US Green Initiatives Benefit Top Officials' Family Members With Ties To China: Cybersecurity Expert
US Green Initiatives Benefit Top Officials' Family Members With Ties To China: Cybersecurity Expert https://digitalarkansasnews.com/us-green-initiatives-benefit-top-officials-family-members-with-ties-to-china-cybersecurity-expert/
As the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) (pdf) seeks to spend some $369 billion toward energy and climate programs over the next 10 years, those green initiatives will mostly benefit family members of top officials with ties to the Chinese regime, according to Rex Lee, a cybersecurity adviser at My Smart Privacy.
“There’s concern … that potentially lawmakers and or their family members stand to benefit [greatly] from legislation that they have influence over and are creating policy and making laws in Washington DC,” Lee told the “China in Focus” program on NTD News, the sister media of The Epoch Times.
To prove this argument, he pointed to Tony Podesta, the brother of former Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta who recently joined the Biden administration to serve as a senior adviser on “clean energy innovation and implementation.”
John Podesta was tapped to “oversee implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act’s expansive clean energy and climate provisions and will chair the President’s National Climate Task Force in support of this effort,” the White House said on Sept. 2.
Yet, Tony Podesta, Lee said, “represents Huawei and their lobbying efforts go directly back to the White House, which means that … he has a direct line to [President] Joe Biden.”
“Huawei … is allowed to market in the United States as a result of having some of Trump and Obama’s executive orders repealed by the Biden administration,” he added.
The U.S. Department of Commerce officials in 2021 granted applications worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Chinese tech company Huawei—which was blacklisted under the Trump administration over national security concerns—to buy chips for its auto supply business.
“I think this is happening with green technology, as well … if you look at the lobbying efforts from the solar panel, panel manufacturers out of China, as well as the battery manufacturers out in China,” Lee opined.
The other conflict of interest that Lee further pointed out, arises from a lithium refining company in Pittsburgh, which has Paul Pelosi Jr., the son of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), as a member of its Advisory Board.
Another company named by Lee is BHR, a Chinese private equity firm, in which Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden held a 10 percent stake as of last May, according to company records.
BHR is reportedly backed by major state financial institutions such as the Bank of China and the China Development Bank Capital.
Lee said that it is concerning when “these family members are going to benefit or these families or these lawmakers are going to benefit financially from the laws that they’re legislating.”
Energy Dependence
With Democrats rolling out plans to ban gas-powered cars, the demand for materials to produce EV batteries such as lithium and cobalt, is expected to surge.
That increasing demand would make America become even more energy dependent on China, according to the expert.
“Ninety-five percent of cobalt mining is done in Africa through Chinese companies that have worked with the governments in Africa to mine the cobalt over there,” Lee said.
“Sixty-two percent of lithium will flow back through China as well,” he added.
BYD Company, the Chinese electric car and battery giant, had reached an agreement to acquire six lithium mines in Africa, according to a May 2021 report from China’s The Paper.
Lee further called for Americans to raise the issue of these lobbying efforts with their lawmakers.
“You can look up what companies are lobbying what laws and then write your lawmaker about these things … and hold your lawmaker accountable,” Lee said.
“We shouldn’t allow any foreign company … any companies from other countries to lobby. And that in itself is a threat to the United States and our ability to compete, much less let companies from adversarial nations such as China and Russia,” he said.
The Epoch Times reached out to Pelosi’s office and the Biden administration for comment.
Anne Zhang and Dorothy Li contributed to this report.
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Hannah Ng is a reporter covering U.S. and China news. She holds a master’s degree in international and development economics from the University of Applied Science Berlin.
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Tiffany Meier is a New York-based reporter and host of NTD’s “China in Focus.”
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Ukraine Leader Promises Victory During Frontline Town Visit As Russia Digs In
Ukraine Leader Promises Victory During Frontline Town Visit As Russia Digs In https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ukraine-leader-promises-victory-during-frontline-town-visit-as-russia-digs-in/
Zelenskiy visits liberated town
Pledges total victory
Ukraine now on offensive in both south and east
Is meeting Russian resistance on both fronts
Biden says war looks like long haul despite Kyiv’s success
IZIUM, Ukraine, Sept 14 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised he would lead Ukraine to victory in its war against Russia as he visited shrapnel-blasted, recently recaptured towns on Wednesday, but pro-Russian officials said they had halted Kyiv’s forces for now.
Russian forces suffered a stunning reversal this month after Ukrainian troops made a rapid armoured thrust with special forces in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, forcing a sometimes rushed and chaotic Russian withdrawal.
Zelenskiy on Wednesday made a surprise visit to the town of Izium, around 15 km (9.3 miles) from the current frontline in the east. He thanked his soldiers for liberating the town, an important logistics hub, whose buildings and people now bear the scars of war
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“Our blue-yellow flag is already flying in de-occupied Izium. And it will be so in every Ukrainian city and village,” Zelenskiy said in a social media post coinciding with the visit.
“We are moving in only one direction – forward and towards victory.”
Earlier on Wednesday, an emotional-looking Zelenskiy handed out medals to soldiers who had taken part in the operation to free the area in Balakliia, another town retaken in recent days where citizens and local police told reporters civilians were killed during months of Russian occupation. read more
Reuters could not independently verify the claims. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians.
The president says his army had liberated around 8,000 square km (3,100 square miles) of territory so far this month, a swath of land nearly equivalent to the island of Cyprus.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the full scope of battlefield successes claimed by Ukraine.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said Ukrainian troops were now trying to retake the Russian-held town of Lyman in Ukraine’s Donetsk region and were eyeing territorial gains in the neighbouring Luhansk region which is under Russian control.
“There is now an assault on Lyman,” Arestovych said in a video posted on YouTube.
“And that is what they fear most – that we take Lyman and then advance on Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk,” he said, referring to twin cities in the Luhansk region taken by Russia after fierce fighting in June and July.
Denis Pushilin, head of the Russia-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said troops loyal to Moscow had successfully pushed back Ukrainian forces trying to make inroads into Lyman, and to the north and south of the town.
“Nothing worked out for the enemy,” said Pushilin.
Asked whether Ukraine’s lightning counter offensive in the east was a turning point in the war, U.S. President Joe Biden said it was hard to tell.
“It’s clear the Ukrainians have made significant progress. But I think it’s going to be a long haul,” said Biden.
Russian forces still control about a fifth of the country in the south and east, even though Kyiv is now on the offensive in both areas.
Ukrainian soldiers rest on the road as they head to a front line, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine September 13, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
The White House, which has provided billions of dollars of weapons and support to Ukraine, has said the United States is likely to announce a new military aid package in the “coming days”.
Ukraine’s swiftest advance since driving Russian forces away from the capital in March has turned the tide in the six-month war
DEVASTATION
In recaptured Izium, Zelenskiy watched as the Ukrainian flag was raised in front of the charred city council building.
On the main thoroughfare, no buildings were left unscathed: a derelict bath house had a hole blasted in its side; meat shops, pharmacies, a shoe shop and a beauty salon were sprayed with shrapnel.
“I know this region very well,” Zelenskiy told reporters.
“The view is shocking, but it is not shocking for me because we… saw the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories. The same destroyed buildings, killed people.”
After a Russian retreat earlier in the war, dead civilians were found in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv.
On the road into Izium, bus stops were daubed with “Z” markings, the symbol Russian forces use to identify themselves, and the charred remains of tanks and armoured personnel carriers lay by the road side.
With a pink hood wrapped around her face for warmth, Liubov Sinna, 74, said residents were still fearful.
“We waited a long time for our guys. Of course we feel positive. Joy. But there is also fear – fear that the Russians could return here,” she said.
“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.”
There was no gas, electricity, or water supply in the town, she added, saying she was unsure how people would get through winter.
In a move that suggests Russian President Vladimir 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. read more
They said the deal would have satisfied Russia’s demand that Ukraine stay out of NATO. The Kremlin said the Reuters report had “absolutely no relation to reality.” It also said Ukraine’s ongoing ambitions to join the Western NATO military alliance still presented a threat to Russia. read more
On top of its reversals in Ukraine, Russian authorities are also facing challenges in other former Soviet republics with deadly fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia and border guard clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. read more
The situation in the former Soviet states will be the backdrop at a summit in Uzbekistan this week where Putin will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping and discuss the war in Ukraine. read more
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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Louisiana Woman Carrying Skull-Less Fetus Forced To Travel To New York For Abortion
Louisiana Woman Carrying Skull-Less Fetus Forced To Travel To New York For Abortion https://digitalarkansasnews.com/louisiana-woman-carrying-skull-less-fetus-forced-to-travel-to-new-york-for-abortion/
An expectant Louisiana woman who was carrying a skull-less fetus that would die within a short time from birth ultimately traveled about 1,400 miles to New York City to terminate her pregnancy after her local hospital denied her an abortion amid uncertainty over the procedure’s legality.
Nancy Davis, 36, told the Guardian that she had her pregnancy terminated on 1 September after traveling from her home town of Baton Rouge to a clinic in Manhattan whose staff had agreed to complete the procedure.
Davis’s trek was necessary because Louisiana has outlawed abortion with very few exceptions after the US supreme court’s decision in June to eliminate federal abortion rights which were established by its 1973 Roe v Wade ruling. New York is among the states where abortion remains legal.
Davis was about 10 weeks pregnant in late July when an ultrasound at Woman’s hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital, showed that her fetus was missing the top of its skull, a rare but fatal condition known as acrania that kills babies within days – and sometimes minutes – of birth.
Louisiana’s abortion ban contains a general exception for fetuses that cannot survive outside their mothers’ wombs, and the law’s author – state senator Katrina Jackson – has insisted that Davis could have legally obtained an abortion without having to go across the country.
But Louisiana’s list of conditions justifying an exception from the state’s abortion ban did not explicitly include acrania. So officials at the hospital where Davis had her ultrasound refused to provide an abortion for her, apparently fearing that they could be exposed to prison time, fines and forfeiture of their licenses to practice if they performed the procedure.
“Basically … I [would have] to carry my baby to bury my baby,” Davis has previously said.
After Davis spoke out in the media about her ordeal, more than a thousand people donated nearly $40,000 to an online GoFundMe campaign for Davis to travel to a state where it was certain that she could legally get an abortion. She had initially planned to go to North Carolina, but during a brief telephone conversation on Tuesday, she said she ended up going to a Planned Parenthood facility in Manhattan.
Davis is only one member of a group of women or girls who have been forced to take gut-wrenching actions in the aftermath of the elimination of nationwide abortion rights.
A Florida court recently blocked a pregnant 16-year-old girl from having an abortion, deeming her too immature to decide whether she should have an abortion and instead requiring the teenager to give birth to a baby.
Meanwhile, earlier in the summer, a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and impregnated had to travel to neighboring Indiana to terminate her pregnancy because her state had banned most abortions.
Most abortions are set to become illegal in Indiana as of Thursday, too.
Davis appeared outside Louisiana’s capitol building in late August alongside the civil rights attorney Ben Crump and called on the state’s lawmakers to at least clarify the wording of their abortion ban – if not repeal it entirely – so that no one else would have to endure what she has.
Crump said Davis – who is raising a daughter and two stepchildren with her partner – suffered “unspeakable pain, emotional damage and physical risk” because of the poorly worded law. Lawmakers, Crump added, “replaced care with confusion, privacy with politics and options with ideology”.
For her part, Davis said: “This [was] not fair to me. And it should not happen to any other woman.”
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Google Loses Challenge Against EU Antitrust Decision Other Probes Loom
Google Loses Challenge Against EU Antitrust Decision, Other Probes Loom https://digitalarkansasnews.com/google-loses-challenge-against-eu-antitrust-decision-other-probes-loom/
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LUXEMBOURG, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Google suffered one of its biggest setbacks on Wednesday when a top European court upheld a ruling that it broke competition rules and fined it a record 4.1 billion euros, in a move that may encourage other regulators to ratchet up pressure on the U.S. giant.
The unit of U.S. tech giant Alphabet (GOOGL.O) had challenged an EU antitrust ruling, but the decision was broadly upheld by Europe’s General Court, with the fine trimmed modestly to 4.125 billion euros ($4.13 billion) from 4.34 billion euros.
Even with the reduction, it was still a record fine for an antitrust violation. The EU antitrust enforcer has fined the world’s most popular internet search engine a total of 8.25 billion euros in three investigations stretching back more than a decade.
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The judgment is set to boost landmark rules aimed at curbing the power of U.S. tech giants that will go into effect next year. read more
“The judgment strengthens the hand of the Commission. It confirms the Commission can use antitrust proceedings as a backstop threat to enforce rapid compliance with digital regulation also known as the DMA,” said Nicolas Petit, professor at European University Institute.
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager did not mince her words.
“This, of course, is really good. Now, we have the second Google judgment and for us, it is really important as it backs our enforcement efforts,” she said.
This is the second court defeat for Google which lost its challenge to a 2.42 billion euro ($2.42 billion) fine last year, the first of a trio of cases.
“The General Court largely confirms the Commission’s decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine,” the court said.
“In order better to reflect the gravity and duration of the infringement, the General Court considers it appropriate however to impose a fine of 4.125 billion euros on Google, its reasoning differing in certain respects from that of the Commission,” judges said.
Google, which can appeal on matters of law to the EU Court of Justice, Europe’s highest, voiced its disappointment.
“We are disappointed that the Court did not annul the decision in full. Android has created more choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world,” a spokesperson said.
The logo for Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
ANTITRUST BOOST
The ruling is a boost for Vestager after the General Court overturned her decisions against Intel (INTC.O) and Qualcomm (QCOM.O) earlier this year.
Vestager has made her crackdown against Big Tech a hallmark of her job, a move which has encouraged regulators in the United States and elsewhere to follow suit.
She is currently investigating Google’s digital advertising business, its Jedi Blue ad deal with Meta (META.O), Apple’s (AAPL.O) App Store rules, Meta’s marketplace and data use and Amazon’s (AMZN.O) online selling and market practices.
The Court agreed with the Commission’s assessment that iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O) was not in the same market and therefore could not be a competitive constraint against Android.
The court backing could reinforce the EU antitrust watchdog in its investigations into Apple’s business practices in the music streaming market, which the regulator says Apple dominates.
FairSearch, whose 2013 complaint triggered the EU case, said the judgment may lead to more competition in the smartphone market.
“This shows the European Commission got it right. Google can no longer impose its will on phone makers. Now they may open their devices to competition in search and other services, allowing consumers to benefit from increased choice,” its lawyer Thomas Vinje said.
The Commission in its 2018 decision said Google used Android to cement its dominance in general internet search via payments to large manufacturers and mobile network operators and restrictions.
Google said it acted like countless other businesses and that such payments and agreements help keep Android a free operating system, criticising the EU decision as out of step with the economic reality of mobile software platforms.
The case is T-604/18 Google vs European Commission.
($1 = 1.0002 euros)
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Reporting by Foo Yun Chee Editing by David Evans and Bernadette Baum
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Who Is Igor Lanis Michigan Man Obsessed With QAnon Conspiracy Theories After The Defeat Of Donald Trump Who Killed His Wife Age Biography Family Wife Daughter News Reddit Twitter
Who Is Igor Lanis Michigan Man Obsessed With QAnon Conspiracy Theories After The Defeat Of Donald Trump Who Killed His Wife, Age, Biography, Family, Wife, Daughter, News, Reddit, Twitter https://digitalarkansasnews.com/who-is-igor-lanis-michigan-man-obsessed-with-qanon-conspiracy-theories-after-the-defeat-of-donald-trump-who-killed-his-wife-age-biography-family-wife-daughter-news-reddit-twitter/
On Sunday, September 11, a tragic incident happened where a Michigan-based man, Igor Lanis reportedly killed his wife and severely injured his own daughter after losing his marbles in the aftermath of the defeat of Donald Trump
According to the family members, the man was obsessed with QAnon conspiracy theories and had started to lose “sense of reality,” after the former president, Donald Trump lost elections in 2022.
“A Michigan man’s obsession with the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory culminated in a Sunday incident in which he murdered his wife and badly injured one of his children, his daughter told The Daily Beast.
Igor Lanis, a 53-year-old resident of the Michigan city of Walled Lake, https://t.co/2TfvyVYIxV
— David Habbel (@DrDavidHabbel) September 12, 2022
QAnon conspiracy theories unraveled Igor Lanis’s brain to the point where he killed his wife and shot his daughter over Donald fucking Trump legally losing an election…..man, and it’s only Monday. https://t.co/hEHWSbN2D9 pic.twitter.com/OzKU3mcDDQ
— The Captain (@Sickshoota) September 12, 2022
Igor’s younger daughter, Rebecca Lanis, who was out at the night attending a party, when the incident happened, opened up to the Daily Beast that, “He had a sense of reality.
But then after 2020, when Trump lost, he started going down these crazy rabbit holes.”
Who was Igor Lanis?
Igor Lanis, a 53-year-old Michigan-based man, who lived in Walled Lake. He was a staunch believer in QAnon Conspiracy theories.
He was so obsessed with these theories that it led him to shoot his own family members on Sunday, September 11.
After Igor shot his wife dead, he went on and severely injured his daughter, however the man was shot down by the officers when he started firing at them.
According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, the man has also killed their family dog. During the investigations, Cops find out that he was obsessed with pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theories.
As per the official statement, the police first received a distress call on 911 at around 4:11 am. The call came from a 25-year-old Rachel Lanis, who’s the elder daughter of Igor Lanis.
Although the girl had failed to provide her location on the call, the authorities triangulated the call and it took them only 5 minutes to arrive at their home.
According to the official statement, “Officers observed the 911 caller/victim, a 25-year-old female, at the front door, attempting to crawl [out] from the home.
They dragged her to safety. She stated that her dad shot her and her mother.”
When cops entered the house, they found the body of a 56-year-old Tina Lanis, to whom her husband Igor had shot multiple times in the back. It looked like she was trying to escape.
On the other hand, Rachel has suffered bullet shots to her back and legs. As per the investigators, Rachel is in stable condition now.
While conserving with the media outlet, the younger daughter of Igor, Rebecca who wasn’t present during the horrific incident took place has lamented that QAnon and their wild theories were a major factor in this devastating incident.
She said, “It’s a very big contributor to what happened,” before expressing that her father wasn’t physically violent. But after the former president Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, his “mental health worsened.”
According to Rebecca, her father “became drawn into the conspiracy theories. He insisted that family members watch conspiracy-theory videos about the 5G cell towers, vaccines, and the election.
“He started to believe that some world leaders were in fact alien lizard-people in disguise, a fringe conspiracy theory even among QAnon supporters.”
ALSO READ: Tell Me Lies Hulu Series Total Episodes List, Release Date Schedule, Titles Name And Plot Story
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Lin-Manuel Miranda Others Seek Puerto Rico Silver Lining
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Others Seek Puerto Rico Silver Lining https://digitalarkansasnews.com/lin-manuel-miranda-others-seek-puerto-rico-silver-lining/
NEW YORK (AP) — Five years after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico and exposed the funding problems the Caribbean island has long faced, philanthropists warn that many of those issues remain unaddressed, just like the repairs still needed for the American territory’s physical infrastructure.
The Category 4 storm, with winds reaching 155 miles per hour (250 kilometers per hour), killed dozens immediately on Sept. 20, 2017 and researchers estimate thousands more died in the aftermath due to the lack of permanent shelter and power. According to a Hispanic Federation report released Wednesday, Hurricane Maria did an estimated $90 billion in damage to the island.
“It was just such a scary moment,” said “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who helped mobilize millions in aid for Puerto Rico. “But one of the silver linings has been the coalition building between the diaspora and residents on the island that was really formed out of those challenges.”
That coalition building was sorely needed, because Puerto Rico and its residents have an unusual image problem in philanthropy, said Hispanic Federation President and CEO Frankie Miranda. International nonprofits generally left it out of donations given to the neediest populations because it is part of the United States, while American nonprofits often left it out of programs by earmarking donations only for the 50 states.
That long-running problem was intensified by what critics say was former President Donald Trump’s administration’s slow response to Hurricane Maria, which extended the impact of the storm, including the longest blackout in American history.
“It was about fairness,” said Frankie Miranda, adding that some federal recovery funds are only getting to Puerto Rico now. “It was about equity. We were not getting the fair share for people on the island compared to other disasters happening in the United States. So we needed to act.”
Frankie Miranda will lead a delegation from the Hispanic Federation — including Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is not related — to Puerto Rico on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Maria and survey what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done.
For Lin-Manuel Miranda, the storm was personal. He had family on the island who he couldn’t reach because phone service was knocked out. He remembered learning that his uncle survived the storm from a photo on Facebook showing his uncle volunteering help.
However, his most successful initial fundraising campaign was not planned. Lin-Manuel Miranda, known for being level-headed and upbeat almost as he is known for his creativity, got mad about Trump’s reaction to the suffering he saw in Puerto Rico.
“You’re going straight to hell, @realdonaldtrump,” he tweeted, along with a link to the Hispanic Federation’s fund for Puerto Rico.
The reaction was fast and intense. Donations skyrocketed, eventually topping more than 200,000 separate gifts, as did attention for the victims of the hurricane. The next day, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s photo and tweet was on the front page of the New York Daily News next to Trump.
“I didn’t anticipate any of that,” he said. “But, anger can be a galvanizing force. And the widespread frustration with that president’s inability to engage with reality, sort of galvanized a lot of donations. That was the biggest moment in terms of fundraising.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda then worked to keep the momentum going. “I burned up my Rolodex to make that almost like praying,” he said, as he sought donations. “And then I burned up my Twitter DMs for people I didn’t know. The first six months it basically became our entire lives. I just put everything else in our lives on hold.”
Initially, the focus was on the “really nitty gritty things, like food, water, basic recovery supplies.” Then, he began to expand the scope of the aid, eventually bringing a production of “Hamilton” to the island as a fundraiser.
Proceeds from those shows helped launch the Flamboyan Arts Fund, which helps preserve and support the arts in Puerto Rico with support from major nonprofits, including Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Mellon Foundation.
“We realized that the arts never get included in recovery efforts,” the “In the Heights” star said. “Yet, when you think about this tiny part of the world 100 miles across and how much it has given to the arts — it’s absurd how much Puerto Rican artists have enriched global culture. The No. 1 artist in the world, Bad Bunny, is from the island. So we need to protect Puerto Rican culture and Puerto Rican art on the island.”
Working with the Hispanic Foundation, Lin-Manuel Miranda also helped support the Puerto Rican coffee industry, long a point of pride for the island because it could count popes and royalty among its customers.
“Coffee plants aren’t sunflowers — they don’t grow back in a season,” he said, adding that about 85% of the coffee crop was wiped out by Hurricane Maria. “We talked to anybody who was in the coffee business, in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, to figure out how to jumpstart this and also empower coffee growers. And now, at the five-year mark, coffee is back and exceeding pre-Hurricane Maria levels in terms of production.”
Sara Lomelin, CEO of Philanthropy Together, a nonprofit that uses grassroots giving to diversify donations, said she worried that the underfunding of Puerto Rico by major donors would return once the emergencies caused by Hurricane Maria had passed.
“Everybody responds to disasters because you are seeing the direct effect,” Lomelin said. “What people forget is that when there is a disaster like Hurricane Maria or the wildfires in California or the pandemic, is that you can’t just put a Band-Aid on it. These things take years. And the problem is people move to the next disaster or move to the next issue after a couple of weeks or months and they forget the problem is still there.”
However, she said the current mix of medium-term and long-term donations in Puerto Rico gives her hope and that attention tied to the anniversary and Hispanic Heritage Month, which starts on Sept. 15, will provide momentum. “I love that the Hispanic Federation has these initiatives right now, where they are focusing on long-term things that need to happen,” she said. “I do believe that disasters can be the perfect time for people to get organized.”
Lomelin said that works best when donors listen to the communities receiving the funds. And that’s something that Hispanic Federation’s Frankie Miranda believes in and has invested more than $50 million in the island so far.
“There is so much that philanthropy can do,” he said. “But we also can be advocates so that organizations in Puerto Rico continue to be part of a participatory process, ensuring that the funds go to the neediest cases. Puerto Rico needs to remain on the philanthropy map for all of these major institutions.”
____
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
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Little Rock Police Investigating Homicide On Dahlia Drive
Little Rock Police Investigating Homicide On Dahlia Drive https://digitalarkansasnews.com/little-rock-police-investigating-homicide-on-dahlia-drive/
A Little Rock Police Department vehicle is shown in this file photo.
The Little Rock Police Department is investigating a homicide Wednesday, according to authorities.
The department announced on Twitter shortly before 6 a.m. that they were investigating the killing in the 7300 block of Dahlia Drive.
One victim is dead, according to the tweet.
The identity of the victim was not immediately released.
The investigation is ongoing.
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Illegal Immigrants Cost US Taxpayers An Extra $20.4 Billion Annually: Report
Illegal Immigrants Cost US Taxpayers An Extra $20.4 Billion Annually: Report https://digitalarkansasnews.com/illegal-immigrants-cost-us-taxpayers-an-extra-20-4-billion-annually-report/
U.S. taxpayers are forking out an additional over $20 billion each year to meet the needs of illegal aliens who entered the country under the Biden administration, according to a new cost analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
The immigration group said it “conservatively estimates” that American taxpayers will end up paying each illegal alien $9,232, or an overall $20.4 billion burden a year to support the population. It comes in addition to the $140 billion existing annual cost of providing benefits and services for long-term illegal immigrants.
The calculation is based on an estimated 2.3 million illegal aliens who successfully entered the country’s interior under President Joe Biden, including about one million “gotaways” who evaded apprehension and have since disappeared into American communities.
“Even in an age in which trillion dollar spending packages are considered modest, the additional $20.4 billion the Biden Border Crisis has heaped onto the backs of American taxpayers is still staggering,” FAIR President Dan Stein said in a Sept. 13 press release.
After rolling back key Trump-era policies designed to deter illegal entry through the southern border, Biden has presided over the largest number of apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the U.S.–Mexico border in a calendar year in history.
“$20.4 billion could address some very important needs of the American public, instead of covering the costs of the surge of illegal migration triggered by this administration’s policies,” Stein continued.
He cited a recent study that found “more than one-third of families that work full time, year-round do not earn enough to cover a basic family budget that includes food, housing, child care, medical care, transportation, taxes, and other necessities.”
“These are the people President Biden pledged to champion. Instead, he is choosing to divert an additional $20.4 billion away from their needs, in order to fund a radical open borders agenda with no end in sight,” the president concluded.
The group detailed that the estimated $20.4 billion could provide every homeless American veteran $50,000 per year for a decade, or offer a grocery voucher of roughly $410 to every U.S. family earning $50,000 or less. The money could also be used to hire 330,000 new teachers or more than 315,000 police officers, according to the analysis.
The Biden administration, in the meanwhile, has touted its increased funding of the Fiscal Year 2023 for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as what it called a “Root Causes Strategy” to cut border encounters, by addressing the violence, organized crime, corruption, and poverty in Central America, which drive many to flee.
Vice President Kamala Harris claimed that the U.S. southern border is “secure” during a Sunday interview.
“The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular, over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed.” Harris said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
FAIR said last month that a total of 4.9 million illegal aliens have crossed the U.S. border in the one year and a half since Biden took office, about the equivalent of the entire population of Ireland.
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Rita Li is a reporter with The Epoch Times, focusing on U.S. and China-related topics. She began writing for the Chinese-language edition in 2018.
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Rubicon Enters Technology Partnership With Samsara
Rubicon Enters Technology Partnership With Samsara https://digitalarkansasnews.com/rubicon-enters-technology-partnership-with-samsara-2/
Rubicon Technologies, Inc. (“Rubicon”) (NYSE: RBT), a leading digital marketplace for waste and recycling and provider of innovative software-based products for businesses and governments worldwide, today announced that it has entered a technology partnership with Samsara Inc. (“Samsara”) (NYSE: IOT), the pioneer of the Connected Operations Cloud, to unlock new value for shared municipal customers.
Together, Rubicon and Samsara’s complementary technology suites will help enable heavy-duty municipal fleet operations to optimize routes and citizen services, which will improve efficiency, empower drivers, lock in community safety gains, and save tax-payer dollars.
Samsara is the pioneer of the Connected Operations Cloud, built to access, analyze, and act on the world’s vast expanse of operations data. Thousands of customers spanning transportation, government, food and beverage, and more use mission-critical insights from Samsara to shape their operations. Streamlined data sharing made possible by Samsara’s open API provides customers with a single source of truth to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and maintain operational resilience.
RUBICONSmartCity is a proprietary, cloud-based technology suite that helps municipal governments run faster, smarter, and more effective waste, recycling, and heavy-duty municipal fleet operations. As part of this partnership, RUBICONSmartCity is now available on the Samsara App Marketplace to further improve efficiency and sustainability in government fleets. Shared municipal customers will have access to fault code, speeding, fuel level, and GPS data as well as complete visibility into vehicle diagnostics information and full operational data across the platforms, which will result in increased safety and transparency.
“Rubicon’s mission is to end waste,” said Conor Riffle, Senior Vice President of Smart Cities at Rubicon. “Our mission refers to waste in the physical sense, but also to wasted time and, in the case of Rubicon’s smart city technology products, wasted government resources. This technology partnership with Samsara allows both companies to deliver a superior solution for city solid waste departments and fleets as a whole, while continuing to save tax-payer dollars.”
Waste is a global challenge and a global opportunity. Rubicon partners with businesses and governments around the world to advance its mission through zero-waste, landfill diversion, and smart city solutions. The Company’s suite of cloud-based products helps waste collection organizations to digitize their operations, confirm service, optimize routes, and deliver exceptional customer service while improving sustainability outcomes.
“With billions of data points flowing through Samsara each day, we’re able to act as a command center for customers to run every part of their municipal operations,” said Sean McGee, Vice President, Platform and Infrastructure at Samsara. “Through this integration, we look forward to coupling the scale of Samsara’s Connected Operations Cloud with Rubicon’s smart city technology to give customers the visibility they need to provide smarter and safer citizen services.”
In 2021, RUBICONSmartCity was listed in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards in the “AI & Data” and “Spaces, Places, and Cities” categories, and it was featured in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) documentary series, Climate Next, now streaming on Amazon Prime.
RUBICONSmartCity has been rolled out in more than 80 cities across the United States, including Asheville, NC; Baltimore, MD; Columbus, OH; Durham, NC; Fort Collins, CO; Fort Smith, AR; Glendale, AZ; Greenville, NC; Hartford, CT; Houston, TX; Kansas City, MO; Memphis, TN; Montgomery, AL; Santa Fe, NM; San Antonio, TX; Savannah, GA; Scranton, PA; Spokane, WA; and Roseville, CA. The solution is available for purchase on Sourcewell, the AWS Marketplace, the HGACBuy consortium, and Marketplace.city.
About Rubicon
Rubicon Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: RBT) is a digital marketplace for waste and recycling, and provider of innovative software-based products for businesses and governments worldwide. Striving to create a new industry standard by using technology to drive environmental innovation, the company helps turn businesses into more sustainable enterprises, and neighborhoods into greener and smarter places to live and work. Rubicon’s mission is to end waste. It helps its partners find economic value in their waste streams and confidently execute on their sustainability goals. To learn more, visit www.Rubicon.com.
About Samsara
Samsara is the pioneer of the Connected Operations Cloud, which allows businesses that depend on physical operations to harness IoT (Internet of Things) data to develop actionable business insights and improve their operations. Samsara operates in North America and Europe and serves tens of thousands of customers across a wide range of industries including transportation, wholesale and retail trade, construction, field services, logistics, utilities and energy, government, healthcare and education, manufacturing, and food and beverage. The company’s mission is to increase the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of the operations that power the global economy.
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New Hampshire Republicans Pick Far-Right Candidate To Challenge U.S. Senator Hassan | Politics
New Hampshire Republicans Pick Far-Right Candidate To Challenge U.S. Senator Hassan | Politics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/new-hampshire-republicans-pick-far-right-candidate-to-challenge-u-s-senator-hassan-politics/
New Hampshire Republicans chose far-right candidate Don Bolduc to take on Democratic U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan in November’s election, Edison Research projected on Wednesday, potentially complicating Republicans’ chance of winning a Senate majority.
Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general, has echoed Donald Trump’s false claims about 2020 election fraud and questioned whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation should be abolished following its August search of the former president’s Florida estate, where agents found a cache of classified documents. His more moderate rival, New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse, conceded defeat earlier on Wednesday.
“It’s been a long night & we’ve come up short. I want to thank my supporters for all the blood, sweat & tears they poured into this team effort,” Morse said in a post on Twitter, adding that he had called Bolduc to congratulate him. Republican voters selected another Trump-aligned candidate, Karoline Leavitt, to take on one of the state’s two incumbent House of Representatives members, Edison projected. Another Republican House primary remained too close to call.
New Hampshire could play a key role in the Nov. 8 election that will determine control of Congress, as both Hassan and the state’s two House Democrats are considered vulnerable by nonpartisan analysts. Taking back either the Senate or the House of Representatives would give Republicans the power to bring Democratic President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda to a halt and launch potentially politically damaging probes.
But as in other states, some Republicans have worried that candidates who echo Trump’s divisive style could hurt their chances. The state’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, argued that Bolduc would not be as competitive in a general election as Morse. An outside Republican group also spent heavily on Morse’s behalf in the closing days of the campaign.
But it was not enough to defeat Bolduc, who analysts say will have a harder time appealing to the independent voters who make New Hampshire a closely contested state. Aside from New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware held primaries as well on a night that concluded months of state nominating contests.
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell has put his party’s chances of winning that chamber at “50-50” in public remarks, noting concerns about “candidate quality” without singling out any specific candidates. Bolduc starts the race at a clear financial disadvantage, having raised only $579,000 as of Aug. 24, compared with $31 million for Hassan. But the Senate Leadership Fund, a national group affiliated with McConnell, has said it plans to spend $23 million on attack ads to help the Republican nominee.
Nonpartisan analysts say the race will be tight, but Hassan holds the advantage. New Hampshire is one of seven key battlegrounds along with Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada that analysts believe will determine control of the 100-seat Senate.
The chamber is currently divided 50-50, with Democrats holding a majority thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote. In the 435-seat House, Republicans need to pick up only four seats to win control, and both of New Hampshire’s seats are likely to be up for grabs in November.
Republican voters selected Leavitt, a former Trump White House press office official, to take on incumbent Democratic Representative Chris Pappas in a district that covers the eastern half of New Hampshire. In the other district, former Hillsborough County official Robert Burns narrowly led Keene Mayor George Hansel 32.5% to 30.0% in the contest to face Democratic Representative Ann McLane Kuster.
In Rhode Island, state Treasurer Seth Magaziner won the Democratic primary for an open House seat, while centrist Republican Allan Fung ran unopposed in his primary.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Live Updates: Russia's War In Ukraine https://digitalarkansasnews.com/live-updates-russias-war-in-ukraine-4/
12 min ago
Here’s a look at the territory reclaimed by Ukraine through its counteroffensive
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited newly liberated Izium on Wednesday — five days after the Ukrainian forces took back control of the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive continues to liberate swathes of territory from Russia’s occupation, with most of this reclaimed land is in the country’s northeast and south, according to Zelesnky.
Take a look at the map of control as it stands currently:
38 min ago
Zelensky says he is “shocked” by destruction in Izium
From CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva and Tim Lister
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is shocked by what he has seen on his visit to the newly liberated Izium district in Kharkiv.
“What we see is shocking, although we have already seen this in Bucha [near Kyiv], in the first de-occupied territories. Likewise, destroyed buildings, killed people,” he told journalists during the visit. “Unfortunately, this is part of our history today. And this is part of the modern Russian nation – what they did.”
He thanked foreign governments for sending investigators and prosecutors to Ukraine to investigate alleged human rights abuses by occupying forces.
“We all understand that this process takes time … I am sure, there will be verdicts for all this, there will be a tribunal. I don’t doubt it for a second,” he said.
He also expressed confidence that all occupied areas would eventually return to Ukraine.
“We should send signals to our people who, unfortunately, are still under occupation. And my signal to the people in Crimea: we know that these are our people, and it is a terrible tragedy that they have been under occupation for more than eight years. We will return there. I don’t know when exactly. But we have plans,” Zelensky said.
46 min ago
It’s 3 p.m. in Kyiv. Catch up on the latest developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine
From CNN staff
If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know about the latest developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited newly liberated Izium: Ukrainian forces took back control of the northeastern region of Kharkiv on Saturday. Zelensky thanked the military Wednesday and observed a minute of silence to honor those who had been lost in the war.
Izium’s liberation is a huge strategic blow to Russia’s military assault in the east as it had become an important hub for Moscow to launch attacks southward into the Donetsk region and Kupyansk.
About 8,000 square kilometers (3,088 square miles) of territory has been liberated by Ukrainian forces so far this month, according to Zelensky. Most of this reclaimed land is in the country’s northeast and south, he added.
The counteroffensive is, however, slowing down: Ukraine is liberating swathes of territory from Russia’s occupation in the east, but presidential military adviser Oleksiy Arestovych says the country’s counteroffensive has “slowed down slightly because most of the Ukrainian forces are fighting to capture the city of Lyman, to open our way into the Luhansk region. We will intensify our strikes and liberate new territories in a different way,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview.
Lyman, an important rail hub, is roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of the strategically important Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk.
The US says Russian forces retreated back across the border: “We’ve seen a number of Russian forces, especially in the northeast, in the Kharkiv region, cross over the border back into Russia as they’ve retreated from the Ukrainian counter-offensive,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters during a briefing Tuesday. But Russian forces still “do exist en masse in Ukraine,” he added.
But Russia has been trying to gain ground in other parts of Ukraine: The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Ukrainian units had successfully repelled Russian attacks around the city of Bakhmut, while Russian artillery and air force are pounding settlements near the front lines across Donetsk. There was also Russian mortar and tank fire in the Zaporizhzhia region, the General Staff said.
Looting claims: The military claimed that in the south, around the city of Polohy, Russian troops were also stealing private cars. And in Nova Kakhovka, in the Kherson region, Russians “began to massively remove furniture and household appliances from temporarily abandoned settlements.” CNN is unable to confirm the military’s claims, but there has been widespread evidence of looting in Kharkiv and other previously occupied Russian areas.
Russian shelling killed at least two people and injured six in Mykolaiv: The head of the region’s civil military administration provided this update, adding that educational institution, infrastructure facilities and residential buildings were damaged in the southern port city near the Black Sea on Wednesday. Ukrainian officials claim that they’ve taken back about 500 square kilometers of territory in the south so far, along the borders of Mykolaiv and Kherson.
1 hr 31 min ago
Zelensky visits newly liberated city of Izium in Kharkiv, following months of Russian occupation
From CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva
“I want to thank you for saving our people, our hearts, children and future,” Zelensky said as he visited Izium on Wednesday. (Zelensky telegram channel/Ukraine Government)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited newly liberated Izium in the northeastern region of Kharkiv on Wednesday, five days after the country’s forces recaptured the city.
Photographs on the Facebook page of an army unit showed Zelensky at a ceremony in the main square to raise the Ukrainian flag over the city’s administrative building. Hanna Maliar, the Deputy Minister of Defense, was also present.
“Earlier, when we looked up, we always looked for the blue sky. Today, when we look up, we are looking for only one thing — the flag of Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a post on the presidential Telegram channel.
“Our blue-yellow flag is already flying in the de-occupied Izium. And it will be so in every Ukrainian city and village. We are moving in only one direction — forward and towards victory.”
“I want to thank you for saving our people, our hearts, children and future,” Zelensky said, according to a statement released on the Presidential website.
“It has been extremely difficult for you in recent months. Therefore, I ask you to take care of yourselves, because you are the most valuable asset we have,” he said.
“It may be possible to temporarily occupy the territories of our state. But it is definitely impossible to occupy our people, the Ukrainian people,” he said.
There was a minute’s silence at the ceremony to remember those who had been lost during military operations.
Ukrainian forces took back control of Izium on Saturday, marking a huge strategic blow to Russia’s military assault in the east.
Izium, which sits near the border between the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, was under Russian occupation for over five months and became an important hub for the invading military.
Moscow was using Izium as a launching pad for attacks southward into the Donetsk region and Kupyansk, some 30 miles to the north of Izium, as a rail hub to resupply its forces.
Russia’s collapse in northeastern Ukraine sparked fury from Putin loyalists, who condemned the Kremlin’s abandonment of Kharkiv in a rare display of stinging criticism.
CNN’s Ivana Kottasová, Tim Lister, Yulia Kesaieva, Denis Lapin, Josh Pennington and Victoria Butenko contributed reporting.
2 hr 20 min ago
Kharkiv region’s electricity restored following Russian strike, says Ukraine energy operator
From CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva
A power substation is seen destroyed by a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv on September 12. (Vyacheslav Madiyevskyi/Ukrinform/Abaca/Sipa/Associated Press)
Two of the main electricity lines supplying part of Kharkiv region have been restored, Ukraine’s energy supplier said Wednesday, following a Russian strike on a local facility that left many without power.
“Repair crews of NPC Ukrenergo have already restored the operation of two main lines supplying Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region. Work on other lines continues and will continue until complete,” the post from Ukrainian state energy company Ukrenergo read.
According to Ukrenergo, which operates the nation’s high-voltage transmission lines, energy supply was restored across the Kharkiv region late on Tuesday. CNN cannot independently verify the claim.
The entire region of Kharkiv was without electricity after the backup power line supplying settlements “failed,” the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Tuesday, citing “insidious shelling by Russian (forces)” as the cause.
Last week, Ukrainian forces ruptured Russian defenses and recaptured swathes of territory in the east, marking a colossal blow for Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia responded on Sunday with missile strikes that hit large parts of eastern Ukraine including the Kharkiv power and heating plant, killing one employee and damaging critical infrastructure.
3 hr 10 min ago
Putin needs Xi Jinping’s help more than ever after his setbacks in Ukraine
Analysis from CNN’s Luke McGee
In early February, Russian President Vladimir Putin touched down in Beijing to a warm welcome from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as the two strongmen put on a show of unity for the world at the Winter Olympics.
The summit, in which the pair touted their ever-growing ties and railed against NATO expansion, was held three weeks before Putin ordered his tanks into Ukraine. While it is not known if the topic of war came up during their conversations, one thing is clear now: seven months in, the invasion has gone anything but to plan.
Puti...
Former Federal Prosecutor Says Barr Fired Him Because Investigations Threatened Trumps Reelection Chances
Former Federal Prosecutor Says Barr Fired Him Because Investigations Threatened Trump’s Reelection Chances https://digitalarkansasnews.com/former-federal-prosecutor-says-barr-fired-him-because-investigations-threatened-trumps-reelection-chances/
Former federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman has accused former Attorney General William Barr of firing him from his post because his department’s investigations at the time threatened Trump’s 2020 reelection chances.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” on Monday, Berman, who was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told host Rachel Maddow that his department was working on several cases, including one involving former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, in the months ahead of the election.
Reading from a book by Berman to be published titled “Holding the Line,” Maddow asked the former federal prosecutor to address the notion that Barr “no doubt believed that by removing me he could eliminate a threat to Trump’s reelection.”
“How was your work as U.S. attorney a threat to Trump’s reelection?” Maddow asked.
“Well, at the time I was fired, the Southern District of New York was working on a couple politically sensitive cases. One of those cases is the Steve Bannon ‘we build the wall’ case and we were very close to indicting that case around the time I got fired, and Barr knew about the case,” Berman told Maddow.
Once Bannon was indicted by Berman’s successor, Trump pardoned Bannon, which Berman called “outrageous.”
He also noted his office had also been investigating Lev Parnes and Igor Fruman, two Trump allies who were eventually convicted of campaign finance charges that involved funneling money from a Russian tycoon into American political campaigns.
Earlier Monday, Berman told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the Trump administration’s Department of Justice pressured him to indict former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig before the midterm elections and prosecute former Secretary of State John Kerry.
Trump fired Berman in 2020 after he refused to resign from his position.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before, and I was a junior prosecutor in the Southern District in the early 90s and I’d never seen anything like that,” Berman told “Good Morning America” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos. “People who have been in the office for 40 years never saw anything like that. It was unprecedented and scary.”
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Economy Abortion Shape Pennsylvania Midterm Races CBS News Battleground Tracker
Economy, Abortion Shape Pennsylvania Midterm Races — CBS News Battleground Tracker https://digitalarkansasnews.com/economy-abortion-shape-pennsylvania-midterm-races-cbs-news-battleground-tracker/
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman leads Mehmet Oz by five points among Pennsylvania’s likely voters, in a Senate race that seems still fluid, with Republicans less enamored by the candidates they nominated, and Democrats fighting economic headwinds. It’s a race in which voters are thinking about the national implications, even as it is the candidates’ personal qualities that have come to the fore.
An authenticity gap
Most voters describe Fetterman as saying what he really believes, more so than they describe Oz doing so. A big majority describe Oz as just saying what he thinks voters want to hear.
Couple that with the critiques of Oz’s Pennsylvania residency and its implications: two-thirds don’t think he’s lived in the state long enough to understand its issues. Oz trails Fetterman on having “the right experience,” as well as on personal favorability ratings. In fact, most Oz supporters say they are backing him mainly to oppose Fetterman, and not because they like Oz.
And despite the fact that Oz has only recently forayed into politics, it’s Fetterman who is seen more as “representing change.”
Meanwhile, the Oz campaign’s efforts to raise health questions about Fetterman do not seem as effective by comparison: most voters do think Fetterman is well enough to serve. (Even nearly four in 10 Republicans say he is.)
The primary process: Any buyer’s remorse for the GOP?
Democrats express more satisfaction about nominating Fetterman than Republicans do about nominating Oz. (That’s also true for the candidates in the governor’s race.)
It is non-MAGA Republicans (those who don’t consider themselves part of the movement) who are more disappointed about Oz as their nominee than MAGA Republicans.
These same non-MAGA Republicans don’t see their Senate vote as being about former President Donald Trump to the same extent that MAGA Republicans do. So, perhaps Trump’s endorsement of Oz doesn’t carry as much weight. And indeed, non-MAGA Republicans are not quite as supportive of Oz as their MAGA counterparts.
Fetterman’s backers are more enthusiastic about him than Oz’s supporters are about Oz.
Issues in focus: The economy
The economy and inflation remain atop the overall issues list, and that helps Oz — like Republicans nationwide, he does better with voters who rank these highly. That’s partly because they’re the party out of power, and because Republicans prioritize the economy more.
Eight in 10 Pennsylvania voters say higher prices have been difficult or a hardship for them. Lower-income Pennsylvanians are especially hard-hit.
In fact, among independents, Oz’s showing is a little better among those who describe price increases as difficulty or hardship.
Abortion
The abortion issue is helping Fetterman. For his Democratic base, abortion is more important than the economy. Fetterman leads among all who say it’s very important, both men and women.
Most Democrats say the overturning of Roe v. Wade has made them more likely to vote this year. (The matter makes no difference to most Republicans.)
A national election in a state
So much for “all politics is local.” By three to one, Pennsylvanians tell us that national issues and the direction of the country are more important to them than local issues when it comes to the Senate election. Fitting, perhaps, as all eyes of the nation are on the state.
So, national figures play a big role – including Trump
Pennsylvania Democrats say their vote for Senate is as much to oppose Trump as it is to support President Biden.
Most Pennsylvania Republicans are motivated to oppose Mr. Biden. But a sizable four in 10 Republicans say their Senate vote is also to support Trump.
Beyond Republicans, though, Trump nets out as a negative race-wide: for all voters for whom Trump is a factor — either through support or opposition — they are on balance picking Fetterman over Oz.
Democracy and…not as much desire for election denialism
Mr. Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020. A stance taken by some Republicans in their 2022 primaries, that Mr. Biden did not legitimately win the presidency, is not a stance most voters want their elected officials to embrace.
Only a third of the state’s Republicans — and just under a fifth of its voters — want elected officials in the state to claim Mr. Biden did not win the 2020 election.
An eight-in-10, bipartisan majority of voters would like to see the next secretary of state — who would be appointed by the governor — make election rules that are neutral toward both parties, and not favor either one.
All that may signal that even for Republicans, now past the primaries, those stances aren’t the same litmus tests.
Debating the debate
Yes, a debate is at least somewhat important to voters, though not very important to most. Given the stances from the campaigns, it may be no surprise that Republicans think it’s more important than Democrats do.
For the Republicans who tend to think Fetterman is not in good enough health, a debate has — perhaps strategically — taken on added importance.
Governor’s race
Of the four major-party candidates running for Senate and governor, Democrat Josh Shapiro has the highest personally favorable ratings of all. That, combined with strong support from women, has him up 11 points on Republican Doug Mastriano.
Shapiro has a wide lead among voters who say abortion should be legal in Pennsylvania — which is most voters. That includes support from about a third of Republicans who feel it should be legal. Meanwhile, more than eight in 10 voters believe Mastriano would restrict access in Pennsylvania.
Plus there may be some “buyer’s remorse” lingering from the primaries about Mastriano from Republicans, as four in 10 wish their party had nominated a different candidate.
So what is local, then? Plenty, still.
Crime, gun violence, and drug and opioid addiction are all seen by most as problems in their area of Pennsylvania.
Republicans add in that illegal immigration is a problem in their area; this is the case for Republicans across the state. Democrats especially feel that racism, access to healthcare, and school conditions are problems in their areas.
Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats cite housing costs as a problem.
This CBS News/YouGov Battleground Tracker survey was conducted with a statewide representative sample of 1,194 registered voters in Pennsylvania interviewed between September 6-12, 2022. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education and geographic region based on the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, as well as to 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±3.8 points.
Toplines
In:
Pennsylvania
United States Congress
United States Senate
Mehmet Oz
Opinion Poll
Doug Mastriano
Abortion
John Fetterman
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Stocks Making The Biggest Moves Premarket: SoFi Nucor Starbucks CSX & More
Stocks Making The Biggest Moves Premarket: SoFi, Nucor, Starbucks, CSX & More https://digitalarkansasnews.com/stocks-making-the-biggest-moves-premarket-sofi-nucor-starbucks-csx-more/
Check out the companies making headlines in premarket trading Wednesday.
Starbucks – Shares of Starbucks gained nearly 1% after the company boosted its long-term forecast and said it expects double-digit growth for revenue and earnings per share over the next three years.
Palo Alto Networks – Cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks rose slightly following a three-for-one stock split, which took place on Tuesday. In addition, CEO Nikesh Arora told CNBC that the company is not seeing the same macro impact slowdown on cybersecurity that other sectors are experiencing.
Nucor —Nucor fell 5% after the steel producer issued disappointing third-quarter earnings guidance. The company expects earnings per share to range between $6.30 and $6.40, well below a StreetAccount forecast of $7.56. “We expect the steel mills segment earnings to be considerably lower in the third quarter of 2022 as compared to the second quarter of 2022, due to metal margin contraction and reduced shipping volumes,” Nucor said.
Nikola — Nikola shares rose slightly after BTIG upgraded the EV maker to buy from neutral. BTIG noted that it sees “the potential for increasing demand for green hydrogen driven by increasing wind and solar power generation.”
SoFi Technologies — SoFi rose more than 2% after Bank of America upgraded the fintech stock to buy from neutral. “We see potential for a meaningful catalyst path over the next few quarters as SoFi benefits from the student loan payment moratorium ending and its high-profile NFL-aligned marketing investments drive user growth and engagement,” BofA said.
Moderna – Shares of Moderna rose 0.6% after the company’s CEO said it would be open to supplying covid vaccines to China.
Bristol-Myers Squibb – Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb slipped 0.7% after Berenberg downgraded the company to hold from buy. The firm said the stock is running out of room to gain.
Merck & Co – Shares of Merck rose 0.7% after Berenberg upgraded it to buy from hold and boosted its price target, signaling it could climb another 17%.
Railroad stocks – Shares of railroad company stocks slumped Wednesday as the sector contends with a potential strike that could limit service. Union Pacific fell 1.9% while CSX, Northern Southern Corp. also slipped ahead of market open.
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What’s At Stake In The 2022 Midterm Elections? https://digitalarkansasnews.com/whats-at-stake-in-the-2022-midterm-elections/
The 2022 midterm elections could be the most consequential in years, possibly defying political history and resetting modern political norms.
Every seat in the House of Representatives is up for grabs, as are 35 U.S. Senate seats and 36 governorships. Several other down-ballot races for secretary of state, attorney general or control of state legislatures could have wide-ranging effects on the management of the 2024 presidential elections, plus hot-button issues like abortion rights, climate change and health care.
In Washington, Republicans are still in a position to net enough seats in the House to take control, “but a tumultuous summer has made their advantage appear a little smaller today — with a trend so far pointing toward narrow gains instead of a wave,” according to the CBS News Battleground Tracker. Currently, Democrats hold small majorities in the House and Senate.
It takes 218 seats to win control of the House, and the Tracker currently estimates Republicans will win 226 seats, down from the 230 estimated in July.
In the Senate, Republicans need a net gain of just one seat to flip control of the evenly divided chamber. CBS News classifies 10 of the 36 races as battleground contests – five are considered “tossups” (Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin); three are leaning in favor of the Republican candidate (Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio); and two are leaning toward the Democrat (Colorado and New Hampshire).
Why is the margin tightening? The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade propelled Democratic or left-leaning voters to the polls in primary elections this summer. And President Biden, whose popularity suffered as Americans saw gas and grocery prices rising earlier this year, is enjoying a slow, but notable rebound in his overall approval ratings. The FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in August has motivated Republican base voters, but polls show it’s a concern for independents and Democratic voters, and could drag down some GOP candidates. Broader concerns about the future of American democracy — expressed by all ideological groups — are also sparking greater interest among voters.
What are the key issues in the 2022 midterms?
Recent CBS News polling shows these issues are deemed “very important” by roughly six in 10 voters.
The economy and inflation: They remain the top issues of concern in CBS News polling. More than half of voters say they’ve seen gas prices — a key inflation indicator — declining in their area, but a plurality of voters, 43%, expect the U.S. economy to be in recession in the next year. While Mr. Biden has enjoyed recent policy wins with passage of a new climate, health and tax law and the CHIPs and Science Act, just 40% approve of his handling of the economy in our recent poll.
Voting and elections issues: Among the hundreds of Republican candidates appearing on ballots nationwide, widespread belief among most Republicans that the 2020 presidential election was either stolen or mishandled, and fears among independents and Democratic voters that those Republicans could seize power, general concerns about voting and democracy have become a big issue of concern. The prospect of violence is also tied in part to a perception of widening divisions in the country: a whopping 80% of Americans believe the U.S. is more divided now than it was during their parents’ generation. Just as many say tone and civility have gotten worse.
Crime and gun policy: The shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, is just the latest flashpoint in the decades-long fight over national gun control policy — but increased crime rates in several of the nation’s largest cities, especially due to gun-related crime, is also a major cause of concern. Republicans continue to highlight concerns with crime, while Democrats — including the president — continue to campaign for stricter gun policy despite passage of bipartisan gun control and mental health legislation this summer, the most ambitious in more than 20 years. In response to growing voter concerns, Democrats are trying to portray themselves as tougher-on-crime than Republicans, noting support for increased federal funding for law enforcement and denunciation of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021 — and the GOP officeholders who back them.
Abortion rights: With the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Democratic campaigns and super PACs tell CBS News they have seen increased interest from concerned voters, including more online activity and fundraising and willingness to volunteer. Data also indicate the court’s decision is driving more voter registration for Democrats, especially among younger women.
The results in several special elections and strong turnout in Kansas rejecting an abortion amendment also indicate the Dobbs decision is having an impact. In early August, Kansas voters blocked the amendment — 59% to 41% — that would have removed the constitutional right to an abortion and paved the way for the GOP-led Legislature to pass more restrictions. The strong turnout was closer to presidential levels than to a midterm primary, and voters in some counties Trump won even moved to reject the amendment. Meanwhile, Democrats outperformed in every U.S. House special election since Roe was struck down. Most recently, Democrat Pat Ryan won in New York’s 19th Congressional District, though he was dramatically outspent. He put abortion rights front and center in his campaign messaging.
Congressional Democratic candidates are responding by funneling millions of dollars into TV and digital advertising on abortion while Republicans in some states have tried to avoid the subject or portray their positions as more moderate. The issue of abortion rights is now clearly a motivating factor for Democrats and has jumped into the top tier of issues overall, ahead of climate change, and immigration. But it lags behind the economy, inflation, crime, and concerns about democracy – issues Republicans are much more focused on.
Key House and Senate races
How many House seats are up for grabs?
All 435 House seats are on the ballot this November, since every seat is up for election every two years. A majority of the seats aren’t necessarily considered competitive, a result of redistricting and the partisan nature of federal races. But a CBS News analysis of congressional maps finds 81 “competitive seats” that tend to be won by Democrats by five or less points, or by Republicans by five or less points.
How many House seats do Republicans need to take control from Democrats?
The GOP needs a net gain of at least six seats to reach the 218 seats needed to win the House. After a string of special election results this summer, Republicans hold 212 seats while Democrats have 221. There are two vacancies that will have special elections on the ballot in November, a likely Republican seat in Indiana and a Republican-leaning seat in Florida.
In the House, the CBS News battleground tracker estimates that Republicans will see a net gain of 13 seats and hold 226 seats after November, while Democrats will win 209 seats.
What does the House of Representatives do?
As one of the two chambers in the legislative branch, it makes and passes federal laws. Unlike senators, who represent whole states, representatives cover a specific congressional district. The lines of those districts are determined and drawn every decade through the process known as “redistricting.”
Who represents me in the House of Representatives?
You can look up who represents you in the House by entering your zip code, town or address here.
So, who’s going to win the House?
If you follow the historical trend of the president’s party losing big in the midterms of their first term, Republicans are favored to flip the House. In the 2010 midterms, the first for former president Barack Obama, Democrats lost 63 seats in the House. In the 2018 midterms, the first for former president Donald Trump, Republicans lost 40 seats. After exceeding expectations in the 2020 elections, House Republicans just need a net gain of at least six seats to reach the 218-seat majority needed.
Although President Biden’s approval ratings are low, and voters are frustrated about the economy and high inlflation, House Democrats have seen some positive signs for their prospects recently. Special elections and a ballot measure in Kansas show that their base and moderate voters seem to be energized over the issue of abortion rights. Congressional Democrats have also passed aspects of Biden’s agenda that deal with climate change and prescription drug prices, under the branding of the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Given the smaller margin they have to overcome, Republicans are still likely to win the House, but Democrats do feel they have momentum to at least cut into the predicted GOP gains.
Who is the speaker of the House?
Nancy Pelosi of California has led House Democrats and has served as Speaker since 2019. This is her second stint as the chamber’s leader, she previously held the Speaker’s gavel from 2007 to 2011. Pelosi was first elected in 1987. She says she’s running for re-election this cycle, but has not yet said if she would try for another term as speaker.
What is redistricting? What is gerrymandering?
Every decade, states redraw their Congressional district lines to adjust for any population changes shown in the census. State legislatures control the process in most states, while other states use some sort of outside independent or bipartisan commission to handle redrawing the lines.
When one party uses itspower to draw lines that politically favor them, this is called “gerrymandering.” Both Democrats and Republicans ...
Rich Lowry: Who Says Bipartisan Cooperation Is Dead?
Rich Lowry: Who Says Bipartisan Cooperation Is Dead? https://digitalarkansasnews.com/rich-lowry-who-says-bipartisan-cooperation-is-dead/
Rich Lowry
Syndicated columnist
Joe Biden and Donald Trump are proving that even sworn enemies can cooperate to promote one another’s political interests.
President Biden, with his criticism, and his Department of Justice, with its search of Mara- lago and related investigation, have boosted Trump’s profile to the benefit of both Biden and his party and of Donald Trump.
Everyone wins, except Republicans increasingly worried about the midterms and anyone hoping that the GOP would turn the page in 2024.
Several weeks ago, Republicans were nervous that Trump would announce his latest presidential bid prior to the midterms. Now, it is almost irrelevant — Democrats and the DOJ have effectively announced for him.
Whenever things aren’t going well for a White House or a political campaign, the natural advice is to try to change the subject. This often doesn’t work — the maneuver is too obvious, or the new hopedfor subject can’t possibly compete with the old unwelcome subject.
That’s not the case here. Trump is something everyone wants to talk about: people who love him, people who hate him, journalists whose work gets more clicks and viewership, and of course, above all, Trump himself, who has never found any other topic quite as compelling or important.
To the extent Republican officials and candidates identify themselves with Trump’s delusions about 2020 and get sucked into debating whether the FBI should exist, they are creating vulnerabilities or distractions where none need exist.
According to a new CBS News poll, 47% of voters say that how they feel about Trump will have “a lot” of influence on how they vote. Independents who say that Trump is a factor for them are voting to oppose him by a 4-1 margin.
All of this is good for Democrats in general and Biden in particular. If the president can define himself as the last, best obstacle to Trump returning to the White House, it helps quell the extensive doubts about him within his own party. Biden is barely above 40% approval in polling averages, a nightmarish position, and yet he’s only down 2.2% in a hypothetical rematch with Trump in 2024, according to RealClearPolitics.
Trump is his life-preserver and comfort blanket, providing a political boost based on the easiest political argument in the world — “See that guy over there obsessed with fanciful theories about the 2020 election? I may not be a very good president. But at least I’m not him.”
Meanwhile, the Trump phenomenon has always been a form of political jujitsu, using the force deployed against it as a source of strength. The more Trump is called names and investigated, the better. Not to make light of it, but if the FBI had shown up at Mar-a-lago with an armored vehicle and a couple of helicopters, Trump’s lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, which had dwindled before jumping back up after the search, would be all but insurmountable.
If Trump is bolstered by Biden’s hostility, he also benefits from his weakness. Trump’s favorable rating is about 40%, a poor showing that would be enough to make him the underdog against any president who hadn’t been cratering over the past year. Trump doesn’t just narrowly beat Biden in prospective 2024 polling, he handily defeats Vice President Kamala Harris. There’s being fortunate in your enemies, then there’s hitting the jackpot.
So Trump and Biden compensate for one another’s weaknesses, and they are effectively working together to get Trump nominated — which Trump wants because it’s the first step back to the White House and Biden wants because Trump would be the riskiest GOP candidate in a general election.
It’s not the most edifying relationship. Indeed, it’s a de facto partnership toward a demoralizing re-run of 2020. But neither Trump nor Biden is as likely to get where they want to go without the other.
Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.
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Post Politics Now: Biden Headed To Detroit To Highlight Investment In Electric Vehicles
Post Politics Now: Biden Headed To Detroit To Highlight Investment In Electric Vehicles https://digitalarkansasnews.com/post-politics-now-biden-headed-to-detroit-to-highlight-investment-in-electric-vehicles/
Today, President Biden is headed to Detroit to tour the North American International Auto Show and tout his administration’s investments in electric vehicles, including funding to build a network of chargers across the country that was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that he signed last year. The trip is part of stepped-up travel in advance of the midterms to highlight his party’s agenda.
On Tuesday, voters in three states — New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware — went to the polls, marking the end of this year’s nominating process. A closely watched GOP Senate primary in New Hampshire has yet to be called by the Associated Press, but early Wednesday, state Senate President Chuck Morse conceded the race to retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc.
Your daily dashboard
8:45 a.m. Eastern time: Biden departs the White House en route to Detroit. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters aboard Air Force One. Listen live here.
11:15 a.m. Eastern: Biden tours the auto show in Detroit.
Noon Eastern: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) holds a weekly news conference. Watch live here.
1:45 p.m. Eastern: Biden delivers remarks on electric vehicles in Detroit. Watch live here.
3:10 p.m. Eastern: Biden attends a Democratic National Committee reception in Detroit.
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.
Analysis: Republicans struggle over what it means to be ‘pro-life’ post Dobbs
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In the months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, antiabortion candidates and lawmakers are undecided on what it means to be “pro-life.”
Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer note that immediately after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, many Republicans celebrated and touted their antiabortion credentials, pushing aggressive bans. But as evidence grew that the ruling was costing them politically, particularly with women voters, many have tried to soften their views by scrubbing their websites of past hard-line stances or amending their positions on when abortion should be made illegal — all while maintaining their “pro-life” identification.
On our radar: Biden to announce $900 million in funding for electric vehicle chargers
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President Biden is headed to Detroit on Wednesday to tour the North American International Auto Show and tout his administration’s investments in electric vehicles, including funding to build a network of chargers across the country that was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law he signed last year.
In his remarks, Biden will announce the first allocation of $900 million to build chargers, the White House said. The infrastructure law includes $7.5 billion to build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers, according to a White House fact sheet previewing the event.
The latest: Sen. Hassan attacks Bolduc as N.H. GOP race remains uncalled
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The Associated Press has yet to declare a victor in New Hampshire’s Republican Senate primary, but early Wednesday, state Senate President Chuck Morse conceded the race to retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, saying the party needs to focus on defeating Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) in November.
Hassan, meanwhile, is already on the attack against Bolduc.
In a statement early Wednesday, Hassan said the general election campaign would be “a clear contrast between my record of delivering for the people of New Hampshire and Don Bolduc’s radical, backward-looking agenda.”
The latest: A blow to McCarthy in New Hampshire’s 1st District
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The result in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday was a blow to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
The Post’s Colby Itkowitz and David Weigel report that Karoline Leavitt, an ex-member of the Trump White House press team who ran as an “America first” insurgent against the Washington establishment, defeated Matt Mowers, a former Trump aide backed by McCarthy, according to the Associated Press.
Per our colleagues:
Leavitt, who has emphasized her false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, will face Rep. Chris Pappas (D) in a race seen as a key battlefront in the fight for control of the House.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House Republican Conference chair, supported Leavitt, her former staffer. At 25, Leavitt would be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress if she wins in the fall.
New Hampshire was one of three states where voters went to the polls on Tuesday, marking the end of this year’s nominating process, along with Rhode Island and Delaware. The primaries allowed voters a final chance to choose party standard-bearers after months of fierce intraparty battles that highlighted divisions on both sides over policy, personality and ideology, among other things.
The latest: In Delaware, McKee prevails in competitive Democratic gubernatorial primary
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In Rhode Island on Tuesday, Gov. Dan McKee (D), who replaced Gina Raimondo after she was appointed to Biden’s Cabinet to lead the Commerce Department, defeated business executive Helena Foulkes in a competitive Democratic primary.
McKee had been dogged by a scandal over a $5 million contract awarded to a political adviser’s consulting firm, which became the subject of an FBI probe, The Post’s Colby Itkowitz and David Weigel report. Foulkes received a late assist from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who came to the state to campaign for her Sunday.
The latest: Russia spent millions on secret global political campaign, U.S. intelligence finds
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Russia has secretly funneled at least $300 million to foreign political parties and candidates in more than two dozen countries since 2014 in an attempt to shape political events beyond its borders, according to a new U.S. intelligence review.
The Post’s Missy Ryan reports that Moscow planned to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more as part of its covert campaign to weaken democratic systems and promote global political forces seen as aligned with Kremlin interests, according to the review, which the Biden administration commissioned this summer. Per Missy:
On our radar: A surge of federal hate-crime prosecutions this year
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When Matt Greenman heard about a pro-Palestinian rally in Manhattan in April, he grabbed an Israeli flag, met the demonstrators on 42nd Street and marched ahead of them, wearing the flag like a cape.
His counterprotest didn’t last long, reports The Post’s David Nakamura. Moving toward the sidewalk, investigators say, he was attacked by Saadah Masoud — a founding member of Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian activist group — who punched him and dragged him across the pavement, causing a concussion.
Per Dave:
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Springdale Superintendent Named Arkansas Superintendent Of The Year
Springdale Superintendent Named Arkansas Superintendent Of The Year https://digitalarkansasnews.com/springdale-superintendent-named-arkansas-superintendent-of-the-year/
Springdale Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jared Cleveland was surprised with the award during the September board meeting.
SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Springdale Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jared Cleveland was surprised with the Arkansas Superintendent of the Year award during a board meeting on Sept. 13.
Cleveland was chosen as superintendent in the months following the shutdown caused by the pandemic in July 2020 after having served seven years as the district deputy superintendent.
“I am thankful! When people pour into you, there is an obligation to pour into others. Springdale has the best leadership team and certainly the best board. Thank you for entrusting me to do this work” Cleveland said.
Mike Hernandez with the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators presented the award at the Springdale School Board meeting.
According to the announcement, this is Cleveland’s 29th year in education.
“He is passionate about his work and family and is an excellent team builder,” said Randy Hutchinson, Springdale School Board president. “His work as superintendent in Springdale, the largest district in the state, has been outstanding, making him more than deserving of this recognition. I look forward to working with him for many more years.”
Cleveland is passionate about preparing students to enter the global workforce through the integration of technology, real-world applications and rigorous instruction, according to the press release.
Candidates for the program are judged on the criteria of leadership for learning, communication, professionalism and community involvement, according to an Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators press release
Each state association of school administrators selects a State Superintendent of the Year. These superintendents are then in the running for the National Superintendent of the Year award and will be recognized and honored at the AASA National Conference in February.
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Apartment Complex Buyers Say Seller Misled Them As To Conditions Of Buildings
Apartment Complex Buyers Say Seller Misled Them As To Conditions Of Buildings https://digitalarkansasnews.com/apartment-complex-buyers-say-seller-misled-them-as-to-conditions-of-buildings/
A lawsuit claiming the buyers of a Mountain Home Apartment complex were misled by the seller as to the extensive presence of mold and water damage in some of the buildings is working its way through the legal system.
Christopher and Jeannie Fort of Pocahontas filed the lawsuit October 2, 2020 in Baxter County Circuit Court.
The couple closed on the purchase of what is now Mountain Valley Apartments along Cardinal Street in early March 2020.
The purchase price of almost $6 million covered two separate developments – the four original Creekside Apartment buildings constructed in 1978, and a new single story building complex built in 2017.
According to court records, the alleged damage complained of in the lawsuit is confined to the original buildings.
Both properties went under the name Freedom’s Landing until the sale to the Fort couple.
Freedom Hobbs and Hobbs Investments LLC, located in Piggott, initially bought the abandoned buildings making up the Creekside complex and did extensive work on the interior and exterior of the structures.
HAD BEEN CANDIDATE FOR DEMOLITION
Before it was purchased by Hobbs, the original buildings had deteriorated to the point that the Mountain Home City Council eyed the structures and a courtyard swimming pool as a public nuisance and potential candidate for demolition.
The water and mold problems were reported to vary from building to building in the original section of the complex.
In documents filed as part of the lawsuit, it is claimed that after the Forts assumed ownership of the complex, there were a number of units in the original buildings that could not be rented due to water and mold problems.
Five apartments were deemed to be uninhabitable as the result of water seepage, moisture, mildew and mold, and another seven apartments could not be rented until extensive repairs were made to address the problems.
FAYETTEVILLE FIRM DOES INSPECTION
A Fayetteville engineering firm, Lawrence Forensic Engineering (LFE), was brought in to inspect the buildings in the original complex by an insurance company holding a policy the Forts had taken out on the property.
According to the report submitted by the Fayetteville firm in 2020, deterioration due to moisture(rot)in the buildings was “long-term” and due to both surface and subsurface moisture flowing into the crawlspaces and subsequently collecting/pooling.
The report also noted that deterioration in substructure framing and foundations in one of the original buildings was extensive and had led to the failure of a number of structural members.
At the time of the 2020 study and prior to remedial work being done, that particular building was “potentially hazardous to human life,” according to the engineers.
In other cases, tenants have reported stepping through the floors in their units. The Fayetteville engineering firm said, the presence of significant deterioration, “Is a cause for concern.”
After the inspection, the insurance company denied a damage claim filed by the Forts, citing a number of reasons, including that the damage occurred prior to the policy even being written.
The company was listed as a defendant in the Fort lawsuit, but has asked the court to approve a motion for summary judgment that would dismiss allegations against the insurer.
Electronic court records do not show that a ruling has been made.
NEW MULTI-BUILDING COMPLEX
Hobbs later constructed a multi-building complex made up of single story structures just south of the property where the original apartment buildings stand.
The lawsuit against Hobbs and Hobbs Investments, LLC and a number of other parties involved in the sale, claims that discussions about a purchase of both pieces of property began in late November 2019.
In the Fort’s lawsuit, they allege that they were told by Hobbs:
n The entire package represented a “turnkey operation.”
n That the work that had been done on the original buildings included “gutting them to the studs – making everything brand new.”
n That additional improvements or significant maintenance would “not be needed for the next 10-15 years.”
The suit also contends that in a Seller’s Property Disclosure dated March 6, 2019, Hobbs answered “no” to questions about water damage or the presence of mold.
In answer to the allegation, Hobbs’ attorney writes that the disclosure document clearly warns buyers not to place total reliance on what is claimed about the property and should obtain independent inspections to verify what they had been told.
A provision in the disclosure statement reads: this disclosure is not a substitute for inspections any potential buyer might make or have made on his behalf.
In answering the claims in the lawsuit, Hobbs’ attorney contends that the new owners had from March 6, 2019 to March 5, 2020 to conduct their own inspections or hire professionals to carry out the inspections.
The prospective buyers should have relied on these “verification inspections,” rather than any alleged statements made by Hobbs or anyone else involved in the sale about the condition of the property.
In one document, Hobbs’ lawyers point to language that “strongly encourages” such independent inspections by prospective buyers to conduct their own independent inspections of the property.
Documents filed in the lawsuit are reported to show the Forts chose to personally inspect the buildings rather than hire professionals to do the job, and that those inspection resulted in no “buyer requested repairs.”
In court records, the Forts indicate they made inspections of the property on December 10, 2019, February 21,2020 and March 4, 2020.
The new owners claim they first learned of what was described as “significant and serious damage from water intrusion in and below the affected buildings” in mid-April 2020.
It was also discovered that many of the affected buildings contained a significant presence of mold “associated with — and related to — water intrusion issues.”
MAINTENANCE MAN’S STATEMENT
The lawsuit details conversations the new owners had with a man identified as head of maintenance during the time Hobbs owned and managed the property and continuing after the Forts brought the property.
The man is alleged to have said the water intrusion issues existed prior to the sale and that Hobbs had knowledge of both the water and mold problems.
He also alleged he was told to paint over portions of visible mold damage 24-to-48-hours prior to the time the new owners were scheduled to make a visual inspection of the property.
It is alleged in the lawsuit that a “sump pump” was used to remove about two feet of standing water in the crawlspace of one of the buildings before the buyers made a visual inspection.
After discovering the problems, the new owners “immediately began remediation efforts to mitigate further damage,” according to the lawsuit.
BUYER BEWARE
Arkansas is one of only a handful of states in the nation still following the caveat emptor rule (buyer beware) in real estate transactions. Most states use the caveat venditor rule that shifts the burden to the seller to make truthful and complete disclosures regarding the property being sold.
There are four main exceptions to Arkansas’ buyer beware approach, including a requirement that a seller disclose any health and safety risks, such as black mole, asbestos or lead paint.
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Lady Bombers 5th Bombers 7th At AR First Tee Confidence Classic
Lady Bombers 5th, Bombers 7th At AR First Tee Confidence Classic https://digitalarkansasnews.com/lady-bombers-5th-bombers-7th-at-ar-first-tee-confidence-classic/
The Mountain High School girls’ golf team finished fifth and the boys were seventh at the AR First Tee Confidence Classic at the Bella Vista Country Club. The two-day event wrapped up Tuesday.
The Lady Bombers finished with a team total of 567, just one stroke behind fourth place Rogers Heritage. Springdale Har-Ber won the tournament with a 468.
For Mountain Home, Abby Edens had a two-day total of 182 to lead the way, Faith Hilvert shot 190 and Lexi Rauls had a 195.
In the boys’ standings, Mountain Home had a team total of 681, 18 strokes behind sixth place Bentonville West. Bentonville won the tournament with a 582.
Individually for the Bombers, Jackson Corp led the way with a 167, Chace Berwald had a 168, James Douglas and Ian Ellison each shot 174 and Aiden Sanders had a 178.
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Arkansas Panel Recommends $280M In Federal Funds For Water-Related Projects
Arkansas Panel Recommends $280M In Federal Funds For Water-Related Projects https://digitalarkansasnews.com/arkansas-panel-recommends-280m-in-federal-funds-for-water-related-projects/
Arkansas Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr., R-Texarkana, addresses members of the Department of Education regarding their request for consideration of an emergency Rule governing educator licensure during a meeting of the Executive Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)
An Arkansas legislative committee on Tuesday advanced the Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s request for spending authority to use $280 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds for water, wastewater and irrigation projects in Arkansas.
The legislative panel also recommended that state lawmakers grant spending authority for the state Department of Human Services to use $5 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds to support the training and certification of teams employed by behavioral health agencies in evidence-based models, and for Black River Technical College to use $4.6 million of the federal funds to construct short-term training and housing facilities.
The Legislative Council’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee made the recommendations to the Legislative Council, which meets Friday.
The committee’s action came late Tuesday afternoon near the end of a five-hour meeting in which several legislators expressed frustration about what they see as the state’s lack of prioritization in using federal American Rescue Plan funds.
The legislative panel delayed action on several state government requests collectively seeking about $105 million in spending authority to use federal American Rescue Plan funds.
These requests include the state Department of Human Service’s requests for $60 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds to assist hospitals in immediate jeopardy of closure and $10 million federal funds and $5 million in state restricted reserve funds for services to benefit rural hospitals through the Arkansas Rural Health Partnership, as well as several requests by colleges and Women and Children First for about $35 million in federal funds for building projects.
Afterward, Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said he wants each hospital seeking federal American Rescue Plan funds to avoid closure to explain to state lawmakers how much federal money the hospital needs, why the hospital needs the money, and how the federal money is going to help the hospital be sustainable in the long run.
“We just don’t want to give the money and then them go under in six months,” he said in an interview.
Increased costs and labor shortages have resulted in reduced revenue for the hospitals, and that’s meant several hospitals across the state, particularly those that serve rural populations, are at immediate risk of closure, the Department of Human Services said in its request for $60 million in American Rescue Plan funds.
The department said it also is working with the Arkansas Hospital Association to undergo a rate review for Arkansas’ inpatient and outpatient hospital rates, as well as examine policies to help address the strains placed on hospitals through the pandemic.
In May 2021, Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed the state’s American Rescue Plan steering committee — comprising nine Hutchinson administration officials and six state lawmakers — to recommend the best uses of $1.57 billion in American Rescue Plan state fiscal recovery funds and $158 million in American Rescue Plan capital project funds.
In March 2021, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that is designed to help the United States recover from the economic and health effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
The state would have about $450 million in remaining American Rescue Plan state fiscal recovery funds if the legislative committee on Tuesday recommended the Legislative Council authorize the use of $414 million in requested funds and the council approved the requests Friday, said Alan McVey, chief of staff at the state Department of Finance and Administration.
The state plans to use the bulk, if not all, of the $158 million in federal American Rescue Plan capital project funds for broadband grants, he said.
Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, who is a committee co-chair, said he wants to make sure the state is diligent in its use of the federal American Rescue Plan funds, and hospitals are struggling financially because of the rising cost of nurses and the state needs to prioritize health care in using these federal funds.
The committee’s other co-chair, Rep. Michelle Gray, R-Melbourne, said some of state government’s requests for using federal American Rescue Plans funds appear to be haphazard and don’t appear to be related to the covid-19 pandemic.
The Department of Agriculture’s request for almost $300 million in American Rescue Funds includes $135 million for grants for drinking water-related projects; $135 million for grants for wastewater treatment and collection and storm-water-related projects; $5 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds for a White River Irrigation District project to construct five county road crossings over a 10-mile canal segment that is under construction as phase 1 of the Grand Prairie project; and $5 million for a Bayou Meto Water Management District project to construct 10 pumping stations for water delivery.
Gray noted the Arkansas Game Fish and Commission has pulled down its request for spending authority to use $15 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds for renovation of about 13,000 acres of Greentree reservoirs in the Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area that have been negatively affected by prolonged flooding and its request to use $5 million in federal funds to modernize how water is used, captured and then reused at the Lonoke Fish Hatchery.
State Department of Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward told state lawmakers that Hutchinson created a water and other infrastructure projects working group in June 2021 that conducted a statewide water infrastructure needs assessment that found more than $5 billion in needs.
The department wants to administer $135 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds to distribute grants for drinking-water-related projects and $135 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds to distribute grants for wastewater treatment and collection and stormwater-related projects through its Natural Resources Division, he said.
If the Legislative Council authorizes spending authority for the department’s request, Ward said, the Department of Agriculture plans to allow for about 50 days for grant applications to be submitted, and have the applications reviewed and scored by staff before the Natural Resources Commission makes decisions on which projects to fund.
Several weeks ago, various officials told state lawmakers there are between $4 billion and $6 billion worth of upgrades and changes needed for Arkansas’ water and wastewater infrastructure, but they believed the issue has been an afterthought when it comes to accessing American Rescue Plan funds for the projects. At that time, Hutchinson said “I have made it abundantly clear that utilizing American Rescue Plan funds for water projects is a priority of mine.”
Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, on Tuesday questioned why Dismang made a motion to authorize spending authority for Black River Technical College to use $4.6 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds, without also authorizing spending authority for several other colleges’ building projects.
Dismang said Black River Technical College is seeking federal funds for housing for a training facility, and he wants a more comprehensive view of the nursing program needs across the state before authorizing the use of federal funds for building projects for nursing programs.
Chesterfield replied it’s disheartening for advocates for building projects to spend all day at the committee’s meeting and for the committee to be non-responsive.
It’s a shame, she said before the committee approved Dismang’s motion, despite her dissent.
The legislative committee delayed action on the following requests for spending authority to use federal American Rescue Plan funds:
• A $9.59 million request from the state Department of Finance and Administration for Women & Children First, a nonprofit that serves victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking. The group proposes to construct a new emergency shelter of 90 beds that also houses other support agencies and programs to allow participants to travel to one location for needed services.
• A $6 million request from University of Arkansas at Monticello to upgrade the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in its Science Center.
• A $5 million request from Philander Smith College to create a multipurpose community resource facility with the aim of creating a certified nursing assistant and licensed practical nurse program, expansion of the community health clinic and expansion of the college’s food pantry.
• A $5 million request from the Northwest Technical Institute Education Foundation to help in the construction of a 50,000-square-foot allied health facility on the institute’s campus in Springdale.
• A $3.2 million request from Arkansas Tech University to remodel Morton Hall to create space for the growth of nursing programs.
• A $3 million request from Southeast Arkansas College to help construct an approximately $14 million student and community center. The proposed facility is aimed at providing job training and development, education services, health care monitoring and related services and emergency services during a publicly declared emergency.
• The $3 million request from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff for a student engagement center that ...
Karoline Leavitt Wins Republican Primary In New Hampshire | NPR
Karoline Leavitt Wins Republican Primary In New Hampshire | NPR https://digitalarkansasnews.com/karoline-leavitt-wins-republican-primary-in-new-hampshire-npr/
Elena Moore Sep. 13, 2022
Former Trump press staffer Karoline Leavitt has won the Republican primary in New Hampshire’s first congressional district, according to a race call by The Associated Press.
Leavitt, 25, is only the second member of Generation Z to win a House primary and the first Republican. The 2022 midterm season is the first time the eldest Gen Zers are eligible to run for the U.S. House of Representatives, where 25 is the minimum age to serve.
Leavitt will now face off against incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas, 42, to represent the district – a toss-up seat Republicans hope to flip as part of their goal of winning back the majority of seats in the House.
“They said I was too young, we could never raise the money to compete, and that we could never beat a former Republican nominee,” Leavitt said in her victory speech Tuesday night.
“Over the last year we were outspent but we were not outworked,” she exclaimed. “No way!”
Leavitt defeated former Trump state department official Matt Mowers, 33, who ran for the seat in 2020 and lost to Pappas by five percentage points.
Mowers released a statement in which he pledged to “never stop fighting” for middle class families.
Though Mowers narrowly led in polls against Leavitt ahead of the primary, the most recent University of New Hampshire survey added uncertainty, finding that nearly a fourth of respondents were still undecided just two weeks from the election.
The two candidates also ran with similar platforms, branding themselves as staunch conservatives and political outsiders – while simultaneously promoting their time working in the Trump administration.
Where they differ is on the result of the 2020 election – Leavitt openly trumpeted the former president’s lie that he won, while Mowers has not directly addressed it.
Trump did not endorse a candidate in the primary race, but the matchup divided support among Republican leaders in Congress.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the two highest-ranking House Republicans, threw their support behind Mowers. While New York Rep. Elise Stefanik – ranking third – backed Leavitt, who previously served as her spokeswoman in Congress.
Leavitt’s connection to Stefanik partially links back to her historic start in Congress, when the New York Congresswoman made history in 2014 as the youngest woman ever elected to the House when she took office.
“[Stefanik] was one of the few people, frankly, in Washington that believed in me to do this,” Leavitt told NPR in an interview earlier this summer.
“I know Elise received that same condemnation when she wanted to run, so she really believed in me and believed that I had what it took,” she added.
Throughout her campaign, Leavitt framed her youth as an asset rather than a deterrent – arguing that younger voters need to hear from more conservative voices – even though a majority of those voters lean towards Democratic candidates.
“It’s a very one-sided culture that we live in,” Leavitt told NPR, “How do we break through that mold? It’s by electing young people to office that can resonate with these voters, have a platform at the national stage, that can show them ideas, policies, values that they’re not hearing elsewhere.”
But for Mowers, who’s 33 years old and would easily be considered a younger member of Congress, in this race, Leavitt is nearly a decade younger, putting generational differences in the political spotlight.
Leavitt’s win comes less than a month after Democratic candidate Maxwell Frost made history as the first member of Gen Z to win a congressional primary.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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Letters To The Editor For Wednesday September 14 2022
Letters To The Editor For Wednesday, September 14, 2022 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/letters-to-the-editor-for-wednesday-september-14-2022/
Letter writers | Fort Myers News-Press
Don’t be duped by extremist agenda
The cultural and political movement to replace our current Collier County School Board has roots that are both deep and wide, impacting local public schools and school boards nationwide. The movement attempts to gain power and influence via chronic disruption of public meetings and the nurturing and fueling of fear by the use of fabrication, hyperbole, and/or deliberate ideological complexities that more often than not are irrelevant to Collier County.
What matters in this board election are the academic achievements and progress of the CCPS under the leadership, guidance, and wisdom of the current board. These have been well-advertised. The CCPS has not maintained its A rating and statewide respect by having stupid people at the helm the past several years. Therefore, unless the voters of Collier County wish to be duped by an extremist agenda under the guise of patriotism, the choice is crystal clear, Roy Terry, Jen Mitchell, Jory Westberry should be re-elected.
George Bond, Naples
Right to clean, healthy water
As a former public health nurse at the Lee County Health Department and long-time nurse-midwife I am especially concerned about healthy water and the unchecked population growth in Southwest Florida. Gov. DeSantis poses as someone who cares about the environment in hopes of getting re-elected. If so I see disaster in our future. I am proud to be a Calusa Waterkeeper ranger. Our reports that the type of toxic algae outbreak in a North Fort Myers Canal on Sept. 7 is the second most potent natural toxin known, and our Department of Health will not post signs about that or about fecal bacteria in our waterways. The city and BOCC do not want to talk about it either. Residents should avoid exposure by staying away from affected areas or staying inside. I have seen no warnings to date from FDOH or FDEP. DeSantis oversees the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection and should be protecting residents. DeSantis ignores the recommendations of the scientists on the state’s Blue-Green Algae Task Force and he’s done nothing to prevent these gross outbreaks. We need to make the Right to Clean and Healthy Water the priority for all of Florida.
Holley Rauen, RN, Fort Myers
Inflation Reduction Act aids seniors
According to the September 2022 AARP Bulletin, if you are a senior citizen on Medicare, you can thank the current Congress for passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed by President Biden last month. The law will save hundreds of billions of dollars for seniors, taxpayers and Medicare, and it will take steps to reduce the federal deficit.
The law will finally cap insulin costs at $35 per month starting in 2023, and Medicare out-of-pocket costs will be capped at $2,000 by 2025. Negotiations with drug companies for lower drug prices will begin in 2023 and will go into effect in 2026. Inflation rebates and protections for prescription drugs will begin in October, and those who buy health insurance through an ACA marketplace will realize financial subsidies as well.
This long-awaited act will tap big companies with changes to corporate tax laws.
The House vote was 220 to 207. The Senate vote was 50-50. Vice President Kamala Harris broke the tie with her one vote. Not one single Republican in Congress voted for the Inflation Reduction Act.
Helen Conrath, Bonita Springs
Gender decision not for the immature
In our country, the drinking age is 21. To vote you need to be 18. The states vary in driver’s license requirements but are between 16 and 18. To purchase a shotgun or rifle, most states require you to be 18 and to purchase another type of gun, most states require you to be 21. To join the military, you must be 18 unless you have parental approval and can join at the age of 17.
All of these age requirements have been determined, because it is felt that a certain amount of mental judgement and maturity are necessary to engage in these individual activities. In most cases, a lack of maturity, experience, or mental acuity could lead to a disastrous outcome that often could not be reversed or easily corrected.
How then, can we, with a clear conscience, contemplate promoting or allowing gender changes in children under the age of 18. If you promote changing a child’s gender through drugs or surgical procedures because they think they want to or exhibit a desire to be something different, you put them in a position of not being able to easily go back. There’s a reason 16, 17, 18, and 21 are ages necessary for major activities in a person’s life. Changing their gender should receive the same recognition.
Dwight Sedgwick, North Fort Myers
Realign Marco Island council
Allow me to commend our citizens who knew their rights and dared to maintain them with their YES votes notwithstanding efforts to defeat the STR (Short-term Rental) ordinance with unceasing propaganda which misrepresented this issue. The sound of their voices to stop the scam must be heard; our councilors are mandated to fulfill their obligation to implement the will of the people without further fury.
I believe it is imperative that voters next reject certain officials. Chair Brechnitz and Councilor Folley announced in public forums that they would vote NO. I’ve no doubt both will attempt to adapt and explain their position in light of the outcome, but this resilience will not negate the reality that they are vulnerable in the November election.
Instead of returning these two gentlemen to office council candidates Dowell and Rivera should be elected as both supported the YES vote. Let me remind you that Christine Dowell spearheaded the creation of the PAC Citizens For a Better Marco to focus on quality of life issues on Marco Island, one of which was the short-term rental problem. The time to change the composition of council to ensure we respect honesty, truth, and compassion and renounce injustice, lying, and greed is now!
Regina L. Dayton, Marco Island
Impact of vaccine mandate on nurses
Very interesting article regarding the plight of hospitals in Southwest Florida with regard to staffing. Not one mention was made of the vaccine mandate having any impact on the nursing profession. They could work and work hard at the onset of the pandemic when it was convenient for the government but then they had to make a choice. Get a vaccine or quit. Many did! The same can be said for the plight of the airlines. Same unnecessary choice. In your world this would be considered misinformation. More liberal foolishness.
Don Rader, Naples
Shut this nonsense down
Nov. 8 is right around the corner. We have to keep our issues on the front burner. If we don’t act now women’s rights will be nonexistent. Why are we letting a small group of people decide the medical care of ONE gender. A lot of countries adhere to that ”thinking.” But the home of the free. Phhtt. You’re LGBTQ? Forget it. You can no longer “love the one you’re with.” Contraceptives? No. So that leads to a possible medical procedure. You can’t have it. If you have that forbidden medical procedure, anyone in your orbit will be charged. Neighbors, Uber, medical professionals. Name it. All those people are accessories. Don’t remember anyone mentioning the main perpetrator. The sperm donor. But they’re busy denigrating a 10-year-old rape victim. A 16-year-old who’s emancipated from her parents. She’s not mature enough they say. We have to shut this nonsense down. Crist, Demings and Banyai. That’s a great start.
Charles Perkins, North Fort Myers
Fed up with DeSantis, Republican crazies
Gov. DeSantis brags that Florida is a free state. The meaning of free according to Webster’s is not under the control of another person. Banning books, total disregard for gay people and women’s rights, gun legislation, and the environment means he controls us. He had total disregard for the pandemic, even telling high school students to remove their silly masks. There are many reasons to vote this guy out. He cares about himself and not much else except getting re-elected.
But I didn’t think he would stoop so low as to insult Dr. Fauci, calling him a little elf that should be chucked across the Potomac. He, DeSantis, has zero medical background while Dr. Fauci is an award winning scientist-physician. Among them, the national medal of science, the Lasher-Bloomberg public service award and the presidential medal of freedom. Dr. Fauci is 38 years his sennior which in itself deserves respect. He has no respect for seniors and does not care about your health or mine. Regardless of your political affiliation, please vote him out. I am a longtime registered Republican but am more than fed up with the new Republican Party crazies.
Carolyn Sertich, Bonita Springs
Echo of subprime mortgage mistake
Apart from paying for the money borrowed, by a student, the government is making the same mistake it did on subprime mortgages back in 2008. I watched as Representative Barney touted the “no money down” mortgages as “doing service to the poor and minorities.”
He said as much on C-SPAN. However when the bubble broke these folks were left with nothing but bad credit and no home. Fast forward, the colleges now do what the brokers did then, they encourage student borrowers and take no risk! What could go wrong? We’ve seen this play out before.
Gerard Fischer, Naples
More free stuff
Well here we go again, forgiving college loans for those making under a paltry $125,000 or $250,000 for a couple. I’m not sure who comes up with these grandiose ideas but this one takes the cake. Our national debt is approaching thirty trillion dollars, but what’s a trillion here or there? Not only are we spending a trillion dollars a year more than we take in in taxes, we now have th...
How An Old-School Georgia D.A. Could Prosecute Trump Like A Crime Boss
How An Old-School Georgia D.A. Could Prosecute Trump Like A Crime Boss https://digitalarkansasnews.com/how-an-old-school-georgia-d-a-could-prosecute-trump-like-a-crime-boss/
Former President Donald Trump is no stranger to legal scrutiny. He faced his first federal lawsuit in 1973, has cycled through federal bankruptcy court, spent much of his business career suing people and being sued, and he’s the only president to have been impeached twice. Trump is currently at the center of two federal investigations, and his company is facing a criminal trial and potential civil charges in New York state.
But “of all the government investigations now underway into Donald Trump, the one that is receiving the least attention may end up being the most consequential,” Michael Barbaro said in a recent episode of The New York Times podcast The Daily. “And that’s the one unfolding right now in Georgia,” where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is overseeing a sprawling investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn President Biden’s electoral victory in Georgia.
Willis is playing her cards close to the vest. But there is widespread speculation that Willis may be preparing to hit Trump or people in his orbit with racketeering charges, using Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Here’s a look at how the Atlanta-area district attorney could prosecute the Trump campaign as if it were a criminal enterprise:
What is RICO, and how does it work?
When most people think of RICO, “they conjure an image of a Mafia boss overseeing a vast organized crime ring,” a group of legal experts at the Brookings Institution wrote in an October 2021 analysis of Fulton County’s Trump investigation. “To be sure, RICO statutes were enacted with organized crime in mind, but over the past half century, federal and state RICO laws have been used more broadly to target criminal enterprises engaged in patterns of criminal conduct.”
A RICO law “recognizes that if violations of individual criminal statutes by a single person are bad,” the Brookings analysts write, “an enterprise that repeatedly violates the law is worse and should be subject to additional sanction.”
“In fact, Rudy Giuliani, who has been identified as a target in this investigation, earned a lot of ink back in the ’80s when he went after some of the most prominent mafia families in the New York area using the federal RICO law,” Times reporter Richard Fausset said on The Daily. “And the idea of RICO is based on this sense that sometimes it can be very hard to outline the full extent of a criminal enterprise,” so you need a law that can piece together disparate crimes — say, prostitution, protection rackets, and petty theft — into one organization working toward the same criminal goal.
Georgia’s RICO law, enacted in 1980, is similar to the federal law but in some ways broader.
Why do people think Willis is considering RICO in this case?
Willis said as much when she launched the investigation in February 2021, just weeks after taking office. She also knows Georgia’s RICO law well — she made her reputation in 2014 as the lead prosecutor in a successful RICO case against 11 Atlanta public school educators involved in a cheating scandal. And in March 2021, she hired John Floyd — a RICO expert who worked with her on the 2014 case, when she was an assistant district attorney — as a special assistant in her office to work on any case involving racketeering.
“I always tell people when they hear the word racketeering, they think of The Godfather,” Willis told The New York Times in February 2021, but “if you have various overt acts for an illegal purpose, I think you can — you may — get there” with any otherwise lawful organization.
“I’m a fan of RICO. I’ve told people that,” Willis said in late August, while announcing racketeering charges against an Atlanta gang that targeted celebrities. “And the reason that I am a fan of RICO is I think jurors are very, very intelligent. Some people don’t want to do jury service, but once they get there, we really find that they’re good citizens there, they’re very smart, they pay attention. They take these matters seriously. But they want to know the whole story. They want to know what happened.”
How might Georgia’s RICO law apply to Trump’s campaign?
“With RICO, you establish this idea of a criminal enterprise,” and the various “pieces and parts of the organization don’t have to necessarily all be talking to one another or know the exact shape of the full thing, but they’re all committing these acts in furtherance of the criminal enterprise’s criminal goal,” Fausset explains on The Daily. In the case of the mafia, it’s pretty easy to see how that works — prostitution, gambling, drugs — and if Willis is really putting together a RICO case here, “the idea ostensibly is that the criminal enterprise in this case is the Trump campaign itself.”
“There are two potential ‘enterprises’ here for purposes of the RICO statute: the Trump campaign and the presidency itself,” the Brookings analysts write, and “using either or both of those positions to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity could sustain a RICO charge.”
“Based on our assessment,” they elaborate, Trump may be liable for a number of Georgia crimes, including “(1) false statements and writings; (2) solicitation of false statements and writings; (3) solicitation of false swearing; (4) influencing witnesses; and (5) solicitation of computer trespass.” All of those can be used to prove RICO cases, the Brookings team adds, and “proving at least two of them could meet the element of a pattern of racketeering activity.”
We know Willis is investigating the scheme to put forward 16 fake Trump electors claiming to represent Georgia, Giuliani’s presumptively false statements to Georgia legislators, the meddling with voting machines in rural Coffee County, the abrupt removal of U.S. Attorney Byung Pak after he declined to advance discredited election fraud cases, and phone calls Trump and his allies made to Georgia officials, especially Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The covertly recorded phone call in which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” — one more than Biden’s 11,779-vote lead — is the crown jewel in Willis’ case, former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi told Vice News. “I think the most damning piece of evidence is still the phone call in which Trump asks to find a specific number of votes.”
Could a local Georgia district attorney really bring down a former president?
Legally, yes. “We conclude that Trump’s post-election conduct in Georgia leaves him at substantial risk of possible state charges predicated on multiple crimes,” including “prosecution under the state’s RICO statute,” the Brookings analysts conclude. “Moreover, this would not be the first RICO prosecution involving public officials” in Georgia, including a state Labor Department head whose RICO conviction — similar to the case against Trump — was upheld by the state Supreme Court.
“In our federal system,” the “states have both the primary responsibility and authority to make determinations about matters within their purview,” the Brookings analysis found. “Following settled Supreme Court precedent (including the recent case of Trump v. Vance), Georgia state prosecutors certainly have the power to investigate and charge a former president for willfully reaching into their jurisdiction to allegedly transgress their laws and interfere with their officials on a matter of utmost state interest: the administration of Georgia’s election procedures.”
“We’ve seen so many times ways in which President Trump has been able to skirt any kind of responsibility for behavior that people have found being questionable, if not illegal,” Fausset says on The Daily. “But in the case of the Georgia investigation, what the potential defendants are going to be confronted with is Georgia state law,” and “local law is very explicit on questions like solicitation to commit election fraud in the state of Georgia. They’re buried in a big book of statutes that really, pretty much, only Georgia lawyers know about.”
“But they’re there. And they’re very real,” Fausset adds. “And if it comes to pass that this local prosecutor is the person who ends up indicting President Trump or brings a successful case against President Trump, I think it’ll say a lot about the way our system of laws works in this country,” where we “automatically think” federal law “exists on a higher plane than local law.”
Will Willis really try?
“I think she’s going to be able to make a case,” and honestly “it’s not a complicated case,” Georgia criminal defense lawyer Page Pate, who has known Willis for years, tells Vice News. “She’s not going to go through all that if she doesn’t have probable cause to move forward.”
It isn’t entirely up to Willis, The Guardian notes. Her special grand jury can stay impaneled until May, but it can only submit a report recommending prosecution, and the case would then — if Willis agrees — go to a regular grand jury for possible indictments.
“An investigation is like an onion,” Willis said in February 2021. “You never know. You pull something back, and then you find something else. … Anything that is relevant to attempts to interfere with the Georgia election will be subject to review.”
And in some ways, it would be easier for Willis to prosecute Trump, Fausset argues. “For somebody like Merrick Garland, the attorney general, he’s appointed by Joe Biden. And we’ve seen play out in a very dramatic way in the last few days and weeks this concern that the Department of Justice, in going after Trump and some of these other investigations, is going after their chief political rival.”
“Well, Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, doesn’t have to deal with those things,” Fausset adds. “She is a Democrat. She’s an elected official. But her actions don’t necessarily get...
Does Canada Have Its Trump? https://digitalarkansasnews.com/does-canada-have-its-trump/
Is Canada getting its very own Donald Trump?
America’s neighbor to the north is famed for what might be described as a distinctly un-Trumpian politeness and gentility. But that might be changing: The country’s Conservative Party this week elected “firebrand populist” Pierre Poilievre as its leader, making him the leader of the opposition in Parliament, and a leading contender to become the next prime minister.
“You don’t have to squint too hard to see the parallels between former U.S. President Donald Trump and newly crowned Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre,” Max Fawcett writes for Canada’s National Observer. Both men are “economic populists” who have an “unusual ability to connect with their audiences through social media.” (Oh, and social media superstar Jordan Peterson likes him a lot, too.) There are some important differences, yes, but Poilievre might represent a new front in the rise of right-wing populism around the world. Who is he and what does he want to do for Canada? Here’s everything you need to know:
Where did Pierre Poilievre come from, anyway?
As long as we’re making Trump comparisons, let’s start with one obvious difference: Trump was a celebrity outsider who became a politician late in life. Poilievre is a lifer: The 43-year-old “has been a federal Member of Parliament for the last 18 years, becoming the youngest member in the House of Commons at age 25 in 2004,” the BBC reports. He served in the government of Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, as parliamentary secretary and as minister of employment and social development. He has served as the party’s “shadow government” minister of finance since the Liberal party under Justin Trudeau came to power, and has built a “reputation for hounding the Liberal party on government spending and other government scandals.”
That sounds like a typical politician. What makes him different?
Poilievre’s approach involves “leveraging divisive, polarizing issues” that divide the Canadian public, Natasha Bulowski writes for the National Observer. (Sound familiar?) For example, he’s made a habit of attacking his country’s media:
Poilievre was also a vocal supporter of the “Freedom Convoy” that clogged traffic at the U.S.-Canadian border in February, which was part of a broader opposition to COVID vaccine mandates that Poilievre has also championed. “These mandates have become nothing more than a cruel attempt to demonize a small minority,” he said this summer. “They are absolutely unnecessary and without any scientific basis.”
But he’s not necessarily conservative in the American sense, is he?
Politics look different in different places. But it’s fair to say Poilievre has evolved. In Parliament, he voted against same-sex marriage and for a study on whether a fetus is a human before birth. Politico reports that these days he describes same-sex marriage as a “success,” and himself as pro-choice.
How will his approach go over in Canada?
“Right-wing populism is not new to Canada; it has a long history in the prairies,” The Washington Post notes. But it hasn’t been popular at the national level before now. So Poilievre’s task is to broaden his party’s appeal “beyond its traditional base in rural Canada and the strongholds of Alberta and Saskatchewan” to include the suburbs of Toronto and Vancouver.
So does he have a real chance to become prime minister, then?
If Poilievre possesses another similarity with Trump, it’s probably this: He’s beloved by his party’s base, but not necessarily as much among the electorate at large. CTV News reported in August that while Poilievre was the leading candidate among Conservatives, polling showed that Canadian voters of all parties preferred his Conservative rival, Jean Charest, to lead the country. But Aaron Wherry at CBC News writes that this seems to be an “opportune time” for Poilievre. “Inflation is high and interest rates are rising,” and Trudeau has been in office for seven years already. “All things being equal, one would expect the Conservatives to have a very good chance of winning the next election.”
Trudeau won’t be giving up without a fight. He’s already launched attacks on Poilievre. “Buzzwords, dog whistles, and careless attacks don’t add up to a plan for Canadians,” the prime minister said this week. “Attacking the institutions that make our society fair, safe and free is not responsible leadership.”
When is the showdown, then?
Funny you should ask. We don’t know precisely. The next fixed parliamentary election date is October 25, 2025. But it could come sooner if a deal between Trudeau’s Liberal government and the New Democrats party falls apart before then. If not, Poilievre may have to wait three more years — a long time in politics in any country — before he gets his chance to lead Canada.
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Ken Starr, Pursuer Of Clinton, Dies At 76 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ken-starr-pursuer-of-clinton-dies-at-76/
FILE – In this image from video, Ken Starr, an attorney for President Donald Trump speaks during closing arguments in the impeachment trial against Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 3, 2020.Starr, whose criminal investigation of Bill Clinton led to the presidentâ€s impeachment, died Sept. 13, 2022. He was 76. (Senate Television via AP, File)
WASHINGTON — Ken Starr, a former federal appellate judge and attorney whose criminal investigation of Bill Clinton led to the president’s impeachment in the 1990s, has died at age 76, his family said Tuesday.
His wife, Alice Starr, said he spent the past 17 weeks at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center fighting an undisclosed illness and died of complications of surgery, but gave no further details.
For a time, Ken Starr was a household name, and his investigation into Clinton’s affair with a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, propelled issues of sex, morality, accountability and ideology to the center of American life for more than a year.
He became a Rorschach test for the post-Cold War generation, a hero to his admirers for taking on whom they considered an indecent president who despoiled the Oval Office and a villain to his detractors, who saw him as sex-obsessed and driven by partisanship. His investigation tested the boundaries of the Constitution when it prompted the first impeachment of a president in 130 years and scarred Clinton’s legacy and his own.
As Clinton’s legal problems worsened, the White House pilloried Starr as a right-wing fanatic doing the bidding of Republicans bent on destroying the president.
“The assaults took a toll” on the investigation, Starr told a Senate committee in 1999. “A duly authorized federal law enforcement investigation came to be characterized as yet another political game. Law became politics by other means.”
Starr returned to the public stage in 2020 as a lawyer for President Donald Trump during his first Senate trial, this time taking the opposite side and denouncing what he called “the Age of Impeachment” as a weapon in partisan wars.
“Like war, impeachment is hell,” he told the Senate during the proceeding that, like Clinton’s 21 years earlier, ended in acquittal. “Or at least presidential impeachment is hell.”
No one knew that better than Starr, whose steady climb through the ranks of the conservative legal world was upended by his unexpected journey into a presidential sex scandal. Starr served as a widely respected appeals court judge and solicitor general projected as a future Supreme Court justice before becoming a lightning rod during the Clinton investigation.
He went on to serve as dean of Pepperdine University’s law school in California and president of Baylor University, but was demoted and later resigned from Baylor after an investigation found that the university had mishandled accusations of sexual assault against members of the football team. The investigators rebuked the university leadership, saying it had “created a perception that football was above the rules.”
In a statement, Starr apologized to “those victims who were not treated with the care, concern and support they deserve.”
Starr also drew criticism for representing billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was accused of sex crimes against young girls in Florida and eventually made a plea agreement accepting only minor charges and a light sentence.
In an email she sent Tuesday to colleagues and friends of the family, Alice Starr called her husband a “brilliant, kind and loving” man who, despite what his critics said, “did not have a mean bone in his body” and was a friend to everyone he met.
“Ever since law school, he was determined to fight for the rule of law, and he labored tirelessly to provide equal justice and religious freedom around the world,” she wrote. “Ken felt compelled to always respond to the call to serve his country, even when it meant enduring harsh criticism for his service. He was courageous and determined to work for a fair and just outcome no matter the task, and he never responded in kind to hurtful libel or slander.”
Starr was a mentor and boss to many future legal stars, including Chief Justice John Roberts, who worked for him in Ronald Reagan’s administration, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who worked in the independent counsel’s office.
Both issued statements Tuesday mourning his death.
“Ken loved our country and served it with dedication and distinction,” Roberts said. “He led by example, in the legal profession, public service and the community.”
Kavanaugh added: “Fiercely devoted to the Constitution and to the United States, Judge Starr was a great lawyer, judge, scholar and teacher.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell remembered Starr Tuesday as “a brilliant litigator, an impressive leader and a devoted patriot.”
In a post to his Truth Social account, Trump paid tribute to Starr as “a true American Patriot who loved our Country and the Law. I so appreciated his support and his thoughts that our cause against fascists and other mentally sick people in our Country is just.”
IT STARTED WITH WHITEWATER
The episode that came to define Starr’s career started out as an examination into a misbegotten Arkansas real estate venture involving Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, called Whitewater. But it morphed into an utterly different investigation with the discovery that the president had carried on an affair with Lewinsky and then sought to cover it up during an unrelated sexual harassment lawsuit.
Starr’s investigation forced Bill Clinton to confess that he had lied and ultimately led to a contempt-of-court citation against the president and the surrender of his law license.
In his memoir, “Contempt,” published in 2018, two decades after the sensational events of that era, Starr offered second thoughts about pursuing Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky but condemned the former president’s prevarications and what he called his disrespect for the rule of law.
“I deeply regret that I took on the Lewinsky phase of the investigation,” he wrote. “At the same time, as I still see it 20 years later, there was no practical alternative to my doing so.”
Asked later on “CBS This Morning” what parts he regretted, he said, “I regretted the whole thing, but it had to be done.”
A minister’s son who sold Bibles door to door to pay for college, Kenneth Winston Starr was born July 21, 1946, in Vernon, Texas.
He spent two years at Harding College, a Christian school in Searcy, Ark., now called Harding University. He transferred and earned his bachelor of arts from George Washington University in 1968, his master of arts from Brown University in 1969 and his law degree from Duke University Law School in 1973.
He married Alice Mendell in 1970, one week before starting law school, and they went on to have three children and nine grandchildren. He served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Warren Burger and then joined the Washington office of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Starr was considered brilliant, ambitious and deeply conservative, part of the vanguard of a new generation of legal minds determined to reshape the judiciary after years in which liberal jurists had dominated.
He went to work as chief of staff to Attorney General William French Smith in the Reagan administration and was then appointed by Reagan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
In one of his most notable cases, he wrote the opinion in a 7-1 ruling throwing out a libel case filed by William Tavoulareas, the president of Mobil Oil, against The Washington Post. The newspaper was represented by David Kendall, who would go on to represent Clinton and cross knives with Starr during the Whitewater and Lewinsky investigations.
Starr stepped down to become solicitor general for President George H.W. Bush, a position often called the 10th justice.
After Bush lost reelection to Clinton, Starr was assigned by Congress to evaluate the diaries of Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., who resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct. Over the course of his career, he argued 36 times before the Supreme Court.
FOSTER SUICIDE
While a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Starr was appointed independent counsel by a three-judge panel to investigate the Whitewater deal during Clinton’s time as governor of Arkansas. Starr also investigated the suicide of Vincent Foster, a White House lawyer and longtime friend of the Clintons; the firing of White House Travel Office staff; and the obtaining of confidential FBI files on Republican administration officials.
He successfully prosecuted a number of figures in the Clinton circles, including Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, Bill Clinton’s successor in Arkansas, but never charged either of the Clintons. He believed Hillary Clinton had lied to investigators and his office did draft an indictment, but he concluded that it would not win a conviction and never pursued it.
His inquiry was wrapping up when he was told that Bill Clinton was seeking to obstruct a lawsuit filed by Paula Corbin Jones — a former Arkansas government employee who accused him of sexual harassment. Linda Tripp, a friend and colleague of Lewinsky’s at the Pentagon, taped their conversations discussing the affair with Clinton and plans to hide it from Jones’ lawyers.
With permission from Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno, Starr’s investigators confirmed the affair despite the president’s denials under oath in the Jones case as well as his efforts to coach other potential witnesses to guard his indiscretions.
The investigation played out in exceedingly public fashion, a tawdry, unseemly case that dominated the headlines for months with stories about thongs, cigars and a blue semen-stained dress. The public was alternately captivated and horrified as a sitting president’s extramarital sex...
Pressurized Case That Detonated At Northeastern Had Note Railing Against Virtual Reality Report Says
Pressurized Case That Detonated At Northeastern Had Note Railing Against Virtual Reality, Report Says https://digitalarkansasnews.com/pressurized-case-that-detonated-at-northeastern-had-note-railing-against-virtual-reality-report-says/
A Northeastern University staff member is being treated for minor injuries after a package delivered to the Boston campus detonated while they were opening it, according to the school.A spokesperson for Northeastern said the incident happened shortly after 7 p.m. at Holmes Hall, home to the university’s creative writing program.No students were injured in the explosion, according to the university.ABC News reported that the staff member, a 45-year-old man, who was injured in the incident had opened a hard-packed Pelican-type case, according to law enforcement sources. The case did not contain any explosive material, ABC reported, however it had been pressurized and when opened caused the detonation.Officials allegedly found what sources described as an anonymous note railing against virtual reality, among other things.Boston police said they responded to 39 Leon St., the listed address for Holmes Hall, shortly before 7:20 p.m. “We first saw two policemen kind of walking quickly into the building,” said Northeastern student Jacob Isaacs. “The police started putting up tape.”Boston firefighters also responded to the scene and helped police evacuate some of the buildings on campus, according to Boston police Commissioner Michael Cox.”One of the ladder trucks hoisted a ladder up to the roof of the building and a firefighter, with what I believe was an ax, went up on top of the building,” said student Ryan Dicorpo.Responding police officers and Boston Emergency Medical Services personnel found the staff member suffering from minor hand injuries. He was taken to an area hospital for treatment.”I take very seriously that this city is home to everyone’s young people, from our littlest learners up to our college students and university staff,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. “So we want to make sure we emphasize that this is of the utmost priority: the safety and well-being of all of our young people here.”A search revealed a second similar package that was ultimately rendered safe by the Boston Police Department’s bomb squad.Cox said the Boston Police Department is working with its law enforcement partners at Boston Regional Intelligence, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).”We are going to be working and continue to work with all our campus security partners, as well, to make sure all the students here are safe — as well as the rest of the residents in the city,” the commissioner said.The FBI’s Boston Division confirmed that it is offering its full support to its partners, especially Boston police, including the full resources of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, evidence response team and special agent bomb technicians.”We’re fully integrated with our partners and remain committed to resolving the incident safely,” said FBI Boston Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jason Cromartie.Holmes Hall was evacuated and a notification was sent to the Boston campus at 7:55 p.m. urging people to avoid the area.”We’re also right across the street from a residence hall, so no one has been able to go in and out,” said student Susanna Maize.Shortly after 8:30 p.m., the university notified Northeastern students that evening classes at the Behrakis Health Sciences Center, Shillman Hall, Ryder Hall, Kariotis Hall, Dockser Hall and West Village F were canceled due to the ongoing investigation. 5 Investigates reporter Mike Beaudet said he was teaching a journalism class at Northeastern University at the time. He said his class was moved outside but that neither he nor any of his students heard any explosions.”I didn’t hear any explosions. I don’t think any of the other students did,” Dicorpo said. “But we heard the fire alarm and so we assumed we should leave.””It’s pretty late at night. Our class was an exception. Most students are home for the day. There’s not a lot of classes going on,” Maize said.At about 10 p.m., NewsCenter 5’s Nathalie Pozo received an alert from the university stating that the scene at Holmes Hall was contained and the campus was secured.Pozo then received an alert at about 11:30 p.m. that stated Northeastern’s Boston campus is expected to be open and fully operational on Wednesday.”It’s very important to note that our campus is secure and we will maintain a secure campus in perpetuity,” said Northeastern University police Chief Michael Davis. “That’s our work and that’s what we continue to do, and we’ll be working with our partners here to get this resolved.”In the wake of the incident at Northeastern, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in Cambridge, are urging all members of the campus communities to be cautious and report any suspicious packages.Boston police told NewsCenter 5 that they received a 911 call shortly before 8:30 p.m. regarding a suspicious package behind the Museum of Fine Arts, which is less than a mile away from Holmes Hall. A Massachusetts State Police official said the package behind the MFA was quickly determined to be trash and not a hazard.Boston University, meanwhile, notified its students late Tuesday night that deliveries from BU Mail Services have been suspended following the Northeastern package explosion. BU said direct courier deliveries are still allowed, but campus police reminded all members of the school community to be cautious about deliveries.No arrests have been announced in connection with the package explosion at Northeastern University. Boston police, Northeastern police and FBI Boston continue to investigate the incident.
BOSTON —
A Northeastern University staff member is being treated for minor injuries after a package delivered to the Boston campus detonated while they were opening it, according to the school.
A spokesperson for Northeastern said the incident happened shortly after 7 p.m. at Holmes Hall, home to the university’s creative writing program.
No students were injured in the explosion, according to the university.
ABC News reported that the staff member, a 45-year-old man, who was injured in the incident had opened a hard-packed Pelican-type case, according to law enforcement sources. The case did not contain any explosive material, ABC reported, however it had been pressurized and when opened caused the detonation.
Officials allegedly found what sources described as an anonymous note railing against virtual reality, among other things.
Boston police said they responded to 39 Leon St., the listed address for Holmes Hall, shortly before 7:20 p.m.
“We first saw two policemen kind of walking quickly into the building,” said Northeastern student Jacob Isaacs. “The police started putting up tape.”
Boston firefighters also responded to the scene and helped police evacuate some of the buildings on campus, according to Boston police Commissioner Michael Cox.
“One of the ladder trucks hoisted a ladder up to the roof of the building and a firefighter, with what I believe was an ax, went up on top of the building,” said student Ryan Dicorpo.
Responding police officers and Boston Emergency Medical Services personnel found the staff member suffering from minor hand injuries. He was taken to an area hospital for treatment.
“I take very seriously that this city is home to everyone’s young people, from our littlest learners up to our college students and university staff,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. “So we want to make sure we emphasize that this is of the utmost priority: the safety and well-being of all of our young people here.”
A search revealed a second similar package that was ultimately rendered safe by the Boston Police Department’s bomb squad.
Cox said the Boston Police Department is working with its law enforcement partners at Boston Regional Intelligence, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
“We are going to be working and continue to work with all our campus security partners, as well, to make sure all the students here are safe — as well as the rest of the residents in the city,” the commissioner said.
The FBI’s Boston Division confirmed that it is offering its full support to its partners, especially Boston police, including the full resources of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, evidence response team and special agent bomb technicians.
“We’re fully integrated with our partners and remain committed to resolving the incident safely,” said FBI Boston Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jason Cromartie.
Holmes Hall was evacuated and a notification was sent to the Boston campus at 7:55 p.m. urging people to avoid the area.
“We’re also right across the street from a residence hall, so no one has been able to go in and out,” said student Susanna Maize.
Shortly after 8:30 p.m., the university notified Northeastern students that evening classes at the Behrakis Health Sciences Center, Shillman Hall, Ryder Hall, Kariotis Hall, Dockser Hall and West Village F were canceled due to the ongoing investigation.
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5 Investigates reporter Mike Beaudet said he was teaching a journalism class at Northeastern University at the time. He said his class was moved outside but that neither he nor any of his students heard any explosions.
“I didn’t hear any explosions. I don’t think any of the other students did,” Dicorpo said. “But we heard the fire alarm and so we assumed we should leave.”
“It’s pretty late at night. Our class was an exception. Most students are home for the day. There’s not a lot of classes going on,” Maize said.
At about 10 p.m., NewsCenter 5’s Nathalie Pozo received an alert from the university stating that the scene at Holmes Hall was con...
Siloam Springs Drops 6A-West Opener https://digitalarkansasnews.com/siloam-springs-drops-6a-west-opener/
Courtesy of Amy Wayne Photography Siloam Springs linebackers Jed Derwin (left) and Stone Stephens (right) converge on Greenbrier wide receiver Carter McElhaney during a 6A-West football game Friday, Sept. 9, at Don Jones Stadium/John Hawks Memorial Field in Greenbrier. Greenbrier defeated Siloam Springs 48-18.
GREENBRIER — Miles Miller’s big night helped Greenbrier get off to a strong start in 6A-West Conference play Friday night.
Miller, a junior wide receiver and defensive back, caught two touchdown passes, returned a kickoff for a touchdown and intercepted two passes as Greenbrier defeated Siloam Springs 48-18 at Don Jones Stadium/John Hawks Memorial Field in Greenbrier.
Miller intercepted Siloam Springs quarterback Jackson Still on the game’s first offensive possession and caught a 18-yard touchdown pass from Kane Griffin later in the first quarter as Greenbrier went up 14-0.
Miller caught another touchdown pass in the second quarter as Greenbrier went up 28-3 at halftime.
Then to start the second half, Miller returned the opening kickoff 73 yards for a touchdown. He added his second interception in the third quarter.
“He’s a ball playing little dude, but that’s the best one ever for him in high school anyways,” Greenbrier coach Randy Tribble said of Miller. “He’s just a real solid football player that’s got awesome savvy, doesn’t say much and just makes plays and makes plays.”
Greenbrier (2-1, 1-0) finished with 366 yards of offense, most of which came in the first three quarters. Greenbrier went up 48-10 early in the fourth quarter on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Griffin to Carter McElhaney to enforce the sportsmanship rule running clock.
Griffin completed 13 of 22 passes for 228 yards with McElhaney leading all recivers with five catches for 98 yards. Miller finished with five receptions for 70 yards, while Israel Guzman had three catches for 64 yards.
Greenbrier rushed for 129 yards on 35 carries led by Parker Roberts who rushed 10 times for 48 yards and scored the game’s first touchdown with a nine-yard run with 7:15 left in the first quarter, cashing in Miller’s opening interception.
Matthew Garrett added 11 rushes for 42 yards and a touchdown run in the third quarter.
“We’re getting better,” Tribble said. “I knew we would get better as the year went. We’re making steps. We can still get a lot better and we’ve got a long way to go to be a really good football team, but I think we’re moving in the right direction right now.”
Siloam Springs, meanwhile, dropped to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
Siloam Springs gave up two first quarter touchdowns and trailed 14-0. It’s the third straight game Siloam Springs has gotten into a double-digit hole.
“Well it’s game speed,” said Siloam Springs coach Brandon Craig. “That’s one problem we have at Siloam. We can’t simulate that in practice, so we have to catch up in the first quarter, and it just doesn’t work out. When you’re behind as far as we got tonight, all you can hope to do is come out and compete and win the second half. We got close but we didn’t, so it’s just one of those things. We have to do a better job individually each day.”
Siloam Springs got its offense going late in the first quarter as Still hit Cameron Stafford for a 55-yard gain into Greenbrier territory. That play led to Siloam Springs getting on the scoreboard with 11:47 left in the second quarter on a 33-yard field goal by Ronald Mancia to make it 14-3.
After Miller’s touchdown on the kickoff return, Siloam Springs answered back with a 53-yard scoring drive, punching in a 10-yard touchdown run by Gio Flores.
After a shanked Greenbrier punt in the fourth quarter, Siloam Springs scored again to make it 48-18 with a two-yard touchdown run by Jed Derwin.
Siloam Springs finished with 225 yards of offense.
Still completed 10 of 22 passes for 118 yards with two interceptions. He also led the Panthers in rushing with 11 carries for 48 yards.
Derwin rushed for 30 yards on 11 carries as Siloam Springs had 107 rushing yards on 29 carries as a team.
Siloam Springs also had 11 penalities for 74 yards and had several more penalties that were declined.
“I think we had nine penalties in the first half,” Craig said. “We made a bunch of critical errors that just got us behind the eight-ball to begin with.”
“We’re in our fourth varsity experience with these guys, and there’s really not any excuses that I can make other than we’ve just got to come out and play better, more solid football, and every guy’s got to buy into that or we’re going to keep getting this result.”
Siloam Springs is back in action at home Friday, Sept. 16, against Greenwood (2-1, 1-0), which defeated Mountain Home 49-0 in Greenwood last Friday.
Greenwood lost its season opener at Stillwater (Okla.) 41-27 on Aug. 26.
The Bulldogs trailed by 18 late in their second game against Fort Smith Northside, but freshman quarterback Kane Archer, who came in for injured Hunter Houston, rallied the Bulldogs to a 56-53 win on a Hail Mary touchdown pass on the final play of the game.
Houston returned last week to complete 21 of 29 passes for 192 yards and three touchdowns against the Bombers, while Archer, who already has several scholarship offers, including Texas A&M and Arkansas, completed 7 of 16 passes for 72 yards and a passing and rushing touchdown.
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