Ukraine Live Briefing: Russia Says U.S. Long-Range Missiles Would Cross red Line; E.U. Chief In Kyiv
Ukraine Live Briefing: Russia Says U.S. Long-Range Missiles Would Cross ‘red Line’; E.U. Chief In Kyiv https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ukraine-live-briefing-russia-says-u-s-long-range-missiles-would-cross-red-line-e-u-chief-in-kyiv/
Russia is warning the United States not to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles, saying such an act would make Washington a “direct party to the conflict” and breach a “red line.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has arrived in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a somewhat personal retaliation amid Ukraine’s stunning counteroffensive, Russian forces hit Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine overnight, shelling a dam and leaving hundreds of homes flooded and citizens without water, according to Ukrainian authorities. Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
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Zelensky visits liberated Izyum as Ukraine aims to keep Russia on the run: The Washington Post’s Siobhán O’Grady was in Izyum as Zelensky visited the recently liberated city. She reports that Zelensky participated in a flag-raising ceremony to mark the nation’s most important military victory since Russian invaders were repelled from the suburbs of Kyiv in late March.
Zelensky, striking a resolute tone, said that while Russia might temporarily occupy parts of Ukraine, “it is definitely impossible to occupy our people, the Ukrainian people.”
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Mark Meadows Complied With A DOJ Subpoena Don Lemon Tonight Podcast On CNN Audio
Mark Meadows Complied With A DOJ Subpoena – Don Lemon Tonight – Podcast On CNN Audio https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mark-meadows-complied-with-a-doj-subpoena-don-lemon-tonight-podcast-on-cnn-audio/
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Don Lemon Tonight brings in-depth analysis of the day’s top news stories, and Don’s take on the stories that will get you talking.
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AP-NORC Poll: Biden Approval Rises Sharply Ahead Of Midterms
AP-NORC Poll: Biden Approval Rises Sharply Ahead Of Midterms https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-norc-poll-biden-approval-rises-sharply-ahead-of-midterms/
Josh Boak and Hannah Fingerhut | Associated Press
Washington — 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.
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Post Politics Now: Biden Hosting White House Summit Targeting Hate-Fueled Violence
Post Politics Now: Biden Hosting White House Summit Targeting Hate-Fueled Violence https://digitalarkansasnews.com/post-politics-now-biden-hosting-white-house-summit-targeting-hate-fueled-violence/
Today, President Biden is hosting a White House summit aimed at combating the kind of hate-fueled violence that emerged at a gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016, a Walmart in El Paso in 2019 and a supermarket in Buffalo earlier this year. Aides said Biden will deliver a speech calling for a “whole-of-society” response at the United We Stand summit, where several new actions are expected to be unveiled, including some measures from technology companies to address hate-based content.
Earlier Thursday, the White House announced it had reached a “tentative” agreement to avert a national rail strike that had threatened the nation’s economy. In a statement, Biden said the agreement would guarantee “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs” for workers.
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10 a.m. Eastern time: Vice President Harris delivers welcoming remarks at the United We Stand summit. Watch live here.
12:15 p.m. Eastern: Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and other Democrats hold a news conference on reproductive rights.
3:30 p.m. Eastern: Biden delivers the keynote speech at the United We Stand summit. Watch live here.
8:25 p.m. Eastern: Biden attends the 45th Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Gala.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
Noted: Most Americans say politicians don’t know enough about abortion to make fair policies
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Seventy percent of Americans — including large majorities in both major political parties — don’t believe politicians are informed enough about abortion to craft fair policies, a new 19th News-SurveyMonkey poll finds.
The finding comes as lawmakers, particularly at the state level, are moving quickly to make new abortion policy in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Members of Congress are also pushing new measures. This week, for example, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled legislation that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Analysis: Democrats ramp up efforts to win over Hispanic voters
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President Biden will address the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual gala this evening, as Democrats labor to win back Hispanic voters ahead of the midterm elections.
They’ve got their work cut out for them, The Post’s Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell write in The Early 202. Per our colleagues:
Former president Donald Trump alarmed Democrats by making big gains with Hispanic voters — Hispanic men in particular — in 2020 even as he lost the presidency. The party suffered another blow when Republicans won the special election in June to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Tex.), who represented a heavily Hispanic district.
Republicans argue that Democrats have alienated Hispanic voters by moving to the left on social issues.
Democrats are cautiously optimistic that stepped-up outreach to Hispanic voters, falling gas prices and anger over the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade can help them reverse their losses this cycle — or at least stop the bleeding.
You can read the full analysis here.
On our radar: Technology companies, former presidents, mayors to detail initiatives at Biden summit
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At Thursday’s White House summit seeking to combat hate-fueled violence, President Biden plans to announce several new initiatives, some of them led by outside groups, including major technology companies. Among the new actions, according to a White House fact sheet:
A group of former White House officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations is launching Dignity.us, an initiative to foster dialogue in local communities. The group is being supported by foundations and centers of former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford.
New Pluralists, a group of philanthropic leaders, is pledging $1 billion to increase support for programs “that build bridges among Americans of different backgrounds to foster unity.”
More than 140 mayors have signed a new “Compact to Combat Hate and Extremism.”
Service organizations, led by Interfaith America, the YMCA and Habitat for Humanity, are launching A Nation of Bridge Builders, a partnership to train 10,000 Americans to be “bridge builders” in their neighborhoods.
Technology companies, including YouTube, Twitch, Microsoft and Meta, are announcing new actions that their platforms are taking to prevent hate-fueled violence. Few details were provided by the White House on Thursday morning.
The latest: Biden says ‘tentative’ deal reached to avert rail strike
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The White House announced Thursday morning it has reached a “tentative” agreement to avert a national rail strike that threatened the nation’s economy.
The Post’s Jeff Stein and Lauren Kaori Gurley report that President Biden said in a statement that the agreement would guarantee “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs” for the workers.
Per our colleagues:
Negotiators had until Friday at 12:01 a.m. to reach a deal to avoid a major impact to the economy.
A Labor Department official confirmed that a deal “that balances the needs of workers, businesses, and our nation’s economy” was reached early Thursday morning after 20 consecutive hours of negotiations between rail companies and union negotiators.
“Secretary Walsh and the Biden administration applaud all parties for reaching this hard-fought, mutually beneficial deal,” a Labor Department official said. “Our rail system is integral to our supply chain, and a disruption would have had catastrophic impacts on industries, travelers and families across the country.”
You can read the full developing story here.
Take a look: Rep. Pappas using abortion against new GOP opponent in N.H.
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Among the latest examples of Democrats seeking advantage on the abortion issue is an effort by Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) to highlight the views of his newly minted opponent, Karoline Leavitt, a 25-year-old former Trump White House staffer, who prevailed in the GOP primary on Tuesday in the state’s 1st Congressional District.
“Here in New Hampshire, we keep the government out of our homes and out of our doctor’s offices,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot, the first from Pappas of the general election. “But Karoline Levitt, if she gets to Congress, she’ll pass a nationwide abortion ban.”
Noted: DHS watchdog criticized in Jan. 6 investigation touted support for Trump
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Joseph V. Cuffari was so enthusiastic about what he called Donald Trump’s “huge win” in the 2016 presidential election that he applied for a job with the incoming administration within days.
Cuffari, then an adviser in the Arizona governor’s office, floated the idea of serving as an undersecretary in the Defense Department or in the Air Force or as the U.S. marshal for Arizona, The Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Maria Sacchetti and Lisa Rein report.
Per our colleagues:
“I am proud to be a supporter and very interested in helping the administration meet the many challenges it faces,” Cuffari wrote in a letter dated Nov. 15, 2016, to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who was the chairman of Trump’s transition team, according to a copy obtained by The Post via a public-records request.
Ultimately, Trump picked Cuffari as the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, a watchdog position that is considered nonpartisan and audits the department for fraud, waste and abuse.
For weeks, key Democratic lawmakers have accused him of bungling the search for the Secret Service’s missing text messages from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, one of the most consequential probes in U.S. history, and have called for him to step aside. Cuffari has refused.
You can read the full story here.
The latest: Supreme Court reverses course on religious school’s LGBTQ club in 5-4 vote
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The Supreme Court reversed course Wednesday and said Yeshiva University in New York must for now comply with a state court’s order that it should recognize a campus gay rights organization.
The Post’s Robert Barnes reports that on a 5-4 vote, the justices said the religious school for the time being should comply with a New York state trial court ruling that, as a public accommodation, Yeshiva was covered under the New York City Human Rights Law and required to provide the Pride Alliance the same access to facilities as dozens of other student groups. The group said that includes a classroom, bulletin boards and a club fair booth.
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Police Departments Ramp Up Active Shooter Trainings After Recent School Shootings
Police Departments Ramp Up Active Shooter Trainings After Recent School Shootings https://digitalarkansasnews.com/police-departments-ramp-up-active-shooter-trainings-after-recent-school-shootings/
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MAXWELL, TEXAS – 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.
TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT SAYS RAISING AGE TO BUY ASSAULT-STYLE RIFLE ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’
Active shooter simulations are increasingly common within police department training. The ALERRT Center in Maxwell, Texas, has trained more than 240,000 first responders. (Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
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.
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.”
MEMPHIS LIVESTREAM MASSACRE CAUGHT ON SURVEILLANCE VIDEO AS SUSPECT EZEKIEL KELLY APPEARS IN COURT
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.
Fox News observed an active shooter simulation at the ALERRT Center in Maxwell, Texas, in late August. Responding officers are taught to take down the gunman quickly. (Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
“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.
“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.
UVALDE SHOOTING REPORT REVEALS ‘MULTIPLE SYSTEMIC FAILURES’
Some police departments have started to train school staff members, such as in Fort Worth, Texas.
Local police departments have Ramped up its active shooter training efforts in the wake of recent mass school shootings. (Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
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.
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.
UVALDE GANG RELATED SHOOTING LEAVES 2 JUVENILES WOUNDED AT PARK, POLICE SAY
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.
The ALERRT Center conducted its own investigation into the Uvalde mass shooting, finding multiple inconsistencies with its teaching of “stop the killing and stop the dying.” (Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
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.
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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.”
Ashley Soriano joined Fox News in 2021 as a multimedia reporter based in Las Vegas.
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'A Big Milestone': Rock'n Vodka Surpasses Half-Million Dollars Invested In Rockford-Based Company | Rock River Current
'A Big Milestone': Rock'n Vodka Surpasses Half-Million Dollars Invested In Rockford-Based Company | Rock River Current https://digitalarkansasnews.com/a-big-milestone-rockn-vodka-surpasses-half-million-dollars-invested-in-rockford-based-company-rock-river-current/
Andy Roiniotis (from left), Denny Trakas and Rick Nielsen are business partners in Rock’n Vodka, a locally produced award-winning spirit. (Photo by Susan Moran for Rock’n Vodka/Provided by Rock’n Vodka)
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A fast-growing vodka company has surpassed a major investment milestone with more than a half-million dollars poured into the Rockford-based brand.
Rock’n Vodka, a smooth spirit made from 100% sugarcane, has now raised more than $505,000 from more than 330 investors since launching its investment opportunity through StartEngine in mid-May. You can still invest in its $1.07 million crowdfunding campaign.
“It’s a big milestone in the StartEngine world. Not many people get there, but it’s a huge milestone for us,” said Andy Roiniotis, who is part of a local ownership team that includes Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. “It means that we have 300-plus walking billboards. It means that 300-plus people who believe in our brand.”
More business: 4 stores coming soon to Rockford, and 2 that are changing locations
The new investors have helped Rock’n Vodka accelerate its growth. The multi-award-winning vodka has seen 117% sales growth in the past year and a 300% growth in its Facebook following. It also made the July cover of Food & Beverage Magazine, which reaches roughly 14 million people each month. Nielsen was pictured playing his famed five-neck guitar on the cover.
“We’re in eight states and we’ve already caught the eyes of the major distributors in the entire nation,” Roiniotis said. “We’re making a lot of strides. We’re doing all the right things to build the brand; we’re spending money in the right areas and we’re creating a lot of jobs.”
It’s available in more than 730 locations now, including major retailers such as Walmart, Target, Binnys, Schnucks and Casey’s that carry its 750mL bottles. It’s also available in Canada and ships to 42 states.
“It’s really in its infancy, but it’s big,” Nielsen said.
Denny Trakas (from left), Rick Nielsen and Andy Roiniotis are business partners in Rock’n Vodka, which is available in more than 730 locations across the country and Canada. (Photo by Susan Moran for Rock’n Vodka/Provided by Rock’n Vodka)
Nielsen spoke to the Rock River River Current from his home last week on a rare day off for the still-touring rocker.
“We’re too dumb to quit,” he joked about Cheap Trick still touring as it nears its 50th year.
He recently wrapped up a tour with Rod Stewart and is now moving around places such as Kansas City, St. Louis, Little Rock, Arkansas, and more before he returns home for the Hard Rock casino groundbreaking and then jetting off to Europe and then Japan.
More news: ‘A facelift for Rockford’: City celebrates first graduates of new workforce development program
Despite the packed schedule, Nielsen is more than just a figurehead to market the brand. He helps Roiniotis make connections in the industry, he attends meetings with restaurant and bar owners and brings global attention to the brand. He also does publicity events, such as an upcoming bottle signing Oct. 22 in Antioch.
“He says he’s not that involved, but when he’s available, he’s involved,” Roiniotis said.
Rock’n Vodka was launched in 2019 by Denny Trakas and Andy and Isabelle Roiniotis. Nielsen and Roiniotis were brought together through their mutual investment in the Rockford Casino, where Rock’n Vodka is the best-selling vodka.
Nielsen said he joined the company because he saw an opportunity to support a local brand and create jobs for people in his hometown. He has other area investments, too, including the Stockholm Inn in Rockford and Piece Pizza in Chicago. He was also a partner in Reverb.com, which was sold to Etsy in 2019.
“I don’t do it for a lot of stuff,” he said. “It just seemed like a good opportunity to support something local.”
The pair’s affiliation with Hard Rock has paid dividends, too. Rockford Casino: A Hard Rock Opening Act was the first casino that stocked Rock’n Vodka. It’s now also at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, as well as Sioux City and Oklahoma and nine of the Hard Rock Oklahoma’s affiliates.
“It’s big for us because we’re small,” Nielsen said of the partnership.
Related: A Hard Rock Opening Act plans to expand its offerings. Here’s what in the works
Nielsen has been working on bringing a casino to Rockford for roughly 15 years. It’s now near fruition with a groundbreaking expected to happen later this month. He described Hard Rock’s opening here as “an overnight sensation that took a lot of overnights to do.”
The company also takes pride in giving back to the local community. For example, it partnered with Bellator star Corey Anderson, a Rockford native, to raise money for Vets Roll, a nonprofit that helps veterans take the trip of a lifetime.
The vodka, which is distilled four times and finished at Rush Creek Distilling in Harvard, will expand to new locations soon. “Every 30 days we’re growing,” Roiniotis. “It’s a local product that’s becoming an international product.”
How to invest in Rock’n Vodka
You can visit Rock’n Vodka’s investor page on StartEngine by clicking HERE. The minimum investment is $300.
Learn more about the company on its website, rocknvodkas.com.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.
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Kemp Grew His Fortune By Erasing Personal Debts While In Office
Kemp Grew His Fortune By Erasing Personal Debts While In Office https://digitalarkansasnews.com/kemp-grew-his-fortune-by-erasing-personal-debts-while-in-office/
But a closer look at the figures shows his addition mostly came by subtraction.
During his first term, Kemp’s assets — which include ownership stakes in apartment complexes, office buildings and agricultural properties, as well as other business ventures and investments — actually fell 24% in total value from about $11.6 million to $8.8 million.
But he increased his overall net worth by erasing $6.3 million in debt, much of which came from his decision to divest himself from Hart AgStrong, a costly and controversial seed-crushing operation with plants in northeast Georgia and Kentucky.
Kemp’s campaign said the governor used the proceeds from the sale of his share of the company to pay off bank notes, business loans and mortgage debt on investment properties, leaving just the $180,000 outstanding balance on his private residence in Athens.
Doing the math, Kemp’s net worth grew 65% from $5.2 million in 2018 to $8.6 million on his most recent financial disclosure earlier this year, ahead of his rematch against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
The AJC is committed to ensuring that Georgians are fully educated about the candidates for governor and others who seek public office. It is critical that voters know where each candidate stands on important issues, what moneyed interests might influence them and whether the candidates have behaved ethically. Today’s focus is on Republican Brian Kemp. The newspaper will, over the course of this election cycle, focus on each of the candidates. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newsroom will:
Conduct deep background investigations with an eye toward past behavior and any potential conflicts that might raise questions on or provide insight into how a candidate might perform.
Publish profiles of each candidate aimed at understanding each candidate’s personal life, background, influences and qualifications.
Attend forums and debates throughout the election cycle so you know how the candidates are staking out their positions and answering urgent questions.
To access the newspaper’s ongoing coverage of politics, visit ajc.com/politics.
Kemp managed all of this private business activity while simultaneously steering the state through a global pandemic and choppy economic waters. And, inevitably, sometimes the paths crossed.
Last year, Specialty Stone Inc., a landscaping supply company in Jackson County that is half-owned by Kemp, received $38,137 in pandemic relief from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
In statements to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kemp campaign spokesman Cody Hall at the time pointed to Kemp’s support for the PPP program and emphasized the governor was not a direct recipient of the aid and was not involved in the day-to-day operation of the store. In his personal financial disclosure, Kemp reported nearly $15,000 in losses in his investment in the store in 2020 and 2021.
In more recent comments for this article, Hall touted the governor’s track record as a businessman while defending Kemp’s decision to continue to manage his assets while serving in public office.
Combined Shape
Caption
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, have both seen their net worth increase since their first race in 2018.
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Combined Shape
Caption
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, have both seen their net worth increase since their first race in 2018.
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
“Gov. Kemp has been a successful small businessman for over 35 years and still is to this day,” Hall said. “His business interests in construction, real estate and agribusiness do not conflict with his duties as governor and have been fully disclosed, reported on and discussed publicly for years now.”
Abrams’ personal finances have come under the microscope, too, as her narrow loss in the 2018 race to Kemp helped catapult the Democrat into wider fame — and brought her new financial opportunities.
An AJC review showed how her lucrative portfolio of books, speaking engagements, business interests and investments made her a multimillionaire.
She’s said that if elected she would step down from public boards and wall herself off from financial decisions that could create a conflict of interest. And when asked by the AJC, the Abrams campaign confirmed that she would place her assets in a blind trust.
It used to be common for Georgia governors to distance themselves from their private financial matters while in office.
Govs. Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes and Nathan Deal are recent examples of chief executives who placed their personal business in the hands of a trusted adviser. These blind trusts were meant to create separation between the governors’ personal lives and their service to the state, shielding them from claims of self-dealing.
And it worked, most of the time.
In the 1990 campaign for governor, Democrat Andy Young and Republican Johnny Isakson criticized Zell Miller for the 25% stake in a North Georgia bank held by him and his wife, Shirley. Young and Isakson said the banking stock created a conflict of interest for Miller, who would be called on to sign banking legislation.
In response, Miller placed his financial interests in a blind trust, and two years later the trustee liquidated the stock without consulting him. “The point of a blind trust is not to have it the subject of (Miller’s) knowledge,” the trustee told The Associated Press at the time.
Combined Shape
Caption
During the 1990 campaign for governor, Andy Young. far left, criticized fellow Democrat Zell Miller, second from left, for his investment in a North Georgia bank. Young said the banking stock created a conflict of interest for Miller, who would be called on to sign banking legislation. Miller responded by placing his assets in a blind trust. (Frank Niemeir / AJC file)
Credit: AJC Staff
Credit: AJC Staff
Combined Shape
Caption
During the 1990 campaign for governor, Andy Young. far left, criticized fellow Democrat Zell Miller, second from left, for his investment in a North Georgia bank. Young said the banking stock created a conflict of interest for Miller, who would be called on to sign banking legislation. Miller responded by placing his assets in a blind trust. (Frank Niemeir / AJC file)
Credit: AJC Staff
Credit: AJC Staff
Placing those interests in a blind trust didn’t entirely shield Miller from the fallout. When his trustee sold the bank stock, Miller was criticized for the $600,000 he received in the sale — a 31% return on the investment made eight years prior.
But these are different times. Charles Bullock, a longtime political science professor at the University of Georgia with expertise in state politics, said Kemp’s decision to continue to manage his personal finances while in office likely does not shock or concern many voters in the current political environment.
He invoked Donald Trump, who refused to sever ties with his real estate empire and other businesses after his 2016 election as president, putting him and his family in line to directly profit from his public service.
“Trump lowered the bar dramatically in that area,” Bullock said.
Rather than separate himself from his vast business holdings, Trump allowed his children to actively manage his assets. Critics — then and now — say that decision created countless conflicts of interest, especially with his real estate holdings, while his businesses profited.
Kemp’s fortune, while substantial, is nowhere near that of Trump’s, and Bullock said voters may have lowered their expectations of what is proper financial behavior for politicians as a result.
Even before Trump, concern over conflicts of interest has not been enough to sway voter opinion. Sonny Perdue eschewed tradition during his two terms as governor and remained popular with voters throughout.
Elected in 2002, Perdue became the first governor since the 1970s to forgo the blind trust and actively managed his assets while in office. As a result, he was accused of using his position of power and influence to enrich himself, including signing legislation that gave him a $100,000 tax deferral on a controversial land deal.
“He also left office very popular,” Bullock said. “If Georgia law had allowed it, he could have been elected a third time.”
Despite his popularity, Perdue was heavily scrutinized for his decision to moonlight as a private businessman while serving in office. In contrast, Kemp has received relatively little attention or criticism, even from Democrats who haven’t chosen to make the Republican’s private business a campaign issue in 2022.
State Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, said he would rather the governor put more distance between his personal finances and the business of the state, but you can’t build a campaign around it.
“It’s not the best practice,” said Wilkerson, a certified public accountant. “But do voters typically punish someone for not doing that? They haven’t in the past.”
Wilkerson said the decision of high-ranking politicians to continue to act as private investors or business people feeds into a narrative that politicians are crooked.
“Every decision that gets made, you wonder if it is in the best interest of the state or their best interest,” he said.
Combined Shape
Caption
Sonny Perdue, left, and Brian Kemp both managed their private businesses while also serving as governor. “It’s not the best practice,” said state Rep. David Wilkerson, a Democrat from Powder Springs and a certified public accountant. “But do voters typically punish someone for not doing that? They haven’t in the past.” HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Combined Shape
Caption
Sonny Perdue, left, and Brian Kemp both managed their private businesses...
Analysis | Democrats Ramp Up Efforts To Win Over Hispanic Voters
Analysis | Democrats Ramp Up Efforts To Win Over Hispanic Voters https://digitalarkansasnews.com/analysis-democrats-ramp-up-efforts-to-win-over-hispanic-voters/
Good morning, Early Birds. Congratulations to the Congress team for winning the Congressional Women’s Softball Game for the first time since 2016. Enjoy the championship trophy while it lasts! But the biggest winners are young adult breast cancer survivors. The game raised a record $540,000 for the Young Survival Coalition. Tips: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us.
In today’s edition … The White House announces a ‘tentative’ deal to avoid a rail strike … David Weigel assesses the end of the primary season for Republicans … Democrats are giddy over Sen. Graham’s abortion bill … A House Electoral Count Act bill could be coming soon … but first …
: “The White House on Thursday morning announced it had reached a ‘tentative’ agreement to avert a national rail strike that had threatened the nation’s economy,” our colleagues Jeff Stein and Lauren Kaori Gurley report. President Biden said in a statement that the agreement would guarantee “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs” for the workers.
Democrats ramp up efforts to win over Hispanic voters
President Biden will address the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual gala this evening, as Democrats labor to win back Hispanic voters ahead of the midterm elections.
They’ve got their work cut out for them.
Former president Donald Trump alarmed Democrats by making big gains with Hispanic voters — Hispanic men in particular — in 2020 even as he lost the presidency. The party suffered another blow when Republicans won the special election in June to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Tex.), who represented a heavily Hispanic district.
Republicans argue that Democrats have alienated Hispanic voters by moving to the left on social issues.
Democrats are cautiously optimistic that stepped-up outreach to Hispanic voters, falling gas prices and anger over the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade can help them reverse their losses this cycle — or at least stop the bleeding.
But recent polls of Hispanic voters conducted for the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, UnidosUS and Mi Familia Vota show cause for concern, according to Matt Barreto, a veteran Hispanic pollster who’s also a senior adviser to Building Back Together, an outside group promoting Biden’s agenda.
“From a policy agenda perspective, Democrats are in an extremely strong place,” Barreto said. “What the same survey showed is that many Latino voters are not aware of the [Democratic] Party’s stances, or what the parties are doing, and haven’t heard enough from campaign outreach. And so I think in the vote choice numbers — when people ask about the generic congressional ballot — it does look like Democrats are probably underperforming as compared to past cycles.”
Judith Whitmer, the Nevada Democratic Party’s chairwoman, said she didn’t disagree with another Democratic pollster’s recent conclusion that Hispanic voters in her state have been moving away from the party.
“I do think the Democratic Party hasn’t done enough to do the outreach, to do the work and reach those communities,” she said.
The solution is to remind Hispanic voters that Democrats are the ones who canceled college debt and made the child tax credit and Pell grants more generous, said Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.), who’s been traveling the country campaigning for House candidates and has been talked about by colleagues as a potential Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair next year. (The beefed-up child tax credit expired at the end of last year after Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and the White House failed to strike a deal to renew it.)
“We need to continue to remind people we’re working hard for them,” Cárdenas said. “I don’t think all of them realize how it came about, and that’s our job to remind them.”
Targeting voters who may not vote
Democrats have been hustling for months to bolster their outreach to Hispanic voters.
The Democratic National Committee in May started a Latino outreach program dubbed Adelante, and it’s booked more than $1 million in Spanish-language ads in more than a dozen states. Democrats have been running Spanish-language ads for months supporting Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.). And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent more than $1 million to hire organizers in Hispanic communities in South Texas, South Florida, Las Vegas, Staten Island and Allentown, Pa.
Democrats “are spending money and talking to Latinos and doing it early, not waiting until the last two weeks as we [have] in the past,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ PAC.
Outside groups have stepped up their efforts, too. Somos Votantes, which works to turn out Latino voters for Democrats, has canvassers working seven days a week in Nevada and Arizona, as well as a smaller team of door-knockers in Michigan.
The voters those canvassers are speaking with aren’t considering voting for Republicans in the midterms, for the most part, said Melissa Morales, the group’s founder. The danger for Democrats is that they don’t vote in November at all.
“That’s what keeps me up at night, is that our base stays home,” Morales said in an interview.
Maybe it’s not just outreach
Republicans and a few liberals argue that Democrats’ difficulties with Hispanic voters run deeper than a lack of outreach.
Democrats’ advantage eroded with Hispanic voters of varying backgrounds in 2020, Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month: “26 points among Cubans, 18 points among Puerto Ricans, 16 points among Dominicans, 12 points among Mexicans and 18 points among other Hispanic ethnicities.”
“It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Democratic Party’s current emphasis on social and cultural issues, while catnip to educated liberals, leaves most Hispanic voters cold,” Teixeira wrote.
Republicans have been encouraged by Mayra Flores’ victory in the June special election and have made a point of recruiting Hispanic candidates to run in battleground districts. They include Juan Ciscomani, who’s running for an open seat in Arizona; Cassy Garcia, who’s challenging Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.); and Monica De La Cruz, who’s running for an open seat in South Texas.
“Hispanic voters are abandoning the Democrat Party because Democrats started calling them ‘Latinx’ and passing policies that made their lives more expensive and communities less safe,” Michael McAdams, a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman, said in a statement to the Early.
But Democrats are optimistic that they’ll be able to defeat Flores in November, when she’ll be running against Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Tex.) in a more Democratic district than the one she represents now due to redistricting.
“We have some work to do,” said one Biden adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss races candidly. “But I think Vicente Gonzalez is gonna do that work as he heads into the last stretch of the election.”
GOP establishment looks to November after final primary losses
November, where art thou? “The final primaries before the November midterms dealt a closing blow to the Republican establishment, with New Hampshire voters rejecting House and Senate candidates backed by state and federal GOP leadership in favor of hard-right conservatives who used them as foils in their campaigns,” our colleague David Weigel writes.
“Tuesday’s results concluded six months of expensive and fractious nominating contests that reflected the influence of Donald Trump and his polarizing movement — even in congressional races like in New Hampshire, where he did not make an endorsement. GOP primary voters often picked standard-bearers who embraced his false election claims, emulated his combative style and promoted his ideas.
Now comes the reckoning for Republicans, Weigel writes. “Gaining just five more of those seats, and one in the Senate, would give Republicans control of Congress for the second half of Biden’s term. But the struggle to reach the point has exacted financial and political tolls on the party.”
If Democrats held a vote on their favorite Republican at the moment — it would be tough to beat Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)
Democrats around Capitol Hill were giddy yesterday over Graham’s decision to release a bill Tuesday that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy at a time when many in the GOP are trying to avoid the issue that is energizing the Democratic base.
“It’s not everyday you get a gift like this,” said one senior Democratic aide, who wasn’t authorized to gloat on the record.
“Upbeat” House Democrats gathered Wednesday morning for the first time in weeks because of the August recess and the roster of attendees included two new members whose recent special election wins were credited to the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade. They spent most of the time talking about abortion politics and celebrating Graham’s bill, according to people who attended. One senior Democratic aide noted, “GOP attacks on women’s health is playing into our hand ahead of midterms,” our colleague Marianna Sotomayor reports.
“They are digging a hole and they just keep digging it,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) said. “Women are not happy about this and they are making their views known.”
On Wednesday, Graham defended his decision to introduce the bill and to do it when he did.
“I’m proudly pro-life, and I have no apology for being pro-life, and there’s no bad time to defend the unborn,” Graham told Fox News host Jesse Watters, who criticized him for debuting the bill on a day when Republicans hoped to highlight a new...
Putins Meeting With Xi Is Intended To Display Russia-China Ties
Putin’s Meeting With Xi Is Intended To Display Russia-China Ties https://digitalarkansasnews.com/putins-meeting-with-xi-is-intended-to-display-russia-china-ties/
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Xi Jinping, leader of China, arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, ahead of his meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Uzbekistan on Thursday.Credit…Yao Dawei/Xinhua, via Associated Press
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is set to meet with Xi Jinping, the leader of China, on Thursday in Uzbekistan, a summit meant to signal the strength of the relationship between the two authoritarian leaders at a time of increasing animosity with the West and challenges to their agendas.
Mr. Putin, who has become more isolated by the United States and its allies over his invasion of Ukraine, has faced a spate of recent losses on the battlefield. Mr. Xi, who is under pressure as the country’s zero-Covid policy hurts the economy, needs to project power in the weeks before a meeting of the country’s Communist Party leadership.
The two will meet at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a multilateral, security-focused organization that includes China, Russia, India, Pakistan and four Central Asian nations.
Upon his arrival late Wednesday in Uzbekistan, Mr. Xi was greeted at the airport in Samarkand by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who unlike Mr. Xi was not wearing a mask. Chinese state media showed dancers and musicians in traditional costume performing and then energetically applauding as Mr. Xi walked into the arrival hall.
Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi last met in February, before the start of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. In a 5,300-word statement, they declared a friendship with “no limits” and criticized the influence of the United States in their regions.
Russia invaded Ukraine days after the end of the Beijing Olympics, and China has refused to criticize Mr. Putin’s actions or refer to the conflict as a war.
Chinese support is important to Russia. China bought record levels of Russian oil in May, June and July. But Beijing has been careful to avoid violating sanctions on Russia that could lead to it being punished as well.
For Mr. Xi, the meeting is also a chance to resume his role as a global statesman. It is his first trip abroad since he went to Myanmar in January 2020. He traveled to Hong Kong for the 25th anniversary of return to Chinese control on July 1, his first trip outside mainland China since the start of the pandemic.
As he tries to build up a regional power base, Mr. Xi went to Kazakhstan on Wednesday for a brief stop at the start of his trip before heading to Uzbekistan in the evening. Mr. Xi used a 2013 trip to the country to announce a vast international investment and development program that became known as the Belt and Road Initiative.
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A Russian missile attack on a dam caused flooding in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on Wednesday.Credit…Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine — A salvo of cruise missiles slammed into the industrial Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, damaging a dam and sending water gushing downstream.
Videos on social media showed pedestrian bridges being washed away and foamy white water rising along the river banks in the city, in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces are carrying out a counteroffensive. Residents said that a large dam was hit on the Inhulets River, a strategic waterway, and many were worried about flooding.
As the water level of the river rose on Wednesday night, local officials urged people who live nearby to evacuate. Residents would be taken by bus to shelter at local schools, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the military governor of Kryvyi Rih.
“If the water has not reached you, it will come soon,” Mr. Vilkul wrote on his Facebook page.
About 100 cubic meters of water was leaking from the dam every second, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official in the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky. “This is a significant volume,” he said in a post on the messaging service Telegram. “And the water level in the Inhulets River changes every hour.”
Mr. Zelensky condemned the attack in his nightly address.
Russia was hitting “objects that have no military value at all,’’ he said, speaking in Russian. “You are weaklings waging a war against civilians.”
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of targeting civilian infrastructure in response to recent battlefield losses in the northeast, where a fast-moving offensive reclaimed a swath of territory outside the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv. Earlier this week, Russian forces knocked out electricity to much of the city, though it has been restored.
Military analysts suggested the Russians may have targeted the dam to make the river level rise and frustrate Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south. The Inhulets separates the bulk of Ukraine’s forces from their Russian counterparts.
The missile strike occurred around 5 p.m., shattering the quiet of what had been a placid afternoon in Kryvyi Rih, Mr. Zelensky’s hometown.
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Volunteers sewed camouflage nets for the military in Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday.Credit…Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
At one school, volunteers sewed fabric camouflage coverings, for soldiers to cover their checkpoints or equipment. Several participants said they have felt more motivated after a string of Ukrainian military victories over the past week liberated thousands of square miles of occupied territory.
“I know it will take more time,” said Oksana Savosko, who used to work in a grocery store and now volunteers to help the war effort. “But I can already feel the mood of victory.”
Oleksandr Chubko, Oleksandra Mykolyshyn and Vivek Shankar contributed reporting.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky made an unannounced visit to the recaptured city of Izium on Wednesday.Credit…Nicole Tung for The New York Times
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was involved in a car accident in the capital, Kyiv, on Wednesday evening but was not seriously hurt, his spokesman said on Facebook.
Mr. Zelensky made no mention of the incident in his nightly address, which was released after his return to the capital. The president had earlier traveled to Izium in the northeast of the country to honor Ukrainian soldiers who recaptured the city from Russian forces just days ago.
“The president was examined by a doctor,” said the spokesman, Serhiy Nikiforov. “No serious damage was detected.”
The driver of the car that struck Mr. Zelensky’s motorcade was treated by doctors accompanying the president, Mr. Nikiforov said, adding that the circumstances of the accident were under investigation. He gave no further details of the location of the crash.
Mr. Zelensky’s decision to remain in the Ukrainian capital when Russian forces invaded the country in February became a symbol of Ukraine’s defiance.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have forced the Russians back from Kyiv, as well as from the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv, in a significant setback for the Kremlin.
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A State Department spokesman was asked on Wednesday about a report that Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, met with Russian officials in Moscow this week.Credit…Seth Wenig/Associated Press
Responding to a report that former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico met with officials in Moscow this week, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday that private citizens should not negotiate prisoner exchanges with the Russian government.
The spokesman, Ned Price, was asked at a press briefing about a CNN report that Mr. Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has a long history of brokering the release of detained Americans from foreign countries, had traveled to meet with Russian leaders this week.
The Biden administration has been working for months to win the release of two Americans imprisoned in Russia, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan. In June, the United States offered to release a notorious Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence, in exchange for Ms. Griner, a W.N.B.A. star, and Mr. Whelan, a former U.S. Marine and corporate security professional, both of whom the United States says have been wrongfully imprisoned.
Asked about the CNN report, which did not provide details about Mr. Richardson’s talks, Mr. Price initially declined to comment. But upon further questioning, he seemed to confirm the visit, saying that “this trip was not coordinated in advance with the embassy.”
A spokesman for Mr. Richardson declined to comment on whether he had visited Moscow this week, or on Mr. Price’s remarks.
Although Mr. Price said that the State Department had been in touch with Mr. Richardson’s office, he appeared to criticize Mr. Richardson’s efforts, stressing that an official channel between Washington and Moscow should be used to discuss a possible prisoner exchange.
“Our concern is that anything other than negotiating further through the established channel is likely to hinder the efforts that we have undertaken to see the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner,” Mr. Price said.
He added that “private citizens attempting to broker a deal do not, and cannot, speak for the U.S. government.”
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Lynne M. Tracy accepted an award for heroism in 2009 from Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, a year after Ms. Tracy’s car was attacked by militants while she was serving in Peshawar, Pakistan.Credit…Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press, via Alamy
President Biden plans to nominate a career diplomat, Lynne M. Tracy, as his next ambassador to Russia, a source familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.
Ms. Tracy currently serves as the U.S. ambassador to Armenia. If confirmed by the Senate, she would succeed John J. Sullivan, who left Moscow earlier this month and plans to retire. Her pending nomination was reported by CNN.
Ms. Tracy would arrive in Moscow at the darkest moment for U.S....
Railroad Unions And Companies Reach A Tentative Deal To Avoid A Strike
Railroad Unions And Companies Reach A Tentative Deal To Avoid A Strike https://digitalarkansasnews.com/railroad-unions-and-companies-reach-a-tentative-deal-to-avoid-a-strike/
Business|Railroad Unions and Companies Reach a Tentative Deal to Avoid a Strike
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/business/rail-strike.html
President Biden announced the agreement after negotiations brokered by the labor secretary lasted deep into the night.
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An Amtrak passenger train heading south out of Chicago on Wednesday evening.Credit…Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
Sept. 15, 2022Updated 6:46 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — Freight rail companies and unions representing tens of thousands of workers reached a tentative agreement to avoid what would have been an economically damaging strike, after all-night talks brokered by Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh, President Biden said early Thursday morning.
The agreement now heads to union members for a ratification vote, which is a standard procedure in labor talks. While the vote is tallied, workers have agreed not to strike.
The talks brokered by Mr. Walsh began Wednesday morning and lasted 20 hours. Mr. Biden called in around 9 p.m. Wednesday, a person familiar with the talks said, and he hailed the deal on Thursday in a long statement.
“The tentative agreement reached tonight is an important win for our economy and the American people,” Mr. Biden said. “It is a win for tens of thousands of rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure that America’s families and communities got deliveries of what have kept us going during these difficult years.”
The White House did not immediately release details of the agreement. Talks had stalled over a push for companies to improve working conditions, including allowing workers to take unpaid leave to visit physicians.
“These rail workers will get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs: all hard-earned,” Mr. Biden said. “The agreement is also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come.”
The Association of American Railroads, an industry group, thanked the unions and Biden administration officials — including Mr. Walsh, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack — for helping to bring the deal together.
“Thanks to the dedication of all members involved in the collective bargaining process,” the association said in a news release, “these new contracts provide rail employees a 24 percent wage increase during the five-year period from 2020 through 2024, including an immediate payout on average of $11,000 upon ratification.”
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Workers servicing the tracks at a rail yard on Tuesday in Chicago.Credit…Scott Olson/Getty Images
Mr. Walsh wrote on Twitter that the agreement “balances the needs of workers, businesses, and our nation’s economy.”
“Our rail system is integral to our supply chain,” he said in a follow-up tweet, “and a disruption would have had catastrophic impacts on industries, travelers and families across the country.”
Mr. Biden and his economic team had increasingly inserted themselves in the talks over the past week, hoping to avoid a work stoppage that would have snarled the distribution of food, chemicals for water treatment plants and other critical goods across the country. Such a stoppage also risked creating shortages on store shelves that could have sent consumer prices soaring, further adding to an inflation rate that reached a four-decade high this summer.
Unions and the freight rail industry were negotiating ahead of a Friday deadline, when a federally imposed “cooling-off period” was set to end and workers would have been free to strike if no deal had been reached. That possibility had already shaken both freight and passenger rail companies.
Nearly a third of U.S. freight moves by rail, second only to trucking. The Association of American Railroads estimated that a nationwide rail service interruption would have idled more than 7,000 trains daily and cost the economy more than $2 billion a day.
Railroads began warning their customers last week that they would prepare for a strike by cutting back some services. Union Pacific, CSX and BNSF all said that they would begin securing hazardous and toxic materials on Monday to try to ensure that dangerous goods would not be left unguarded in the event of a strike. Norfolk Southern closed its gates to shipping containers coming off trucks and ships on Tuesday, and said it planned to begin shutting down its network entirely at midnight on Thursday.
On Wednesday, in anticipation of a strike, Amtrak said it would cancel all long-distance passenger trains beginning on Thursday in order to avoid stranding people given that many of its trains run on tracks operated and maintained by freight carriers.
Administration officials had begun making contingency plans for trying to minimize disruptions for critical shipments in the event of a strike. Those plans included working with trucking companies, ocean shippers and other alternative forms of transportation to ensure some supplies could still get to their destinations.
Ana Swanson contributed reporting.
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Biden's 'semi-Fascism' Projection https://digitalarkansasnews.com/bidens-semi-fascism-projection/
You may have noticed that Democrats have a new favorite insult: So-called “MAGA Republicans” are “semi-fascists” and threats to democracy who can only be stopped by the Democratic Party. Here’s how President Joe Biden put it during his prime-time freak-show speech on the “soul of the nation.”
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” he said. “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people.”
As if on cue, liberal politicians and members of the legacy media took this refrain and ran with it. And who can blame them? We’re less than two months away from the midterm elections, and Democrats have nothing to offer the public except unabating inflation, wasteful government spending, and a lurking recession. So they’re trying to shift the focus to the other side of the aisle and distract from the results of their bad policymaking.
But these aren’t just verbal attacks. This administration is targeting MAGA Republicans, including Trump, those close to him, and even people who simply support him.
The morning after Biden’s address to the nation, for example, New Jersey resident Lisa Gallagher was awoken by her daughter with news that three FBI agents had arrived to speak with her. They said an anonymous tipster informed them that Gallagher had participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Gallagher told Fox News she was able to prove she hadn’t been anywhere near the Capitol on that date, and the agents left. But the message had been made clear: The government viewed her as a threat simply because she had voiced support for Trump online.
The Justice Department also issued dozens of subpoenas to and seized the phones of a number of former Trump associates last week as part of an investigation into Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 presidential election. Even the New York Times admitted the phone seizures were “some of the most aggressive steps” the DOJ has taken against Trump’s team.
And let’s not forget the FBI’s unprecedented raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Who are the semi-fascists again?
Biden seems to have realized that his “semi-fascism” smear isn’t going to stick, because he has since walked it back to say that he wasn’t referring to all Trump supporters — only those who doubted the results of the 2020 election. But that same standard doesn’t seem to apply to the many Democrats who have likewise questioned election results, including former Vice President Al Gore, Bill and Hillary Clinton, former and current Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and countless Democrats in Congress.
The truth is that Biden’s “semi-fascism” refrain reveals a lot more about him than it does about Trump or “MAGA Republicans.” Indeed, it seems Biden has fallen headfirst into the world of projection, in which his opponents are allegedly doing what he himself is doing.
Remember which party it was that voted to drastically expand the IRS, forced workers to choose between their livelihoods and the COVID-19 vaccination, and sicced the FBI on parents concerned about the leftist ideologies being taught to their children in public school classrooms. Remember which party opened our southern border to drug traffickers and hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, released violent criminals back onto the streets of our cities in the name of so-called “criminal justice reform,” and volunteered millions of hard-working people to pay off the debt of privileged college graduates.
Trump and his “MAGA Republicans” aren’t the problem. Biden and the Democrats are.
Elizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner and the Western Journal . Her articles have appeared on many websites, including MSN, RedState, Newsmax, the Federalist, and RealClearPolitics. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn .
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NWA EDITORIAL | THURSDAYS THUMBS: About Those Housing Prices
NWA EDITORIAL | THURSDAY’S THUMBS: About Those Housing Prices … https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nwa-editorial-thursdays-thumbs-about-those-housing-prices/
It’s Thursday and another chance to fire off a few up or down thumbs about recent news in our neck of the woods and elsewhere:
[THUMBS UP] Major philanthropic gifts to institutions of higher learning are an investment in the future, one that has no guaranteed return to the philanthropist but almost guaranteed returns to Arkansas. In the River Valley, the future is looking brighter after the almost 30-year-old Little Rock-based Windgate Foundation gave the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith more than $18.7 million to expand the school’s programs for nursing and for art and design. The expected result? Graduating more than double the number of nurses annually and expanding the Windgate Art and Design building.
[THUMBS UP] Homeowners in Northwest Arkansas have reason to celebrate as the Skyline Report on the residential, commercial and multifamily real estate market showed selling prices in three Northwest Arkansas counties — Washington, Benton and Madison — leapt by nearly 27% in the first half of 2022, compared to last year.
[THUMBS DOWN] If you’re not a homeowner in Northwest Arkansas but have long dreamed of becoming one, the Skyline Report’s finding seems to diminish those dreams a bit more as home prices make such a goal seem a little farther out of reach. The concept of affordable housing can be resolved by lower prices or by companies offering pay that is competitive relative to the market in which their employees must live and, hopefully, thrive.
[THUMBS UP] Back to higher education, it is satisfying to see Northwest Arkansas Community College has grown its student body by 802 students, a 10.7% increase over last year’s fall semester. The percentage represents the largest increase in more than a decade.
[THUMBS UP] Major League Baseball is changing, again. Pitch clocks, a shorter distance between bases, limits to defensive shifts. It’s all with an eye toward upping the entertainment value for fans by giving them games featuring more athleticism from the sport’s multimillion-dollar players. Games certainly should be about more than just long-ball hitters. As long as the core game remains true to its traditions, a few tweaks are worth a try.
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Iran Signs Memorandum To Join Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
Iran Signs Memorandum To Join Shanghai Cooperation Organisation https://digitalarkansasnews.com/iran-signs-memorandum-to-join-shanghai-cooperation-organisation/
As leaders meet in Uzbekistan, the eight-member regional body is poised to add Iran to its ranks.
Published On 15 Sep 202215 Sep 2022
Iran has signed a Memorandum of Obligations to become a permanent member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a central Asian security body, the Iranian foreign minister said.
“By signing the document for full membership of the SCO, now Iran has entered a new stage of various economic, commercial, transit and energy cooperation,” Hossein Amirabdollahian wrote on social media.
The statement came as leaders from China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan headed to the latter’s city of Samarkand for a summit of the eight-member SCO, a security group formed by Beijing and Moscow as a counterweight to United States influence.
Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are observer countries, while the organisation has six “dialogue partners”: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
Last year, the rapidly expanding SCO approved Iran’s application for accession, while the government in Tehran called on members to help it form a mechanism to avert sanctions imposed by the West over its disputed nuclear programme.
Reporting from the Silk Road oasis of Samarkand, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said Iran’s full membership is expected to become effective in April 2023.
He added that the SCO, the world’s largest regional organisation consisting of 40 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), wants to further expand.
“Belarus is also officially going to sign the documents that its membership will be initiated,” Serdar said. “Qatar and Saudi Arabia are also expected to become new dialogue partners.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was among the leaders to attend the summit in Samarkand and was expected to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, according to Iranian media.
Iran’s economy has been hit hard since 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned a landmark nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers, including Russia and China.
Months of indirect talks between Iran and US President Joe Biden’s administration have hit a dead end over several obstacles to reviving the nuclear pact, under which the Iranian government agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.
Source
:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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Rebuilt LR Art Museum Sets April Opening https://digitalarkansasnews.com/rebuilt-lr-art-museum-sets-april-opening/
Harriet Stephens (second from left), an Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation board member, applauds the announcement of the grand opening date for the new building in Little Rock. More photos at arkansasonline.com/915amfa/. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts will hold its grand opening April 22, 2023.
Museum officials, board members and Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. flipped a ceremonial switch Wednesday morning at the museum, West Ninth and Rock streets, to start the countdown clock, which is now visible through the 32-foot, second-floor “Art Perch” windows on the museum’s northwest side overlooking West Ninth Street.
The opening date marks the end of a nearly three-year rebuild. Part of Wednesday’s announcement took place in the museum’s new north courtyard, in front of the once-and-future main entrance — the original museum’s 1937 Art Deco facade, built by artists of the Works Progress Administration, which architect Jeanne Gang of Chicago-based Studio Gang “rescued” and returned to prominence. The facade had been used as a separator between galleries inside the old building.
The opening had been postponed at least twice because of construction delays on the museum, in part incorporating and in part replacing what had been known since the early 1960s as the Arkansas Arts Center.
Harriet and Warren T. Stephens, co-chairs of the AMFA Capital Campaign, announced that the campaign had reached $150.4 million, surpassing its most recent goal, through what Warren Stephens, also the chairman of the AMFA Foundation, described as “an incredible outpouring of support.” They have set a new goal of $155 million that would enable the museum endowment to help sustain the museum once it opens.
Harriet Stephens called the project, six years in the making and three years since it broke ground, “a magnificent new chapter for this institution” and praised the redesign as “awe-inspiring.” That involves not just the museum’s main building but 11 acres of newly landscaped grounds in Little Rock’s MacArthur Park.
The new 133,000-square-foot building will house the museum’s education facility, now named the Windgate Art School; galleries named for Harriet and Warren Stephens; the Governor Winthrop Rockefeller Lecture Hall (Rockefeller, who moved to Arkansas in the early 1950s and became governor in 1967, and his wife, Jeannette, were early supporters of the museum, spearheading the campaign that resulted in the expanded facility opening in 1963 as the Arkansas Arts Center); the Terri and Chuck Erwin Collections Research Center; the performing arts theater; and a modern restaurant.
The kick-start for the funding came from a $31,245,000 contribution from the City of Little Rock, proceeds from a voter-approved hotel-tax revenue bond.
Scott, citing the public-private fundraising partnership — “the people of Little Rock, working together,” he said — praised the museum’s 85 years in the city’s MacArthur Park community, and described it as a place where “arts, education and culture collide” and called it “a beacon of light, a beacon of hope and a beacon toward the future of the capital city.”
Museum Executive Director Victoria Ramirez said the museum in its new incarnation will continue to fulfill an ongoing mission, “to serve the people of Arkansas with an accessible and interactive showcase” for visual and performing arts and arts education. Museum officials have already moved into their new offices, she said.
Ramirez said she’s not ready to reveal the inaugural exhibitions when the museum opens to the public, but promised “a couple of surprises.”
She noted that for the first time there will be sufficient gallery space to display the museum’s entire 14,000-object permanent collection — works spanning seven centuries and including an internationally acclaimed trove of works on paper established by Townsend Wolfe, who became the Arts Center’s director and chief curator in 1968. Wolfe retired in 2002 and died in 2017.
Much of the collection has been in storage and only occasionally, if that, rotated into the galleries. Those artworks will have been “newly cleaned and conserved” prior to their going on view, Ramirez said.
Admission, as it was at the Arts Center, will be free, she said.
The Fine Arts Club of Arkansas, founded in 1914, established the collection and gallery that would become the Museum of Fine Arts, which opened in MacArthur Park in 1937.
Attendees at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts announcement walk around the front of the new building Wednesday. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)
Gallery: Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Announcement
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How Spotlight PA Will Cover Pennsylvanias 2022 Election | SpotlightPA
How Spotlight PA Will Cover Pennsylvania’s 2022 Election | Spotlight PA https://digitalarkansasnews.com/how-spotlight-pa-will-cover-pennsylvanias-2022-election-spotlight-pa/
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters.
HARRISBURG — As Pennsylvania gears up for the pivotal 2022 election, Spotlight PA wants to empower voters to make an informed decision this November.
There will be several key races on the ballot, and lots of attention within the state and nationally. Rather than duplicate that coverage, Spotlight PA will instead focus its reporting resources on where candidates stand on the issues, how the voting process works, and how to get involved.
Specifically, this month we are launching a new election series — called “One Vote, Two Pennsylvanias” — to clearly articulate through policy proposals and issue-based reporting the vastly different visions the candidates for governor have for the future of our state.
Regardless of your political affiliation, trusted, nonpartisan election reporting is the bedrock of an informed electorate and an informed vote. As always, all of our public-service election coverage will be free and available to all on spotlightpa.org and through our more than 90 community newsroom partners across the state that republish our work.
For the first time, Spotlight PA will be translating its election guides into Spanish and distributing them through our Spanish-language partners as well as in partnership with Latino Connection, a marketing and communications firm that specializes in reaching Latino communities.
This vital work is only possible with your support. If you value this public-service approach to election reporting, help Spotlight PA continue to empower voters to get involved and strengthen our democracy. You can make a tax-deductible gift to Spotlight PA now at spotlightpa.org/donate, and as a special bonus, all gifts will be doubled through Sept. 24.
Contents
The races we will cover, and why
How we will cover the candidates
How we will cover voting
How we will cover voting results
How you can help guide our coverage
Where you can find our coverage
The races we will cover, and why
Candidates for U.S. Senate, governor, Congress, and the state legislature will be on the ballot this November. But the race for governor and the legislative contests will have the most direct impact on the lives of Pennsylvanians, and that’s where we’ll focus.
In particular, the governor’s race is central to the mandate of Spotlight PA. The governor wields significant power in Pennsylvania, approving or vetoing legislation, managing a massive state employee workforce, and overseeing state agencies that spend billions of taxpayer dollars.
With a long-established history of Republican control in the legislature, the governor’s race is key to the state’s future: Will Republicans control both legislative and executive branches and be able to advance key priorities that Wolf has blocked, or will Democrats retain control of the executive branch and be able to blunt policies from the GOP that they oppose?
Our reporters cover officials and lawmakers in Harrisburg, not Washington, and are in a strong position to explain the critical importance of the gubernatorial race and the policy positions of the candidates. So that’s where we’ll focus the majority of our coverage.
Our government team also closely follows the 253-member General Assembly, but it would be impossible for us to provide in-depth coverage of every single race. Instead, we’ll focus on the most contested legislative races and those that carry statewide importance.
How we will cover the candidates
Spotlight PA will not publish “horse race” coverage — stories that focus on campaign stops, the latest attacks, or who is winning or losing in the polls. For one, other news outlets will provide that coverage, and we don’t see a need to duplicate it. If you’d like to follow the day-to-day developments on the campaign trail, sign up for Spotlight PA’s daily newsletter, PA Post.
Horse race coverage has also been shown to exacerbate the extreme partisanship we see today. Research compiled by The Journalist’s Resource, a project of Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and the Carnegie-Knight Initiative, shows that these stories can lead to distrust in news outlets and politicians as well as create an “uninformed electorate.”
Instead, Spotlight PA will focus on the policy positions of the gubernatorial candidates in our “One Vote, Two Pennsylvanias” series, which will very clearly lay out for readers what Pennsylvania would look like under Democrat Josh Shapiro or Republican Doug Mastriano.
In addition to an in-depth guide to the race, Spotlight PA will also publish individual stories explaining the candidates’ positions on key issues. Those will be informed by our reporters talking with elected officials, candidates, campaign staffers, and you — the voters.
Spotlight PA is also working closely with Berwood Yost, director of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin and Marshall College, to analyze the college’s monthly election polls. This information will help Spotlight PA focus on topics voters have identified as most important.
Spotlight PA does not publish any editorial or opinion content, nor does it take a position on any particular political party or policy. The newsroom also does not endorse candidates.
How we will cover voting
There are three aspects to our effort to empower voters: The first is to provide trusted information about where candidates stand on the issues. The second is to explain how elections in Pennsylvania are run, how to properly cast a ballot, and how to get involved in the process. And the third is to educate voters on how they can protect themselves against misinformation and other purposeful efforts to peddle falsehoods or sow confusion.
We will publish guides on how to research candidates, how to become a poll worker, and how to vote, whether you choose to do it by mail or in person. All of this coverage — plus key dates, sample ballots, and more — will be available as part of a new Spotlight PA Election Center website that we’ll be unveiling in the coming days.
After the last presidential election and in the years since, Pennsylvania’s voting process — in particular, its mail voting law — has come under intense scrutiny and attack by Republicans, some of whom have advanced false or misleading claims put forth by former President Donald Trump. Our coverage will seek to help readers parse the noise from the facts.
This approach, called “prebunking,” is an alternative to the traditional fact-checking done by news organizations. Instead of chasing down every false claim, we seek to educate and empower voters to better recognize these efforts and guard against them.
How we will cover voting results
News organizations have traditionally collected voting results in hopes of reporting on a winner or projected winner in a race the night of the election. For a number of reasons, this approach is no longer viable in Pennsylvania and can contribute to confusion and mistrust.
Counties are unable to process mail ballots before Election Day, and many have different procedures for when they count votes and in what order. For example, some counties will only tabulate in-person votes on Election Day, and then move to mail-in ballots. Because Republicans tend to vote in person more than Democrats, that can skew early results.
For those reasons and more, we will not report the ongoing tally of votes as they are counted. Instead, we will wait for the vast majority or all of the ballots to be tabulated and then report on the projected winner. What matters isn’t being first, but being right.
How you can help guide our coverage
Spotlight PA’s coverage aims to put voters first, and that means we want to hear from you about the issues and questions you have about the race. We won’t be able to answer all of them, but our team of reporters will get to as many as possible.
Send a message using the form below (if you can’t see the form, click here):
Where you can find our coverage
All of Spotlight PA’s election coverage will be available on our site and will be shared with our more than 90 newsroom partners across the state. In mid-September, we will launch Spotlight PA’s new Election Center with a voter toolbox, key dates, a feed of election-related stories, an interactive sample ballot, and a campaign finance tracker. Stay tuned for that announcement.
If you’re subscribed to one of our newsletters, you’ll also get periodic Voter Alerts letting you know about our latest coverage, key developments, and important upcoming dates. If you’re not yet subscribed, you can do so at spotlightpa.org/newsletters.
WHILE YOU’RE HERE… If you learned something from this story, pay it forward and become a member of Spotlight PA so someone else can in the future at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.
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Time To Pop This Trial Balloon https://digitalarkansasnews.com/time-to-pop-this-trial-balloon/
Fred Underwood, Henderson
Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Donald Trump boasted in 2016 that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City and not lose a vote. This bragging also appeared to be a trial balloon to assess whether the American people would have a negative reaction to his outlandish boast; and this assessment appeared to reveal no significant outcry.
As a result, Trump may have been emboldened Jan. 6, 2021, to try another trial balloon assertion, this time in Washington, D.C.; however, he changed the assertion from shooting an individual to using false claims to undermine America’s democracy. Hopefully, this time he will lose votes.
Trump’s unwillingness to obey and follow America’s well-established rules of governance and laws has been clearly demonstrated over and over again The time has come for Americans to cast their votes, not trial balloons, to prevent Trump and his anti-democratic allies from winning elective office.
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Fetterman Oz Agree To Oct. 25 Debate But Feud Over Terms
Fetterman, Oz Agree To Oct. 25 Debate, But Feud Over Terms https://digitalarkansasnews.com/fetterman-oz-agree-to-oct-25-debate-but-feud-over-terms/
News
Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman of Pennsylvania says he has agreed to an Oct. 25 televised debate against his Republican rival, Dr. Mehmet Oz. The debate, coming two weeks before the general election, follows weeks of cajoling by Oz. He has raised questions about the severity of Fetterman’s lingering effects from a May stroke and pushed for as many as seven debates.
By MARC LEVY
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said Wednesday that he has agreed to an Oct. 25 televised debate against his Republican rival, Dr. Mehmet Oz, although the men feuded about its terms in what has become a flashpoint in the high-stakes campaign.
The debate, coming two weeks before the general election, follows weeks of cajoling by Oz, who has raised questions about the severity of Fetterman’s lingering effects from a May stroke and pushed for as many as seven debates.
It will be held in the studio of a Harrisburg TV station.
Oz’s campaign said in a statement that Fetterman had agreed to the debate only “after being hit with massive criticism from state and national editorials and commentators for ducking.”
Nevertheless, Oz will be at the debate “to share his vision for a better Pennsylvania and America, and he is ready (to) expose Fetterman’s record as the most far-left Senate candidate in America,” Oz campaign manager Casey Contres wrote in a statement.
Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, and Oz, a celebrity heart surgeon endorsed by former President Donald Trump, are vying to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in a race Democrats see as one of their best chances nationally to flip a Republican-held seat. The winner could help decide the chamber’s partisan control next year.
Fetterman’s campaign has said Oz was operating in bad faith by insisting on so many debates and said Oz’s motivation is to mock Fetterman for having a stroke. Fetterman still speaks haltingly and struggles to quickly respond to words he hears.
To accommodate that, Fetterman asked the station for closed-captioning during the debate and two practice sessions in the studio ahead of time.
In response, Oz’s campaign issued three requests.
It wants a moderator to tell the audience that Fetterman is using closed captioning to explain delays in his responses; practice sessions to not use actual debate questions; and the debate to be 90 minutes, instead of 60, because of closed-captioning delays.
Fetterman’s campaign said it had no problem with telling the audience about the closed captioning and said the practice sessions are simply walkthroughs that are routine before any debate. But Fetterman’s campaign insisted that the debate be 60 minutes and said Oz’s campaign had already agreed.
“For weeks Oz and his team have wet the bed about debates,” Fetterman’s campaign said. “Enough already, we are debating on the 25th, either show up or don’t, but now let’s get back to talking about the issues that matter, like how Oz would vote on the Senate abortion ban.”
In Pennsylvania’s last four U.S. Senate contests, debates have not been a major feature. All the debates took place in mid- to late October, with two debates in each race — except for the 2012 contest, which had one debate.
Fetterman has been recovering and was off the campaign trail for most of the summer following his May 13 stroke, which required surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator and prompted a revelation that he had a serious heart condition. Fetterman has provided no access to his doctors or health records and has said he almost died.
He has done just a handful of media interviews and no press conferences since the stroke and has used closed-captioning in video interviews with reporters.
Fetterman’s campaign maintains that his doctors have said he is expected to make a full recovery.
Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Ukraine's Zelenskiy Sees Damage In Recaptured Towns; Russia Strikes City Water System
Ukraine's Zelenskiy Sees Damage In Recaptured Towns; Russia Strikes City Water System https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ukraines-zelenskiy-sees-damage-in-recaptured-towns-russia-strikes-city-water-system/
Russian missiles attack Kryvyi Rih water system, Ukraine says
Dam repair works underway, floods receding -Krivyi Rih official
Zelenskiy makes surprise visit to Izium, Ukrainian flag raised
Russian, Chinese navies conduct joint patrols in the Pacific
IZIUM, Ukraine, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said towns and villages recaptured from Russian forces had been devastated, while a major city stepped up efforts on Thursday to repair damage to its water system from missile attacks.
Kryvyi Rih, the largest city in central Ukraine with an estimated pre-war population of 650,000, was hit by eight cruise missiles on Wednesday, officials said.
The strikes hit the Karachunov reservoir dam, Zelenskiy said in a video address released early on Thursday. The water system had “no military value” and hundreds of thousands of civilians depend on it daily, he said.
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Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Krivyi Rih military administration, said in a post on Telegram that 112 homes were flooded but that works to repair the dam on the Inhulets river were under way and that “flooding was receding”.
Russian forces suffered a stunning reversal this month after Ukrainian troops made a rapid armoured thrust in the Kharkiv region in its northeast, forcing a rushed Russian withdrawal.
Zelenskiy on Wednesday made a surprise visit to Izium – until four days ago Russia’s main bastion in the Kharkiv region – where he watched as the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the charred city council building.
“Our law enforcers are already receiving evidence of murder, torture, and abductions of people by the occupiers,” he said, adding there was “evidence of genocide against Ukrainians”.
“They only destroyed, only seized, only deported. They left devastated villages, and in some of them there is not a single surviving house,” Zelenskiy added in the video address.
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, and Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports. read more
Zelenskiy’s video address was released after his return to Kyiv from the Kharkiv region and following word from his office that his car had collided with a private vehicle in the capital.
“The president was examined by a doctor, no serious injuries were found,” presidential spokesman Serhii Nykyforov said in a Facebook post early on Thursday. read more
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Thursday that Russian forces had launched attacks on several settlements on the Kharkiv frontline in the past 24 hours.
However, Ukraine’s forces continue to consolidate their control of the newly liberated areas in the region, Britain’s defence ministry said in an update on Thursday.
Ukraine’s swiftest advance since driving Russian forces away from the capital in March has turned the tide in the six-month war
DIPLOMACY
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are set to discuss Ukraine and Taiwan at a meeting in Uzbekistan on Thursday which the Kremlin said would hold “special significance”. read more
A damaged apartment building is seen, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Izium, recently liberated by Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine September 14, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Ahead of the meeting, the navies of the two countries were conducting joint tactical manoeuvres and exercises involving artillery and helicopters in the Pacific Ocean. read more
Moscow and Beijing declared a “no limits” partnership earlier this year, backing each other over standoffs on Ukraine and Taiwan with a promise to collaborate more against the West. read more
Also on the diplomatic front, the U.N. General Assembly is on Friday due to consider a proposal for Zelenskiy to address the annual gathering of leaders next week with a pre-recorded video. Russia is opposed to Zelenskiy speaking. read more
Away from Ukraine, Russian authorities are facing challenges in other former Soviet states, with deadly fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia and border guard clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. read more
Western politicians and military officials have said it was too early to tell whether Ukraine’s recent success marked a turning point because Russia had yet to fully respond.
“We should avoid euphoria. There is still a lot of work to be done to liberate our lands, and Russia has a large number of weapons,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the national security and defence council, said in an online post.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in a Twitter post after the attacks on Kryvyi Rih, said “Russia is a terrorist state and must be recognised as such”.
In that vein, U.S. senators from Democratic and Republican parties introduced legislation that would designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. The measure is opposed by President Joe Biden’s administration. read more
FEAR LINGERS IN IZIUM
Back in Izium, smashed windows, pock-marked facades and scorched walls lined a battle-scarred main thoroughfare comprised of deserted meat shops and pharmacies and ruined beauty salons. A forlorn handwritten sign on a front door read: ‘People live here’. read more
With a pink hood wrapped around her face for warmth, Liubov Sinna, 74, said Izium residents were still fearful.
“Because we lived through this whole six months. We sat it out in cellars. We went through everything it is possible to go through. We absolutely cannot say that we feel safe,” she said.
She said the town stood at the “gates of the Donbas”, the eastern region whose entire capture Putin has talked up as a key war objective.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who spoke to Putin over the phone this week, said the Russian president “unfortunately” still did not think his invasion was a mistake.
Putin says he wants to ensure Russian security and protect Russian-speakers in Ukraine. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of an unprovoked war of aggression.
In a move that suggests Putin had wider war aims when he ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, three people close to the Russian leadership told Reuters that Putin had rejected a provisional deal with Kyiv around the time the war began.
They said the deal would have satisfied Russia’s demand that Ukraine stay out of the U.S.-led Western military alliance NATO. The Kremlin said the Reuters report had “absolutely no relation to reality”. It also said Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO still presented a threat to Russia. read more
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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Grant McCool and Himani Sarkar; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Stephen Coates and Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden To Step Down Renewables Boss Wael Sawan To Take The Helm
Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden To Step Down, Renewables Boss Wael Sawan To Take The Helm https://digitalarkansasnews.com/shell-ceo-ben-van-beurden-to-step-down-renewables-boss-wael-sawan-to-take-the-helm/
Wael Sawan will become Shell’s next chief executive on Jan. 1.
Ina Fassbender | Afp | Getty Images
Oil giant Shell on Thursday announced that CEO Ben van Beurden will step down at the end of the year after nearly a decade at the helm.
Wael Sawan, currently Shell’s director of integrated gas, renewables and energy solutions, will become its next chief executive on Jan. 1.
The news follows speculation that Shell had been actively looking for a successor to replace van Beurden as chief executive.
Reuters reported at the start of September, citing two unnamed sources, that Shell’s board succession committee had met several times in recent months to draw up plans for van Beurden’s departure and interview potential successors.
It has now been confirmed that Sawan will take over.
A dual Lebanese-Canadian national, Sawan has held roles in downstream retail and various commercial projects during his 25-year career at Shell.
“I’m looking forward to channelling the pioneering spirit and passion of our incredible people to rise to the immense challenges, and grasp the opportunities presented by the energy transition,” Sawan said in a statement, adding that it was an honor to follow van Beurden’s leadership.
“We will be disciplined and value focused, as we work with our customers and partners to deliver the reliable, affordable and cleaner energy the world needs.”
Seen here speaking at an event in Germany in 2013, Sawan has held roles in downstream retail and various commercial projects during his 25-year career at Shell.
Adam Berry | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Shares of Shell rose 0.7% during early morning deals in London. The stock price is up more than 40% year-to-date.
Van Beurden, 64, joined Shell in 1983 and became CEO of the company in 2014, after serving as director of the firm’s refining and chemicals business.
The outgoing CEO oversaw Shell’s biggest acquisition in decades with the $53 billion purchase of rival BG Group in 2016, guided the company through a historic collapse in energy demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and faced intensifying investor pressure to slash the firm’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“It has been a privilege and an honour to have served Shell for nearly four decades and to lead the company for the past nine years,” van Beurden said.
“I am very proud of what we have achieved together. I have great confidence in Wael as my successor. He is a smart, principled and dynamic leader, who I know will continue to serve Shell with conviction and dedication,” he added.
Shell said van Beurden would continue to work as an advisor to the Board through to June 30 next year, after which he will leave the company.
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Keeping PACER With The Times: Make Federal Court Records Freely Accessible
Keeping PACER With The Times: Make Federal Court Records Freely Accessible https://digitalarkansasnews.com/keeping-pacer-with-the-times-make-federal-court-records-freely-accessible/
Federal court records are having a moment. Rarely has such a large swath of the public been so invested in the motions, orders and supporting documents that make up the guts of our federal judiciary, with regular people from around the country fixated on the ongoing drama over Donald Trump’s refusal to return classified materials or following along as lawsuits are filed over attempts to restrict abortion access or voting rights.
Unless they’re sealed, these are public files — but that doesn’t mean that they’re that easily accessible or free to peruse. Generally speaking, federal court records can only be electronically accessed through the intimidating Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system, which charges users $0.10 per page or $3 maximum per document, only waiving these costs if they accrue less than $30 per quarter.
Thurgood Marshall United States Federal Courthouse (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Users are free to then share these documents widely because, again, they’re not secret or copyrighted. It’s only viewing and downloading the files that costs money and is pretty complicated to boot, which is why user-friendly repositories like the CourtListener project compile already-downloaded versions for the public to view for free. Yet in any given case, Americans might not be aware of these tools, or might be after files that haven’t yet been added, creating a situation where they’re forced to pony up fees that can very quickly add up, all to see public documents that are held in a public database.
There’s no particularly good reason for this and plenty of negative impact, including hamstringing research and stunting understanding of the crucial judicial processes that shape our understanding and practice of the law. Since last year, Congress has been considering a bill to make PACER free, even as the federal judiciary itself contemplates proactively taking that step in future iterations of the system.
Either way, Americans deserve a plan that makes judicial records free like their executive and legislative branch counterparts. Slapping a price tag on public information is just restricting access by another name.
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On Democracy Day Newsrooms Draw Attention To A Crisis In The U.S. System Of Government Michigan Advance
On Democracy Day, Newsrooms Draw Attention To A Crisis In The U.S. System Of Government ⋆ Michigan Advance https://digitalarkansasnews.com/on-democracy-day-newsrooms-draw-attention-to-a-crisis-in-the-u-s-system-of-government-%e2%8b%86-michigan-advance/
A recent poll found that 69 percent of both Democrats and Republicans think democracy in the United States is in danger of collapse.
Almost two years after Donald Trump falsely claimed that voter fraud cost him the election and inspired a web of supporters and “big lie” candidates to also believe the election was rigged, a majority of Americans are worried that democracy, our system of government in which political decisions are determined by the will of the people, is unstable.
Yet most U.S. news organizations don’t convey that level of concern and do very little to equip Americans with practical information about what they can do to save democracy. Many newsrooms in 2022 grapple with limited resources and staff, making it difficult for the media to dedicate the time and space required to an issue as vast as the precarious nature of our democracy.
Without adequate attention on the issue, egregious claims from far-right candidates could become normalized and the news cycle moves on. Other important issues take over top stories.
But this week, for one day, news organizations including States Newsroom are going to try to demonstrate the scope of the problem.
On Thursday, a collaboration of organizations including Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media, the Institute for Nonprofit News, and audience and engagement company Hearken want to show what it looks like to give democracy the attention it is due.
Coinciding with International Day of Democracy, roughly 386 media partners will publish stories drawing attention to the crisis facing U.S. democracy and sounding the alarm that democracy is on the cusp of collapse.
“We tend to take democracy, at least in this country, as a given,” said Joe Amditis, associate director of the Center for Cooperative Media, who is helping to organize Democracy Day. “We say that word so much, and we hear that word so much, that it loses its meaning in many contexts. It’s important, especially with all the anti-democratic activity that’s happening at every level of the government, to really stop and consider what it means to be a democracy, what it looks like to be a democracy, and really understand and grapple directly with why it’s so important to maintain and preserve that.”
States Newsroom’s 29 outlets will all participate in Democracy Day, with stories on a range of issues from threats to election officials to continued false narratives about the stolen 2020 election.
Reporters and editors with Colorado Newsline will discuss how election workers have taken their personal security into their own hands and will look into a new law that raises the standards for disseminating election material in languages other than English. Newsline will also take a deeper dive into Colorado’s enviable voter turnout numbers and examine the disparities among different demographics.
The Wisconsin Examiner will get congressional candidates on the record, talking about whether they believe the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, and will discuss how that narrative has affected the administration of elections.
The Minnesota Reformer and Source New Mexico will fact-check their GOP candidates for secretary of state, who have both denied the results of the 2020 election.
And the Oregon Capital Chronicle will look into threats being made to county election offices over alleged election issues, requiring them to retain documents and distracting them from doing the work necessary to administer the upcoming election.
Other outlets will discuss voter registration campaigns targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and get-out-the-vote efforts on both sides of the aisle.
The stories by States Newsroom’s outlets and other participating news organizations will inform the public about the scope of the problem and give readers practical information about what they can do.
While Americans often believe that our democracy is strong and unassailable, researchers find that we have actually become a backsliding democracy, Amditis said.
“That in itself should raise alarm bells and what better institution to raise those alarm bells and to shine light on solutions than the so-called Fourth Estate?” he said. “If we can get everyone to work together on a single day to publish at least one story looking into these issues, we think that’s a good starting point.”
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.
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Iran Remains Committed To Nuclear Negotiations Says FM
Iran Remains Committed To Nuclear Negotiations Says FM https://digitalarkansasnews.com/iran-remains-committed-to-nuclear-negotiations-says-fm/
Tehran: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said that Iran’s position in the negotiations aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal has not been changed.
Amir-Abdollahian on Wednesday made the remarks in an Instagram report about his telephone conversation with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Hamad al-Busaidi.
Noting that Iran and other negotiating parties have made a lot of efforts to reach an agreement over the past few months, the Iranian Foreign Minister told al-Busaidi that “Iran has always adhered to the process of dialogue and exchange of messages to lift sanctions, and the only obstacle to an agreement is the lack of realism and necessary determination on the part of the US.”
Iran has repeatedly shown “sufficient determination and goodwill” necessary to achieve a good, strong and stable agreement, and “there has been no change in Iran’s positions,” he said.
For his part, al-Busaidi emphasised the importance of reaching an agreement and returning all parties to their commitments, Xinhua news agency reported.
Iran and the US have been indirectly exchanging views about a recent EU proposal aimed at resolving the outstanding issues on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Iran signed the deal with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear programme in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.
The talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal began in April 2021 in Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.
The latest round of the nuclear talks was held in the Austrian capital in early August after a five-month hiatus. On August 8, the EU put forward a “final text” of the draft decision on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Mens Chorus Opens Season; Solo Duo Pianists Perform
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Men’s Chorus Opens Season; Solo, Duo Pianists Perform https://digitalarkansasnews.com/entertainment-notes-mens-chorus-opens-season-solo-duo-pianists-perform/
Pianist Michelle Cann gives a recital today for the Chamber Music Society of Little Rock at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/courtesy of the Curtis Institute of Music)
Elsewhere in entertainment, events and the arts this weekend:
MUSIC: Season opener
The River City Men’s Chorus opens its 2022-23 season with a program titled “How Firm a Foundation,” featuring orchestrations of hymn tunes and inspirational songs, 2 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. Monday and Sept. 22 in the sanctuary of Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Drive, Little Rock. David A. Glaze conducts.
Doors open one hour ahead of performance times. Admission is free. Call (501) 377-1080 or visit rivercitymenschorus.com or facebook.com/River-City-Mens-Chorus-35531191118.
Award-winning pianist
Pianist Michelle Cann, recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, gives a recital, under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Little Rock, 7:30 p.m. today in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, Fine Arts Building, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock.
Cann, a champion of the works of Little Rock native Florence Price, will play two of her pieces — “Sonata” and “Fantasie Negre No. 1,” both in e minor. Also on the program: “Ballade No. 3” in A-flat major, op.47, by Frederic Chopin; “Ballade” in D major, op.10, No. 2, by Johannes Brahms; “Four Pieces fugitives,” op.15, by Clara Schumann; and “Troubled Water” by Margaret Bonds. Tickets are $25, free for students. Visit chambermusicLR.com.
Spa City ‘Fledermaus’
The Muses Project performs Johann Strauss’ operetta “Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”), in English and German (with subtitles), 6 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Muses Cultural Art Center, 428 Orange St., Hot Springs. The cast includes soprano Elizabeth Novella as Adele, soprano Hanna Brammer as Rosalinda, mezzo-soprano Anna Hashizume as Prince Orlofsky, tenors Timothy Stoddard as Eisenstein and Nicholas Huff as Alfredo, bass-baritone Alex Boyd as Frank, actor Thomas Cooper as Frosch, soprano Deleen Davidson (also the Muses general director) as Ida and baritone Stacey Murdock as Dr. Falke. Tickets are $35. Call (501) 609-9811 or visit themusesproject.org.
Piano duo
The husband-and-wife Cai-Juhn Piano Duo — Lei Cai and Hee-Kyung Juhn — will give a recital at 3 p.m. Sunday at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 199 Barcelona Road, Hot Springs Village. The program includes piano-four-hand versions of the Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin. Cai will play four pieces by Frederic Chopin — two “Etudes,” in A-flat major, op. 25, No. 1, and in f minor, op. 25, No. 2; and two “Waltzes,” in A-flat major, op.69, No. 1, and in G-flat major, op. 70, No. 1; and the “Toccata,” op. 11, by Sergei Prokofiev. Juhn will play “Variations on a Theme of Corelli,” op. 42, by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Admission is free. Call (501) 922-0299.
THEATER: Studio’s ‘Kinky Boots’
A young man (Ethan Patterson) trying to save the shoe factory he inherited finds inspiration and help from “a fabulous entertainer [Brian Earles] in need of some sturdy stilettos” in “Kinky Boots,” (music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, book by Harvey Fierstein, based on the 2005 British film “and mostly inspired by true events”), 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 22-24 and Sept. 29-Oct. 1 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25 and Oct. 2 at the Studio Theatre, 320 W. Seventh St., Little Rock. Tickets are $25 in advance, via CentralArkansasTickets.com; $35 at the door. For more information, call (501) 374-2615 or visit studiotheatrelr.com.
‘Radium Girls’
The Weekend Theater, 1001 W. Seventh St. at Chester Street, Little Rock, stages “Radium Girls” by D.W. Gregory, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Sept. 23-24 and Sept. 30-Oct. 1 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25 and Oct. 2. Tickets are $20, $18 for senior citizens and students; visit centralarkansastickets.com/organizations/the-weekend-theater. For more information, call (501) 374-3761.
‘Spamilton’ at UCA
A touring cast performs “Spamilton: An American Parody,” a musical theater spoof of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” created by Gerard Alessandrini, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Tickets are $30-$40, $10 for children and students. Call (501) 450-3265 or (866) 810-0012 or visit uca.edu/Reynolds.
‘Outer Space’ extended
TheatreSquared, 477 W. Spring St., Fayetteville, has extended by a week the run of the world-premiere production of “It Came From Outer Space” (music and book by Joe Kinosian, lyrics and book by Kellen Blair, based on the 1953 Universal Pictures cult favorite science fiction film), with additional shows 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 Saturday 2 p.m. Sunday through Sept. 25. The show is a co-production with Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Tickets are $20-$54. Call (479) 777-7477 or visit theatre2.org.
ART: Fiber art
“The Nature of Things,” mixed-media fiber works by Little Rock artist Lisa Thorpe, opens with a reception, 5-8 p.m. Friday at the Acansa Gallery, 413A Main St., North Little Rock. The exhibit, a partnership between the gallery and Pinnacle Fine Arts of North Little Rock, will be on display through Oct. 14. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission to the gallery and the reception are free. Call (501) 416-0973.
Watercolor exhibition
The 30th annual Open Exhibition of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists opens with an Argenta Third Friday Art Walk reception, 5-8 p.m. Friday at the Argenta Library Gallery, 420 Main St., North Little Rock. Artworks on display through Oct. 7 will be for sale. Admission to the reception and the gallery is free. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Call (501) 687-1061.
DANCE: ‘Dance Day’
Creative Mindz Inc., Arkansas Rock Squad and United Streets of Dance and Hip Hop of KABF 88.5 FM host Arkansas National Dance Day, 4-8 p.m. Saturday in Capitol Plaza, Main Street and Capitol Avenue, Little Rock. Gather in person or watch via livestreamed performances of ballet, hip hop, Latin folklore, clogging, tap, line dancing, majorette and Jazzlesque. Admission is free. call (501) 658-3114 or visit facebook.com/ArkansasNationalDanceDay.
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HM The Queen: Lying-In-State https://digitalarkansasnews.com/hm-the-queen-lying-in-state/
HM The Queen: Lying-in-State BBC News
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How The Queen had a final say in the design of her hearse Royal Central
Newspaper headlines: ‘Nation says farewell’ amid ‘the long goodbye’ BBC
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Mosquito Fire: Crews Mop-Up In Foresthill But Eastern Front Still Aggressive
Mosquito Fire: Crews Mop-Up In Foresthill, But Eastern Front Still Aggressive https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mosquito-fire-crews-mop-up-in-foresthill-but-eastern-front-still-aggressive/
Wednesday for the town of Foresthill in Placerville is a completely different story from Tuesday when the Mosquito Fire was a stone’s throw away from tearing through the area.Wednesday’s winds were slightly lighter in comparison to Tuesday’s, where a flare-up jumped the Middle Fork of the American River and made a run toward Foresthill, the situation for the town as of 5 p.m. Wednesday appears better, with video from LiveCopter 3 showing significantly less smoke for that part of the Mosquito Fire.With the exception of a few structures and several vehicles across the street from Foresthill High School, much of that town was spared.The eastern section of the fire, however, remains active. KCRA 3 Chief Meteorologist Mark Finan said the fire has advanced about half a mile to a mile as far as area burnt.Still, the lighter winds were enough to push more smoke inversion out of the fire area, allowing for heavy use of aircraft to drop water and fire retardant, Cal Fire said in its Wednesday evening report. Crews patrolled, mopped up and secured control lines along Foresthill Road, focusing heavily on where Tuesday’s flare-up reached Foresthill.As of Wednesday at 7 p.m., the fire has burned at least 63,776 acres and is 20% contained. Meanwhile, authorities said that 64 structures have been destroyed in Placer County and 34 in El Dorado County. Cal Fire said 9,236 structures remain threatened.Here’s a look at the fire at 4 p.m. on Wednesday from LiveCopter 3:Video from LiveCopter 3 captured heavy smoke near Foresthill High School on Tuesday. Multiple vehicles and structures across the street from the school were destroyed. Crews were able to narrowly avoid the flames from reaching north of Foresthill Road, where more homes and structures, including the high school, are. Watch below | Raw: Vehicles, structures near Foresthill High School destroyed The eastern front of the fire steadily continues burning in dense forested areas with dry fuels, Cal Fire said. Most of Wednesday’s smoke came from this area.Crews continue trying to keep the fire away from the community of Stumpy Meadows, which was forced to evacuate Tuesday.The agency added that its No. 1 priority Wednesday remains strengthening and securing the control lines protecting these communities. The weather is forecast to be the same as the last few days, with continued southwest winds leading to fire growth. Meteorologist Heather Waldman said to expect wind gusts of around 15 mph. After sunset, the winds will back down, she said.Evacuation orders expand, power out for thousandsMeanwhile, evacuation orders expanded Tuesday for communities in Placer and El Dorado counties.The community of Stumpy Meadows was ordered to evacuate Tuesday afternoon by the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office because of the Mosquito Fire. The boundaries for the evacuated area are east of Stumpy Meadows, west of Wentworth Springs Road and the Ice Hours Road intersection. That also includes south of the El Dorado-Placer county border north of Onion Creek.In Placer County, the Yankee Jims and Shirttail Canyon areas were also forced to evacuate Tuesday afternoon. This includes south of Big Dipper through Kings Hill and through Black Bear and Grills Hill.There are also evacuation warnings for Iowa Hill Road at Mineral Bar to Elliot Ranch Road, north of Big Dipper and Adelia Hill.The Placer County Sheriff’s Office said deputies have evacuated 6,258 residents but 90 people refused to leave.Pacific Gas & Electric Co. also reported about 2,600 customers in both El Dorado and Placer counties without power as of 8 a.m. Wednesday. KCRA 3 reporter Melanie Wingo spoke with Scott McClean, a longtime Cal Fire spokesperson, about some of the operations crews have done to protect as many structures as possible. They spoke near Worton’s Market along Foresthill Road. Watch that interview below. The Mosquito Fire started on the evening of Sept. 6 near Mosquito Ridge Road on the north side of the Oxbow Reservoir. The Oxbow Reservoir is about 11 miles east of the community of Foresthill. Foresthill is located about 20 miles northeast of Auburn. Sixty-four structures were destroyed, and about 5,848 structures remain threatened, Cal Fire said. There are 11,277 people who evacuated since the fire started. Cal Fire said the steep and rugged terrain of the fire makes it difficult for crews to access the fire directly. Cal Fire hopes to fully contain the fire by Oct. 15. However, containment is not a measure of how much of the fire is extinguished but rather a gauge as to how much of a line crews have around the fire perimeter to prevent the fire from spreading. See all evacuation orders and warnings below. App users, click here.Evacuation centersPlacer CountySierra College — 5100 Sierra College Blvd, Rocklin, CA 95677 (Parking in Lot B, shelter will be in the Building J cafeteria)El Dorado CountyCameron Park Services District — 2502 Country Club Drive, Cameron Park, CA 95682. Overnight shelter, meals, showers, limited health services and parking for trailers will be provided. Animals in crates and carriers will also be accepted.Green Valley Community Church — 3500 Missouri Flat Road, Placerville, CA. This location with accept human and small domestic animals on leashes or in creates. No Large animal and no birds. Limited RV parking and no hookups.Animal evacuation centersPlacer CountyPlacer County Animal Services Center (Reached capacity and has suspended new intakes) — 11232 B Avenue, Auburn, CA 95603 Gold Country Fairgrounds — 209 Fairgate Road, Auburn, CaliforniaDiamond Springs Shelter (small animals only) — 6435 Capitol Avenue, Diamond Springs, CA 95619Rancho Murieta Equestrian Center (equines only) — Call for information: 916-985-7334Flying M Ranch (large animals only) — 5421 Buck Mountain Road, Placerville, CA 95667Road ClosuresThe Placer County Sheriff’s Office said hard road closures are in place on Foresthill Road and Lincoln Way in Auburn. There are also closures at the Old Foresthill Road at the Confluence.The eastbound Interstate 80 offramp to Foresthill Road is closed due to the fire.(Click through the gallery below for a glimpse at the firefight.) Large Mosquito Fire flare-up spottedKCRA 3 Photojournalist John Breedlove captured a large flare-up from the Mosquito Fire. A massive column of smoke could be seen coming up from those flames. That flare-up has since destroyed vehicles and structures near Foresthill High School. El Dorado County residents can check if their home is destroyedResidents in El Dorado County that had to evacuate because of the wildfire burning in the area can now start checking if their homes are still standing.The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office released an interactive map that lets you click on homes that are color-coded based on the amount of damage. Damaged or destroyed homes will also include pictures showing what the house looks like. Homes without damage will not have their pictures posted.According to the sheriff’s office, if you don’t see your home on the map, you are encouraged to check back later as crews continue to assess damages by the wildfire. Currently, the map shows homes in the Volcanoville, Georgetown and Quintette areas.View that map below. App users, click here.State of emergency declared Placer County issued a local emergency due to the blaze.“A local emergency proclamation asserts continuing risk to life and property and that the response is beyond the capabilities of local resources,” a release from the county said. “Placer’s proclamation requests state and federal assistance, but neither a state nor a federal disaster has yet been declared that would authorize individual disaster assistance for residents and businesses.” Gov. Gavin Newsom also declared a state of emergency in Placer and El Dorado counties due to the fires. With the state of emergency declared, that opens up federal resources to assist in combating the fire. PG&E files incident report to CPUCIt’s still unclear how the Mosquito Fire started. However, PG&E filed a report with the state’s public utility commission for a pole near where the fire started. The U.S. Forest Service had placed “caution tape around the base of a PG&E transmission pole” the report said on Thursday. “Thus far, PG&E has observed no damage or abnormal conditions to the pole or our facilities near Oxbow Reservoir, has not observed down conductor in the area or any vegetation related issues.”PG&E is investigating. Here’s a look at the current air quality in Northern CaliforniaSmoke from the Mosquito Fire burning in Placer and El Dorado counties will continue to impact areas across the Sacramento region, according to Spare the Air. The Sacramento Metropolitan, El Dorado, Feather River, Placer and Yolo-Solano air districts forecast unhealthy air quality for parts of the region.| MORE | Sacramento region’s air quality impacted by unhealthy smoke from the Mosquito Fire
Wednesday for the town of Foresthill in Placerville is a completely different story from Tuesday when the Mosquito Fire was a stone’s throw away from tearing through the area.
Wednesday’s winds were slightly lighter in comparison to Tuesday’s, where a flare-up jumped the Middle Fork of the American River and made a run toward Foresthill, the situation for the town as of 5 p.m. Wednesday appears better, with video from LiveCopter 3 showing significantly less smoke for that part of the Mosquito Fire.
With the exception of a few structures and several vehicles across the street from Foresthill High School, much of that town was spared.
The eastern section of the fire, however, remains active. KCRA 3 Chief Meteorologist Mark Finan said the fire has advanced about half a mile to a mile as far as area burnt.
Still, the lighter winds were enough to push more smoke inversion o...
Morgan Democrats Discuss Lange Campaign Pipeline Concerns At New Year
Morgan Democrats Discuss Lange Campaign, Pipeline Concerns At New Year https://digitalarkansasnews.com/morgan-democrats-discuss-lange-campaign-pipeline-concerns-at-new-year/
Ben Singson, Reporter
Sep. 15, 2022
Dave Ayers hangs a flag provided by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, at an open house for Morgan County Democrats. The flag has flown over the U.S. Capitol.
Ben Singson/Journal-Courier
A congressional candidate and two environmental activists were among those Tuesday at the first meeting of Morgan County Democrats’ new year.
Prior to the meeting, the group had an open house and hot dog roast at its newly rented headquarters at 907 S. Main St.
Judith Luckenbach Nelson, Morgan County Democrats president, said the headquarters will be open from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. During those times, member will be available to answer any questions the public may have.
The group’s primary concerns going into the fall election season include making sure Democratic candidates get elected and registering people to vote, she said.
Paul Lange, Democratic candidate for the newly formed 15th Congressional District, met during the meeting with members of the group and spoke about both the issues he is looking to fix and his opponent, Mary Miller.
“She believes in government of Donald Trump, by Donald Trump and for Donald Trump,” he said.
Lange, who is traveling the new district to meet constituents, advocated for strengthening Social Security, infrastructure and abortion rights, while criticizing Miller for voting against laws such as the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Also present at the meeting were Nick Dodson and Francesca Butler of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines. The two distributed information about the proposed Heartland Greenway pipeline, with Dodson speaking briefly about the group’s safety concerns. He focused on the 175 Morgan County homes he said would be in close proximity to the pipeline’s path and all of the homes in northern Bethel and Chapin.
Others at the meeting came to show support for the Democrats, with many expressing concern about nationwide issues such as the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, voting rights and the environment.
“Downstate Illinois … (is) not very Democratic,” attendee Ed Preston said, “but I still think we need to vote on issues that are important, and there are a lot of them I think the Democratic Party stands (for) while the Republican Party doesn’t.”
The next meeting of the Morgan County Democrats will be Oct. 11.
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Democratic Candidates Convene At Wayward Social https://digitalarkansasnews.com/democratic-candidates-convene-at-wayward-social/
T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY From left to right, Democratic Secretary of Agriculture candidate John Norwood, Congressional candidate Ryan Melton, Marshall County Attorney candidate Sarah Tupper, State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald and Secretary of State candidate Joel Miller all spoke during a meet and greet event at Wayward Social in Marshalltown on Wednesday night.
A total of five Democratic candidates — three for statewide offices, one for Congress and another for Marshall County Attorney — congregated at Wayward Social on Wednesday night for a meet and greet event with voters, and each hopeful took center stage to deliver a brief stump speech about why they believe they should be elected in November.
After Marshall County Democrats Chair Jeanine Grady introduced the candidates, Secretary of Agriculture candidate John Norwood — who described himself as a “Tip O’Neill style Democrat” — was the first to speak, criticizing the current direction of agriculture in the state under the leadership of his opponent, Republican incumbent Mike Naig, as “unbalanced.” Norwood currently resides in West Des Moines and serves as the soil and water commissioner for Polk County.
“We have a system that is delivering a billion pounds of nitrates down our river systems and into our reservoirs and so forth, and so water quality is not just an urban problem. It’s a rural (problem). It’s an Iowa problem,” Norwood said. “I hear that out on the trail — people afraid to drink their water… There are less than one percent of river segments that are approved for all of the intended uses. That, to me, was shocking.”
Norwood said improving water quality, reversing soil loss and diversifying agriculture beyond classic row crop farming would be a few of his top goals if elected, but he also highlighted Iowa’s important role as the nation’s second largest agricultural producer after California. He also lambasted Naig, who was appointed in 2018 and elected to a full-term later that year, as a “PR person,” noting his past employment with agribusiness giant Monsanto and accusing him of following Norwood’s lead on saturated buffer strips rather than the other way around.
“I think we need to add resiliency. We need to add diversity. We need to add inclusiveness. We need to add flexibility to what we’re doing in ag,” Norwood said. “We can’t just do corn and beans and hogs. That is not going to sustain Iowa.”
Michael Fitzgerald, the incumbent state treasurer who has held his seat for 39 years, stood up next and mostly focused on initiatives he has implemented during his tenure including the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt, College Savings Iowa and IAble. He also highlighted his local roots: Fitzgerald was born in Marshalltown and lived near State Center as a child before eventually moving to Colo and graduating from high school there. If re-elected, he vowed to continue to fight for the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS) system and resist attempts at privatization. Fitzgerald faces Republican Roby Miller in the November election.
Next up was Joel Miller, the current Linn County Auditor who is seeking his first term as secretary of state and challenging incumbent Paul Pate. Miller said his goal was to “make voting easy again,” and he ran through a list of restrictions enacted by Republicans that he found unnecessary and burdensome.
Miller, a former military policeman who worked in information technology and served as mayor of Robins before he was elected Linn County Auditor in 2007, then shifted more specifically to Pate and criticized him for not registering a position on an elections bill 68 of Iowa’s 99 county auditors opposed, failing to properly publish a gun rights amendment that would have been on the ballot for a constitutional amendment in 2020 and using his office to promote an anti-human trafficking initiative, which Miller felt fell outside of the scope of the secretary of state’s duties.
Finally, he went after Pate for endorsing Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 Republican primary and Donald Trump in 2016, who Miller called two of the biggest election deniers in the country. He also cited his own personal experience navigating an unprecedented 119 voter registration challenges in Linn County, which he tied back to Douglas Frank, a former math teacher from Ohio who held an event in Independence promoting the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
“Paul Pate is an enabler of this behavior by not saying anything, not doing anything, not disavowing the rhetoric that’s being spoken about our elections, causing our elections and our democracy to be undermined,” Miller said. “That’s what needs to happen, and he’s not doing it. You should fire him for that, if not for all the other reasons I told you.”
He closed by arguing that he wanted everyone to vote and believed the secretary of state’s race was the most important one on the ballot.
Congressional hopeful Ryan Melton of Nevada, who is running in the Fourth District against incumbent Republican Randy Feenstra, acknowledged that he faces an uphill battle in the traditionally conservative, mostly rural district that runs from Marshall County all the way to the northwest corner of Iowa, but he saw running as an opportunity to hold Feenstra accountable and at the very least provide voters with a second option on the ballot especially in light of what he called the “anti-democracy” era.
“My wife and I had a simple conversation over dinner. She said ‘You know, babe, one of us has got to run for Congress, you know.’ I said ‘Alright, babe, alright, who’s gonna run?’ She said ‘Well, you handle BS a lot better than I do, so you should probably do it,’” Melton said. “I said ‘Alright, I guess I’m running for Congress, babe,’ so here we are.”
Melton, a team leader at Nationwide Insurance, said the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol weighed heavily on his mind as he made the decision to run, and he criticized Feenstra for taking what he considered a soft stance on the events and continuing to tout Trump’s support afterward. Melton then advocated for improved childcare, a Medicare for All/single payer style healthcare system, better broadband internet in rural areas, protections for organized labor, more funding for public education, a more aggressive effort to combat climate change and more benefits for veterans.
Before he concluded, Melton directly compared Feenstra to his controversial predecessor Steve King, citing their similar views on social issues like abortion, guns and LGBTQ rights.
“Iowa Republicans will tell you all day every day (that) Randy Feenstra puts on a suit and tie, and he doesn’t say the worst stuff out loud. He doesn’t have to because his voting record is Steve King’s voting record,” Melton said. “My opponent is literally making the people of this district feel less safe.”
Marshall County Attorney candidate Sarah Tupper, who was already in attendance, gave an impromptu speech before the event wrapped up, spotlighting her background working in three different county attorney’s offices in Iowa, prosecuting violent crimes, implementing a drug court program and writing successful grant applications. She also hopes to start a mental health court if elected.
“I think it’s really, really important that the county attorney be a leader in the community. My family and I have lived here for 11 years. We’re raising our kids here. We love this community. We love Marshall County. We love Marshalltown,” she said. “I think the county attorney does need to be a leader (and) work with other community organizations, other leaders within the community because we’re all serving the same people, and we can best do that if we work together.”
Tupper, an assistant Marshall County attorney, faces Republican incumbent Jordan Gaffney, who was first appointed to replace Jennifer Miller in 2021, in the November election.
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