Elon Musk Tells Dave Portnoy He Has Plan To Address Number Of Twitter Bots
Elon Musk Tells Dave Portnoy He Has Plan To Address Number Of Twitter Bots https://digitalarkansasnews.com/elon-musk-tells-dave-portnoy-he-has-plan-to-address-number-of-twitter-bots/
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday he has a plan to tackle the high number of spam robots or “bots” on Twitter, as he intends to purchase the social media company.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, complained in a tweet to Musk Monday night that he was seeing too many bots on the platform.
“Hey @elonmusk can you please fix these bots on this piece of sh– platform you got tricked into buying. I’m getting bot’d to death,” Portnoy wrote.
Musk responded to Portnoy’s post, saying, “I have a plan.”
ELON MUSK SETS CONDITION FOR TWITTER PURCHASE TO GO FORWARD
Elon Musk assured Dave Portnoy that he has a plan to combat bots on Twitter. (Getty/Reuters/Twitter)
Bots are automated accounts that help drive traffic on Twitter. They appear like real accounts controlled by a person. They retweet posts, like posts and follow other accounts. Advertisers, marketing agencies and other companies are looking to reach real human accounts, not bots.
In May, Musk threatened to back out of his bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion, citing concern over the number of bot and spam accounts on the platform. Musk has said he believes the bots make up upwards of 20% of accounts on Twitter.
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday he has a plan to tackle the high number of robots on Twitter, as he intends to purchase the social media company. (Chesnot/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Twitter said the number of spam or bot accounts is less than 5%.
Twitter sued Musk in July to force him to follow through on the purchase.
Earlier this month, amid Twitter’s litigation against Musk for trying to back out of the deal, he revealed his intentions to follow through with the agreement.
TWITTER SAYS ELON MUSK IS TARGET OF FEDERAL INVESTIGATION: FILING
The billionaire initially offered to purchase Twitter in April for $44 billion, but months later wanted to scrap the deal over the platform’s lack of transparency about its bot figures. (Reuters Photos)
A judge in Delaware has given Musk until October 28 to close the acquisition of Twitter after he disclosed his plans to go through with the purchase. A trial was initially scheduled for October 17.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
Twitter has also said in an October 6 court filing that Musk is under federal investigation regarding the acquisition of the platform, although what exactly he may be probed for is unclear. It is also not clear which federal authorities are conducting the investigations.
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Kanye West Acquires Parler. Musk: Twitter. Trump: Truth Social.
Kanye West Acquires Parler. Musk: Twitter. Trump: Truth Social. https://digitalarkansasnews.com/kanye-west-acquires-parler-musk-twitter-trump-truth-social/
Kanye West, now known as Ye, has acquired the social media network called Parler. In doing so, he joins the mogul alum who are all doing the exact same thing. Are they all fighting censorship?
Parler sells itself as a free speech platform where you cannot be censored for your thoughts. And now, it is a new shiny toy in Ye’s treasure chest. But what has driven the ex-Mr Kardashian to make such a huge purchase?
Ye had his Twitter and Instagram accounts shut down this week, for what the platform deemed to be anti-Semitic statements.
Ye maintains that there is a secret cabal of Jewish people who are conspiring to control the global media, governments, and banks. And he shared these thoughts on his social media accounts.
After being suspended for his initial comments, Ye said he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people,” which led to him being permanently de-platformed.
Kanye West and Other Recent Controversies
This news is hot on the heels of Ye wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-Shirt to Paris Fashion Week.
Ye told conservative media personality, Tucker Carlson, that the T-Shirt provoked such a huge backlash because he was acting in a way that the media disapproved of.
“Because the same people that have stripped us of our identity and labeled us as a color, have told us what it means to be black.”
Of his social media bans, Ye says that Zuckerberg and friends, “have toyed with me and tried to blackball anyone whoever opposes their agenda.” In fact, instead of being big mad about it, Ye has decided to take action.
Parler CEO George Farmer doesn’t seem to support Ye’s ramblings about a Jewish cabal. But he still thinks people should be allowed to air potentially faulty opinions. “In all worlds, the only cure for wrong ideas is more ideas. It’s more speech, not less speech. Censorship in any format is never a good thing. And this is what we and he agree on.”
Media Mogul Buy Ups
It seems Ye is not alone in wanting to say whatever thought comes into his mind without censorship. Many hugely wealthy moguls have been buying up social media platforms like they are about to face scarcity. Elon Musk has famously taken over Twitter, after being annoyed by their censorship and what he considers to be an infestation of bots.
Trump has decided to start his own platform, called Truth Social. The social media site says they encourage “open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology.”
Truth Social is currently unavailable to users of Android phones, thanks to Google not allowing it on their app store. While Apple is the smartphone leader in the USA, Android is dominant in a global sense. Many have accused Google of maintaining a monopoly over both ideology and the app market.
Other moguls are at it as well: Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance have acquired Rumble, an alternative to YouTube. Rumble say they fight cancel culture. Thiel, a German-American billionaire, was a co-founder of PayPal. He was also the first outside investor in Facebook. So, he has had an interest in social media for a very long time. James David Vance is an American lawyer and venture capitalist, and a critic of Donald Trump.
Ye and Parler
Parler CEO George Farmer told Fox Business News that the Parler app needs Ye in many ways.
“What motivated this for him was, of course, his banning from other social media platforms. And this is a trend that we’ve seen with so many different people. Instagram and Twitter closed down his accounts, expressing discontent with ‘wrong thinking’ on his part – or at least tweets they weren’t happy about. And of course, this motivated him like many other influencers and celebrities of high caliber stature to come across to us and to have this conversation with us.”
Parlement Technologies, the parent company of Parler, said in a press release that they have “entered into an agreement in principle to sell Parler, the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform, to Ye (formerly known as Kanye West). Ye has become the richest black man in history through music and apparel and is taking a bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech, using his far-reaching talents to further lead the fight to create a truly non-cancelable environment.”
Ye said, “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial, we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.”
On Parler, Ye can be found here.
Kanye West and Free Speech
The agreement in principle says that the parties will enter into a definitive purchase agreement and finish up by Q4 2022. Parlement will provide ongoing technical support and the use of private cloud services. This is important, as Amazon previously booted the company from its web-hosting site, meaning Parler went offline until it could find an alternative.
Farmer told Fox Business News, “Ye said that free speech is an inalienable right, free speech is something that we all must strive towards. He’s very excited about this. The deal came together in short order, and we’re very excited about the potential that he can bring to the platform in terms of the growth profile.”
Businesses Fear Being Cancelled
Farmer said that growth in Parler is connected to businesses who have been subject to cancellations from other platforms. “We are already hosting several enterprise clients. We continue to expand that universe.”
The company has also acquired a storage company, so their business customers don’t have to rely on Amazon for storage. “We can beat Amazon in terms of our pricing structures. We want to grow into this space. And we want to provide the plumbing of the internet both to agnostic clients in terms of their political outlook, but also in terms of businesses that are afraid of that cancellation factor, that so many businesses out there are now thinking about when they come to corporate planning.”
Censorship Extends to Banks
This week, Kanye West was papped while wearing a Satoshi Nakamoto hat. This is after he was “de-banked” by JPMorgan.
This news of the debanking came via Candace Owens, who is an American conservative influencer and author. She is also the wife of Parler CEO George Farmer.
Earlier today I learned that @kanyewest was officially kicked out of JP Morgan Chase bank. I was told there was no official reason given, but they sent this letter as well to confirm that he has until late November to find another place for the Yeezy empire to bank. pic.twitter.com/FUskokb6fP
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 12, 2022
Was Ye thrown out of his bank for his (sometimes crazy) opinions? And if so, should we all be worried about this?
At the end of the day
Will Ye be the voice for Bitcoin and crypto for the foreseeable future? Like all industries as a whole, cryptocurrency has some serious garbage strewn across it. There are some mind-blowing cryptos out there with amazing uses. There are also some rugpulls and scams too. Ye wearing a Satoshi Nakamoto hat is a massive statement, and could incite massive changes, both to the financial world and to politics.
Interestingly, there is even a Yeezy coin, name after Ye’s fashion brand. Of course, it is not associated with Ye himself.
If only everyone in this story knew that a whole crop of social media platforms already exist on the blockchain that solve a lot of the problems that are spoken about above. Welcome, Web3.
While celebrity stories can be seen as superfluous and unnecessary, they are a microcosm of the world’s problems, and the fixes. For anyone who believes in the promise of crypto and the potential freedom of it, Ye’s struggles are the struggles of us all, whether you be left, right, center or have no interest in politics at all.
Got something to say about Kanye West, Parler or anything else? Write to us or join the discussion in our Telegram channel. You can also catch us on Tik Tok, Facebook, or Twitter.
Disclaimer
All the information contained on our website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Any action the reader takes upon the information found on our website is strictly at their own risk.
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Mike Lee Tries To Distance Himself From Trump In Utah Debate
Mike Lee Tries To Distance Himself From Trump In Utah Debate https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mike-lee-tries-to-distance-himself-from-trump-in-utah-debate/
Rick Bowmer / AP
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, right, and his independent challenger Evan McMullin shake hands before their televised debate, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022, in Orem, Utah, three weeks before Election Day. The debate will be the only time the candidates appear together in the lead-up to next month’s midterm elections.
By Sam Metz, Associated Press
Monday, Oct. 17, 2022 | 9:33 p.m.
OREM, Utah — Fending off attacks from his independent challenger, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah worked to distinguish himself from former President Donald Trump in a contentious debate Monday evening.
“I stood against my party time and time again to oppose reckless spending. I will do it again and again and again. We need people who say no,” the second-term Republican said.
Lee repeatedly said that his voting record demonstrated that he wasn’t beholden to any party or politician. Twice he told the audience at Utah Valley University that he voted less in line with Trump than all but two Republican senators — Rand Paul and Susan Collins.
“To suggest that I’m beholden to either party, that I’ve been a bootlicker for either party is folly. And it’s contradicted by the plain facts,” Lee said.
Lee faces a challenge from Evan McMullin, a former Republican known most for his long-shot bid for president six years ago, when as an independent he won 21.5% of the vote in Utah, including Lee’s. McMullin has since become a pillar of the anti-Trump movement, attacking Trump as a threat to democracy and arguing his actions are contrary to the history of the Republican Party and what’s best for the United States.
Lee’s attempts to draw a distinction with Trump reflect the peculiar dynamics emerging in Utah this election cycle. In the red state’s marquee race, one candidate is running as an independent and the other is attempting to emphasize his independent streak.
The race has taken shape as one of the nation’s many referendums on the direction Trump has taken the GOP. McMullin is attempting to harness anti-Trump sentiment that has distinguished Utah from other Republican strongholds. Lee’s last minute efforts to put space between his voting record and Trump’s stances depart from his past messaging as Election Day nears.
“I don’t think he’s trying to distance himself from Trump. What I think he’s trying to do is draw that contrast. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, he’s a lap dog,’” Utah Republican Party Chair Carson Jorgensen said. “No, he’s stood up for what he believed every time, even when it came to Trump.”
Utah is a reliably Republican state, however its religion-infused politics are idiosyncratic. The majority of residents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which places a high value on manners and eschews alcohol and foul language. Members of the faith lean Republican, yet polling has shown Trump commands less robust support among them than other prominent GOP politicians.
Trump failed to win support from a majority of Utah voters in 2016 and Joe Biden performed better with Utah voters in 2020 than any Democrat since 1964.
Lee’s emphasis on his willingness to stray from Trump comes as McMullin attempts to paint him as one of the former president’s most loyal disciples. McMullin recently released an attack ad based on Lee’s 2020 remarks comparing Trump to Captain Moroni, a scriptural hero in the Book of Mormon.
Monday’s debate was McMullin’s first change to directly confront Lee about the text messages he sent to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which he’s made a centerpiece of his campaign.
The texts show Lee asking for advice on how to contribute to efforts to challenge the 2020 election results. Lee has defended his actions by saying he merely intended to look into the legal arguments and rumors about swing states putting forth slates of fake electors, noting that he ultimately voted to certify the results.
On Monday, Lee demanded an apology from McMullin and said his version of events exhibited a “cavalier, reckless disregard for the truth.”
Though the messages suggest Lee researched the legality of alternate elector slates in the lead-up to Jan. 6, Lee said they showed no evidence that he would have supported such a scheme. He said he wouldn’t have and noted that he voted to certify the election results.
A raucous crowd made up mostly of Lee supporters jeered and booed when McMullin called Lee’s actions “a travesty.”
“Senator Lee, that was the most egregious betrayal of our nation’s Constitution in its history by a U.S. Senator. I believe it will be your legacy,” McMullin said, wagging his finger at Lee.
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Jill Biden On Media Scrutiny: You Cant Be Affected By The Negativity
Jill Biden On Media Scrutiny: ‘You Can’t Be Affected By The Negativity’ https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jill-biden-on-media-scrutiny-you-cant-be-affected-by-the-negativity/
First Lady Jill Biden reflected on media scrutiny of her husband’s administration during a rare interview with Newsmax that aired on Monday evening.
Biden sat down with Newsmax’s Nancy Brinker, a longtime friend of the first couple who founded breast cancer organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure, to tout the Biden administration’s Cancer Moonshot initiative as a unifying issue amid a divisive political climate.
“As first lady, how do you deal with the intensity of all the media?” Brinker asked Biden. “Because every other day, you’re probably with a new set of issues and everything, and has that been interesting?”
“I wouldn’t call it interesting,” Biden jokingly responded.
“I don’t know, I guess you learn to sort of take it in your stride,” she continued. “You have to, you can’t be affected by the negativity, and a lot of it. People just need to get rid of a lot of their anger.”
Biden went on to stress how she believes Americans are still held together by their values despite their contentious ideological disagreements.
“Come together,” Biden said. “It’s all about kindness. Even if someone doesn’t agree with you, if you can just talk to them civilly and hear their point of view, maybe you will never agree, but just acts of kindness toward your fellow Americans.”
Throughout the interview, Biden and Brinker stressed how the administration’s cancer work can bridge the partisan divide, encouraging Americans to catch up on cancer screenings they may have missed during the pandemic.
“We have to create awareness, we have to work together,” Biden said. “Nancy, cancer is one of these issues. It’s not a red issue or a blue issue. Cancer affects every American family.”
The interview itself marked a rare showing of a Biden being interviewed on the conservative news outlet. Newsmax emerged following the 2020 presidential election as the cable channel of choice for the staunchest supporters of former President Trump.
Biden filmed the interview with Newsmax on Saturday in Florida as she traveled to the Sunshine State to promote the Cancer Moonshot initiative and campaign for Democratic candidates. The interview also coincided with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The first lady told Brinker that her advocacy extends back to 1993, when four of Biden’s friends were diagnosed with breast cancer. One of those friends died, while the other three survived.
The first couple began the Cancer Moonshot initiative during Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president. The then-vice president’s son, Beau Biden, passed away in May 2015 from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
The initiative includes a goal to decrease the death rate from cancer by 50 percent over the next 25 years by marshaling federal resources to speed up research and improve prevention efforts.
“Cancer is such a terrible disease, but it is unifying people,” Biden said. “They’re all coming together to say, yes, let’s work with one another. And let’s reduce the incidence of cancer as we know it and change the face of cancer.”
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
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Utah Candidates Spar Over Trump In A Close And Unusual Senate Race
Utah Candidates Spar Over Trump In A Close And Unusual Senate Race https://digitalarkansasnews.com/utah-candidates-spar-over-trump-in-a-close-and-unusual-senate-race/
Texts that Sen. Mike Lee reportedly sent favorably discussing Trump’s legal challenges to the 2020 election will be Lee’s “legacy,” independent Evan McMullin said Monday — part of a comment for which Lee demanded an apology. | Rick Bowmer/AP Photo
In Utah’s only Senate debate this cycle, two candidates who have at times sought to distinguish themselves from former President Donald Trump clashed on Monday over the extent of their independence, as well as the idea of partisanship itself. The relatively close race could lead to the highly unusual outcome of an independent member in the U.S. Senate who does not give either party an advantage.
“I’m not going to Washington, if we prevail, to be a bootlicker for Donald Trump or Joe Biden,” Evan McMullin, the independent, said at Utah Valley University in Orem. “And that’s a commitment I’ve made to putting Utah first.”
The campaign, which POLITICO labeled in August as “the strangest Senate race in America,” could have pivotal consequences for which party has control of the Senate, particularly if McMullin wins. An independent who ran for president in 2016, McMullin has pledged that he would not caucus with either party, meaning he wouldn’t be counted as a reliable vote for Democrats or Republicans.
“Parties are an important proxy. They’re an important proxy for ideas,” incumbent Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said, making the case against his opponent. Lee added: “You’re asking the people to put faith, blind trust in you. … That’s not how we lead to a good policy outcome.”
The race also marks the first major threat to Lee’s reelection, since he won his previous two general-election campaigns by double-digit margins. In a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted earlier this month, Lee led McMullin by 4 percentage points among registered Utah voters, nearly within the poll’s margin of sampling error.
Throughout the hourlong debate, moderated by former KSL NewsRadio host Doug Wright, the candidates juggled the influence of Trump, who has endorsed Lee.
Texts that Lee reportedly sent favorably discussing Trump’s legal challenges to the 2020 election will be Lee’s “legacy,” McMullin said — part of a comment for which Lee demanded an apology.
And of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, McMullin said to Lee: “When the barbarians were at the gate, you were happy to let them in.”
“That was an information-free, truth-free statement,” Lee said of his opponent’s characterizations of his behavior in the 2020 election. Lee voted to certify the results of the presidential contest.
For his part, Lee implied that Democrats were McMullin’s “adopted” party. He also brought up his own votes that were not in line with his fellow Senate Republicans.
Suggesting that Lee was “a bootlicker for either party is folly,” the senator said.
McMullin has run a viable campaign after he and his supporters successfully persuaded state Democrats to not nominate anyone from their own party and support him instead. A former Republican, he has said he is open to weakening the filibuster, and that he probably would have supported recent bipartisan bills on infrastructure and gun safety.
Lee voted for McMullin as a protest vote against Trump in the 2016 presidential election, a fact which was brought up positively by McMullin in Monday’s debate.
The current U.S. Senate includes two independents, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who both caucus with Democrats.
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Stock Futures Rise After Nasdaq Notches Best Day Since July
Stock Futures Rise After Nasdaq Notches Best Day Since July https://digitalarkansasnews.com/stock-futures-rise-after-nasdaq-notches-best-day-since-july/
Stock futures rose Monday evening after the Nasdaq Composite posted its best daily performance since July.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 174 points or 0.58%. S&P 500 futures jumped 0.69% and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.75%.
The moves came after a winning day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial Average popped about 550 points, coming off a volatile past week of trading. The S&P 500 also rose 2.65% for the day. The Nasdaq surged 3.43% as tech stocks rebounded, led by names such as Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft. It was the best day for the tech-heavy index since July 27.
Solid earnings reports sent stocks higher. Bank of America rose 6.06% after delivering better than expected results, and Bank of New York Mellon gained 5.08% after its own earnings beat.
In addition, another pivot from the U.K. bolstered markets. Jeremy Hunt, the new U.K. finance minister, announced Monday that he would reverse nearly all announced tax cuts and walk back an energy subsidy.
Investors are watching for any sign that the stock market has bottomed and the new rally may be the start of a new bull cycle. Analysts aren’t so sure that the bottom is in, however, and many see more pain ahead.
“I think this is going to be one of those bear market rallies that has people scratching their heads,” said Guy Adami, director of advisor advocacy at Private Advisor Group in Morristown, New Jersey, on CNBC’s “Fast Money,” adding that markets are nowhere near out of the woods when it comes to the bear market.
More big bank earnings are on deck. Tuesday morning, Goldman Sachs will report its quarterly results. Johnson & Johnson, Netflix and United Airlines will also announce results that day. Later in the week, Tesla, IBM and American Airlines report.
CNBC Pro: Top Goldman Sachs strategist picks the global small-cap stocks he says look cheap
Smaller companies have had a difficult year. In fact, according to Peter Oppenheimer, Goldman Sachs’ chief global equity strategist, they’ve had the worst year-to-date since the turn of the century.
However, he argued that the segment is starting to look “inexpensive,” and named several global stocks with stable growth and good profitability.
Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Zavier Ong
CNBC Pro: Strategist predicts when the S&P 500 could bottom — and names 3 stocks he likes right now
Rob Luna, chief investment strategist at Surevest, says his firm has “started to witness individual stocks outperforming and showing signs of already bottoming.”
He predicts when the S&P 500‘s long-term move downward could turn, and names the stocks he thinks look attractive right now.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Weizhen Tan
Monday’s rally saw all sectors close more than 10% from 52-week highs
During Monday’s rally, all three major indices climbed and the Nasdaq posted its best day since July. It also closed more than 34% from its 52-week high, while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 23% and 18% from their 52-week highs, respectively.
All sectors also closed more than 10% from their 52-week highs, led by communication services that was up more than 40% from the key level. Tech, consumer discretionary and real estate were all more than 32% from 52-week highs, while financials and materials were more than 22% from 52-week highs.
—Carmen Reinicke
Tuesday earnings on deck
Third quarter earnings season continues Tuesday, with a slew of companies reporting results before and after the bell. Here’s what companies are on deck for tomorrow.
Before the bell:
Goldman Sachs
Hasbro
Albertsons
Johnson & Johnson
After the bell:
Netflix
United Airlines
—Carmen Reinicke
Stock futures rise after Monday rally
Stock futures were higher Monday evening after stocks staged a rally in the regular trading session.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 161 points or 0.53%. S&P 500 futures jumped 0.58% and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.59%.
—Carmen Reinicke
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Issue 1 Could Change How The Arkansas Legislature Works
Issue 1 Could Change How The Arkansas Legislature Works https://digitalarkansasnews.com/issue-1-could-change-how-the-arkansas-legislature-works/
We are about 3 weeks away from the midterm election, and now we’re taking a look at Issue 1 and what it would mean for Arkansans if it were to pass.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Midterm elections are getting closer, and the first issue you’ll see on your ballot this year is about who has the authority to call the state legislatures to a special session.
Though it may seem like a dry mechanical function of state government, it gets at fundamental questions of power, checks, and balances— and how we think about the neighbors that we send to the Capitol in Little Rock to make our laws.
In Arkansas, state senators and representatives meet every other year in the General Assembly. A lawmaking session typically lasts for two to three months but can be extended by a vote of the members.
Special sessions are called on an as-needed basis.
Most recently, lawmakers gathered in a special session to accelerate tax cuts when the state developed a $1.6-billion surplus.
Arkansas is one of 14 states where only the governor can call the legislature to a special session. In fact, voters in Kentucky will also decide on a similar question this November.
If Issue 1 is passed, state senators and representatives could vote to convene themselves.
The proposal would require a two-thirds majority of the legislators in each chamber to vote to choose to meet or if the leaders in both chambers— the House speaker and the Senate president pro tempore – issue a joint proclamation calling for the session.
Not surprisingly, the idea has been popular with members of the current legislature. The bill that put it on the ballot passed easily in 2021 with a 30-2 vote from the Senate, and an 82-9 vote in the House.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson is against the bill and told us in a written statement that he will vote “no” on Issue 1.
“The General Assembly is not designed to be a full-time legislature under our Constitution,” the term-limited Republican said. “There would be insufficient checks on the legislative body when it has the ability to stay in session for any reason that the members support.”
As for the three people that have been vying to replace the governor, Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed her hesitancy about giving the legislature the power.
Though she has not indicated how she would actually vote on it.
Democrat Chris Jones and Libertarian Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. are against Issue 1 and they both expressed that they believe the legislature does not need more power.
A vote of “yes” for Issue 1 on the ballot would give the state legislature the power to convene for a special session through a supermajority vote, or by a proclamation from the heads of the House and Senate.
A vote of “no” would keep that power vested with only the governor.
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Nakia Creek Fire At 1565 Acres; Evacuation Zones Shrink
Nakia Creek Fire At 1,565 Acres; Evacuation Zones Shrink https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nakia-creek-fire-at-1565-acres-evacuation-zones-shrink/
The fire is 5 percent contained
Published: October 17, 2022, 1:10pm
Updated: October 17, 2022, 7:28pm
7 Photos
Clark County Sheriff public information officer Chris Skidmore talks to media Monday, Sept. 17, 2022, during a briefing at Grove Field in Camas. The Nakia Creek Fire ballooned to more than 1400 acres after dry and windy conditions on Sunday. (Taylor Balkom/The Columbian) Photo Gallery
Evacuation zones shrank Monday as firefighters worked to bring the Nakia Creek Fire back under control after it grew tenfold over the weekend to 1,565 acres.
As of Saturday morning, the fire was smoldering after burning 156 acres and getting progressively more contained by crews, according to Washington Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Sharon Steriti.
That changed on Sunday, when hot, dry and windy weather gave new life to a fire.
“It was looking really good, and as you may also know, we had a red flag warning on Sunday,” Steriti said. “And the fire unfortunately got across the line during the evening (Saturday), and on Sunday morning, it was discovered that it was burning over the line. And then the east winds and weather came in, and kind of changed the story.”
Steriti was optimistic Monday afternoon that calmer, cooler weather would allow firefighters to get more of a handle on the fire. The high temperature for Camas is forecast to reach 77 degrees Tuesday, the National Weather Service shows.
“We’re not going to be getting those winds that we got over the weekend, so the conditions and weather are looking pretty good to make some really good advances in getting this fire under control,” she said Monday.
No structures have been destroyed and no one has been injured from the fire, she said. The fire was 5 percent contained Monday, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
Evacuation zones grew rapidly Sunday to include nearly 29,000 residences in the areas of Camas and Washougal under a Level 1 “Get Ready” warning. Estimates that night placed the fire at 2,000 acres until crews could get a better look at conditions Monday morning, according to Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency.
Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Skidmore said officials erred on the side of caution when setting evacuation zones. Sheriff’s office Search and Rescue crews knocked on about 600 doors Sunday to notify the residents they were under a Level 3 “Go Now” warning, Skidmore said.
But with more favorable weather Monday, authorities hoped to allow some to return home. About 2,500 people were still in warning zones, with 553 of under a Level 3 warning, according to CRESA.
Some roads also reopened Monday, including Northeast 53rd Street to Northeast 292nd Avenue and Northeast Blair Road at Washougal River Road to state Highway 500. Closures remained, as of Monday evening, in the areas of Lessard, Ireland, Livingston Mountain, Boulder Creek and Winters. The L1000 and L1400 roads are also still closed.
Rumors of rampant looting in evacuated areas are not true, Skidmore said, and deputies have been patrolling neighborhoods and road closure areas.
Steriti noted this summer has been one of the driest on record and said it’s not normal to have a wildfire like this so late in the year.
Sunday’s extreme weather conditions also sparked new fires, including the Black Hole Fire near Chelatchie Prairie. Officials issued a Level 1 warning for the northeast corner of Clark County and the northwest corner of Skamania County.
There’s no indication any new fires nearby sparked from the Nakia Creek Fire, Steriti said.
Those in need of help can reach the Emergency Operations Center for Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency at 360-992-9229. People can also sign up for phone and email alerts publicalerts.org/signup.
School closures
The Washougal School District will operate school with regular bell times Tuesday, the district announced Monday afternoon. The district closed schools Monday due to the fire.
As of the updated evacuation map shared Monday morning, no schools within district boundaries remained within evacuation zones.
Two of the Washougal district’s schools, Cape Horn-Skye Elementary School and Canyon Creek Middle School, had been previously located in the Level 3 evacuation area and were closed by the fire chief Sunday. Gause Elementary School was open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to provide on-site meals, support and recreational activities.
Schools in the Camas School District will again be open Tuesday. The district has modified several of its bus routes in accordance to fire evacuation zones, according to a district spokesperson.
Bus No. 6 will be canceled. Bus No. 3, No. 7 , No. 15, No. 66 and No. 68 will all be running with limited service due to road closures. The district said it will continue to monitor evacuation zones and make further adjustments accordingly.
Evergreen Public Schools sent out a message to families Sunday evening to let them know they were monitoring the situation via the Clark Regional Emergency Service Agency’s website. Monday’s evacuation map showed, just a handful of areas in the Evergreen district remain within the Level 1 boundary: Union High School, Frontier Middle School and Pioneer Elementary School.
Mount Pleasant schools were closed Monday. There was no word, as of Monday afternoon, if they would reopen Tuesday.
Poor air quality
Air quality ranged between moderate and unhealthy Monday in parts of Clark County as a result of the wildfire smoke.
The Vancouver area is expected to be in the moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups air quality range for the next few days, while areas closer to the fire, such as Battle Ground and Yacolt, are predicted to be in the unhealthy to hazardous level, according to Uri Papish, executive director of the Southwest Clean Air Agency.
13 Photos
Nakia Creek Fire, Oct. 17 Photo Gallery
The agency is extending its air quality advisory through Thursday when a stronger wind flow is expected to push the smoke east, according to Papish.
Papish recommends that people who may be more sensitive limit their time spent outdoors, limit strenuous activity and limit indoor air pollution by not burning candles or incense and keeping doors and windows closed.
If you are outside in areas with unhealthy for sensitive groups to hazardous air quality, Papish strongly recommends wearing a snug-fitting KN95 mask. Less-secure medical masks will not do much to help avoid inhaling particulate matter, according to Papish.
People at an increased risk for problems from decreased air quality include children, those over 65, people with heart and lung disease, people with respiratory infections, pregnant people and people who smoke, among others, according to a press release sent out by Clark County Public Health. The release did note that “even healthy people can have symptoms or health problems” when the air is smoky.
Some symptoms include: sore throat, headaches, burning eyes, coughing, shortness of breath and chest pain. If you are experiencing more severe symptoms, like shortness of breath or chest pain, the release urges individuals to seek medical attention.
“Check the air monitoring network,” Papish said. “Stay indoors and take measures to protect (your health).”
For up-to-date information on air quality in your area visit www.swcleanair.gov, airnow.gov or wasmoke.blogspot.com.
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From Protester To Fighter: Fleeing Iran's Brutal Crackdown To Take Up Arms Over The Border | CNN
From Protester To Fighter: Fleeing Iran's Brutal Crackdown To Take Up Arms Over The Border | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/from-protester-to-fighter-fleeing-irans-brutal-crackdown-to-take-up-arms-over-the-border-cnn/
have taken up arms and are patrolling the heavily militarized Iraq-Iran border. CNN’s Nima Elbagir reports.” data-details=”” data-duration=”04:45″ data-editable=”settings” data-fave-thumbnails=”{“big”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/221017144920-03-iraqi-kurdistan.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”},”small”:{“uri”:”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/221017144920-03-iraqi-kurdistan.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill”}}” data-featured-video=”true” data-headline=”Iranian Kurdish women flee brutal crackdown, take up weapons” data-live=”” data-medium-env=”prod” data-show-ads=”false” data-show-name=”Situation Room” data-show-url=”https://www.cnn.com/shows/situation-room” data-source=”CNN” data-uri=”archive.cms.cnn.com/_components/video-resource/instances/h_ee3b16d7e984b911ef7cf1b37c347162-h_7049a6bd489be5a4ed11bc257c36f0b5@published” data-video-id=”world/2022/10/17/iraq-kurdistan-iran-dissidents-intl-elbagir-tsr-pkg-vpx.cnn” data-vr-video=””
Iranian Kurdish women flee brutal crackdown, take up weapons
04:45 – Source: CNN
Iraqi Kurdistan CNN —
A teenage dissident trailed behind a group of smugglers in the borderlands of western Iran. For three days, Rezan trekked a rocky mountain range and walked through minefields along a winding path forged by seasoned smugglers to circumnavigate the country’s heavily armed Revolutionary Guards. It was a trip too dangerous for respite of much more than a few stolen moments at a time.
“I knew that if an officer spotted us, we would die immediately,” said the 19-year-old Iranian-Kurdish activist, whom CNN is identifying by her pseudonym Rezan for security purposes. She was traveling to the border with Iraq, one of Iran’s most militarized frontiers, where according to rights groups, many have been shot to death by Iranian security forces for crossing illegally, or for smuggling illicit goods.
She had fled her hometown of Sanandaj in western Iran where security forces were wreaking death and destruction on the protest sites. Demonstrators were arbitrarily detained, some were shot dead in front of her, she said. Many were beaten up on the streets. In the second week of the protests, security forces pulled Rezan by her uncovered hair, she said. As she was being dragged down the street, screaming in agony, she saw her friends forcefully detained and children getting beaten.
Alex Platt/CNN
“They pulled my hair. They beat me. They dragged me,” she said, recounting the brutal crackdown in the Kurdish-majority city. “At the same time, I could see the same thing happening to many other people, including children.”
Sanandaj has seen the some of the largest protests in Iran, the biggest outside of Tehran, since the uprising began in mid-September.
Rezan said she had no choice but to take the long and perilous journey with smugglers to Iraq. Leaving Iran through the nearest official border crossing – a mere three-hour car ride away — could have led to her arrest. Staying in Sanandaj could have resulted in her death at the hands of the security forces.
“(Here) I can get my rights to live as a woman. I want to fight for the rights of women. I want to fight for human rights,” she told CNN from northern Iraq. After she arrived here earlier this month, she decided to change tack. No longer a peaceful protester, Rezan decided to take up arms, enlisting with an Iranian-Kurdish militant group that has positions in the arid valleys of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Rezan is one of multiple Iranian dissidents who fled the country in the last month, escaping the regime’s violent bid to quash demonstrations that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa “Zhina” Amini during her detention by Iranian morality police for allegedly wearing a hijab improperly.
The number of dissidents who have left Iran since the protests started is unknown. In the Kurdish-administered region of northern Iraq (KRG) — which borders the predominantly Kurdish west of Iran — many of the exiled activists keep a low profile, hiding in safe houses. They said they fear reprisals against their families back home, where mass detentions have become commonplace in Kurdish-majority areas.
According to eyewitnesses and social media videos, the people in those regions have endured some of the most heavy-handed tactics used by Iran’s security forces in their brutal campaign to crush the protest movement.
In Kurdish-majority regions, evidence of security forces indiscriminately shooting at crowds of protesters is widespread. The Iranian government also appears to have deployed members of its elite fighting force, the Revolutionary Guards, to these areas to face off with demonstrators, according to eyewitnesses and video from the protest sites.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards typically fight the regime’s battles further afield, namely in Iraq and Syria, propping up brutal dictatorships as well as fighting extremist groups such as ISIS.
For the Kurds, the intensified crackdown in the country’s west underscores decades of well-documented ethnic marginalization by Iran’s central government. These are grievances that Iran’s other ethnic minorities share and that precede clerical rule in Iran.
The nearly 10-million strong Kurdish population is the third largest ethnic group in Iran. Governments in Tehran — including the regime of the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was overthrown in 1979 — have eyed the group with suspicion because of their long-standing aspirations to secede from the state and establish a republic alongside Kurdish communities in neighboring countries.
Crouched under the shade of a tree in a dusty valley alongside her sisters-in-arms in northern Iraq, Rezan clasps her AK-47 rifle, her faltering voice betraying a lingering fear of Iranian reprisals. After she fled Iran, the authorities there called her family and threatened to arrest her siblings, she said.
But her family supports her militancy, she said, with her mother vowing to bury every one of her children rather than hand them over to the authorities. “I carry a weapon because we want to show the Iranian Kurds that they have someone standing behind them,” Rezan said from one of the bases of her militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK). “I want to protect the Kurds there because the Kurds are protecting themselves with rocks.”
Protesters across Iran are largely unarmed. Yet Iran blames Kurdish-Iranian armed groups in Iraqi Kurdistan for instigating unrest in Kurdish-majority areas. It has repeatedly struck Iranian-Kurdish targets in Iraq with drones and missiles since the protests began, killing scores of people.
Last Saturday, Iran’s Armed Forces chief accused the Iraqi Kurdistan region – which has a semi-autonomous government – of harboring 3,000 Iranian-Kurdish militants, and vowed to continue to attack their bases unless the government disarms the fighters.
“Iran’s operations against terrorists will continue. No matter how long it takes, we will continue this operation and a bigger one,” said Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces.
PAK and other Iraq-based Kurdish-Iranian armed groups say they have not supported the protests in any concrete way. But they have called on the United States to intervene on behalf of the demonstrators, and have said they are prepared to help Kurds in Iran take up arms in case of a further escalation in Iran’s crisis.
“What’s happening on the streets with the protesters was not engineered at my base,” PAK’s leader, Gen. Hussein Yazdanpanah, told CNN. He was speaking from one of the group’s barracks that was blown up by Iranian missiles and drones on September 28, killing eight militants.
“(Iran) is using us as a scapegoat for the protests in Iran and to distract media attention from Iran,” said Yazdanpanah, who believes that he was the target of that attack.
“I won’t hide the fact that I am a military support for my people,” he said, standing amid the destruction at his base near the town of Altun Kupri. The stench of two militants slain in the attack, but whose bodies have not yet been recovered, rises up from the rubble.
“For a revolution to succeed there has to be military support for the people,” he added. “(Iran) wanted people to question this principle. (By bombing the base) they wanted to say to them that there is no military support to protect you.”
Across the country, protesters with a variety of grievances — namely related to the dire state of Iran’s economy and the marginalization of ethnic groups — have coalesced around an anti-regime movement that was ignited by Amini’s death. Women have been at the forefront of the protests, arguing that Amini’s demise at the hands of the notorious morality police highlights women’s plight under Islamic Republic laws that restrict their dress and behavior.
Kurds in Iran also saw their grievances reflected in Amini’s death. The young woman’s Kurdish name — Zhina — was banned by a clerical establishment that bars ethnic minority names, ostensibly to prevent sowing ethnic divisions in the country. Amini also was crying for help in her Kurdish mother tongue when morality police officers violently forced her into a van, according to activists.
The first large protests in Iran’s current uprising erupted in Amini’s Kurdish-majority hometown of Saqqez in western Iran, which has also been subjected to a violent crackdown. “When we were in Iran, I joined the protests with friends. Two days later, two of my friends got kidnapped and one of them got injured,” said one man who fled Saqqez to Iraqi Kurdistan, who CNN is not naming for security reasons.
Seated on carpet under a tree to avoid any identification of their safe house, the man and his family said the...
Psychiatrist Called As First Witness In Trial For Gender-Affirming Care Law
Psychiatrist Called As First Witness In Trial For Gender-Affirming Care Law https://digitalarkansasnews.com/psychiatrist-called-as-first-witness-in-trial-for-gender-affirming-care-law/
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/FOX24) — The country is watching the trial over Arkansas’ “Safe Act.” It’s the first state law in the U.S. that bans gender-affirming care for minors and the first to be taken to a trial.
It’s happening in U.S. District Judge James Moody’s court. Four Arkansas families, along with the ACLU are taking the state to court over this law.
The ACLU called Dr. Dan Karasic as its first expert witness on Monday. He’s a psychiatrist with 29 years of working with people who are transgender.
When asked about the impacts of treatment and hormone therapy, Dr. Karasic said he’s seen “dramatic relief” of gender dysphoria, and even depression in some cases.
Attorneys representing the state brought up an article written in part by the doctor. It’s about gender reassignment surgeries for people under 18. The doctor said he does not recommend surgeries for that age group, but said there are “exceptional circumstance.”
Both sides of this trial said they are working to protect kids, but differ on how that should be done.
“This is a big deal,” said State Representative Robin Lundstrum, District 87. “We need to slow down and look at the science.”
“All transgender Arkansans deserve the right to receive the health care that they need,” said Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU.
The Brandt family, Dennis family, Jennen family and Saxton family are challenging the law saying that it is unconstitutional.
State Rep. Lundstrum was the lead sponsor for then-House Bill 1570 in the 2021 legislative session. It passed with overwhelming support in the Arkansas House and Senate, but Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed it.
Governor Hutchinson called the bill “well-intended” but felt the law would create new standards of “interference between parents and doctors.” His veto was overridden in both chambers as well.
“It basically says under 18, we’re protecting children from chemically and surgically castrating themselves,” said Lundstrum. “Children deserve the right to grow up and be safe.”
The ACLU has three arguments. The first is that singling out gender-affirming care violates the equal protection rights of transgender youth.
“The second, is that the law intrudes on the fundamental right of parents to make medical decisions for their children,” said Leslie Cooper, Deputy Project Director for the ACLU LGBTQ and HIV Project. “These are decisions that their children and their children’s doctors all agree is appropriate.”
The third is that it violates free speech rights of doctors to provide information to patients and their families.
State Rep. Lundstrum worries about what is happening behind the scenes for kids who are transgender.
“When a child has gender dysphoria, what they really need is good quality counseling,” she said. “Maybe they’ve been bullied, maybe there’s been sexual abuse.”
She said gender-affirming counseling is not counseling and that it’s pushing kids towards a particular agenda.
The Jennen family is from Fayetteville. Mom Lacey Jennen said they are fighting for the rights of their daughter, who would lose the health care they said has been life-changing for her.
“This is not a journey we began without careful thought,” she said. “We have had many long, serious discussions with Sabrina with our mental health providers and with our medical doctors about treatment options, risk and benefit. We prayed about the decisions we all had to make as a family and we know without a doubt that moving forward with gender-affirming hormone therapy was the right decision.”
The National Library of Medicine estimates that 82% of transgender people have considered suicide and 40% have attempted suicide, with those rates highest among transgender youth.
“More parents are pleading with you not to take away their child’s health care that they depend on to live,” she said. “That is cruel.”
This case is part of a national movement.
Since Arkansas passed its law, Alabama passed a law making it a felony to prescribe gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormones to transgender minors. In May, a U.S. District judge issued a preliminary injunction that stops the state from enforcing the medication ban, but leaves in place a ban on gender-affirming surgery, while this law is challenged in court.
In February, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order to the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents who allow their transgender children to have gender-affirming care. In June, a judge issued a temporary stop on that order.
In August, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary block on Arkansas’ law, as well.
The UCLA Williams Institute researches sexual orientation and gender identity in law and public policy. It estimates there are about 1,800 transgender youths between the ages of 13 and 17 in Arkansas.
State Rep. Lundstrum said they should wait until they’re 18 to make such a big decision.
“All we’re saying is let’s let them grow up because the long-term consequences are pretty severe,” she said.
“Transgender people will continue to be loved by their families will continue to be cared for by their doctors, and will continue to tell the stories of the ways in which this health care has always and continues to drastically improve the quality of their lives,” said Strangio.
Both sides said that no matter the outcome of the Arkansas trial, it’s expected to be appealed to the 8th Circuit, and could make it all the way to the Supreme Court.
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AP News Summary At 8:44 P.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-844-p-m-edt-2/
Suicide drones strike fear in Ukraine’s capital, killing 4
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Waves of explosives-laden suicide drones have struck Ukraine’s capital, setting buildings ablaze and tearing a hole in one of them. The attack sent people scurrying for shelter and came a week after Russia unleashed its most widespread strikes against the country in months. Authorities said four people died. One drone struck a residential building. Energy facilities were also hit by the drones, which appeared to include Iranian-made Shaheds. Separately, Moscow authorities said a Russian Su-34 warplane crashed in a residential area in the Russian port of Yeysk on the Sea of Azov, after an engine failure during takeoff, killing four people on the ground, injuring 25 and setting an apartment building ablaze. Officials said both crewmembers bailed out safely.
UK leader in peril after Treasury chief axes ‘Trussonomics’
LONDON (AP) — New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping “almost all” the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. The move raises questions about how long the beleaguered prime minister can stay in office, though Truss insisted she has no plans to quit. She vowed to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, but many in the party want her gone.
North Carolina No. 1 in preseason AP Top 25 men’s basketball
North Carolina is No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll. The national runner-up from last season returns four of five starters and received 47 of 62 first-place votes. Gonzaga is No. 2, followed by Houston and Kentucky. Kansas and Baylor, the last two national champions, are tied for fifth. Duke, led by new coach Jon Scheyer, is seventh with UCLA, Creighton and Arkansas rounding out the top 10. The Big 12 and SEC lead the way with five teams apiece in the Top 25.
Student loan forgiveness application website goes live
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has officially kicked off the application process for his student debt cancellation program. He announced Monday that 8 million borrowers had already applied for loan relief during the federal government’s soft launch period over the weekend. Biden is encouraging the tens of millions eligible for potential relief to visit studentaid.gov and touting the application form, which he says will take less than five minutes to complete. He says an early, “beta launch” version of the online form released late Friday handled the early stream of applications “without a glitch or any difficulty.”
At Georgia debate, Abrams and Kemp clash on abortion, crime
ATLANTA (AP) — Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams are painting different visions for the future of Georgia. Kemp is promoting his stewardship of the economy and saying Abrams is weak on crime. Abrams rebuts that she has a much more equitable vision for the state’s economy and an approach to crime that balances safety and justice. Kemp and Abrams debated Monday night. Kemp is making perhaps his clearest commitment yet that he won’t pursue any new restrictions on abortion or birth control. Abrams says Kemp is weakening women’s rights and access to reproductive care.
House panel: Trump’s bills to Secret Service ‘exorbitant’
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s private company arranged for the Secret Service to pay for rooms at his properties in excess of government-approved rates at least 40 times during his presidency — including two charges for more than $1,100 per room, per night. That is according to documents released Monday by a congressional committee investigating the former president. The House Oversight Committee said the Secret Service was charged more than $800 per night at least 11 times by his properties. The Trump Organization denied anything improper. It said it provided rooms to the Secret Service at cost or deep discount, adding that its business did not profit at all from the presidency.
US businesses propose hiding trade data used to trace abuse
A group of major U.S. businesses wants the government to hide key import data — a move trade experts say would make it more difficult for Americans to link the products they buy to labor abuse overseas. The proposal obtained by The Associated Press was made by an advisory panel comprised of executives from 20 companies, including Walmart, General Motors and Intel. If adopted, it would shroud in secrecy customs data on ocean-going freight responsible for about half of the $2.7 trillion in goods entering the U.S. every year. Human rights activists say it flies in the face of government commitments to be more transparent on trade.
Haiti calls for help at the UN as world mulls assistance
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Mexico say they are preparing a U.N. resolution that would authorize “an international assistance mission” to help improve security in crisis-wracked Haiti so desperately needed humanitarian aid can be delivered to millions in need. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the announcement at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council as thousands across Haiti organized protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. The U.S. ambassador said the proposed “non-U.N.” mission would be limited in time and scope and be led by “a partner country” that was not named “with the deep, necessary experience required for such an effort to be effective.”
Teary Kevin Spacey testifies of sex abuse claims: ‘Not true’
NEW YORK (AP) — A teary Kevin Spacey has testified in a New York courtroom that he never made a sexual pass at the actor Anthony Rapp. Rapp says Spacey put him on his bed after a 1986 party and laid on top of him when he was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey said Monday on the stand that those allegations are “not true.” Spacey said he met Rapp and aspiring actor John Barrowman backstage after a performance. Spacey testified that “Anthony Rapp seemed like a kid and John Barrowman seemed like a man.” Spacey’s account is backed up by a deposition by Barrowman.
How Michael Flynn goes local to spread Christian nationalism
VENICE, Fla. (AP) — Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is influential in the far-right Christian nationalist movement that has growing stature in the Republican Party. Flynn is making Sarasota County, Florida, a laboratory of sorts for his political agenda. Flynn’s slogan is “Local action equals national impact.” Flynn has energized local conservative activists through social media and public appearances. Flynn questions American democratic institutions, repeats lies about the 2020 election, attacks the news media and embraces conspiracy theories about COVID-19. One of the groups Flynn has welcomed into the fold is the violent extremist group the Proud Boys.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Man Who Wanted To Blow Up Democratic HQ Must Have Psych Exam
Man Who Wanted To Blow Up Democratic HQ Must Have Psych Exam https://digitalarkansasnews.com/man-who-wanted-to-blow-up-democratic-hq-must-have-psych-exam/
Oct. 17, 2022Updated: Oct. 17, 2022 7:57 p.m.
FILE – This undated image provided by the Napa County, Calif., Sheriff’s Office, shows Ian Benjamin Rogers. A judge has ordered a psychiatric examination for Rogers, who pleaded guilty to plotting to firebomb the state Democratic Party’s headquarters and other buildings in Northern California. (Napa County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California man who pleaded guilty to plotting to firebomb the state Democratic Party’s headquarters and other buildings in Northern California must undergo a psychiatric examination, a judge said.
The court wants more information about the mental state of Ian Benjamin Rogers before he is sentenced, Senior U.S. District Judge Charles E. Breyer wrote in an order filed in San Francisco on Friday.
Prosecutors said Rogers and another man conspired to attack targets they associated with Democrats after former President Donald Trump’s defeat in the November 2020 presidential election, including the California governor’s mansion and buildings for social media companies Facebook and Twitter.
Breyer on Friday ordered sentencing documents turned over to a psychiatrist to “assess the defendant’s mental condition, recommend an appropriate course of treatment, if any, and assess the defendant’s dangerousness,” according to the order cited Monday by the Sacramento Bee.
A report is due within 60 days. Rogers’ Oct. 27 sentencing date was postponed.
Rogers, of Napa, pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to destroy the building in Sacramento by fire or explosives, possessing an explosive device and possessing a machine gun as part of an agreement that could bring him seven to nine years in federal prison.
But three weeks ago, Breyer rejected the proposed plea agreement, saying he was concerned that Rogers hadn’t shown any remorse for his actions and had told probation officials for a pre-sentencing report that he only felt bad for putting himself in a situation ”that allowed the government to destroy my life.”
The judge said: “I have to say in … 23 years I’ve never seen that type of statement. I’ve never seen a defendant come in and simply say I regret I was caught.”
A co-defendant, Jarrod Copeland, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and destruction of records. He also was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 27.
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Alan Dershowitz Recalls Having To Explain To Trump That American Jewish Voters Care About Issues Beyond Just Israel
Alan Dershowitz Recalls Having To Explain To Trump That American Jewish Voters Care About Issues Beyond Just Israel https://digitalarkansasnews.com/alan-dershowitz-recalls-having-to-explain-to-trump-that-american-jewish-voters-care-about-issues-beyond-just-israel/
By Michael LucianoOct 17th, 2022, 8:56 pm
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said former President Donald Trump used to ask him “virtually every time he saw me” why Jewish voters found him largely unappealing despite implementing very pro-Israel policies.
On Sunday, Trump fired off a post on his social media platform Truth Social, declaring, “No President has done more for Israel than I have.”
He praised evangelical Christians for being “far more appreciative” of his policies than Jews have been. “U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – Before it is too late!” he concluded.
The post unsurprisingly generated outrage, given that a former and perhaps future U.S. president had told Jewish people to “get their act together” by supporting him.
Appearing on Monday’s Chris Salcedo Show on Newsmax, the eponymous host asked Dershowitz for his reaction.
“Democrats are going after President Trump for his recent call for all American Jews to show more appreciation for Israel,” said Chris Salcedo, misstating Trump’s words, which actually called on U.S. Jews to show more appreciation for him rather than Israel. “Is this a sign that Democrats are desperate to push narrative over news and trying to say that somehow President Trump is anti-Semitic?”
Dershowitz praised Trump for his policies toward Israel before recalling how the former president frequently asked him why he’s not more popular among American Jews.
“What he said in that tweet [sic] he told me a dozen times, Dershowitz said. “Virtually every time he saw me, he would say to me, ‘Alan, how come the Jews don’t show their admiration for me by voting for me?’ And I would have to explain, ‘Look, Jews don’t vote only on Israel. They vote on abortion. They vote on gay rights. They vote on the climate. They don’t run a range of issues that they prefer Democrats over Republicans.’ So don’t take it personally.”
Watch above via Newsmax.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
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Four People Found Fatally Shot Inside Prince William County Va. Home
Four People Found Fatally Shot Inside Prince William County, Va., Home https://digitalarkansasnews.com/four-people-found-fatally-shot-inside-prince-william-county-va-home/
Four people were found fatally shot inside a home in Prince William County, Va., on Monday afternoon, county police said.
Officers responded to the 5200 block of Mansfield Court in the Woodbridge area at 4:32 p.m. for a shooting, police said. They found the scene “unsecured” and conducted a welfare check, police said.
Officers found four adults in different areas of the home with gunshot wounds. Each of the four victims was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Police said the incident appears to be isolated and there is no ongoing threat.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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4 Killed As Military Jet Crashes Into Apartments In Western Russia State Media Reports | CNN
4 Killed As Military Jet Crashes Into Apartments In Western Russia, State Media Reports | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/4-killed-as-military-jet-crashes-into-apartments-in-western-russia-state-media-reports-cnn/
CNN —
At least four people were killed and 25 others injured after a Russian SU-34 fighter jet crashed into a residential building in the western city of Yeysk during a training flight Monday, according to Russian state media and authorities.
The incident was due to one of the engines catching fire, reported RIA Novosti, which cited Russia’s defense ministry.
“According to the report of the ejected pilots, the cause of the plane crash was the ignition of one of the engines during take-off. At the site of the crash of the Su-34 in the courtyard of one of the residential quarters, the plane’s fuel ignited,” the ministry said in a statement to RIA.
The conditions of the ejected pilots are not clear.
Yeysk is a port town on the shore of the Sea of Azov and is separated from occupied Russian territory in southern Ukraine by a narrow stretch of the sea.
Images and videos of the crash’s aftermath showed smoke billowing and fire blazing in the residential area. A building, believed to house hundreds of people, was later engulfed in flames, say officials.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told authorities to provide all necessary assistance to the victims of the crash, the Kremlin said in a statement, adding that Putin has received reports from the ministers and the head of the region on the situation.
Officials have opened an investigation into the incident, according to the prosecutor’s office of the Krasnodar Krai region and the military prosecutor’s office of the Southern Military District.
The fire, which raged through more than a dozen apartments in the multistory building, was later contained, said local officials.
“The remains of the aircraft have been extinguished. The evacuation of residents of nearby houses has been cancelled. The fire has been contained,” the head of the Krasnodar Krai region, Veniamin Kondratyev, said on his Telegram channel, citing a statement from the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
About 100 people have been evacuated from the building, local government security services told TASS.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations told RIA the area of the fire caused by the crash was 2,000 square meters wide.
According to the head of the affected district in Yeysk, Roman Bublik, the residents of a nine-story building that caught fire will be provided with all the necessary support.
Earlier on Monday, an eyewitness told Russian state media TASS of the chaos that ensued after the crash: “Plane crashed in our city … Ambulances and firefighters are coming from all over the city, helicopters are in the air,” said the eyewitness.”
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Men's Golf Opens Up Play In Little Rock University Of North Texas Athletics
Men's Golf Opens Up Play In Little Rock – University Of North Texas Athletics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mens-golf-opens-up-play-in-little-rock-university-of-north-texas-athletics/
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – UNT junior Cody Winkler fired a 2-under 70 to follow a 1-under 71 on Monday and is tied for sixth on the individual leaderboard at the Little Rock Invitational after leading the Mean Green to a 6-over showing through two rounds in eighth place.
Fellow junior Vicente Marzilio also shot a second-round 70 and is tied for 23rd at 1-over par, while graduate student Lenny Bergsson shot a 72-75 and is 3-over in a tie for 30th entering Tuesday’s final round at Chenal Country Club.
The Mean Green are only four shots out of fourth place in a tightly packed group of teams, including No. 30 Little Rock, the tournament host, two shots clear of North Texas in sixth.
The Mean Green will be paired with UTEP and Boston College for the final round, which will begin with a shotgun start Tuesday at 8 a.m.
Fans can follow the event live on Golfstat and check for updates throughout the season on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as MeanGreenSports.com.
Team Leaderboard
T1. Troy (-7)
T1. VCU (-7)
3. Southern Mississippi (-4)
4. ULM (+2)
5. Michigan (+3)
6. No. 30 Little Rock (+4)
7. UTEP (+5)
8. North Texas (+6)
9. Boston College (+8)
10. Oral Roberts (+13)
11. UTA (+14)
12. Lamar (+18)
T13. FAU (+21)
T13. Central Arkansas (+21)
15. Abilene Christian (+28)
16. Kansas City (+29)
Player Leaderboard
T6. Cody Winkler (-1)
T23. Vicente Marzilio (+3)
T30. Lenny Bergsson (E)
T52. Tucker Allen (+5)
T73. Nikhil Gopal (+3)
T86. Logan Zurn (+12)*
*competing as an individual
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Crawford County Inmate Dies In Custody Family Searching For Answers
Crawford County Inmate Dies In Custody, Family Searching For Answers https://digitalarkansasnews.com/crawford-county-inmate-dies-in-custody-family-searching-for-answers/
Jacob Allen Jones, 26, died Saturday while in the custody of Crawford County Detention Center.
VAN BUREN, Ark. — On Friday afternoon, Jacob Allen Jones, a 26-year-old from Van Buren, was arrested by Van Buren Police. Jones and his uncle were both arrested with outstanding warrants and brought to the Crawford County jail shortly after 4 p.m. Friday.
Less than 24 hours later, Jones was dead.
On Sunday, 5NEWS contacted Crawford County Sheriff Jim Damante who said Jones was taken to a local hospital with “a slight pulse” and later died. Damante believes Jones died of natural causes but an investigation is underway.
Jones’ mother, Catherine Jones, says her son was having a medical emergency and does not understand why he did not receive any attention.
“I have no idea, I just know he asked for help,” said Catherine Jones. “My brother [Jacob’s uncle] asked for help, several other inmates asked for help and nobody would help him for over five hours.”
Fort Smith attorney David Powell is representing the family and says they are all frustrated with the delay in care.
“Once [the deputies] were notified, action should have been taken and it wasn’t,” said Powell.
On Monday, Powell said he believes the delayed response by jail staff resulting in the death of Jones was out of negligence to provide basic care of an inmate.
“It’s a shame that you’ve got other inmates who don’t even know this young man, who are more concerned that they’re making phone calls to people outside the facility trying to get help because the guards and staff on the inside are not doing their job,” said Powell.
Jones’ mother and family say they are in shock over his death and processing what happened.
“They were supposed to protect him, he was supposed to be safe and they let him die,” said Catherine Jones.
Sheriff Damante said Arkansas State Police have been asked to assist in the investigation and an investigation is currently underway to determine what led to Jones not receiving medical attention for hours before his death.
Jones’ family hopes the results of the investigation create change.
“I would like to see that they’re a little bit more careful during their hiring,” said Catherine Jones. “They train these deputies a bit better and that the ones that were there that wouldn’t help him are punished, but I want them to pay attention to them in the back.”
Sheriff Damante confirmed that no deputies have been placed on leave following the death of Jones.
Jones’ body was sent to the state crime lab for an autopsy.
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More U.S. Companies Charging Employees For Job Training If They Quit
More U.S. Companies Charging Employees For Job Training If They Quit https://digitalarkansasnews.com/more-u-s-companies-charging-employees-for-job-training-if-they-quit/
WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – When a Washington state beauty salon charged Simran Bal $1,900 for training after she quit, she was shocked.
Not only was Bal a licensed esthetician with no need for instruction, she argued that the trainings were specific to the shop and low quality.
Bal’s story mirrors that of dozens of people and advocates in healthcare, trucking, retail and other industries who complained recently to U.S. regulators that some companies charge employees who quit large sums of money for training.
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Nearly 10% of American workers surveyed in 2020 were covered by a training repayment agreement, said the Cornell Survey Research Institute.
The practice, which critics call Training Repayment Agreement Provisions, or TRAPs, is drawing scrutiny from U.S. regulators and lawmakers.
On Capitol Hill, Senator Sherrod Brown is studying legislative options with an eye toward introducing a bill next year to rein in the practice, a Senate Democratic aide said.
At the state level, attorneys general like Minnesota’s Keith Ellison are assessing how prevalent the practice is and could update guidance.
Ellison told Reuters he would be inclined to oppose reimbursement demands for job-specific instruction while it “could be different” if an employer wanted reimbursement for training for a certification like a commercial driving license that is widely recognized as valuable.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has begun reviewing the practice, while the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have received complaints about it.
The use of training agreements is growing even though unemployment is low, which presumably gives workers more power, said Jonathan Harris who teaches at the Loyola Law School Los Angeles.
“Employers are looking for ways to keep their workers from quitting without raising wages or improving working conditions,” said Harris.
The CFPB, which announced in June it was looking into the agreements, has begun to focus on how they may prevent even skilled employees with years of schooling, like nurses, from finding new, better jobs, according to a CFPB official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
“We have heard from workers and worker organizations that the products may be restricting worker mobility,” the official said.
TRAPs have been around in a small way since the late 1980s primarily in high-wage positions where workers received valuable training. But in recent years the agreements have become more widespread, said Loyola’s Harris.
Licensed esthetician Simran Bal, who was taken to court by her former employer to repay $1900 in trainings they required her to attend, poses for a portrait outside the King County District Court in Shoreline, Washington, U.S., October 13, 2022. Bal, whose case was dismissed, says she was already licensed for services the trainings covered. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson
One critic of the CFPB effort was the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB, which said the issue was outside the agency’s authority because it was unrelated to consumer financial products and services.
“(Some state governments) have authority to regulate employer-driven debt. CFPB should defer to those governments, which are closer to the people of the states than the CFPB,” it added.
NURSING AND TRUCKING
Bal said she was happy when she was hired by the Oh Sweet salon near Seattle in August 2021.
But she soon found that before she could provide services for clients, and earn more, she was required to attend trainings on such things as sugaring to remove unwanted hair and lash and brow maintenance.
But, she said, the salon owner was slow to schedule the trainings, which would sometimes be postponed or cancelled. They were also not informative; Bal described them as “introductory level.” While waiting to complete the training, Bal worked at the front desk, which paid less.
When she quit in October 2021, Bal received a bill for $1,900 for the instruction she did receive. “She was charging me for training for services that I was already licensed in,” said Bal.
Karina Villalta, who runs Oh Sweet LLC, filed a lawsuit in small claims court to recover the money. Court records provided by Bal show the case was dismissed in September by a judge who ruled that Bal did not complete the promised training and owed nothing. Villalta declined requests for comment.
In comments to the CFPB, National Nurses United said they did a survey that found that the agreements are “increasingly ubiquitous in the health care sector,” with new nurses often affected.
The survey found that 589 of the 1,698 nurses surveyed were required to take training programs and 326 of them were required to pay employers if they left before a certain time.
Many nurses said they were not told about the training repayment requirement before beginning work, and that classroom instruction often repeated what they learned in school.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in comments that training repayment demands were “particularly egregious” in commercial trucking. They said firms like CRST and C.R. England train people for a commercial drivers license but charge more than $6,000 if they leave the company before a certain time. Neither company responded to a request for comment.
The American Trucking Associations argues that the license is portable from one employer to another and required by the government. It urged the CFPB to not characterize it as employer-driven debt.
Steve Viscelli, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania who spent six months training and then driving truck, said the issue deserved scrutiny.
“Anytime we have training contracts for low-skilled workers, we should be asking why,” he said. “If you have a good job, you don’t need a training contract. People are going to want to stay.”
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Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chris Sanders and Lisa Shumaker
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Diane Bartz
Thomson Reuters
Focused on U.S. antitrust as well as corporate regulation and legislation, with experience involving covering war in Bosnia, elections in Mexico and Nicaragua, as well as stories from Brazil, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Nigeria and Peru.
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Cali’s Clutch Hit Lifts Cardinal Squad To Win https://digitalarkansasnews.com/calis-clutch-hit-lifts-cardinal-squad-to-win/
BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON
When playing for the College of Central Florida last spring in the Junior College Baseball World Series, All-American Caleb Cali was not sure of his next destination.
Cali (6-3, 240), a corner infielder who started his college career at Florida State, caught Arkansas on television playing in the College World Series in Omaha and a few months later ended up in Fayetteville.
“It has been awesome,” Cali said. “This place is unbelievable. My first year here, I have been really welcomed. I think our team is really close and just in general about the city and my roommates and everything like that, it’s been a really good welcome. It’s been awesome.”
Cali endeared himself to his new teammates Monday with a two-out, RBI single that lifted the Cardinal team to a 6-5 win over the White Monday in the first game of the Razorbacks Fall World Series.
It capped a three-run bottom of seventh and final inning for the Cardinal, who fell behind 5-3 when freshman Mason Neville launched a grand slam in the top of the seventh.
“Obviously we were kind of hoping to close it out in the top of the seventh, but they put a few good at bats up there and we did our best to fight back with two outs in the end,” Cali said. “So it was good.”
McLaughlin, who came to Arkansas from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College, hit a solo homer in the second inning to give his team a 1-0 edge.
It stayed that way until the lefty-swinging McLaughlin’s two-run blast in the bottom of the sixth to put the Cardinal up 3-0.
Jayson Jones sacrifice fly cut that deficit to 3-1 before Neville’s grand slam surged the White ahead 5-3.
Cali hit .438 with 17 home runs with 77 RBIs, 22 doubles and 6 triples at the College of Central Florida after spending the 2021 campaign at Hillsborough College (Fla.) Community College.
Having two years of eligibility left, Cali has mostly played third this fall and has been lauded by Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn for his at bats in fall workouts.
“It’s been going really well,” Cali said. “I have been seeing the ball really well and I am just trying to to take it one day at a time. Just trying to have quality at bats for my team. That is kind of what I am focused on.”
The teams had scored just four runs entering the seventh inning where the two teams then combined for seven runs.
“Our pitching staff has been throwing really, really well and obviously, as you could see today, they shut us down – both teams mostly until the seventh inning there for the most part.
“That’s even with most of our older guys shut down at this point so that was a lot of the younger guys. I think that kind of shows how much depth we have and obviously guys like (Jackson) Wiggins, Hunter Hollan and Hagen Smith are really throwing it really well.”
Cali’s journey to Arkansas was a somewhat surprising one.
“It was crazy,” Cali said. “I was at junior college l last year and I spent the entire last season uncommitted. I didn’t get reached out to by Arkansas until I was at the World Series in Colorado.
“Coach Cullen Smith had seen me play on a live stream and then Coach Van Horn called me the next day and that kind of got the ball rolling.”
He chose Arkansas over several other options
“I was just trying to really feel out where I wanted to go,” Cali said. “ I took a few visits here and there and all that kind of stuff, but once I got here, it is hard to turn this place down.”
He admits to seeing the success Arkansas has had with tranfers.
“Once I was trying to figure out my stuff, we finished playing ball and the College World Series was on that following week so obviously was watching those games and learning the back stories of those guys, guys like Michael Turner transferring in and making an impact. Obviously that always helps as much as possible.”
Cali is one of 10 new junior college transfers has on this year’s Arkansas roster.
“A lot of us honestly are from juco ball and I think it makes it honestly easier for us to connect in the locker room because we have all had the same journey. It is like a first thing that when we walk in the door we already have a connection with most of the guys here.”
Arkansas will continue the best two of three Fall World Series with a Tuesday game at 1 p.m. with a Thursday game scheduled if needed.
Photo by John D. James
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House Panel: Trump's Bills To Secret Service 'exorbitant'
House Panel: Trump's Bills To Secret Service 'exorbitant' https://digitalarkansasnews.com/house-panel-trumps-bills-to-secret-service-exorbitant/
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s private company arranged for the Secret Service to pay for rooms at his properties in excess of government-approved rates at least 40 times during his presidency, including two charges for more than $1,100 per night, according to documents released Monday by a congressional committee.
The Secret Service was charged room rates of more than $800 per night at least 11 times when agents stayed at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., and other properties, the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee said. It noted that Trump made over 500 trips to his properties while president.
The “exorbitant” rates point to a possible “taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses,” wrote N.Y. Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a letter Monday to the Secret Service requesting more information.
The Trump Organization denied that the Secret Service charges were a problem and said it provided rooms and other services at cost, at big discounts or for free.
“The Trump Family is likely the first family in American history to have not profited off of the United States government,” said Eric Trump in a statement. He added, “President Trump funded the vast majority of his campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money and turned away billions of dollars in real estate deals worldwide.”
In total, the Trump Organization charged the agency responsible for protecting the president and his family at least $1.4 million, according to Secret Service records released by the committee. The committee said the total bill was likely higher because the panel only got records through September 2021 and payments for trips abroad were not included.
The former president has been repeatedly criticized by Democrats and government watchdogs for what they say were brazen attempts make money from taxpayer funds during his presidency.
In addition to money from the Secret Service when he and his family visited his clubs and hotels, Trump played host to foreign officials at his properties, also requiring lodging for accompanying agents. The president tried to arrange for his Trump National Doral Golf Club in Florida to be chosen as the venue for a Group of Seven meeting of global leaders, only to pull back after an outcry of about self dealing.
Among the documents released Monday was a bill tied to 2017 trip by Trump’s oldest son, Don Jr., to the Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House. That resulted in a Secret Service room charge of $1,185 per night, more than five times the government-approved per diem rate, the committee said, though the agency is allowed to make exceptions.
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Midterms 2022 Updates: Debate Night With Kemp-Abrams Clash In Georgia And Ryan-Vance Round 2 In Ohio
Midterms 2022 Updates: Debate Night With Kemp-Abrams Clash In Georgia And Ryan-Vance Round 2 In Ohio https://digitalarkansasnews.com/midterms-2022-updates-debate-night-with-kemp-abrams-clash-in-georgia-and-ryan-vance-round-2-in-ohio/
Live
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams are set to spar in their first televised debate of the midterm election cycle on Monday.
The high-stakes showdown comes the same day early voting in Georgia commenced. It is the first of two scheduled debates in the heated electoral showdown, with the second slated for Oct. 30. The event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. EDT.
And Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Republican J.D. Vance are set to face off in their second, and possibly last, scheduled debate before the midterm elections as the two candidates seek to make headway in the tightly contested Senate race that could determine which party takes control of Congress in November.
The debate is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. EDT and will be hosted by WFMJ at the Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, Ohio.
The 2022 midterm elections will be held Nov. 8 and will feature several races in the House and Senate that are set to determine which party will have control over Congress for the next two years.
Democrats hold a tight majority over Republicans in the House, 221-212, and have a 50-50 tie in the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote. All 435 seats in the House are up for grabs this year, as are 35 of the 100 Senate seats.
READ THE LATEST MIDTERMS NEWS FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The House is likely to lean Republican, according to analysts, but the future of the Senate has shifted in recent months to become a toss-up — prompting both parties to push ahead to November to seize control of the upper chamber.
MIDTERMS 2022: TRACKING THE ISSUES THAT MATTER TO VOTERS AHEAD OF ELECTION DAY
Lower down the ballot, 36 out of 50 states are set to elect governors, 10 states will choose their attorneys general, and 12 states will pick their secretaries of state — all crucial offices that have control over state laws and how states administer elections.
Follow our rolling Midterms 2022 live blog for the latest news and updates.
6:54 PM Oct 17, 2022
Kemp and Abrams debate moments away
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and Democratic hopeful Stacey Abrams are set to face off in the first of two high-stakes debates Monday evening.
Although traditionally ruby red, Republicans’ grip on the Peach State appears to gave eroded over recent years and Democrats hope to transform it into a purple state. The gubernatorial showdown between Kemp and Abrams is a critical test of that ambition.
Abrams ran a razor-thin race with Kemp for governor in 2018, but the incumbent Kemp has consistently held a considerable lead over in her polling.
The debate is slated to commence at 7 p.m. EDT. A second debate is slated to take place Oct. 30.
6:52 PM Oct 17, 2022
Tim Ryan and JD Vance prepare to face off in second debate
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Republican challenger J.D. Vance are preparing to face off in their second and final debate on Monday night as the two vie to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH).
The race in Ohio, a swing state that has since become reliably red in recent years, has been closer than expected, with Ryan faring better than initially predicted. However, the Democrat faces an uphill climb to overcome the GOP support in the state.
The debate is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. EST. The two are expected to once again spar on issues such as abortion, the economy, and ties to high-profile figures in both of their parties such as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
6:00 PM Oct 17, 2022
Herschel Walker’s ice cream response
Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker gave a chilly response when asked to share any areas where he supports President Joe Biden.
“Let me let me ask you this question because if you are elected to the U.S. Senate, you are going to have to work with President Biden and Democrats in order to get anything done. So let me ask you Can you name one thing that President Biden has done that you support,” NBC’s Kristen Welker asked him in a new interview.
NBC’s Kristen Welker: “Can you name one thing that President Biden has done that you support?”
[Long pause]
Herschel Walker: “He eats a lot of ice cream.” pic.twitter.com/YcGt45wC5I
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) October 17, 2022
“One thing that he’s done that I support? He eats a lot ice cream,” Walker replied.
When repeatedly pressed on whether there is anything policy-wise he supports, Walker did not have anything nice to say about what Biden has actually done.
“I agree with one thing, but he didn’t do it,” Walker said. “When he said he’ll be a unifier. We saw that he wasn’t there he called the opposite side names. So that’s what I’m saying. It’s hard for me to think about he’s done.”
5:17 PM Oct 17, 2022
Singer John Legend endorses 10 candidates for county attorney positions
Singer John Legend endorsed 10 candidates for several county attorney and prosecutor positions Monday.
Legend wrote that people preparing to cast their ballots for the midterm elections should not forget how important it is to vote in “down-ballot races,” such as county, district, and state attorney or prosecutor.
“Abortion, slavery & other important issues may be [on] your ballot,” Legend wrote in a Twitter thread, linking a USA Today article. “Voters in 5 states — AL, LA, OR, TN & VT — can #EndtheException and remove language from their state constitutions that allow enslavement or servitude as punishment for crimes.”
Click here to read the full story.
2:50 PM Oct 17, 2022
Trump comes out against Colorado Senate candidate Joe O’Dea
Former President Donald Trump issued his latest attack against a midterm candidate on Monday, this time against someone from his own party.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump came out against Colorado Senate candidate Joe O’Dea for being a “RINO,” or “Republican in Name Only.” The attack references the fact O’Dea has run a centrist campaign, which Republicans view as one their best chance to win in blue-trending Colorado.
TRUMP understands the pull he has with GOP voters, and although typical, predictable Trump, this is not what you say publicly when your goal is winning the Senate majority. = https://t.co/bWnBT5AvV8
— David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) October 17, 2022
“There’s this RINO character in the Great State of Colorado, Joe O’Dea, that is running against the incumbent Democrat for the United States Senate, who is having a good old time saying that he wants to ‘distance himself’ from President Trump, and other slightly nasty things,” Trump said in a statement. “He should look at the Economy, Inflation, Energy Independence, defeating ISIS, the Strongest EVER Border, Great Trade Deals, & much more, before he speaks. MAGA doesn’t Vote for stupid people with big mouths. Good luck Joe!”
2:20 PM Oct 17, 2022
Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams to square off in first debate as early voting begins
The candidates in Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election, Republican Brian Kemp (left) and Democrat Stacey Abrams (right), are pictured.
(AP Photos)
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and Democratic hopeful Stacey Abrams are set to go toe-to-toe in their first of two televised debates of the midterm election cycle.
The hotly anticipated verbal match-up comes the same day early voting in Georgia begins. Kemp, the incumbent governor, holds a considerable lead in polling over Abrams, which has elevated the stakes for Abrams in her quest to flip the governor’s office going into the debate.
Click here to read the full story.
1:50 PM Oct 17, 2022
Pence to campaign for GOP representative who voted to impeach Trump in 2021
Former Vice President Mike Pence is throwing his support behind Rep. David Valadao, a Republican from California who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Valadao was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year. As of Aug. 14, seven of the 10 will not return to office in 2023. Valadao, who represents the 21st Congressional District, is running against Democratic challenger Rudy Salas for control over the newly drawn 22nd Congressional District.
Click here to read the full story.
1:20 PM Oct 17, 2022
Nearly half of voters will vote Republican as economy and inflation top concerns: Poll
Nearly half of voters say they’re likely to vote for Republicans to represent them in Congress, giving the party a slight but firm advantage as the party seeks to gain control of both the Senate and the House in November.
About 49% of likely voters say they plan to vote for a Republican compared to just 45% who said the same about Democrats, according to a new New York Times-Siena College poll. The latest numbers show a significant improvement for the GOP, who trailed Democrats by 1 percentage point in a similar poll conducted in September.
The increase in Republican support is partly due to economic concerns and rising inflation topping voter concerns, with 44% of voters saying those were the most important issues facing the country, according to the poll. Of those who are most concerned with the economy, a majority of voters favor Republicans (64%) over Democrats (30%) to handle the issue.
12:50 PM Oct 17, 2022
Voters barely pass elections test
WASHINGTON SECRETS — Elections and picking a candidate or issue seem like easy things to do. But a majority nearly failed a new quiz on election basics, raising concerns that they can fall for disinformation, an alarming situation just a month before Election Day.
The group Reboot told Secrets that it quizzed a select group of voters, asking questions such as, “A citizen’s right to vote is guaranteed by the Constitution?” and “Do political ads have to be truthful?”
Just 14% were graded a “B” or higher. ...
News Wrap: Russia Uses Drones To Attack Ukrainian Cities
News Wrap: Russia Uses Drones To Attack Ukrainian Cities https://digitalarkansasnews.com/news-wrap-russia-uses-drones-to-attack-ukrainian-cities/
In our news wrap Monday, Russia unleashed a barrage of drones laden with explosives on Ukraines capital city, Britain’s new government has reversed nearly all of an economic package announced just weeks ago and documents show that former President Trump’s hotels charged the Secret Service up to $1,200 dollars a night during his time in office.
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Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson Joins 18 Governors Opposing Biden Administration Union Contract Rule https://digitalarkansasnews.com/arkansas-gov-asa-hutchinson-joins-18-governors-opposing-biden-administration-union-contract-rule/
by: Alex Kienlen
Posted: Oct 17, 2022 / 05:38 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 17, 2022 / 05:40 PM CDT
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A proposed federal rule to require collective bargaining in federal construction projects is facing opposition from many state leaders including Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Hutchinson joined 18 governors on Monday in signing a letter opposing a Biden administration executive order requiring Project Labor Agreements on federal construction projects over $35 million.
The proposed rule would require a labor agreement with the prime contractor to also apply to subcontractors.
A PLA would block competition, the governors claimed. The Biden administration executive order was signed in August and has a comment period that ends Tuesday.
Hutchinson said his opposition did not mean he opposed unions, but rather federal involvement could slow projects.
“Labor unions have played an important role in our nation’s history, but the government’s role in business is to provide an avenue for success and not a roadblock.” Hutchinson said. “I’m honored to have the support of 18 fellow governors from all corners of our nation as we seek to oppose this rule and support fairness for our states.”
The order would not become a rule until all comments, including the letter signed by governors, are reviewed.
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With Liz Trusss Agenda Gutted Brits Ask If Prime Minister Is Still In Charge
With Liz Truss’s Agenda Gutted, Brits Ask If Prime Minister Is Still In Charge https://digitalarkansasnews.com/with-liz-trusss-agenda-gutted-brits-ask-if-prime-minister-is-still-in-charge/
LONDON — Britain’s brand new finance minister scrapped the remaining elements of Prime Minister Liz Truss’s signature taxation policy on Monday, a move that seemed to successfully reassure markets but left many wondering who is now in charge of the government.
Truss stayed on the sidelines while Jeremy Hunt — a political rival who was tapped on Friday for the top cabinet post — announced that the government would not slash taxes, but instead allow them to rise.
Truss left it to House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, another rival, to defend the government’s U-turns in Parliament, where both opposition lawmakers and some mutinous politicians from the ruling Conservative Party are calling on the prime minister to quit after just six weeks in office. It was another disastrous day for Truss.
The first the public heard from her was in a late night BBC broadcast. She said she wanted to “say sorry for the mistakes that have been made” but added that she was “sticking around,” and would “lead the Conservatives into the next general election.”
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer pushed the refrain that Truss was “in office but not in power.”
“Where is the prime minister?” Starmer asked rhetorically. “Hiding away, dodging questions, scared of her own shadow.”
Some commentators are speaking about when she goes, not if. One British tabloid is live-streaming a head of iceberg lettuce placed next to a picture of Truss and asking which will last longer.
An editorial in the Sunday Times declared: “Truss has wrecked the Conservative Party’s reputation for fiscal competence and humiliated Britain on the international stage.”
“Senior Tories must now act in the national interest and remove her from Downing Street as quickly as possible,” the editorial continued, while also calling Hunt the “de factor prime minister.”
Hunt is a moderate Conservative who is considered to be a safe pair of hands, though he has twice lost contests to lead his party. He assured the country that Truss was “in charge.”
“It is the most challenging form of leadership to accept the decision you have made has to be changed,” he told Parliament. “And the prime minister has done that, and she has done so willing because she understands the importance of economic stability, and I respect her for it.”
Truss was installed at Downing Street as the choice of 160,000 dues-paying members of the Conservative Party — about 0.3 percent of the population. The growth-through-tax-cuts plan that helped propel her candidacy, and prompted admiring comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, has now been thoroughly gutted.
Tax cuts for the wealthy didn’t go down well with a public that is facing record inflation and soaring bills. But the government’s about-face had far more to do with bond traders, who were spooked by the level of borrowing the plan would require.
Hunt came in after two of the most controversial parts of the plan had already been scrapped. And still he pumped the brakes hard, stressing that the debt and spending would be new watchwords.
“We will reverse almost all the tax measures announced in the growth plan three weeks ago,” Hunt said. “There will be more difficult decisions, I’m afraid, on both tax and spending as we deliver our commitment to get debt falling as a share of the economy over the medium term.”
Hunt also announced that the government’s popular plan to help with energy bills for households — a “landmark policy supporting millions of people through a difficult winter” — will not continue for two years but last only until April. The government will then move to a “new approach” that will “cost the taxpayer significantly less.”
The markets have been receptive to the government’s backtracking. The falling British pound has stabilized. The country’s leading stock index, the FTSE 100, was up. And the cost of government borrowing was coming down — though still higher than it was before Truss took over.
But British politics remains in turmoil.
Although there is no general election in sight, two polls published Monday showed the Labour Party more than 30 points ahead of the Conservatives.
“Who voted for this?” signs have been popping up at protests and in opposition lawmakers’ social media feeds.
There is hand-wringing among the Conservatives, too.
“Her position politically is utterly untenable,” said Jonathan Tonge, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool. “In any sensible democracy she would have gone by now.”
“She campaigned on a platform of tax cuts, a dash for growth and supply-side reform — every element of that was dismantled by Jeremy Hunt,” he said. If Truss survives, “it’s only because Conservative Party grandees can’t agree on a replacement.”
The Conservatives are known for ruthlessly jettisoning their leaders. Boris Johnson won them a landslide victory in the 2019 general election, but after scandals — and a Conservative tailspin in the polls — he was forced to resign. Truss’s personal poll ratings are worse than Johnson’s ever were, and her party’s poll ratings have nosedived.
People would look “pretty askance” if the party staged another leadership contest so soon, Damian Green, a prominent Conservative, acknowledged on BBC Radio 4. But asked if he wanted Truss to be leading the party when the next general election happens, Green offered only backhanded support. “If she leads us into the next election, that will mean that the next two years have been a lot more successful than the past four weeks have been.”
Getting Conservatives to rally around someone to replace Truss may indeed be a challenge.
Although Hunt has taken on a powerful role, he’s hardly a rising star within the party. He was soundly beaten by Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest and was eliminated in the first round of voting this past summer after getting just 18 votes from fellow lawmakers.
A wing of the Conservatives would like to see the top job going to former finance minister Rishi Sunak, the runner-up in the summer’s leadership contest. Many of his economic predictions have turned out to be prescient. But he is disliked by Johnson loyalists, who accuse him of leading the revolt that brought down the last prime minister. And Conservative lawmakers may invite other problems if they overrule the party’s grass roots by promoting Sunak.
Mordaunt, who is more popular with the grass roots, has been discussed as another contender. She wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, however, that this was not the time to change prime ministers. “Our country needs stability,” she said, “not a soap opera.”
Over the weekend, President Biden was asked by a reporter what he thought of Truss’s “trickle-down plan that she had to walk back from.”
Usually, U.S. presidents don’t comment on an ally’s budget, but Biden weighed in, saying: “Well, it’s predictable. I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake.”
He added: “I think that the idea of cutting taxes on the super wealthy at a time when — anyway, I just think — I disagreed with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain to make that judgment, not me.”
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The Gunman Who Killed 2 Connecticut Officers And Wounded Another Fired Over 80 Shots Report Says | CNN
The Gunman Who Killed 2 Connecticut Officers And Wounded Another Fired Over 80 Shots, Report Says | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/the-gunman-who-killed-2-connecticut-officers-and-wounded-another-fired-over-80-shots-report-says-cnn/
Police say officers were killed after fake 911 call lured them to ambush
02:23 – Source: CNN
CNN —
A man who authorities say lured officers to a deadly attack fired over 80 rounds at police before he was killed by a wounded officer, the Connecticut inspector general’s office said.
Bristol police Sgt. Dustin Demonte and Officer Alex Hamzy were responding to a domestic violence call Wednesday night when they were shot and killed, police said. Officer Alec Iurato was wounded.
Authorities believe the gunman, 35-year-old Nicholas Brutcher, was the person who made the domestic violence call to 911, the inspector general’s report said.
Connecticut State Police said his brother, 32-year-old Nathan Brutcher, was also at the scene.
“Officers went to the side door of the house and spoke to Nathan Brutcher,” the report said. “As Nathan Brutcher stepped out, gunfire erupted. Nicholas Brutcher fired well over eighty rounds attacking the officers from behind, fatally shooting both Sergeant Demonte and Officer Hamzy, and wounding Officer Iurato.”
Despite getting shot in the leg, “Officer Iurato was able to make his way around the house and back to a Bristol Police Department cruiser,” the report said. “From that vantage point, he fired one shot striking and killing Nicholas Brutcher.”
Iurato’s use of deadly force appears to be justified, the inspector general’s office said.
Connecticut State Police are investigating the shooting. The agency said the 911 call appeared to be “a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene.”
All three of the officers’ body cameras captured the shooting. But to respect the victims’ privacy, the inspector general released only part of the video from Iurato’s bodycam footage.
“Shots fired. Shots fired. More cars. Send everyone,” the wounded officer says as someone screams in the background. “Officer shot, officer shot.”
A barrage of what sounds like gunfire follows. Iurato takes cover behind a parked vehicle and fires toward a driveway.
At least 54 law enforcement officers have been killed by intentional gunfire in 2022, according to the Officer Down Memorial Fund website.
A day after Demonte and Hamzy were killed in Connecticut, Las Vegas Officer Truong Thai was killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call Thursday, Sheriff Joe Lombardo said.
The Las Vegas Police Protective Association said Thai was a 23-year police veteran.
“Not only was Officer Thai a protector of our community, he was a father, a son, and a brother,” the union said. “These senseless acts of violence are becoming all too common in our society.”
Las Vegas police arrested the suspect shortly after the shooting. Monday, Assistant Sheriff Andrew Walsh said the weapon that killed Thai was an AK-47 pistol.
On Wednesday, three Philadelphia SWAT officers were wounded in a shooting while trying to serve a warrant on a homicide suspect, police said.
After knocking on a door, the SWAT team was “immediately met by gunfire,” said Philadelphia First Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford.
A shootout ensued, and the suspect was killed. The three wounded officers are expected to recover, Commissioner Danielle M. Outlaw said.
Nationwide, the number of police officers intentionally killed in the line of duty reached a 20-year high last year, according to FBI data.
Bristol Police Chief Brian Gould became visibly emotional describing his two officers killed.
“We lost two exceptional Bristol police officers. And a third was seriously injured as a result of senseless violence,” Gould said Thursday.
Demonte, 35, was also a school resource officer at two Bristol schools and an adviser for the Bristol police explorer cadet program, the chief said.
“Throughout his career, he has received several awards, including the silver star, officer of the month, and co-recipient for officer of the year in 2019,” Gould said.
Demonte is survived by his wife, two children “and one on the way,” the chief said.
Hamzy, 34, was also an adviser for the police explorer cadet program.
“Throughout his career, he received numerous letters of commendations and recognition,” Gould said.
Hamzy is survived by his wife, parents and two sisters.
Iurato, 26, underwent surgery for a “severe gunshot wound and is currently recovering,” the police chief said Thursday.
Gould said the Bristol officers epitomized bravery in policing, just like so many officers do every day.
“They answered a call to duty, and they responded without hesitation,” he said. “And that’s what they did every night before that. And that’s what all our officers do and will continue to do.”
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Faulty School Smoke Detector Draws Springdale Fire Department Response
Faulty School Smoke Detector Draws Springdale Fire Department Response https://digitalarkansasnews.com/faulty-school-smoke-detector-draws-springdale-fire-department-response/
by: C.C. McCandless
Posted: Oct 17, 2022 / 05:03 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 17, 2022 / 05:03 PM CDT
SPRINGDALE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Springdale Fire Department responded at about 3:40 p.m. on Monday to a report of smoke in the Linda Childers Knapp Elementary School gymnasium.
According to Mary Jordan, the Springdale Public Schools Public Relations Specialist, a smoke detector near the gym alerted building occupants to the concern. No smoke was present in the school, and the Springdale Fire Department determined that a faulty smoke detector was the cause of the alarm. The building was not damaged.
The normal school day had concluded by the time of the alarm. About 25 after-school program students were in the building at the time, and all students and staff exited the building safely and without injury.
“I appreciate the fire department, our teachers and our students, who put into action what we practice during fire drills,” said Mendi Hayter, Knapp Elementary School principal. “Everyone responded quickly and safely.”
The district maintenance team is repairing the faulty detector, ensuring the school’s smoke detection system is fully operational for school on Tuesday. Knapp Elementary School serves about 506 pre-K through sixth-grade students.
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Arkansas River Commercial Tonnage Up 19.5% In September Up 4.5% Year-To-Date Talk Business & Politics
Arkansas River Commercial Tonnage Up 19.5% In September, Up 4.5% Year-To-Date – Talk Business & Politics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/arkansas-river-commercial-tonnage-up-19-5-in-september-up-4-5-year-to-date-talk-business-politics/
Commercial tonnage shipped on the Arkansas River in the first nine months of 2022 is up 4.5%, with September tonnage up 18.5% and outbound tonnage up 54.3%, according to figures from the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
September tonnage of 995,323 tons was up 19.5% compared with September 2021.
Inbound shipments – those coming from off the river system – totaled 2.638 million tons during the first nine months, down 12% compared with the same period in 2021. Outbound shipments totaled 2.936 million tons, up 16% compared with the same period in 2021. Internal shipments – those sent between port operations on the river – totaled 2.728 million tons, up 12% compared with the same period in 2021.
Marty Shell, president of Van Buren-based Five Rivers Distribution and a member of the Arkansas Waterways Commission, said the third quarter of 2022 was busier than the same quarter in 2021 thanks in part to national and global issues.
“With a threat of a railroad strike, the congestion of trucking, and the Biden administration relief of steel tariffs with some countries we are seeing more volumes of products at both (Fort Smith port) and (Van Buren port),” said Shell, who manages port operations in Fort Smith and Van Buren.
He also said drought conditions have changed river traffic patterns. The Mississippi River is getting close to all-time, historic lows. Closures stopped a reported 2,000 barges and about 100 towboats. The river gauge at Osceola is now at its lowest since the all-time low record was set in 1988, according to CNN. The river’s level near Memphis is the third lowest ever recorded, and is predicted to fall to its second lowest ever as drought conditions are predicted in the coming weeks by the National Weather Service.
“With the drought conditions we have started our grain deliveries to market sooner this year. Our lock and dam system is benefiting this region and multiple states for delivery of products with the low water conditions on the lower Mississippi River as well our locks are able to create pools that allow us to keep navigation and commerce moving North and South down our system,” Shell said.
Following are the top five shipment categories by tonnage for the first nine months of 2022, with the percentage change from the same period in 2021.
• Sand, gravel, rock: 3 million tons (up 9%)
Chemical fertilizer: 1.47 million tons (down 8%)
• Iron & steel: 885,600 tons (up 16%)
• Wheat: 881,200 tons (down 3%)
• Minerals/Building materials: 546,500 tons (up 50%)
Tonnage in 2021 totaled 10.696 million tons, up 4% compared with 2020. Inbound tonnage was up 12%, outbound was down 8% and internal was up 8%. River traffic in recent years has struggled through historic flooding and an economic slowdown induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. River tonnage in 2019 totaled just 8.48 million tons, down 22% from 2018. But tonnage was up 22% in 2020 to 10.322 million tons.
The Arkansas River system is 445 miles long and stretches from the confluence of the Mississippi River to the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa, Okla. The controlled waterway has 18 locks and dams, with 13 in Arkansas and five in Oklahoma. The river also has five commercial ports: Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Fort Smith, Muskogee, Okla., and the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma.
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CDC Changed COVID Reports Under Political Pressure Under Trump Administration Panel Finds
CDC Changed COVID Reports Under Political Pressure Under Trump Administration, Panel Finds https://digitalarkansasnews.com/cdc-changed-covid-reports-under-political-pressure-under-trump-administration-panel-finds/
By Jeannie Baumann, Bloomberg News
Updated: 9 minutes ago Published: 9 minutes ago
In this Aug. 23, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump listens as Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks during a media briefing in the James Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bowed to the Trump administration’s demands to change the editorial process of its weekly scientific journal after warnings from then health secretary Alex Azar to “get in line,” a House investigation found.
The pressure faced by the CDC to change the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report’s procedures was one of several instances of political interference by former President Donald Trump’s aides that the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis identified in a report released Monday. The report was provided to Bloomberg Law ahead of the official release.
The latest subcommittee report details widespread attempts by Trump-era political appointees within the Department of Health and Human Services to interfere with the CDC, including tampering with the science and misuse of the agency’s quarantine authority in a way an agency division director described as “morally wrong.”
The CDC declined to comment on the report.
“This prioritization of politics, contempt for science, and refusal to follow the advice of public health experts harmed the nation’s ability to respond effectively to the coronavirus crisis and put Americans at risk,” Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the subcommittee, said in a statement.
“As we continue to recover from the coronavirus crisis, we must also continue to work to safeguard scientific integrity and restore the American people’s trust in our public health institutions,” he said.
Azar and other political appointees called for MMWR editorial process changes in May 2020 out of concern the findings put Donald Trump’s White House at a political disadvantage, the congressional panel said. The changes granted political appointees at HHS access to summaries of what was coming out in the MMWRs for the first time, which the committee said “ultimately precipitated HHS officials’ attempts to interfere with the MMWRs over the following months.”
Azar told Bloomberg Law on Monday that he “never pressured” Trump’s CDC director, Robert Redfield, “to modify the content of a single MMWR scientific article.”
“I always regarded the MMWR and other peer-reviewed scientific publications as sacrosanct,” Azar said in an email. “Indeed, I worked directly with Dr. Redfield to ensure that processes were in place to protect the integrity of the peer-review process for the MMWR when an internal CDC procedural defect was identified in early May 2020.”
The MMWR has long been considered the “voice of the CDC” and serves as the agency’s essential source for disseminating information quickly to inform public health and evidence-based decisions that drive policy. It was a report in the MMWR that in part prompted Anthony S. Fauci to pivot his career toward HIV research in 1981.
The allegations stem from former CDC Chief of Staff Kyle McGowan and Deputy Chief of Staff Amanda Campbell’s testimony to the House panel, in which they said Azar warned that “if the CDC would not get in line, then HHS would take control of approving the publication of the MMWRs.” McGowan and Campbell, who joined the agency during the Trump administration, left several months after those May 2020 allegations and started their own consulting firm.
Political appointees successfully changed or held up at least five MMWR reports and tried to interfere with at least 19 different reports out of concerns they would harm Trump politically, McGowan and Campbell said in the subcommittee report.
The report marks the culmination of a two-year investigation by the House panel and offers new details of allegations into how the Trump administration handled the COVID-19 response. The CDC historically has prided itself on making science-based, data-driven decisions to protect the public health, but the House panel concluded political interference caused lasting harm on CDC’s morale and credibility in the nation’s public health institutions. Redfield told a Senate panel more than two years ago, “At no time has the scientific integrity of the MMWR been compromised, and I can say that under my watch it will not be compromised.” But Redfield told the House coronavirus committee that the Trump administration “compromised” CDC guidance on COVID-19. He said the process for developing coronavirus policy “got complicated” and gave him “PTSD,” or post-traumatic stress disorder. It also gave the White House budget outfit veto power, he said.
The House investigation also concluded the Trump administration blocked the CDC from holding its weekly press briefings for several months after Nancy Messonnier, who was then the CDC’s longtime immunization director, cautioned in February 2020 that a significant disruption could happen and the nation should prepare.
The former administration also installed political appointees who attempted to downplay the severity of the virus and misused its quarantine authority under Title 42 to close the southern border. CDC’s quarantine and global migration director, Martin Cetron, told the House panel that agency staff didn’t write the Title 42 order, allegedly saying, “It’s just morally wrong to use a public authority that has never, ever, ever been used this way. It’s to keep Hispanics out of the country.”
The Biden administration recently expanded Title 42 and coupled it with a humanitarian parole program under new rules aimed at stemming the flow of migrants from Venezuela.
The House report from the CDC marks the third in a series from the coronavirus subcommittee. A report released in August found similar attempts by the Trump administration to interfere with the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to withdraw authorization of a COVID-19 treatment because it didn’t work. The first report released in June examined a controversial herd immunity approach to managing COVID-19 that would have sidestepped mitigation measures.
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