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Post Politics Now: Biden Heads West With Eye On Boosting Fellow Democrats https://digitalarkansasnews.com/post-politics-now-biden-heads-west-with-eye-on-boosting-fellow-democrats/ Today, President Biden heads west on a trip heavily focused on bolstering fellow Democrats in advance of next month’s midterm elections. His first stop is Colorado, where he plans to designate Camp Hale as a new national monument, delivering on a key priority for Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), who faces a competitive reelection bid. Other stops in coming days include California and Oregon. Meanwhile, the latest in a string of debates in marquee Senate races — this one between Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and his Democratic challenger, Mandela Barnes — is scheduled Wednesday night. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments, including in a case about the “fair use” doctrine in copyright law. Your daily dashboard 9:15 a.m. Eastern: Biden departs the White House en route to Colorado. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters aboard Air Force One. Listen live here. 3:30 p.m. Eastern (1:30 p.m. Mountain): Biden delivers remarks at Camp Hale in Vail, Colo. Watch live here. 7 p.m. Eastern: Johnson and Barnes debate in Milwaukee. Watch live here. Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers. Analysis: Abortion is a strong motivator for voters, which is good news for Democrats Return to menu Democrats and Republicans are sharpening their battle plans in the final stretch of the midterm campaign, aiming to find the right messaging to motivate their bases to get to the polls on Election Day. Writing in The Health 202, The Post’s Rachel Roubein says that a new survey out Wednesday from the Kaiser Family Foundation has both good and bad news for Democrats. Per Rachel: The good: Abortion is a stronger motivator for midterm voters now than it was in July. In particular, access to the procedure is motivating Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters in states where most abortions are illegal. The bad: The Medicare provisions in the party’s health-and-climate bill are popular among Democrats and independents. But few voters are aware of the law’s specific health provisions roughly two months after President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act. Midterm elections see far fewer voters than in the presidential election years, meaning races will be won and lost by which factions turn out in November. That gives increasing importance to any issue that could drive voters to the ballot box. You can read Rachel’s full analysis here. The latest: Jan. 6 panel to highlight new evidence Trump was alerted of violence Return to menu The probable final public hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected to highlight newly obtained Secret Service records showing how President Donald Trump was repeatedly alerted to brewing violence that day, but still sought to stoke the conflict, according to three people briefed on the records. The Post’s Carol D. Leonnig and Jacqueline Alemany report that the committee plans to share in Thursday’s hearing new video footage and internal Secret Service emails that appear to corroborate parts of the most startling inside accounts of that day, according to the people briefed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal records. Per our colleagues: On our radar: Harris calling in to radio stations in six competitive states Return to menu Vice President Harris on Wednesday plans a blitz of radio interviews focused on a half-dozen states with competitive Senate and gubernatorial races. According to her office, Harris plans to call in to local stations in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Her aim, her office says, is “to share with listeners how the Biden-Harris Administration has delivered for working American families and speak to the investments the Administration has made into specific communities.” Analysis: Parties fight for control of key state legislatures Return to menu The 2022 midterm elections are officially less than one month away and efforts to shore up or flip majorities in state legislatures have kicked into high gear across the country. Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer note that states are often where national political and policy trends bubble up. Control of these bodies is particularly important now that the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has left the issue of access to abortion up to state governments. Per our colleagues: On our radar: Biden to designate Colorado’s Camp Hale as his first national monument Return to menu President Biden will travel to Colorado on Wednesday to designate a World War II-era military site as a national monument, using his executive powers to protect the historic landscape and delivering on a key priority for Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.) ahead of next month’s midterm elections. The Post’s Maxine Joselow reports that Biden has yet to create an entirely new national monument, although he has expanded existing monuments that President Donald Trump slashed in size. Per Maxine: The designation will apply to Camp Hale, which served as winter training grounds for the Army in the 1940s and now provides critical habitat for wildlife including elk, deer, lynxes and migratory songbirds. The Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument will encompass more than 53,800 acres and will also include the Tenmile Range, a mountain range with stunning views that is prized by hikers and rock climbers, according to a White House statement. You can read Maxine’s full story here. Noted: Biden sees ‘a very slight recession’ at worst and other CNN interview highlights Return to menu President Biden, in a prime-time interview broadcast Tuesday night, said he doesn’t see a recession coming and believes it would be “very slight” if there is one. Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Biden downplayed repeated forecasts by some economists that the U.S. economy could fall into a recession. “Every six months they say this,” Biden said. “Every six months, they look down the next six months and say what’s going to happen. … It hadn’t happened yet. It hadn’t. … I don’t think there will be a recession. If it is, it’ll be a very slight recession. That is, we’ll move down slightly.” The latest: Biden says Supreme Court ‘more of an advocacy group’ than ‘evenhanded’ Return to menu President Biden on Tuesday stepped up his criticism of the Supreme Court, calling it “more of an advocacy group” than “evenhanded.” Biden’s assessment came toward the end of remarks at a virtual fundraiser for Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) as he laid out what he sees at stake for Democrats in November. “So, I view this … off-year election as one of the most important elections that I’ve been engaged in, because a lot can change because the institutions have changed,” Biden said. “The Supreme Court is more of an advocacy group these days than it is … evenhanded.” On our radar: The most surprising battleground for the House is New England Return to menu A handful of Republicans in New England — including candidates in Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut — have a chance of winning in a region where Republicans at the federal level had been considered an endangered species. The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer note that there are no New England Republicans in the House, and Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) is the only Republican senator from the northeastern part of the country. Per our colleagues: The political environment appears to favor Republicans to retake the House. But Republicans in New England point to additional factors in their favor, including a cadre of strong candidates and a “perfect storm” of issues that include the high cost of energy and food as well as the rise of fentanyl in New England communities, which GOP candidates argue is arriving up north due to a lack of security at the southern border. You can read the full story, which includes a look at the competitive race in Rhode Island between Democrat Seth Magaziner and Republican Allan Fung, here. On our radar: In crucial Nevada, economic woes threaten to shake Democrats’ grip Return to menu In Nevada, a crucial midterm battlefront where Republicans haven’t won a Senate race in a decade and have come up short in other key races, economic woes have raised the GOP’s hopes of flipping seats throughout the ballot. Reporting from Las Vegas, The Post’s Hannah Knowles writes that financial strains are testing Democrats’ ability to retain and turn out the minority, working-class voters who have long helped power them to victory, according to interviews with voters, candidates and strategists, as well as a review of polling. Per Hannah: Read More Here

Five Finger Death Punch Drop Official Music Videos For “Times Like These” And “Welcome To The Circus” – Side Stage Magazine https://digitalarkansasnews.com/five-finger-death-punch-drop-official-music-videos-for-times-like-these-and-welcome-to-the-circus-side-stage-magazine/ Five Finger Death Punch & Brantley Gilbert US 2022 Tour Wed Nov 9 – Grand Rapids, MI | Van Andel Arena Thu Nov 10 – Fort Wayne, IN | Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Sat Nov 12 – Lexington, KY | Rupp Arena Mon Nov 14 – Columbus, OH | Schottenstein Center Wed Nov 16 – Nashville, TN | Bridgestone Arena Thu Nov 17 – Knoxville, TN | Thompson-Boling Arena Sat Nov 19 – Charleston, WV | Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center Sun Nov 20 – Greenville, SC | Bon Secours Wellness Arena Tue Nov 22 – Tampa, FL | Amalie Arena Fri Nov 25 – Birmingham, AL | Legacy Arena at The BJCC Sat Nov 26 – Little Rock, AR | Simmons Bank Arena Tue Nov 29 – Kansas City, MO | T-Mobile Center Wed Nov 30 – Omaha, NE | CHI Health Center Omaha Fri Dec 2 – Madison, WI | Coliseum at Alliant Energy Center Sat Dec 3 – Green Bay, WI | Resch Center Mon Dec 5 – Minneapolis, MN | Target Center Wed Dec 7 – Des Moines, IA | Wells Fargo Arena Fri Dec 9 – Grand Forks, ND | Alerus Center Sat Dec 10 – Sioux Falls, SD | Denny Sanford PREMIER Center Tue Dec 13 – Spokane, WA | Spokane Arena Thu Dec 15 – Nampa, ID | Ford Idaho Center Arena Sat Dec 17 – Las Vegas, NV | Michelob ULTRA Arena Read More…

Indiana Democrats Push Abortion Issue As Early Voting Starts https://digitalarkansasnews.com/indiana-democrats-push-abortion-issue-as-early-voting-starts%ef%bf%bc/ NDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana voters can begin casting early, in-person ballots Wednesday for the Nov. 8 election in which Democrats are looking for a backlash against the Republican-backed state abortion ban approved over the summer. Republicans in the tightest races are largely avoiding the abortion issue while emphasizing economic topics as they seek to extend their dominance over statewide offices and the General Assembly. Republican U.S. Sen. Todd Young is seeking reelection by following a front-runner strategy of mostly ignoring Democratic challenger Thomas McDermott ahead of their only televised debate scheduled for Sunday. Democrats, meanwhile, are targeting the Indiana secretary of state’s race, in which former Mike Pence aide Diego Morales won the Republican nomination despite twice leaving jobs in that office after being written up for poor job performance. Here is a look at top races on Indiana ballots: U.S. SENATE Young entered the campaign with huge fundraising and organization advantages over McDermott, who has been the mayor of Hammond, Indiana, since 2004 but is little known outside northwestern Indiana. FILE – Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., speaks during the Senate Armed Services and Senate Foreign Relations GOP news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) Indiana’s Senate race hasn’t seen the tens of millions in outside spending that it attracted four years ago when Republican Mike Braun defeated Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly and in 2016 when Young won the Senate seat over former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh. Young avoided a primary challenge this year despite not fully embracing Donald Trump’s presidency — and not getting a Trump endorsement. Young voted to acquit Trump in his Senate impeachment trial but voted to uphold President Joe Biden’s election win. McDermott, a lawyer and U.S. Navy veteran, has tried to build an appeal to working-class voters attracted to Trump while advocating congressional protection of abortion rights and federal marijuana legalization. The lack of national groups spending money in the race when Democrats and Republicans are fiercely fighting for control of the current 50-50 Senate makes it difficult to see Young as vulnerable, although the abortion issue is a wildcard, said Paul Helmke, the former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne and the party’s 1998 U.S. Senate candidate. “It might be something that gives a little new spark to Democrats in the state,” said Helmke, now an Indiana University public affairs professor. “But whether that’s enough to overcome the strong Republican mindset is hard to tell.” SECRETARY OF STATE Morales won the Republican nomination to become Indiana’s top elections office after talking up a push for tighter state voting restrictions and calling the 2020 presidential election a “scam” while pointing to unfounded claims Trump and his allies have made about other states. Democrats criticize Morales as an “election denier” and see a chance to defeat him by pointing to him leaving low-level secretary of state office jobs in 2009 and 2011 after job performance write-ups. Morales returned to state government as an aide on Pence’s gubernatorial staff until Pence left to become Trump’s vice president in 2017. Democratic candidate Destiny Wells, an attorney and Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, says Morales is “sowing seeds of fear and doubt” about elections and that the secretary of state should focus on improving Indiana’s troubles with low voter turnout. Libertarian Jeff Maurer, who is also on the ballot, is advocating improved statewide paper versions of all ballots and independent audits of vote tallies in all counties. U.S. HOUSE SEATS Republicans are making their first serious challenge in several decades for the northwestern Indiana congressional district that has long been a Democratic stronghold. Black U.S. Air Force veteran Jennifer-Ruth Green is challenging Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan, who won his first term in 2020 in the 1st District that hugs Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline. Democrats have typically won there by large margins, but Trump closed the gap by appealing to working class voters in the district that has some of the country’s largest steel mills. Green, who is a lieutenant colonel in the Indiana Air National Guard, touted herself as a Trump supporter during the Republican primary campaign. Democrats have focused much of their criticism on her opposition to abortion rights. STATE LEGISLATURE Democrats are trying to pick up enough state legislative seats to break the Republican supermajorities that have left Democrats largely powerless against conservative proposals such as the abortion ban that’s been blocked by a court order. Democrats need to gain five seats in the 100-member House needed to break the two-thirds supermajority that allows Republicans to act even if no Democrats are present. New district maps taking effect with this election protect most current Republican lawmakers, but Democrats are targeting some Republican-held seats in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis and in the South Bend and Fort Wayne areas. State Democratic Chairman Mike Schmuhl said the abortion ban is an example of “government overreach” stemming from the decade-long Republican legislative supermajority. “I think that really crystallizes things for people,” Schmuhl said. “That something so personal, that really should be between a woman, her family, her faith, her doctor, have Republican politicians kind of step in front of those folks and say, ‘Oh, no, we’re going to make those decisions for you.’” Read More Here

Dow Futures Are Flat As Investors Fear Inflation Will Drive The Fed To Keep Raising Rates https://digitalarkansasnews.com/dow-futures-are-flat-as-investors-fear-inflation-will-drive-the-fed-to-keep-raising-rates/ Stock futures traded flat Wednesday as investors weighed price data that came in higher than expected, signaling more interest rate hikes are ahead as the Federal Reserve looks to tame high inflation. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 47 points, or 0.16%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.26% and 0.35%, respectively. Stock futures pared gains from earlier in the morning when the September producer price index, a gauge of final-demand wholesale prices, came in higher than expected. The print was up 0.4% in September, more than the consensus estimate of a 0.2% increase, according to Dow Jones. The PPI number is one of the inflation gauges investors are watching alongside the Federal Reserve. If inflation continues to be high, the central bank is more likely to continue its aggressive path of interest rate hikes to bring it back into check. That means rates will continue to rise and my stay high for longer than markets expect, weighing on stocks. Investors will get more inflation data on Thursday, when the September consumer price index report is released. The CPI number is a measure of price changes in a basket of common consumer goods and services. The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting will also be released Wednesday. While Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has acknowledged that aggressive interest rate increases could be painful, the central bank will continue to charge forward in its fight to lower inflation. “Powell has repeated, in what has become his mantra, that without price stability we cannot have a strong economy or a strong labor market,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial. “Investors are concerned that restrictive monetary policy, that is, tighter financial conditions, could lead to the kind of financial accident that dries up liquidity and delivers more harm to the global economy.” Bond market sees slight negative in PPI, focus turns to upcoming consumer inflation report Treasury yields ticked slightly higher after a report showing producer prices jumped more than expected in September. But traders noted that the core producer price index inflation reading was in line with expectation, and the bond market reaction was muted. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose to 3.96%. Yields move opposite price. “The market is reading it as slightly bad… Maybe it’s a little bearish for bonds, perhaps an ominous signal for CPI tomorrow,” said Michael Schumacher of Wells Fargo. “Normally markets shrug off PPI. Now that people are so worried about inflation, people are looking at it more than they normally would. I don’t think it’s a big deal. The big number is tomorrow’s CPI.” September’s PPI rose by 0.4%, above the expected 0.2%. Excluding food and energy, PPI rose 0.3%, and at an annual pace of 7.2%, in line with estimates. The more widely watched consumer price index is expected at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday. “It certainly doesn’t move the needle for the Fed or offer much indication for what we’re going to see tomorrow in CPI,” said Ben Jeffery of BMO. “We saw a basis point increase in 10-year yields but nothing dramatic.” A basis point equals 0.01 of a percentage point. –Patti Domm Producer prices rise more than expected in September The producer price index rose by 0.4% in September, beating a Dow Jones forecast for a 0.2% gain. Year over year, PPI rose 8.5%, a slight deceleration from the 8.7% increase in August. Click here to read more. — Fred Imbert, Jeff Cox Stock futures pare gains after September producer price index is higher than expected The September producer price index, an inflation gauge that measures final-demand wholesale prices, came in higher than anticipated Wednesday. The September reading for PPI was up 0.4%, higher than the 0.2% consensus estimate according to Dow Jones. In August, the gauge fell 0.2%. Stocks pared gains after the report was released with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up only 24 points, or 0.08%. The S&P 500 was up 0.21% and the Nasdaq rose 0.27% —Carmen Reinicke Moderna surges after Merck exercises option to collaborate on cancer vaccine Shares of Moderna surged more than 8% in premarket trading Wednesday after Merck announced it would exercise an option to collaborate with the company on a cancer vaccine. Merck will pay $250 million to exercise the option. The drug, mRNA-4157, is being tested alongside Keytruda, another key cancer medication from the company. Data on the vaccine is expected in the fourth quarter. – Carmen Reinicke Citi likes Apple into earnings Citi isn’t spooked by Apple‘s upcoming earnings report this Halloween season, despite media and investor fears. The tech giant is set to release its fiscal-year fourth quarter results Oct. 27. “Apple shares have slightly outperformed the broader market, given better-than-feared results [year to date], continued product launches, and positive news flow on consumer preference for higher ASP iPhone 14 Pro models,” analyst Jim Suva wrote in a note Tuesday. Among the reasons he is positive are checks that suggest iPhone 14 build is still on track, its $90 billion stock buyback and new product category launches such as augmented reality/virtual reality headsets and Apple Car in 2025 or later. Citi’s price target of $185 implies 33% upside from Tuesday’s close. The stock is down nearly 22% year to date. — Michelle Fox Detrick sees stocks nearing market bottom in October, Shah disagrees Two stock market analysts disagree about the timing of the bear market bottom looking ahead to earnings season and midterm elections. Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, thinks that the market bottom is near and will likely come in October. The month has a reputation for volatility and crashes he said, but there are some things that point to markets falling. Sentiment has fallen, and the VIX volatility index is in backwardation. “We’re pretty optimistic we’re getting closer to a pretty significant low here,” he said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Seema Shah, senior global investment strategist at Principal Global Investors, disagrees. “We could be building up for a technical rally, but I wouldn’t call it the market bottom,” she said. Going into earnings season, any companies that miss or beat weak expectations could boost stocks, she added. Still, she agreed that markets are too negative right now. But, instead of that leading to the market bottom, she said stocks could rally at the end of the year as investors snap up deals. —Carmen Reinicke Third quarter earnings sentiment already weighed down, according to Wells Fargo Even though only 4% of S&P 500 companies have reported third quarter earnings, sentiment has already taken a hit, according to Wells Fargo. “Q3 earnings reactions are off to a tough start,” wrote Chris Harvey in a Wednesday note. “We expect reactions to improve as we move through the season, but the not-so-great tone from early reporters, coupled with a generally bleaker macro environment, has weighed on sentiment.” Some stocks have already been re-priced ahead of announcements due to lowered expectations, especially companies in vulnerable sectors like cyclicals. “This could help those companies see some relief if they can meet or beat,” Harvey said. “We advise focusing on repriced GARP opportunities that may have longer-term upside in what we expect to be a challenged growth environment in 2023.” Companies that miss could face an even harsher penalty than usual, according to the note. —Carmen Reinicke PepsiCo reports better-than-expected earnings, shares rise PepsiCo shares rose 1.5% after the beverage and snack giant posted quarterly earnings that beat analyst expectations. The company posted a profit of $1.97 per share, beating a Refinitiv forecast of $1.84 per share. — Fred Imbert UBS says it’s time to buy Norwegian Cruise Line UBS analyst Robin Farley upgraded shares of Norwegian Cruise Line to a buy rating, citing improved bookings and occupancy rates. Farley trimmed the bank’s price target on the stock, which reflects a near 30% upside for the stock from Tuesday’s close. Shares rose about 3% in premarket trading. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more on the upgrade here. — Samantha Subin Credit Suisse says sell Rocket Lab Credit Suisse analyst Scott Deuschle initiated Rocket Lab with an underperform rating, citing several risks to the space company’s valuation. “We are concerned that the space economy may experience unfavorable reflexivity from declining public and private space company valuations,” he said. “Specifically for RKLB, lower valuations may drive a reduction in capital spend from earth intelligence firms and the broader space startup ecosystem.” Rocket Lab shares slid 1% in the premarket. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Sam Subin UK economy shrinks by 0.3% in August U.K. GDP contracted by 0.3% month-on-month in August, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday, below expectations for stagnation from a Reuters poll of economists. The fall in activity was driven partly by manufacturing weakness and maintenance work on North Sea oil and gas facilities, the ONS said, while both production and services activity fell. July GDP growth was revised down to 0.1% from a previous estimate of 0.2%. “While this figure is not what the country wants to see, it won’t make much of a difference to the path we are already on. The Bank of England (BoE) will continue to increase its base rate at it battles to tame runaway inflation,” said Marcus Brookes, chief investment officer at Quilter Investors. “The BoE continues to face the incredibly difficult task of guiding the country through this uncertain period where it finds itself in a roc...

New Evidence To Show Trump Was Warned Of Violence On Jan. 6 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/new-evidence-to-show-trump-was-warned-of-violence-on-jan-6/ The probably final public hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected to highlight newly obtained Secret Service records showing how President Donald Trump was repeatedly alerted to brewing violence that day, and he still sought to stoke the conflict, according to three people briefed on the records. The committee plans to share in Thursday’s hearing new video footage and internal Secret Service emails that appear to corroborate parts of the most startling inside accounts of that day, said the people briefed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal records. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June that Trump was briefed on Jan. 6 that some of his supporters were armed for battle, demanded they be allowed into his rally and insisted he wanted to lead them on their march to the Capitol. Surveillance footage the committee plans to share was taken near the Ellipse that morning before Trump’s speech and shows throngs of his supporters clustered just outside the corralled area for his “Stop the Steal” rally. Secret Service officers screened those entering who sought to get closer to the stage. Law enforcement officials who were monitoring video that morning spotted Trump supporters with plastic shields, bulletproof vests and other paramilitary gear, and some in the Secret Service concluded they stayed outside the rally area to avoid having their weapons confiscated, according to people familiar with the new records. Other internal emails likely to be revealed at the hearing further buttress accounts about staff members warning Trump about the risk and then the reality of violence that day, as he continued to press nervous Secret Service agents to take him to the Capitol to join his supporters marching there, the three people said. After being alerted to violence erupting at the Capitol when he returned to the White House, Trump tweeted criticism of Vice President Mike Pence for not blocking the certification of the election, whipping up supporters who had already trampled over security barricades and were battling police to break into the halls of Congress. The newly obtained Secret Service records are just part of a larger hearing in which the committee hopes to summarize and remind the American public of all the ways Trump is said to have played a central role in fomenting a violent insurrection at the Capitol, one of the most brutal attacks on democracy in U.S. history, according to multiple people briefed on the evidence and committee plan. While the committee’s previous hearings took center stage over several weeks this summer, the committee is trying to revive interest in its probe and deliver what it has privately called its “closing arguments” about past and ongoing threats to democracy as voters prepare to cast ballots next month in the midterm elections. The hearing aims to highlight new evidence gathered by investigators that corroborates the committee’s key findings about Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to the people briefed: that he sought to rile up his supporters to help block the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory; used his bully pulpit to encourage a fiery showdown at the Capitol; and then refused to budge to help rescue thousands of lawmakers, staff members and police officers on Capitol Hill who were either fleeing or fighting for their lives that afternoon. It’s unclear, however, if the new material will shed any light on a particularly dramatic part of Hutchinson’s testimony, in which she recounted a senior Secret Service official telling her that Trump had erupted in anger and lunged at the lead security agent in his motorcade when told he could not go to the Capitol. Email shows question over Trump’s plans One email the committee has obtained highlights the level of alarm inside Secret Service headquarters on Jan. 6 about the possibility that Trump would get his wish to head to the Capitol — and join a melee in progress. By 1 p.m. Eastern time that day, according to police testimony, hand-to-hand combat between protesters and officers was breaking out on the steps and platforms immediately outside the Capitol. The Secret Service had just then offered to send reinforcements to help an overwhelmed U.S. Capitol Police force, according to texts and testimony from then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund. The new correspondence obtained by the committee shows that while Trump was still speaking to his supporters and announcing he was going to the Capitol, Secret Service personnel in charge of transportation and field operations scrambled to try to secure a safe motorcade route for the president and his entourage, two people briefed on the records said. The Secret Service staff members sought D.C. police help to block intersections. But with tens of thousands of protesters in downtown Washington, and D.C. police being dispatched to help Capitol Police with protesters breaking through barricades, D.C. police declined the Secret Service’s request. About 1:10 p.m., Trump had left the Ellipse in his motorcade after finishing his speech, and demanded to go to the Capitol. Trump’s detail leader, Bobby Engel, riding with Trump in his sport utility vehicle, told an enraged Trump that they were heading back to the White House and it was not safe to take him to the Capitol, The Washington Post previously reported. “We don’t have the assets,” Engel told Trump of the inability to secure safe passage for his motorcade, according to a Secret Service official briefed on Engel’s account. By about 1:20 p.m., Trump was back at the White House. One of the committee’s newly obtained documents shows that sometime between 1:30 and 2 p.m., a senior Secret Service supervisor for protective operations emailed Engel with an urgent update and seeking to know if Trump’s plan to go to the Capitol was successfully quashed. It came after a tumultuous hour for the Secret Service detail, which had effectively ignored a command from the president. Even with Trump back at the White House, Secret Service headquarters wanted to be sure the president was staying put. The supervisor, Ron Rowe, warned Engel that the situation was rapidly devolving at the Capitol and sought Engel’s confirmation he was not considering taking Trump there, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the records turned over to the committee. Rowe urged Engel to call him. Rowe declined to comment, but Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Rowe’s email reflected the larger agency’s position: Trump’s idea of going to the Capitol was a non-starter. In other internal emails, agents relayed reports that Trump was angry about being told he couldn’t go to the Capitol. Some of the information, the people briefed said, calls into question the previous testimony of Engel and Anthony Ornato, then a Secret Service leader who was serving in an unprecedented political role of White House deputy chief of staff. Both men told the committee in closed-door depositions that they could not recall certain events relayed by other witnesses, including Trump’s demand that the Secret Service let armed people into his rally. After Hutchinson testified that Ornato told her that Trump had lunged at Engel inside the sport utility vehicle they were traveling in, anonymous Secret Service sources said that Engel and Ornato disputed any altercation occurred and were prepared to say so under oath. The committee has not yet re-interviewed the two men, as lawmakers sifted through the additional trove of Secret Service records. Ornato and Engel, through a Secret Service spokesman, declined to comment. How the committee got the documents The vast trove of records turned over to the Jan. 6 committee is the result of an ironic twist of events, according to the people briefed on the documents. The same Secret Service that permanently deleted agents’ texts from Jan. 6 and the surrounding days amid congressional requests last year has now provided to the committee this large volume of internal communications from the same time period. Voluntarily, the agency has turned over every record it kept of logistical planning, security concerns, and private discussions related to the scheduled protests and president’s movements. This extensive sharing of records — more than 1 million pages’ worth and many which the committee did not specifically request — followed a period when the Secret Service came under fire for executing an agencywide destruction of all texts exchanged from agents phones in that key period. Federal regulations mandate the preservation of government records, and the Secret Service’s deletion of these records prompted a federal investigation into the failure to do so. The texts were wiped from agents’ phones as part of a Secret Service-wide update of employees phones that began in January 2021. Secret Service officials have said the mass deletion of reams of potential evidence was unintentional, and the agency’s telephone provider has concluded those texts are now impossible to recover. The committee had considered sharing a portion of its videotaped interview with Ornato at a previous hearing and it’s unclear if lawmakers will do so Thursday. In one portion of his interview, according to two people briefed on his account, Ornato described briefing White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows the afternoon of Jan. 6 about detailed reports of violence breaking out at the Capitol, as well as police officers being transported to a hospital. The committee learned from other witnesses that Meadows then briefed Trump. The hearing could build out the evidence that Trump took steps to ratchet up the conflict at the Capitol, despite being warned of escalating violence. Lawmak...

Druzhba Pipeline Leak Reduces Russian Oil Flows To Germany https://digitalarkansasnews.com/druzhba-pipeline-leak-reduces-russian-oil-flows-to-germany/ WARSAW, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Germany said on Wednesday it was receiving less oil but still had adequate supplies, after Poland found a leak in the Druzhba pipeline that delivers crude from Russia to Europe that Warsaw said was probably caused by an accident rather than sabotage. The discovery of the leak in the main route carrying oil to Germany, which operator PERN said it found on Tuesday evening, comes as Europe is on high alert over its energy security as it faces a severe crisis in the aftermath of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine which has cut supplies of gas. “Security of supply in Germany is currently guaranteed,” an economy ministry spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The refineries in Schwedt and Leuna continue to receive crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline.” Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The Schwedt refinery, which supplies 90% of Berlin’s fuel, said in an emailed statement that deliveries were taking place at reduced capacity. Germany said it was hoping for more information soon from Poland about the cause of the leak and how it can be repaired. Europe has been on high alert over the security of its energy infrastructure since major leaks were found last month in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea. Both the West and Russia have blamed sabotage. However, Poland’s top official in charge of energy infrastructure, Mateusz Berger, told Reuters by telephone that the leak in the Druzhba pipeline was most likely caused by “accidental damage”. “We are living in turbulent times, different connotations are possible, but at this stage we have no grounds at all to believe that,” he said, when asked about the possibility of sabotage. Berger said the leak was located 70 km (44 miles) west from Plock, where Poland’s biggest refinery owned by PKN Orlen is located. As a result, part of the shipping capacity towards Germany was not available, he said, adding that repairs would likely “not take long”. PERN said supplies to Germany were reduced but continuing. Reuters Graphics GERMAN, POLAND REFINERY SUPPLIES A model of a pipe line is seen at the main entrance to the Gomel Transneft oil pumping station, which moves crude through the Northern Druzhba pipeline westwards to Poland and Europe, near Mozyr, Belarus, in this file picture taken January 4, 2020. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko The Druzhba oil pipeline, whose name means “friendship” in Russian, is one of the world’s largest, supplying Russian oil to much of central Europe including Germany, Poland, Belarus, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria. Russia’s Transneft state-owned pipeline monopoly said that oil continues to be pumped towards Poland. Poland’s PKN Orlen (PKN.WA) said that oil supplies to its Plock refinery were not interrupted while Czech pipeline operator MERO said it had not seen any change in flows to the Czech Republic. “The main action (we are taking) is to pump out the liquid and locate the leak and stop it,” fire brigade spokesman Karol Kierzkowski told state broadcaster TVP Info. “When the pressure decreases, the leak will stop and allow us to reach the leak,” he said, adding that it was too early to establish the cause and there was no danger to the public. Firefighters in the mid-northern Kujawsko-Pomorskie region of Poland said they had pumped about 400 cubic metres of oil and water from the site of the leak which was in the middle of a corn field. The second line of the pipeline, and other elements of PERN’s infrastructure, were working as normal, PERN said. “At this point, all PERN services (technical, operational, in-house fire brigade and environmental protection) are taking action in accordance with the algorithms provided for this type of situation,” the operator said. The total capacity of the western section of the pipeline that ships oil from central Poland to Germany is 27 million tonnes of crude oil per year. Germany’s Schwedt refinery is particularly dependent on Druzhba. The German government aims to eliminate imports of oil from Russia by the end of the year under European Union sanctions. But in the first seven months of the year, Russia was still its top supplier, accounting for just over 30% of oil imports. As Germany looks for alternative supplies for Schwedt, Druzhba could be instrumental in supplying oil via the Polish port in Gdansk. The German government has also been in talks to secure oil from Kazakhstan to supply Schwedt, but that oil would have to flow to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline too. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Reuters bureaus writing by Alan Charlish and Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Jan Harvey and Elaine Hardcastle Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Mike Lee Asks Mitt Romney For Help As Trump Candidate Could Lose Utah Race https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mike-lee-asks-mitt-romney-for-help-as-trump-candidate-could-lose-utah-race/ Mike Lee openly called for fellow Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney to support him in the upcoming Utah Senate election as he faces a combined coalition of independents and Democrats in the shape of Evan McMullin. Lee, the incumbent Utah senator, is running against McMullin in November, the only Senate election where Democrats have not put forward a candidate in a bid to unseat the incumbent by appealing to as broad a demographic as possible. The race has an added subplot as Romney is the only GOP senator not to openly endorse Lee, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump who worked on early efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Instead, Romney, one of the most vocal critics of Trump in the Republican Party, including voting to impeach the former president over the January 6 Capitol attack, said he will remain neutral in the race between his fellow Republican Lee and his friend McMullin. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) talk as they arrive at the Senate chamber for the Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump continues on January 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Speaking on Tucker Carlson Tonight Tuesday, Lee was asked by the host whether he has approached Romney for his support as the GOP hopes to regain control of the Senate from the Democrats next month. “I’ve asked him. I am asking him here again tonight right now. Mitt, if you’d like to protect the Republican majority, give us any chance of seizing the Republican majority once again, getting it away from the Democrats who are facilitating this massive spending spree in a massive inflationary binge, please get on board, help me win reelection. Help us do that,” Lee said. Lee also requested that Romney, and the Fox News viewers, donate to his campaign in order to fight off challenger McMullin. “It’s a race getting closer and closer,” Lee said. “Because Evan McMullin continues to raise millions of dollars from progressive Democratic donors nationwide who are hell-bent nationwide on getting rid of me and replacing me.” Romney has been contacted for comment. Lee’s assessment that the Utah Senate race is getting closer appears to be accurate. While Lee is the favorite to win November’s election and has beaten McMullin in the past eight opinion polls, the Republican’s lead is narrowing. In mid-September, two surveys from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the Utah Debate Commission both gave Lee a double-digit lead over McMullin, with the internal NRSC poll showing the Republican was 17 points ahead of the independent challenger (51-34 percent). However with less than a month until the midterms, McMullin has started to close the gap, with the four most recent polls showing Lee’s lead reduced to between 2 and 5 points. According to the most recent survey for Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics, 42 percent of likely Utah voters said they would back Lee if the midterm election was held today, and 37 percent said they would opt for McMullin. The survey also found that 12 percent of Utahns are undecided, with moderates representing the highest percentage of those who aren’t sure who to vote for in November. “The Utah Senate race will be won on the frontlines by the candidate who can capture the ever-important base of moderate voters,” said Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. “Conservatives and liberals have largely made up their minds, now we’re going to see how the silent, moderate majority exerts their power. That is the ground both candidates want.” Read More Here

Social Security COLA 2023 Release, Live Online: Estimate, Adjustment And Inflation Relief Checks | SSA Updates https://digitalarkansasnews.com/social-security-cola-2023-release-live-online-estimate-adjustment-and-inflation-relief-checks-ssa-updates/ Update: October 12th, 2022 06:35 EDT 2023 COLA: live updates How is the Social Security COLA calculated? The Social Security Administration calculates the Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) applied to benefits each year by comparing the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers from quarter 3 (July, August, September) from the current year to the previous.  The CPI-W data for July and August is available and the current average sits at 291. The average for Q3 last year was 268.421. This means that if the COLA was determined by the numbers from July and August, seniors would see an 8.4 percent boost in their payment amounts. However, if price increases in September were not as large as those seen earlier this summer, this number could shrink.  Social Security COLA 2023 When does COLA 2023 take effect for Social Security Benefits? The Social Security Administration adjusts recipients’ benefits on an annual basis in order to keep monthly payments apace with inflation. The COLA 2022 increase of 5.9 percent announced last year was the highest in four decades due to rampant inflation as the economy recovered from the pandemic-induced slowdown. Once again, with prices still rising at an accelerated rate, another historic COLA increase has been predicted for benefits in 2023, expected to surpass the one from last year. The final results of the Social Security Administration’s calculation will be released Thursday 13 October. Read our full coverage on when the new benefit amounts will be distributed.  When will the COLA inflation increase be announced? The inflation figures for September 2022 are expected to be released later this week, at which point the Social Security Administration (SSA) will confirm details of the cost-of-living adjustment for next year. The 2023 COLA increase will be released on Thursday 13 October, if the SSA sticks to the schedule employed in previous years.  Latest news Are stimulus checks for inflation taxable? Even though this year no stimulus checks have been granted at the federal level, several states in the country, at least 16, have taken it upon themselves to authorize their own relief checks to help their residents combat the high costs of inflation. When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) delivered the first, second and third stimulus checks, though, some people had doubts about whether they had to pay taxes on the money received, and at the time, the answer was a resounding NO. As with the federal stimulus checks, the reality is that the inflation stimulus checks are also not taxable. US NEWS California Inflation Relief Check: when will I receive the payment & how to track? The first payments for the Middle Class Tax Refund were sent out on October 7. People will of course be hoping to receive their money as soon as possible and fortunately the Californian Franchise Tax Board (CFTB) has published information for when people should receive their payment. The CFTB says it expects to send 90 percent of the direct deposit payments for the Middle Class Tax Refund in October 2022. Those who received the first or second Golden State Stimulus (GSS I and II) via direct deposit can expect to see the money in their account between 7 October and 25 October. The remaining direct deposits will be issued between 28 October and 14 November 2022. Hello and welcome to AS USA’s live blog on the support available to help combat inflation at the household level.  Several states are sending out payments to low-and-middle-income families to help them increase their purchasing power as inflation cuts into it. One of these state, California, is also considering applying a windfall tax on the increased profits from oil and gas companies that will be divided and redistributed to drivers.  Tomorrow the Social Security Administration will announce the 2023 Cost-of-living adjustment, which could be as high as eight percent, based on recent consumer price reports.  Tagged in: Inflación Estados Unidos Read More Here

New Book Details How Trump Nearly Triggered A Mutiny Among Moderate Republicans https://digitalarkansasnews.com/new-book-details-how-trump-nearly-triggered-a-mutiny-among-moderate-republicans/ Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a “Save America” rally at Country Thunder Arizona in 2022. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr) Donald Trump reportedly found himself on thin ice in October 2019 as Republicans seriously considered voting to impeach him over the Ukraine extortion scheme, and his chief of staff arranged a meeting with some of those on-the-fence GOP lawmakers. The former president had further inflamed tensions by publicly announcing that he would hold the next G-7 summit at his Miami gold resort, and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney brought a group of moderate Republicans to Camp David — but Trump himself didn’t show, according to excerpts from a new book by Politico’s Rachael Bade and The Washington Post’s Karoun Demirjian that were published by NBC News. “Who would want to go there?” Trump said, according to the book. But Mulvaney, himself a former House member, understood the importance of presidential invitations and the allure of the seldom-seen presidential retreat, but the group of lawmakers immediately “charged the president’s chief of staff like a pack of wolves” at the retreat, according to “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump”. RELATED: How Trump could face a worse indictment if Merrick Garland chooses DC as the venue instead of Florida “Hell of a week. Can we try a little harder here? Like really, Mick?” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) while huddled around a campfire with other lawmakers. The Doral announcement angered centrists who were already uneasy about defending Trump on Ukraine, and the G-7 summit would pump foreign money into the president’s family-owned business in likely violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. “The backlash, Mulvaney realized, was going to jeopardize the tenuous GOP coalition that they needed to keep intact in order to defend Trump from the impeachment inquiry,” the authors wrote. “He knew that if Trump kept acting out, some members would find it impossible to keep resisting the pressure to support at least the framework of an investigation.” Trump called the lawmakers, some of whom were shocked that he was seeking their input. “Why don’t you think it’s a good idea?” Trump asked, according to the book. “It’s a great venue! Everyone will love it!” Wagner told the former president they didn’t want to defend him on that — certainly not while impeachment was looming — but Trump, who was surprised by their resistance, eventually came around and called them back at Camp David to workshop a tweet announcing his reversal. “All right. I’m going to tweet something like this out,” Trump said, according to the book. “How does this tweet sound?” In the end, not one House Republican voted in favor of launching the first impeachment inquiry or for any of the impeachment articles passed by the Democratic majority. Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com. Stories Chosen For You Read More Here

Justice Dept. Asks Court To Deny Trump Plea Over FBI Search https://digitalarkansasnews.com/justice-dept-asks-court-to-deny-trump-plea-over-fbi-search/ WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to steer clear of a legal fight over classified documents seized during an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. The high court is weighing an emergency appeal from Trump asking it to overturn a lower court ruling and permit an independent arbiter, or special master, to review the roughly 100 documents with classified markings that were taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department said in a 32-page filing that Trump’s claim has no merit, noting the case involves “extraordinarily sensitive government records.” A three-judge panel from the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last month limited the special master’s review to the much larger tranche of non-classified documents. The judges, including two Trump appointees, sided with the Justice Department, which had argued there was no legal basis for the special master to conduct his own review of the classified records. But Trump’s lawyers said in their application to the Supreme Court that it was essential for the special master to have access to the classified records to “determine whether documents bearing classification markings are in fact classified, and regardless of classification, whether those records are personal records or Presidential records.” At issue is a legal dispute over the scope of the authority given to Raymond Dearie, a veteran Brooklyn judge who was named last month to serve as a special master and segregate any documents seized from Mar-a-Lago that may be covered by claims of executive privilege or attorney-client privilege. All told, roughly 11,000 documents were taken during the Aug. 8 search, including about 100 with classification markings. The Florida judge who appointed Dearie, Aileen Cannon, empowered him to inspect the roughly 100 classified documents and halted the Justice Department’s use of those records for its criminal investigation until the special master’s review was done. But the appeals court set aside that part of Cannon’s longer ruling, agreeing with the Justice Department’s arguments that there was no need for Dearie to review the classified records since they were not likely to involve issues of privilege. The Trump team subsequently appealed. The Justice Department, meanwhile, is appealing Cannon’s entire ruling to the 11th Circuit. In the Supreme Court filing, the department described it “as an unprecedented order by the district court restricting the Executive Branch’s use of its own highly classified records in an ongoing criminal investigation and directing the dissemination of those records outside the Executive Branch for a special-master review.” The department again dismissed the relevance of the Trump team’s assertions that Trump, as president, had absolute declassification authority — something his lawyers have repeatedly raised even while avoiding making the claim that he took steps in this instance to declassify the records. The department said the declassification claim has not been supported with any “competent evidence” and said the Trump team, when presenting investigators with a batch of classified records last June, did not assert claims of privilege or suggest that any of the records had been declassified. Trump’s filing first went to Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees emergency appeals from the 11th Circuit. But individual justices almost always involve the entire court in high-profile cases such as this one. © 2022 Circle City Broadcasting I, LLC. | All Rights Reserved. Read More Here

Search For Savannah Toddler Quinton Simon Reaches 1-Week Mark. The Latest On The Investigation https://digitalarkansasnews.com/search-for-savannah-toddler-quinton-simon-reaches-1-week-mark-the-latest-on-the-investigation/ It’s been one week since 20-month-old Quinton Simon disappeared from his Savannah home.The child was last seen around 6 a.m. October 5. He was reported missing about three hours later.The Chatham County Police Department is leading the investigation, with help from several other law enforcement agencies including dozens of FBI agents and personnel.Police continue to say they are investigating the case from multiple angles.On Tuesday, police said they had seized evidence they believe will lead to closure in the case. It was not specified what that evidence was, nor did police speak to the media following the statement. TRENDING STORIESPolice issue statement on new evidence seized in search for missing Savannah toddlerThe 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season forms. Where Karl tracks nextNew details released after Savannah teen charged in toddler’s deadly shootingBelow video: Police analyzing new evidence found in Quinton Simon missing toddler case in SavannahA dispatch call obtained by WJCL sheds some light on what authorities were told the morning of Quinton’s disappearance.”Complainant advised her 1-year-old son is missing,” the dispatcher is heard saying. “She woke up, her door was open. Advised he’s unable to open a door. Thinks someone came in and took him.” Earlier this week, Chatham Fire was called out to the home to begin pumping the backyard pool. It’s unclear if they found any clues. Chatham County Police previously said they don’t believe there was any foul play involved and hope Quinton is still alive. Below file video: Chatham County police chief gives Monday update in search for toddler Quinton SimonCourt documents obtained by WJCL show that the family was at odds before Quinton’s disappearance.The documents show that Billie Jo Howell, Quinton’s grandmother, attempted to remove the child’s mother, Leilani, and her boyfriend, Daniel Youngkin, from the home.Billie Jo, Leilani’s mother, said in the document “They have damaged my property and at this point no one is living in peace.”She added that she wanted Leilani and Daniel out “as soon as possible.” Documents also show that Quinton’s grandparents, Billie Jo and her husband, are the ones who have custody of Quinton and his 3-year-old brother. Below video: Hear from Quinton’s grandparents”She hasn’t always done the right thing,” Billie Jo said of her daughter on Thursday. “Sometimes she does really great, sometimes she doesn’t. I don’t know what to think right now. I don’t know what to believe, because I don’t think anybody ever believes this is going to happen to them. I don’t know if I can trust her or I don’t. I just know I’m hurting and I want this baby home. He’s my baby.”Chief Hadley says police will leave no stone unturned in the search. “There’s a very sequential process that takes place here,” Hadley said last week. “It may be frustrating to the general public, it may be frustrating to y’all that things aren’t developing as quickly as you may like. But we’ve got to make sure that we’re doing the right thing, that we’re being lawful, making sure we dot our I’s and cross our T’s. So that if we discover evidence, it can be admissible in court and we can use it in court if we have to.” Police say a search has been conducted of the home, the backyard pool and a nearby pond.A tipline has been established for information regarding the case: 912-667-3134. Below video: Initial coverage of disappearance It’s been one week since 20-month-old Quinton Simon disappeared from his Savannah home. The child was last seen around 6 a.m. October 5. He was reported missing about three hours later. The Chatham County Police Department is leading the investigation, with help from several other law enforcement agencies including dozens of FBI agents and personnel. Police continue to say they are investigating the case from multiple angles. On Tuesday, police said they had seized evidence they believe will lead to closure in the case. It was not specified what that evidence was, nor did police speak to the media following the statement. TRENDING STORIES Police issue statement on new evidence seized in search for missing Savannah toddler The 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season forms. Where Karl tracks next New details released after Savannah teen charged in toddler’s deadly shooting Below video: Police analyzing new evidence found in Quinton Simon missing toddler case in Savannah A dispatch call obtained by WJCL sheds some light on what authorities were told the morning of Quinton’s disappearance. “Complainant advised her 1-year-old son is missing,” the dispatcher is heard saying. “She woke up, her door was open. Advised he’s unable to open a door. Thinks someone came in and took him.” Earlier this week, Chatham Fire was called out to the home to begin pumping the backyard pool. It’s unclear if they found any clues. Chatham County Police previously said they don’t believe there was any foul play involved and hope Quinton is still alive. Below file video: Chatham County police chief gives Monday update in search for toddler Quinton Simon Court documents obtained by WJCL show that the family was at odds before Quinton’s disappearance. The documents show that Billie Jo Howell, Quinton’s grandmother, attempted to remove the child’s mother, Leilani, and her boyfriend, Daniel Youngkin, from the home. Billie Jo, Leilani’s mother, said in the document “They have damaged my property and at this point no one is living in peace.” She added that she wanted Leilani and Daniel out “as soon as possible.” Documents also show that Quinton’s grandparents, Billie Jo and her husband, are the ones who have custody of Quinton and his 3-year-old brother. Below video: Hear from Quinton’s grandparents “She hasn’t always done the right thing,” Billie Jo said of her daughter on Thursday. “Sometimes she does really great, sometimes she doesn’t. I don’t know what to think right now. I don’t know what to believe, because I don’t think anybody ever believes this is going to happen to them. I don’t know if I can trust her or I don’t. I just know I’m hurting and I want this baby home. He’s my baby.” Chief Hadley says police will leave no stone unturned in the search. “There’s a very sequential process that takes place here,” Hadley said last week. “It may be frustrating to the general public, it may be frustrating to y’all that things aren’t developing as quickly as you may like. But we’ve got to make sure that we’re doing the right thing, that we’re being lawful, making sure we dot our I’s and cross our T’s. So that if we discover evidence, it can be admissible in court and we can use it in court if we have to.” Police say a search has been conducted of the home, the backyard pool and a nearby pond. A tipline has been established for information regarding the case: 912-667-3134. Below video: Initial coverage of disappearance Read More Here

Joan Release New Single 'don't Wanna Be Your Friend' https://digitalarkansasnews.com/joan-release-new-single-dont-wanna-be-your-friend-2/ Returning with their first new music of 2022, joan are releasing their new single ‘don’t wanna be your friend’. Created after the band returned home from their biggest headline tour yet, joan explain, “we immediately started writing songs again when we got home. after over two years of releasing music without playing shows alongside those releases, we had never felt so energized and inspired to start working our best songs yet. ‘don’t wanna be your friend’ was the first song that we wrote after tour, and we immediately knew it was an extremely special song.” “it’s also about growing up though and knowing that you just can’t continue being friends with each other, because you know how that situation turns out,” they continue. “hope this song resonates with you in some way – makes you realize you need to cut that person out of your life, makes you move, makes you want to start a band, makes you want to call your best friend :).” Check out ‘don’t wanna be your friend’ below. See joan live at the following dates: OCTOBER 10: Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl w/ MisterWives NOVEMBER 01: Kansas City, KS – The Record Bar 02: Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry 03: Ames, IA – The Maintenance Shop 04: Milwaukee, WI – Back Room @ Collective 05: Covington, KY – Madison Live 06: Detroit, MI – Shelter 08: Bloomington, IN – The Bishop 09: Lakewood, OH – Marshall’s 10: Louisville, KY – Headliner’s Music Hall 12: Fort Worth, TX – Tulips 13: Fayetteville, AR – George’s Majestic Lounge 25: Senayan Park (Spark): Jakarta, Indonesia 27: Very Festival @ Thunder Dome: Bangkok, Thailand 30: Space Odd: Tokyo, Japan DECEMBER 03: Sorpresa Music Festival @ Enchanted Kingdom: Enchanted Kingdom: Laguna Philippines Read More Here

Kum & Go Launches New Menu Featuring Healthier Foods Like Pulled Pork Quinoa Bowls https://digitalarkansasnews.com/kum-go-launches-new-menu-featuring-healthier-foods-like-pulled-pork-quinoa-bowls/ The Des Moines-based chain isn’t ditching pizza slices yet, but the company’s new menu is set to challenge ideas about gas station food. Kum & Go is starting fresh. The Des Moines-based convenience store chain launched a new menu, featuring fresher fare than traditional gas station food, at stores in the metro in mid-September. The made-to-order menu supports the company’s mission to provide healthy foods at accessible convenience store prices, said Kum & Go’s vice president of food innovation Jac Moskalik in a news release. “We strive to give our customers something different, including healthier, better-quality options in the food space without sacrificing quality and speed of service, which is true to our convenience roots,” Moskalik said. “We have certainly challenged the perceived ‘norm’ of convenience store-prepared food.” The new menu includes freshly prepared items such as small hand-held sandwiches called “Stackers,” grab-and-go burritos, and bowls with a base of brown rice, shredded cabbage, and quinoa. More:Kum & Go’s rebranding stores with new menu as it expands into three new states Stackers include renditions with salsa verde chicken, barbecue brisket, feta falafel or mango pork for $3.29 each. At breakfast, Kum & Go offers a breakfast Stacker with a choice of eggs, cheese and protein for $2.99. Bowls for $6.99 come with hot Buffalo pulled chicken, chimi chicken or Caribbean pulled pork, to name a few. Kum & Go also leans into quirky ingredients like Corn Nuts sprinkled on the chain’s chimi chicken bowl and Takis, the Cheeto-style tortilla chips, topping the mango pork Stacker. “We are setting up ingredient quality standards you wouldn’t normally expect to find in the convenience store space in addition to ingredients you wouldn’t expect such as brown rice and spinach bowl bases,” director of category management Natasha Ratzlaff said. Kum & Go continues to offer its classic pizza slices and sweet bakery items, but company representatives said their latest options help challenge long-held ideas about gas station foods. The retail chain’s fresh food options will be offered in all metro-area stores by the end of 2022. The company piloted the new menu in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Omaha stores in 2021. The company will continue to roll out the new food program over several years. Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Instagram, Twitter, or reach out at jstahl@gannett.com. Read More…

To Hold House, Democrats Eye GOP-Held Districts Won By Biden https://digitalarkansasnews.com/to-hold-house-democrats-eye-gop-held-districts-won-by-biden/ GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — While preparing to march in a Saturday morning parade through this fast-growing city’s westside, Democratic congressional candidate Hillary Scholten warned her staff that the area was traditionally very conservative and they should brace for possible booing. But the crowd lining Fulton Street to mark the region’s Polish pride was friendly. Only one man bellowed what sounded to the candidate like “Go to hell, Hillary!” as she passed. But he also grinned and flashed a thumbs-up later. He’d actually cried, “Give ’em hell, Hillary!” It’s been 32 years since a Democrat won the House seat where Scholten is competing against Republican John Gibbs. But, its largest city, Grand Rapids, has turned steadily bluer lately, and redrawn congressional maps have converted it from a district that backed Donald Trump for president in 2020 to one that Joe Biden would have carried instead. It’s one of 14 U.S. House seats nationwide that are held by Republicans but that Biden would have won under new maps. As Democrats brace for midterm defeats that could erase their narrow, five-seat control of the House, a chance to limit the damage may lie in flipping Republican-held seats that voted for Biden to stanch the effect of losses elsewhere around the country. Scholten, a former Justice Department attorney and Christian Reform Church deacon, lost the seat to Republican Rep. Peter Meijer in 2020. But Meijer was defeated in his Michigan GOP primary this year by Trump-backed challenger Gibbs, a former software engineer who falsely purports that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Scholten is trying to become the first Democratic woman elected to the House from western Michigan and isn’t counting on more favorable boundaries to get her there, noting that it’s “hard for people to believe in what they’ve never seen before, and we feel that every day.” But even Gibbs concedes the new maps have Democrats excited. “In a year where they’re expected to have a very difficult time in the midterms,” he said, “for them, a pickup is something that they’re salivating over.” The list of GOP-held Biden districts feature three Los Angeles-area seats and one in California’s Central Valley. Others are the territories of Republican Reps. Don Bacon in Omaha, Nebraska, and Steve Chabot in Cincinnati. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents the moderate swing battleground of Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, faces a similar test. On the other side are a dozen districts that voted for Trump but are held by Democrats. Retirements and redistricting mean many no longer have incumbents running. Still, Democrats see high stakes in their efforts to flip seats won by Biden. When House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer recently predicted that his party would hold the chamber, he mentioned such territory in California and Illinois, as well as Bacon’s and Chabot’s districts, and the Grand Rapids race. Not every incumbent is sweating toss-up races. Chabot says that, during his 26 years running for reelection in southwestern Ohio, he’s “had more challenging races, for sure, than anyone in the House.” But, as he competes for potential crossover voters, Chabot is not emphasizing Trump. “I agree with most of his policies, but I’m running on my own record,” Chabot said. “People can make up their own minds.” Gibbs says that, despite Trump’s endorsement, he’s building appeal among independents and swing voters. He recalled one man approaching him in the lakefront city of Muskegon, northwest of Grand Rapids, and saying: “I voted for you. I’m a Democrat. Is that OK?” “This race is not so much about Democrat vs. Republican. It’s more crazy vs. normal,” said Gibbs, pointing to high gas and food prices and ”what they’re trying to do to kids in school,” with modern curriculums and inappropriate material in campus libraries being especially outlandish. But, echoing Trump, Gibbs left open the possibility that he may object to the results of his own election next month. “If it’s fair and everything’s on the up and up, I’ll accept whatever the result is,” he said. But asked if he could define fair, Gibbs replied, “Not at this point.” “We’ll just have to kind of see how it goes,” he said. A Scholten win would cement this area’s political transformation from red to blue. Booms in health, university and technology jobs are attracting scores of college-educated workers — with new residents often importing Democratic voting preferences. Grand Rapids and its suburbs have also turned more diverse, including notable increases in Hispanic voters. Such a change was long unthinkable in the home city of Gerald Ford and former Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, which once epitomized pro-business, country club conservativism. “I love to play golf. We play at public courses,” Scholten said, laughing. “I think that’s a pretty good analogy, actually.” Despite Democrat-friendly lines, national Republicans see the district as a “checks and balances” area where voters might have shunned Trump but want to control Washington’s spending and potential federal overreach. Meijer was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, prompting the former president to endorse Gibbs. The Democratic House campaign committee even financed a GOP primary ad proclaiming that Gibbs was “hand-picked by Trump to run for Congress,” believing he’d be beatable in November. Trump once nominated Gibbs to head the Office of Personnel Management, but he wasn’t confirmed amid questions about past tweets, including one from 2016 in which Gibbs wrote, “Today’s Dem party: Islam, gender-bending, anti-police, ‘u racist!’” Gibbs says Democrats have posted far more incendiary things. “I don’t apologize. I never have and will not,” he said. Democrats hope that a question on Michigan’s ballot asking voters to put the right to an abortion in the state constitution energizes their base. “The issue of choice is front and center in a way that it wasn’t before,” Scholten said. “It’s changed a lot of minds.” Gibbs counters that his steadfast opposition to abortion is a winner. He’d only allow exceptions if a pregnant woman’s life is endangered. In instances of rape or incest, Gibbs said: “That baby, born in that case, is innocent. So I don’t see why an innocent person should have to perish.” Raised in the Pentecostal church, Gibbs spent seven years as a missionary in Japan. But he converted to Catholicism in 2021 and now tries to go to Mass multiple times per week. He has that in common with Biden, who is also a devout Catholic, though Gibbs isn’t seeking bipartisanship there. He retorted of the president’s frequent Mass attendance, “Yeah, I just wish he would accept the teachings.” “If I ever saw him at Mass, I’d have a nice, frank conversation,” Gibbs said. “Give him a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: ‘You oughta learn this.’” Read More Here

Opinion: Doug’s Dug Himself A Nice, Deep Hole https://digitalarkansasnews.com/opinion-dougs-dug-himself-a-nice-deep-hole/ If you’re looking for good news this week – and who isn’t? – how about this recent headline in The New York Times:  “Mastriano’s Sputtering Campaign: No TV Ads, Tiny Crowds, Little Money” And the subhead below that:   “As he runs for governor of Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano is being heavily outspent by his Democratic rival and trails badly in polling. National Republicans show little desire to help him.” The Times piece tells us that no one is coming to Mastriano’s rallies, no one is giving him money and no one is giving him a snowball’s chance on a hot skillet of beating Josh Shapiro in November. Polls show Mastriano down by double digits.  Perhaps you’re thinking, what can you expect from those libs at The Times? (Mastriano won’t talk to The Times, nor to any other mainstream news organization. My dad would call this cutting off your nose to spite your face.) So let’s see what George Will has to say about the Republican Party’s nominee for governor of Pennsylvania. Will has been a leading voice among American conservatives since the invention of the bowtie. As such, I’m no fan, despite our shared addiction to baseball.  But unlike Donald Trump and the jellyfish that cling to him, Will has actual beliefs. When he saw that Trump’s flights of nincompoopery were at odds with those beliefs, he broke ranks. (He has called Trump “a suppurating wound on American life.” Too kind.)  Noting that Mastriano counts himself among those who refuse to accept that the American people really and most sincerely booted Trump’s saggy bottom back to Mar-a-Lago in November 2020, Will wrote in his Washington Post column that Mastriano “has the scary sincerity of the unhinged whose delusions armor them against evidence.” The Mastriano-Shapiro race is getting all this national attention because of its potential national implications. Like Trump, Mastriano thinks you win elections the same way you win at Scrabble if you’re a sorehead with a rack full of vowels: Hide some consonants up your sleeve, accuse your opponent of same, and if those gambits don’t work, “accidentally” flip the board and scatter the tiles. If elected, Mastriano says, he’ll appoint a secretary state who he’ll give the power to “make the corrections to elections.” So imagine this scenario. The 2024 presidential election is another barn burner. Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes, which ties it with Illinois for the fifth-most behind California, Texas, Florida and New York, are going to be the difference maker, just as they were in 2020. And Gov. Mastriano has his thumb on the scale.  Some other things one needs to know about the Republican nominee:  Famously, he brought a busload of supporters to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to start the steal.  He has called global warming “fake science.” Though he’s against government mandating masks (“child abuse”) and vaccines (“the government’s poison”), he’s for government making pregnant women have babies and telling people whom they can and cannot marry. Note the inconsistency.  His solution to the mass murder of children? Turn schools into forts: “I have called for a $20 million funding increase in this year’s budget that may be used for armed resource officers, metal detectors, door fortifications, emergency response training, security cameras, door-locking technology, and increasingly innovative solutions that will provide more security than taking guns away from law-abiding citizens.” Among people involved in his campaign are a couple of self-described prophets, one of whom says that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi drinks the blood of children. (Not true! What Madame Speaker actually did was drink Bloody Marys as a child.) And here he is outlining his busy, busy first day in office, should he get elected: “On day one ‘woke’ is broke. On day one critical race theory will no longer be taught in Pennsylvania schools. On day one no more boys on the girls’ team…On day one, no more boys in the girls’ bathroom…On day one — we’re blessed Pennsylvania, we’re blessed — on day one we’re gonna withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. We’re going to open up our state lands and rollback regulations, and we’re going to drill and dig like never before.”  A whopping 50 attendees heard about these plans at Mastriano’s rally at the state capitol a couple of weeks ago. That’s what you get when you counter-schedule against Penn State vs. Central Michigan. Not to mention the Irish Fall Festival on the Jersey Shore, which had to have been way more fun.  Those of you who are terrified at the thought of this guy becoming the commonwealth’s chief executive probably aren’t comforted by the poll numbers. You shouldn’t be. Trump wasn’t supposed to win in 2016 either.  As ever, it may come down to turnout. When Tom Wolf was reelected in 2018, 58 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. When Wolf defeated Tom Corbett in 2014, turnout was 43 percent. Both numbers are pathetic. If ever there was a year when sane people needed to vote for sanity, it’s this one. StateCollege.com Breaking News Receive all the latest news and events right to your inbox. Read More Here

Labor Proposal Could Upend Rules For Gig Workers, Companies https://digitalarkansasnews.com/labor-proposal-could-upend-rules-for-gig-workers-companies/ FILE – An Uber sign is displayed inside a car in Palatine, Ill., Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing a new rule on employee classifications, saying workers have incorrectly been deemed independent contractors, which hurts their rights. The department said Tuesday, Oct. 11, that misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees denies employees’ protections under federal labor standards, promotes wage theft, allows certain employers to gain an unfair advantage over businesses, and hurts the economy. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File) The Biden administration proposed new standards Tuesday that could make it more difficult to classify millions of workers as independent contractors and deny them minimum wage and benefits. The U.S. Department of Labor rule, which could take months to take effect, would replace a scrapped Trump-era standard that had lowered the bar for classifying employees as contractors, workers who are not covered by federal minimum wage laws and are not entitled to benefits including health insurance and paid sick days. The reaction in markets for major gig companies was immediate. Shares of of the ride-hailing companies Lyft fell 12 percent while Uber tumbled about 10 percent, although both companies dismissed the significance of the new proposal and its potential to affect their business. In one key change, employers are required to consider whether the work provided is an integral part of their business. That could affect app-based companies that rely almost entirely on freelance workers to provide their services. The Trump-era rule had narrowed that criteria to whether the work in part of an integrated unit of production, and gave more weight to other considerations such as the worker’s opportunity to make a profit or loss. The new rule directs employers to consider six criteria for determining whether a worker is an employee or a contractor, without predetermining whether one outweighs the other. The criteria also include the degree of control by the employer, whether the work requires special skills, the degree of permanence of the relationship between worker and employer and the investment a worker makes, such as car payments. The rule, however, does not carry the same weight as a law passed by Congress or state legislatures, nor does it specify whether any specific company or industry should reclassify their workers. Rather, it offers an interpretation of who should qualify for protections under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. The rule could bolster labor advocates seeking to challenge worker classification in courts, or state lawmakers seeking to pass stricter laws for designating workers as contractors, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “It creates a base from which to work and it discourages predatory companies that want to lower their costs by denying basic rights to their employees,” said Campos-Medina. Still, there is room for interpretation since some companies might meet one set of criteria for contractor designation, but not others. “I don’t think it will stop the debate,” Campos-Medina said. “The only thing the federal rule does is it creates a basic standard for evaluation.” The Labor Department said misclassifying workers as independent contractors denies those workers protections under federal labor standards, promotes wage theft, allows certain employers to gain an unfair advantage over businesses, and hurts the economy. “While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors, particularly among our nation’s most vulnerable workers,” said Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh in a prepared statement. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the proposal would constitute a major change for workers and employers from previous years. “A classification to employees would essentially throw the business model upside down and cause some major structural changes if this holds,” Ives wrote. But both Uber and Lyft dismissed the potential impact of the new rule. “Today’s proposed rule takes a measured approach, essentially returning us to the Obama era, during which our industry grew exponentially,” CR Wooters, head of federal affairs at Uber, said in a statement. In a blog post, Lyft said the company had expected this change since the start of the Biden administration. “Importantly this rule: Does not reclassify Lyft drivers as employees. Does not force Lyft to change our business model,” the company said. The new rule is subject to a 45-day period ending Nov. 28 during which stakeholders can submit comments, and may not take effect for months. Gig economy giants have weathered past attempts in the U.S. to require their drivers to be classified as employees. In 2020, California voters overwhelmingly approved a proposition to exempt drivers for app-based companies from a state law requiring them to be designated as employees. Uber, Lyft and other companies had spent $200 million campaigning in favor of the proposition. However, a judge struck down the ballot measure as unconstitutional last year, setting up a legal fight that could end up in the California Supreme Court. App-based companies have long argued that their workers want the flexibility to set their own hours as contract workers. Beyond gig workers, the new law has the potential to change the circumstances of millions of custodians, truck drivers, waiters, construction workers and others, according to the Labor Department. Workers themselves are divided over the debate. In California, for example, hundreds of port truck drivers seeking to preserve their independent contractor status shut down operations in the Port of Oakland last summer to protest the state’s gig workers law. But other truckers have successfully fought to force their companies to classify them as employees with full benefits. Read More Here

‘Siegel Is The Only Candidate I Can Imagine Who Could Inspire Me To Vote For A Republican’ https://digitalarkansasnews.com/siegel-is-the-only-candidate-i-can-imagine-who-could-inspire-me-to-vote-for-a-republican/ The Vermont Democratic Party should be ashamed of leaving Brenda Siegel in an uncontested primary to be the Democratic candidate for governor. Siegel has no visible record of accomplishments or experience that might make her a reasonable candidate for the highest office in the state. Her actions as director of the Southern Vermont Dance Festival landed her in Windham County’s small claims court with at least one contractor (Vermont Superior Court, Windham Civil Division, docket number 149-8-16 WMSC). The case rightly went against her and came with a small, but fair judgment. In the face of the judgment against her, Siegel still refused to pay what she owed. She appealed the court’s decision and showed up in court, without her lawyer or any evidence to support her appeal, using valuable court resources. Siegel justly lost that appeal, and failed to make the monthly payments she agreed to. More than 2{1/2} years after the work she authorized was completed, the contractor settled for about 80 percent of what the court required, which was less than half of what was due. If it’s hard for you to imagine a Trump-like Democrat — someone who is never to blame, always the victim, who lies when it suits her, and who stiffs people who, in good faith, have worked for her — then look no further than Brenda Siegel. When Election Day comes, I will vote for Democrats and Progressives at every level of our federal, state, and local elections, save one. Brenda Siegel is the only candidate I can imagine who could inspire me to vote for a Republican. And while I disagree with Gov. Phil Scott on nearly every issue — in stark contrast to Siegel — he has demonstrated himself to be a temperate, responsible, reasonable, and moderately competent person with a record of accomplishments both in and out of office. Given the alternative, come November, rather than abstain, I will be voting for Scott. I encourage every Vermonter who cares about the future of our state to do the same. And when the next election cycle comes, let us hope Vermont’s Democratic Party will see fit to offer us a competent, thoughtful candidate with actual experience and a record of achievements worthy of the highest office in the state. They have failed us this time around. Scott Ainslie Brattleboro Read More Here

Washington State GOP Pays A White Nationalist, Pro-Nazi Blogger https://digitalarkansasnews.com/washington-state-gop-pays-a-white-nationalist-pro-nazi-blogger/ It’s no secret that Washington state has a white nationalist problem. Among the rugged mountains and towering pines are neo-Nazi groups and one of the largest chapters of a violent white supremacist organization. But there’s one group that has been increasingly and alarmingly connected to these extremists: Washington state’s GOP. The latest example is a pro-Nazi blogger Greyson Arnold’s affiliation with the state party. According to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by The Daily Beast, the Washington State GOP paid Arnold $821.87 on July 15 for “payroll.” Arnold runs the far-right Telegram account “Pure Politics,” which traffics in Jan. 6 conspiracy theories, praise of controversial lawmakers, and anti-COVID-containment sentiments. It also has more than 12,000 followers who frequently comment with racist and antisemitic language. But Arnold himself has said plenty of distressing things. As CNN reported last year, Arnold has advocated shooting refugees, killing undocumented immigrants, and has posted praise for Nazi Germany. He actually once said Adolf Hitler was “a complicated historical figure which many people misunderstand.” In a statement shared last week with The Daily Beast, the communications director for the Washington Republican Party, Ben Gonzalez, didn’t deny Arnold’s employment but claimed his tenure was short-lived. “When the Washington State Republican Party became aware of this individual staffer’s conduct and views expressed on social media, we terminated the employee,” Gonzalez wrote. “He no longer works for the party,” Gonzalez added. “The stated viewpoints in question do not reflect the values of the Republican Party.” Arnold didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Still, Arnold’s ties to Washington’s Republican Party extend beyond a one-time payment. As the Associated Press reported in April, Joe Kent—the GOP congressional candidate who beat Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in a Republican primary earlier this year—was photographed alongside Arnold, a move praised by his followers as they work to gain traction with GOP political figures. Arnold has strong ties to infamous white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes, who leads a group of college-aged, far-right activists that refer to themselves as “groypers”—a rebranding of the racist alt-right movement. Within the far-right “America First” movement, Arnold is a lieutenant in Fuentes’ extremist, “America First” political group. (Greyson actually refers to himself as “American Greyson.”) Kent’s campaign spokesperson Matt Braynard—who recently spoke at a disastrous Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C.—told The Associated Press that the Kent campaign “does not do background checks on the thousands of people who’ve asked to take selfies with Joe.” After denying ever knowing who Arnold was, an unearthed interview, discovered by CNN’s KFile, showed the neo-Nazi blogger interviewing Kent. This isn’t the first time the Kent campaign has found itself in hot water over white nationalism. Back in March 2022, after Fuentes endorsed Kent, the campaign had to denounce the alt-right leaders’ glowing praise. Subsequently, a 2021 tweet from Kent surfaced showing the candidate was previously aware of that particular white nationalist leader. “I stand by this. No one be should [sic] de-platformed or put on a no-fly list for their political ideas,” Kent tweeted in response to an April 2021 tweet that defended Fuentes by name. Kent added that he didn’t want Fuentes’s endorsement due to his focus on race and religion. “The fights he’s picking are counter productive, this is not my message of inclusive populism,” Kent said. After Kent denounced Fuentes, the groyper leader and his followers actually campaigned against Kent in the Republican primary. They amplified messages from a group that identified itself as “JoeKentisCIA.” The mysterious group’s website claimed the former Green Beret was “A DEEP STATE PUPPET, A MARXIST DEMOCRAT RINO, AN OPPORTUNIST AND AN IMMORAL CHEATER.” Likewise, Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander, another Fuentes ally, attacked Kent. “Former CIA operative Joe Kent lost because his ‘inclusive’ politics was exclusionary; at the expense of the margins, he needed to put him in the top two. Bannon’s War Room lost to Fuentes’ America First. Denounce no one,” Alexander wrote on Telegram, with the message later amplified by Fuentes. “Do not aid your opponents by playing the politics of subtraction.” Despite those efforts, Kent defeated Herrera Beutler in the GOP primary in August, after she voted to impeach Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 riots. Kent now faces Democratic nominee Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez in the general election. The Cook Political Report, which handicaps congressional races, rates the race as “Lean Republican.” Read More Here

J.D. Vance Urges Negotiations With Putin To Avert Nuclear War https://digitalarkansasnews.com/j-d-vance-urges-negotiations-with-putin-to-avert-nuclear-war/ J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for the Senate in Ohio, has said Ukraine and its allies need to get to “the negotiation table” to stop Russia launching a nuclear attack. Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy, made the remarks on Fox News on Tuesday, during a conversation about his televised debate with his Democratic opponent Tim Ryan. In the Monday night debate, Vance had said “nobody knows” what the best response would be if President Vladimir Putin decided to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Ryan suggested there would need to be a “strong” reaction. On Tuesday, Vance told Fox News that the idea of retaliating with nuclear weapons was “crazy.” The Republican also criticized President Joe Biden‘s continuing support of Ukraine, which includes billions of dollars in military aid. J.D. Vance speaks at a Save America Rally at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio, on September 17. The Republican discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a televised debate with his Democratic rival, Tim Ryan, on Monday. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images “What does that mean? Does it mean we’re launching nuclear weapons ourselves, then we’re ending human civilization?” Vance asked. “The only responsible thing to do is try to bring this conflict to an end before it gets to the point of nuclear weapons. You can believe, as I do, that Ukrainians are brave people and that Vladimir Putin is a bad guy, without pushing the United States to the brink of nuclear war. “What Biden, what Tim Ryan, what these guys are doing, is incredibly irresponsible.” Newsweek has contacted Tim Ryan for comment. A number of Republicans have called for negotiations to end the conflict, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February. They include former President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Vance in Ohio. Trump has previously suggested that Ukraine could have “given up” the territory of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, or agreed not to join NATO as part of the negotiations. During their TV debate, Ryan suggested Vance would let Putin “roll right through Ukraine” in order to stop the conflict. The White House National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, has downplayed any suggestion that Kyiv’s allies will push for it to give away territory to Moscow. “Mr Putin started this war and Mr Putin could end it today—simply by moving his troops out of the country,” Kirby told ABC News’ This Week on Sunday. Kirby, the U.S. military‘s top spokesperson, also downplayed concerns about the risk of “nuclear armageddon” following remarks by the president at a Democratic fundraiser in New York City. Biden said Putin’s rhetoric had placed the world at its highest risk of a nuclear attack since the Cuban missile crisis. “His comments were not based on new or fresh intelligence, or new indications that Mr Putin has made a decision to use nuclear weapons and, quite frankly, we don’t have any indication that he has made that kind of decision,” Kirby said. In a CNN interview broadcast on Tuesday night, Biden added that he did not actually think Putin would launch nuclear weapons in Ukraine. “But I think that it’s irresponsible for him to talk about it.” Read More Here

Russia Makes Crimea Bridge Arrests; Ukraine Struggles To Restore Water, Power Supplies After Strikes https://digitalarkansasnews.com/russia-makes-crimea-bridge-arrests-ukraine-struggles-to-restore-water-power-supplies-after-strikes/ Ukraine is dealing with the aftermath of another day of missile attacks,, with power and water supplies still damaged in many locations after critical infrastructure was targeted by Russia. Air raid sirens sounded out across multiple regions in Ukraine again on Tuesday with the emergency services warning of more Russian strikes. Those came early in the day, with both Lviv in the west and Zaporizhzhia in the south hit by missile strikes, giving Ukraine’s authorities more logistical challenges to deal with and causing more casualties, a day after Russian attacks left at least 19 people dead and over 100 injured. Rescuers at work following a missile attack on Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine on Oct. 11, 2022. Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images President Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that, were it not for the additional strikes during the day, the Ukrainian authorities would have been able to focus on repairing and restoring water and energy supplies. “If it wasn’t for today’s strikes, we would have already restored the energy supply, water supply and communications that the terrorists damaged yesterday. And today, Russia will achieve only one additional thing: it will delay our recovery a little,” Zelenskyy said. Russia’s ramping up of missile strikes comes after it was dealt a blow last weekend when an explosion partially destroyed the Kerch Bridge that links the Russian mainland to Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. On Wednesday, Russia’s security services said it had made arrests in connection to the attack. Kyiv has not said whether it was responsible for the attack on the bridge, although the blast was widely seen as humiliating for Moscow and President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine won’t comment on Russia’s Crimea bridge arrests Ukraine’s intelligence services said it will not respond to Russia’s arrests of eight individuals it alleges are connected to last Saturday’s Crimea bridge blast. “All the activities of the FSB and the Investigative Committee are nonsense. These are fake structures that serve the Putin regime, so we will definitely not comment on their regular statements,” Andrey Yusov, a spokesperson for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, said in a statement provided to CNBC on Wednesday. Russia’s Federal Security Service said Wednesday that it arrested five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia that it alleged were connected to the attack, which partially damaged the bridge that Russia uses to access the peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and to resupply its troops in southern Ukraine. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the bridge attack and Yusov insinuated the arrests (and potentially, the attack) were staged. “It is surprising that no business card has yet been found in the area of ​​​​the Crimean bridge,” he said. That was a reference to an attack on a checkpoint near Sloviansk in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine in 2014 that Russia claimed was led by Ukrainian nationalist Dmytro Yarosh. Ukraine claimed pro-Russian separatists (or Russian special forces) had initiated what it described as a “staged” attack and had planted Yarosh’s business card at the scene in order to blame it on Ukraine. The purported discovery of Yarosh’s business card was widely ridiculed by Ukrainians at the time. — Holly Ellyatt Russia makes arrests in alleged connection to Crimea bridge attack Russia’s security services said it has arrested eight people it alleges are connected to the explosion that damaged the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia and Crimea last Saturday.  Russia’s Federal Security Service said Wednesday that it has arrested five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia that it alleged were connected to the attack, which partially damaged the bridge that Russia uses to access the peninsula, that it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and to resupply its troops in southern Ukraine. The FSB issued a statement alleging that the explosion was organized by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and its director, Kyrylo Budanov.  “At the moment, five citizens of Russia, three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia, who participated in the preparation of the crime, have been detained as part of a criminal case,” the FSB said. “The investigation into the attack continues. All its organizers and accomplices, including foreign citizens, will be held accountable in accordance with Russian law,” it added. Black smoke billows from a fire on the Kerch bridge that links Crimea to Russia, after a truck exploded, near Kerch, on October 8, 2022. – | Afp | Getty Images Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the bridge attack and is yet to respond to the allegations. CNBC has approached the Ministry of Defense for comment. The FSB detailed how it alleges the plot to blow up the bridge took place, claiming that “the explosive device was camouflaged in rolls with a construction polyethylene film on 22 pallets with a total weight of 22,770 kg.” The FSB claimed the device was shipped from Odesa to Bulgaria and then on to Georgia and Armenia before crossing over the border to Russia and then on its final journey to Crimea. — Holly Ellyatt Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine are a ‘show of weakness,’ says former U.S. ambassador to NATO A firefighter extinguishes a fire after a flat was hit by a missile strike in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on Sept. 15, 2022. Juan Barreto | Afp | Getty Images Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine aren’t a show of strength, but a “show of weakness” that reflects its inability to advance and seize Ukrainian territory, said Kurt Volker, a distinguished fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. “Putin’s goal was to take over Ukraine, replace the government, have someone in Ukraine that was subordinate to Moscow. That’s simply not going to happen,” the former U.S. ambassador to NATO (2008-2009) told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Tuesday. “Ukrainians have made tremendous inroads taking territory back. This is the kind of thing that Putin has to resort to.” He said Russia’s increasing aggression is an expected reaction to Ukraine’s resistance. Volker added that Putin will have more to lose than gain should he escalate the threat of nuclear weapons. Even the Russian military may not support Putin if he starts a nuclear war, he said. Read more here: Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine are a ‘show of weakness,’ says former U.S. ambassador to NATO — Natalie Tham Ukraine takes another pummeling from strikes, but its ground forces hold firm Ukrainian soldier Viktor, 35, checks his heavy machine gun at a position along the front line in the Mykolaiv region on October 5, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Dimitar Dilkoff | Afp | Getty Images Despite being subject to further Russian missile strikes Tuesday, Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south continues, with its forces are consolidating gains and holding firm against Russian counterattacks, the army reported. Ukraine’s southern command issued an update on Facebook last night in which it said its forces continue “to control the situation in Southern Buh direction,” referring to the Buh river in the west of the country that flows down to Mykolaiv on the southern coast. Southern command said Ukraine’s forces were “destroying the enemy’s reserves, disrupting the control and logistical support systems of the Russian occupiers” there, as well as gaining a foothold in five liberated settlements. It added that Russian forces had tried to counterattack Ukrainian positions in the Ishchenka area to the east of Mykolaiv “under cover of a massive missile attack across Ukraine” but that “the Russian invaders suffered losses and had to retreat.” “Over the past day, Ukrainian aviation launched nine strikes on the areas of invaders’ manpower, weapons and equipment build-up in Beryslav and Mykolaiv districts,” southern command said, claiming to have destroyed or damaged various Russian positions, vehicles and equipment. It added that “the enemy conducts intensive aerial reconnaissance around 17 settlements along the front line and in the newly liberated territories and continues shelling the positions” of Ukraine’s armed forces. CNBC was unable to verify the information in the report. — Holly Ellyatt Ukraine struggles to restore water and energy supplies after more strikes A cafe without electricity in western Ukrainian city of Lviv, after three Russian missiles fired targeted energy infrastructure on Oct. 11, 2022. Lviv’s mayor said that one-third of homes were without power. Yuriy Dyachyshyn | Afp | Getty Images Ukraine is dealing with the aftermath of another day of missile attacks, with power and water supplies still damaged in many locations after critical infrastructure was targeted by Russia. Air raid sirens sounded out across multiple regions in Ukraine again on Tuesday, with the emergency services warning of more Russian strikes. Those came early in the day, with both Lviv in the west and Zaporizhzhia in the south hit by missile strikes, giving Ukraine’s authorities more logistical challenges to deal with. Smoke rises above the buildings after the Russian missile attack on the critical infrastructure of Lviv on Oct. 10, 2022. Russia launched 15 rockets in the Lviv region, some were shot down by air defense forces, the rest hit energy infrastructure facilities. Due to the rocket attack, Lviv was left without electricity, water and mobile communication. Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images President Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that, were it not for the additional strikes during the day, the Ukrainian authorities would ...

State Sports Briefs https://digitalarkansasnews.com/state-sports-briefs-2/ TRACK AND FIELD UA to host SEC Indoors FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas will host the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Center on Feb. 24-25, it was announced Tuesday when the Razorbacks’ schedules for the indoor and outdoor seasons were released. Other indoor meets the UA will host are the Arkansas Invitational (Jan. 13), the Razorback Invitational (Jan. 27-28), the Tyson Invitational (Feb. 10-11) and the Arkansas Qualifier (Feb. 17.) The NCAA Indoor Championships will be March 10-11 in Albuquerque, N.M. Outdoor meets Arkansas will host at John McDonnell Field are the John McDonnell Invitational (April 20-21) and the Arkansas Twilight (May 5). The SEC Championships will be held May 11-13 in Baton Rouge, the NCAA West Prelims on May 24-27 in Sacramento, Calif., and the NCAA Championships on June 7-10 in Austin, Texas. Arkansas will open the outdoor season at the Stanford Invitational on March 31-April 1. VOLLEYBALL UALR falls at Southeast Missouri State The University of Arkansas-Little Rock ended its five-match road trip with a straight-set loss at Southeast Missouri State on Monday night in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The Trojans have now lost nine straight with the last win coming Sept. 16 against the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff in Memphis. UALR (3-17, 0-7 Ohio Valley Conference) led the second set 23-22 before three straight Trojan errors handed the Redhawks the set. Southeast Missouri (9-10, 4-3) hit .269 as a team. — Mitchell Gladstone GOLF ASU men hang on to win Bubba Barnett Intercollegiate Oklahoma Christian made a final-round charge Tuesday at RidgePointe Country Club in Jonesboro, but a pair of 8-under-par 280 scores during Monday’s first and second rounds lifted Arkansas State to the team title at the Bubba Barnett Intercollegiate. Jonesboro native Devyn Pappas cruised to the individual title, leading the Red Wolves with a 12-under-par 204 for the 54 holes. Luka Naglic and Thomas Schmidt joined Pappas in the top 10, both tying for eighth at 1-under 215. University of Arkansas junior Christian Castillo tied for second among individuals, shooting 6-under 210. UALR men 4th at Purdue Fall Invitational A rough third round at Kampen Golf Course in West Lafayette, Ind., spoiled any hope of a late surge for the University of Arkansas-Little Rock at the Purdue Fall Invitational as it finished fourth among a field of 15 teams. The Trojans posted just one round better than 76 on Tuesday — Archie Smith shot 2-under par 70 — as UALR finished the round at 13-over 301. UALR ended the week at 17-over par 881, 25 shots behind team-champion Tennessee. Jansen Smith turned in the best individual week for the Trojans, tying for ninth at 2-over 218. He and Matteo Cristoni, who tied for 16th, carded the best individual 18-hole scores of the event — Cristoni shot 5-under 67 in the opening round and Smith matched him in the second round. — Mitchell Gladstone UCA women edge ASU for title Although Arkansas State won Tuesday’s final round at Sage Meadows Golf Club in Jonesboro, Central Arkansas held on to win the Lady Red Wolves Classic with a 1-under par 863 total. The Bears had a pair of top-10 individual finishers with Elin Kumlin finishing tied for fourth at 3-under 213 and Madison Holmes tying for ninth at 1-under 215. ASU’s Olivia Schmidt ran away with the individual title, shooting no worse than 3-under 69 in any of her three rounds en route to a 12-under 204. Elise Schultz, who played for the Red Wolves’ B team, finished fourth with a 54-hole total of 4-under 212. ASU freshman Morgan Beaulieu was the best of the other seven Red Wolves, shooting even-par 70 in the second round and ending tied for 16th at 1-over 217. — Mitchell Gladstone SOCCER UCA’s Lapointe-Guevara takes home weekly award University of Central Arkansas defender Rich Lapointe-Guevara was named the ASUN Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday, earning the honor for his two-goal weekend for the Bears (5-4-2, 4-1 ASUN). Last Tuesday against Oral Roberts, the sophomore scored the final goal in a 2-2 draw. UCA scored three goals in the final seven minutes Saturday against Queens (N.C.) to overcome a 3-1 deficit. Lapointe-Guevara scored the second of those three to bring the game level 3-3. — Sam Lane Read More…

Man Charged With GBH After Assault Near Victoria Coach Station https://digitalarkansasnews.com/man-charged-with-gbh-after-assault-near-victoria-coach-station/ A man has been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent after an assault near Victoria Coach Station. © PA Archive National Express Coaches The victim, aged in his 30s, was assaulted about 7.50pm on Saturday, June 18 on Elizabeth Street. He was taken to hospital for treatment to injuries before being discharged. Jack Rogers, 33, of Bromley Road, Beckenham, handed himself in to a west London police station on June 29 where he was arrested and then released under investigation. On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police said he had been charged. He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on November 30. Anyone with information that could assist police is asked to call 101 or to tweet @MetCC, with the reference CAD 7204/18JUN. Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Register now for one of the Evening Standard’s newsletters. From a daily news briefing to Homes & Property insights, plus lifestyle, going out, offers and more. For the best stories in your inbox, click here. Microsoft and partners may be compensated if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. Read More Here

All The Best Prime Day Deals Still Running For Amazon’s Early Access Sale [Updated] https://digitalarkansasnews.com/all-the-best-prime-day-deals-still-running-for-amazons-early-access-sale-updated/ Prime Day Part Deux: Day 2 — We’ve sorted through Amazon’s pre-holiday sale to find the stuff that’s worth your time. Corey Gaskin – Oct 12, 2022 7:13 am UTC Update (10/12/22 3:13 am ET): The Amazon Prime Day Early Access event is still running strong into day two. Many of yesterday’s best deals are still in stock and some have even dropped further in price. As always, we continue to update this list regularly throughout the day, sifting through to find and highlight the best deals cropping up so you don’t have to. Original post (10/11/22 3:00 am ET): Amazon’s Prime Day sales event came and went this past July, as it has every year since 2015. The two-day shopping event is exclusively for Amazon Prime members and features thousands of products spanning all categories. This year, the company has plopped another sales event on the calendar from October 11 through 12 called the “Prime Early Access Sale.” Meant to preempt the holiday shopping season, it’s a smaller, albeit still massive discount event on thousands of items. To be clear, Amazon remains a behemoth that has done (and continues to do) many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many things worthy of criticism, and Prime Day itself tends to be loaded up with a lot of junk offers and misleading “discounts” that don’t make products significantly cheaper than they usually are. Much like Prime Day, these deals range widely in their value. But among the literal tens of thousands of sale items, there are some genuinely good deals on a lot of the items and categories we cover here at Ars. We spent several hours combing through the offers to compile a list of the best values available. Many of the items are devices we’ve reviewed well here at Ars, while the rest have been well-reviewed at multiple review sites we trust. Using tools like Keepa and CamelCamelCamel, we verified that the deals below offer prices as low or lower than they’ve been in the past three to six months. Many of these match the types of discounts you’ll see during other major sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The comprehensive roundup below will be updated periodically throughout each day of the event to reflect changes in stock, pricing, and additive deals. Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs. More Prime Day 2022 Coverage Prime Day’s Best Headphone Deals Featured Amazon Prime Day deals NEW Apple Watch Series 8 (45mm) smartwatch for $379 ($430) NEW Apple AirPods Pro (second generation) true wireless ANC earphones for $223 ($250) NEW Apple TV 4K (32GB) media streamer for $109 ($163) (64GB for $124) NEW Apple iPad 10.2-inch (2021) Wi-Fi, 64GB for $270 ($300) NEW Apple iPad Mini Wi-Fi, 64GB for $400 ($460) (also at Best Buy) NEW Apple iPad Air 10.9-inch (2022) Wi-Fi, 64GB for $520 ($560) NEW Apple MacBook Air (2020) 13.3-inch laptop (Apple M1, 2560×1600, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $799 ($950) NEW Bose 700 headphones, wireless ANC over-ear for $269 ($329) NEW Sony A80J (2022) 77-inch 4K OLED TV for $2,000 ($3,298) (55-inch at Best Buy for $1,000) NEW iRobot Roomba 671 robot vacuum for $180 ($349) NEW HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14-inch laptop (Core i5-1135G7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $500 ($680) LG C1 (2021) 65-inch 4K OLED TV for $1,497 ($2,499) (also at Best Buy) Peloton Bike indoor stationary exercise bike 22 HD Touchscreen $1,225 ($1,445) Beats Fit Pro true wireless ANC earphones for $160 ($195) Beats Studio3 wireless ANC over-ear headphones for $170 ($270) Jabra Elite 3 true wireless earphones for $47 ($70) (also at Best Buy) Jabra Elite 45h wireless on-ear headphones for $70 ($100) Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless ANC headphones for $348 ($400) Blueair 211+ air purifier for $256 ($300) Coway Airmega HEPA air purifier for $155 ($200) Garmin Fenix 6 pro GPS sports watch for $430 ($750) Garmin Vivoactive 4S (40mm) smartwatch for $187 ($249) Google Pixel 6a (128GB) smartphone for $329 ($449) (Pixel 6 Pro for $617) Intel Core i9-12900KF 16-core/24-thread desktop CPU for $440 ($550) Fire HD 10 tablet (2021) 32GB, 10.1-inch, 1080p for $75 ($150) (Fire HD 8 for $45) Microsoft 365 Personal + $30 Amazon gift card 12-Month Subscription (digital download) for $89 ($90) Microsoft 365 Family + $50 Amazon gift card 12-Month Subscription (digital download) for $93 ($143) New users only: Amazon Kindle Unlimited 4-month membership for $5 ($30) Enlarge / The Peloton Bike+ is a cool-looking machine with it’s matte black finish and red accents. It’s also exceptionally well-built. Corey Gaskin Best Prime Day Amazon device deals Ring Alarm 5 Piece Home Security Kit for $139 ($199) at Amazon Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker for $20 ($40) (Kids version for $25) Amazon Echo Show 5 5.5-inch smart display for $35 ($65) (Kids version for $40) Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (8GB, with ads) 6.8-inch e-reader for $100 ($140) at Amazon Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Kids (8GB, no ads) 6.8-inch e-reader for $105 ($155) Amazon Kindle (8GB) 6-inch e-reader for $45 ($90) (no ads for $60) Amazon Kindle Kids 6-inch e-reader for $50 ($100) Amazon Kindle Oasis (8GB) 7-inch e-reader for $175 ($250) (no ads for $190) Amazon Fire HD 8 (32GB) 8-inch tablet for $45 ($80) Amazon Fire HD 10 (32GB) 10.1-inch tablet for $75 ($137) (no ads for $90) Enlarge / The new $100 Kindle is Amazon’s best entry-level model ever, though it still has to live in the Paperwhite’s shadow. Andrew Cunningham Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus (32GB) 10.1-inch tablet for $105 ($165) Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids (32GB) 8-inch tablet for $70 ($120) (Kids Pro for $70) Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids (32GB) 10.1-inch tablet for $120 ($183) (Kids Pro for $120) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max media streamer for $35 ($50) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K media streamer for $25 ($40) Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker for $20 ($40) (Kids version for $25) Amazon Echo Show 5 5.5-inch smart display for $35 ($65) (Kids version for $40) Amazon Echo smart speaker for $60 ($90) Amazon Luna Controller wireless gamepad for Luna + PC for $40 ($70) Amazon Echo Show 8 8-inch smart display for $75 ($120) Amazon Echo Show 15 15.6-inch smart display for $170 ($250) Enlarge / Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro headphones Jeff Dunn Best Prime Day headphone and audio deals NEW Apple AirPods Pro (second generation) true wireless ANC earphones for $235 ($250) NEW Apple AirPods (second generation) true wireless earbuds for $90 ($107) Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless ANC headphones for $348 ($400) Sony MDR-7506 wired headphones for $79 ($89) NEW Beats Studio Buds true wireless earphones for $100 ($135) Beats Fit Pro true wireless ANC earphones for $160 ($195) Beats Studio3 wireless ANC over-ear headphones for $170 ($270) Bose QuietComfort 45 wireless ANC over-ear headphones for $229 ($329) NEW Bose 700 headphones, wireless ANC over-ear for $229 ($329) Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro true wireless ANC earphones for $120 ($163) Jabra Elite 3 true wireless earphones for $50 ($70) Jabra Elite 45h wireless on-ear headphones for $70 ($100) Jabra Elite 85h wireless ANC on-ear headphones for $200 ($249) NEW Jabra Elite 85t true wireless ANC earphones for $161 ($180) JBL Boombox 2 Bluetooth speaker, IPX7 water-resistant $300 ($500) Marshall Emberton portable Bluetooth speaker for $120 ($150) after clipping coupon Enlarge / Sony’s WH-1000XM5 (left) and WH-1000XM4 (right) wireless noise-canceling headphones. Sony promises improved active noise cancellation and audio quality with the XM5s. Jeff Dunn Best Prime Day electronics deals NEW Apple iPad 10.2-inch (2021) Wi-Fi, 64GB for $270 ($300) NEW Apple iPad Air 10.9-inch (2022) Wi-Fi, 64GB for $520 ($560) NEW Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2021) Wi-Fi, 128GB for $899 ($1,000) Apple iPad Mini Wi-Fi, 64GB for $400 ($460) (also at Best Buy) NEW iRobot Roomba 671 robot vacuum for $180 ($349) iRobot Roomba i2 robot vacuum for $200 ($291) iRobot Roomba S9+ robot vacuum for $799 ($900) iRobot Roomba i4+ robot vacuum for $400 ($570) iRobot Roomba j7+ robot vacuum w/ self-emptying dock for $599 ($760) (also at Target, Best Buy) iRobot Roomba j7 robot vacuum for $399 ($565) (also at Target, Best Buy) iRobot Roomba 694 robot vacuum for $200 ($245) (also at Best Buy, iRobot) Enlarge / The Pixel 6 Ron Amadeo Google Pixel 6a (128GB) smartphone for $329 ($449) Google Pixel 6 Pro (128GB) smartphone for $617 ($875) Google Nest smart thermostat for $100 ($110) NEW Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 (128GB) smartphone, unlocked for $800 ($900) NEW Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (256GB) smartphone, unlocked for $1,390 ($1,800) NEW Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (128GB) smartphone, unlocked for $890 ($1,000) NETGEAR Orbi whole home Wi-Fi 6 System for $427 ($500) Roborock S7 Robot Vacuum and Mop for $410 ($650) Roborock S7+ Robot Vacuum and Mop for $680 ($950) Roborock E5 Robot Vacuum for $180 ($280) TP-Link Deco AXE5400 (3-pack) Wi-Fi 6 mesh system, up to 7200 sq.ft for $360 ($450) Enlarge / The Roku Streaming Stick 4K and Streaming Stick 4K+ replaced the Roku Streaming Stick+. Roku Best Prime Day TV deals NEW Apple TV 4K (32GB) media streamer for $109 ($163) (64GB for $124) LG C1 (2021) 65-inch 4K OLED TV for $1,497 ($2,499) (also at Best Buy) LG A1 (2021) 48-inch 4K OLED TV for $647 ($700) Samsung QN90B (2022) 75-inch QLED 4K TV with Alexa built-in for $2,498 ($2,800) NEW Sony A80J (2022) 77-inch 4K OLED TV for $2,000 ($3,298) (55-inch at Best Buy for $1,000) NEW Sony A90J (2021) 55-inch 4K OLED TV for $1,798 ($1,998) (also at Best Buy) Roku Streaming Stick 4K media streamer for $27 ($40) Hisense U7G (2021) 65-inch 4K LED Android TV for $700 ($850) Hisense U8G (2021) 65-inch 4K LED Android TV for $800 ($970) TCL 43S446 (2022) 43-inch 4K TV for $23...

Former Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard Says She Is Leaving The Democratic Party https://digitalarkansasnews.com/former-presidential-candidate-tulsi-gabbard-says-she-is-leaving-the-democratic-party/ 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is leaving the Democratic Party In her announcement to leave the Democratic Party, Gabbard accused the party of using rhetoric that is anti-police and anti-religion, and pushing the country closer to nuclear war. October 12, 20222:25 AM ET In this Feb. 8, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, speaks during the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner in Manchester, N.H. Mary Altaffer/AP hide caption toggle caption Mary Altaffer/AP In this Feb. 8, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, speaks during the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner in Manchester, N.H. Mary Altaffer/AP Former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has announced she is leaving the Democratic party. “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic party,” she said on an episode of her podcast. “It’s now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers, driven by cowardly wokeness…” Gabbard additionally accused the party of “stoking anti-white racism,” being contemptuous toward religion and police and driving the country closer to nuclear war. Gabbard was first elected to her native state of Hawaii’s legislature in 2002 as a Democrat, at the age of 21. She has identified as a Democrat ever since, she said. In 2012, Gabbard became the first Hindu and one of the first two female combat veterans elected to Congress. She began building a national profile during the 2016 election, when she resigned from her post as vice chairperson of the Democratic National Committee to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president. She announced her own presidential run on CNN in January 2019, saying, “There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace.” She dropped out of the race in March 2020 and endorsed President Biden. Read More Here

China Stocks Recover In Mixed Asia Trade; Yen Weakens Past 146 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/china-stocks-recover-in-mixed-asia-trade-yen-weakens-past-146/ The Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan. Noriko Hayashi | Bloomberg via Getty Images Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Wednesday, with some indexes struggling for direction amid concerns over the global economy. Investors are also waiting for inflation data from the U.S. due later this week. The Shanghai Composite in mainland China rose around 1%, and the Shenzhen Component gained 1.535%. Both indexes earlier lost more than 1% each. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index recovered slightly to trade 0.89% lower, with the Hang Seng Tech index falling more than 1%. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 closed fractionally lower at 26,396.83 and Topix lost 0.12% to 1,869. Japan’s yen was hovering around 146 against the dollar. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia 0.04% higher at 6,647.50. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1%. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.47% and the Kosdaq was higher by 0.13%. South Korea’s central bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points to 3% on Wednesday, in line with expectations. The Korean won strengthened and last changed hands at 1,423.78 per dollar. Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 shed 0.65% to close at 3,588.84 after hitting a multiyear low during the session. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.10% to 10,426.19, its lowest close since July 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 36.31 points, or 0.12%, to close at 29,239.19. — CNBC’s Carmen Reinicke and Sarah Min contributed to this report. CNBC Pro: It’s too early to buy the dip, investor says, naming 8 stocks to buy when the time is right One fund manager is cautioning against buying the dip, despite a 25% decline in the S&P 500 this year. Instead, investors should be repositioning toward stocks sensitive to interest rates, John Ricciardi, head of asset allocation and a fund manager at Deuterium Capital, said. He names three stocks in the consumer staples sectors, three in utilities, and two in materials for investors to scoop up when the time is right. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Ganesh Rao New bank loans in China soared in September, data shows Banks in China extended 2.47 trillion yuan ($344 billion) of new loans in September, compared with 1.25 trillion yuan in August, the country’s central bank said in a statement late Tuesday. That comes after the People’s Bank of China’s efforts to boost credit by lowering interest rates this year. Analysts polled by Reuters expected new loans to come in at 1.8 trillion yuan. — Abigail Ng South Korea’s central bank raises rates by 50 basis points The Bank of Korea raised its policy rate to 3%, an increase of 50 basis points in line with expectations, as the central bank tries to keep inflation under control and limit the plunge in the Korean won. Interest rate differentials have boosted the dollar this year, and the won has fallen around 20% against the greenback since the start of the year. Inflation in South Korea stood at 5.6% in September, above the central bank’s target. — Abigail Ng Japan’s yen weakens to fresh 24-year high The Japanese yen weakened past the level where authorities previously intervened to mark a new 24-year high in Asia’s morning trade. The U.S. dollar bought as much as 146.22 yen at one point, but then retreated to 146.08. Officials in Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market in September when the dollar-yen hit 145.9. — Abigail Ng CNBC Pro: This stock is a better bet than even U.S. Treasurys, fund manager says Nick Griffin, chief investment officer at Munro Partners, is so bullish on one stock, he says it’s a better bet than U.S. Treasurys.       “It’s cheaper than a U.S. Treasury. It grows faster than the U.S. Treasury, and it’s probably got a better balance sheet than the U.S. Treasury. So from our point of view, it’s a fairly safe place to [put your] cash,” he said. Short-term U.S. Treasurys have surged in popularity among investors of late as yields pop. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Weizhen Tan U.S. economy is doing well amid economic uncertainty, says Treasury Secretary Yellen Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. is “doing very well” amid global economic uncertainty. Although the U.S. economy has slowed after a strong recovery, jobs reports indicate a resilient economy, she said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC’s Sara Eisen. She also acknowledged that inflation is too high and that lowering it is a priority for the Biden administration, and emphasized the importance of maintaining a healthy labor market while doing so. — Chelsey Cox, Tanaya Macheel IMF cuts global growth forecast for next year Read More Here

Trump News – Live: DoJ Asks Supreme Court To Stay Out Of Mar-A-Lago Classified Documents Case https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-news-live-doj-asks-supreme-court-to-stay-out-of-mar-a-lago-classified-documents-case/ The Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to refrain from intervening in an ongoing dispute between the government and former president Donald Trump over classified documents found during the 8 August search of his Mar-a-Lago property. In a brief filed with the high court on Tuesday, the US Solicitor General said Justice Clarence Thomas — the justice responsible for reviewing 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decisions — should keep in place a three-judge panel’s order allowing the government to block “highly sensitive” documents from a special master and use them to further the criminal probe into the twice-impeached ex-president. Meanwhile, a report in The Washington Post reveals that half of the money raised by Mr Trump’s Save America political action committees has been spent on his legal bills and two nonprofits employing former members of his administration rather than Republican congressional campaigns. The group has contributed about $8.4m so far directly to Republican campaigns and committees while devoting $7m to the former president’s lawyers and another $2m to the two nonprofits. Key points Data shows Trump legal fees eat up money that could be spent on other GOP candidates DoJ asks Supreme Court to stay out of Trump Mar-a-Lago document case McCarthy told Trump Jan 6 rioters were trying to kill him – report Cassidy Hutchinson is ‘cooperating’ with Atlanta judge’s probe of Trump Report: Trump lawyer Christina Bobb cooperating with Justice Department Why has Kanye West turned on Jared Kushner? 05:30 , Oliver O’Connell Kanye West took issue with a figure he’d previously professed his love for in his wide-ranging interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson: Jared Kushner. Throughout the explosive Thursday night sitdown between the pair, Kanye addressed a number of topics, including his pro-life stance, his decision to don a red MAGA cap, labelled the body positive moment “demonic” and admonished the fashion industry for encouraging his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, to “stick her a** out” for magazines. In one of the more zany and unexpected exchanges, Kanye sharply criticised Mr Kushner, a former senior White House adviser to his father-in-law, Donald Trump, insinuating that he was a person solely motivated by financial gain. Johanna Chisholm takes a look at the relationship between the two. Why has Kanye West turned on his old friend Jared Kushner? Fact check: Sorting presidential papers in an ex-bowling alley 04:00 , Oliver O’Connell At a rally for Nevada Republicans on Saturday, former President Donald Trump argued against the federal probe into the storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate by falsely suggesting that past presidents did the same thing. Read more: FACT FOCUS: Sorting papers and facts in an ex-bowling alley Trump claims Bill Clinton ‘lost’ the nuclear codes 03:15 , Oliver O’Connell As federal investigators continue to probe which White House materials Donald Trump took to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the former president is claiming Bill Clinton lost the nuclear codes while in office. On Monday evening, Mr Trump reposted a statement on Truth Social from former Clinton military aide Robert “Buzz” Patterson, who wrote that, “Just a reminder, but Bill Clinton actually LOST the nuclear codes during my tenure with him. We weren’t raided.” Josh Marcus has the story. Donald Trump claims Bill Clinton ‘lost’ the nuclear codes Cassidy Hutchinson reportedly testifies in Georgia election probe 02:30 , Oliver O’Connell The former White House aide whose bombshell testimony gave House January 6 committee members a window into former president Donald Trump’s actions on the day of the Capitol riot is reportedly cooperating with a Georgia-based criminal probe into Mr Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election there. According to CNN, former Mark Meadows assistant Cassidy Hutchinson is now aiding Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney Fani Willis’ ongoing probe into whether Mr Trump or his associates violated Georgia election laws by pressuring Peach State officials to throw out ballots after Mr Trump became the first Republican to lose there in decades. Andrew Feinberg reports. Ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson reportedly testifies in Georgia election probe Trump claims he ‘destroyed’ late-night stars Kimmel and Colbert 01:45 , Oliver O’Connell Donald Trump claimed that he’s behind the decreasing ratings of late-night programmes hosted by the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Trevor Noah, and congratulated Greg Gutfeld, Fox News’ late-night host, for his recent viewing figures. Gustaf Kilander has the story. Trump takes credit for a late night host’s success, claims he ‘destroyed’ Colbert Most Americans don’t trust the Supreme Court 01:00 , Oliver O’Connell A new survey shows that more than half of Americans do not trust the Supreme Court as it begins a new term. An Annenberg Public Policy Center poll found that 53 per cent of American adults do not trust the Supreme Court, with the same number of Americans saying they disapprove of the job the court is doing. Eric Garcia reports. Majority of Americans don’t trust the current Supreme Court Donald Trump woos Christian right in newly released video Wednesday 12 October 2022 00:15 , Oliver O’Connell Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump are heard wooing Christian right leaders ahead of the 2016 election in a newly unearthed audio recording. The tape is featured in the new documentary Battleground, directed by Cynthia Lowen, which takes a close look at anti-abortion activists. According to the documentary, the audio was taken during a closed-door meeting between Trump and leaders of the Christian right, 40 days before the 2016 election. Trump was reported to have met with conservative Christians in June of that year. The audio in the documentary was recorded during a different meeting, on 29 September 2016. Clémence Michallon has the details. Donald and Ivanka Trump woo Christian right in newly released tape Christina Bobb now cooperating with DoJ on missing documents case, report says Tuesday 11 October 2022 23:40 , Oliver O’Connell The right-wing TV anchor-turned-attorney for former president Donald Trump, who signed a false certification telling the Department of Justice that the ex-president had turned over all classified documents in his possession, is now cooperating with federal prosecutors in the investigation into Mr Trump. According to NBC News, attorney Christina Bobb met with federal investigators and provided information on two other attorneys who had a hand in submitting the statement to the government. Andrew Feinberg reports. Trump lawyer cooperating with Justice Department on missing documents case Adam Kinzinger endorses Democrats against GOP election deniers Tuesday 11 October 2022 23:20 , Oliver O’Connell Adam Kinzinger may not be running for reelection this year, but that isn’t stopping him from doing what he still can to challenge election deniers on every possible front. John Bowden reports. Adam Kinzinger endorses Dems against GOP election deniers Trump dossier source trial begins Tuesday 11 October 2022 23:00 , Oliver O’Connell A Russian analyst who played a major role in the creation of a flawed dossier about former President Donald Trump fabricated one of his own sources and concealed the identity of another when interviewed by the FBI, prosecutors said Tuesday. The allegations were aired in opening statements in the jury trial of Igor Danchenko, who is indicted on five counts of making false statements to the FBI, in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Read more: Trial begins for analyst who was source for Trump dossier Where can you watch the next Jan 6 hearing? Tuesday 11 October 2022 22:41 , Oliver O’Connell The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection on 6 January 2021 is holding a number of public hearings as it explores the circumstances that led to the shameful events of that day. The next hearing, which could be the last public meeting of the panel, is set to begin at 1pm EST on Thursday, 13 October. Here’s where to watch: How to watch the Jan 6 committee hearings Data shows Trump legal fees eat up money that could be spent on other GOP candidates Tuesday 11 October 2022 22:23 , Oliver O’Connell The nearly 20 major lawsuits and investigations facing Donald Trump are draining millions of dollars away from supporting other GOP candidates, according to campaign filings. Josh Marcus reports. Trump legal fees eat up money that could be spent on other GOP candidates, data shows New poll shows Raphael Warnock gaining on Herschel Walker in Georgia senate race Tuesday 11 October 2022 22:00 , Oliver O’Connell Democratic incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock took the lead in Georgia in his race against Republican Herschel Walker, a new Emerson College poll showed. The poll showed that 48 per cent of likely supporters would cast their vote for Mr Warnock, compared to 46 per cent who said they would vote for Mr Walker, a former running back for the University of Georgia. The survey showed that Mr Warnock’s support increased by four points while Mr Walker’s support declined by about two points. Eric Garcia reports. Georgia poll shows support for Herschel Walker dips as Democrat Raphael Warnock gains DoJ asks Supreme Court to stay out of Trump Mar-a-Lago document case Tuesday 11 October 2022 21:49 , Oliver O’Connell The Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to refrain from intervening in an ongoing dispute between the government and former president Donald Trump over classified documents found during the 8 August search of his Mar-a-Lago property. Andrew Feinb...

Byron York: Republicans And Bias In Midterm Polls https://digitalarkansasnews.com/byron-york-republicans-and-bias-in-midterm-polls/ Republicans always believe the polls are slanted against them. That belief has sometimes caused them to misread big political races. In 2012, for example, a significant number of Republicans convinced themselves that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney was actually going to defeat incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama. There was a lot of talk about “unskewing” the polls. Then Obama beat Romney handily. But there have also been some egregious examples of polling bias, or at least polling mistakes, in the years since Donald Trump entered national politics. On many occasions, pollsters have seemed unable to measure Trump’s appeal, especially in state-level polls. In the 2016 Trump vs. Hillary Clinton race, the polls showed Clinton winning in three states critical to Trump’s victory — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin, the RealClearPolitics average of polls on Election Day showed Clinton winning by 6.5 points; in fact, Trump won by seven-tenths of a point. In Michigan, the polls had Clinton up by 3.6 points; Trump won by three-tenths of a point. And in Pennsylvania, the polls showed Clinton ahead by 2.1 points; Trump won by seven-tenths of a point. Read More Here

Russian Involvement In Trump Campaign Remains Crux Of The Issue – The Boston Globe https://digitalarkansasnews.com/russian-involvement-in-trump-campaign-remains-crux-of-the-issue-the-boston-globe/ Re “Steele dossier trial set to begin: Analyst accused of lying to FBI” (Page A2, Oct. 10): According to this article, in 2019 then-president Donald Trump assigned John H. Durham “to investigate the Russia investigation” with the expectation “that Durham would uncover a ‘deep state’ conspiracy against him and charge high-level FBI and intelligence officials with crimes.” However, the Russian involvement in the 2016 Trump campaign was a fact, not a hoax. We should never overlook or forget the fact that a Ukrainian, Konstantin V. Kilimnick, was the business partner of Paul Manafort, who, at the time, was Trump’s 2016 campaign manager. Manafort reportedly handed over detailed and private campaign polling data to Kilimnick (a Russian operative) in 2016. Manafort was convicted of other crimes in March 2019 and pardoned on Dec. 23, 2020, by his friend Trump. Iris Kaufman Peabody Read More Here

Golden Suns Fall To UA-Fort Smith https://digitalarkansasnews.com/golden-suns-fall-to-ua-fort-smith/ The Arkansas Tech volleyball team fell to Arkansas-Fort Smith 0-3 on Monday night in Tucker Coliseum in their nonconference matchup. Following the match, the Golden Suns are 5-16 overall and stay at a 3-6 record against Great American Conference opponents. The start of the opening set was close with both sides securing early points, but a 5-1 run gave UAFS an early 7-3 advantage. A pair of errors by the Lions and kills from Ava Johnson and Kaitlyn Neal brought Arkansas Tech back to within three still down 7-10. Another kill by Neal and an error by UAFS brought the set to within two points. Then, a 4-0 run by the Golden Suns fueled by two service aces from Jenna Keller and kills from Neal and Heather Thomas tied the set at 13-13. The Lions quickly struck back however putting together their own 6-1 run to take a 19-14 lead down the stretch. UAFS would close out the set on a 6-1 run to give them the 25-16 first set win. Read More Here

Biden Warns Saudi Arabia Will Face “consequences” Over OPEC Oil Production Cut https://digitalarkansasnews.com/biden-warns-saudi-arabia-will-face-consequences-over-opec-oil-production-cut/ President Biden with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on July 15. Photo: Royal Court of Saudi Arabia/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images President Biden will “continue to re-evaluate” the U.S.’ relationship with Saudi Arabia after a group of international oil exporters and Russia decided to significantly cut oil production in response to falling fuel prices, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN on Tuesday. The latest: Biden told CNN in an interview broadcast Tuesday there would be “consequences” for Saudi Arabia over the decision to cut oil output, declining to elaborate further. Driving the news: The White House warned last week that Biden may support legislation aimed at reducing OPEC’s control over energy prices, suggesting Biden is considering a new, escalatory approach with the Saudis, Axios’ Alayna Treene and Hans Nichols report. Kirby reiterated this warning Tuesday, stressing that Biden is “willing” to work with Congress to redefine relations. Why it matters: OPEC+’s decision to slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day starting in November could have a ripple effect around the world. In the US, the move could increase the price of gas again — right before the midterm elections, Axios’ Ben Geman reports. OPEC+’s attempt to prop up oil prices could also benefit Russia’s funding of its brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine. What they’re saying: “I think the president’s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit,” Kirby told CNN. “And certainly in light of the OPEC decision, I think that’s where he is, and he’s willing to work with Congress to think through what that relationship ought to look like going forward,” Kirby added. Kirby added later in a call with reporters that OPEC’s move to cut production was “a short-sighted decision and that it benefited Russia, at a time when nobody, in any capacity, should be trying to benefit Vladimir Putin.” For Saudi Arabia’s part, Oil Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman has said OPEC+ was just trying to get ahead of a potential reduction in demand, Axios’ Dave Lawler reports. The big picture: Biden administration officials attempted to dissuade OPEC+ from the decision with a last-minute lobbying effort earlier this month, saying the the cut could be a “total disaster” and may be interpreted as a “hostile act,” according to CNN. Biden faced backlash in the summer for his trip to Saudi Arabia and fist-bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before a meeting, which was meant to recalibrate U.S.-Saudi ties and bolster U.S. influence in the region. Go deeper: Biden’s new Saudi strategy What OPEC’s 2 million-barrel cut could mean for U.S. gas prices Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new details throughout. Read More Here