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Their Election Denier Is Your Election Denier – Nevada Current https://digitalarkansasnews.com/their-election-denier-is-your-election-denier-nevada-current/ Election 2022 Conspiracy theorists subverting elections in Nevada and other states could doom the whole republic Some states are comparatively isolated from the most damaging influence of democracy haters. California, Washington, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado — they are likely to avoid the misfortune of election deniers in high office in the near future, or they operate with voting laws meant to expand, rather than restrict, voter access. But while such states act as a bulwark for precious democratic traditions, they exist as part of a federal system in which a cancer in some states can infect every state and be fatal to the whole republic. Election-denying candidates for high office are not only on the ballot in many states but are expected to win, thereby conferring state authority on conspiracy theorists and fascists who care nothing about election security and everything about power. Their poisonous presence won’t be confined by state borders. That’s why constituents in Constitution-respecting states are mistaken if they feel relieved about November ballots that lack the sort of far-right conspiracists up for election in states like Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. Their election deniers are your election deniers. The breadth of election denial among Republican candidates for U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats and top statewide offices is astonishing. The Washington Post counts 291 of them in 48 states — the majority of them are expected to win and many more are strong contenders. In the most alarming cases, they would have direct control over their state’s elections and could exert undemocratic, conspiratorial or outright deceitful influence over future elections, like the 2024 presidential contest, in which the GOP will almost certainly put up an authoritarian candidate, such as insurrection leader Donald Trump or, perhaps worse, cunning human rights abuser Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. Jim Marchant, the Republican candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, who is polling ahead of his Democratic opponent, exemplifies why even non-Nevadans should be scandalized by the strength of his campaign. He embraces the lie the 2020 election was stolen by a global cabal, and during a recent rally with Trump, Marchant told the crowd that “when my coalition of Secretary of State candidates around the country get elected we’re going to fix the whole country and President Trump is going to be president again in 2024.” When Nevada has a secretary of state fixing presidential elections, that concerns Californians, New Yorkers and Coloradans as much as it does Nevadans. Mark Finchem, a Republican state representative in Arizona who could become secretary of state, has said he would not have certified the 2020 election. The election denier also uses antisemitic tropes, was part of the Jan. 6 mob that marched on the U.S. Capitol, and is tied to the Oath Keepers, the militia that helped plan the insurrection. He wants to ban voting machines and count ballots by hand, which election experts say is not only less accurate but also “impossible.” Arizona is like a conspiracy theory clinic. The Republican candidate for governor, Kari Lake, is so delirious with stolen-election fever that she claimed the recent Arizona primary election was rigged against her, even though she won. Lake is one of four election-denying GOP governor candidates in four swing states — the others are state Sen. Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, Tudor Dixon in Michigan and Tim Michels in Wisconsin. From a governor’s seat, these enemies of democracy could substantially restrict voter access or otherwise compromise elections. Each of the four is a competitive candidate. Each poses a threat to all states, not just their own. Even in a state like Colorado, with its national reputation for conducting gold-standard elections, five of the Republican candidates for the 12 congressional and top statewide offices qualify as election deniers. These include the GOP candidate for governor, Heidi Ganahl, who’s not going to win, and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Silt, who, despite her seditionist behavior on Jan. 6 and unabated far-right toxicity, is probably going to win. In Congress, Boebert shames not just Colorado but the nation, just as election deniers in any state shame all states. When Nevada has a secretary of state fixing presidential elections, that concerns Californians, New Yorkers and Coloradans as much as it does Nevadans. Trump’s attempted coup relied in part on the willingness of state-level officials to help subvert legitimate election results. Dozens of Republicans across the country, including in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, plotted to send pro-Trump fake-elector slates to Washington to supplant the true electors. The plot failed, but election denial didn’t die. On the contrary it’s become normalized for a large portion of the Republican Party — about 70% of Republicans believe Trump’s “big lie” that the election was stolen. It’s more potent now, more subversive, more determined. Democracy’s foes had two months to undermine the 2020 election. They will have had four years to prepare for the 2024 election, and they’re scheming out in the open to claim power no matter what dishonesty they must perpetrate. That spells doom for democracy in Colorado and Nevada equally, and Americans everywhere have an interest in resisting it. This column was originally published in Colorado Newsline. Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics. Read More Here

Suspected Chinese Spy Infiltrated US Politics Through Trump: Report https://digitalarkansasnews.com/suspected-chinese-spy-infiltrated-us-politics-through-trump-report/ Former US President Donald Trump (Photo: Bloomberg) Chinese businessman Tao Liu, who has a criminal background in China and is termed a fugitive, has recently met former US president Donald Trump in September which American investigators believed Liu may have infiltrated US politics as part of a Chinese intelligence operation. Tao Liu, who met Trump in July 2018 and in September 2022, had recently rented a luxurious apartment in Trump Tower in New York and boasted of joining the exclusive Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to ProPublica. But Liu, who is suspected to be a spy was also a fugitive from Chinese justice. Media reports, which were published three years before the meeting and the publications were overseas, had described him as the mastermind of a conspiracy that defrauded thousands of investors. He had ties to Chinese and Latin American organized crime. Perhaps most worrisome, the FBI was monitoring him because of suspicions that he was working with Chinese spies on a covert operation to buy access to US political figures. Both the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursued Liu, suspecting he had ties to Chinese spy agencies, reported ProPublica. Earlier, in September, Liu, and Cinque, heads of the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences met the president again during an event at Bedminster, according to one of the photos which were published on the Chinese website of the Long Innovations International Group. In one of the photos, Trump was smiling with Liu, Cinque, and three men who, according to a close associate, were visiting Liu from China for the occasion. Interestingly, Cinque has given at least 22 awards to Trump ventures, including the Bedminster club, and it once billed Trump as its Ambassador Extraordinaire. The photos appeared on the Chinese website of the Long Innovations International Group, also known as the Longchuang International Group. The consulting firm owned by Lou, the GOP fundraiser, has organized events allowing Chinese elites to meet US leaders. The caption used in the photo states: “Longchuang Group and Blue Ocean expert consultant team Trump luncheon, reported ProPublica. According to ProPublica, before their first meeting, Liu built his profile in Manhattan and made it clear to associates that he was eager to meet Trump. For help, he turned to Cinque, the longtime Trump associate, according to interviews, photos, and social media posts. But in several media interviews, in 2016, Trump told that he didn’t know Cinque well and was unaware of his criminal record. Liu dined with Cinque in May 2018 and they hit it off, according to photos and Liu’s associates. And from there they made it to the first meeting in July 2018. Meanwhile, Cinque told that people in the Chinese American community introduced him to Liu, describing him as a wealthy entrepreneur and a “good person,” according to ProPublica. On July 20, CNBC aired an interview with Trump in which he complained about the trade deficit with China. “We have been ripped off by China for a long time,” ProPublica reported Trump as saying. By the next day, Liu’s efforts to gain access to the president had paid off. He met Trump at Bedminster, according to interviews and photos obtained by ProPublica. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Subscribe to Business Standard Premium Exclusive Stories, Curated Newsletters, 26 years of Archives, E-paper, and more! First Published: Sun, October 16 2022. 21:19 IST Read More Here

AP News Summary At 11:46 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1146-a-m-edt/ Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants WASHINGTON (AP) — When Joe Biden was running for the White House, he denounced then-President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Biden said Trump’s approach inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden has turned to an unlikely source for an election-year solution, taking a page from Trump’s own immigration playbook. Biden has invoked a Trump-era rule that Biden’s Justice Department is fighting in court. Biden wants to deny Venezuelans who are fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. China’s Xi calls for military growth as party congress opens BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for faster military development and announced no change in policies that have strained relations with Washington and tightened the ruling Communist Party’s control over society and the economy. China’s most influential figure in decades spoke at the start of a party meeting Sunday that was closely watched by companies, governments and the Chinese public for signs of its future economic and political direction. It comes amid a painful economic slump and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. The congress will install leaders for the next five years. Xi, 69, is expected to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as party leader. Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in occupied Donetsk KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials have blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in a key Ukrainian city controlled by the separatists. The municipal building in Donetsk was seriously damaged by the rocket attack. Separately, Ukrainian officials said Russian rockets struck a city across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, injuring six people. Late Saturday, a Washington-based think tank late accused Moscow of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing. The attacks on both sides came as Russia has lost ground in the nearly seven weeks since Ukraine’s armed forces opened their southern counteroffensive. UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss has only been in office for six weeks. But already her libertarian economic policies have triggered a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention, multiple U-turns and the firing of her Treasury chief. Now Truss faces a mutiny inside the governing Conservative Party that leaves her leadership hanging by a thread. Conservative lawmaker Robert Halfon accused the government Sunday of treating the country like “laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free-market experiments.” Conservatives are mulling whether to try to force out their leader. Truss, meanwhile, has appointed a new Treasury chief, Jeremy Hunt, who plans to rip up much of her economic plan when he makes a budget statement Oct. 31. GOP hopefuls turn to Pence to broaden appeal before election NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, his Vice President Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. That was the day when Pence refused to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost. And that was the day of the Capitol riot. Pence’s decision made him a prime target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But in the final weeks of the 2022 election, Pence has emerged as an in-demand draw for Republican candidates. That includes some candidates who are trying to make moderate appeals after spending much of the primary season courting Trump and parroting his lie that his 2020 race was stolen. Family mourns miner’s death in Turkey, demanding punishment AMASRA, Turkey (AP) — A mother cried at a cemetery beside a freshly-laid mound of earth. She couldn’t process the death of her 33-year-old son Selcuk Ayvaz who was killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey. Friday’s explosion at the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise’s mine in the Black Sea town of Amasra killed 41 miners and injured 11. The energy minister said preliminary assessments indicated the tragedy was caused by a firedamp explosion when methane mixes with air and fire. But Ayvaz’s mother Habibe wasn’t appeased. The 63-year-old said she heard there was a gas leak in the mine and questioned why her son was sent into at all. She said “it’s a massacre outright, a massacre.” Iranian officials say Tehran prison blaze killed 4 inmates CAIRO (AP) — Iranian media say a towering blaze at a notorious prison housing political prisoners and anti-government activists in Iran’s capital killed four inmates. That’s according to the country’s judiciary Sunday. Saturday’s fire at Evin Prison in Tehran was extinguished after several hours and no detainees escaped, other state media said. In online videos, gunshots and explosions were heard in the area of Evin. The fire raged as nationwide protests triggered by the death of a young woman in police custody entered a fifth week. Iranian rights activists have challenged state media claims over the cause of the fire and apparent explosions at the prison. LA’s Black-Latino tensions bared in City Council scandal Cross-cultural coalitions have ruled Los Angeles politics for decades, helping elect both Black and Latino politicians to top leadership roles in the huge racially and ethnically diverse city. But a shocking recording of racist comments by the city’s City Council president has laid bare the tensions over political power that have been quietly simmering between the Latino and Black communities. Concerns among the African American community have been growing in recent years as the Latino share of the population has grown and as Hispanic politicians have started assuming more leadership roles. Latino leaders around the U.S. have denounced the recorded remarks and called for the resignations of those involved. Religious polarization in India seeping into US diaspora Clashes in India between Hindu nationalists and minority religious groups, particularly Muslims, have sparked tensions online and in person in the Indian American diaspora. Many say communal disharmony back home has strained relationships between Hindu and Muslim expatriates. It has also caused polarization within the Hindu American community. Some Hindu Americans believe the political ideology espoused by Hindu nationalists goes against the philosophy of Hinduism, which recognizes the divinity and oneness of all. Others interpret the cry against Hindu nationalism and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party as “anti-Hindu” or “anti-India” sentiment. Some Hindus and Muslims in the diaspora are working to foster interfaith dialogue to prevent an escalation in tensions. Postal worker holdup leads to muscle car theft ring arrests DETROIT (AP) — Cloned key fobs, high-powered Hellcats and thieves daring police and risking arrest are part of a trend in which vehicles are being stolen from factory lots and dealer showrooms only to be later sold on the street for tens of thousands of dollars less than their worth. A federal complaint says the muscle cars, SUVs and pickups worth $50,000 to more than $100,000 are sold on the street for $3,500 to $15,000. One Ohio-based theft ring came crashing down in June, when an investigation into the holdup of a postal worker led authorities to connect four Cleveland-area men to brazen vehicle thefts in the Detroit area. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More Here

Trump Criticises US Jews For Not Appreciating His Support Of Israel – The Jewish Chronicle https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-criticises-us-jews-for-not-appreciating-his-support-of-israel-the-jewish-chronicle/ Trump criticises US Jews for not appreciating his support of Israel  The Jewish Chronicle Read More Here

AP News Summary At 10:42 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1042-a-m-edt-2/ Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants WASHINGTON (AP) — When Joe Biden was running for the White House, he denounced then-President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Biden said Trump’s approach inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden has turned to an unlikely source for an election-year solution, taking a page from Trump’s own immigration playbook. Biden has invoked a Trump-era rule that Biden’s Justice Department is fighting in court. Biden wants to deny Venezuelans who are fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. China’s Xi calls for military growth as party congress opens BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for faster military development and announced no change in policies that have strained relations with Washington and tightened the ruling Communist Party’s control over society and the economy. China’s most influential figure in decades spoke at the start of a party meeting Sunday that was closely watched by companies, governments and the Chinese public for signs of its future economic and political direction. It comes amid a painful economic slump and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. The congress will install leaders for the next five years. Xi, 69, is expected to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as party leader. Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in separatist Donetsk KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials have blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in a key Ukrainian city controlled by the separatists. The municipal building in Donetsk was seriously damaged by the rocket attack. Separately, Ukrainian officials said Russian rockets struck a city across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, injuring six people. Late Saturday, a Washington-based think tank late accused Moscow of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing. The attacks on both sides came as Russia has lost ground in the nearly seven weeks since Ukraine’s armed forces opened their southern counteroffensive. UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks Read More Here

AP News Summary At 10:53 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1053-a-m-edt/ Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants WASHINGTON (AP) — When Joe Biden was running for the White House, he denounced then-President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Biden said Trump’s approach inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden has turned to an unlikely source for an election-year solution, taking a page from Trump’s own immigration playbook. Biden has invoked a Trump-era rule that Biden’s Justice Department is fighting in court. Biden wants to deny Venezuelans who are fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. China’s Xi calls for military growth as party congress opens BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for faster military development and announced no change in policies that have strained relations with Washington and tightened the ruling Communist Party’s control over society and the economy. China’s most influential figure in decades spoke at the start of a party meeting Sunday that was closely watched by companies, governments and the Chinese public for signs of its future economic and political direction. It comes amid a painful economic slump and tension with Washington and Asian neighbors over trade, technology and security. The congress will install leaders for the next five years. Xi, 69, is expected to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as party leader. Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in separatist Donetsk KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Kremlin officials have blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in a key Ukrainian city controlled by the separatists. The municipal building in Donetsk was seriously damaged by the rocket attack. Separately, Ukrainian officials said Russian rockets struck a city across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, injuring six people. Late Saturday, a Washington-based think tank late accused Moscow of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing. The attacks on both sides came as Russia has lost ground in the nearly seven weeks since Ukraine’s armed forces opened their southern counteroffensive. UK leader Liz Truss goes from triumph to trouble in 6 weeks LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss has only been in office for six weeks. But already her libertarian economic policies have triggered a financial crisis, emergency central bank intervention, multiple U-turns and the firing of her Treasury chief. Now Truss faces a mutiny inside the governing Conservative Party that leaves her leadership hanging by a thread. Conservative lawmaker Robert Halfon accused the government Sunday of treating the country like “laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free-market experiments.” Conservatives are mulling whether to try to force out their leader. Truss, meanwhile, has appointed a new Treasury chief, Jeremy Hunt, who plans to rip up much of her economic plan when he makes a budget statement Oct. 31. GOP hopefuls turn to Pence to broaden appeal before election NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, his Vice President Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. That was the day when Pence refused to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost. And that was the day of the Capitol riot. Pence’s decision made him a prime target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But in the final weeks of the 2022 election, Pence has emerged as an in-demand draw for Republican candidates. That includes some candidates who are trying to make moderate appeals after spending much of the primary season courting Trump and parroting his lie that his 2020 race was stolen. Family mourns miner’s death in Turkey, demanding punishment AMASRA, Turkey (AP) — A mother cried at a cemetery beside a freshly-laid mound of earth. She couldn’t process the death of her 33-year-old son Selcuk Ayvaz who was killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey. Friday’s explosion at the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise’s mine in the Black Sea town of Amasra killed 41 miners and injured 11. The energy minister said preliminary assessments indicated the tragedy was caused by a firedamp explosion when methane mixes with air and fire. But Ayvaz’s mother Habibe wasn’t appeased. The 63-year-old said she heard there was a gas leak in the mine and questioned why her son was sent into at all. She said “it’s a massacre outright, a massacre.” Iranian officials say Tehran prison blaze killed 4 inmates CAIRO (AP) — Iranian media say a towering blaze at a notorious prison housing political prisoners and anti-government activists in Iran’s capital killed four inmates. That’s according to the country’s judiciary Sunday. Saturday’s fire at Evin Prison in Tehran was extinguished after several hours and no detainees escaped, other state media said. In online videos, gunshots and explosions were heard in the area of Evin. The fire raged as nationwide protests triggered by the death of a young woman in police custody entered a fifth week. Iranian rights activists have challenged state media claims over the cause of the fire and apparent explosions at the prison. In Wisconsin, voters shrug off GOP candidate’s Jan. 6 tie LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Republicans see a chance to pick up a House seat in southwestern Wisconsin where retired Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden nearly won two years ago against Democratic incumbent Ron Kind. Now, with the long-time congressman retiring, there’s a path for Van Orden, who has a big money edge over Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff. Van Orden has had to weather questions about his presence at the Washington rally held by then-President Donald Trump just before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Van Orden has said he took no part in the subsequent storming of the building. Some voters in the district say they’re more concerned with economic issues than with what happened on Jan. 6. Religious polarization in India seeping into US diaspora Clashes in India between Hindu nationalists and minority religious groups, particularly Muslims, have sparked tensions online and in person in the Indian American diaspora. Many say communal disharmony back home has strained relationships between Hindu and Muslim expatriates. It has also caused polarization within the Hindu American community. Some Hindu Americans believe the political ideology espoused by Hindu nationalists goes against the philosophy of Hinduism, which recognizes the divinity and oneness of all. Others interpret the cry against Hindu nationalism and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party as “anti-Hindu” or “anti-India” sentiment. Some Hindus and Muslims in the diaspora are working to foster interfaith dialogue to prevent an escalation in tensions. Postal worker holdup leads to muscle car theft ring arrests DETROIT (AP) — Cloned key fobs, high-powered Hellcats and thieves daring police and risking arrest are part of a trend in which vehicles are being stolen from factory lots and dealer showrooms only to be later sold on the street for tens of thousands of dollars less than their worth. A federal complaint says the muscle cars, SUVs and pickups worth $50,000 to more than $100,000 are sold on the street for $3,500 to $15,000. One Ohio-based theft ring came crashing down in June, when an investigation into the holdup of a postal worker led authorities to connect four Cleveland-area men to brazen vehicle thefts in the Detroit area. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More Here

Jeremy Hunt Warns Tory MPs Against Trying To Oust PM https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jeremy-hunt-warns-tory-mps-against-trying-to-oust-pm/ Media caption, WATCH: Hard decisions ahead, says Jeremy Hunt By Paul Seddon Politics reporter Jeremy Hunt has appealed to Tory MPs to get behind Liz Truss, as she battles to restore credibility with backbenchers. A series of damaging U-turns over her tax-cutting plans has led some MPs to talk privately about how to remove her from office. Her new chancellor told the BBC a fresh leadership campaign was “the last thing that people really want”. But a senior backbench Conservative MP has called for Ms Truss to go as prime minister, saying “the game is up”. Mr Hunt replaced Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, after Ms Truss fired the former chancellor. His sacking followed market turmoil in response to £45bn of unfunded tax cuts included in the mini-budget. In a series of humiliating U-turns to restore market confidence, Ms Truss has abandoned plans to scrap the top income tax rate and reversed a planned freeze to corporation tax she had put at the centre of her Tory leadership campaign. Mr Hunt held talks with Ms Truss at her official Chequers country retreat earlier, as they plan a programme of tax hikes and spending cuts to be delivered on 31 October. The new chancellor told Laura Kuenssberg he was not ruling out further reversals of tax cuts from last month’s mini-budget, adding he was not “taking anything off the table”. According to reports in the Sunday Times, Ms Truss is also preparing to delay by a year her 1p cut to the basic rate of income tax. The Treasury has not confirmed the reports, adding: “We cannot speculate on any tax changes outside of a fiscal event.” Asked whether he could rule out scrapping more of the tax cuts, Mr Hunt said he wanted to keep as many of them “as I possibly can”. “We are going to have to take some very difficult decisions both on spending and on tax,” he said in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, which was recorded on Saturday. “Taxes are not going to go down as quickly as people thought and some taxes are going to go up,” he added. “So it’s going to be very, very difficult and I think we have to be honest with people about that.” Image source, Reuters Image caption, Mr Hunt held talks with the prime minister at Chequers, her official country residence, on Sunday Meanwhile, in a further blow to the prime minister, US President Joe Biden has criticised tax cuts from her mini-budget. In an unusual intervention, he told reporters during a campaign visit that the outcome was “predictable” and “I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake”. He added that he had disagreed with “the idea of cutting taxes on the super wealthy”, but it was up to the UK to “make that judgment, not me”. In his BBC interview, Mr Hunt said the government’s debt reduction plan, due in two weeks’ time, would be a “very big fiscal statement”, and that every government department would be asked to make savings. However, he insisted the changes would not be “anything like” the period of austerity which began in 2010, when predecessor George Osborne oversaw large cuts in public spending. Despite the U-turns, Mr Hunt insisted Ms Truss remained committed to her goal of promoting economic growth, but she had changed “the way we’re going to get there”. “She’s listened, she’s changed, she’s been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics which is to change tack,” he added. ‘The game is up’ Under current party rules, Ms Truss is safe from a formal leadership challenge for a year – but newspaper reports suggest some Tory MPs have already begun talks about how to force her from office. Tactics reportedly under consideration include submitting no-confidence letters in a bid to force party bosses into a rule change, or changing party rules to allow MPs to bypass members and pick a new leader themselves. Asked whether she could survive as the prime minister, former minister Crispin Blunt told Channel 4: “No, I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed. “If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change then it will be effected.” Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who sits on the committee that decides the rules, told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House a rule change would only be considered if “sixty to seventy percent” of the party’s MPs backed a change. Speaking on Sky News, senior backbencher Robert Halfon said “of course, colleagues are unhappy with what is going on”, adding that “we’re all talking to see what can be done about it”. The chair of the Commons Education Committee went on to accuse the government of behaving like “libertarian jihadists” treating the public as “laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free market experiments”. He said he was not calling on Ms Truss to go and he worried about “further political stability” – but a “dramatic reset” was needed and “things have to improve”. Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged the prime minister to reshuffle the cabinet to extend her support across the party. He told the BBC: “There’s a huge amount of talent on the backbenches – I’m not talking about me, but there are many others that should be brought into government.” Treasury minister Andrew Griffith, speaking on Times Radio, insisted that the prime minister has the “confidence of the government”. Labour’s shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said any further public spending cuts would be “entirely because” of government “incompetence”. “I’m not even sure what this government’s economic policy is at the moment. I don’t know which bits of the budget still apply, and I don’t know what we will hear next week,” he told the BBC. Read More Here

Here's How Much The Average American 60-Year-Old Holds In Retirement Savings — How Does Your Nest Egg Compare? https://digitalarkansasnews.com/heres-how-much-the-average-american-60-year-old-holds-in-retirement-savings-how-does-your-nest-egg-compare/ Here’s how much the average American 60-year-old holds in retirement savings — how does your nest egg compare? Even Americans with only modest retirement funds may be shocked to learn how many people are in desperate straits: as in, they have no nest egg at all. New research by the Federal Reserve shows that an astounding one in four Americans (including the 27% who consider themselves retired) have absolutely nothing saved. And even if you have something tucked away, it may not be enough — though that is something you can change even late in the game. Americans run an estimated $3.68 trillion behind in retirement savings, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. While this includes all people aged 35 to 64, those in their 60s still didn’t fare too well. Here’s how your savings stack up — and what you can do if you’re falling behind. Don’t miss A TikToker paid off $17,000 in credit card debt by cash stuffing Too many Americans are still missing out on cheaper car insurance Invest your spare change and turn your pennies into a productive portfolio What’s the average? A Vanguard study found those between 55 and 64 held an average of roughly $256,000. But this includes high income earners; breaking the figures down, it shrinks to a median of about $90,000. Interestingly, much has changed in even the short time since 2021, the source of figures for Vanguard’s study. Last year, Vanguard noted that retirement savings actually increased, thanks to strong performance in the stock market. But of course since then, Wall Street’s woes have persisted for much of this year, as even otherwise strong stocks have been resoundingly punished. Which means 2023 numbers may drop significantly — though with dollar cost averaging, people who stick it out and keep investing will be rewarded if the market returns to full strength. Is there a magic retirement number? So how much should you have by the time you’re 60? Retirement calculators like this one can help you get some answers. But the best thing Americans can do is head to a financial advisor who can help them reach their goals. If you’d like a broader approach, Fidelity has ways to pinpoint the right numbers for you. Broadly speaking, Americans should aim for the equivalent of their salary by age 30, three times by 40, six times by 50, and eight times by 60. Read more: ‘Remarkable reversal’: President Biden just (quietly) scaled back student loan forgiveness — and the change could impact up to 1.5M borrowers. Are you one of them? So if you’re 60 American and make $50,000 per year, that means you should have $400,000 saved in your retirement account. As you can see, neither the average nor the median retirement amount comes even close. That said, the “should” amount doesn’t account for a host of variables. Consider for example how much you’ll be able to cut expenses in retirement, the money you may take in through Social Security, assets you can unload or the sale of a home. How can you balance the numbers? First and foremost, speak with a financial advisor. If you don’t have one, talk to friends who have fared well with their advisor or seek referrals from someone you trust. The advisor will need to assess your entire financial picture. Do you have children you need to support when it comes to education or a wedding? What’s the value of your home and do you plan to relocate? What asset sources have you possibly overlooked? Remember, it’s never too late to start putting cash aside. Even 5% each paycheck adds an additional $96 bi-weekly, or $2,500 at the end of the year, which can then compound. And that’s far better than the zero mark that applies to 25% of Americans: all of whom deserve better than to retire their savings efforts before they start. What to read next ‘The world should be worried’: Saudi Aramco — the world’s largest oil producer — just issued a dire warning over ‘extremely low’ capacity. Here are 3 stocks for protection ‘This truck can’t do normal truck things’: YouTube star says towing with Ford’s new electric pickup is a ‘total disaster’ in viral video — but Wall Street still likes these 3 EV stocks ‘I just can’t wait to get out’: Nearly three-quarters of pandemic homebuyers have regrets — here’s what you need to know before you put in that offer This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. Read More Here

Hudson Clark Plays Big Role In Arkansas’ Win https://digitalarkansasnews.com/hudson-clark-plays-big-role-in-arkansas-win/ FAYETTEVILLE — Hudson Clark was one of the catalysts for Arkansas in a 52-35 win over BYU on Saturday in Provo, Utah. Clark finished with 11 tackles, four solo, one interception and a fumble recovery to help the Hogs break a three-game losing skid. Clark’s interception came with 2:22 remaining in the first half. It was his first interception since picking off three against Ole Miss in 2020. “I think Keuan Parker, Trent Gordon, they did a huge job stepping up whenever we went three down having six DBs out there,” Clark said. “Just during the play, the quarterback kind of rolled out so all of the zone shifted left. So I just kind of drove on the out and it came right to me.” Following your interception KJ Jefferson passed to Rashod Dubinion for a 15-yard touchdown to give you a 31-21 halftime lead. How did it feel to make your interception? “It’s fine,” Clark said. “It’s kind of a relief getting one for the first time since 2020. I’ve had my hands on a few. Just coming down with it was big.” Parker is a redshirt freshman cornerback from Tulsa (Okla.) Booker T. Washington. Clark liked how Parker stepped up on Saturday. “I think he got in there and did exactly what he does in practice,” Clark said. “He goes out and balls every day in practice. He’s just been waiting on his opportunity,” Earlier in the second quarter the Hogs defense had another huge play. BYU had a fourth-and-one play at its own 34 and leading 21-17. They opted to go for the first down but had a fumbled snap. Soon after that Jefferson found Matt Landers for a 4-yard touchdown pass. The Hogs took the lead 24-21 and never trailed again. Bumper Pool talked about that play and the Clark interception. “Hudson’s pick might have been play of the game,” Pool said. “But that was so important for us. They came back and said it was fourth and short. The d-line, credit to them. We stemmed them inside, they went man-to-man, stuffed them, got the ball back, huge momentum shift.” Clark also felt the fumble was the turning point in the game. “Yeah, I would agree,” Clark said. “I think that fourth-and-1 really shifted the tide. Coming off the field quick was huge for our defense.” After losses to Texas A&M, Alabama and Mississippi State, Sam Pittman had said Saturday’s game was a must win. He got no argument from Clark on that. “Like coach said, it was a must win early in the week,” Clark said. “Kind of saw the shift go from the coaches to us with holding each other accountable. And we saw that later in the game when adversity hit. They had some big plays, but we just bonded together, locked arms and went out and made plays.” Arkansas will now get a bye week before heading to take on Auburn to close out a very difficult October portion of the schedule. “Yeah, I think just being able to go in and next week, getting healthy like he said, being able to just come back together and realize, like, we got a long way to go, but we take one week at a time,” Clark said. While the interception by Clark came earlier in the game he was also able to come up with a fumble recovery as BYU was driving in Arkansas territory in the fourth quarter. Cornerback Dwight McGlothern forced the fumble and Clark fell on it. “I mean, Dwight made a heck of a play, and, you know, he was really excited about it on the sideline, hyping each other up,” Clark said. “But he was really the one that made the play, stripping it. I was there to fall on it.” Clark was asked if he expected a shootout going into the BYU game? “No, I don’t think we, going into it, we thought it’d be the high-scoring game of course,” Clark said. “Just kind of taking it where what happens to us, taking what’s in front of us, and going out every single play, focusing on one play at a time. I think that’s huge for our defense.” Arkansas (4-3, 1-3) heads into the bye week with the same record they had at this time in 2021 when they went on to win nine games. Read More Here

On Kari Lake’s Campaign For Arizona Governor, The Mic Is Always Hot https://digitalarkansasnews.com/on-kari-lakes-campaign-for-arizona-governor-the-mic-is-always-hot/ The former Phoenix TV news anchor has emerged as a Republican phenom by amplifying Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen and embracing the hard-right politics of abortion and immigration October 16, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake speaks at a campaign event at San Tan Flat in Queen Creek, Ariz., on Oct. 5. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post) PHOENIX — If you’d like to speak with Kari Lake, there are some things you should know first. One is that Kari Lake does not say “um.” Kari Lake’s words are crisp and clean and, when needed, they can be warm or they can be harsh. The more confrontational you are, the more composed Kari Lake will become. People have said Kari Lake is “Donald Trump in heels,” but really, she is Donald Trump with media training and polish. Her sentences are perfectly complete. Her hair is cropped into a familiar pixie cut, left over from 22 years on the anchor desk at Channel 10, the Fox affiliate in Phoenix, where she entered living rooms every weeknight at 5 and 9. The name Kari Lake, first and last, is known by virtually everyone in Arizona. It has power. When Kari Lake walks into a room, all eyes turn to Kari Lake. She is one of those people. The other thing you should know is this: When Kari Lake walks into a room, there will be a small lavalier microphone clipped to the collar of her dress or the lapel of her shirt. The microphone is the operational heart of Lake’s Republican campaign to become governor of Arizona. It is not the one she holds onstage, amplifying her voice to a crowd of supporters. Rather, it is connected to a camera operated by her husband, Jeff Halperin, a former videographer for the NBC affiliate in Phoenix who has run his own production company for the past 20 years. He is a constant presence, tall and bearded, at every Kari Lake rally, on the edge of every Kari Lake news conference, inside the room for every Kari Lake interview with a reporter. His lens is always trained in position, which is to say on his wife — and on you, the person on the other side of the exchange. When Kari Lake campaigns, she is also making television. The microphone is there whenever Stacey Barchenger, the Arizona Republic reporter assigned to cover Lake, tries to ask a question. “Not you,” the candidate tells Barchenger, looking her in the eye before calling on another journalist, in what has become a familiar bit on the trail. It is there when a CNN reporter tries to ask for an interview: “I’ll do an interview,” Lake says, “as long as it airs on CNN+. Does that still exist? I didn’t think so.” It is there when Dennis Welch, political editor for Phoenix’s 3TV and CBS 5, tries to question Lake, only to have Lake question the questioner: “I don’t even know: Do you guys have any viewers left?” The interactions are packaged into videos, content for her campaign to release and weaponize on social media: “Kari Lake Exposes Bias” … “Kari Lake Goes Mega Viral After Exposing Fake News” … “Watch Kari Lake Put The AZ Republic In Its Place.” Lake’s microphone captures the magnetism she brings to a stage. It also amplifies the existential danger Democrats see in her candidacy, from her election denialism to her restrictive abortion agenda to the national platform she could assume. But more than that, it is wielded as a weapon and a threat. On a recent Wednesday evening, after a Hispanic forum in the Maryvale neighborhood of Phoenix, a campaign staffer pulls me into a small backroom. The lights are bright fluorescents. Live Latin music from the stage comes booming through the walls. The night before, a campaign aide texted to say Lake would grant a short interview. “Please don’t wear jeans and we ask that you stay away from purple tops. Thank you!” the aide wrote, clarifying the next morning that they were “kidding” about the jeans. Inside the room, a chair is waiting for me. Lake is wearing royal blue, not purple. Seeing Halperin point his camera in the direction of our faces, as well as the large boom mic hanging inches overhead, I ask if I’m being recorded. “You are being recorded,” Lake confirms. She asks if it’s okay. I tell her it’s not my favorite thing. “It’s not my favorite either,” the candidate says. “But we feel we have to because the media has been so unfair that we feel we have to record everything.” She explains that the campaign releases the recording only “if we feel that we’ve been misrepresented.” If everything “goes great,” Lake says, it’s nothing to worry about. After spending her life in TV news, Lake, 53, propelled herself to the top of the GOP ticket in Arizona by claiming falsely that President Biden’s election was stolen from Trump, by embracing the hard-right politics of abortion, immigration, pandemic-era mandates and critical race theory — and by casting her television career and her former colleagues, journalists who once were her friends, as part of what she calls the corrupt and immoral “fake news media.” As a candidate, Lake has sought to use her TV news credentials to her advantage — “I know Arizona,” she often says — while simultaneously discrediting the entire enterprise. Friends from Channel 10 knew Lake as more free-spirited than Bible-loving. They say she was into Buddhism, loved her regular vacations to Jamaica, became swept up in the energy around President Barack Obama, threw big parties at her house, went out to gay bars and thrived on cultivating a television audience with the same instinct they see in her new life as a candidate for governor. In the years after Trump’s 2016 election, her politics shifted to the right in ways her colleagues found unpredictable and bewildering. On March 2, 2021, she left journalism altogether, and within three months, she launched her first campaign for office. Now she is weeks from a possible victory, driven by the energy of voters young and old — and by a Democratic opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who not only refuses to debate Lake but has struggled to communicate in the most basic ways. Arizona is both a foundational home for hard-right politics — it gave rise to Barry Goldwater in the 1960s — and an increasingly viable target for Democrats. The state will help determine future presidents, as it did in 2020, and if Lake wins, she will help oversee the management of its elections, possibly in partnership with Arizona’s Republican candidate for secretary of state, Mark Finchem, who has led the conspiracy assertions that mass fraud was at work in 2020. Lake has claimed falsely that Trump was the “real winner” of Arizona, repeating the lie with a frequency and conviction that thrills the former president and his supporters. “It’s funny,” Lake told an audience this summer, “I talk to President Trump. He goes, ‘I love it. No matter what I ask you, you always bring it right back to the election. I can ask you what the weather’s like in Arizona, and you’ll say, ‘Well, it’s nice, but how do I enjoy it when our elections are stolen and we don’t have a country?’ ” The Kari Lake campaign has become a phenomenon in Arizona. It spans multiple demographics. It draws huge crowds on a day’s notice. People arrive in Lake gear, in Trump T-shirts, in cowboy hats. Lake works the crowd, and an eddy of staff and security circles the woman at its center. Before she faces the press, a posse of supporters appear as if out of nowhere, lining up behind the candidate to form a human backdrop. When the cameras roll, they grip their Kari Lake signs and smile. And here, Lake takes over. She picks public fights with the press at almost every opportunity, to the delight of her followers and her staff, a collection of 20-somethings who snicker as she tees off, their mouths agape in admiration. It’s a show they’ve all seen before but never grow tired of watching. And it’s on display from the moment I introduce myself to Lake. “Is this paper owned by — who is it owned by?” she asks. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, owns The Washington Post. “Oh, I thought so,” she says, her voice turning hard. “You don’t give anybody fair coverage, unfortunately.” She walks away, and a gaggle of Lake staffers are waiting, laughing. “That was gonna happen. That was gonna happen,” one of them says. “She’s actually like that all the time. She’s real!” says another. “It’s not staged,” he added. “It’s real.” On a Tuesday morning in October, Lake is preparing to take the stage with Kristi L. Noem, the 50-year-old Republican governor of South Dakota who could be Lake’s closest political contemporary should she win in November. The event is a “Coffee with Kristi & Kari,” but behind a rack of makeshift curtains, in a small holding room backstage, staffers instead drink tallboy cans of Monster Energy as they monitor a playlist of “JAMZ” coming through the loudspeakers. Vape plumes fill the air. When the two women arrive, a man in the crowd, intrigued, pulls out his phone and types “Kristi Noem” into Google Images, scrolling through photos. Onstage beside her, Lake repeatedly identifies Noem as one of the country’s “two strong governors,” the other being Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, leaving out the other 26 currently serving from her party, including Arizona’s own, the term-limited Doug Ducey. She makes only passing reference to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is scheduled to visit Phoenix on Wednesday to campaign on behalf of Lake at two rallies and two fundraisers, according to a campaign aide. A day after appearing with Noem, at a saloon-style restaurant in Queen Creek, Lake speaks at a rally with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who watches from an outdoor pagoda beneath a sign that reads, “If there are idiots in power: It is because those who elected them are well represented.” During her speech, Lake calls for Cruz to replace “th...

Trump Testifying Live Before Jan. 6 Committee Would Require 'negotiation,' Kinzinger Says https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-testifying-live-before-jan-6-committee-would-require-negotiation-kinzinger-says/ In a rare move, the House panel voted to subpoena the former president. The House Jan. 6 committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot would need to negotiate with former President Donald Trump if he were to offer to testify live in response to the panel’s subpoena, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Sunday. “I think that’s going to be a negotiation,” Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the committee, told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos Sunday. “I’ll only address that when we know for sure whether or not the president has tried to push to come in and talk to us live.” “We want to speak to the president. Look, he’s made it clear he has nothing to hide, [that’s] what he said. So he should come in on the day we asked him to come in. If he pushes off beyond that, we’ll figure out what to do next,” Kinzinger added when pressed if the committee would consider holding Trump in criminal contempt over refusing the subpoena. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Read More Here

Biden Turning To Trump-Era Rule To Expel Venezuelan Migrants https://digitalarkansasnews.com/biden-turning-to-trump-era-rule-to-expel-venezuelan-migrants/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S. The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds. “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels. “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S. Why the turnaround? For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers. Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere. After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S. Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings. But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials. A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year. By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage. So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42. It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.” Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico. The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S. “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.” A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless. “People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt. ___ Long reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of immigration at https://apnews.com/hub/immigration Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Biden Turning To Trump-Era Rule To Expel Venezuelan Migrants | News Channel 3-12 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/biden-turning-to-trump-era-rule-to-expel-venezuelan-migrants-news-channel-3-12/ By COLLEEN LONG and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S. The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds. “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels. “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S. Why the turnaround? For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers. Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere. After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S. Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings. But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials. A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year. By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage. So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42. It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.” Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico. The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S. “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.” A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless. “People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt. ___ Long reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of immigration at https://apnews.com/hub/immigration Read More Here

Trump Wanted Truth Social Executives To Give Shares To Melania – Live https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-wanted-truth-social-executives-to-give-shares-to-melania-live/ Related video: Trump blasts Jan. 6 committee subpoena in 14-page letter Donald Trump wanted Truth Social executives to give their shares to former First Lady Melania Trump. Mr Trump called Will Wilkerson, an executive at Trump Media & Technology Group, last October and made the request, according to The Washington Post. Mr Wilkerson told The Post that he told Mr Trump that “the gift would have meant a huge tax bill he couldn’t pay”. “Trump didn’t care. He said, ‘Do whatever you need to do’,” Mr Wilkerson told the paper. Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s response to a subpoena by the House select committee investigating the events of the January 6 Capitol riot has been met with derision and confusion, following its publication on Friday morning. The former president released a four-page letter to the members of the committee — with a 10-page appendix attached — in which he regurgitated a range of disproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election. In other news, Roger Stone said Mr Trump would get his “f***ing brains beat in” if he runs for president again, a clip from a documentary has revealed. Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists Email Please enter a valid email Please enter a valid email Password Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number First name Please enter your first name Special characters aren’t allowed Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters Last name Please enter your last name Special characters aren’t allowed Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters You must be over 18 years old to register You must be over 18 years old to register Year of birth I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent.  Read our Privacy notice You can opt-out at any time by signing in to your account to manage your preferences. Each email has a link to unsubscribe. Already have an account? sign in Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists Email Please enter a valid email Please enter a valid email Password Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number First name Please enter your first name Special characters aren’t allowed Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters Last name Please enter your last name Special characters aren’t allowed Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters You must be over 18 years old to register You must be over 18 years old to register Year of birth I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent.  Read our Privacy notice You can opt-out at any time by signing in to your account to manage your preferences. Each email has a link to unsubscribe. Already have an account? sign in Read More Here

Editorial Cartoons For Oct. 16, 2022: Alex Jones Verdict, Recession Talk, Jan. 6 Committee https://digitalarkansasnews.com/editorial-cartoons-for-oct-16-2022-alex-jones-verdict-recession-talk-jan-6-committee/ Opinion Published: Oct. 16, 2022, 8:02 a.m. A Connecticut jury awarded nearly $1 billion in damages to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting and an FBI agent who were targeted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. On his “Infowars” program, Jones falsely claimed the mass shooting was a hoax and the grieving families were “actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns,” the Associated Press reported. The lead editorial cartoon in this week’s gallery, by Michael Ramirez, depicts Jones as “a fool and his money” being parted. Bill Bramhall draws Jones with a Pinocchio nose, uncomfortably suspended on Lady Justice’s sword. David Horsey closes Jones’s big mouth with a bag of cash. Mike Luckovich sees a destitute Jones offering to lie about another school shooting in exchange for food. Cartoonists also commented on the state of the economy. Walt Handelsman’s Everyman is afraid to read the financial pages and his 401(k) statement. Oil prices make for one menacing jack o’lantern in a Steve Breen offering. Ramirez’s Federal Reserve car heads off a cliff in “a slight overcorrection.” The House Jan. 6 committee held its last public session, recapping its findings about the attack on the U.S. Capitol during the counting of electoral votes. Nick Anderson shows Trump hiding from a subpoena. Attorney General Merrick Garland and committee co-chair Liz Cheney behold a mountain of evidence with the legend, “Because it’s there.” Other topics in the cartoons this week include Russia’s bombing of Ukrainian civilians in retaliation for a strike against a bridge in Crimea; Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s abortion controversy; and the death of actor Angela Lansbury, star of “Murder, She Wrote” and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.” Cartoons were drawn by Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and Steve Breen, Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate. View more editorial cartoon galleries. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More Here

Mike Lee And Evan McMullin Hit The Debate Stage Monday Evening. Here’s What’s At Stake. https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mike-lee-and-evan-mcmullin-hit-the-debate-stage-monday-evening-heres-whats-at-stake/ Utah voters will start receiving their mail-in ballots this week. (The Salt Lake Tribune) Republican Sen. Mike Lee, left, and independent Evan McMullin, candidates for U.S. Senate in Utah.   | Oct. 16, 2022, 12:00 p.m. Monday’s televised U.S. Senate debate between Republican Mike Lee and independent Evan McMullin has added importance. The two men meet at Utah Valley University at 6:00 pm on the same day election officials start sending mail-in ballots to voters. That means this debate will be their last chance to sway some voters — literally their closing arguments. And while it’s hard to gauge where the race stands with three weeks left until Election Day, it appears to have tightened significantly. Publicly available polling is scattershot and shows no clear trajectory for either candidate. A survey from the pro-McMullin Center Street PAC has Lee with a 12-point lead over McMullin among likely voters, while another pro-McMullin group has McMullin with a four- or six-point advantage. Lee’s campaign insists their internal polling shows the Republican incumbent with a substantial lead. McMullin and Lee, along with their supporters, act like the race could go either way. Earlier this week, Lee appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program to plead with Mitt Romney for his help against McMullin — a move you would never see from a campaign that believes they have a solid lead. Outside groups have poured more than $8 million into the contest. The conservative Club for Growth has spent more than $3.1 million in the race, mostly to attack McMullin. Last week they pledged to spend even more over the final midterm stretch. The Put Utah First PAC, which backs McMullin, has dropped more than $2.6 million to boost his chances. All of that certainly suggests that Monday’s debate could be critical in determining the outcome. Lee is undoubtedly taking the debate seriously. His campaign finance disclosures show he spent $13,000 to hire Washington, D.C. debate coach Mari Maseng Will’s firm Maseng Communications for “debate preparation services.” So what can we expect from the two candidates? It depends on who you ask. Mike Murphy, a veteran political consultant who has advised several high-profile Republicans like Mitt Romney and John McCain, is advising the pro-McMullin Put Utah First PAC. He says Lee will have to defend his record to voters. “Mike Lee is going to have to stand at that podium and explain why he is one of the only guys in the Senate who thinks Putin is doing just fine in Ukraine, why he was texting away as part of the plot to overthrow a legal election. He’s got a lot of questions to answer,” Murphy says. Murphy is referring to Lee’s 2019 trip to Moscow, where he discussed loosening sanctions against Russia, as well as his text messages with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that revealed he was a player in the plot to keep Donald Trump in power. On the other side, McMullin’s critics have complained that he has gotten by without having to go into detail about his policy proposals. Former Utah congressman and current Fox News host Jason Chaffetz is eager to see Lee try to pin McMullin down. “Nobody has ever really flushed out a policy position with Evan McMullin. He’s been able to hide and spout platitudes and never actually have to talk about an individual policy of any substance,” Chaffetz says. Those wishes for a policy-dense discussion may not come to fruition. Televised debate formats are often too rigid, asking candidates to shoehorn answers to questions about complex issues into 30- and 60-second timeframes. It used to be that a candidate couldn’t win an election with a good debate performance, but they certainly could lose with a poor one. That may not be possible anymore in our hyper-polarized and tribal political environment where voters are dug in. Although, Murphy disagrees with that thinking and believes Monday’s debate could move the needle. “There is some truth to the thought that everybody is dug in. Swing voters haven’t been outlawed. There are just fewer of them,” Murphy explains. “In a close election, four or five percent can swing the outcome.” For better or worse, the moments voters remember most from debates are gaffes or well-timed zingers. There was Gerald Ford’s monumental blunder in 1976 when he insisted that there was “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.” In 1988, Democrat Lloyd Bentsen devastated Republican Dan Quayle for comparing himself to President Kennedy. Bentsen replied: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy; I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.” Perhaps the most famous debate zinger was Ronald Reagan’s “There you go again” reply to then-President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Carter was attacking Reagan for shifting his position on Medicare during the debate when Reagan delivered his retort. As author Rick Perlstein recounts in his book Reaganland, Carter’s team “high-fived one another” backstage when Reagan delivered the line because they thought the press would hammer Reagan for lying about his position on Medicare. Instead, people only remember Reagan’s snappy comeback from that debate. At the end of Monday’s one-hour faceoff, you can expect both campaigns to declare victory, no matter what happens on stage. So what would a win look like for either candidate? Chaffetz says if Lee can press the attack against McMullin as an unknown entity, he’ll be successful. “I think McMullin is an unknown chameleon, and he’s going to have to get past the platitudes. If Mike Lee can flush that out, then I think that’s the clear victory for him,” Chaffetz says. Murphy says he’ll be looking for three specific things on Monday. “Which candidate framed the choice of the election most effectively? Which candidate seemed most at ease and connected best with voters? And which candidate made a terrible mistake we’ll hear about all week?” Murphy said. Read More Here

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: ‘The Semiconductor Industry Is Near The Limit’ https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-the-semiconductor-industry-is-near-the-limit/ Read More Here

River Valley Panel Briefed On Waterway Transportation Plans; Interstate Extension Project https://digitalarkansasnews.com/river-valley-panel-briefed-on-waterway-transportation-plans-interstate-extension-project/ VAN BUREN — A company headquartered in Miami is making up for lost time as part of a plan to transport goods throughout the country, which is intended to include the River Valley. Sal Litrico, chief executive officer of American Patriot Holdings, provided the Western Arkansas Intermodal Authority’s board an update at its meeting Wednesday. The authority signed a five-year, nonbinding memorandum of understanding with the Plaquemines Port Harbor and Terminal District in Louisiana and inland waterway shipper American Patriot Container Transport of New Orleans in 2019. It did this with the intent to develop an intermodal port in Crawford County as part of a multistate initiative to ship container freight using inland river systems. Litrico said American Patriot Holdings notified Plaquemines it would cancel the exclusivity agreement between the two in June. Sen. Mat Pitsch, R-Fort Smith, executive director of the intermodal authority, said the agreement said American Patriot would only use Plaquemines as a gateway port for international freight carried up the Mississippi River to the central part of the country. “Our companies would have their freight come into either Plaquemines or whoever Plan B gateway port is, they would unload off international ships to the containers that APH is building, and then bring those here,” Pitsch said Friday. Litrico said American Patriot has been negotiating with shipyards for the construction of container vessels and Plaquemines hadn’t finalized procuring the necessary land for the project. This left American Patriot unable to continue negotiating in good faith. However, Litrico said American Patriot is in discussions with an alternative gateway port in southern Louisiana that can handle a planned first phase of operations, although he didn’t disclose the port’s name. The phase includes building four vessels with the option of four more. “If the Port of Plaquemines should happen to finalize the land purchase and achieve several other significant milestones, we will select the best long-term options for our customers, our Midwest partners and for APH,” Litrico said. Pitsch said the first phase entails moving freight up and down the Mississippi River while a second phase involves other, “sister” rivers. The planned intermodal port in Crawford County is included in the latter. American Patriot expects to be in a position to sign contracts with shipyards to build its vessels within the next 30 days, Litrico said Wednesday. It will finalize other agreements once the shipyard agreements are in place. Pitsch and Jay White, authority board chairman, both praised American Patriot for terminating its exclusivity agreement with Plaquemines. “It was a great move to get this project going, keep it going,” White said. The proposed site for the intermodal port is divided into two areas, north and south, and encompasses 443 acres along the Arkansas River on South Arkansas 59 southeast of Van Buren. The undeveloped land is in a floodplain mapped by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Pitsch said the intermodal authority won’t work to acquire the land until American Patriot is ready for the port to be built. Interstate 49 Project The authority also heard from State Highway Commissioner Keith Gibson on Wednesday about an extension of Interstate 49 between Barling in Sebastian County and Alma in Crawford County. The Department of Transportation held a groundbreaking for the project in Barling on Thursday. The project will build 13.6 miles of interstate from Arkansas 22 in Barling to the interchange of Interstate 40 and Interstate 49 at Alma, including a new bridge over the Arkansas River. This will finish a connection from Fort Smith north to Canada by way of Interstate 49 and Interstate 29 and to Duluth, Minn., and the Great Lakes by way of Interstate 49 and Interstate 35. The new road will meet up with a four-lane section of U.S. 71 around Greenwood. The project is expected to be carried out in multiple phases over the next “several years,” according to a Department of Transportation news release. About $270 million from Issue 1, which voters passed in 2020, will go toward it. The measure indefinitely continued the half-percent sales and use tax dedicated to state highways when the current statewide tax sunsets June 30. Gibson said while Thursday’s groundbreaking wouldn’t kick off construction on the project, it would be a sign of commitment the project will happen. He noted the Transportation Department has many projects that have been delayed due to supply chain issues stemming from the covid-19 pandemic, among other issues. The department will have to rebid some of the projects because of inflation driving up costs for contractors who won the original bids. “We’re going to see some delays, but hopefully we’ve crossed that now and then we’re going to see fewer and fewer delays as we go forward,” Gibson said. Gibson said he didn’t believe delays will be a problem for the Interstate 49 project, which is “well underway” for completion. The latest estimate put the total cost of the project at about $600-700 million, according to Gibson. Bids for the project are scheduled to be let in September. The Hope-based Taylor-Hendrix LLC won a $891,453 contract to clear vegetation and debris around the site in Barling that will be an interchange of Interstate 49 and Arkansas 22, the news release states. Read More Here

Attorney General Hopefuls Weigh In On Crime, Prisons, Abortion https://digitalarkansasnews.com/attorney-general-hopefuls-weigh-in-on-crime-prisons-abortion/ The three candidates for Arkansas lieutenant governor in 2022 are shown in this undated combination photo. From left are Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican; licensed social worker Kelly Krout, a Democrat; and retiree Frank Gilbert, a Libertarian. (Courtesy photos) Republican Tim Griffin says he will emphasize stricter guidelines and a revamped parole system to fight rising crime if elected Arkansas’ attorney general, while Democratic opponent Jessie Gibson wants to cut recidivism rates to free up prison space. Griffin, Arkansas’ current lieutenant governor, and Gibson, a Little Rock attorney, will square off in the Nov. 8 general election. Early voting begins Oct. 24. Griffin, 53, defeated Leon Jones Jr. in the May 24 Republican primary after originally announcing that he would run to succeed Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Griffin dropped out of the governor’s race and filed to run for attorney general after Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders — the daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee and a former press secretary for former President Donald Trump — announced her candidacy for the state’s top elected position. “I have been elected for going on 12 years now, and I have served by working hard and by doing what I said I was going to do, by demonstrating integrity and being a good steward of taxpayer dollars,” Griffin said. “I reduced my budget and reduced my number of employees my first year in the lieutenant governor’s office and haven’t asked for more since. I will bring the same approach to the attorney general’s office.” Griffin, of Little Rock, said his experience as lieutenant governor, a former congressman representing the 2nd District and a former U.S. attorney separates him from Gibson. “I have experience with different parts of government as legislator and congressman and in legislative roles as president of the Senate,” he said. “I have been in the military and can provide perspective on the National Guard. I also have experience with the federal and state government, and a lot of state government is dealing with the federal government.” Gibson, 48, said he believes a Democrat can win a statewide race in Arkansas, which has been dominated by Republicans for several years. “I would say as a state we are more of a non-participating state than a Republican state,” he said. “We are last in the nation in nearly every voting metric. There are upwards to 1.1 million Arkansans that just don’t go to the polls. We have to give them a vision for the future and a vision for something better than what we have.” Gibson said too many elected officials want to insert their politics and beliefs into the legislative process and that is how bad policies and bad legislation are created. “That is the difference between my opponent and I,” Gibson said. “I look at the attorney general’s office as one of right and wrong, not a political spin. If you are political hammer, then everything looks like a political nail. Let’s avoid that as attorney general.” CRIME Gibson said if elected he would stand shoulder to shoulder with law enforcement in an effort to stop Arkansas’ rise in violent crime. “It’s extremely important to always lead the charge against violent crime,” he said. “That said, what Arkansas is really suffering from is our recidivism and re-offending problem.” Gibson said the state needs to get serious about ending recidivism. “What we are doing right now is cycling people through the system and putting them back on the streets to re-offend,” he said. “We have to do the tough things when it comes to education and job training [for prisoners] so when people get out they can become productive, tax-paying citizens again.” Griffin said his first priority if elected would be reforming the state’s criminal justice system. “First of all I would recognize that a lot of the crime spike that we are experiencing as a state — not just in Little Rock, but all around the state — is attributable to violence committed by repeat violent offenders,” he said. “A significant number of which are parolees who should have never been out on parole in the first place.” Griffin also wants to create a “G.I. Bill” for law enforcement to help ensure they are adequately compensated. “A G.I. Bill is a federal program whereby individuals who serve earn credit towards their education for them and their family. I want that for law enforcement,” he said. “If you commit to a certain number of years in law enforcement, you get credit in education. “This will help law enforcement officers and their families from a financial standpoint, and will help create the best-educated and prepared law enforcement.” Griffin said he also would support auditing prison programs for effectiveness. “We want [felons] to get out and thrive,” he said. “Ultimately those who get out of there are coming to a neighborhood near you and me, and we want them thriving and building a career.” NEW PRISONS Griffin said violent offenders are serving only a fraction of their sentence because of a lack of available prison beds, and that is driving the spike in murder, rape and other violent crimes. “In terms of how you address this, first and foremost we have to make more space in the state prison system,” he said. “For those who don’t want to expand prisons for some reason, I say to them we have already expanded prisons, but the state has done it quietly without public discourse and without real debate or discussion. It’s because they have filled up all our county jails.” If elected, Griffin said, he intends to work with legislators to get a new prison facility built. “I will also be rolling things out to our legislators about putting some meat on the bones when it comes to sentencing,” he said. “We have to make sure individuals are serving a higher percentage of time for violent crimes.” Gibson agrees that a new prison should be built. “The head of the Department of Corrections and the heads of all these other agencies are asking for it because it’s necessary,” he said. “I do support prison expansion. However, we have to do those other things as well, like education and job training.” Gibson said building a new prison is a short-term fix. “If you don’t focus on the demand side problem or the solution by cutting down on how many people are going to the Department of Corrections, then you are dealing with the supply side solution of adding more beds,” he said. ABORTION After the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year overturned the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion across the nation, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge implemented a 2019 “trigger law” that bans abortion in Arkansas, except to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency. Act 180 of 2019 was crafted to take effect when the state attorney general certified that Roe had been overturned, returning to the state the authority to prohibit abortion. Gibson said the one thing he hears on the campaign trail no matter where he goes is disdain for the abortion ban. “They are furious at the idea that our legislators, our leaders in this state, passed a trigger law that creates a government-mandated forced pregnancy even for victims of rape and incest,” Gibson said. “People think it’s simply inhumane that we would go so far as a state to have a government-mandated forced pregnancy that affects sometimes even children.” Griffin said he has always been an abortion opponent, but he also believes in exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. MARIJUANA Griffin said he opposes the recreational marijuana amendment because he believes it will hurt job recruitment. “How can we compete for these jobs and at the same time we have more people smoking pot,” he said. Griffin said from what he has seen, it doesn’t seem like people who want to smoke marijuana are having a hard time finding it. Gibson said as attorney general he would have to enforce the law that is on the books, but as a matter of policy he believes allowing recreational marijuana is the direction the country is headed. “One of the biggest problems I see that we have is too many leaders who are revisionists, who look backwards to a time they claim they remember or imagined or believed that existed instead of looking to the future,” he said. “I think that is the direction the country is moving, and as matter of budgeting, as a matter of developing education programs and health programs, I think it would be wise to consider the merit of this.” Gibson said legalizing marijuana also will free up law enforcement agents. “This will allow for more focus on violent crimes rather than on non-violent, small offenses,” he said. “It frees up resources and allows them to really be tough on crime and have those safe streets and schools.” Read More…

Live Updates: Xi Warns Of ‘Dangerous Storms’ Facing China https://digitalarkansasnews.com/live-updates-xi-warns-of-dangerous-storms-facing-china/ Xi Jinping Thought is ubiquitous in China, detailed in everything from textbooks to collections of Mr. Xi’s writings, from dedicated research centers to apps for studying his works. In China, having a political philosophy named after a leader carries enormous significance. For Mr. Xi, it is a core expression of his expanding power. At his speech opening the Communist Party’s congress in Beijing on Sunday, he said that “fully implementing” his thought was a key theme. During the meeting this week, China’s political elite are expected to further elevate the status of the political doctrine — and by extension, Mr. Xi’s authority. The party is likely to amend its constitution to change the name of the theory, officially known as Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism With Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. “‘Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism With Chinese Characteristics for a New Era’ is a crown that’s too heavy to wear,” said David Bandurski, the director of the China Media Project, a research organization. “So, he wants a crown he can actually wear.” Many analysts expect the phrase to be shortened to Xi Jinping Thought. That would make it a “pithy, direct, powerful signal” of his authority, Mr. Bandurski said. Mr. Xi already had the full phrase inserted into the party charter in 2017. That put Mr. Xi above his most recent predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, whose own ideological contributions, while mentioned in the same document, don’t carry their names in the titles. It even vaulted him above Deng Xiaoping, whose eponymous input is labeled a “theory.” The ideology is more than an empty celebration of Mr. Xi. Xi Jinping Thought is a framework for China’s governance and a guide for what it will do under his continuing leadership. The goal of Mr. Xi’s ideology is to cement the Communist Party’s role as China’s governing body, with a single strong leader — Mr. Xi himself — at the top, dispensing with the more collective leadership style of his recent predecessors. Mr. Xi has escalated a crackdown on corruption, a widely popular effort that also helps command cadres’ loyalty to him and ensures that the party, not the public at large, decides who stays in power. He has also reinvigorated Mao’s “mass line,” in which ideas for governance are disseminated through society, with dissenting views silenced and heavy doses of propaganda used to convince the public that China’s policy is correct. The mass line is how one of Mr. Xi’s signature policies, “zero Covid,” has been advanced in China. It calls for a continuing national campaign to quash the coronavirus through mass testing, strict lockdowns and lengthy quarantines. While rumors about an easing of the policy have circulated, the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the party, declared last week that it must persist. The strength of Mr. Xi’s ideology is also its greatest weakness, Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung, scholars at the SOAS China Institute, argued in a paper last year. In prioritizing the effectiveness of policymaking and governance, he also reduces flexibility and pragmatism, they said. “Whether the strong hand of the party-state will deliver the same positive outcome when the going gets tough will depend on Xi getting it right,” they wrote. “So far, Xi has always doubled down when his authority is being challenged. If the same policymaking pattern holds, the rigidity of Xi’s approach is likely to undermine the resilience of the system when adaptability is needed the most.” Read More Here

Tom Dillard: Favorite Arkansas Authors Include Donald Harington, Charles Portis https://digitalarkansasnews.com/tom-dillard-favorite-arkansas-authors-include-donald-harington-charles-portis/ Recently I posted a query on Facebook asking readers to list their favorite Arkansas authors, one each in fiction and nonfiction. I received scores of replies, and a few stragglers are still posting their favorites. While this exercise is in no way scientific or representative in its composition, the results are very interesting to me and, I suspect, to others. Today I address fiction, with nonfiction to follow. A few novelists emerged quickly as favorites, including Donald Harington, Maya Angelou and Charles Portis. Nonfiction nominees were more numerous and considerably more varied, ranging from colonial era historian Judge Morris S. Arnold to folklorist Vance Randolph to journalist-raconteur-memoirist Roy Reed. I fear I skewed the results by stating in the query that Harington’s “Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks” was my favorite work of fiction. Still, numerous novelists were nominated, including some which were new to me. I have a lot of reading to do. Many people agreed with me that “Architecture” is important, but a few nominated other books by Harington. Joshua Youngblood, from the rare books library at the University of Arkansas’ Special Collections Department, prefers “Lightning Bug,” the first of Harington’s Stay More novels. Published in 1970, “Bug” introduced Latha Bourne, the postmistress at Stay More, who is forced to confront Every Dill, the rapist who attacked Latha 10 years earlier. Latha would emerge as an enduring figure in the Stay More series. Harington, like Mississippi novelist William Faulkner, created an intertwined body of work set around a fictional town–Stay More, home of Stay Morons. While Harington, a Little Rock native educated as an art historian, was widely read in Arkansas, his work never caught on nationwide. Entertainment Weekly once referred to Harington as “America’s greatest unknown writer.” He died in 2009. “True Grit,” published in 1968, was written by Charles Portis and was a runaway bestseller. It was originally published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post. During the height of its popularity, Portis spoke to one of my English classes at the University of Central Arkansas in 1969. I recall him as quiet and maybe shy, or perhaps simply reserved. Told from the perspective of an older woman named Mattie Ross, the story recalls the time when Mattie sought retribution for the killing of her father by a scoundrel named Tom Chaney, who had fled to Indian Territory. While the first movie version of “True Grit” was forgettable even though John Wayne won an Oscar for his portrayal of the washed-up former U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn, the 2010 version by the Coen brothers is vastly better in my opinion. Charles Portis was a writer’s writer. Literary figures across the spectrum have praised “True Grit” as a truly great American novel. Donna Tart, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning and immensely popularly “The Goldfinch,” is unstinting in her praise: “Portis caught better than any writer then alive the complex and highly inflected regional vernacular I heard spoken as a child — mannered and quaint, old-fashioned and highly constructed but also blunt, roughshod, lawless, inflected by Shakespeare and Tennyson and King James but also by agricultural gazetteers and frilly old Christian pamphlets, by archaic dictionaries of phrase and fable, by the voices of mule drivers and lady newspaper poets and hanging judges and hellfire preachers.” Another Portis favorite nominee was “Dog of the South,” but I was surprised by the number of people who preferred Portis’ early novel “Norwood” (1966). A goodly number of other fiction writers were also nominated, including one of my favorites, Kevin Brockmeier of Little Rock. Janine Parry, UA political science professor, is keen on Brockmeier’s “A Brief History of the Dead.” Two volumes by Francis Irby Gwaltney, a professor at Arkansas Tech in Russellville, were suggested, “The Day the Century Ended” and “Destiny’s Chickens.” “The Quicksand Years,” a 1965 novel inspired by the Elaine Massacre of 1919, has received little attention. The author of eight novels, Gwaltney never received the attention he deserved for his early work, especially “The Day the Century Ended,” a World War II novel which addresses cultural differences between affluent and poor Arkansas soldiers in the South Pacific. It was favorably reviewed at the time of its publication in 1955, and it was made into a movie titled “Between Heaven and Hell” starring Robert Wagner, Buddy Ebsen and Broderick Crawford. John Grisham received several nominations for his 2001 novel “The Painted House.” I’m a bit skeptical, but I guess being born in Jonesboro makes Grisham an Arkansas writer. Also, “Painted House” is set in northeast Arkansas, the only one of his works with an Arkansas setting. It was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie in 2003. Grisham is considered one of the best-selling authors of all time, having written 28 consecutive No. 1 fiction bestsellers. Kat Robinson, a food writer with a growing following, nominated a very fine book, “Big Doc’s Girl” by the late Mary Medearis of Washington in Hempstead County. Though written for teenagers, the volume can be equally enjoyed by adults. Born in North Little Rock in 1915, Mary considered herself a musician, but while a student at The Juilliard School in New York, she took a class in creative writing at Columbia University — and “Big Doc’s Girl” resulted. Upon its publication in 1942, “Big Doc’s Girl” was immediately successful, including inclusion on The New York Times’ bestseller list. It was translated in to several languages. The book was made into a play in 1957, followed later by its broadcast on television, with Gene Hackman being the lead actor. She settled in historic Washington, Ark., in 1975, and threw herself into local history work. Ellen Gilchrist of Fayetteville had her share of nominations, especially for “Victory Over Japan” (1984). Grif Stockley, best known for his nonfiction, was recommended by several people for “Blind Judgment” (1997), one of his five novels. A hint to my family: Many of these books would make excellent Christmas gifts. Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in Hot Spring County. Email him at [email protected] Read More…

'SNL' Takes On The January 6 Committee And Trump – KRDO https://digitalarkansasnews.com/snl-takes-on-the-january-6-committee-and-trump-krdo/ By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business “Saturday Night Live” opened this week’s episode taking on one of the most notable moments in news as of late: the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Kenan Thompson, who played Rep. Bennie Thompson, opened the NBC variety show by introducing the crowd to the committee’s ninth and final hearing. “January 6 was one of the most dramatic and consequential moments in our nation’s history, so to fight back we assembled a team of monotone nerds to do a PowerPoint,” Thompson’s Bennie Thompson said. He then went on to say the committee has been looking into the attack for more than a year but this session would be a “little different.” “We are going to summarize our findings, hold a history-making vote and then and only then we all get to have a little treat,” Thompson’s Bennie Thompson said bringing out pastries. After this introduction, Rep, Liz Cheney, played by Heidi Gardner, took the floor. “Over the past few months, this bipartisan committee has presented our case to all Americans,” she said. “Whether you’re a Republican who’s not watching or a Democrat who’s nodding so hard your head is falling off, one person is responsible for this insurrection: Donald Trump. And one person will suffer the consequences: Me.” Gardner’s Cheney said audiences may be wondering what makes her so tough, and she said that she would ask the audience, “Who’s your dad? Is it Dick Cheney?” “So yeah, I guess you could say I have big Dick Cheney energy,” she said. The committee then went over some of its evidence including a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, played by Chloe Fineman, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, played by Sarah Sherman, in a bunker. “Hello, DoorDash? It’s Chuck Schumer,” Sherman’s Schumer said on a phone from the bunker. “Yes, we still haven’t received our lunch order. And I did change our drop off location due to some unfortunate treason, but it should have arrived by now.” The committee then went to evidence of then-President Donald Trump asking a bunch of people if he lost the election including a White House janitor who said that he did, in fact, lose the election. Trump even asked a dog who “shook his dead side to side.” “Donald was desperate to hang on to power,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, played by Andrew Dismukes, said. “While real heroes like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were the ones actually running this country. Then it immediately cut to Sherman’s Schumer and Fineman’s Pelosi talking to then-Vice President Mike Pence. “Let me tell you, if Trump comes here right now I’m going to punch him right in the face,” Fineman’s Pelosi said. “I’ll go to jail, but I’ll be happy.” Thompson’s Bennie Thompson then asked Gardner’s Cheney for any final thoughts. “The fact is that Trump planned to declare victory no matter the results,” she said. “Look at this video of the President a day before the election.” The video shown was of James Austin Johnson as Trump on the phone saying the “votes don’t matter.” “What even is a vote?” he said. The committee then took a vote to subpoena Trump. They all voted yes and thought he would actually show up. “Alright, I can already see that this is a complete zero,” Thompson’s Bennie Thompson said. “I want to thank my colleagues for throwing their summers and in some cases their careers to serve on this committee.” He then added it was “a fun country while it lasted.” After that, it led to the show’s signature phrase, “Live… from New York! It’s Saturday night!” The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Trump Media Fired Whistleblower After He Spoke To Washington Post https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-media-fired-whistleblower-after-he-spoke-to-washington-post/ In This is a photo illustration from Facebook. Truth Social A smartphone shows the logo with a photo taken in the US. President Donald Trump The background is displayed. Rafael Henrique | Lightrocket | Getty Images Former President Donald Trump’s A media company fired an executive Thursday After sharing internal documents from a, he resigned. Securities Exchange Commission Whistleblower complaint with The Washington Post And spoke with the newspaper, news outlet reported Saturday. Will Wilkerson He was a senior vice-president of operations Trump Media TechnologyThe social network is controlled by. Truth SocialHe was one of the original employees. Wilkerson In 2005, the SEC whistleblower complaint was filed AugustThe company claimed that it relied on “fraudulent misrepresentations … in violation of federal securities laws,” According to PostIt is attempting to go public through an investment vehicle known simply as a special purpose acquisition corporation, or SPAC. In The article. Wilkerson Strife is also described. Trump MediaTension with the CEO Devin Nunes, who, Republican congressman, was among Trump’s most loyal defenders. Wilkerson Another executive also explained how it was done. Trump His wife pressured him into giving shares in the company. Melania Trump. A spokesperson for Trump Media The pushed back Post’s Story and promoted Truth Media’s The availability of the Apple App Store, The Google Play Store Samsung’s Galaxy Store. “As Chairman of TMTG, President Trump hired Devin Nunes as CEO to create a culture of compliance and build a world-class team to lead Truth Social,” CNBC was emailed a statement by the spokesperson. Digital World Acquisition Corp.SPAC, which sought to take the media company public. CNBC also reached to Wilkerson’s Attorneys for comment. Trump Media Fired Wilkerson Making “unauthorized disclosures” The PostAccording to the newspaper, One According to the report, one of his lawyers called the firing a retaliation against whistleblowers. There Exist laws that protect whistleblowers The Report from DWAC as it pushes its shareholders for a vote to delay its planned merge with Trump MediaThe merger was announced in January. DWAC has threatened to liquidate if it fails to complete the merger. This would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump Media. DWAC CEO Patrick Orlando Another of his companies directed him to provide DWAC funding for the organization to keep it afloat. December. He It already Four times adjournment of a shareholder meetingHe did not have the support of shareholders to delay the merger. The Trump Media-DWAC Deal is under investigation by regulators at SEC and prosecutors in Justice Department. Trump Media The SEC was blamed for the delay. In He also mentioned undisclosed talks between the parties in his article TrumpHis media company’s executives are Orlando Last year, the deal was made public before DWAC went public. Those Talks may have been in violation of SEC rules. Wilkerson The SEC Investigation Team shared internal logs, photos, memos, and other relevant material. Post. All The materials had been previously given to government investigators. Post Citing Wilkerson’s attorneys. Trump Media The executive had been suspended following the Miami Herald First reported the SEC complaint Oct. 6. “blatant violation” His non-disclosure agreement was the Post said. Read The full Washington Post Report here. – CNBC’s Jack Stebbins This article was contributed by. Read More Here

Tim Ryan For U.S. Senate: Endorsement Editorial https://digitalarkansasnews.com/tim-ryan-for-u-s-senate-endorsement-editorial/ This election season’s battle for control of the U.S. Senate that has been raging across the 35 states where Senate seats are up for grabs portends significant, long-range consequences for how this country is governed, as each party tries to break the current 50-50 partisan deadlock. Nowhere is the contest more intense than in Ohio, where Democrat Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance are locked in a no-holds-barred campaign to replace the retiring two-term Republican Rob Portman in the upper chamber of Congress. The two candidates could not be more different. Ryan, 49, is a 10-term congressman who has never lost an election in his political career, with an unbroken string of victories in two different congressional districts serving the Youngstown/Warren area. Vance, 38, is embroiled in his first foray campaigning for political office, having first come to the public’s attention as the author of the 2016 best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” There is not much question as to what the state would get from either of the two candidates – Ryan, as a congressman, having voted with Democrats virtually all of the time and Vance having signed on to Donald Trump’s Big Lie and extremist approach to politics after being highly critical of the former president during the 2016 campaign and afterward. The candidates also differ on one of the key issues certain to come up in the Senate’s next session: whether to abandon the filibuster – the longtime Senate rule that legislation must gain 60% support in order to pass, with Ryan favoring that move and Vance opposing. But the choice here boils down to what kind of statesman would best represent Ohio in the Senate. In that arena, Ryan is the clear favorite. During his years in Congress, Ryan has shown himself to be an able collaborator who is willing to work across the aisle, an important quality in a deeply divided Senate. His bipartisan bona fides were affirmed by a recent Georgetown University study, which judged him Ohio’s second most bipartisan U.S. House member, after outgoing U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Rocky River. In his endorsement interview with the editorial board of the Plain Dealer and cleveland.com, Ryan acknowledged his consistent voting with Pelosi, but noted that negotiations and differences of opinion while legislation is being formed are far more important than the final vote. And his having run against Pelosi for House speaker in 2016 and his opposition to her two years later are hardly the acts of a sycophant. Ryan’s focus on grassroots economic development and emphasis on what he calls “cutting Ohio workers in on the deal,” and the pragmatic grasp he showed in discussing the need to stand firm against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the potential threat of China doing the same with Taiwan add up to a strong argument for Ryan to replace Portman in the Senate. Ryan is proud of his fundraising efforts, saying he has 350,000 donors, with 95% of their contributions under $100. “Nobody owns me,” he told the board. “Not Peter Thiel (a reference to billionaire Thiel’s aggressive fundraising for Vance), not Mitch McConnell, not Chuck Schumer, not Nancy Pelosi.” Vance, by contrast, has not exhibited the astute judgment necessary to return the Senate to its former status as the world’s greatest deliberative body. Exhibit No. 1 is Vance’s craven political cowardice in advancing Trump’s Big Lie that Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States. That’s disqualifying in itself. But Vance hasn’t stopped there. His accusation that Biden is responsible for the fentanyl epidemic because of his immigration policies is equally irresponsible – and who can forget his initial reaction to the Russian invasion: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” Unfortunately, Vance elected not to appear before our editorial board to explain his indefensible embrace of Trump’s Big Lie or clarify where he stands on Ukraine, abortion restrictions, domestic violence against women or other matters. With Tim Ryan, voters know what they’ll get and who he is — a steady voice for the working class, a bipartisan collaborator, and someone laser-focused on manufacturing innovation to keep jobs and income in Ohio. That’s why Tim Ryan deserves your vote for U.S. Senate. Early voting in the Nov. 8 election has begun. On Oct. 12, as part of its endorsement process, the editorial board of The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com held an endorsement interview for the U.S. Senate race in Ohio. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic candidate, participated. The GOP candidate, J.D. Vance, elected not to do so. Listen to audio of this endorsement interview below: About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer — the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization. Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this editorial to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com Other resources for voters: League of Women Voters vote411.org voters’ guide. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More Here

Reporter Corrects Dr Oz Live On Air As He Makes False Claim About Fetterman https://digitalarkansasnews.com/reporter-corrects-dr-oz-live-on-air-as-he-makes-false-claim-about-fetterman/ Dr Mehmet Oz was corrected live on air after he made false claims that his opponent John Fetterman wanted to end life imprisonment as his first political priority. The pro-Trump Republican candidate for Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat is trailing his Democratic rival for the open seat with less than a month left before election day. He was fact-checked about his claim about Mr Fetterman during an interview with Dasha Burns on NBC News. “When John Fetterman is asked, ‘If you could wave a magic wand, what’s the one thing you would do?’… he says, ‘Well, I’d get rid of life in prison,’” claimed Dr Oz. But Burns, who had just interviewed Mr Fetterman, called him out on the inaccurate claim. “I asked him that. He actually said it would be codifying Roe v Wade and abolishing the filibuster,” she responded. Earlier this week Mr Fetterman, 53, gave Ms Burns his first interview since having a stroke in May, and conducted it with closed captioning because of the auditory processing issues he is still suffering from. Burns was widely criticised when she stated that “in small talk – before the interview, without captioning – it wasn’t clear (Fetterman) was understanding our conversation”. Podcaster and business reporter Kara Swisher, who had a stroke in 2011, branded the claims by Burns as “just nonsense”. “Maybe this reporter is just bad at small talk,” she tweeted. Read More Here

Other Days https://digitalarkansasnews.com/other-days-5/ 100 years ago Oct. 16, 1922 PINE BLUFF — Pine Bluff’s oldest resident, “Uncle” Enon Stewart, aged 107, says that he has never taken a drop of liquor nor smoked in his life. “Uncle” Enon is quite a local celebrity. … Uncle Enon was born a month before the battle of Waterloo and three years after Andrew Jackson defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans. He remembers with vividness the trying days of the Civil War, and tells many interesting stories of the four bloody years and of the misery and desolation following Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. … He seems to take his lot philosophically, and tells his friends that “the Lord has been good to let me live more then three score and 10 years, and now it is up to Him,” when asked how much longer he expects to live. 50 years ago Oct. 16, 1972 Are there armed guards in Little Rock’s public schools, and are children afraid to go to the rest room, as former Governor Orval E. Faubus told a Fort Smith audience Wednesday night? “Mr. Faubus is uninformed on this issue apparently,” Dr. Paul R. Fair, the superintendent, said Friday. “We do not have armed guards in the school. In fact, we have had the smoothest operation in the beginning of this school year that we’ve had in some time, and the rapport among the students seems to be better than it has been in years.” 25 years ago Oct. 16, 1997 CENTERTON — A father’s hunting and fishing trips with his son in the early 1900s sparked a lifelong love of wildlife in Bentonville native C.B. “Charlie” Craig. … On Wednesday, the commission honored Craig by renaming the 141-acre, 20-pond Centerton facility as the C.B. “Charlie” Craig State Fish Hatchery. The commission in 1994 inducted him into the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame. … In 1937, Craig led efforts to buy the original 40 acres that became the state’s second fish hatchery. … Craig was also a key proponent of the statewide one-eighth-cent sales tax voters approved in 1996. Forty-five percent of that money goes to the Game and Fish Commission, an agency that he said is vital to Arkansas’ wildlife development. 10 years ago Oct. 16, 2012 FORT SMITH — Alice McCollough was recovering from heart surgery in 2007 and wanted to make some money to help pay her huge medical bills when she got a letter in the mail saying she could earn $10 each for stuffing envelopes at home. The 65-year-old St. Paul woman lost $700 she sent upfront to Timothy Donavan and Sharon Henningsen in the mail-fraud scheme the two ran from 2007 to 2009 that fleeced as many as 16,000 people around the country who signed up to stuff envelopes. … U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III sentenced Henningsen, 68, and Donavan, 64, each to 11 years, 3 months in prison, fined each $250,000, and ordered them to pay $5,329.99 to the 19 victims named in the indictment and a $1,900 special assessment. … Henningsen and Donavan were accused of sending solicitation letters to more than 1 million people across the country promising them a weekly income of $2,900 to $5,000 while working at home. Read More Here

Iran Plans To Send Missiles, Drones To Russia For Ukraine War, Officials Say https://digitalarkansasnews.com/iran-plans-to-send-missiles-drones-to-russia-for-ukraine-war-officials-say/ Iran is strengthening its commitment to supply arms for Russia’s assault on Ukraine, according to U.S. and allied security officials, secretly agreeing to send not only attack drones but also what some officials described as the first Iranian-made surface-to-surface missiles intended for use against Ukrainian cities and troop positions. The increased flow of weapons from Tehran could help offset what Biden administration officials say have been huge losses in Russian military equipment since Moscow invaded in February, and a rapidly dwindling supply of precision-guided munitions of the kind used in last week’s strikes against multiple Ukrainian cities. Independent news outlets in recent days published photos of the remains of what appear to be Iranian-made drones used in strikes against Ukrainian targets, calling into question Iran’s repeated denials that it has supplied such weapons to its ally Russia. Pentagon officials also publicly confirmed the use of Iranian drones in Russian airstrikes, as well as Ukraine’s success in shooting some of the drones down. In an apparent sign of Iran’s expanded role as a military supplier to Moscow, Tehran dispatched officials to Russia on Sept. 18 to finalize terms for additional weapons shipments, including two types of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles, according to officials from a U.S.-allied country that closely monitors Iran’s weapons activity. An intelligence assessment shared in recent days with Ukrainian and U.S. officials contends that Iran’s armaments industry is preparing a first shipment of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles, two well-known Iranian short-range ballistic missiles capable of striking targets at distances of 300 and 700 kilometers, respectively, two officials briefed on the matter said. If carried out, it would be the first delivery of such missiles to Russia since the start of the war. The officials spoke on the condition that their names and nationalities not be revealed because of the extreme sensitivities surrounding intelligence-collection efforts. In August, the same officials identified specific Iranian drones, the Shahed series and the Mohajer-6, that Tehran was beginning to supply to Russia for use in Ukraine. The remains of both types have been recovered, analyzed and photographed by Ukrainian forces in recent weeks. Russia appears to have repainted the weapons and given them Russian names. The officials briefed on the planned missiles shipment said Iran also is preparing new deliveries of unmanned aerial vehicles for Russia, including “dozens” of additional Mohajer-6s and a larger number of Shahed-136s. The latter, sometimes called “kamikaze” drones because they are designed to crash into their targets, are capable of delivering explosive payloads at distances of up to 1,500 miles. Iranian technical advisers have visited Russian-controlled areas in recent weeks to provide instructions on operating the drones, the officials said. U.S. intelligence agencies declined to comment on the reports of pending Iranian shipments to Russia. Russian and Iranian officials did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday on reports of Russian-bound Iranian missiles. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said “the Islamic Republic of Iran has not and will not provide any weapon to be used in the war in Ukraine,” according to a Saturday readout of his call with his Portuguese counterpart. “We believe that the arming of each side of the crisis will prolong the war.” On Oct. 3, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani repeated Iran’s persistent denials of any involvement with supplying drones to Russia. “The Islamic Republic of Iran considers reports about delivering drones to Russia for use in the Ukraine war ‘baseless’ and does not confirm them,” he said. Kan’ani reasserted Iran’s claim of neutrality in the conflict and stressed the need for the “two sides to solve their problems through political means free from violence.” The Kyiv government has been briefed on the evidence behind the new intelligence, a Ukrainian official told The Washington Post. Ukraine has separately assessed that the majority of drones recently deployed by Russia in the southern Ukraine are Iranian-made. Ukraine recently downgraded its diplomatic ties with Tehran in response to the appearance of Iranian-made drones over the battlefield. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week cited Russia’s recent airstrikes in urging NATO countries to supply his country with advanced air-defense systems. “We need to protect our sky from the terror of Russia,” Zelensky said Thursday in a speech to the Council of Europe. Like Iran, Russia has pushed back against Western reports about the shipment of Iranian weapons for its Ukrainian campaign, with Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov deriding such accounts as “bogus.” But Iranian drones already have made their mark, destroying several Ukrainian tanks and damaging civilian infrastructure in repeated strikes in the past three weeks, Ukrainian officials say. Missiles experts say the arrival of surface-to-surface missiles could give Russia powerful new weapons at time when Kyiv’s forces are reclaiming captured territory across large swaths of southern and eastern Ukraine, successes that are due in part to Western-supplied artillery. “The progression from drones to surface-to-surface missiles could give the Russians more options and a lot of punch,” said Farzin Nadimi, an expert on Iranian weapons at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington think tank. Iran possesses one of the largest and most diverse arsenals of short- and medium-range missiles in the Middle East. While Iranian weapons designers have struggled with reliability problems, the newest versions of the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar are considered by experts to be both potent and reasonably accurate at relatively short distances, Nadimi said. Some models come with electrooptic guidance systems that allow missile operators to guide them in their final approach to the target. Iran previously provided the same missiles to proxy militia groups in the Middle East, most notably Houthi fighters in Yemen. Houthi forces have displayed Iranian-designed missiles in military parades and used them in attacks against oil refineries and other civilian targets in neighboring Gulf countries. Russia already possesses an array of unarmed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, which are used mainly for surveillance and artillery spotting. But Moscow has not invested in large fleets of armed drones of the type that U.S. forces have routinely used in military campaigns in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Moscow did command a vast arsenal of precision-guided missiles and rockets at the outset of the Ukraine invasion, but U.S. officials say its stockpile has been dramatically reduced over the course of the war, now in its seventh month. According to a presentation by a senior U.S. intelligence official on Friday, Russia’s growing reliance on countries like Iran and North Korea is evidence of the impact of sanctions and export controls imposed by Western countries in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. According to the information presented by Deputy Director of National Intelligence Morgan Muir, Russia has lost more than 6,000 pieces of equipment since the start of the war, and was “expending munitions at an unsustainable rate.” Blocked by sanctions from obtaining Western electronics, Russia is “turning to countries like Iran and North Korea for supplies and equipment,” including drones, artillery munitions and rockets, Muir said, addressing a group of top international finance officials at the Treasury Department. Muir also noted that Russia’s defense industry depends heavily on imports for material such as microprocessors and optical and thermal imaging technology. Read More Here

Energy & Precious Metals – Weekly Review And Outlook By Investing.com https://digitalarkansasnews.com/energy-precious-metals-weekly-review-and-outlook-by-investing-com/ Please try another search Commodities 4 minutes ago (Oct 16, 2022 04:54AM ET) By Barani Krishnan Investing.com — Crude prices fell last week for a fifth week in seven over what analysts said were concerns that U.S. inflation was just not slowing as the Federal Reserve expected, to the extent that it was now affecting consumer sentiment and retail sales as well. That may well be the case but the oil market was clearly not talking about the elephant in the room – i.e. the biggest geopolitical crisis to hit the trade in years, one with ramifications as important to energy as the Russia-Ukraine crisis itself. We’re talking about the OPEC+ oil production cut – the size and, more importantly, timing of it – that has got the White House all miffed. As Jonathan Panikoff, senior member at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, puts it, the decision by the Saudi-steered and Russia-supported oil-producing alliance to reduce output is probably not aimed just at President Joe Biden or the United States.  “But the manner in which it’s being implemented probably is – and it has the potential to be politically damaging for both the president and Democrats,” said Panikoff.  “The timing of the cuts – to take effect November 1, one week ahead of the US midterm elections – and their intensity, removing up to two million barrels per day from the market, probably reflect a willingness by Saudi Arabia to jab at Biden. Riyadh is not naïve about the US political landscape. OPEC+ almost certainly could have achieved its same overall goal but waited to act until shortly after the US midterms.” That brings us to Panikoff’s analysis of the fundamental problem between the United States and Saudi Arabia: a relation  that’s rife with misaligned expectations. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – a.k.a. MbS  – continues to demonstrate his preference for global engagement that is transactional, similar to how both China and Russia generally engage in the world. The problem is, that’s not traditionally how Washington conducts foreign policy, preferring long-term strategic relationships. MbS surely recognizes the broader global context of his decision-making. Riyadh’s support of the cuts reflects a conscious decision to actively support Moscow at a time when the world knows the United States is working to challenge Russia’s ability to successfully wage war in Ukraine, including by limiting capital available to Moscow from oil sales. Inevitably, Riyadh will claim the cuts are in the best interest of Saudi Arabia, and that may be true. In the short term, a coming global recession might portend greater supply and risk pushing oil prices down further. In the long term, as global energy transitions away from fossil fuels accelerate, Riyadh might think that it only has so many years left of high oil prices to glean the revenue needed to reform its economy. But even if that is Riyadh’s thinking, its behavior indicates a belief that it has nothing to lose on national security by aligning with Russia at this time. It’s true that if the United States makes a hasty and unwise decision to immediately withdraw its security umbrella from Saudi Arabia, Washington risks seeing Beijing fill that gap. On the other hand, Beijing has long been hesitant to play the role of security guarantor, and China cannot completely fill the hardware gap that would exist if the United States left—most prominently for missile defense, a field in which China is still developing its capabilities.   Riyadh may sincerely believe that the economic issues associated with oil prices are distinct from the security requirements for which it relies on the United States. But for Washington, economic security is very much core to national security. To that end, MBS needs to be careful. There are limits to how much the Biden administration is going to accept from a country that’s supposed to be a critical ally – even a transactional one. Almost every U.S. president from the 70s to now – that’s Richard Nixon to Joe Biden –  have had problems with the kingdom and its love child called OPEC (over the past six years, it’s been OPEC+ after the Saudis’ co-opting of Russia and nine other players into the wider group).  Many U.S.  commanders-in-chief had vented about the Saudis and the oil cartel, but ultimately did nothing about both.  Donald Trump had mixed results though. Despite him and his son-in-law being as chummy as possible with the House of Saud, Trump often waged a gleeful ‘war’ of his own with the cartel through precision-guided drones (tweets) to get oil prices down. The post-Covid collapse of crude prices was, of course, a game changer for Trump, making him contrite enough to lend the combined forces of the Saudis and Russians a helping hand to put the oil market back together again. Enter Biden in January 2022, and nothing has been the same since for the Americans and the Saudis. In fact, almost every month has been progressively worse for diplomatic ties and the supply-demand situation in oil (the president’s “pariah-state” comment against Riyadh over the Jamal Khashoggi killing not helping).  Biden’s maiden visit to the Saudi capital in July was unsurprisingly more disastrous, with the president telling MbS on his face, on Saudi soil, that he thought the crown prince was responsible for the killing. Hence, a 500,000 barrels-per-day production cut originally conceived as a “bridge-building” move by the Saudis in response to the visit ended up becoming an insulting 100,000-bpd at MbS’ order.   Biden has to realize that he’s not only butting heads with the source of the world’s most critical oil supply. He’s also up against a crown prince and energy minister (the latter being MbS’ half brother, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, or AbS) whose combined egos are probably greater than the dignity of the rest of the Arab world. So, comes the question: What could the White House hope to achieve in a political reset with the Saudis?  With the midterm elections just weeks away, it’s hard to think of anything the administration could do at this point – other than to release more oil from the U.S. reserve – to bring crude prices lower. On the contrary, prices could actually rise on the new turmoil that’s being created; though justice-seekers to Saudi extravagance would probably cheer. If MbS thinks it’s alright to give Biden a jab below the belt just before the elections, it’s probably not wrong either for the president to show the crown prince that he indeed has something below that belt to accuse him on his face of murder. Diplomatically, given how well things are going, it would not be surprising if Saudi Arabia is classified next as a “state sponsor of terror” by the State Department for its allegiance with the Kremlin (sounds like the Iranians might suddenly have company).  A withdrawal of arms deals could (or would most likely) follow.  To that end, Panikoff says, the bigger question is whether European Union countries would try to jump in to fill the military hardware gap instead, just as Dassault Aviation – the French Rafale jet manufacturer – came to an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to sell its jets shortly after Abu Dhabi called off the deal to purchase the US-made F-35. “If so, it will undermine U.S. leverage to redefine the contours of its relationship with Saudi Arabia; if not, the United States will have to decide whether it’s going to try to compel Riyadh to re-engage with Washington in a strategic manner or accept a more transactional relationship,” Panikoff said. But back to the question of why the oil market is surprisingly desensitized to the incredibly tense U.S.-Saudi backdrop. Some say it’s because such a showdown is quite unprecedented – with none of the OPEC-related crises of the past 60 years coming this close to rewriting the rules of political and diplomatic engagement between two of the world’s most important allies.  “Simply put, oil traders do not know how to react at this point as no one knows for sure how this is going to go,” said John Kilduff, partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital. “But one thing’s for sure: It’s not going away. So grab your popcorn, raise your recliner to your favorite position and release the pause button on your OPEC+ TV, for what is to come.” Oil: Market Settlements and Activity  Crude prices were down as much as 7% on the week, giving back about half of the past two weeks’ gains, after latest readings for U.S. and showed the Fed was barely winning in its year-long battle against price pressures. “The global growth outlook remains a major downside risk, also,” Craig Erlam, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, said, pointing to new lockdowns in China, the world’s largest crude oil importer, which has been fighting COVID flare-ups after a week-long holiday.  “With labor markets remaining tight and inflation stubborn, further downgrades could be on the cards,” Erlam added. New York-traded did a final print of $85.55 per barrel, after settling Friday’s official session down $3.50, or 3.9%, at $85.61. For the week, WTI was down just over 7%. U.S. crude benchmark rose 17% over two prior weeks, in a powerful start to October, after a 12.5% drop in September and 24% loss for the third quarter. London-traded put in a final print of $91.64, after settling Friday’s session down $2.94, or 3.1%, at $91.63. Brent had risen 13% over two prior weeks. The global crude benchmark was down 11% in September and dropped 22% in the third-quarter. Oil: Price Outlook So, where are U.S. crude prices headed, at least technically? According to Sunil Kumar Dixit, chief technical strategist at SKCharting.com, the  previous week’s strong rebound in WTI could not keep pace in the latest week, stopping short of the weekly middle Bollinger B...

A History Lesson For Donald Trump | The Spectator Australia https://digitalarkansasnews.com/a-history-lesson-for-donald-trump-the-spectator-australia/ Former president Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he arrives at the podium for a campaign rally at Legacy Sports USA in Mesa, Arizona (Getty) I take a page from history. On Thursday, the Committee (you know which one) voted 9-0 to subpoena the former president. Of course, he might refuse to comply with the subpoena. What then? Here’s one scenario, per CNN: “Contempt. The full House, which is controlled by Democrats until at least January, could vote to hold him in contempt of Congress, something it’s done with several other uncooperative witnesses “Referral. After a contempt of Congress referral, the Justice Department could then prosecute, as it did with Trump’s former aide Steve Bannon and plans to do with his once economic advisor Peter Navarro “Prosecution. If found guilty, as Bannon was, Trump could theoretically face a minimum of thirty days in jail. Bannon will be sentenced for failing to comply with the House subpoena later this month” Experts — I mean “experts” — say this this is unlikely but who knows? The New York Times reported another scenario. The former president, they wrote in a front page story, “declined yesterday to comply with the subpoena served” on behalf of the House Committee. “At a tense and crowded news conference,” they reported, the former president “said his position was based on ‘universally recognized constitutional doctrine.’” He went on to say that “In spite of my personal willingness to cooperate with your committee, I feel constrained by my duty to the to the people of the United States to decline to comply with the subpoena.” The former president then cited sixteen previous presidents, Democrats as well as Republicans, who had declined to respond to congressional subpoenas. He also, the Times reported, insisted that “if the doctrine of the separation of powers — and the independence of the presidency — was to have ‘any validity at all,’ it must apply equally to a president in office and to one who had left office — assuming the inquiry related to matters connected to his administration.” According to the Times, he went on to observe that the principle of the separation of powers would fail and “the presidency shrink to a mere arm of the legislative branch — ‘contrary to our fundamental theory of constitutional government’ — if the president should feel during his term that his ‘every act might be subject to an official inquiry and possible distortion for political purposes.’” To this point, he quoted Andrew Jackson who, faced with a similar demand from Congress, said, “For myself, I shall repel all such attempts as an invasion of the principles of justice as well as of the Constitution, and I shall esteem it my sacred duty to the people of the United States to resist them, as I would the establishment of a Spanish Inquisition.” Constitutional experts were divided in their response to the former president’s refusal to cooperate with the Committee’s subpoena, but the Committee let it be known that it would not act against the former president. The Committee, by the way, was the House Committee on Un-American Activities — a good name, now that I think of it, for Liz Cheney’s last hurrah on Capitol Hill — and the president was Harry Truman. Donald Trump and his supporters might want to take a page from Truman’s robust response to that earlier example of congressional overreach and disgusting, megalomaniacal insanity on the part of rogue legislators. The Times story from November 13, 1953 has some revelatory details. The post A history lesson for Donald Trump appeared first on The Spectator World. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below. Show comments Read More Here

Ghislaine Maxwell Says She https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ghislaine-maxwell-says-she/ Ghislaine Maxwell has said she “feels bad” for Prince Andrew and accepts they can no longer be friends, in her first interview from prison since being convicted of sex trafficking. Speaking to CBS and Paramount Plus, the 60-year-old said she understood why the Duke of York‘s lawyers had to downplay their friendship. “I feel so bad for him,” The Sun reports she told the interviewer. “I follow what’s happening to him.” Following a trial earlier this year, Maxwell was found guilty of luring young girls to massage rooms for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to molest, between 1994 and 2004. Speaking for the first time from prison, she said: “I accept that this friendship could not survive my conviction. “He is paying such a price for the association. I consider him a dear friend. I care about him.” The former socialite went on to claim the now infamous photo of her, Andrew and a young Virginia Giuffre (above) is not genuine. Prince Andrew settled a civil sex assault claim brought by Ms Giuffre earlier this year. He has always denied any wrongdoing. Speaking about billionaire paedophile Epstein, Maxwell described their relationship as the “greatest regret of my life” and said she would “avoid meeting him” if she could turn back the clock. Image: Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein But she added that “many women can identify” with falling in love with someone they regretted. Maxwell, who was moved to a low security prison in Florida in July and is appealing her conviction, spoke to the media on two occasions, according to The Sun. The first interview was carried out at the high security detention centre in New York where she was held after her arrest, and the second in Florida. Prison documents confirmed she was moved to FCI Tallahassee this summer. According to a prison consulting firm, inmates are able to do yoga, stage talent shows and watch films. Relationship with Bill Clinton was ‘special’ Image: Pic: US Department of Justice Maxwell also spoke about her trial during the interview, saying it had turned her into a “wicked witch Disney character”. She also described her friendship with former US president Bill Clinton as “special”, adding they had “lots in common”. Maxwell said that like with Prince Andrew, she accepts they can no longer be associated. But she said she felt “honoured” when former President Donald Trump wished her well ahead of her trial. Describing how they “mingled in the same circles”, she said his words were a “big boost”. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison following her arrest in 2020. Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. The full interview will be broadcast on ITV, CBS News and Paramount Plus at 6.30pm on 17 October Read More Here