden’s signature bill to deal with climate change and address economic and healthcare issues. It was a steep drop from the initial plan, further weakened by the need to make concessions to Senate holdouts, Krystal Sinema and Joe Manchin. Messy, but politics often is.
Those two actions have somewhat clouded early, confident election forecasts. The usual assumption may not be a certainty.
Aware of changing circumstances, GOP activists across the country are doing everything they can to snarl the electoral process. The 2020 election may have been accurate and error-free, but we can’t be sure about the one some seven weeks away.
Most Republican-dominated states have enacted laws to discourage or limit voting. Citizen volunteers have been organized to visit county clerks to make a variety of strange demands (which they seem not to understand themselves) and to threaten lawsuits. A flood of Freedom of Information requests is being made across the country to tie up employees in an effort to impede election preparations.
The Washington Post recently reported that David Clements, a New Mexico business school teacher who lost his job for refusing to wear a mask, is on a mission to convince rural audiences that Trump’s big lie is actually true. Last June, he aroused enough people in his native state to delay the certification of primary votes. Since then, he has been visiting other communities, spreading discord.
Not much is being said about what role the most radical elements of the Trump coalition will play, But you can presume the White Nationalists, QAnon fanatics, and Proud Boys (who aren’t in jail) will be harassing voting lines on election day.
Few of these discontents seem to know much about how elections are actually conducted. Those of us who have been through the process understand that it would take a massive collaboration between workers of both parties across the land to corrupt an election. Representatives of both parties are always present, carefully checking to be sure things are proceeding in order. It would take an official in charge of the overall process to mess it up. And a number of zealots are running for such posts this year to do exactly that.
Goldman is the author of another quote that is more familiar than the one first cited. It comes from his Oscar-winning script for “All The President’s Men.” It doesn’t appear in the book on which the movie was based. It’s his own inspired phrase:
“Follow the money.”
If you follow the money that is awash in politics this year, you will note the huge increase in dark money focused on a Republican victory. Democrats have been accumulating funds, too, but huge chunks are coming from the narrow top of our economic pyramid, anxious to preserve the three enormous tax breaks received since 1980 from Republican administrations.
One that came to light this week was a $1.6 billion gift from Chicago electronics company executive Barre Said to the little-known Marble Freedom Trust. That’s double the amount raised by Donald Trump in his 2020 campaign.
Marble is a non-profit led by Leopold Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society and the man who dictated Trump’s supreme court choices, turning the country’s higher court into a right-wing hammer. Leo is as deeply invested in dark money groups as Charles Koch.
Who knows where that enormous amount will be expended? If you can find a way to follow that money, I doubt you will see it invested in feeding the poor.
It appears the wherewithal to shape voters’ thinking is heavily tilted to the right. Yet, there is this feeling that the odds are evener than the pundits suspect. It may well be true that, in politics this year, “nobody knows anything” for sure.
Don Wooten is a former Illinois state senator and a regular columnist. Email him at: donwooten4115@gmail.com.
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West Seattle Bridge Opens After Closure Lasting More Than 2 Years
West Seattle Bridge Opens After Closure Lasting More Than 2 Years https://digitalarkansasnews.com/west-seattle-bridge-opens-after-closure-lasting-more-than-2-years/
With more than a few honks and waves, eager drivers returned to the reopened high-level West Seattle Bridge late Saturday, after an emergency closure for repairs that lasted 2 ½ years.
The Seattle Department of Transportation announced at 9:15 p.m. that it removed the barricades at most entrances, itself a sensitive operation that required smart timing, to protect workers and potential trespassers from being hit.
The four-minute trip between the peninsula and I-5 was a novelty for people accustomed to detouring as far as six miles.
“It was incredible. It felt like freedom, it was emotional,” said Janelle Bracken, who made a round trip, then joined a group of people who waved from the walk-bike overpass crossing Fauntleroy Way Southwest, more typically a place for sign-hoisting politicians to greet bridge traffic. Drivers beneath blinked their headlights and tooted their horns. Others on the walk bridge said they’re looking forward to a less-stressful and more predictable commute.
SDOT closed the span March 23, 2020 because cracks discovered seven years earlier were beginning to accelerate at a dangerous pace, in four areas within the 150-foot-high central main span.
Stabilization and strengthening work, at a cost of up to $78 million, is expected to keep the concrete structure aloft until about 2060. And drivers will no longer need to travel an extra 30 to 60 minutes, through the Duwamish River valley highways or streets.
This is the busiest city-owned bridge, carrying about 100,000 vehicles and nearly 20,000 transit riders before the pandemic and shutdown.
The resumption of traffic on the bridge came hours before what had been announced as a Sunday opening. The city had not planned a formal opening ceremony and had kept the time a secret, worried that lines of cars would form, with drivers seeking bragging rights about being among the first to cross the repaired bridge.
The first stalled car was reported an hour after reopening, near the First Avenue South Bridge exit.
The refurbished bridge route contains multiple signs to help drivers navigate toward the Vashon Island and Southworth ferries, and a new electronic sign for eastbound traffic that simply read “West Seattle Bridge Open.” Traffic at 10:35 p.m. was lighter than a normal Saturday night and largely obeying the 40- to 45-mph limits, except a Subaru driver who tailgated two others and sped past the Nucor Steel mill.
King County Metro Transit buses that traveled the lower swing bridge will return to their red bus lane on the highrise bridge Monday morning.
New, reflective markers make most lanes easier to follow, though the westbound layout looked confusing at one spot near the Harbor Island exit, because of uneven lighting and a dearth of signs.
For some West Seattleites, the easier reconnection with the rest of the city put them in a mood to party like it’s 1984.
That’s the year the bridge opened, giving the peninsula its first-ever grade-separated transportation mainline — unfettered by railroad tracks and the vagaries of ship traffic — after decades of reliance on ferries, streetcar trestles, and drawbridges. The West Seattle Herald weekly newspaper printed an unprecedented 104-page special section, “Bridging the Gap.”
The neighborhood underwent predicted growth in traffic and home values, which made the grand traffic opening a more transformative event than the 2022 reopening, West Seattle historian Clay Eals said last week.
On Saturday, a friendly, low-key greeting set the stage for less complicated commutes ahead: “Welcome Back” read placards put out by the Transit Riders Union’s “transit fairy,” Pauline Van Senus, near a bus stop on California Avenue Southwest. A couple blocks north at O’Neill Plumbing, a 105-year-old local business, a calendar-shaped sidewalk sign titled Bridge Opening Day proclaimed, “On Your Mark, Get Set…Go!”
Read more about what went wrong and the repairs made; expectations for traffic; and plans for the bridge’s eventual replacement.
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Biden Arrives In London To Mourn The Queen | CNN Politics
Biden Arrives In London To Mourn The Queen | CNN Politics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/biden-arrives-in-london-to-mourn-the-queen-cnn-politics/
05:56 – Source: CNN
From Truman to Biden: one Queen, many Presidents
CNN —
President Joe Biden arrived in London late Saturday for a two-day visit honoring Queen Elizabeth II, the long-reigning monarch he says “defined an era.”
Biden is joining leaders from dozens of other nations to pay their respects to the late sovereign, whom he met last year and declared afterward reminded him of his own mother.
On Sunday afternoon, the President and first lady Jill Biden will pay their respects to the Queen, whose coffin has been lying in state at Westminster Hall, before signing a book of condolence and attending a reception for visiting leaders hosted by Britain’s new king, Charles III.
For Biden, it is a moment to reflect on a monarch who embodied a commitment to public service and whose life charted the major historical events of the last 100 years.
Biden and the Queen first met in 1982, when as a young senator, Biden’s own Irish American mother instructed him: “Don’t you bow down to her.”
He didn’t bow down then, or when he met the Queen as President last year while attending a Group of 7 summit in England. But his respect for a woman whose constancy on the world stage over the last century was unparalleled has been plain.
“She was a great lady. We’re so delighted we got to meet her,” Biden said on the day that she died.
The Queen’s surprise decision last year to travel to the Cornish coast to meet world leaders at the G7 summit was a signal of her desire to remain engaged in global affairs.
Later that week, when she hosted Biden and first lady Jill Biden for tea at Windsor Castle, she inquired about two authoritarian leaders, Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, the President told reporters afterward.
“She had such curiosity. She wanted to know all about American politics, what was happening. So, she put us at ease,” Jill Biden said recently in an interview with NBC.
At Sunday evening’s reception, Biden will see Charles for the first time since he became King. The two men have met previously and spoke last week by phone.
As Prince of Wales, Charles was a passionate campaigner for certain issues Biden has also championed, including combating climate change. It remains to be seen how involved the new King will be on those issues going forward.
Relatively close in age – Charles is 73, Biden is 79 – the two men have a shared experience of being in the public eye for decades before assuming their current roles as heads of state.
On his call with the King, Biden “conveyed the great admiration of the American people for the Queen, whose dignity and constancy deepened the enduring friendship and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,” the White House said. “President Biden conveyed his wish to continue a close relationship with the King.”
Security in the British capital is at its highest level in memory as Biden and dozens of other world leaders convene to remember the late Queen, who met 13 sitting US Presidents during her reign.
White House aides have declined to provide specific security details for the President’s visit but say they are working well with their British counterparts to ensure the demands of presidential security are met.
Plans for the Queen’s funeral have been in place for years, allowing US advisers greater insight into precisely what will happen over the coming days as they make security arrangements. The White House said it received an invitation only for the President and first lady, making for a slimmed-down American footprint.
Biden traveled with his national security adviser, communications director and other personal aides aboard Air Force One to London.
When reports emerged last week that world leaders would be required to ride on a bus to the funeral, US officials were skeptical and shot down the suggestion Biden that would travel to Westminster Abbey in a coach.
In 2018, when other world leaders traveled together in a bus to a World War I memorial in Paris, then-US President Donald Trump traveled separately in his own vehicle. The White House explained at the time that the separate trip was “due to security protocols.”
The Queen’s death came at a moment of economic and political turmoil for the United Kingdom. A new prime minister, Liz Truss, entered office after months of uncertainty following the decision of her predecessor, Boris Johnson, to step down.
Truss invited several visiting world leaders to meet individually at 10 Downing Street this weekend. In the role for only a little more than a week, it will be Truss’ first time meeting face to face with many of her foreign counterparts.
While her office initially said Biden would be among the leaders visiting Downing Street, it was later announced that Truss and the President would meet for formal bilateral talks on Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
A host of issues are currently testing the US-UK “special relationship,” which has been heralded repeatedly in the days since the Queen’s death.
It was only two days after Truss traveled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to formally accept the Queen’s appointment as prime minister that the long-reigning monarch passed away. Since then, the country has been in a formal period of mourning.
Truss inherited a deep economic crisis, fueled by high inflation and soaring energy costs, that has led to fears the UK could soon enter a prolonged recession. The challenges have been aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has caused volatility in oil and gas markets.
While few in the Biden administration shed tears at Johnson’s resignation– Biden once described him as the “physical and emotional clone” of Trump – the US and the UK were deeply aligned in their approach to Russia under his leadership.
White House officials expect that cooperation will continue under Truss, even as she comes under pressure to ease economic pressures at home.
Less certain, however, is whether Truss’s hard-line approach to Brexit will sour relations with Biden. The President has taken a personal interest in the particular issue of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a post-Brexit arrangement that requires extra checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The rules were designed to keep the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland open and avoid a return to sectarian violence. But Truss has moved to rewrite those rules, causing deep anxiety in both Brussels and Washington.
Biden, who makes frequent references to his Irish ancestry, has made his views clear on the issue, even though it does not directly involve the United States. Congressional Democrats have similarly expressed concern over any steps that could reignite the Northern Ireland conflict.
In their first phone call as counterparts earlier this month, Biden raised the matter with Truss, according to the White House. A US readout of their conversation said they discussed a “shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol.”
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Thunderous Trump Rocks Area Faithful https://digitalarkansasnews.com/thunderous-trump-rocks-area-faithful/
Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Supporters rally as former President Donald Trump speaks at the Save America Rally Saturday at the Covelli Centre in downtown Youngstown.
YOUNGSTOWN — Former President Donald Trump took aim at U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, calling him a “militant left winger who is lying to your faces” during a Youngstown rally for J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for the seat.
Ryan is “pretending to be a moderate so he can get elected and betray everything that you believe in,” Trump said Saturday at the Covelli Centre. “He is not a moderate. He’s radical left.”
Trump spent most of his speech airing past grievances, including falsely claiming the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him.
Trump was in Youngstown primarily as part of a rally to support Vance while also backing Republicans running for House seats throughout Ohio.
Trump said when he was president, “I was always fighting (Ryan). I never liked him that much.”
Trump said Ryan’s moderate approach during this Senate campaign is a lie as the congressman has voted 100 percent of the time with President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Trump said when he was president, Ryan voted with him only 16 percent of the time.
Trump urged those in attendance to back Vance, calling him a “tough cookie.”
Trump said of Vance: “This is a very important race. This is a great person who’ve I’ve really gotten to know. Yeah, he said some bad things about me, but that was before he knew me and then he fell in love.”
Trump later said that Vance “kissing his ass” would help him beat Ryan.
He criticized Ryan for saying he’d end the filibuster, for supporting abortions and for “being an energy extremist.”
Trump spent much of his speech complaining about the 2020 election falsely contending he didn’t lose to Biden and that the election was “rigged and stolen.”
He also went after Biden, saying he was a terrible president who doesn’t know what he’s doing and if Trump was running the country, there wouldn’t have been a Russian invasion of Ukraine, high gas prices and inflation.
The only reason gas prices are going down, Trump said, is that Biden and other Democrats are doing that to win the Nov. 8 election and that those prices will rise after that.
There were about 5,500 people at Saturday’s rally with most of the back section of the Covelli Centre empty though there was a full crowd at the front of the facility. The last time Trump campaigned at the arena, on July 25, 2017, there were about 7,000 people in attendance.
During his Saturday speech, Vance said: “We need to get back to the policies of the real Donald Trump, not fake Tim Ryan pretending he’s someone he’s not.”
Vance said Ryan tries to come across as a moderate in his “nonstop fraudulent television commercials,” but it’s a lie.
Vance said there’s “two Tims out there. A D.C. Tim that votes 100 percent of the time with Joe Biden, and there’s campaign Tim who pretends he’s a moderate.”
“We need to kick D.C. Tim to the curb, make him go back home and get a real job for once.”
Polls indicate a close race between Vance, a venture capitalist and author of “Hillbilly Elegy” and Ryan, a 10-term House member who represents much of Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
In a campaign fundraising email after the rally, Ryan wrote: “Republicans are panicking about losing here. And Trump knows how important winning Ohio is. Him wading into our race means more attack ads, more dark money and a tougher environment in an already competitive race.”
At a Youngstown event Friday, Ryan criticized Vance for having a rally Saturday at the same time as the Ohio State-University of Toledo football game, saying it shows his opponent is out of touch with Ohioans.
As for the rally in the heart of his congressional district, Ryan said: “They’re trying to cut into my vote, which is a political tactic. The fact is J.D. Vance can’t carry his own political message.”
In addition to the Saturday rally with Trump, Vance had Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a leading potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, campaign Aug. 19 at the Metroplex Expo Center in Liberty, also in Ryan’s district.
“He needs Ron DeSantis, he needs Donald Trump and he needs everybody else to come in and make the case for him because he can’t make the case for himself,” Ryan said.
Ryan added: “Ohioans don’t want someone who’s got to rely on someone else to carry their message for him or to buttress or support them in some way I’m out here. I’m scrapping. I’m clearly the underdog here with all this money coming at us.”
Asked to comment after Saturday’s rally, Jordan Fuja, a campaign spokeswoman, said: “I was too busy watching football, but I’m sure whatever San Francisco phony J.D. Vance and his out-of-state allies tried to talk about in a half-empty stadium would’ve rang hollow with all the Ohioans who were also busy tuning into the Ohio State-Toledo game.”
Though Trump failed to win re-election in 2020, he was only the third Republican presidential candidate since 1936 to win Mahoning County. He beat Democrat Joe Biden by 1.9 percent.
Trump did even better in Trumbull County.
He was the first Republican candidate to win that county in two consecutive presidential elections since Herbert Hoover in 1928 and 1932 before Trumbull and Mahoning counties started consistently voting for Democrats in 1936.
He beat Biden by 10.56 percent in Trumbull two years ago and beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by 6.22 percent.
Trump’s victories were key parts of a changing political trend in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.His success helped some Valley Republicans win elections and made a number of other races a lot more competitive than they had been in previous years.
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China Values UN Relationship Despite Human Rights Criticism
China Values UN Relationship Despite Human Rights Criticism https://digitalarkansasnews.com/china-values-un-relationship-despite-human-rights-criticism-2/
A Chinese translator works during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters ahead of the General Assembly, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
BEIJING — As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva.
Chinese diplomats are speaking out and lobbying others at an ongoing session of the Human Rights Council to thwart a possible call for further scrutiny of what it calls its anti-extremism campaign in Xinjiang, following a U.N. report on abuses against Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic groups in the western China border region.
The concurrent meetings, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, illustrate China’s divided approach to the United Nations and its growing global influence. Beijing looks to the U.N., where it can count on support from countries it has befriended and in many cases assisted financially, as a counterweight to U.S.-led blocs such as the Group of Seven, which have grown increasingly hostile toward China.
“China sees the U.N. as an important forum that it can use to further its strategic interests and goals, and to reform the global order,” said Helena Legarda from the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.
While holding up the United Nations as a model of multilateralism, China rejects criticism or decisions that the ruling Communist Party sees as counter to its interests. Its diplomats struck back at the report published last month by the U.N. human rights office raising concerns about possible “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang — vowing to suspend cooperation with the office and blasting what it described as a Western plot to undermine China’s rise.
China had pushed hard to block the report on Xinjiang, delaying its release for more than a year. In the end, the information did come out — but just minutes before embattled U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet left office.
Like the United States, China feels a certain freedom to ignore U.N. institutions when it wants: The Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the Human Rights Council in 2018, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. The Biden administration jumped back in this year, and has made a priority of defending Israel in the 47-member-state body.
Also like the United States, China leverages its influence to get its way — effectively stymieing an investigation by the U.N.’s World Health Organization into whether China was the birthplace of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ken Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to redefine what human rights are, in part by casting economic development as a key criterion. China, Roth said, “more than any government in the past, is trying to undermine the U.N. human rights system” — by pressuring U.N. officials, retaliating against witnesses and trying to bribe governments.
“One of their top priorities right now — maybe after Taiwan — is to avoid condemnation by the Human Rights Council,” Roth said. The self-governing island of Taiwan is claimed by China as its sovereign territory, an issue that the Beijing government is vociferous about internationally.
Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University in China, said advocating for the U.N.’s role in maintaining the international order doesn’t mean that China agrees with every U.N. body, citing the COVID-19 origins study and the recent Xinjiang report.
“When the U.N high commissioner for human rights issues such a report, in the eyes of China, it is the same as all organizations in the world, no matter official or private, that defames China,” Shi said.
But China doesn’t want its pique toward the rights office, which falls under U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to spill over to its deepening relationship with other parts of the world body that deal with refugees, climate, the internet, satellites, world hunger, atomic weapons, energy and much more.
China wields power as one of the five veto-holding members of the Security Council, helping it build relationships with the United States and others who needed China’s support for past resolutions on Iran and North Korea.
That influence has diminished somewhat with the overall deterioration of U.S.-China ties, Shi said. Subsequently, both China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-backed resolution in May to impose new sanctions on North Korea.
Under Xi, who came to power 10 years ago, China has expanded its U.N. involvement from primarily international development early on to political, peace and security issues, Legarda said.
She noted how China has had its concepts and language worked into U.N. resolutions and used the U.N. system to promote a “Global Development Initiative” proposed by Xi in a video address to last year’s General Assembly.
“This is a reflection of China’s more assertive and ambitious foreign policy under Xi,” Legarda said.
China has stepped into a diplomatic void created by a lack of U.S. leadership, said Daniel Warner, a Geneva-based political analyst. Former President Donald Trump shunned many international institutions, Warner said, and successor Joe Biden has been preoccupied with domestic issues.
Chinese hold the top jobs at three of the U.N.’s 18 specialized agencies: the Food and Agricultural Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union, where the United States has put up a candidate to succeed outgoing chief Houlin Zhao. A Chinese official headed the International Civil Aviation Organization until last year.
For China, it’s a matter of prestige as well as influence, Warner said.
“The United States and the Western countries were very much involved in the initial United Nations,” he said. “China doesn’t want to have that kind of leadership. They’re not talking about liberal values, but they want to make sure that their interests are defended in the U.N. system.”
Chinese diplomats spearheaded a joint statement — which it said was backed by 30 countries including Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — that blasted “disinformation” behind the U.N. report on Xinjiang and the “erroneous conclusions” drawn in it. And China’s ambassador in Geneva said Beijing could no longer cooperate with the human rights office — without specifying how.
Sarah Brooks, a China expert at the International Society for Human Rights advocacy group in Geneva, said China could hold up its funding for the office — which lately has come in at $800,000 a year, far less than Western countries that give tens of millions.
Still, Brooks said it would be a “huge blow” if funding from China were to stop, in part because many countries appreciate and support the causes that Beijing helps pay for.
“The optics of it are really damaging,” she said. “You have a country that says, ‘Hi, I want to be responsible, but I’m so thin-skinned … I’m still going to lash out at the organization that drafted it.'”
Keaten reported from Geneva. Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
FILE – China’s President Xi Jinping remotely addresses the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in a pre-recorded message, Tuesday Sept. 21, 2021, at UN headquarters. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool, File)
FILE – The symbol of the United Nations is displayed outside the Secretariat Building during an emergency meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
FILE – Zbigniew Rau, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland addresses the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 2, 2022. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (Denis Balibouse/Pool via AP, File)
FILE – A tour guide stands near a display showing images of people at locations described as vocational training centers in southern Xinjiang at the Exhibition of the Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism in Urumqi in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on April 21, 2021. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE – A security guard watches from a tower around a detention facility in Yarkent County in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on March 21, 2021. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
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US-UK Relations Enter New Chapter As New PM King Settle In
US-UK Relations Enter New Chapter As New PM, King Settle In https://digitalarkansasnews.com/us-uk-relations-enter-new-chapter-as-new-pm-king-settle-in/
President Joe Biden waves as he stands at the top of the steps of Air Force One before boarding with first lady Jill Biden at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, as they head to London to attend the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. To commemorate the U.S. Air Force’s 75th Anniversary as a service the Bidens are wearing Air Force One jackets. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
LONDON — President Joe Biden arrived in London to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth II at a time of transition in U.S.-U.K. relations, as both a new monarch and a new prime minister are settling in.
The hawkish approach of Prime Minister Liz Truss to Russia and China puts her on the same page as Biden. But the rise of Truss, 47, who once called the relationship “special but not exclusive,” could mark a decidedly new chapter in the trans-Atlantic partnership on trade and more.
Of high concern for Biden officials in the early going of Truss’s premiership is her backing of legislation that would shred parts of the post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland. Analysts say the move could cause deep strain between the U.K. and the European Union, and undermine peace in Northern Ireland. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the move “would not create a conducive environment” for crafting a long-awaited U.S.-UK trade deal coveted by Truss and her Conservative Party.
“She’s signaled that she’s willing to go to the mattresses on this and that’s going to cause a rift not just between the U.K. and EU, but the UK and the U.S.,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a former senior State Department official in the Obama administration. “It’s one that’s going to keep the White House up at night.”
Biden arrived in London late Saturday and had been set to meet with Truss on Sunday, but the prime minister’s office said Saturday they would skip the weekend hello, opting instead for a meeting in New York at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, though Truss still planned to gather with other world leaders converging on London for the royal funeral. The White House confirmed the U.N. meeting just as the president boarded Air Force One.
The two close allies now find themselves in a period of political uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic. Not unlike his fellow septuagenarian Biden, King Charles III faces questions from the public about whether his age will limit his ability to faithfully carry out the duties of the monarch.
Charles, 73, and Biden, 79, discussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both attended a summit in Glasgow, Scotland. They also met at Buckingham Palace in June 2021 at a reception the queen hosted before a world leaders’ summit in Cornwall.
Truss finds herself, as Biden does, facing questions about whether she has what it takes to lift a country battered by stubborn inflation borne out of the coronavirus pandemic and exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unleashing chaos on the global energy market.
All the while, Britain — and the rest of Europe — is carefully watching to see what the upcoming U.S. midterm elections will bring for the Democratic American president after he vowed upon taking office that “America is back” to being a full partner in the international community after four years of Republican Donald Trump pushing his “America First” worldview.
“It certainly is a time of change and transformation in the U.K.,” said Barbara A. Perry, presidential studies director at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She added, “We don’t know what will happen in our midterms. We don’t know what will happen in 2024.”
Truss, a former accountant who was first elected to Parliament in 2010, hasn’t had much interaction with Biden. The U.S. president called her earlier this month to congratulate her. Truss, as foreign secretary, accompanied her predecessor, Boris Johnson, on a White House visit last year.
It’s been more than 75 years since Winston Churchill declared there was a “special relationship” between the two nations, a notion that leaders on both sides have repeatedly affirmed. Still, there have been bumps along the way.
Tony Blair was derisively branded by the British tabloids as George W. Bush’s “poodle” for backing the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq. David Cameron and Barack Obama had a “bromance,” but Obama also had his frustrations with the Brits over defense spending and the U.K.’s handling of Libya following the 2011 ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan forged a close alliance in the midst of the Cold War, with the prime minister once telling students that the Republican president’s “really good sense of humor” helped their relationship. But there were difficulties too, such as when Thatcher and members of her Cabinet bristled at the Reagan administration’s initial neutrality in the Falklands War.
The White House wasn’t expecting Truss’s announcement in May, when she was foreign secretary, that the government would move forward with legislation that would rewrite parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The agreement was part of the U.K.’s 2020 Brexit withdrawal from the EU that was designed to avoid a hard north-south border with Ireland that might upset Northern Ireland’s fragile peace.
Now, in the first weeks of Truss’s premiership, Biden administration officials are carefully taking the measure of the new British leader. Analysts say there is some trepidation in the administration that undercutting the Northern Ireland protocol could plunge Europe into trade turmoil at a moment when Biden is working mightily to keep the West unified in confronting Russia over its aggression against Ukraine.
“Brexit could once again become the issue — the issue that can make it difficult for all of Europe to work together at a time when it is critical for Europe to work together,” Bergmann said. “If you’re the Biden administration, this is not the time for the two of your closest partners getting into fights.”
To be certain, there were areas of friction between Biden and Johnson, who had a warm rapport with former President Donald Trump.
Biden staunchly opposed Brexit as a candidate and had expressed great concern over the future of Northern Ireland. Biden once even derided Johnson as a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump.
Johnson worked hard to overcome that impression, stressing his common ground with Biden on climate change, support for international institutions and most notably by making certain Britain was an early and generous member of the U.S.-led alliance providing economic and military assistance to Ukraine in the aftermath of the Russian invasion.
The former prime minister also unsuccessfully pressed Biden starting days into his administration to begin negotiations on a new U.S.-U.K. trade deal just as the U.K. regained control over its national trade policy weeks before Biden took office and following the end of a post-Brexit transition period.
But Biden largely kept focus on his domestic to-do list in the early going of his presidency– passing trillions in spending on coronavirus relief, infrastructure, and more — and put negotiations on trade deals on the back burner.
Elliot Abrams, chairman of the conservative foreign policy group Vandenberg Coalition, said that Truss needs Biden to make a new U.S.-U.K. trade deal a priority. Queen Elizabeth’s funeral won’t be the setting for tough bilateral conversations, but it still marks a moment for the two leaders to begin taking stock of each other.
Truss, who succeeded Johnson after he was forced to resign in the face of a string of scandals, has lagged in the opinion polls. She also won her election with a smaller margin than her recent predecessors and is looking for an early win.
“I think if I were (Truss), I want recognition of the leading role Britain’s played, far more than any other country outside the United States in supporting Ukraine,” said Abrams, who served in senior national security and foreign policy roles in the Trump, George W. Bush and Reagan administrations. “And I think I’d want some positive economic message to give the British people, which could be that the free trade agreement negotiations are starting.”
——
Madhani reported from Washington.
This combination of photos shows U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Aug. 24, 2022, in Washington, left, and Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss at Westminster Hall, in the Palace of Westminster, in London on Sept. 12, 2022. The prime minister’s office said Biden and Truss will meet on Sunday, Sept. 18, at 10 Downing Street, one of several meetings that the new prime minister plans to hold with world leaders converging on London for Monday’s royal funeral. (AP Photo)
FILE – Britain’s Prince Charles, left, greets the President of the United States Joe Biden ahead of their bilateral meeting during the Cop26 summit at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 2, 2021. Charles and Biden discussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both attended a summit in Glasgow, Scotland. (Jane Barlow/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, greets U.S. President Joe Biden , at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 1, 2021. (Christopher Furlong/Pool via AP, File)
FILE – President Donald Trump meets with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE – U.S. President Barack Obama sits next to British Prime Minister David Cameron before the first working session of the North Atlantic Council at the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, July 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Fi...
8 Cheetahs Arrive To India From Namibia As Part Of Reintroduction Project | CNN
8 Cheetahs Arrive To India From Namibia As Part Of Reintroduction Project | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/8-cheetahs-arrive-to-india-from-namibia-as-part-of-reintroduction-project-cnn/
CNN —
After going extinct in India over 70 years ago, cheetahs are finally making a comeback in the country with a new reintroduction program.
Eight cheetahs from Namibia arrived in India on Saturday, according to a tweet from the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). The big cats were released into India’s Kuno National Park in the state of Madya Pradesh.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who was celebrating his 72nd birthday – was there to welcome the cheetahs to their new home. “A long wait is over,” Modi wrote on Twitter alongside pictures of the cats in their new environment.
Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952 and are the only large carnivore in the country to have suffered that fate.
Today, the spotted felines are found in southern and eastern Africa, particularly in Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, and Tanzania, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
But the endangered cats used to have a much larger range. Historically, cheetahs roamed throughout the Middle East and central India as well as most of sub-Saharan Africa. Habitat loss, poaching, and conflict with humans have greatly reduced their populations.
There are now less than 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild, says the WWF. In Iran, there are just 12 adult cheetahs in the wild.
The release of the eight animals is part of a larger plan to reintroduce the cats to their former range. In January, India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced in a news release that the government planned to release 50 cheetahs into Indian national parks over the next five years.
The group that arrived in Kuno consists of three male and five female adult cheetahs from Namibia, according to a news release from the CCF. Each cheetah was vaccinated, fitted with a satellite collar and kept in isolation at the fund’s location in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, according to the release.
The animals chosen for the 11-hour trek were selected “based on an assessment of health, wild disposition, hunting skills, and ability to contribute genetics that will result in a strong founder population,” says the organization.
It took a multi-step journey to get the cats from Namibia, on Africa’s southwestern coast, to central India. On Friday, the cheetahs traveled from the CCF’s center to the Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek, Namibia. Then, they took a private jet to Jaipur, India. Finally, on Saturday the cats were taken to Kuno National Park and released into their new home.
“As a conservationist, I am thrilled, and as CCF’s leader, I am exceptionally proud of the work of our CCF reintroduction team,” Laurie Marker, the founder and executive director of the CCF, said in the release. “Without research and dedication to cheetah conservation, this project could not take place.”
Jhala Yadvendradev, dean of the Wildlife Institute of India and principal scientist for India’s Project Cheetah, said that the project will benefit India’s ecoystems at large – not just cheetahs.
“Bringing back a top predator restores historic evolutionary balance, resulting in cascading effects, leading to better management and restoration of wildlife habitat, for the benefit of all species, and will uplift the livelihoods of poor forest dwelling communities,” Yadvendradev said in the release.
A previous attempt to bring African cheetahs to Kuno National Park in 2012 was halted by India’s Supreme Court, which suggested that introducing a non-native species was problematic and warned the there might not be enough prey in the park to keep them fed.
SP Yadav, Director General of Project Cheetah, said India has worked to prepare the park over several years, through anti-poaching measures and boosting the amount of prey.
However, Faiyaz Khudsar, a conservation biologist who worked at the Kuno National Park for around eight years, is concerned the cheetahs may still not have enough to eat.
“If naturally you build up the population of the prey base and then you bring in a new species or predator, it’s sustainable. (But if you bring in a) prey base from somewhere else … I don’t know which direction it will go after six months or a year,” Khudsar told CNN.
Khudsar also said the cheetahs would have competition from aggressive other predators like leopards.
But Adrien Tordiff, associate professor at the University of Pretoria, who has been involved with Project Cheetah since 2020, said the cheetahs from South Africa had been selected with the National Park’s other creatures in mind.
“Because they’re going into areas where there’s quite a high leopard density, we wanted animals that are really quite wild and very used to being with other large carnivores, lions, leopards and so on. So they’re not naïve of those carnivores, and they can avoid them, they can defend themselves against them, they’re really aware of what they are and the risks that they pose to them,” Tordiff told CNN.
India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change believes that bringing cheetahs back to India “will likely result in better conservation of open forest, grassland, and scrub ecosystems for which they will serve as a flagship species.”
The Indian government believes the factors that led to the cheetah’s extinction within the country – primarily hunting and habitat loss – have “abated.”
Under the British Raj, forests were cleared to develop settlements and set up plantations, resulting in the loss of habitat for big cats, such as the cheetah. Considered less dangerous than tigers and relatively easy to tame, cheetahs were also frequently used by Indian nobility for sport-hunting.
According to Jhala, the last cheetahs were shot in 1947, shortly before they were officially declared extinct.
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Rights After Wrongs Providing Reentry Help To Formerly Incarcerated Persons
Rights After Wrongs Providing Reentry Help To Formerly Incarcerated Persons https://digitalarkansasnews.com/rights-after-wrongs-providing-reentry-help-to-formerly-incarcerated-persons/
Rights After Wrongs is a local organization whose goal is to provide formerly incarcerated individuals with support to help get their lives back on the right track.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It’s not easy to ask for help after a misstep, but plenty of people found the strength to ask for that help at Saturday’s Rights After Wrongs event.
Shaneka Jones was once in the same place as many of those walking through the doors of the LRSD Developmental Training Center.
“I was incarcerated for a real estate licensing law, and I had a robbery charge,” Jones explained. “I know what that’s like, I know what it feels like to be given a second chance.”
It’s something that she’ll always carry, but it’s not holding her back. Reentry services, like those provided at Saturday’s event, are what helped get Jones back on her feet.
“I want everyone to realize that your past is your past,” she said. “We want to help you with your future.”
Leta Anthony, Chairperson for the Central Arkansas Reentry Coalition, helped organize Rights After Wrongs.
“Events like this make it easier because they know that this type of event is being put together specifically to meet their needs,” Anthony said.
And there were plenty of different services available to Arkansans.
“We’ve heard a lot about the fact that we’ve got food deserts,” Anthony said, pointing out a booth on how to cook fresh meals.
Legal services, such as leniency court and record sealing, were available to visitors as well.
“Judges can be people who smile, who can have conversations with you,” said Wendell Griffen, Circuit Judge for the 6th Circuit Court. “This is important for people to see because a system that keeps people frightened of justice cannot be a just system.”
Along with legal services, voter registration was a major push.
“We had a couple people bring their discharge papers, and we were able to register them to vote and they’ll get their card in a couple of weeks,” said Terri Hollingsworth Pulaski County Circuit Clerk.
All of these services were set up and provided to help people succeed.
“So we’re asking them to change that bad decision making into good decision making, and saying to them, here’s the support to help you do that,” Anthony said.
Because while it may be hard to get back on your feet, all it takes is often a helping hand.
“That’s one of the reasons why I try and share my story with people and try to let them know that if I can make it, and I can overcome that challenge, they can too,” Jones said. “There’s no difference between me and them.”
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin Reverses Protections For Transgender Students
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin Reverses Protections For Transgender Students https://digitalarkansasnews.com/virginia-gov-glenn-youngkin-reverses-protections-for-transgender-students/
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new policy states minors must be called by the names and pronouns listed on their official records — unless a parent OKs the change. The Washington Post via Getty Im
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is reversing course on how the state deals with transgender students — issuing a requirement that they use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their biological sex.
The Republican rolled back changes made by his predecessor, which affected everything from bathroom usage to pronouns.
The rewritten rules, which will go into effect after a 30-day public comment period, also say that minors must be called by the names and pronouns listed on their official records — unless a parent give the OK for something else.
The “2022 Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for all Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools” was posted online Friday by the Virginia Department of Education.
The changes are “an outright violation of Virginians’ civil rights,” Senate Democrats said in a joint statement.
UCG/Universal Images Group via G
The new policies stand in contrast to changes which took effect last year that allowed kids to use names, pronouns and bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity and urging schools to decide on a “case-by-case” basis whether to share information about student gender identity with their parents.
Critics slammed the Youngkin policy shift, with Democratic delegate Mike Mullin tweeting that the new rule “calls for the misgendering and outing of children in schools where they’re supposed to be safe. Absolutely shameful.”
The changes are “an outright violation of Virginians’ civil rights,” Senate Democrats said in a joint statement.
The new policy also urges educators to “respect” students.
“School division policies shall therefore implement the requirements of the Act in a manner that ensures no student is discriminated against or harassed on the basis of his or her sex. To this end, local school division policies shall implement the requirements of the Act in a manner that demonstrates respect for each student,” according to the document.
With Post wires
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Trump Looks To Thwart Tim Ryan's Courtship Of Republican Voters In Ohio
Trump Looks To Thwart Tim Ryan's Courtship Of Republican Voters In Ohio https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-looks-to-thwart-tim-ryans-courtship-of-republican-voters-in-ohio/
(CNN)Donald Trump looked to stall Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan’s attempt to win over his supporters with a Saturday rally in Ohio, telling the audience that the Democrat is no friend of the Trump movement even if he is “acting as though he is my friend on policy.”
Trump’s appearance in support of Republican Senate candidate JD Vance is the latest stop on his tour to aid the candidates he helped win contentious Republican primaries. Trump has used his endorsement to help Senate candidates such as Vance, Blake Masters in Arizona and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania emerge from crowded Republican fields. But these nominees have since struggled to pivot to the general election, beset by depleted campaign coffers and poor post-primary fundraising, forcing the former President to come to their aid once again.
As influential as Trump has been in Republican primaries, his influence in a general election remains uncertain. But Republicans working to take back the Senate now find themselves in a scenario under which the candidates Trump helped nominate are now central to any hope of controlling the chamber in 2023.
To do just that, Trump has hit the road. The former president headlined a rally two weeks ago in Pennsylvania, where Oz spoke and the former President lauded the celebrity doctor, albeit briefly. Trump is scheduled to lead an event in North Carolina on Friday with US Rep. Ted Budd, the state’s Senate nominee, who has the former President’s endorsement, and later in Michigan with a series of candidates he has backed.
In Ohio, Ryan is mounting a stronger than expected challenge to Vance by distancing himself from some Democratic policies and embracing aspects of Trump’s tenue. Ryan has run ads criticizing his own party, suggested President Joe Biden shouldn’t run for reelection and — in acknowledgment of Ohio’s recent rightward shift — stressed the need for Democrats to win over Trump voters.
“I agreed with Trump on trade,” Ryan said in a television ad over the summer. “I voted against outsourcing every single time.”
Trump has clearly taken note of Ryan’s strategy — his rally on Saturday was in Youngstown, the heart of Ryan’s congressional district.
“He looked at my poll numbers. I think he is running, JD, on an I love Donald Trump policy,” Trump said of Ryan, adding, “He doesn’t like me, and I don’t like him. He has been terrible.”
By rallying in Youngstown, Trump is stepping into the area that shaped Ryan. Raised in nearby Niles, Ohio, Ryan has represented the community for all his political career, making it and surrounding Mahoning County synonymous with his brand of union-backing Democratic politics. But Mahoning has tilted toward Republicans after being a Democratic stronghold for years: Trump in 2020 was the first Republican presidential nominee to win the county since Richard Nixon in 1972.
“I won his area by a lot,” Trump said, adding, “We won Ohio twice. … We won it in two landslides and now we have to give JD a landslide.”
One way Ohio Democrats have looked to win over Trump voters is by casting Vance as a phony, repeatedly noting that as recently as 2016 the now Trump-endorsed Senate candidate criticized the former president.
“Yeah, he said some bad things about me,” Trump said with a smile, acknowledging Vance’s past criticism. “But that was before he knew me. And then he fell in love.”
Trump’s remarks were littered with his trademark grievance politics. The former president said, “for six straight years I have been harassed, investigated, defamed, slandered, and persecuted” like no president in history, adding that people are “not just coming after me, they are coming after you through me.”
His complaints were not just about Democrats, though. While complaining about inflation, Trump said, “Mitch McConnell better get on the ball and stop it in the Senate. He is like a Democrat.”
And Trump also put the onus on Vance to stand up to the Senate Republican leader and “get him out of there.”
“Mitch McConnell is a disgrace and I hope you are going to do something about it, JD,” Trump said, putting Vance in an awkward position given Senate Majority PAC, a group with close ties to McConnell, was forced to reserve $28 million in television ad time in Ohio, an outlay no Republican would have expected for the race earlier in the cycle.
By the end of June, Ryan had raised $21.8 million in the 2022 cycle, compared with only $3.5 million for Vance. The Democrat entered the second half of the year with a 5-to-1 cash advantage over his GOP opponent.
And in Vance’s case, the money issues extend beyond his own fundraising.
To get through the primary, Vance needed the outside support of billionaire tech mogul Peter Thiel, who poured millions into a pro-Vance super PAC. The money Thiel spent to boost Vance even warmed Trump to backing the Republican candidate.
But once Vance emerged from the primary, Thiel stopped spending on his pro-Vance effort, causing significant rifts between the PayPal co-founder and Republicans such as McConnell, who has lobbied Thiel to spend more on Senate campaigns.
Much of Trump’s speech focused on his personal politics more than Vance or others. Trump continued to tease a 2024 run — something he has been doing for months.
“I ran twice, I won twice,” Trump said, before adding that he “may have to do it again.”
The crowd erupted as Trump continued to lie about the 2020 election, a sign of how election denial is still a key motivator for the former president’s followers.
“Stay tuned, everybody. Stay tuned,” he added.
Trump was scheduled to begin speaking at 7 p.m. ET, the same time as the Ohio State Buckeyes kicked off against the Toledo Rockets less than 200 miles away in Columbus. Vance, who graduated from Ohio State, said he thought the rally would be over at 8:30 p.m. ET so that people could leave and watch the second half. Trump began speaking at 7:44 p.m. ET and didn’t end until 9:25 p.m. ET — when the Ohio State game was well into the third quarter with Ohio State leading 49-21.
Trump acknowledged the Ohio State football game, saying, “you have a football game going on and it didn’t effect this crowd.”
Democrats responded to the Trump rally by primarily dismissing it as less important than the Ohio State game.
“I was too busy watching football, but I’m sure whatever San Francisco phony JD Vance and his out-of-state allies tried to talk about in a half-empty stadium would’ve rang hollow with all the Ohioans who were also busy tuning into the Ohio State-Toledo game,” said Jordan Fuja, a Ryan spokeswoman who was at the Ohio State game on Saturday night.
The scene around the event was like most other Trump rallies, where some of the former President’s most fervent acolytes milled about as his devout supporters stood in line for hours to get in. Those acolytes included Mike Lindell, who said Tuesday that the FBI served him with a grand jury subpoena for the contents of his phone as part of an investigation into a Colorado election security breach.
Trump did not mention Lindell from the stage.
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China Values UN Relationship Despite Human Rights Criticism
China Values UN Relationship Despite Human Rights Criticism https://digitalarkansasnews.com/china-values-un-relationship-despite-human-rights-criticism/
BEIJING (AP) — As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva.
Chinese diplomats are speaking out and lobbying others at an ongoing session of the Human Rights Council to thwart a possible call for further scrutiny of what it calls its anti-extremism campaign in Xinjiang, following a U.N. report on abuses against Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic groups in the western China border region.
The concurrent meetings, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, illustrate China’s divided approach to the United Nations and its growing global influence. Beijing looks to the U.N., where it can count on support from countries it has befriended and in many cases assisted financially, as a counterweight to U.S.-led blocs such as the Group of Seven, which have grown increasingly hostile toward China.
“China sees the U.N. as an important forum that it can use to further its strategic interests and goals, and to reform the global order,” said Helena Legarda from the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.
While holding up the United Nations as a model of multilateralism, China rejects criticism or decisions that the ruling Communist Party sees as counter to its interests. Its diplomats struck back at the report published last month by the U.N. human rights office raising concerns about possible “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang — vowing to suspend cooperation with the office and blasting what it described as a Western plot to undermine China’s rise.
FILE – China’s President Xi Jinping remotely addresses the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in a pre-recorded message, Tuesday Sept. 21, 2021, at UN headquarters. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Mary Altaffer
FILE – The symbol of the United Nations is displayed outside the Secretariat Building during an emergency meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/John Minchillo
FILE – Zbigniew Rau, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland addresses the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 2, 2022. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (Denis Balibouse/Pool via AP, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Denis Balibouse
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China had pushed hard to block the report on Xinjiang, delaying its release for more than a year. In the end, the information did come out — but just minutes before embattled U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet left office.
Like the United States, China feels a certain freedom to ignore U.N. institutions when it wants: The Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the Human Rights Council in 2018, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. The Biden administration jumped back in this year, and has made a priority of defending Israel in the 47-member-state body.
Also like the United States, China leverages its influence to get its way — effectively stymieing an investigation by the U.N.’s World Health Organization into whether China was the birthplace of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ken Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to redefine what human rights are, in part by casting economic development as a key criterion. China, Roth said, “more than any government in the past, is trying to undermine the U.N. human rights system” — by pressuring U.N. officials, retaliating against witnesses and trying to bribe governments.
“One of their top priorities right now — maybe after Taiwan — is to avoid condemnation by the Human Rights Council,” Roth said. The self-governing island of Taiwan is claimed by China as its sovereign territory, an issue that the Beijing government is vociferous about internationally.
Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University in China, said advocating for the U.N.’s role in maintaining the international order doesn’t mean that China agrees with every U.N. body, citing the COVID-19 origins study and the recent Xinjiang report.
“When the U.N high commissioner for human rights issues such a report, in the eyes of China, it is the same as all organizations in the world, no matter official or private, that defames China,” Shi said.
But China doesn’t want its pique toward the rights office, which falls under U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to spill over to its deepening relationship with other parts of the world body that deal with refugees, climate, the internet, satellites, world hunger, atomic weapons, energy and much more.
China wields power as one of the five veto-holding members of the Security Council, helping it build relationships with the United States and others who needed China’s support for past resolutions on Iran and North Korea.
That influence has diminished somewhat with the overall deterioration of U.S.-China ties, Shi said. Subsequently, both China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-backed resolution in May to impose new sanctions on North Korea.
Under Xi, who came to power 10 years ago, China has expanded its U.N. involvement from primarily international development early on to political, peace and security issues, Legarda said.
She noted how China has had its concepts and language worked into U.N. resolutions and used the U.N. system to promote a “Global Development Initiative” proposed by Xi in a video address to last year’s General Assembly.
“This is a reflection of China’s more assertive and ambitious foreign policy under Xi,” Legarda said.
China has stepped into a diplomatic void created by a lack of U.S. leadership, said Daniel Warner, a Geneva-based political analyst. Former President Donald Trump shunned many international institutions, Warner said, and successor Joe Biden has been preoccupied with domestic issues.
Chinese hold the top jobs at three of the U.N.’s 18 specialized agencies: the Food and Agricultural Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union, where the United States has put up a candidate to succeed outgoing chief Houlin Zhao. A Chinese official headed the International Civil Aviation Organization until last year.
For China, it’s a matter of prestige as well as influence, Warner said.
“The United States and the Western countries were very much involved in the initial United Nations,” he said. “China doesn’t want to have that kind of leadership. They’re not talking about liberal values, but they want to make sure that their interests are defended in the U.N. system.”
Chinese diplomats spearheaded a joint statement — which it said was backed by 30 countries including Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — that blasted “disinformation” behind the U.N. report on Xinjiang and the “erroneous conclusions” drawn in it. And China’s ambassador in Geneva said Beijing could no longer cooperate with the human rights office — without specifying how.
Sarah Brooks, a China expert at the International Society for Human Rights advocacy group in Geneva, said China could hold up its funding for the office – which lately has come in at $800,000 a year, far less than Western countries that give tens of millions.
Still, Brooks said it would be a “huge blow” if funding from China were to stop, in part because many countries appreciate and support the causes that Beijing helps pay for.
“The optics of it are really damaging,” she said. “You have a country that says, ‘Hi, I want to be responsible, but I’m so thin-skinned … I’m still going to lash out at the organization that drafted it.’”
___
Keaten reported from Geneva. Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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NH Secretary Of State: Effort To Force Hand Count Of Primary Ballots Slowed Results
NH Secretary Of State: Effort To Force Hand Count Of Primary Ballots Slowed Results https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nh-secretary-of-state-effort-to-force-hand-count-of-primary-ballots-slowed-results/
Published: 9/17/2022 11:15:21 PM
Modified: 9/17/2022 11:14:40 PM
An organized effort to force a hand count of ballots slowed the tabulation of results in Tuesday’s primary election by hours in some places, New Hampshire Secretary of State Dave Scanlan said Friday.
Groups opposed to voting machines urged people to write in the names of the candidates they support, even when those names were already printed on the ballot. This forced election officials to count those ballots by hand.
“It’s disruptive to the process,” Scanlan said in an interview.
“It’s a current concern. It really stresses the system when you have poll workers who have been at it for 12 to 16 hours now having to count all these ballots at the end of the night. It probably increases the chances for errors.”
Scanlan didn’t have an estimate for how many ballots were cast this way but said the activity occurred at some of the state’s larger polling places and was seen in Londonderry, Windham, Merrimack and elsewhere.
Full election results are usually seen in New Hampshire around 11 p.m., but on Tuesday, the full tabulation was not reached in some races until hours later — 3 a.m. in one case, Scanlan said.
Scanlan said he will reach out to groups backing the write-in effort and try to gain a better idea of their concerns. He said he doesn’t want to dissuade write-in votes on a general basis but does want to explain this is unnecessary when the name already appears on the ballot.
Terese Grinnell, 48, of Loudon, who lost by a landslide in a Republican primary race to Executive Councilor Ted Gatsas, of Manchester, said a pro-liberty group she is involved in, We The People, encouraged people who doubt the accuracy of voting machines to write in the names of their preferred candidates, even if those names were already on the ballots.
She said the intent was to encourage people to vote who were so disenchanted with the process that they otherwise might not do so.
“We can’t have them shut down. So we said, ‘If you don’t want to vote in the traditional way, here’s another option,’ ” said Grinnell, one of nine people arrested on allegations of being disruptive at an Executive Council meeting in October.
She said a graphic was posted online showing that if voters filled in the oval next to the “write-in” line on the ballot, and then put the candidate’s name on that line, the ballot would be counted by hand. This would be done instead of filling in the oval next to the candidate’s printed name.
Ballots that have the write-in oval filled in are routed to a bin separate from the other ballots. Election workers check the bin at the end of the night and hand-count those ballots.
Former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him led to and inflamed conspiracy theories that voting machines were rigged and boosted efforts in some states to require that all votes be counted by hand.
Former Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney General William Barr has said there was no widespread election fraud. Numerous courts have also rejected claims of fraud.
In New Hampshire, Scanlan and Republican Gov. Chris Sununu say the state’s election system is accurate and trustworthy. More than 80% of the ballots in the state are counted by AccuVote optical scan machines that are not connected to the internet. The others are counted by hand, typically in small communities.
Legislation that was rejected unanimously by a House committee in August sought to ban all voting machines in the state and force a hand count of all ballots. More than 800,000 ballots were cast in New Hampshire during the 2020 presidential election.
A bill approved this past legislative session required an audit of the performance of voting machines.
Primary ballots cast in Hopkinton and Laconia’s Ward 1 were sent through a high-speed scanner in the State Archives building in Concord on Thursday to compare the results to those rendered by the AccuVote machines.
The two sets of results were identical in Laconia’s Ward 1.
Out of 1,360 ballots cast in Hopkinton, there was a three-vote discrepancy on the Republican side and a one-vote difference on the Democratic side, which the auditing team thinks may be attributable to a reported jam in an election machine.
Scanlan said the audit affirmed the accuracy of the AccuVote devices. Further audits will be done after the general election.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
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Photo Gallery: Trump-Vance Rally Saturday In Youngstown
Photo Gallery: Trump-Vance Rally Saturday In Youngstown https://digitalarkansasnews.com/photo-gallery-trump-vance-rally-saturday-in-youngstown/
A compilation of photos from Donald Trump’s appearance Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, in Youngstown for U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance’s campaign. Photos by R. Michael Semple
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Jim Hartman: Chief Justice Roberts Stood Alone On Abortion
Jim Hartman: Chief Justice Roberts Stood Alone On Abortion https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jim-hartman-chief-justice-roberts-stood-alone-on-abortion/
Jim Hartman
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Rep. Matt Gaetz Sought A Preemptive Pardon From Trump Over An Investigation Into Whether He Sex-Trafficked A 17-Year-Old WaPo Reports
Rep. Matt Gaetz Sought A Preemptive Pardon From Trump Over An Investigation Into Whether He Sex-Trafficked A 17-Year-Old, WaPo Reports https://digitalarkansasnews.com/rep-matt-gaetz-sought-a-preemptive-pardon-from-trump-over-an-investigation-into-whether-he-sex-trafficked-a-17-year-old-wapo-reports/
Rep. Matt Gaetz addresses attendees during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on July 23, 2022, in Tampa, Florida.Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Photo
The Washington Post reported Gaetz sought a preemptive presidential pardon in a sex trafficking investigation.
Sources told WaPo that Johnny McEntee, a White House official, testified he received the request from Gaetz.
A spokesperson for Gaetz told Insider the congressman never directly asked Trump for a pardon.
Congressman Matt Gaetz preemptively sought a presidential pardon relating to an ongoing investigation into whether he sex trafficked a 17-year-old, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
Sources familiar with the testimony told The Washington Post that Johnny McEntee, a staffer in the Donald Trump White House, told the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack he received the request from Rep. Gaetz around the time of the siege on the Capitol.
McEntee testified Gaetz told him he was aware of an investigation being launched into his conduct and that “he did not do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great,” The Washington Post reported. McEntee also testified Gaetz said he asked White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a pardon.
The Department of Justice probe into whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with an underage girl and paid her to travel with him was first reported in 2021 and continues to be investigated.
Gaetz has not been charged with any crime and has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
“Congressman Matt Gaetz discussed pardons for many other people publicly and privately at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term,” a spokesman for Rep. Gaetz told Insider in an email. “As for himself, President Trump addressed this malicious rumor more than a year ago stating, ‘Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon.’ Rep. Gaetz continues to stand by President Trump’s statement.”
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether Gaetz denied the conversations about pardons with McEntee or Meadows occurred.
The GOP congressman, one of 20 Republicans to vote against reauthorizing a sex-trafficking law in July, has received ongoing support from former President Trump relating to the investigation, despite Trump’s comments calling for death to human traffickers.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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5-Star Castillo Sees Razorback Team Locked In During Visit
5-Star Castillo Sees Razorback Team Locked In During Visit https://digitalarkansasnews.com/5-star-castillo-sees-razorback-team-locked-in-during-visit/
2024 ESPN 5-star David Castillo and Arkansas coach Eric Musselman.
FAYETTEVILLE— Class of 2024 ESPN 5-star basketball prospect David Castillo made his second visit to Arkansas on Saturday and he’s glad he did.
“I love coming up here,” Castillo said. “The atmosphere in the gym and just the whole experience is just amazing. I love seeing everybody in there engaged, everybody in there locked in, ready for what they want to become which is a national championship team. It’s really exciting to get up here.”
Castillo, 6-1, 175 pounds, of Bartlesville, Okla., has offers from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Illinois, Kansas State, Tulsa, Oral Roberts, South Carolina and other schools.
He visited the Razorbacks for the football game against Texas last year. His latest trip to Fayetteville helped him learn more about the program.
“I learned a lot even like in just practice,” Castillo said. “The coaches brought up into a little meeting room and they talked about how they could use me in situations, and how my style of play fits their style of play, and I thought it was pretty cool.”
ESPN rates Castillo the No. 1 point guard, No. 8 overall prospect in the nation in his class and the No. 1 recruit in Oklahoma.
“Castillo plays best with the ball in his hands as a scoring playmaker,” ESPN national recruiting director Paul Biancardi said. “He shoots and scores the ball the ball at a high clip. After evaluating his game early in his career it’s evident he plays a mature game.
“He will read the floor, locate help and strive to make the right play. A major threat in ball-screen actions and isolation scenarios. He displays a clever and somewhat shifty style to keep defenders off balance and still make the assist.”
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman and his staff have 52 years of NBA experience and that was noticeable during Saturday’s practice.
“Just how NBA level it is, like the intensity,” Castillo said. “You watch other colleges and you see their practices and you’re like ‘Whoa!’ You see why they’re such good team because everything they do is with urgency and no wasted movements. Everything is with a purpose and they try and get things done.”
He played up for 17-under Team Griffin on the Nike EYBL circuit during the spring and summer. He has a good dose of international experience as a member of the USA Men’s U17 World Cup Team this summer. He scored 12 points and had 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 steal in the 79-67 victory over Spain to help USA win Gold.
He was one of 12 players selected to compete in the 2021 FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Xapala, Mexico, last summer.
He helped the USA squad capture the championship of the FIBA Americas tournament while scoring 14 points in the championship game and earning a gold medal.
Castillo isn’t lacking for communication with Musselman, assistant Anthony Ruta and assistant director of recruiting and scouting Blake Wetherington.
“It’s non-stop really,” he said “I love talking to Coach Ruta, talk to Coach Muss a lot. I love hearing from them.”
ESPN 4-star small forward prospect Dallas Thomas of Little Rock Parkview also visited Saturday. He and Castillo met last year while visiting for the Texas game and have bonded since.
“I would obviously love to come here and play with Dallas,” Castillo said. “When I decided to come up here for an unofficial, I told Dallas, ‘Yeah I’m coming up this time, come up here with me.'”
He said has no idea when he might narrow his list of schools.
“I have no clue, no clue at all,” he said. “I try to take it day-by-day.”
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