Digital Arkansas News

Biden Surpasses Trump’s Record Of Federal Judge Appointments https://digitalarkansasnews.com/biden-surpasses-trumps-record-of-federal-judge-appointments/ The Biden administration has been appointing new judges to vacancies on the federal bench at the fastest rate in 30 years, beating former President Donald Trump’s rate of confirmations, according to new data published Thursday. As of September, Biden had nominated and appointed 82 federal judges, following confirmation votes by the Democratic-controlled Senate, according to data from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. Of this number, 19 were federal appellate judges while the rest were district judges. One such appointment was Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was elevated by Biden twice: to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021 and, one year later, to the Supreme Court of the United States. Most of Biden’s appointments were to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, California. That court – by far the largest appellate court, with jurisdiction over most Western and Pacific states and serving a population of more than 66 million – was frequently criticized by Trump for ruling against his administration. The Senate has confirmed six Biden appointees to the 29-member court. By contrast, at this point in Trump’s first term, the Senate confirmed 26 of his appellate judge appointees and 26 district judge appointees, compared to 58 district appointees for Biden. During Trump’s term, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that confirming judicial appointees was his “highest priority.” Over four years, Trump appointed 245 judges to federal district and appellate courts during his four-year term, including three judges to the Supreme Court, the most of any president since Ronald Reagan, who appointed five. President Biden has appointed more new federal judges than former President Trump had at the same point in his term, and there are more still to come. https://t.co/c7ZPRyfF0l pic.twitter.com/UGwm4TE3Lz — Axios (@axios) September 15, 2022 The data covered Biden’s appointments to federal courts with authority under Article III of the Constitution, which hear general cases and controversies and whose appointees serve “during good behavior,” which is understood to mean for life. Court of Appeals appointments are regarded as more significant than district judge appointments since appellate courts are the final word on most federal lawsuits. The Supreme Court hears less than 1% of the cases that petition it for appeal. For that reason, Trump and McConnell sought to place like-minded judges of originalist and textualist philosophies on the federal bench. The effort, supported by groups such as the conservative Federalist Society and the Article III Project, is widely credited with ensuring favorable decisions for Republicans, such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which mandated a federal right to abortion, and several injunctions blocking the Biden administration’s border policies. (RELATED: ‘Afraid To Give Me An Answer?’: John Kennedy Presses Three Biden Judicial Nominees To Answer A Single Question) Biden currently has 15 more appellate judges pending before the Senate. As of writing, there are nine vacancies in federal appeals courts and 69 vacancies in federal district courts. Neither the White House nor the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has responded to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Read More Here

CNN And Fox News Both Skip Donald Trump’s Social Media Of Embrace Of QAnon, MSNBC Jumps All Over It https://digitalarkansasnews.com/cnn-and-fox-news-both-skip-donald-trumps-social-media-of-embrace-of-qanon-msnbc-jumps-all-over-it/ Former President Donald Trump kicked off the week with some pretty wild social media activity, which included sharing multiple posts on his Truth Social embracing the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory. Trump’s “retruths” as they are called on his Twitter knock-off raised eyebrows across the political and media world, particularly as they coincided with multiple QAnon-linked incidents of violence in the country. However, on cable news, on which Donald Trump still features very prominently, only MSNBC covered the former president’s embrace of the far-right pro-Trump conspiracy theory and political movement that claims Trump is fighting a secret cabal of “deep state” child sex traffickers. A search of SnapStream’s cable news archives shows that “QAnon” was only mentioned three times on CNN in the last week – primarily in reference to GOP Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) calling the GOP nominee to replace him a “QAnon whackjob.” The same search found that the last time Fox News mentioned “QAnon” was host of MediaBuzz Howard Kurtz noting on Sept. 4th that Trump “posted 60 times to Truth Social, some reposts inspired by, some reposts inspired by Qanon saying the FBI’s efforts to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation means he should be immediately returned to the White House or granted a do-over.” Kurtz’s Sunday show may yet still report on Trump’s latest social media activity and the reactions to it in the media. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace covered Trump’s latest QAnon posts in-depth on her show Deadline: White House Wednesday. “This is from my colleague Ben Collins who tweeted quote, ‘Trump again going mask off with the QAnon stuff on truth social today. He ‘retruthed,’ I guess that’s a thing. A Photoshop of himself wearing a Q pin plus a couple of Q catchphrases from a Q account. Trump is not flirting with QAnon anymore. He is moving in.’” “This is a political evolution, I guess. Evolution I don’t know what we call it, that has serious domestic security implications,” Wallace continued. “Christopher Wray testified in September of the election year that domestic violent extremism of the white supremacist stripe was the gravest threat to the homeland. QAnon is sort of in a bucket of its own. It’s dangerous and freakishly bizarre. And Trump’s all in.” “Yeah, it’s a completely bonkers conspiracy theory. And part of the reason that in addition to everything else, it’s such a total head-scratcher that you have Trump amplifying QAnon messages. Is that the conspiracy theory debunked itself over the course of Trump’s presidency,” responded Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan. “It was built on this notion that Trump was going to take all these dramatic steps to incarcerate Hillary Clinton and send generals to Gitmo and on and on. Steps that Trump never took. You don’t have to be a super, super great relationship with reality to recognize that Hillary Clinton is not in prison right now,” Woodruff Swan concluded. MSNBC’s Joy Reid also touched on the topic in a discussion with the Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes, who said: I mean, you know, look, it’s almost as if we’ve gone post-trump here where the craziness has morphed into this mass psychosis where it’s not just a few scattered anecdotes anymore, it is state after state where you are seeing, you know, some of the most extreme election deniers, not people running on some conservative or right-wing agenda, but people who have embraced the most bizarre conspiracies. You have Donald Trump himself, who is tweeting out pictures of himself, photoshopped pictures of himself wearing the QAnon button, you have him calling into the D.C. Jail to rally the January 6th protesters. Watch the full clips above via MSNBC Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com Read More Here

Left's Criticism Of Trump-Appointed Judges Threaten Democratic Institutions: Legal Experts https://digitalarkansasnews.com/lefts-criticism-of-trump-appointed-judges-threaten-democratic-institutions-legal-experts/ News Analysis Legal experts told The Epoch Times that much of the mainstream media reporting about Trump-appointed judges benefiting former President Donald Trump with improper rulings is a sign of rampant media bias rather than a sign that the judiciary is beholden to Trump. In the most recent occurrence, the left-leaning media outlets have criticized U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for agreeing with Trump to appoint what’s known as a special master to referee between Trump and the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the documents recently seized during the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago. The DOJ has appealed this ruling. The special master, if appointed, will help decide which documents might be confidential communications between Trump and his lawyers or evoke executive privilege, and therefore, off-limits from the DOJ seizure. Judge Cannon is a Trump appointee to the bench. “The rulings with respect to the Mar-a-Lago raid and related issues are that judges can have divergent views of the law, but I don’t think with life-tenure of judges and with the fact that no president can fire them that judges have any particular reason to be in favor of Trump or otherwise against Trump,” Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, told The Epoch Times. Shapiro said that over the course of Trump’s legal history, a number of Republican and Democrat judges have ruled both against the former president and for him, and the only thing to talk about is the quality of those decisions. “Evaluating judges’ decisions should focus on how they apply the law to reach a result, not simply on what that result might be or the party of the president who appointed them,” Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow at the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times. “It borders on deliberate misinformation, for example, for the media to observe only that Judge Cannon was appointed by President Trump and to ignore the actual merits of her decision,” added Jipping. And it ignores the possibility that a disgruntled party in a legal case can appeal to have legally flawed decisions reviewed by higher courts that very well may reverse decisions. “I’ve read Cannon’s opinion and it seems pretty sound to me,” Paul Kamenar, chief legal counsel for the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), who litigates against the federal government for a living, told The Epoch Times. “So I would take those criticisms with a grain of salt, being the peanut gallery taking cheap shots at her opinion, which can be appealed, if the [DOJ] thinks it was legally flawed,” Kamenar added. The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 14, 2022. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo) Undermining Institutions The attacks on the judiciary in the Trump case and other cases, such as the Supreme Court’s decision of Dobbs v. Jackson that overturned Roe v. Wade and remanded abortion rights back to the states, is a threat to our political system much greater than the much-publicized “danger to democracy” that left-leaning media and the establishment narrative have pushed since Trump left office, said the experts. “Well, this is one of the ironies that are increasing: Some are expressing concerns, particularly from the left, about the fate of our democracy and the rule of law and these sorts of things,” Shapiro said. “But impugning the motives, or qualifications of federal judges is actually what’s undermining our system of governance and the popular confidence in the integrity of our institutions,” he added. Federal judges are highly insulated from politics in order to make their decisions much less dependent on the whims of political and media pressure, the experts said. “Judgeships in these cases are lifetime appointments, so they are at liberty to rule without fear that they will not be elected again in the next election,” Kamenar said. Kamenar then went on to detail a number of Supreme Court appointments by Republican presidents that were highly disappointing for conservatives, including the appointment by President Richard Nixon of Justice Harry Blackmun, who wrote the then-highly controversial Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. “Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren, who was soft on crime, and William Brennan, who were two of the most liberal justices that were ever on the bench,” said Kamenar, noting that Eisenhower rued the day he selected them. The Warren court, which spanned from 1953 to 1969, is considered by many scholars from both the left and the right, the most liberal court in American history. President Ronald Reagan appointed Justice Anthony Kennedy, who became part of the more liberal voting bloc and a swing vote, often siding with progressives. Justice David Souter, who was appointed by George H.W. Bush, was supposed to be a solid Republican justice from New Hampshire, turned out to be one of the most liberal justices ever, said Kamenar. A more recent example is Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, who helped save Obamacare in 2012, Mike Davis of the Article III Project, which promotes judiciary reform, told The Epoch Times. “The liberal media claims every ruling by a Trump-appointed judge is the final nail in the coffin of our democracy, but we all know it’s left-leaning judges who take an activist approach,” said Davis. “Democrats know they can’t win public debates and enact their agenda legislatively, so they weaponize the courts to accomplish their goals,” Davis alleged. Trump’s Appointments Recent Trump appointments seem to have bucked the historical trend of so-called conservatives getting to the courts and abandoning conservative principles by siding with the liberal bloc that has enabled Trump carefully selected constitutional conservatives who seem to be intent on rolling back the excesses of the Warren court, said Kamenar, and that’s what is behind the increase in attacks on the judiciary: fear that the court will now, finally, terminate the big, progressive state. “That’s their main thing, and that’s why progressives had all these ads on TV against Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, which was clearly politicizing the process,” he said about the nomination of those two conservative Supreme Court Justices. Kamenar cited an incident two years ago when Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was outside the Supreme Court and appeared to threaten conservative justices by name as they deliberated a case involving abortion, about which the NLPC filed a bar association complaint for unethical intimidation of the judiciary. “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” Schumer said on the steps of Supreme Court, using an amplified public address system, drawing a rebuke from Chief Justice Roberts. Activists vs. Originalists Kamenar said there is a big difference between what courts with a liberal philosophy and courts with a conservative philosophy are trying to accomplish. Progressives engage in judicial activism, he said, with progressive courts tasked with finding ways to justify progressive policies. “Conservatives, on the other hand, are ‘deactivating’ the activism of the liberal justices, if I can coin a term, who found rights that were not in the Constitution,” added Kamenar. But none of it has to do with protecting former President Trump, said the experts. “It’s shorthand to talk about Republican-appointed judges and Democrat-appointed judges and there is some correlation to how they see certain types of politically salient legal issues in terms of Trump’s personal stuff,” said Shapiro, who emphasized the legal philosophy grounding those decisions. But Shapiro said he doesn’t think it’s because Trump appointed them that they rule any particular way. “It’s not like he was appointing his entertainment lawyers or other kinds of unqualified people from his casinos or personal businesses. He was appointing people who have credentials to be sure, but they aren’t ‘Trumpy’ judges,” Shapiro said. And to argue that they are overly political or personal in their rulings is one of the biggest threats to our republic that we face, as it undermines public confidence in our court system, the legal experts said. Follow John Ransom is a freelance reporter covering U.S. news for The Epoch Times with offices in Washington, D.C., and Asia. Read More Here

Chuck Schumer Said He Doesn https://digitalarkansasnews.com/chuck-schumer-said-he-doesn/ Skip to main content Merdie Nzanga   | USA TODAY WASHINGTON –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reportedly said Monday to a group of Senate Democrats that he thinks his party won’t keep control of the House. According to a report in Punchbowl News, Schumer said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “in trouble.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed confidence again Wednesday at a press conference that the Democrats would retain the House. Historically, the party in the White House loses seats in midterm elections. In 2018, in the middle of former Republican President Donald Trump’s term, the Democrats won control of the House, while Republicans retained control of the Senate. During former Democratic President Barack Obama’s second term in 2014, Republicans retained the majority in the House and took the majority in the Senate. Senate Primaries: Who is Karoline Leavitt? New Hampshire GOP candidate could be among first Gen Z lawmakers History: Red wave or blue line? Biden, Trump start sprint to midterms as Democrats hope to defy history Facebook Twitter Email Read More Here

Biden Nominates US Attorney For Florida Mar-A-Lago District https://digitalarkansasnews.com/biden-nominates-us-attorney-for-florida-mar-a-lago-district/ A page from the FBI affidavit laying out the basis for a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, is photographed Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. A federal judge unsealed additional portions of the heavily redacted affidavit that shows how agents obtained a hard drive after issuing a subpoena for surveillance footage recorded inside Mar-a-Lago. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick) (Jon Elswick, Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden has nominated a Miami litigator and longtime government lawyer to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, the office currently involved in the Justice Department’s investigation of classified records at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Markenzy Lapointe would replace Juan Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez, who has been a top prosecutor in Southern Florida involved in the investigation of the classified records and the debate over whether a judge should appoint a special master to review the documents taken by FBI in the search. It was unclear why the Biden administration chose to announce the nomination for the position now, as the government’s case winds its way through the court system. Gonzalez, who had previously served as a senior prosecutor in the office, had been appointed to the position by Attorney General Merrick Garland. He was never nominated for the position or confirmed by the Senate. Gonzalez has served as a federal prosecutor in southern Florida since 1998 and served as the first assistant U.S. attorney and the acting U.S. attorney. He succeeded Ariana Fajardo Orshan, who had been nominated by Trump. Lapointe will likely be in the spotlight for months to come. He is currently with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and before that he worked at Boies Schiller & Flexner. He worked in the Southern District of Florida as an assistant U.S. attorney from 2002 to 2006. The office will likely be in the spotlight for months to come. Biden also formally nominated Roger Handberg to be the United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida, which is handling a federal investigation into Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz. Handberg was appointed by Garland and has been serving in the role since 2021. The president also nominated McLain J. Schneider to the District of North Dakota. He was in private practice and served in the North Dakota state Senate from 2008 to 2016. The White House said the lawyers were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, “their professionalism, their experience and credentials, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice.” ___ More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More Here

DOJ Considers RVC Native For Special Master https://digitalarkansasnews.com/doj-considers-rvc-native-for-special-master/ One of the candidates being considered for the role of special master in charge of reviewing sensitive documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate happens to hail from the Village of Rockville Centre. Judge Raymond J. Dearie, a U.S. District Court Judge who presides over the Federal courts in Brooklyn, was selected by Trump’s lawyers to fill the role. According to the Justice Department, he is a viable candidate to serve as the independent third-party tasked with to the case. According to the Eastern District Court of New York website, Dearie was born in Rockville Centre in 1944 and received his law degree from St. John’s University in 1969. After having spent three years in private practice, he worked as an attorney with the federal courts in the appeals, general crimes, and criminal divisions until 1977, when he went to work for the U.S. Attorney’s office. Dearie was nominated in 1986 by then-President Ronald Reagan and would serve as a judge with the U.S. District Court until 2011, after which he was given senior status on the circuit. He would then serve on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a 7-year-term, where he would approve requests made by federal investigators seeking surveillance warrants. During his time on the court, he approved warrants to surveil Carter Page, a former Trump adviser, over alleged ties with Russia and interference in the 2016 election. Two of the four surveillance warrants granted by the courts were later declared invalid by the Inspector General, who found a series of mistakes in the FBI submitted documents to the court. The remaining candidates proposed by attorneys with Trump’s camp would not meet the approval of the DOJ, who suggested Barbara S. Jones and Thomas Griffith for their judicial experience. Presently, Dearie is the only candidate both parties have agreed to serve in this role. Read More Here

Obituaries In Fort Smith, AR | Times Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/obituaries-in-fort-smith-ar-times-record-23/ Tom Sanderlin Thomas George Sanderlin, who resided in Barling, Arkansas, passed away Wednesday, September 14, 2022, in Van Buren, Arkansas. He was born on October 13, 1941, in Monticello, Arkansas, to the late Coker Hayes Sanderlin and LaVern (Hogue) Sanderlin. He was 80 years old. He was preceded in death by his brother, John Sanderlin. Tom served in the United States Navy. He was owner & operator of T & D Nails & Staples of Barling. He was an avid fisherman, hunter, and he loved the outdoors as well as reading. Being with his family was first. Funeral Mass services will be held at 10:00 am, Saturday, September 17th at Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Barling, with Father Matt Garrison officiating. Burial will follow, with military honors, at St. Mary’s Cemetery, located on Fort Chaffee in Barling, under the direction of Brotherton Brothers Funeral Home and Flower Shop in Charleston. He is survived by his wife, Janie (Becker) Sanderlin; a daughter, Camille Monchamp and husband Mick of Barling; a son, Doug Sanderlin and wife Kristina of Springfield, Illinois; two sisters, Barbara Womack and husband Farris of Little Rock, Arkansas and Susie Wells and husband Audrey of Dumas, Arkansas; seven grandchildren, Steven, Nicholas, William, Simon, Stephanie, Gavin and Sophie; and numerous nieces and nephews. Pallbearers will be Art Hogan, Gavin Monchamp, Simon Sanderlin, William Sanderlin, Nicholas Sanderlin, and Garrett Haupt. Rosary service will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, September 16th at Brotherton Funeral Home Chapel in Charleston. To place an online tribute, please visit www.brothertonbrothersfuneralhomes.com. Posted online on September 15, 2022 Published in Southwest Times Record Read More…

Trump Warns Of ‘big Problems’ If Indicted, Says He’d Still Run For Office https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-warns-of-big-problems-if-indicted-says-hed-still-run-for-office/ Former president Donald Trump warned that if he were indicted on a charge of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House, there would be “problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before.” Trump, speaking Thursday to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, added, “I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it.” Hewitt, who is also a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, then noted that critics would describe the comment as inciting violence, and he asked Trump to respond to the claim. “That’s not inciting — I’m just saying what my opinion is. I don’t think the people of this country would stand for it,” Trump said. When pressed by Hewitt, Trump said he thought there would be “big problems, big problems.” Federal agents conducted a court-authorized search of Trump’s club and residence Aug. 8, as part of a long-running investigation into whether government documents — some of which are classified — were being stored at Mar-a-Lago instead of returned to the National Archives. The FBI probe is the latest legal pressure on Trump, who now faces growing scrutiny as the criminal probe intensifies. The investigation is looking into whether he or his former aides took classified government documents and improperly stored or never returned them. Trump’s lawyer has argued that the former president cooperated with federal authorities and that many of the documents were covered by executive privilege. In January 2021, the House impeached Trump on a single charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in whipping up a crowd of his supporters to stop Congress from the counting of electoral college votes for Joe Biden. A mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop the count, an attack that resulted in five deaths and injuries to dozens of members of law enforcement. Trump’s comments Thursday came hours before officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security briefed Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee about threats against federal officials. After the briefing, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the committee’s chairman, described Trump’s rhetoric as dangerous. “Inviting the mob to return to the streets is exactly what happened here on January 6th, 2021,” Durbin told reporters. After noting that five people died as a result of the attack and 149 law enforcement agents were injured that day, the senator said Trump’s “careless and inflammatory rhetoric has its consequences.” In the interview with Hewitt, Trump also said he “would have no prohibition against running” for office if he were indicted. “It would not take you out of the arena,” Hewitt said, trying to clarify the former president’s position. Trump replied, “It would not.” In 1920, socialist Eugene V. Debs ran for president from prison, where he was serving time in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for speaking out against the draft during World War I. Debs and his running mate, Emil Seidel, garnered 913,693 votes, but — as in his previous campaigns — no electoral votes. Trump’s warning of problems echoes Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who told Fox News last month that there would be “riots in the street” if Trump is prosecuted. Trump appeared to endorse the notion, sharing a link to a video of Graham’s comments on his Truth Social platform. Read More Here

Famed Ukranian Medic Tells U.S. Congress About The ‘hell’ Of Russian Captivity; Putin Affirms Support For China’s Xi https://digitalarkansasnews.com/famed-ukranian-medic-tells-u-s-congress-about-the-hell-of-russian-captivity-putin-affirms-support-for-chinas-xi/ Biden to meet with family members of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, July 18, 2022. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters President Joe Biden will meet Friday with the wife of Brittney Griner and the sister of Paul Whelan, the two high-profile Americans currently detained in Russia, the White House confirmed. “He wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and his team is working on this every day — making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “As we have said before, we believe Russia is illegally detaining Brittney and Paul under intolerable conditions,” she added. Griner was sentenced in August to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to drug charges. Whelan was convicted of espionage in June 2020 and sentenced to 16 years behind bars. “We would love to be saying today that we have news about Brittany and Paul coming home today, unfortunately that is not where the negotiations are at this time,” Jean-Pierre said. The Biden administration recently proposed a prisoner swap with Russia to secure Griner and Whelan’s release, but Moscow rejected the deal. “The Russians should accept the offer that we have put on the table,” said Jean-Pierre. — Emma Kinery Ukrainian military reports conducting more than 140 fire missions in the past day Ukrainian artillerymen fire a self-propelled 203mm cannon “2s7 Pion” on the southern frontline of Ukraine on September 15, 2022. Ihor Tkachov | AFP | Getty Images The Ukrainian military is continuing its major counteroffensive advance on the Russian occupied city of Kherson in Southern Ukraine, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military reported in a Facebook post Thursday. Vladyslav Nazarov, of the Southern Operation Command, said artillery units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces executed over 140 fire missions in the past day alone. Facing Russian soldiers in the south who are better prepared to defend their positions than the Russians in retaken areas of the northeast were, Ukrainians have focused on isolating Russian units by bombing bridges and roads that the Kremlin needs to resupply the front lines. The photo above and the one below show Ukrainian troops on Thursday in southern Ukraine firing a large artillery gun at Russian positions. Ukrainian artillerymen prepare a self-propelled 203mm cannon “2s7 Pion” to fire, on the southern frontline of Ukraine on September 15, 2022. (Photo by Ihor Tkachov / AFP) (Photo by IHOR TKACHOV/AFP via Getty Images) Ihor Tkachov | AFP | Getty Images — Christina Wilkie U.S. sanctions leader of Russia’s campaign to deport Ukrainian children to Russia Children stay at a temporary accommodation centre for evacuees, including residents of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, in the building of a local sports school in Taganrog in the Rostov region, Russia March 17, 2022. Sergey Pivovarov | Reuters The Treasury Department issued first-time sanctions on the leader of one of Russia’s most notorious government agencies, the so-called Presidential Commission for Children’s Rights. Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova leads the agency identified by the United Nations as the primary organizer of mass deportations of Ukrainian orphans and children separated from their families to Russia. At a recent U.N. meeting on the Russian deportation of Ukrainians, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield reported that in the month of July alone, “more than 1,800 children were transferred from Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine to Russia.” Many of the children were “separated from their families and taken from orphanages before being put up for adoption in Russia,” she said. According to the Treasury Department’s sanctions report, Lvova-Belova has spearheaded the “forced adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families, the so-called ‘patriotic education’ of Ukrainian children, legislative changes to expedite the provision of Russian Federation citizenship to Ukrainian children, and the deliberate removal of Ukrainian children by Russia’s forces.” — Christina Wilkie EU’s von der Leyen says Europe can do more to ease non-tariff barriers to Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) speaks with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen after a press conference following their talks in Kyiv on September 15, 2022. Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images “So much has changed for the better here in Kyiv,” said European Union Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the streets of Ukraine’s capital. “We will never be able to match the sacrifice that the Ukrainians are making,” von der Leyen told reporters. “But what we can tell you is that you’ll have your European friends by your side as long as it takes.” Von der Leyen praised the speed with which the EU and Ukraine have connected Ukraine’s electrical grid to the EU, a task that was projected to take at least two years before the war, but which was accomplished in two weeks. “Ukraine is now delivering electricity to the EU, and this we want to improve and increase and thus create steadfast flows of income to Ukraine,” she said. Making her third trip to Ukraine since the start of the war, von der Leyen emphasized the importance of smoothing out Ukraine’s economic integration into Europe. She noted that 98% of tariffs on Ukrainian exports to the EU have now been lifted. But “there are many non-tariff barriers that we can take away.” The European Parliament voted in June to accept Ukraine as a formal candidate for accession into the EU. — Christina Wilkie Ukrainian medic describes being tortured by Russian soldiers as a POW Yuliia Paievska, known as Taira, poses for a photograph during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, July 8, 2022. Evgeniy Maloletka | AP Yuliia “Taira” Paievska, a Ukrainian volunteer medic, testified before the U.S. Helsinki Commission that she was tortured over three months in Russian captivity. “When I was in captivity I was being tortured, and they tried to make me give a confession some kind about alleged crimes which I had never committed,” Paieyska said in a hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. “They didn’t care to know the truth. They just wanted me to admit guilt of for something I had never committed,” she said. Paievska also detailed the treatment of some of her fellow prisoners, and described situations that appeared to violate Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners and civilians in war. “Prisoners in cells, screaming for weeks from the torture and lack of medical help,” she told the lawmakers. “A fighter who was beaten for three hours and then thrown into the basement like a sack, and only a day later someone come to him,” she said. “Pregnant prisoners were well known to their relatives and to the state,” Paievska said in an apparent reference to women raped while in captivity. “A dead child in its mother’s arms. A seven year old boy with bullet wounds, dying in my lap,” she said. Russia has denied committing atrocities during its months long invasion of Ukraine. But international investigators have documented hundreds of cases of apparent war crimes, from torture and rape to mass executions. — Christina Wilkie US Navy assault ship takes part in Baltic Sea training U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship, USS Kearsarge arrives in Stockholm, ahead of maritime focused training Baltops 22, in Stockholm, Sweden, June 2, 2022.  TT News Agency | Reuters U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge is taking part in international training in the Baltic Sea amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and tensions in the region. The Kearsarge is the first ship of the Wasp class to take part in international training in the Baltic in at least two decades. Associated Press journalists visited the ship last week. “It’s a first off for us in recent memory and it’s been very exciting,” said Capt. Tom Foster, the commanding officer of the Kearsarge. With some other U.S. Navy ships, the Kearsarge has been training for several months with the militaries of Sweden and Finland, which formally applied to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The training mission is to promote safety and security in the region. “In the past several months, we have been operating in the Baltics and in the Mediterranean,” said Capt. Aaron Kelley, commander of the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group. — Associated Press Ukraine’s ‘hero medic’ testifies before the Senate Helsinki Commission U.S. lawmakers are hearing testimony this morning from Yuliia “Taira” Paievska, a Ukrainian volunteer medic who gained a following early in the war for her dramatic videos of emergency medical workers on the battlefield. Paievska saved the lives of 700 people during early days of the war, including children and Russian soldiers. In March, Paievska was captured in Mariupol and held prisoner by Russia for three months. Following her release this summer, she participated in the international Invictus games for injured veterans, where she won three medals. “In the first 20 days of this war I spent in Mariupol, which was hell. Then I spent three months in Russian captivity, which was hell, too” Paievska said in her opening remarks at a hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. “When my tormentors advised me to commit suicide, I said no,” she said. — Christina Wilkie The ‘destruction is serious’ in Zelenskyy’s home city of Kryvyi Rih after repeated strikes President Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih in cent...

Police Departments Ramp Up Active Shooter Trainings After Uvalde Massacre https://digitalarkansasnews.com/police-departments-ramp-up-active-shooter-trainings-after-uvalde-massacre/ Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and most recently Uvalde, Texas. Those cities may ring a bell, as they’ve made headlines for deadly mass school shootings in the last decade.  Survivors of the Uvalde school shooting went back to school last week, so Fox News wanted to get a better understanding of the training law enforcement goes through for these types of scenarios. Multimedia reporter Ashley Soriano experienced an active school shooter simulation at Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response (ALERRT) Center. It was created in 2002 to use research-based training in active shooter scenarios, including schools. Every police department within 100 miles of the Maxwell, Texas, facility has come to train at the facility at some point. They use equipment including mock ammunition and inert guns, radios, ear protectors, tourniquets and more. “Our primary objective is to get [the shooter] secured as best we can, get the weapon away from him,” said Sam Stock, the center’s Texas regional manager. Police departments have increased their training for active shooter situations in the wake of school shootings. FOX News First responders learn how to prioritize what’s important first, second and so on. “The first thing you need to do is to stop the killing,” executive director Dr. Pete Blair said. “That’s if you’re hearing gunfire, you can see that people are being attacked. It’s moving to stop that attacker as quickly as possible so they don’t create any more casualties.” He says the 1999 Columbine, Colorado, school shooting prompted a need for this sort of specialized training. The center teaches first responders how to breach a locked or difficult-to-enter building, handle firearms, take down a gunman in a safe but quick manner, treat injuries and more. “If you look at extremely violent events like an active shooter event, most police officers would go through their entire career and never shoot at anybody,” Dr. Blair said. “You need to have specialized training in it if you’re going to respond successfully when an event happens.” Another big push in expanding training came after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Police departments nationwide have ramped up their training, FOX News “If we get it as close to the real thing as possible, then when you encounter the real thing, it’s less novel, it’s less different and it’s less shocking to your body, your system and your brain, so you’re able to perform better,” Dr. Blair said. The center expanded its training to include fire and EMS first responders. Since its founding, it has trained more than 248,000 personnel in all 50 states. In addition, about 900,000 civilians have trained under the center’s Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) Avoid-Deny-Defend awareness program. Police departments nationwide have ramped up their training, with simulations happening this summer in places including Fort Smith, Arkansas; Atlanta, Georgia and its surrounding metro cities; and Georgetown Kentucky, to name a few. Some police departments have started to train school staff members, such as in Fort Worth, Texas. The Fort Worth Police Department confirmed to Fox News that it has provided training at no cost to more than 500 teachers across north Texas and continues to partner with local school Districts. In Las Vegas, the Metro Police Department confirmed its Multi-Assault Counter-Terrorism Action Capabilities section has received training at the ALERRT Center at one point. LVMPD told Fox News it routinely consults outside training agencies to “ensure our curriculum is consistent with best practices,” although they do not instruct ALERRT specifically. In March 2013, the FBI announced the ALERRT Center is the national standard and are training all their agents, according to the center’s website. Some major cities such as New York City, Miami, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta, are training their first responders in ALERRT tactics and standards. About 900,000 civilians have trained under the center’s Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) Avoid-Deny-Defend awareness program. FOX News The center’s campus has various stations, including a shooting range, staged simulation sets like classrooms and apartments and various types of doors to practice breaching. The doors are specific to each type of breaching and which tools are needed: pry bars, rams, shotguns or explosives. “Rule number one of breaching is always try the handle. You’ll be surprised how often people don’t, and you realize, ‘Oh, it was never locked,’” Dr. Blair said. Nearly 400 officers from different agencies responded to the Uvalde mass shooting, but it took over an hour to take down the gunman. The ALERRT center released its own investigation into the police response, finding mistakes inconsistent with their teaching of “stop the killing and stop the dying.” According to the July 6 report, ALERRT staff performed a “pry” breach in a series of tests at Robb Elementary School during its investigation.  It took three to four seconds to pry open the door using a Stanley Fatt Maxx and a sledgehammer, although the report recognized in a real active shooter event, it would be dangerous for officers to do so without a ballistic shield. The report also suggested other breaching methods, such as using a 12-gauge shotgun. Best practices in law enforcement are constantly changing, Dr. Blair said, and unfortunately “We’re thinking we’re going to see more of these events as time goes forward.” Read More Here

Nasdaq Falls As Wall Street's Rebound Attempt Falters Amid Fears Of A Fed-Induced Recession https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nasdaq-falls-as-wall-streets-rebound-attempt-falters-amid-fears-of-a-fed-induced-recession/ Software ETF on pace for worst week since January The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF is down more than 3% Thursday, underperforming the broader market, and more than 6% week-to-date, on track for its fourth down week in five and the steepest weekly loss since early January. Among the stocks in the ETF that are hardest hit are Adobe, ServiceNow and Zscaler. Adobe has traded more than 19 million shares Thursday after the announcement of its $20 billion deal to buy Figma, surpassing the 17.4 million shares that traded one day in Dec. 2012. Its more than 16% decline leaves Adobe on pace for its largest one-day loss since Sept. 2010. — Scott Schnipper, Gina Francolla Mortgage rates rise above 6% Mortgage rates have topped 6% for the first time since 2008, according to Freddie Mac. The average for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is now 6.02%, up from 5.89% last week, according to a survey from the real estate company. The benchmark mortgage rate has more than doubled over the past year as the Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates. However, even as the higher rates have raised the monthly cost for prospective buyers, home prices have not moved materially lower. “Although the increase in rates will continue to dampen demand and put downward pressure on home prices, inventory remains inadequate. This indicates that while home price declines will likely continue, they should not be large,” Freddie Mac said. — Jesse Pound Ether struggles as merge takes effect The ethereum merge has not been bullish for ether, at least immediately. The blockchain network’s main coin is now down 6% for the day. — Jesse Pound Ray Dalio says higher interest rates could trigger a 20% drop or more in stocks Billionaire investor Ray Dalio issued a dismal outlook for the markets and the economy, predicting a 20% or greater plunge in stock prices, as the Federal Reserve continues to combat inflation with aggressive rate hikes. “I estimate that a rise in rates from where they are to about 4.5 percent will produce about a 20 percent negative impact on equity prices based on the present value discount effect and about a 10 percent negative impact from declining incomes,” the founder of Bridgewater said in a LinkedIn post dated Tuesday. The Fed is expected to approve next week a third consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase this month that would take benchmark rates up to a range of 3%-3.25%. Most traders expect interest rates to top 4% by the end of 2022, according to CME FedWatch tool. — Yun Li Humana climbs after hiking earnings guidance Health insurance stock Humana popped 8% after the company raised its earnings guidance for the full fiscal year and announced a new board member. Humana said it now expects adjusted earnings this year of $25 per share, up from $24.75 previously. The company cited “lower-than-expected medical cost trends” as a reason for its adjusted guidance. Humana also said it is targeting $37 in adjusted EPS in 2025. — Jesse Pound Financial stocks rise in early trading Financial stocks are outperforming the broader market on Thursday morning, as rates move solidly higher once again. Shares of JPMorgan have gained 1.5%, while Goldman Sachs is up 1.6%. Fintech company SoFi is doing even better, with shares up 4.4%. — Jesse Pound Oil drops more than 2% Oil prices declined more than 2% on Thursday as supply concerns were outweighed by expectations of falling demand and a stronger dollar. Oil demand growth will halt in the fourth quarter, according to the International Energy Agency this week. Meanwhile, the dollar held near recent peaks ahead of a potentially large interest rate hike. Brent crude fell 2.6% to $91.63 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was 2.5% lower to $86.25 per barrel. — Sarah Min Stocks open lower The three major market averages fell at the market open on Thursday, led to the downside by 0.7%. Shares of Adobe sank more than 11%, weighing on the tech-heavy index. — Jesse Pound Economic data ‘unimpressive,’ Wells Fargo’s Schumacher says A flurry of economic data at 8:30 painted a mixed picture of the U.S. economy. Retail sales rose but saw negative revisions to the prior month. The Philly Fed manufacturing survey surprisingly turned negative. “It’s unimpressive. It looks like the economy didn’t fall off a cliff … it takes some of the steam out of the 100 basis point argument. The market’s initial read was the data was pretty crummy, but on a few minutes reflection, the reaction is the data is just a little weak,” said Michael Schumacher, head of macro strategy at Wells Fargo. — Jesse Pound, Patti Domm Unemployment claims continue to fall Initial unemployment claims fell slightly to 213,000, continuing a trend of falling unemployment claim volume that began last month. The week saw a decrease of about 5,000 from the prior week, bringing national claims down to the lowest level since late May, according to data from the Department of Labor. Claims are down about 41% from 363,000 a year ago. — Alex Harring Retail sales rise 0.3% in August Consumer spending held up last month with retail sales rising 0.3%, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Economists were expecting sales to be flat for August. However, retail sales for July got revised lower from flat to a 0.4% drop. — Yun Li Adobe shares drop after Figma acquisition announcement Adobe announced on Thursday morning that it has a deal to acquire design software company Figma in a deal worth about $20 billion. Adobe will pay a mix of cash and stock for the transaction. Shares of Adobe dropped more than 8% in premarket trading. Figma is a private company based out of San Francisco. — Jesse Pound Seasonal patterns could halt a market comeback As the stock market tries to climb out of the whole caused by Tuesday’s massive drop, seasonal forces could be holding it down in the near term. “We are entering one of the worst seasonal stretches of the year through mid-October. The first test of 3,900 had some validity as a low, but subsequent tests are less likely to hold, in our view,” BTIG strategist Jonathan Krinsky wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday evening. Krinsky said that the lack of reaction the options market during Tuesday’s sell-off suggests that investors are still “complacent” which means another big move downward could be in the cards. “Ultimately we continue to think the June lows (~3,660) must be firmly in the conversation now,” he added. —Jesse Pound Railroad stocks tick up following labor deal expected to avert strike Shares of railroad companies rose before the bell Thursday following a tentative, last-minute labor deal with the unions representing railway workers that is expected to avert a strike. CSX Corp. and Union Pacific rose 5.38% and 3.92% in early trading. Norfolk Southern also went up 1.5%. President Joe Biden’s announcement of the agreement comes amid a period of tumult within the railroad industry. The unions, which collectively represent about 60,000 workers, prepared a nationwide strike that was expected to have halted more than 7,000 trains and cost up to around $2 billion per day. Railroads account for about 40% of long-distance trade in the U.S. The White House had communicated with the unions and companies for several months, though they previously could not come to a consensus on sick time. Under the tentative agreement, rail employees will see a 24% wage increase between 2020 and 2024. The agreements must be ratified by each union. — Alex Harring, Leslie Josephs, Melodie Warner Crypto market is calm after ethereum merge is completed The long-awaited ethereum merge took effect overnight. The software upgrade switches the ethereum network to proof-of-stake from proof-of-work, a move that should significantly reduce energy consumption for the blockchain network. However, there did not appear to be an immediate reaction in crypto prices. Ether, the flagship token for the ethereum network, dipped 0.3% to $1,585.18 on Thursday morning. — Jesse Pound Netflix gets upgrade at Evercore ISI Netflix shares rose more than 2% after analysts at Evercore ISI upgraded the streaming giant to outperform from in line, saying the company’s new ad-supported subscriber tier can give the company a much-needed boost. “We believe these opportunities, especially the ad-supported service, constitute Growth Curve Initiatives (GCIs)—catalysts that can drive a material reacceleration in revenue growth,” the firm wrote. “We don’t believe these opportunities are factored into current Street estimates or into NFLX’s current valuation. Hence the upgrade.” CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Sam Subin Europe markets higher as banks lead gains European markets rose in early trading Thursday, with banking stocks taking the lead. The pan-European Stoxx 600 opened in the red before moving to a 0.34% gain through the first hour of trading, as banking stocks added 1.75%. The euro zone bank index hit its highest level since June 10, Reuters reported. — Jenni Reid CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley says the S&P 500 is set for a comeback by year-end. These are its top stock picks U.S. markets had a meltdown on Tuesday — the worst since June 2020 — following yet another hot inflation report. But that may not last for long, according to Andrew Slimmon of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, who says the S&P 500 could enjoy upside by year-end. He predicts the level that the S&P 500 will rise to by the year end, and also picks stocks to buy into the “fear.” CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Weizhen Tan U.S. 2-year Treasury yields hits 3.8% again Inflation isn’t as bad as the data makes it seem, says Commonwealth’s McMillan This ...

Sam Pittman Looking For More Wide Receiver Help https://digitalarkansasnews.com/sam-pittman-looking-for-more-wide-receiver-help/ FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ wide receivers looked good in preseason, but so far Sam Pittman is hoping to get a few more in that group to step up. Oklahoma transfer Jadon Haselwood leads the Razorbacks with eight catches for 72 yards and one touchdown. Matt Landers is next with seven for 88 yards while Warren Thompson has five receptions for 58 yards and a touchdown. Ketron Jackson and Malik Hornsby each have caught one pass. A pair of redshirt freshmen and three true freshmen are wide receivers Pittman is hoping can get involved in the passing game. The redshirt freshman are Bryce Stephens and Jaedon Wilson. The true freshmen are Isaiah Sategna, Quincey McAdoo and Sam Mbake. “Yeah, there really is,” Pittman said of a chance for more cracking the rotation. “I’ve said it before you know how I like this group. Of course, you prefaced the four guys who have been playing a little bit. But you’ve got Wilson, Stephens, McAdoo. I really like McAdoo. Mbake is coming on, and he’s going to play more special teams wise. Sategna, I like him a lot. We have big plans for him. He rolled his ankle yesterday. I don’t know exactly where he’s going to be on that. Those guys are good players, but we just haven’t had the situations really right yet. “Even Ketron Jackson, who I think is a really good player, we haven’t got him the reps really yet that I would like to. Those are good problems at times. To answer your question, I’m really high on McAdoo and Sategna and Mbake. They’re all really good players, and of course we have the other guys in Stephens and Wilson who aren’t playing that I like as well. I would have no problem putting them in the game, but the situation hasn’t quite been there yet where we were able to do that.” Landers came over from Toledo where in 2021 he caught 20 passes for 514 yards and five touchdowns in 12 games. Prior to that, Landers had played in 25 games at Georgia with one start. “He’s a very quiet and business like personality,” Pittman said. “A mature guy. I didn’t know him quite as well, obviously wasn’t his position coach when I was at Georgia. But I knew that he was fast and was a good person. But our relationship has grown since he’s been here. Obviously had more time to visit with him and talk to him and I’ve tried to be of help to him and he’s been a joy to have on the team.” Haselwood came over from Oklahoma where he led the Sooners with 39 receptions and six touchdowns. The catches went for 399 yards. Pittman said Haselwood is having fun with the Hogs. “I think yeah, I think he’s having a good time,” Pittman said. “He’s a physical kid. He’s a man. He’s a mature kid. He’s not afraid to say his opinion, which helps the football team. He’s not afraid to lead. Brings a lot of confidence to the offensive football team. He just does. He brings a lot of confidence. He’s never down. I like everything about him. I think he’s tough and physical, a good player. I hope he’s having fun because I’m having fun because he’s on the team.” Arkansas (2-0) will host Missouri State (2-0) at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 on ESPN+/SECN+. Read More Here

NAIFA Announces Nominees For 2023 National Leadership Positions https://digitalarkansasnews.com/naifa-announces-nominees-for-2023-national-leadership-positions/ We selected a group of candidates who bring passion, energy, intelligence, and a dedication to service that will lead NAIFA to continued success. FALLS CHURCH, Va. (PRWEB) September 15, 2022 The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors’ (NAIFA’s) Committee on Governance has nominated Douglas B. Massey, LUTCF, FSS, Owner of Doug Massey Financial Services in San Angelo, TX, to be the 2023 NAIFA Secretary. A current member of NAIFA’s Board of Trustees, Massey has been a loyal NAIFA member since 1987. As incoming Secretary, Massey will be in line to serve as President-Elect in 2024 and President in 2025. The Committee has also nominated two members to serve two-year terms on the NAIFA Board of Trustees. The nominees are Brian J. Haney, CLTC, CFS, CIS, CFBS, LACP, CAE, Founder and CEO of the Haney Company in Silver Spring, MD, a loyal member since 2013, and Carina Hatfield, LUTCF, CLCS, LACP, Owner of Weigner Insurance & Financial Services Inc. in Pottstown, PA, a loyal member since 2005. Under the respective leadership of Haney and Hatfield, The Haney Company and Weigner Insurance & Financial Services are both participants in NAIFA’s 100% Agency program. Two members of the 2022 Board whose terms are expiring have been nominated to serve additional one-year terms. They are Aprilyn Chavez Geissler, LACP, First Executive Vice President with Gateway Financial Advisors in Albuquerque, NM, a loyal member since 2005, and Dennis Cuccinelli, LACP, an Independent Financial Representative in Edison, NJ, a loyal member since 1986. Geissler has served the organization in a myriad of ways including being a past national Diversity Champion, and Cuccinelli has served the association for multiple years as national membership chair. Bryon A. Holz, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, CASL, LACP, President of Bryon Holz & Associates in Brandon, FL, and a loyal member since 1987 will serve as NAIFA’s 2023 President. Thomas M. Cothron, LUTCF, FSCP, Agency Manager at Southern Farm Bureau Insurance in Ocala, FL, a loyal member since 1981, will be the 2023 President-Elect. Both Holz and Cothron have served the association in multiple roles including national Trustee, state president, and specialty committee roles throughout their leadership tenure. Brock T. Jolly, CFP, CLU, LACP, ChFC, CLTC, CASL, RICP, Partner at Veritas Financial LLC/MassMutual and Financial Group in McLean, VA, a loyal member since 2001, is nominated to continue to serve as NAIFA’s Treasurer. Lawrence J. Holzberg, LUTCF, LACP, Director of Insurance and Advance Sales, at Fortis Lux Financial, in Melville, NY, a loyal member since 1990, will serve as Immediate Past President. Continuing their current terms as members of the Board of Trustees in 2023 are Mark Acre, LUTCF, CEO of OneSource Insurance Group in Ozark, MO, a loyal member since 2009; Christopher L. Gandy, LACP, Founder of Midwest Legacy Group (OneAmerica) in Lisle, IL, a loyal member since 2003; Evelyn Gellar, LUTCF, RICP, CLTC, FSCP, CDFA, Managing Director of Forest Hills Financial Group (Guardian Life) in Melville, NY, a loyal member since 1993; Winona Havir, CPCU, CLF, LUTCF, FSS, AIC, LACP, Executive Vice President of Business Development with Educators Insurance Resources Services, Inc. (Horace Mann) in Stillwater, MN, a loyal member since 1997; and Danny O’Connell, LACP, CEO of Next Level Insurance Agency in Addison, TX, a loyal member since 2008. The nominees will stand for election during NAIFA’s annual business meeting at the National Leadership Conference (NLC). The NLC and Belong awards celebration will be held November 13-15 at the historic Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Following the association’s business meeting, all Trustees and state presidents will be sworn into office with an awards dinner to follow. The NAIFA Governance Committee consists of 12 NAIFA members and is chaired by NAIFA Past President Cammie Scott, MSIE, ChHC, CLTC, LUTCF, REBC, RHU, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, President of CK Harp & Associates in Springdale, AR, a loyal member since 1998. “The Governance Committee considered a strong slate of applicants for the NAIFA Secretary and Board of Trustee positions, and we selected a group of candidates who bring passion, energy, intelligence, and a dedication to service that will lead NAIFA to continued success as we enter year three of the NAIFA 2025 Strategic Plan,” Scott said. “This group, along with returning board members, incoming President Bryon Holz and President-Elect Tom Cothron, will continue to lead NAIFA’s modernization and delivery of a high-quality membership experience.” ABOUT NAIFA: The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors is the preeminent membership association for the multigenerational community of financial professionals in the United States. NAIFA members subscribe to a strong Code of Ethics and represent a full spectrum of financial services practice specialties. They work with families and businesses to help Americans improve financial literacy and achieve financial security. NAIFA provides producers a national community for advocacy, education and networking along with awards, publications and leadership opportunities to allow NAIFA members to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. NAIFA has 53 state and territorial chapters and 35 large metropolitan local chapters. NAIFA members in every congressional district advocate on behalf of producers and consumers at the state, interstate and federal levels. Read More Here

Biden Says Tentative Railway Labor Deal Has Been Reached, Averting A Strike https://digitalarkansasnews.com/biden-says-tentative-railway-labor-deal-has-been-reached-averting-a-strike/ Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at the Amtrak Johnstown Train Station, Sept. 30, 2020, in Johnstown, Pa. Andrew Harnik/AP hide caption toggle caption Andrew Harnik/AP Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at the Amtrak Johnstown Train Station, Sept. 30, 2020, in Johnstown, Pa. Andrew Harnik/AP A strike that could have halted both freight and passenger trains across the country seems to have been averted. After a marathon negotiating session lasting 20 hours, the White House announced early Thursday that a tentative agreement had been reached between rail companies and the unions representing conductors and engineers. “This agreement is validation – validation of what I’ve always believed. Unions and management can work together, can work together for the benefit of everyone,” President Biden said, calling the deal a win for America and for rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to deliver goods. Union members still have to vote to ratify the agreement before it is finalized. A vote is not expected for at least a couple of weeks. The parties had been negotiating the contract without resolution for several years and were facing a 12:01 am Friday deadline, the end of a “cooling off period.” Biden called in to the talks at 9 p.m. Wednesday night to urge groups to “be flexible, be creative, get a deal done,” an official said. At 2 a.m. Thursday, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh called to announce they had a deal. Already this week, freight rail companies had halted shipments of hazardous materials, including chlorine to water treatment plants and chemicals for fertilizers, not wanting those goods to be left unattended should a strike be called. Amtrak said in a statement it is working to quickly restore canceled trains and reaching out to impacted customers to accommodate on first available departures. Yesterday, Amtrak announced that it was canceling all of its long-distance trains due to the threatened strike. The National Carriers’ Conference Committee, which represents the nation’s freight railroads said: “The tentative agreements announced today follow the August 16 recommendations of Presidential Emergency Board…which include a 24% wage increase during the five-year period from 2020 through 2024 — with a 14.1% wage increase effective immediately — and five annual $1,000 lump sum payments.” The deal also includes changes to workplace attendance policies that workers found overly punitive. Under the tentative agreement, workers will be able to take time off for medical care without facing discipline, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the SMART Transportation Division confirmed in a joint statement. Those attendance policies had become the major sticking point as the deadline for a deal neared. In an interview with NPR, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said the proposed deal will bring not just pay increases and quality of life improvements for workers but will help the railroads as well. “It means a way to attract and retain great workers,” Buttigieg said. “It means avoiding the disruptions that could have accompanied any kind of shutdown or or slowdown.” Read More Here

Mortgage Rates Surpass 6 Percent For The First Time Since 2008 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mortgage-rates-surpass-6-percent-for-the-first-time-since-2008/ Mortgage rates shot above 6 percent this week for the first time in 14 years as inflation has remained resistant to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tamp it down. The dramatically swift escalation has chilled what had been a hot U.S. housing market, increasing pressure on an economy plagued by unremitting inflation. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage — the most popular home loan product — soared to 6.02 percent this week, nearly double what it was nine months ago, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac. It has not been this high since November 2008. The jump came as inflation data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this week showed consumer prices accelerating in August, particularly for items such as housing and food. The consumer price index had housing costs up 0.7 percent in August and 6.2 percent higher annually, the largest increase since 1990. “Mortgage rates have gone up four weeks in a row because of investors’ concerns about inflation,” said Holden Lewis, home and mortgage expert at NerdWallet. “Their worries are warranted, as we learned this week that inflation ran hotter than expected in August, as reflected in the consumer price index. That news boosted mortgage rates higher — a phenomenon that will be reflected in next week’s rates.” The 30-year fixed average began the year at 3.22 percent. After soaring to 5.81 percent in late June, it eased in July and early August as fears of a recession took hold. But since falling to 5.13 percent on Aug. 18, the 30-year fixed average has climbed nearly a percentage point in a month. Rates are still below the historical average of 7.8 percent, according to Freddie Mac. The sudden spike in rates this year has made homes less affordable and cooled sales. Prices have begun to moderate but remain elevated. The most recent Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index showed prices up 18 percent annually in June, down from 19.9 percent the previous month. Home sales fell in July for the sixth month in a row. Housing starts, a measure of new home construction, also sank that month. “Mortgage rates at or above 6 percent is likely the new reality and prices will have to adjust,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist with Bright MLS, the area’s multiple-listing service. “Relatively strong demand and still-low inventory will continue to support stable or growing prices in most markets, but gone are the days of seeing offers tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price. In some places, particularly high-cost markets and places where prices have grown fastest over the past two years, we could see year-over-year price declines.” Demand for mortgages has fallen as swiftly as rates have risen. Total application volume fell for the fifth week in a row, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinances are off 83 percent from where they were a year ago. “With all eyes on the Federal Reserve’s next steps to tame high inflation, borrowers can expect continued volatility in mortgage rates,” Bob Broeksmit, MBA’s president and chief executive, wrote in an email. Home affordability fell to a new low for first-time buyers in the second quarter, according to a recent analysis of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas by NerdWallet. Even though more homes came on the market, higher prices and stagnant wages kept buyers on the sidelines. NerdWallet found that homes were listed for sale at 6.5 times the typical first-time buyer’s income across 50 U.S. metros, and 6.6 times their income across the nation. The recommended standard for first-time buyers is three times their income. August’s inflation reading surprised investors, who are wondering whether the Federal Reserve will consider lifting its benchmark rate by 100 basis points, rather than 75 basis points as it did in July. (A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.) The Fed’s rate-setting committee meets next week. In an effort to tamp down inflation, the central bank has raised the federal funds rate four times this year. It started with a 25-basis point increase in March, followed by a 50-basis point increase in May and back-to-back 75-basis point hikes in June and July. The Fed will probably want to see signs inflation is abating before it pulls back on raising rates. “The Federal Reserve was already going to increase short-term rates next week in its effort to restrain inflation,” Lewis said. “They might dial up the aggressiveness in response to this week’s unexpectedly high inflation report, further propelling mortgage rates upward.” When investors are worried about inflation, their appetite for buying bonds diminishes because the return on their investment is less when inflation is high. Inflation erodes the value of a bond’s future payments. Less demand causes bond prices to drop and yields to rise. Since mortgage rates tend to follow the same path as the 10-year Treasury yield, they rise, too. The yield on the 10-year Treasury popped back up to 3.42 percent on Tuesday before slipping to 3.41 percent on Wednesday, its highest level since mid-June. “The higher-than-expected CPI gave the Fed the permission to push forward with their 0.75 percentage point increase with some economists suggesting even a one percentage point increase would be viable,” said Nicole Rueth, producing branch manager at the Rueth Team. “Mortgage rates have already baked in this move with the jump we saw over the last two days.” Mortgage rates might not have peaked yet, Rueth said. “Comparative inflation from a year ago still has us replacing a very low inflation in September 2021,” she said. “With today’s inflationary pressures … we could see September’s CPI — released early Oct — still higher. October 2021’s inflation started the trend higher, so year-over-year comparisons will give us some relief. As inflation comes down, so will mortgage rates.” correction A previous version of this story said the consumer price index of housing costs experienced its largest increase since 1991. It is the biggest increase since 1990. Read More Here

Trump Chief Of Staff Used Book On President’s Mental Health As Guide https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-chief-of-staff-used-book-on-presidents-mental-health-as-guide/ Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff secretly bought a book in which 27 mental health professionals warned that the president was psychologically unfit for the job, then used it as a guide in his attempts to cope with Trump’s irrational behavior. News of John Kelly’s surreptitious purchase comes in a new book from Peter Baker of the New York Times and Susan Glasser of the New Yorker. The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy. The book Kelly bought, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, was a bestseller in 2017. In January 2018 its editor, then Yale psychiatrist Bandy Lee, described its aims in a Guardian column. She wrote: “While we keep within the letter of the Goldwater rule – which prohibits psychiatrists from diagnosing public figures without a personal examination and without consent – there is still a lot that mental health professionals can tell before the public reaches awareness. “These come from observations of a person’s patterns of responses, of media appearances over time, and from reports of those close to him. Indeed, we know far more about Trump in this regard than many, if not most, of our patients. “Nevertheless, the personal health of a public figure is her private affair – until, that is, it becomes a threat to public health.” Kelly, a retired general, became Trump’s second chief of staff in July 2017 – after Trump fired Reince Priebus by tweet – and left the job in January 2019. His struggles to impose order on Trump and his underlings and his virulent falling out with the president have been extensively documented. According to Baker and Glasser, who interviewed Kelly, the retired Marine Corps general bought a copy of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump as he “sought help to understand the president’s particular psychoses and consulted it while he was running the White House, which he was known to refer to as ‘Crazytown’”. “Kelly told others that the book was a helpful guide to a president he came to consider a pathological liar whose inflated ego was in fact the sign of a deeply insecure person.” The authors report that Kelly’s view was shared by unnamed senior officials, quoting one as saying: “I think there’s something wrong with [Trump]. He doesn’t listen to anybody, and he feels like he shouldn’t. He just doesn’t care what other people say and think. I’ve never seen anything like it.” The 25th amendment, which provides for the replacement of a president unable to meet the demands of the job, was seriously discussed at the end of Trump’s presidency, after the Capitol attack he incited. Baker and Glasser say the amendment was tentatively discussed by cabinet members “within months of Trump taking office”. However, its flaws – if Trump opposed its use he would be all but impossible to shift – precluded further action. Trump regularly dismissed claims about his mental health and his staff’s worries about it. In January 2018, after the publication of Michael Wolff’s tell-all book Fire and Fury, Trump memorably told reporters he was “a very stable genius”. Kelly has regularly attacked Trump. In October 2020, CNN reported that Kelly told friends Trump’s dishonesty was “astounding … more pathetic than anything else” and called Trump “the most flawed person” he had ever met. Trump blasted back, claiming Kelly “didn’t do a good job, had no temperament and ultimately he was petered out. He got eaten alive. He was unable to handle the pressure of this job.” The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump was a bestseller, hailed by the Washington Post as “the most daring book” of 2017. But it also stoked controversy over its discussion of the mental state of a public figure. In May 2020, Lee lost her job at Yale, in part, she said, over tweets about Trump. This month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in which Lee said she was wrongfully fired. Read More Here

Little Feat Premiere “Time Loves A Hero” Video Ahead Of Fall Tour https://digitalarkansasnews.com/little-feat-premiere-time-loves-a-hero-video-ahead-of-fall-tour/ In 24 hours, iconic American rock band Little Feat will take the first steps on the fall leg of their Waiting For Columbus 45th Anniversary Tour. The tour originally kicked off early this spring in Columbus, Ohio, a fitting locale, and since the ensemble have fine-tuned performing the 1978 live album in its entirety. Waiting for Columbus was originally recorded during seven live nights in 1977 when the band brought a recording team to four shows in London and three in Washington D.C., and the performances by the current roaster – Bill Payne (keyboard, vocals), Kenny Gradney (bass), Sam Clayton (percussion, vocals), Fred Tackett (guitar, vocals), Scott Sharrard (guitar, vocals) and Tony Leone (drums) – have only fortified the project’s legacy. The ensemble will be joined by Andy McKee, Miko Marks and James Maddock on select dates. Today, we premiere the video for “Time Loves A Hero,” a heartfelt collage in honor of the past members of Little Feat who have since departed. The audio featured on the track was recorded live at the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 21, 2022. “Time Loves A Hero” was originally written by Bill Payne, Kenny Gradney, and Paul Barrere and served as the title track of their 1977 LP, which led to their celebrated tour and resulting live album. The video for the newly released recording was assembled, directed and edited by Dick Bangum for RipBang Pictures. “The ‘Time Loves A Hero’ video represents a legacy going back well over 50 years.  We honor Lowell George, Richie Hayward, Paul Barrere and everyone that has taken part in this journey.  For all the fans, friends, and families of Little Feat, this video is dedicated to you,” Payne shared with Relix. “Our legacy is tied directly to all of you. I know that Lowell, Richie, and Paul will be forever in our hearts. You will always be in the band’s heart, as well. Thanks for allowing the music we all love to continue and grow. Time loves a hero, indeed.” Find dates and ticket links for the upcoming Waiting For Columbus tour dates below. Enjoy the video for “Time Loves a Hero” below. Little Feat Tour Dates Sept. 16 – Charlotte, NC – Knight Theatre+ Sept. 17 – Berryville, VA – Watermelon Pickers’ Festival Sept. 19 – Red Bank, NJ – Count Basie Theatre* Sept. 20 – Port Chester, NY – Capitol Theatre* Sept. 21 – Boston, MA – Wilbur Theatre* Sept. 23 – Kingston, NY – Ulster Performing Arts Center# Sept. 24 – Burlington, VT – Flynn Center* Sept. 25 – Hammondsport, NY – Point of the Bluff Vineyards* Sept. 27 – Buffalo, NY – Buffalo State PAC* Sept. 28 – Munhall, PA – Carnegie of Homestead* Sept. 30 – Fort Wayne, IN – Clyde Theatre* Oct. 1 – Iowa City, IA – Englert Theatre* Oct. 2 – Saint Paul, MN – Fitzgerald Theatre* Oct. 4 – Madison, WI – Barrymore Theatre* Oct. 5 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Hall* Oct. 7 – Lexington, KY – Lexington Opera House* Oct. 8 – Huntsville, AL – Mark C. Smith Concert Hall* Oct. 15 – Des Plaines, IL – Rivers Casino +Andy McKee Support, Miko Marks Support, #James Maddock support Winter Tour Nov. 28 – Wichita, KS – The Cotillion Nov. 29 – Tulsa, OK – Tulsa Theater Dec. 1 – Fort Smith, AR – TempleLive Dec. 2 – Robinsonville, MS – Bluesville at Horseshoe Dec. 4 – Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre Dec. 5 – Midland, TX – Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center Dec. 7 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre Dec. 9 – Anaheim, CA – Grove of Anaheim Dec. 10. – Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theatre Dec. 12 – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre Dec. 13 – Spokane, WA – Bing Crosby Theater Dec. 15 – Boise, ID – Egyptian Theatre Dec. 16 – Jackson, WY – Center for the Arts Dec. 17 – Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater Read More Here

Knoepfle Joins UMPG As EVP/Co-Head, A&R https://digitalarkansasnews.com/knoepfle-joins-umpg-as-evp-co-head-ar/ • Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has appointed Jennifer Knoepfle as Executive Vice President & Co-Head of US A&R. Based in Los Angeles, Knoepfle will report to UMPG Chairman & CEO Jody Gersonand work closely with UMPG’s Co-Head of US A&R, EVP and Head of Global Creative Group David Gray. One of the industry’s most successful publishing execs, Knoepfle spent the past 13 years at Sony Music Publishing, most recently serving as SVP, Creative. During her tenure, Knoepfle was responsible for signing and developing songwriters including Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Dan Nigro, Ariel Rechtshaid, Bloodpop, Joel Little and artists including WILLOW, Tate McRae, King Princess, Remi Wolf, Maggie Rogers, Leon Bridges, Wallows, Salem Ilese, Noah Kahan and Lord Huron. Knoepfle previously served as Sr. Director of membership at ASCAP from 2005-2009. Gerson commented, “I’m delighted to be reunited with Jennifer and am thrilled she’s joining us at UMPG. She is certainly one of the most gifted and accomplished A&R executives in the industry, and one that understands the qualities required to make a great songwriter, and possesses the instinct of how best to nurture, shape and strengthen that craft. She joins UMPG to lead our A&R team with David Gray, at a truly exciting time, as we further build on UMPG’s global creative strategy, which sets us apart from the industry — nurturing next-generation talent across all territories, supporting music’s biggest superstars, and reinforcing the legacies of songwriting icons.” Knoepfle said, “I’m excited and grateful to be reunited with Jody Gerson at UMPG, who played an integral role in my development and has served as a mentor since bringing me to Sony in 2009. We are both aligned in our belief in identifying and helping to shape tomorrow’s great talents. I look forward to working with the entire U.S. A&R team to deliver creative success for our writers and artists in the future.” Read More Here

UAMS College Of Public Health Researchers To Use $4 Million Grant To Address Health Impact Of Structural Racism, Discrimination On Middle-Aged Black Men – UAMS News https://digitalarkansasnews.com/uams-college-of-public-health-researchers-to-use-4-million-grant-to-address-health-impact-of-structural-racism-discrimination-on-middle-aged-black-men-uams-news/ View Larger Image Dr. Nick Zaller, director of the Boozman College of Public Health Southern Public Health and Criminal Justice Research Center, is part of a research team that will study the relationship between the racial income gap and racial disparities in chronic diseases of low-income Black men. Sept. 15, 2022 | LITTLE ROCK — Researchers from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health’s Southern Public Health and Criminal Justice Research Center will use a $4 million grant from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) to study structural racism and discrimination. Specifically, the researchers are examining the persistent racial wealth gap between Black and white men. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines structural racism and discrimination as “macro-level conditions (e.g. residential segregation and institutional policies) that limit opportunities, resources, power and well-being of individuals and populations based on race/ethnicity and other statuses.” The NIMHD is funding research that studies these complexities and acknowledges that “achieving health equity for all in the U.S. will require dismantling this country’s historical legacy of structural racism.” Brooke EE Montgomery, Ph.D., MPH, George Pro, Ph.D., and Nick Zaller, Ph.D., received a NIMHD Research Project Grant (R01) to study the relationship between the racial income gap and racial disparities in chronic diseases in a sample of low-income Black men recruited from central Arkansas. This form of structural racism and discrimination is of particular interest as it has multilevel implications that strengthen risk factors and weaken protective factors to the health of Black men, said Montgomery. Temporarily reducing the gap through the provision of income supplementation is an innovative strategy to address this historic source of oppression and promote the health of Black men, she added. “There’s a lot of discussion about crime, violent acts and poverty, but we need to understand how to address the issues,” Zaller said. “We’ll conduct one of the first studies that will focus on the effects of universal basic income, guaranteed income and the health of a specific demographic in the South. We’re happy to have received the grant and the opportunity to do the study.” Dr. Brooke EE Montgomery, behavioral researcher in the Boozman College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, is part of a research team that will study the relationship between the racial income gap and racial disparities in chronic diseases of low-income Black men. Black men ages 45 and older will be the focus of the research. The study will include some participants who previously have been incarcerated. Each participant will be interviewed and surveyed three times during the 12-month study. Some of the men will be randomly selected to receive a financial stipend, which is downloaded onto a card, to use through the duration of the study. They will also have to complete a weekly financial log of how they use the stipend. “We’ll study the health habits, commonalities and differences between the people who get the money and the ones who don’t,” Montgomery said. The researchers will collaborate with long-standing community partners to carry out the project, which will be conducted exclusively in Pulaski County. “By focusing on Pulaski County, we can use both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods to thoroughly evaluate the importance of addressing the racial income gap and how it relates to health among men who are more likely to have a shared geographic and historical context. Our goal is to advance antiracist health research as well as to inform policies that promote health equity and dismantle structural racism and discrimination across multiple systems of oppression.” Montgomery said. “Through this grant, we’ll also learn how income effects secondary measures related to their mental and physical health and how the men function in society. “Are they going start engaging more in their communities? Will they be happier? How will the funding effect what they do with their children and families? Those are some examples of the questions we’ll look to answer through this research grant.” Zaller noted that “having limited finances can force people to put their health on the backburner, especially individuals who are coming out of the criminal justice system.” This grant is the first of its kind in Arkansas and the first NIH grant that will focus on rigorously testing ways to dismantle structural racism. “We’ve received the opportunity to wed the Southern Public Health and Criminal Justice Research Center’s mission with research as a means to learn how we can promote racial justice,” Montgomery said. “I envision this as a tool for supporting numerous endeavors in the participants’ life. We are here to help people. That’s what this research, this grant is all about.” The R01 grant and the forthcoming research project are a means to provide well-documented numerical solutions to issues that lead to other problems. “With the grant, we’re going to find out if just being financial stability is enough for people to prioritize their health,” Zaller said. UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute and Institute for Digital Health & Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,047 students, 873 medical residents and fellows, and six dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram. Read More…

Downtown Fayetteville Square To Host Blood Drive https://digitalarkansasnews.com/downtown-fayetteville-square-to-host-blood-drive/ by: Jacob Smith Posted: Sep 15, 2022 / 09:41 AM CDT Updated: Sep 15, 2022 / 09:41 AM CDT by: Jacob Smith Posted: Sep 15, 2022 / 09:41 AM CDT Updated: Sep 15, 2022 / 09:41 AM CDT FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The City of Fayetteville announced it will host a blood drive next Wednesday on Sept. 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the downtown Square. The drive is being held in partnership with the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks, a press release said. The blood center’s “bloodmobile” will be on-site to collect donations. The release notes donors will receive a free T-shirt and two tickets to Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Mo. Appointments are encouraged to ease donor flow. To schedule an appointment, click here. CBCO also has a QuickPass system that saves time for donors by allowing them to start the registration process before arriving. To access QuickPass and complete health history questions online the day of the blood drive, visit https://www.cbco.org/quickpass/. Latest Video Trending Stories %D Days %H Hours %M Minutes “,”mode”:”one_time”,”sticky_bar_hide_timeout”:7,”timeToNextRecurrence”:0,”isRegular”:true,”endDate”:1663498800000}” href=”https://www.myarkansaslottery.com/games/LOTTO?utm_source=KNWA&utm_medium=CLOCK&utm_campaign=FY23ARSL&utm_content=LOTTOTEASER ” target=”_blank” September 18 2022 06:00 am Read More Here

2 Busloads Of Migrants Dropped Off Near VP Harris' Residence https://digitalarkansasnews.com/2-busloads-of-migrants-dropped-off-near-vp-harris-residence/ FILE – Vice President Kamala Harris listens during a meeting with civil rights and reproductive rights leaders in the Diplomatic Reception Room on the White House complex in Washington, Sept. 12, 2022. Two buses of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border were dropped off near Harris’ home in residential Washington on Thursday, Sept. 15. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Susan Walsh] WASHINGTON (AP) — Two buses of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border were dropped off near Vice President Kamala Harris’ home in residential Washington on Thursday morning in the bitter political battle over the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been busing migrants out of Texas to cities with Democratic mayors as part of a political strategy this year because he claims there are too many arrivals over the border to his state. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also has adopted this policy, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also got in on the act recently. It was first dreamed up by former President Donald Trump. Abbott tweeted that he’d sent the buses that arrived Thursday: “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border.” About two dozen men and women stood outside the U.S. Naval Observatory at dawn, clutching clear plastic bags of their belongings carried with them over the border, before moving to a nearby church. Harris’ office had no immediate comment. After migrants seeking asylum cross the U.S.-Mexico border, they spend time in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility along the border until they are generally released into the U.S. to wait out their cases. Republicans say Biden’s policies encourage migrants to vanish into the U.S.; Democrats argue the Trump-era policy of forcing migrants to wait out their asylum cases in Mexico was inhumane. DeSantis flew two planes of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday. And last week, Abbott sent about 75 migrants to Chicago. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency last week over the continued arrival of buses of migrants. The district earlier requested National Guard assistance to help stem a “growing humanitarian crisis” prompted by the arrival of thousands of migrants, but the Pentagon rejected the request. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage on immigration at https://apnews.com/hub/immigration. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More Here

Analysis | Biden’s No Stranger To Damaging Rail Disruptions https://digitalarkansasnews.com/analysis-bidens-no-stranger-to-damaging-rail-disruptions/ Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1959, Nikita Khrushchev’s plane touched down at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, becoming the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States. He stayed for nearly two weeks, stopping in Washington, New York, Los Angeles (where he got very mad that his visit to Disneyland got canceled), San Francisco, San Jose, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. Biden’s no stranger to damaging rail disruptions To get a sense of what President Biden may have felt about the (apparently averted) rail strike, consider what he said the last time the country faced a severe disruption of this kind. It was 1992, Congress forced workers back on the job. But the senator from Delaware voted “no.” In a Senate-floor stemwinder, Biden denounced the dispute-resolution process, shaped as it is now by a presidential emergency board (PEB), as “a reasonable system in theory that has turned insidious in practice,” one where executives know “in the end, the odds were stacked in their favor.” “The presidentially appointed board has often given great weight. That is what the workers fear and the railroad companies are counting on,” said Biden, who was one of just six “no” votes on a bill banning strikes and lockouts and creating an arbitration system to settle the dispute. Fast-forward 30 years. Biden regularly promises to be “the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history.” And he has tried to energize organized labor support for Democrats, including on a Labor Day swing through Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. “As you might guess, I am very pleased to announce a tentative labor agreement has been reached,” Biden said in the Rose Garden this morning, praising the negotiators on both sides. “This is a win for tens of thousands of rail workers, and for their dignity, and for the dignity of their work.” “This agreement is validation, validation of what I’ve always believed: Unions and management can work together, can work together for the benefit of everyone,” Biden said, underlining that the agreement would avert “significant damage” to the economy. My colleagues Lauren Kaori Gurley and Jeff Stein report on what has to happen now to avoid a strike. “The tentative deal — confirmed by a group representing freight rail operators — still faces several steps before it is formally ratified. The unions must still vote on it, but the White House’s blessing of the new terms suggests that the worker groups have been closely involved. Often, the next step of the process can take several weeks, but during that time, union members agree not to strike.” The arrangement would grant workers voluntary assigned days off, according to a union official. It would also provide a 24-percent wage increase by 2024, starting with an immediate 13.5-percent raise; $1,000 annual bonuses over five years; and changes to how out-of-pocket health care contributions are calculated, Lauren and Jeff reported. My colleagues Hamza Shaban, Lauren, and Jaclyn Peiser have a handy explainer on why the leave policies are such an issue. “A crucial issue preventing an agreement is some of the largest carriers’ points-based attendance policies that penalize workers, up to termination, for going to routine doctor’s visits or attending to family emergencies. Conductors and engineers say that they can be on call for 14 consecutive days without a break and that they do not receive a single sick day, paid or unpaid.” That resonated with the president, Lauren and Jeff reported. “As he pressed for a deal, Biden became personally animated about the lack of leave, and he brought up repeatedly that he did not understand why workers could not be granted more flexible schedules, according to one of the people.” If organized labor signs off, the tentative deal would be a significant achievement for Biden, sparing the country a hugely damaging blow to supply chains already strained by the coronavirus pandemic, fueling inflation and shortages. With the midterm elections looming, it would also be a source of tremendous relief for Democrats. The talks faced a 12:01 a.m. Eastern deadline. As that grew close, “negotiations shifted to Washington, where rail executives and labor leaders met at the Labor Department with Secretary Marty Walsh. Biden remained closely involved in the talks, and phoned Walsh and the negotiators at 9 p.m. Wednesday to encourage them to secure the tentative pact, said a person briefed on the discussions who was not authorized to talk to the media,” Lauren and Jeff reported. “A strike would have had enormous implications because large parts of the nation’s economy move through the rail system. It could have snarled the movement of goods and potentially led to massive layoffs. And the disruption on commuter trains would have been felt across the country. Picket lines had been planned in several cities, including Stockton, Calif.; Cleveland; and Baltimore. The disruption could have further driven up prices on a range of goods during a period of high inflation.” The deal isn’t public, and isn’t fully done. Labor could decide that, with Biden in the White House, and the private sector hungry for workers, it could get a better arrangement. But for now, the years-long dispute appears to be near an end. If the unions sign off, that’s something the Biden of 1992 would likely have cheered. Xi, Putin meet as Russian military losses test ‘no limits’ partnership “In a rare admission, Putin said he was aware of China’s ‘questions and concerns’ about the war, but assured Xi he would address them all in their first face-to-face meeting since the Feb. 24 invasion,” Lily Kuo and Robyn Dixon report. Mortgage rates surpass 6 percent for the first time since 2008 “Mortgage rates surpassed 6 percent for the first time in 14 years as inflation proved resistant so far to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tamp it down. The dramatically swift escalation has chilled what had been a hot U.S. housing market, increasing pressure on an economy plagued by unremitting inflation,” Kathy Orton reports. Community spread of polio prompts CDC wastewater surveillance “The federal monitoring of wastewater for polio comes amid pressure to increase efforts to fight the disease after the first U.S. polio case in nearly a decade was discovered in Rockland County, N.Y. in July. Since the unvaccinated man was diagnosed, the virus has been detected in wastewater samples from nearby communities: New York City, Orange County, Sullivan County, and most recently, Nassau County on Long Island,” Lena H. Sun reports. Lunchtime reads from The Post ‘Untrustworthy and ineffective’: Panel blasts governments’ covid response “A global panel of experts Wednesday blamed the World Health Organization, the U.S. government and others for serious failures in coordinating an international response to covid-19, while laying out recommendations to protect against future pandemics and reviving disputed claims about the virus’s origins,” Dan Diamond reports. How four private groups used their clout to control the global covid response — with little oversight “When Covid-19 struck, the governments of the world weren’t prepared. From America to Europe to Asia, they veered from minimizing the threat to closing their borders in ill-fated attempts to quell a viral spread that soon enveloped the world. While the most powerful nations looked inward, four non-governmental global health organizations began making plans for a life-or-death struggle against a virus that would know no boundaries,” Politico‘s Erin Banco and Ashleigh Furlong and WELT’s Lennart Pfahler report. “What followed was a steady, almost inexorable shift in power from the overwhelmed governments to a group of non-governmental organizations, according to a seven-month investigation by POLITICO journalists based in the U.S. and Europe and the German newspaper WELT. Armed with expertise, bolstered by contacts at the highest levels of Western nations and empowered by well-grooved relationships with drug makers, the four organizations took on roles often played by governments — but without the accountability of governments.” What women and LGBTQ+ people in America say about our country Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the 19th and SurveyMonkey conducted a poll on what women, particularly women of color, and LGBTQ+ people think about politics, politicians and policy. Here are some of their key findings: 70 percent of American adults do not think politicians are informed enough about abortion to create fair policies. Women who are caregivers have a more difficult time balancing work and life than men who are. LGBTQ+ people are more likely to report facing discrimination when visiting a health care provider. Women and LGBTQ+ workers are more likely to experience sexual assault or harassment at work. The top two issues motivating people to vote are ‘jobs and the economy’ and ‘preserving democracy.’ Most Americans say the news media is a critical component of our democracy. AP-NORC poll: Biden approval rises sharply ahead of midterms “Support for Biden recovered from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in large part by a rebound in support from Democrats just two months before the November midterm elections. During a few bleak summer months when gasoline prices peaked and lawmakers appeared deadlocked, the Democrats faced the possibility of blowout losses against Republicans,” the Associated Press‘s Josh Boak and Hannah Fingerhut report. U.S. blocks $130 million in aid to Egypt over human rights “The Biden administration will withhold $130 million in security aid from Egypt for the second consecutive year over its human rights record but will release a separate tranche of $75 million becaus...

Trevor Noah On King Charles Gaffes: ‘Pretty Much How He’s Always Been’ https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trevor-noah-on-king-charles-gaffes-pretty-much-how-hes-always-been/ Trevor Noah Trevor Noah detailed King Charles’s gaffe-laden first week as Britain’s monarch, following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, last Thursday. “It’s going to take a lot of work to shape the monarchy into something that everyone can get behind,” the Daily Show host said. “But based on his first week in power, looks like King Charles isn’t the guy to do it.” In footage since mocked online, Charles became irritated by a leaking fountain pen after writing the wrong date in a visitor’s book. “Oh God, I hate this,” he said. “I can’t bear this bloody thing.” “I love how Charles says the pens leak on him all the time,” said Noah. “You’re literally the King of England, dude! If you don’t like the pens, get different pens. I’m not an expert in the monarchy, but I’m pretty sure the hierarchy doesn’t go: Prince William, King Charles, and then the guy who buys the pens.” Still, “I feel kinda bad for him. I do,” Noah continued. “Because in the old days, the king would’ve never had these issues. There would be no leaking pens. Also the king would never get corrected after writing the wrong date. That just would’ve been the new date. “Maybe King Charles is just stressed out right now. Maybe that’s why this is happening,” Noah mused. “But if you paid attention to Charles back during his prince days, you would know that this is pretty much how he’s always been.” Noah pulled up footage in which a former royal butler recalled being summoned by Charles to pick up a letter that had fallen into the wastebasket next to him. “When I was a kid, I thought kings had to pull swords out of stones,” Noah laughed. “This dude can barely pull his dick out of his own pants?” Stephen Colbert On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who “provid[ed] comfort to Britain for over 70 years. She helped weather several financial crises, joining and leaving the European Union and, of course, Ed Sheeran’s reign of terror.” King Charles has immediately assumed his late mother’s financial portfolio worth billions, sans the 40% inheritance tax that applies to most British subjects. “He’s supposed to be the ultimate public servant, and he doesn’t pay taxes? That is going to cost him some votes,” Colbert joked. In other news, Ukrainian victories in the east of the country have shattered Russia’s reputation as a military superpower. “But don’t you worry, Russia, you’ll always have your reputation as an endless wasteland littered with clinically depressed root vegetables,” Colbert quipped. The defeats have military experts noting that Russian troops suffer from low morale – “or as the Kremlin calls it, ‘special military sadness’”, Colbert joked. Seth Meyers On Late Night, Seth Meyers tried to make sense of the numerous sprawling investigations into Donald Trump, including evidence that his 2020 “election defense fund” actually financed dozens of rallies, staff salaries and travel expenses. “Although let me stress: I think most people who would donate money to Trump would do it no matter what he said it was for,” said Meyers. “I don’t know why he opened himself up to criminal liability by lying and saying it was for a legal fund,” he continued, “when he could’ve just raised as much from telling his supporters, ‘I’m upset, and the only thing that cheers me up is money.’ Or, ‘going on a fancy plane ride tomorrow, wanna pay for it?’ “It’s getting hard to keep track of all of Trump’s criminal investigations,” Meyers added. “I don’t even think I could list them all here if I tried. Which is a shame, because people should know about all of them, given that the Republican party and so many of its midterm candidates are standing firmly behind Trump.” One of those investigations involved the Trump hanger-on and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, whose phone was seized by the FBI at a Hardee’s drive-thru in Mankato, Minnesota. “It’s so fitting that they stopped Lindell at a Hardee’s, because when you think of it, Hardee’s would be a more accurate name for MyPillow,” Meyers joked. “It’s just so perfect,” he added. “I think if someone told you, ‘hey, they seized Mike Lindell’s cellphone,’ your brain would just auto-complete the sentence with ‘at a Mankato Hardee’s.’” Jimmy Kimmel And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel lamented how more than half of all Republican candidates on the ballot for November’s midterms have either questioned the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 or actively tried to overturn the results. “How is this a thing? There is literally no evidence of any kind of fraud. Certainly not fraud that could’ve come anywhere close,” he said. Both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state certified the 2020 results, “and yet these lowlifes continue with this lie, it’s the dumbest thing,” he continued. “Imagine if half the Republican nominees believed that chicken is a vegetable, and just said, that’s it. This is exactly as dumb as that.” As for Mike Lindell’s phone seizure at a Hardee’s, “I have so many questions about this,” Kimmel laughed. “Was the FBI following him? Or did they just say, you know what, eventually he’s going to go to Hardee’s, we’ll just wait here. “I have a feeling the FBI followed him around for a few days and finally stopped him in the place that would make the funniest headline, which was Hardee’s,” he theorized. “And for that, I commend them.” Read More Here

New Poll Shows Biden Approval Rising Sharply Ahead Of Midterms – WABE https://digitalarkansasnews.com/new-poll-shows-biden-approval-rising-sharply-ahead-of-midterms-wabe/ President Joe Biden’s popularity improved substantially from his lowest point this summer, but concerns about his handling of the economy persist, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Support for Biden recovered from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in large part by a rebound in support from Democrats just two months before the November midterm elections. During a few bleak summer months when gasoline prices peaked and lawmakers appeared deadlocked, the Democrats faced the possibility of blowout losses against Republicans. Their outlook appears better after notching a string of legislative successes that left more Americans ready to judge the Democratic president on his preferred terms: “Don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.” The president’s approval rating remains underwater, with 53% of U.S. adults disapproving of him, and the economy continues to be a weakness for Biden. Just 38% approve of his economic leadership as the country faces stubbornly high inflation and Republicans try to make household finances the axis of the upcoming vote. Still, the poll suggests Biden and his fellow Democrats are gaining momentum right as generating voter enthusiasm and turnout takes precedence. Average gas prices have tumbled 26% since June to $3.71 a gallon, reducing the pressure somewhat on family budgets even if inflation remains high. Congress also passed a pair of landmark bills in the past month that could reshape the economy and reduce carbon emissions. Republicans have also faced resistance since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its abortion protections. And Biden is openly casting former President Donald Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy, a charge that took on resonance after an FBI search of Trump’s Florida home found classified documents that belong to the U.S. government. This combination of factors has won Biden some plaudits among the Democratic faithful, even if Americans still feel lukewarm about his leadership. “I’m not under any belief that he’s the best person for the job — he’s the best from the people we had to choose from,” said Betty Bogacz, 74, a retiree from Portland, Oregon. “He represented stability, which I feel President Trump did not represent at all.” Biden’s approval rating didn’t exceed 40% in May, June or July as inflation surged in the aftermath of Russia invading Ukraine. The president’s rating now is similar to what it was throughout the first quarter of the year, but he continues to fall short of early highs. His average approval rating in AP-NORC polling through the first six months of his term was 60%. Driving the recent increase in Biden’s popularity is renewed support among Democrats, who had shown signs of dejection in the early summer. Now, 78% of Democrats approve of Biden’s job performance, up from 65% in July. Sixty-six percent of Democrats approve of Biden on the economy, up from 54% in June. Interviews suggest a big reason for Biden’s rebound is the reemergence of Trump on the national stage, causing voters such as Stephen Jablonsky, who labeled Biden as “OK,” to say voting Democratic is a must for the nation’s survival. “The country has a political virus by the name of Donald Trump,” said Jablonsky, a retired music professor from Stamford, Connecticut. “We have a man who is psychotic and seems to have no concern for law and order and democracy. The Republican Party has gone to a place that is so unattractive and so dangerous, this coming election in November could be the last election we ever have.” Republicans feel just as negative about Biden as they did before. Only about 1 in 10 Republicans approve of the president overall or on the economy, similar to ratings earlier this summer. Christine Yannuzzi, 50, doubts that 79-year-old Biden has the capacity to lead. “I don’t think he’s mentally, completely aware of everything that’s happening all the time,” said Yannuzzi, who lives in Binghamton, New York. “The economy’s doing super poorly and I have a hard time believing that the joblessness rate is as low as they say it is.” “I think the middle class is being really phased out and families are working two and three jobs a person to make it,” the Republican added. Twenty-nine percent of U.S. adults say the economy is in good shape, while 71% say it’s doing poorly. In June, 20% said conditions were good and 79% said they were bad. Democrats are more positive now than they were in June, 46% vs. 31%. Republicans remain largely negative, with only 10% saying conditions are good and 90% saying they’re bad. About a quarter of Americans now say things in the country are headed in the right direction, 27%, up from 17% in July. Seventy-two percent say things are going in the wrong direction. Close to half of Democrats — 44% — have an optimistic outlook, up from 27% in July. Just 9% of Republicans are optimistic about the nation’s direction. Akila Atkins, a 27-year-old stay-at-home mom of two, thinks Biden is “OK” and doesn’t have much confidence that his solutions will curb rising prices. Atkins says it’s gotten a little harder in the last year to manage her family’s expenses, and she’s frustrated that she can no longer rely on the expanded child tax credit. The tax credit paid out monthly was part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and has since lapsed. The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the expanded tax credit nearly halved the child poverty rate last year to 5.2%. Atkins said it helped them “stay afloat with bills, the kids’ clothing, shoes, school supplies, everything.” Whatever misgivings the Democrat in Grand Forks, North Dakota, has about Biden, she believes he is preferable to Trump. “I always feel like he could be better, but then again, he’s better than our last president,” she said. Read More Here

Blake Masters Wants To Fire All Generals And Replace Them With Conservatives https://digitalarkansasnews.com/blake-masters-wants-to-fire-all-generals-and-replace-them-with-conservatives/ Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for Senate in Arizona, has repeatedly said the U.S. should clean house on the senior ranks of the military, pushing the claim that all the generals and admirals are “woke” and “left-wing” losers who’ve never won a war.  His solution? Fire them all, and promote “the most conservative colonels.” “Your entire general class, they’re left-wing politicians at this point. It’s very hard to become a general without being some kind of left-of-center politician,” he said at an Apache Junction Ladies for President Trump event in August 2021, according to audio obtained by VICE News. “I would love to see all the generals get fired. You take the most conservative colonels, you promote them to general. Not because the ideology is important, but because the conservative colonels will be able to leave the ideology aside. They just care about an effective fighting force.” This is far from an isolated comment. Masters, who won his primary with major financial help from his former employer and friend Peter Thiel and a key endorsement from former President Donald Trump, has repeatedly suggested that only conservatives can be trusted to set aside ideology and maintain an effective military—and that they’re the ones who should be in charge.  “I would love to see all the generals get fired. You take the most conservative colonels, you promote them to general.” Masters explicitly called for a wholesale firing of the generals at least seven times between August 2021 and March 2022, according to a VICE News review of his remarks, and harshly criticized military leadership numerous other times.   “I think you probably want to fire most or all the generals and replace them with apolitical colonels, who will probably have conservative politics,” he said during a September 2021 Twitter Spaces event hosted by Josiah Lippincott, whose Twitter account has since been suspended, according to a recording of the event obtained by VICE News. In November, Masters put out a tweet calling the top generals “woke corporate bozos,” and an accompanying video where he proclaimed “our military leadership is totally incompetent.” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, Masters’ opponent and a retired U.S. Navy captain and astronaut, featured that clip in his latest ad that looks to paint Masters, who has not served in the military, as an extremist. It’s clear that Masters’ campaign video dissing the military’s top brass wasn’t a one-off. “We just have to get serious again. And it means purging the military of the left-wing generals,” Masters said on the right-wing podcast Steak for Breakfast in February. “There’s a lot of center-right or apolitical colonels that we can promote.” “Basically every general above a two-star at this point is some kind of left-wing politician, and they need to be fired and retired, and you need to promote the apolitical colonels who actually want to be serious about, again, projecting lethality when called upon,” he said in March to Arizona conservative radio host Garret Lewis. “We just have to get serious again. And it means purging the military of the left-wing generals.” Peter Feaver, a former Navy Lieutenant Commander who served on the National Security Council during both President Bill Clinton’s and President George W. Bush’s administrations and the author of multiple books on civil-military relations, said Masters and other conservatives were misunderstanding military leadership with their criticism of “woke” leadership. “The military has to recruit from a diverse society and retain a diverse workforce. What he’s calling ‘woke’ is primarily the military trying to manage a diverse workforce,” he told VICE News. And he said Masters’ solution—replace supposedly liberal generals with a core of conservatives—would be disastrous, comparing it to the ideological purges of military brass in Russia that weakened the Red Army before WWII as well as before the current debacle in Ukraine. “That’s close to what Stalin and Putin did. And that didn’t work out well for them. Master’s cure is far worse than the disease.” “If you want to do something that would politicize the force and undermine lethality you could hardly design a more effective tool than to fire all the senior military leaders and then replace them with people chosen solely for their political views and not their professional merit. That is what Masters seems to be proposing,” he said. “That’s close to what Stalin and Putin did. And that didn’t work out well for them. Master’s cure is far worse than the disease.” Masters and his campaign didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Much of Masters’ specific ire has been directed at General Mike Milley, who Trump appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in late 2018l. Masters and other conservatives were enraged by Milley’s defense of a course at the U.S. Military Academy that included study of critical race theory last summer. “I want to understand white rage, and I’m white,” Milley said during congressional testimony. “So, what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out.” Masters has mocked the general as  “General ‘White Rage’ Milley.” And it would be incorrect for Masters to assume that a random draw of colonels would necessarily yield a group that’s nearly exclusively conservative. While military veterans broke for Trump by a 10-point margin in 2020, according to national exit polls, active-duty military personnel actually leaned slightly towards Biden heading into the election, according to a pre-election survey conducted by the Military Times and Syracuse University’ Institute for Veterans and Military Families. And the military is roughly as diverse racially as the broader U.S. society. Masters’ harsh criticism of the military leadership is the latest in a long history of attacks from the right on ostensibly apolitical institutions; the impetus from some corners of the right is to imagine that the administrative state in all its facets must be biased against them. Trump’s long-running (and largely imagined) war against the “deep state” had similar tones. The idea that government bureaucrats are inherently liberal—and an effort to weed that out during Republican administrations—goes back to at least President Richard Nixon’s administration, if not Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunt for communists in the State Department in the 1950s. But Masters goes a step further. First, conservatives usually spare the military from these attacks on government officials, both because it’s a historically conservative institution and because the idea of an apolitical military under civilian control is such a fundamental cornerstone of American democracy. And second, while Masters says he wants to ensure an apolitical leadership, it’s hard to square that with his repeated suggestions to promote conservatives. And Masters seems to have no issues with Trump’s own overt moves to politicize the military during his presidency, from his attempts to have a massive military parade as a show of force on the 4th of July to his plan to declare martial law and use the military to seize voting machines in the wake of the 2020 election, a plan he only backed off of when top White House attorneys threatened to resign in protest. And the military isn’t the only national security organization where Masters wants to clean house. He has suggested similar purges should be made in the Justice Department and FBI so that they “aren’t weaponized against us” the next time the GOP wins back the White House. “I’m really worried about this sort of ‘wokification’ of our military,” he said in a November Twitter Spaces event hosted by former Trump administration official Adam Korzeniewski,  a recording of which was obtained by VICE News.  “The general core is rotten. You have to be like a left-wing politician to get promoted above a two-star general now. It’s not going to be an effective lethal fighting force if we’re teaching soldiers about social justice and diversity and inclusion and critical race theory, and we’re naming war ships after gay rights heroes instead of, you know, World War II admirals and stuff,” he continued. “So I think cleaning house in the military, cleaning house in the DOJ,  FBI, making sure those institutions aren’t weaponized against us, that’s a huge project.” Get the latest from VICE News in your inbox. Sign up right here. By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content. Read More Here

Jan. 6 Rioter Who Wore 'Camp Auschwitz' Sweatshirt To Be Sentenced https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jan-6-rioter-who-wore-camp-auschwitz-sweatshirt-to-be-sentenced/ WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter who wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt inside the U.S. Capitol is set to be sentenced Thursday, and his sister is urging the court not to “judge a book by [its] cover.” Robert Keith Packer was arrested the week after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and pleaded guilty a year later, in January, to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful picketing and parading. The government wants him to serve 75 days of incarceration as well as three years of probation. Packer admitted that he traveled from Newport News, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 “to attend the rally” held by former President Donald Trump and that he then “entered the building despite seeing broken windows and tear gas deployed by police.” He admitted he was “in a crowd of people in the hallway when rioters took down and broke apart” a sign bearing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s name that was located outside her office. Robert Packer. (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump nominee confirmed in 2019, will sentence Packer during a virtual court hearing at 12:30 p.m. ET. Packer’s defense attorney, Stephen Brennwald, compared Packer to Forrest Gump, writing that Packer’s “demeanor and presence… appeared to be similar to the character played by Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump — a man who went through life almost as if he was outside of his body and mind, looking in.” Brennwald wrote that Packer had received “quite significant” harassment from the public, “mostly because of the nature of the offensive shirt he was wearing.” Brennwald also said that Packer’s own son won’t speak to him because of his views, and asked the court to impose a probationary sentence. Kimberly Rice, Packer’s sister, wrote a letter in support of her brother, calling him “hands down the BEST BROTHER with a HUGE heart and gentle soul.” She said they grew up in a “blue collar, middle class Christian values home,” and that they traveled to D.C. together, but wrote that she left early because of the cold weather. She portrayed her brother as a victim of media attention. “Over the last year and half the media has portrayed and described a person who he is NOT and NEVER has been. His day to day living over the last year and half has been so altered and a major struggle for him, living in fear because of the news media slandering his name and making him out to be some monster that he absolutely is not, losing his long tenure job, death threats to him and and so on,” she wrote. “It’s so easy to judge a book by it’s [sic] cover, without knowing the details of what is truly inside — yet it is also so wrong. All over a sweatshirt — yes a sweatshirt,” she wrote, describing a sweatshirt celebrating the location of at least 1.1 million deaths during the Holocaust. “Yes, it could be considered in poor taste just as much as so much more is these days, but it’s not a crime for freedom of expression.” The government’s sentencing memo notes that his sweatshirt bore the word “STAFF” on the back and the phrase “Work Means Freedom” on the front, which “recalls the sign over the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War Two.” Packer, when asked during a FBI interview after his guilty plea why he had worn the “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt, “fatuously replied ‘because I was cold’,” according to federal prosecutors. The “Camp Auschwitz” shirt wasn’t the only piece of pro-nazi paraphernalia that Packer sported on Jan. 6. Video provided to NBC News this week shows that earlier in the day Packer was wearing a “Schutzstaffel” shirt, referencing Adolph Hitler’s paramilitary unit headed by Heinrich Himmler that is more commonly referred to as the “SS.” More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack and more than 350 have been convicted. Sentences have ranged from short periods of probation for misdemeanors to a decade behind bars for a former New York City police officer who assaulted a D.C. police officer on Jan. 6 and then lied on the stand. The FBI has the names of hundreds of additional Jan. 6 participants who could be charged but have not yet been arrested. Earlier this week, a Trump-appointed judge convicted three rioters of felony charges in connection with the violence in the tunnel on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but acquitted two of the defendants on an obstruction of an official proceeding charge that came with significant prison exposure. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Read More Here

Some Arkansas Colleges Seeing 'record' Enrollment Numbers https://digitalarkansasnews.com/some-arkansas-colleges-seeing-record-enrollment-numbers/ Many universities and colleges in Arkansas are reporting record enrollment numbers during a time where many in the country are choosing to forego higher education. ARKANSAS, USA — Universities and colleges across the natural state are seeing an uptick in enrollment which is something not many can say in other parts of the country. Across the nation, fewer and fewer students are entering the path of higher education. However, in the Natural State that’s not the case, as many colleges are reporting record enrollment. Assistant Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management, Dr Kindle Holderby, at UA Little Rock said this trend their seeing is widespread and isn’t random. “At least in 10 years, this is the highest increase at the school that has been seen,” Dr. Holderby said. As UA Little Rock, enrollment is hitting a new level for this fall’s semester. In some categories the university is seeing double digit growth. First-time freshman growth is up 29%, transfers are up 8%, and graduate student enrollment is up 5%. According to Dr. Holderby, this growth isn’t being seen outside of Arkansas. “That’s really a cause for celebration for us, because a lot of the two year institutions got hit really hard by COVID and their enrollment numbers were dwindling,” Dr. Holderby said. With that in mind, how is UA Little Rock seeing a spike? Dr. Holderby credits it to a handful of things, but a major boost is what he calls the university’s “commitment to affordability.” Some students have the opportunity of cutting their tuition in half, which immediately catches the attention of those worried about the cost of attendance. “We just kind of cut straight through all that and said, ‘okay, for first time freshmen when you’re coming here, if you commit to coming here, we’re going to lock you in at 50% off your tuition and fees for not only your freshman year, but your sophomore year as well,'” Dr. Holderby said. The school’s success is mirrored at other universities across the Natural State too. It’s something that Dr. Holderby said he’s proud to see and chalks up to a new sense of “normalcy.” “Coming out of COVID or at least learning how to live with it, and I think that this helps play a role into why students and families are like, ‘okay, it’s time to time to get back,’” Dr. Holderby said. As for other universities, for the 5th time in 6 years, UCA has had freshman enrollment exceed 18,000 with this current first-time freshman class likely the second-largest ever. At Arkansas State, they’ve surpassed a 14,000 enrollment for the first time since Fall 2018. Read More…

Judge Orders An Iowa Teen Who Killed Her Alleged Rapist To Pay His Family $150,000 In Restitution | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/judge-orders-an-iowa-teen-who-killed-her-alleged-rapist-to-pay-his-family-150000-in-restitution-cnn/ CNN  —  A girl who was 15 when she killed a man she said raped her multiple times must pay his family $150,000 in restitution, an Iowa judge ruled Tuesday. Pieper Lewis, who killed her alleged rapist in 2020, received a deferred judgment from Polk County District Judge David Porter after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury. Porter ruled Lewis would receive five years’ probation, serve 200 hours of community service and pay $150,000 in restitution, plus more than $4,000 in civil penalties. The deferred judgment means this may be expunged from Lewis’ record. Iowa law requires the court to sentence offenders to pay at least $150,000 in restitution if they kill another person. A crowdsourcing campaign to cover the restitution has raised $330,000 – more than double what Lewis owes. But Lewis’ attorneys must determine whether Iowa law would allow the donated money to be used to pay the restitution, they told Des Moines Register. Money collected beyond the court-ordered sum would help Lewis attend college, start her own business and “explore ways to help other young victims of sex crimes,” her former teacher Leland Schippe wrote at the GoFundMe page he set up. Lewis pleaded guilty in June 2021 to the killing of Zachary Brooks. According to the plea agreement, Lewis said Brooks, 37, raped her multiple times in 2020. She was initially charged with first-degree murder. Lewis said in the plea agreement that she ran away from home several times and ended up sleeping in the hallway of an apartment complex. One man took her in, but she left when he became abusive, she wrote in the plea agreement. She said she then moved in with another man who created an online dating profile for her and arranged for men to have sex with her for money. She lived with that man, who told her she was his girlfriend, from April 2020 until she was arrested for killing Brooks, Lewis said. She was introduced to Brooks in May 2020, and he gave her alcohol and marijuana and had sex with her five times while she was unconscious over a three-day period, she said in her plea. She said she learned of what he had done, according to the plea, each time she regained consciousness and he was still on top of her. On May 31, the man with whom Lewis lived with confronted her with a knife after she refused his order to go to Brooks’ apartment to have sex with Brooks in exchange for marijuana, she wrote. Eventually she agreed to go after he cut her neck, she said in the plea. Brooks picked her up and drove her back to his apartment, where he told her to go to the bedroom. She was forced to drink vodka shots and fell asleep, she wrote in her plea agreement. At one point in the night she woke up and Brooks was raping her, she said. Brooks fell asleep and Lewis went to find her clothes. When she came back to the bedroom, she saw him passed out naked, she wrote. “I suddenly realized that Mr. Brooks had raped me yet again and was overcome with rage. Without thinking, I immediately grabbed the knife from his nightstand and began stabbing him,” Lewis stated in the plea agreement. “I further acknowledge that the multiple stab wounds that I inflicted upon Mr. Brooks thereafter ultimately resulted in his death.” In court on Tuesday, Lewis read from a statement. “My story can change things. My story has changed me,” she said. “The events that took place on that horrific day cannot be changed, as much as I wish I could. That day a combination of complicated actions took place resulting in the death of a person, as well as a stolen innocence of a child. “As I grow and evolve as a young woman, I feel for the victim’s family. I wish what happened never did. And I truly feel that way. The healing process is inevitable. I repeat, I wish the events that occurred on June 1, 2020 never occurred. But to say there is only one victim of this story is absurd.” Lewis’ attorney said that he was pleased with the court deferring her sentence. “We are very thrilled by Judge Porter’s decision in the case. A deferred judgment will allow Pieper to live a full life,” Matt Sheeley told CNN. “Pieper is extremely grateful for all the love, compassion, and support that she has received. Anyone that has met her immediately falls in love with her,” Sheeley said. “She’s a remarkable young woman who has remarkable courage. And she’s amazed at all the love she’s received – she’s just blown away. We’re all frankly blown away.” Explaining his decision to order community service, Porter said: “The purpose of that, Ms. Lewis, is that you have a story to tell … you should be willing and able to tell that story to other young and vulnerable women in our community. And therefore, you are going to give back … by the way of community service hours.” Sheeley did not say if they planned to appeal the restitution decision in the case. KellyMarie Meek of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault said she was concerned about Tuesday’s ruling. “I don’t think that justice was served. I think that justice would have not seen Pieper Lewis spend any time behind bars,” Meek told CNN. “This is not the worst outcome that could have happened, but it’s far from the best outcome and it’s definitely not justice.” Meek also expressed concern about Lewis’ ability to manage the terms of her probation due to the severity of her trauma. “Five years (of) probation under strict supervision is something that concerns me, because I know that many of the ways that trauma survivors deal with their trauma is not understood very well by folks that haven’t experienced trauma, which can sometimes lead to behaviors that get folks in trouble,” she said. Meek said she understood the restitution ruling and the fact the judge didn’t have any discretion. “It worked out really poorly in this case, but I don’t want to automatically swing the pendulum and say, we’re just going to get rid of that,” she said. Many victims’ families fought hard to get the restitution law passed, she said, adding what is needed now is discussion with “a lot of voices at the table to figure out how we get victims of crime the support that they need and not unfairly punish people.” Read More Here

Covia Announces Expansion Of Luminex Facility In Fort Smith, Arkansas https://digitalarkansasnews.com/covia-announces-expansion-of-luminex-facility-in-fort-smith-arkansas/ News and research before you hear about it on CNBC and others. Claim your 1-week free trial to StreetInsider Premium here. INDEPENDENCE, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Covia, a leading provider of mineral-based and material solutions for the Industrial and Energy markets, today announced that it will be expanding the manufacturing capability of its Luminex™ branded product line to serve increasing customer demand. Luminex, an ultra-white filler, is used in the production of engineered stone countertops for consumer use in kitchens and bathrooms, while also serving retail and industrial hard surface applications. Partnerships with the City of Fort Smith, the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce and the State of Arkansas were critical to supporting the expansion opportunity, and the investment will allow the company to expand employment opportunities at its existing facility in Fort Smith. While the company considered other locations, the Fort Smith site was best positioned to leverage its full infrastructure and capabilities. “In their short time in Fort Smith, Covia has already proven itself to be a valuable community partner,” said Tim Allen, President and CEO of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce. Andrew Eich, President and Chief Executive Officer of Covia, commented, “We are excited to make this important investment at Fort Smith, which further enhances Covia’s portfolio of innovative products. This expansion provides our customers a domestic source of high quality ultra-white fillers to support their future business needs and is a great example of our team’s ability to drive growth in our specialty materials offering across North America.” About Covia Covia is a leading provider of diversified mineral solutions to the oil and gas, glass, ceramics, coatings, metals, foundry, polymers, construction, water filtration, sports and recreation markets. The Company serves its Industrial customers through a broad array of high-quality products, including high-purity silica sand, nepheline syenite, feldspar, clay, kaolin, resin systems and coated materials, delivered through its comprehensive distribution network. Covia offers its Energy customers an unparalleled selection of proppant solutions, additives, and coated products to enhance well productivity and to address both surface and down-hole challenges in all well environments. Covia has built long-standing relationships with a broad customer base consisting of blue-chip customers. Underpinning these strengths is an unwavering commitment to safety and to sustainable development, further enhancing the value that Covia delivers to all its stakeholders. For more information, visit CoviaCorp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220915005725/en/ Amanda Meehan 216.527.2337 [email protected] Source: Covia Read More Here

Stock Market News Live Updates: Stocks Log Worst Day Since 2020 As CPI Triggers Meltdown https://digitalarkansasnews.com/stock-market-news-live-updates-stocks-log-worst-day-since-2020-as-cpi-triggers-meltdown/ U.S. stocks rose in back-and-forth trading Thursday as a flurry of corporate headlines held investor attention over any moves from the major averages. The benchmark S&P 500 climbed 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added roughly 90 points, or about 0.3%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.1%. The moves come after a modest rebound on Wednesday from the stock market’s worst day since June 2020. On the corporate side, “buy now, pay later” companies were closely-watched amid news the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will start regulating the delayed payment industry over concerns their offerings financially harm consumers. Shares of Affirm (AFRM), a leader in the space, fell more than 3%. Elsewhere, Adobe (ADBE) announced plans for a $20 billion acquisition of online design startup Figma in order to expand its lineup of hybrid-work-friendly platforms. Shares of Adobe tanked more than 13%. In economic data, initial jobless claims fell for a fifth-straight week to the lowest reading since May. Filings for first-time unemployment insurance totaled 213,000 in the week ended Sept. 10 from 222,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists called for 227,000 claims, according to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Meanwhile, data from the Commerce Department showed consumers kept up spending in August despite continued pressures from inflation. Retail sales unexpectedly increased 0.3% last month after a downwardly revised 0.4% decline in July. Market information is reflected in the glasses of trader as they work on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., September 13, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly In the bond market, the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note climbed above 3.45%, and the 2-year Treasury teetered past 3.8% after hitting a 15-year high on the heels of shock August inflation data earlier this week. Last month’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed prices rose a more-than-expected 8.3% over last year, triggering a meltdown across U.S. equity markets as investors faced the reality that more combative central bank policy will be necessary to tame inflation. Economists at Bank of America said Wednesday in a note that Federal Reserve officials are likely to warn market participants that risks of a hard landing are rising following their policy-setting meeting next week. “This will likely come through projections that show less growth, higher unemployment, and a more restrictive policy rate stance,” BofA strategists led by Michael Gapen said. “While the Fed is still likely to view a soft landing as a modal outcome, the window appears to be narrowing.” The CME FedWatch Tool Thursday morning showed markets were pricing in a nearly 30% chance the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by a full percentage point next week as inflation shows signs of becoming entrenched in the U.S. economy. Cryptocurrency markets were front and center Thursday after Ethereum completed its highly-anticipated “merge.” a technological shift to a more energy-efficient method of how tokens are minted. Ethereum (ETH-USD) traded just under $1,600 Thursday morning, while bitcoin (BTC-USD) held above $21,000. Meanwhile, oil prices slipped, continuing a volatile stretch for energy markets. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell 1.6% to $87.06 per barrel, erasing Wednesday’s gain, while Brent crude oil futures dipped 1.5% to $92.67 per barrel. — Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc Click here for the latest trending stock tickers of the Yahoo Finance platform Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube Read More Here