Digital Arkansas News

Migrant Bus Arrives Near VP Kamala Harris' DC Residence, More Reach NYC https://digitalarkansasnews.com/migrant-bus-arrives-near-vp-kamala-harris-dc-residence-more-reach-nyc/ Another bus carrying illegal migrants stepped off the bus in Washington, D.C., Thursday morning, not far from Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence. Additionally, two more migrant buses arrived in New York City at Manhattan’s Port Authority transportation hub Thursday. Seven buses arrived in New York on Wednesday. States like Texas and Florida, and cities like El Paso, Texas, have been regularly transporting migrants to sanctuary cities in other parts of the country. EAGLE PASS, TEXAS MAYOR PRO-TEM DENIES THAT MIGRANTS BUSSED NORTH ARE ‘BEING LIED TO’ Ongoing relocations of incoming illegal border-crossers has become a popular method of protest for southern states overrun with migrants that are feeling ignored by President Biden’s administration. WATCH: MIGRANTS ARRIVE IN NYC Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent dozens of buses filled with border-crossers to Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago in recent months. TEXAS DEMOCRAT MAYOR SENDS MESSAGE TO LIBERAL LEADERS SEEKING BIDEN’S HELP WITH MIGRANTS: ‘GOOD LUCK TO THEM’ This is not the first time that illegal immigrants have been transported right next to Harris’s DC residence at the city’s Naval Observatory. A bus carrying migrants arrived in Washington, D.C., near Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. (Fox News Channel) Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency over buses of migrants that continue to arrive in the city from Texas and Arizona last month. Bowser’s emergency declaration will set aside funding to accommodate migrants as well as create the Office of Migrant Services. The OMS will be tasked with providing temporary accommodations, urgent medical needs, transportation and other services for migrants. A bus carrying migrants arrived in Washington, D.C., near Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. (Fox News Channel) Separately on Thursday morning, illegal immigrants disembarked from buses in New York City as well. The ongoing influx has put a strain on New York City’s shelter system, leading officials to look for places to house people and propose temporary tent facilities. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that the city’s humanitarian relief center was being moved to Randall’s Island after storms raised concerns over flooding at the original site. A bus carrying migrants arrived in Washington, D.C., near Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. (Fox News Channel) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP According to Fox 5 New York, Adams is close to striking a deal on housing migrants on cruise ships. The outlet also said that a group of people who lived in neighborhoods near Orchard Beach had announced their intentions to file a lawsuit and seek a temporary restraining order. Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Tyler Olson and Bradford Betz contributed to this report. Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at timothy.nerozzi@fox.com Read More Here

Obituaries From Saline County Arkansas October 6th – MySaline https://digitalarkansasnews.com/obituaries-from-saline-county-arkansas-october-6th-mysaline/ Rhonda Jean (Scroggins) Withem, 63, of Benton, Arkansas passed away October 2, 2022. Rhonda was born October 30, 1958 to O.C. Scroggins and the late Alma (Sheridan) Scroggins. Rhonda is preceded in death by her mother, Alma (Sheridan) Scroggins and brother, Eddie Scroggins. Rhonda is survived by her daughters: Nicole and husband, Chris Brewer and Rebekah and husband, Rob Goshien; grandchildren: Addison, Jackson, and Allie; father, O.C. Scroggins; and a host of other family members and friends that will all miss her dearly. Rhonda loved her family and grandchildren. She was always talking while she was working at Kroger and visited with everyone. She was a cashier at Kroger for 12 years and at Fred’s for 15 years. Rhonda was a member of The Revolution Church for 17 years. She had a habit of buying Paparazzi jewelry and never actually wearing it. Rhonda was a friend to all she met and will be greatly missed. Visitation is Wednesday, October 5 from 5:00 – 7:00 PM at Smith-Benton Funeral Home. Funeral Service is Thursday, October 6 at 10:00 AM at Smith-Benton Funeral Home with interment at Rosemont Cemetery following the service. Services entrusted to Smith-Benton Funeral Home. Online guestbook: www.SmithFamilyCares.com. Gerry Hall Spann, 81, passed away on October 3, 2022, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Gerry was born in McCrory, Arkansas to Henry and Jessie Wright on February 28, 1941. She was a graduate of McCrory High School and later earned several degrees in social work and family service counseling. After twenty-two years of employment with Professional Counselor Associates as a social worker, she retired in 2016. Gerry enjoyed gardening and was an avid reader. Gerry made a commitment to God at the age of 10 and gave her life, time, and talents doing Gods will. For seventeen years, she was a missionary in Kisumu, Kenya fulfilling her commitment to Jesus. Gerry is survived by her husband of thirty-three years, Clinton Spann of Little Rock; her two sons, Byron Hall (Christi) and Duane Hall (Wendy); her daughters, DeAnna Sue Spann Arnall and Shannon Denise Spann Morrison; her sister, Evie Wright; her two brothers, Kenny Wright, and Ellis Wright (Linda); grandchildren, Ben Hall, Carly Hall, Cole Hall, Micah Hall, Raelynn Hall, Hattie Arnall, Emmett Arnall, and James Morrison. She was preceded in death by her parents; one sister, Earnie Addington; four brothers, Curtis Edward Wright, Doyle Wright, Winifred Wright, and Norman Wright; and her first husband, Carl Hall. Funeral service will be held at Roller-Alcoa Funeral Home, 6700 Alcoa Rd. Benton, Ar. 72015, on Saturday, October 8, 2022, at 10:00 AM with Pastor Bill Lyon officiating. Interment will follow at Woodman Cemetery in McCrory, Arkansas. Visitation will be held at Roller-Alcoa Funeral Home on Friday, October 7, 2022, from 5-7PM. Jodie Michelle Elmore, born Friday, June 3, 2022, went to be with the Lord on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. She is preceded in death by her great grandparents, Charles and Francis Elmore and Mable Whittemore; and her grandmother, Billi Jo Hudson-Hicks. She is survived by her loving parents, Eric Elmore and Brandy Butters; three brothers, Aiden Elmore, Randal Elmore-Powell, and Bruce Lee; one sister, Auna-Marie Elmore; her grandparents, David and Rebecca Elmore and Richard Butters; great grandmother, Betty Adamson; and a host of other family and friends. Jodie, you are very much in our hearts and will forever be missed. Celebration of Jodie’s life will be held on Thursday, October 13, 2022, at 12:00 P.M. at Dial and Dudley Funeral Home. To sign her online guestbook, visit www.dialanddudleyfuneralhome.com. Katherine Kelly (“Kay”) Myers of Alexander left this earth for her heavenly forever home October 1, 2022, with her family around her. Kay was born to Beryl and Catherine Kelly on November 1, 1939, and lived from infancy to adulthood in Fairbanks, Alaska. After graduating high school in 1957, she entered the University of Alaska and immediately met the love of her life in her very first college class. Fred and Kay married 14 months later on her 19th birthday, November 1, 1958. Kay’s desire for a large family began just 2 years later when she and Fred began taking in foster children. Over the next ten years, Kay and Fred cared for approximately thirty-seven foster kids, began raising four of their eventual five children, and opened and began running their private investigation business in Fairbanks. In 1968, Fred and Kay and their four children relocated to Fred’s home state of Arkansas and settled in Little Rock, where they added their fifth child to the family and continued the investigation business for over fifty years. If taking care of her husband, children, and home was not enough, Kay also worked in their family business from the very beginning in any role needed or asked. Because of her personality and kindness, she was able to get information from people who otherwise would not have provided it; she was the most successful process server the business ever had. Kay became a Christian young in life, and her love for and faith in her Savior and Lord Jesus Christ never wavered through the years. Along with regularly attending church, she attended many Bible studies through the years, usually teaching or co-teaching Bible Study and Sunday School. Kay instilled those same beliefs in her children and family, prayed over many people, and helped many come to the Lord. Kay always put her family first and always saw to their every need and want; she went out of her way to make her family’s home life incredibly special. She was the neighborhood mom who had get-togethers for her kids and their friends, as well as huge parties and reunions for friends and families. There is not an adult today who passed through the family home on Westwood as a kid that was not touched by her kindness, love, and energy; she made sure everyone felt welcome and loved. She was the biggest cheerleader for her own kids, was very proud of them, and loved her role as “Mom.”  When the grandkids began to arrive, she loved her new role as “Ma” and doted on every one of them. Kay filled the lives of her husband, children, grandchildren, and extended family with love and laughter, and her family is forever grateful for the legacy she has left. Kay is survived by her husband of 64 years, Fred Myers of Alexander; children: Eleanore Myers of Little Rock, Lee (Tracy) Myers of Elkhorn NE, Katy (Todd) Nichoalds of Abita Springs, LA, Christie (Jay) Reed of Lebanon, TN, and Andy (Stephanie) Myers, of Alexander; eight grandchildren: Taylor, Jordan, EmKay, Drew, KC, Teagan, Tony Lee, and Trinity; and numerous nieces and nephews who loved her dearly.  Visitation with the family and the celebration of Kay’s life will be in the sanctuary at Calvary Baptist Church, 5700 Cantrell Rd., Little Rock. Visitation will be Thursday, October 6, 2022, from 5-7 pm; the funeral will be Friday, October 7, 2022, at 11:00 am., with burial afterward 1:00 pm at Forrest Hills Cemetery, 10200 Highway 5, Alexander AR. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Calvary Baptist Church or any other charity of your choosing. Click this link to see other obituaries. Read More…

What To Know About Georgia’s Pivotal Senate Race https://digitalarkansasnews.com/what-to-know-about-georgias-pivotal-senate-race/ Herschel Walker, the Republican running to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia, this week vehemently denied a report that he paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009, calling it a “flat-out lie” and threatening to sue The Daily Beast over it. Late Wednesday night, he also denied a subsequent Daily Beast report that the women says she later had a child he’d fathered. CBS News has not confirmed the allegations or the reporting by The Daily Beast. Walker will be making his first public appearance since the allegations surfaced at a campaign event about three hours outside Atlanta Thursday morning.  The Senate race had already been one of the most closely watched of the 2022 cycle. The race features a Black Democratic incumbent in a state that hadn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1996 – until it elected two in 2020. And the state had never elected a Black senator before Warnock won his special election in 2020.  Here’s what you need to know about the race and the latest allegations:  What races are on the ballot? One of Georgia’s Senate seats is on the ballot on Nov. 8, just under two years removed from the high-stakes pair of Senate runoffs in the state in Jan.  2021 that decided control of the Senate. Herschel Walker is the Republican challenger to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. Both parties are once again expecting their respective paths to the Senate majority to go through Georgia, where over $243 million has been spent on advertisements this cycle, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Also on the ballot in Georgia is the governor’s race, where incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is locked in a rematch from 2018 with Democrat Stacey Abrams. Raphael Warncok, left, and Herschel Walker.  Paras Griffin/Getty Images, Megan Varner/Getty Images Why is the GOP so bullish on Georgia? It all comes down to control of the Senate. Currently, the Senate is split 50-50 but Democrats have control thanks to the Vice President providing the tie- breaking vote. But with 35 seats up for reelection in Nov., Republicans are hoping they can take control back. That’s where Georiga comes in. A win in the Peach State could be what puts the Republicans over the edge and back in the majority.  “Georgia was one they thought they could just win, even with a not particularly great candidate,”  Conservative radio host Erick Erickson told CBS News. “And now that one looks to be the most in jeopardy.”  President Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020 by just 14,000 votes, or just 0.3%, the first Democrat to win a presidential election since Bill Clinton in 1992. There were two Senate races held in the state in 2020 because of Sen. Johnny Isaakson‘s resignation and Sen. David Perdue’s regularly scheduled race. In the race for Perdue’s seat, he actually led over Jon Ossoff, 49.7% to 47.9%, after Election Day, but falling by 0.3% short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. Despite a last-minute rally by Trump, Ossoff won in the runoff. As for the other seat, incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler – who had been appointed to Isakson’s seat – was forced into a runoff after a jungle primary after Warnock captured 32.5% of the vote to 29.5% for Loeffler, although there were 21 candidates in the race. Warnock ultimately prevailed in the Jan. runoff.  Who is Herschel Walker?  Walker is best known for his Heisman Trophy-winning performance as a running back for University of Georgia. He helped lead the team to a National Championship win in 1980 and was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999. Following three years at Georgia, Walker went on to play professional football for both the now abolished USFL and the NFL. It was during his time in the USFL that Walker got to know Former President Donald Trump, a vocal supporter of Walker’s senate race.  Walker announced his run for the Georgia Senate race August 2021, saying he  “can’t sit on the sidelines anymore.” This is first candidacy and he frequently invokes his Washington outsider status on the campaign trail. Why has Herschel Walker been in the news this week?  Walker is on the defensive following a report from The Daily Beast that the Senate candidate, who has vocally opposed abortion rights, allegedly paid for a woman he’d been seeing to have an abortion in 2009. CBS News has not independently confirmed this payment. The Daily Beast said the unidentified woman supported her claim with a $575 receipt from an abortion clinic — and a signed $700 personal check from Walker to cover expenses. She told The Daily Beast she came forward because of Walker’s stance on abortion, saying “I just cant with the hypocrisy anymore. We all deserve better.” On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that she also said she later gave birth to a child of his. He also denied that report. What has been his response? Walker has denied the both accusations.  On the first, he tweeted “this is a flat-out lie,” and “this is another repugnant hatchet job from a democrat activist disguised as a reporter.” He added in the tweet that he plans to sue The Daily Beast for defamation but Walker’s lawyer, Robert Ingram, told CBS News, “We are currently considering our options but no final decision has been made on the future handling of this matter.” After the second report, he said in a statement, “As I have already said, there is no truth to this or any other Daily Beast report.” Walker attended a campaign event in Atlanta on Tuesday but did not allow any press inside. His campaign has looked to turn back to their core campaign issues against Warnock: the rising cost of living and crime in Georgia. National Republicans have discredited the allegations:  National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Sen. Rick Scott equated Walker’s reported payment to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in his confirmation hearings. That same committee added to their ad buy in Georgia on Tuesday, after the allegation against Walker came out. Who is Christian Walker? Christian Walker is Herschel Walker’s adult son, and is a notable conservative personality on social media and YouTube. The 23-year-old has previously shown support for his father’s Senate run, tweeting in Dec. about introducing him at Mar-a-Lago and saying one year ago that “everyone’s really excited that my dad Herschel Walker is” running. After The Daily Beast story came out, Christian Walker put out several tweets and videos calling on his father to “stop the lies” and said “every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past.” Christian Walker seemed to corroborate some of The Daily Beast’s reporting, in one video he said, “it’s literally his handwriting in the card.” After his son’s initial string of posts, Herschel Walker tweeted, “I LOVE my son no matter what.” What about the polls before this incident? The latest CBS News Battleground Tracker poll, from before the allegations,  has the two candidates neck and neck, with Walker trailing incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock by just two points. This puts the race in the “toss up” category. What are Republicans saying?  Many Republicans are standing by Walker as they realize the importance of maintaining a united front ahead of the midterms in attempts to take back control of the Senate.   Scott released a statement saying Democrats, “know they are on the verge of losing the Senate, and they know that Herschel Walker is winning, so they have cranked up the smear machine.” Trump also released a statement showing support for Walker,a longtime friend, saying, “Herschel Walker is being slandered and maligned by the Fake News Media and obviously, the Democrats.” He added, “it’s very important for our Country and the Great State of Georgia that Herschel Walker wins this Election. What is his opponent saying?  Warnock is choosing to deflect on the matter for now. During an event Monday night when asked about the latest report from The Daily Beast, he told reporters, “I’ll let the pundits decide how they think it will impact the race.”  Warnock, a pastor, himself hasn’t avoided accusations during this race, with ads frequently running accusing him of domestic abuse. The allegations stem from a 2020 incident where Warnock allegedly ran over his wife’s foot with a car, and no charges were filed. The pair are set to debate in Savannah on Friday, Oct. 14. Abortion will likely come up in the debate and this could be a chance for Warnock to bring up the accusation against Walker in a race that has become increasingly personal. What are Georgia voters saying? Just like Republicans in office, many GOP Georgia voters plan to stick with Walker in this race. Adam Whitney told CBS News that he thinks his fellow Georgia Republicans will stick with Walker despite the latest accusations against him.  “It is very much partisanship and that people tend to side with the party sometimes over the person,” Whitney said. “In terms of the overall population, I think people do just vote straight with party.” Voters on both sides also expressed growing frustration with the frequent accusations against both candidates- and the near constant TV ads running in the state about them.  “It’s unfortunate that we can’t talk about real issues that matter because we’re distracted by people without integrity like Herschel Walker,” Amy Bruckman, a registered Democrat, told CBS News. “I think it does the Republicans a disservice. I’d like to see greater dialogue about real issues between Democrats and Republicans.”  Read More Here

Markets Are Starting To Act Super Strange | CNN Business https://digitalarkansasnews.com/markets-are-starting-to-act-super-strange-cnn-business/ A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link. New York CNN Business  —  Investors are tightening their neck braces as US stocks soar upwards, plummet back down and then do it all over. Stock market volatility is at its bumpiest level since July. The whiplash-inducing ride comes as conflicting data paints a cloudy picture about the state of the US economy. Investors have been reading economic reports as tea leaves, searching for signs that the Federal Reserve could soon pivot to a slower pace of rate hikes to fight inflation, and reacting accordingly. What’s happening: The S&P 500 just printed its worst performance through the first nine months of any year since 2002. September was particularly rough – with all three major US indexes falling into a bear market. October brought more vertigo as stocks quickly recovered. The S&P 500 gained 5.7% on Monday and Tuesday, its biggest two-day increase since April 2020. On Wednesday, stocks plunged once more before quickly bouncing back slightly. They ended the day slightly lower. This week’s strange swings correspond with two new data points that buoyed the possibility of a Fed pivot. Markets surged on the news that the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates by just a quarter of a percentage point on Tuesday. That’s half the amount analysts had expected. The move led to speculation that the Fed could jump on the bandwagon and dial back its own rates. That seems unlikely. “We’re starting to see some things the doves can hang their hat on, but I don’t think it will be enough to stop another 75 basis-point move in November,” wrote Neil Dutta at Renaissance Macro Research in a note Tuesday. Then, September job vacancy numbers dropped sharply, falling below analyst expectations, according to Refinitiv data. A weakening labor market puts downward pressure on wages and inflation. So while fewer job openings appear bad at face value, they indicate that the Fed’s tightening regimen is working. The Fed will see this as “an encouraging development,” wrote analysts at Barclays, but they cautioned that it’s just one piece of data among many. The labor market is still tight with about 1.7 job openings for every unemployed worker in the US. The hope appeared to be fleeting, anyway. New private employment data on Wednesday by payroll services firm ADP suggested that the labor market isn’t losing any steam. Businesses beat estimates with 208,000 jobs added in September. They added 185,000 jobs in August. The disconnect: If it feels like we’ve been here before, it’s because we have. Pivot-friendly thinking helped fuel the bear market rally we saw in July and August. That didn’t last, and markets crashed to hit new lows by early fall. Fed officials have repeatedly said they plan to continue with their policy of elevated rate hikes and have publicly worried that markets refuse to listen to their messaging. Panic and ecstasy are not investing strategies, and a blink is not a pivot. What’s next: Expect more volatility as investors digest the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest unemployment data on Friday morning. The data measures the change in the number of people employed in September and is closely watched by the Fed. In this “good-means-bad” Fed world, an increase in unemployment will likely send stocks up. OPEC+ said Wednesday that it will slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day, the biggest cut since the start of the pandemic. It’s a move that threatens to push gasoline prices higher as Europe faces a heating crisis this winter and just weeks before US midterm elections. The reduction is equivalent to about 2% of global oil demand, reports my colleague Hanna Ziady. The group of major oil producers, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, together controls more than 40% of global oil production. The price of Brent crude oil rose 1.5% to more than $93 a barrel on the news, adding to gains this week ahead of the gathering of oil ministers. Oil prices were little changed early Thursday. The rise in oil gave a lift to energy stocks, helping to boost the overall market, reports Paul R. La Monica. Chevron (CVX) was one of the top Dow stocks, rising nearly 1%. Exxon Mobil (XOM) and oil service giants Schlumberger (SLB) and Halliburton (HAL) were among the leaders in the S&P 500, with each stock gaining between 4% and 6%. Elon Musk’s decision this week to once again move forward with his deal to acquire Twitter could signal the return of former President Donald Trump to the platform, reports my colleague Donie O’Sullivan. That presents a double-edged sword for Trump. The former president could regain access to the nearly 90 million Twitter followers he had before he was banned permanently by the platform two days after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. But it could make Truth Social, the social media business created by Trump after his Twitter ban, unnecessary. Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, is in the middle of a contentious bid to go public through a merger with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corp. This news further complicates the merger. Shares of DWAC fell more than 5% Tuesday to $17.10, and remained near that level on Wednesday. The stock’s 2022 peak was about $97 in March. Twitter (TWTR) stock is up nearly 20% this week. “I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump; I think that was a mistake,” Musk said at a conference in May, pledging to reverse the ban were he to become the company’s owner. Jack Dorsey, who was the CEO of Twitter when the company banned Trump but has since left the company, responded to Musk’s comments saying he agreed that there should not be permanent bans. He said Trump’s ban was a “business decision” and it “shouldn’t have been.” ConAgra, Constellation Brands, McCormick and Levi Strauss report earnings.  Plus: US Department of Labor reports weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET.  Read More Here

KIRWAN: Cool To The Thought Of A Warming World https://digitalarkansasnews.com/kirwan-cool-to-the-thought-of-a-warming-world/ The Ospreys were still diving in Long Island Sound in early October. They’re usually long gone by now. It’s a hell of a journey to South America where many of them spend the winter months. Then again, they arrived late this year, as did the Piping Plovers. I began to wonder if both species were victims of the extreme weather so common nowadays. The egrets were a no show. Oh, there were sightings, but nothing like other years when the marshland would resound with their chatter around dawn. Sign up to The Irish Echo Newsletter Sign up today to get daily, up-to-date news and views from Irish America. Why does it matter? I guess I’ve come to rely on them. When all else is in turmoil, these birds provide constancy. I’ve long ago given up on horseshoe crabs. Though they’ve outlasted their dinosaur peers, their numbers in the Sound have dropped precipitously in the last decade. Some say they’ve become victims of the pharmaceutical companies who use their blood to test the efficacy of various vaccines. Perhaps, but I think the rise in temperature in local coastal waters has interfered with their mating process. 450 million years of courting comes to an end – and on our watch too. I can attest to the rise in temperature. When I first came to the Sound in 2000, I rarely even dipped a toe in the brine until mid-June, and never felt totally comfortable until July 4th. But for the last five or more years I’ve been taking the plunge in late May. At this rate I’ll soon be hopping in on May Day, fist in the air while humming a couple of bars of James Connolly. I know what you’re thinking – another tree-hugger railing against rampant capitalism! And don’t you have enough to be worrying about already with the “fake news” daily harassing poor President Trump. Sure isn’t the man frightened out of his wits with so many lefty lawyers serving suits on him down in Mar-a-Lago. He can’t even show his face in his beloved Trump Towers with bowsies the likes of Malachy McCourt and John McDonagh ready to accost him, dare he step outside for a medium-rare cheeseburger. President Trump makes no bones about it: climate change is a “hoax.” I wish to God he were right. I’d vote for him, and even wear one of his MAGA hats, if he could convince me that the polar caps are not melting to beat the band. A peaceful place on Long Island Sound. I know, no one you know has ever even seen a polar cap; besides, The Jets are still a disaster, and hey, that last trip to the supermarket nearly bankrupted you! But you do remember Hurricane Sandy, nearly ten years ago. Sea levels have risen over an inch since then. Might sound like nothing  – until the next big wash comes surging into New York Harbor. Global warming doesn’t stop just because we don’t give it the time of day. We’re burning fossil fuels like they’re going out of style. This produces large quantities of carbon dioxide that trap heat in the atmosphere leading to extreme and unstable weather. But shouldn’t we be supporting the coal miners in West Virginia as Senator Manchin says? Of course, but there are only 11,000 left statewide in an industry that bequeathed its employees black lung among other illnesses.  Senator Joe Manchin. It would be far more economical in the long run to keep paying these hard working people their regular wage, while retraining them for positions in clean energy industries. But let’s not be stingy: congratulations to all who helped pass the oddly named Inflation Reduction Bill, for it contained provisions that, hopefully, will reduce carbon emissions 40% by 2030. But is it too little too late? The cost of cleaning up our current “natural” disasters is already huge. How many more will surface by 2030? That’s why it’s important to note local changes, and how they’re affecting the environment around us. Awareness may be the first step to both economic and social survival. In the meantime, there’s much we can do: plant trees, use less heat and air conditioning, walk, bike, ride the subway and buses, reuse and recycle. But most of all hold your politicians to account. Will they make the tough decisions needed to save the only world we know? And hey, you Ospreys, shake a wing. It’s a long way to Venezuela and Brazil. Read More Here

Ukraine Live Briefing: Missiles Strike Zaporizhzhia; U.N. Nuclear Chief Visits Kyiv https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ukraine-live-briefing-missiles-strike-zaporizhzhia-u-n-nuclear-chief-visits-kyiv/ Several Russian missiles destroyed residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s foreign minister said Thursday. The region’s governor said the attacks caused huge fires in the city and that rescuers are pulling people out of the rubble. The number of dead and injured remains unclear. The attacks came as Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, traveled to Kyiv to discuss a protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government this week to take over the plant, heightening international concerns about nuclear safety. Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe. Return to menu Russia’s strategic retreat signals a long fight ahead in Kherson: Ukrainian forces have reclaimed more territory in the region’s south, including Mykolaiv, but their jubilation was tempered by anxiety of a hard fight ahead, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Paul Sonne and Kamila Hrabchuk report. The region is crucial for Russia, which means its forces will not retreat in the same disjointed manner that they did elsewhere, Ukrainian fighters said. Instead, Kyiv’s military observed a steady and organized Russian pullback, as the Kremlin’s forces move to better defend the regional capital that they hold. Read More Here

Forecasters Track Disturbance, Depression https://digitalarkansasnews.com/forecasters-track-disturbance-depression/ SHORT. THIS MORNING, WE ARE ONCE AGAIN TREKKING THE TROPICS. SHELDON: WE METEOROLOGIST KELLIANNE KLASS HAS BEEN MONITORING THAT SYSTEM IN THE CARIBBEAN. WHERE IS IT HEADED? KELLIANNE: THERE ARE TWO THAT WE ARE WATCHING. WE HAVE TROPICAL DEPRESSION 12 AND INVEST 91-L THAT IS EXPECTED TO MOVE WESTWARD. HAPPY TO SAY, NONE OF THESE SYSTEMS ARE GOING TO IMPACT CENTRAL FLORIDA. IT IS JUST A GOOD REMINDER THAT WE ARE NOT DONE WITH HURRICANE SEASON JUST YET. TROPICAL DEPRESSION 12 IN THE EASTERN ATLANTIC IS EXPECTED TO BECOME A REMNANT LOW LATER ON TODAY, NOT LOOKING LIKELY THAT IT WILL BE NAMED. THEN, WE HAVE INVEST 91. IT COULD BE OUR NEXT TROPICAL DEPRESSION IN THE NEXT DAY OR SO, AS IT CONTINUES THAT WESTWARD TREK. IT LOOKS LIKE IT WILL CLIP THE NORTHERN PORTIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA AND CONTINUE ON ITS WESTWARD JOURNEY THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN AND INTO CENTRAL AMERICA. IT GETS NAMED, IT WOULD BE JULIA, BUT IT HAS TO BECOME A TROPICAL STORM OR HIGHER TO GET A NAME. BACK AT HOME, WE WI Forecasters track disturbance, depression As Florida still reels from Hurricane Ian, forecasters are keeping an eye on two activity spots in the Atlantic Ocean.As of Thursday morning, Tropical Depression 12 was about 635 miles west of the Cabo Verde islands. The storm had winds of 35 mph and was moving west-northwest at 13 mph.”Slow weakening is forecast, and the depression is expected to become a remnant low on Thursday,” the National Hurricane Center said.A second disturbance is brewing over the far southeastern Caribbean Sea, and the NHC gives the system an 80% chance of formation in 48 hours and a 90% chance of formation in five days.”While land interaction with the northern coast of South America may hinder significant development during the next day or so, environmental conditions are expected to be mostly conducive for development as the system moves generally westward, and a tropical depression is likely to form in the next couple of days by the time the system enters the south-central Caribbean Sea,” the NHC said.Neither of these systems are expected to impact Florida.KNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WATCH IS ISSUEDStay tuned to WESH 2 News, WESH.COM, or NOAA Weather Radio for storm updates.Prepare to bring inside any lawn furniture, outdoor decorations or ornaments, trash cans, hanging plants, and anything else that can be picked up by the wind.Understand hurricane forecast models and cones.Prepare to cover all windows of your home. If shutters have not been installed, use precut plywood.Check batteries and stock up on canned food, first-aid supplies, drinking water, and medications.The WESH 2 First Warning Weather Team recommends you have these items ready before the storm strikes.Bottled water: One gallon of water per person per dayCanned food and soup, such as beans and chiliCan opener for the cans without the easy-open lidsAssemble a first-aid kitTwo weeks’ worth of prescription medicationsBaby/children’s needs, such as formula and diapersFlashlight and batteriesBattery-operated weather radioWHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WARNING IS ISSUEDListen to the advice of local officials. If you are advised to evacuate, leave.Complete preparation activities.If you are not advised to evacuate, stay indoors, away from windows.Be alert for tornadoes. Tornadoes can happen during a hurricane and after it passes over. Remain indoors, in the center of your home, in a closet or bathroom without windows.HOW YOUR SMARTPHONE CAN HELP DURING A HURRICANEA smartphone can be your best friend in a hurricane — with the right websites and apps, you can turn it into a powerful tool for guiding you through a storm’s approach, arrival and aftermath.Download the WESH 2 News app for iOS | AndroidEnable emergency alerts — if you have an iPhone, select settings, then go into notifications. From there, look for government alerts and enable emergency alerts.If you have an Android phone, from the home page of the app, scroll to the right along the bottom and click on “settings.” On the settings menu, click on “severe weather alerts.” From the menu, select from most severe, moderate-severe, or all alerts.PET AND ANIMAL SAFETYYour pet should be a part of your family plan. If you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them too. Leaving pets behind, even if you try to create a safe space for them, could result in injury or death.Contact hotels and motels outside of your immediate area to see if they take pets.Ask friends, relatives and others outside of the affected area whether they could shelter your animal. ORLANDO, Fla. — As Florida still reels from Hurricane Ian, forecasters are keeping an eye on two activity spots in the Atlantic Ocean. As of Thursday morning, Tropical Depression 12 was about 635 miles west of the Cabo Verde islands. The storm had winds of 35 mph and was moving west-northwest at 13 mph. “Slow weakening is forecast, and the depression is expected to become a remnant low on Thursday,” the National Hurricane Center said. A second disturbance is brewing over the far southeastern Caribbean Sea, and the NHC gives the system an 80% chance of formation in 48 hours and a 90% chance of formation in five days. “While land interaction with the northern coast of South America may hinder significant development during the next day or so, environmental conditions are expected to be mostly conducive for development as the system moves generally westward, and a tropical depression is likely to form in the next couple of days by the time the system enters the south-central Caribbean Sea,” the NHC said. Neither of these systems are expected to impact Florida. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. KNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WATCH IS ISSUED Stay tuned to WESH 2 News, WESH.COM, or NOAA Weather Radio for storm updates. Prepare to bring inside any lawn furniture, outdoor decorations or ornaments, trash cans, hanging plants, and anything else that can be picked up by the wind. Understand hurricane forecast models and cones. Prepare to cover all windows of your home. If shutters have not been installed, use precut plywood. Check batteries and stock up on canned food, first-aid supplies, drinking water, and medications. The WESH 2 First Warning Weather Team recommends you have these items ready before the storm strikes. Bottled water: One gallon of water per person per day Canned food and soup, such as beans and chili Can opener for the cans without the easy-open lids Assemble a first-aid kit Two weeks’ worth of prescription medications Baby/children’s needs, such as formula and diapers Flashlight and batteries Battery-operated weather radio WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WARNING IS ISSUED Listen to the advice of local officials. If you are advised to evacuate, leave. Complete preparation activities. If you are not advised to evacuate, stay indoors, away from windows. Be alert for tornadoes. Tornadoes can happen during a hurricane and after it passes over. Remain indoors, in the center of your home, in a closet or bathroom without windows. HOW YOUR SMARTPHONE CAN HELP DURING A HURRICANE A smartphone can be your best friend in a hurricane — with the right websites and apps, you can turn it into a powerful tool for guiding you through a storm’s approach, arrival and aftermath. Download the WESH 2 News app for iOS | Android Enable emergency alerts — if you have an iPhone, select settings, then go into notifications. From there, look for government alerts and enable emergency alerts. If you have an Android phone, from the home page of the app, scroll to the right along the bottom and click on “settings.” On the settings menu, click on “severe weather alerts.” From the menu, select from most severe, moderate-severe, or all alerts. PET AND ANIMAL SAFETY Your pet should be a part of your family plan. If you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them too. Leaving pets behind, even if you try to create a safe space for them, could result in injury or death. Contact hotels and motels outside of your immediate area to see if they take pets. Ask friends, relatives and others outside of the affected area whether they could shelter your animal. Read More Here

Springdale Residents Irwin, Unger Compete For Arkansas House Of Representatives District 19 Seat https://digitalarkansasnews.com/springdale-residents-irwin-unger-compete-for-arkansas-house-of-representatives-district-19-seat/ Democratic nominee Paula Irwin (left) faces Republican candidate Steve Unger for the District 19 state House seat. SPRINGDALE — Two longtime Springdale residents are competing for the District 19 state House seat, each hoping to win political office for the first time. Democratic nominee Paula Irwin faces Republican candidate Steve Unger. Irwin is in her first race while Unger is in his second one this year. District 19 goes as far as Van Asche Drive in Fayetteville to the south and to Har-Ber Avenue in the north. It touches Via Campo Road on the west and stretches as far as Habberton Road in the east. State representatives serve two-year terms and receive a base salary of $44,357. There are 100 members of the state House. Early voting begins Oct. 24. Election Day is Nov. 8. “I have deep roots here,” Irwin said of the district. “I’m right at home.” She spent her teaching career in the Springdale School District, she said. “We do need some balance in our state Legislature,” Irwin said. The large Republican majority in the House and Senate tends to give too much leeway to the right, she said. “The majority of Arkansans are in the middle,” she said. “They want good common sense in the Legislature, and I do think I bring that.” Irwin said she is worried about teachers leaving the profession or going to other states. The covid pandemic drove many teachers out of the field, she said. Every teacher who left a school meant more stress and work on the ones remaining, she said. Increasing pay is one aspect of attracting and retaining teachers, she said. Other professions need more representation and recognition too, Irwin said. She described the district’s constituents as “hardworking, many of whom have retired. They want good schools, a clean environment and support for small business and our first responders” such as police and fire departments and ambulance services. They want a representative who looks out for seniors and veterans also, she said. Unger made the Republican runoff for a special election for the District 7 state Senate seat in a four-person race that included a former state House member. He lost the Jan. 11 runoff but came within 75 votes of winner Colby Fulfer out of 1,769 ballots cast. That primary and runoff were Unger’s political debut. “I am going to deliver on increased access to vocation and technical training,” Unger said. “I’m already working on this. My dream is to replicate the Don Tyson School of Innovation in the other three corners of the state and in Little Rock.” Arkansas in general and Northwest Arkansas in particular needs skilled workers, and the people who can learn those skills need good jobs, Unger said. “The lack of a trained workforce has led to the hollowing-out of small-town America and small-town Arkansas. I believe this trend is being reversed, and I want to speed that reversal along,” he said. District 19 “has some of the wealthiest people in Springdale and some of the poorest,” Unger said. “I intend to represent them all equally. I believe they would all say they want quality schools, quality police protection and safe streets. “They want a state and a local government that does not spend their tax money frivolously and listens to their concerns,” Unger said.     Unger        Irwin    Arkansas House District 19 Paula Irwin (D) Age: 67 Residency: Springdale since 1960; has lived in the area that is District 19 since 1973 Occupation: Retired music teacher Education: Master’s and bachelor’s degrees in music education from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Political experience: None Steve Unger (R) Age: 64 Residency: Springdale native Occupation: Retired as a Navy captain and chaplain Education: Bachelor’s degree in public administration from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; master of divinity degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.; master’s degree in military science from Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Va. Political experience: Unsuccessful bid for state Senate, special election in 2022 Read More…

Governor Asa Hutchinson Intent To Grant Executive Clemency Includes A Baxter County Man https://digitalarkansasnews.com/governor-asa-hutchinson-intent-to-grant-executive-clemency-includes-a-baxter-county-man/ Governor Asa Hutchinson announced Tuesday his intent to grant four pardons. An additional 53 clemency requests were denied and one had no action taken upon it. These include requests from both inmates and non-inmates. The applicants intended for pardons have completed all jail time, fulfilled all parole and probationary requirements and paid all fines related to their sentences. There is a 30-day waiting period to receive public feedback on the notices before final action is taken. One person Governor Hutchinson intends to grant a pardon to is Ty Cotter of Mountain Home. Cotter’s felony convictions stem from 2003, 2008 and 2011 for drug possesion and intent to deliver methamphetamine, along with midemeanor charges of littering, failure to appear, driving while intoxicated, driving on a suspended license, and no liability insurance. All terms of his sentence have been completed and there have been no further criminal-law violations. There are no law enforcement objections to the application. In addition, Governor Hutchinson intends to grant pardons to the following: Eugene A. Dresel (Fayetteville): Theft by Receiving, 1 count (B Felony) and Forgery 2nd Degree, 8 Counts (C Felony) (CR-99-1774). This notice is issued based on the date of conviction (2000 – Washington County), the fact that all terms of the applicant’s sentence have been completed and there have been no further Arkansas criminal-law violations. There are no law enforcement objections to the application. John Kennedy (Piggott): Accomplice to Burglary (B Felony), Theft of Property (B Felony), and Carrying a Weapon (A Misdemeanor) (CR-97-584). This notice is issued based on the date of conviction (1998 – Faulkner County), the fact that all terms of the applicant’s sentence have been completed and there have been no further criminal-law violations. There are no law enforcement objections to the application. Crystal Martin (Fort Smith): Overdraft (C Felony) (CR-2009-369). This notice is issued based on the date of conviction (2009 – Sebastian County), the fact that all terms of the applicant’s sentence have been completed and there have been no further felony criminal-law violations. There are no law enforcement objections to the application. WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI Read More Here

Analysis: North Korean Missile Launches Are A Test For Biden https://digitalarkansasnews.com/analysis-north-korean-missile-launches-are-a-test-for-biden/ TOKYO (AP) — A drumbeat of increasingly powerful North Korean missile launches. A U.S. aircraft carrier floats off the Korean Peninsula. North Korean warplanes buzz the border with South Korea. Worldwide cries of condemnation and worry. It’s a pattern that has repeated many times over the years, and, as in the past, there are plenty of signs in the latest cycle that point to North Korea eventually testing a nuclear bomb. Yes, this is part of North Korea’s dogged march toward building a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles able to target any city on the U.S. mainland. But the nation’s extraordinary run of missile tests this year — its most ever — is also meant to grab the attention of an important, and decidedly distracted, audience of one: Joe Biden. Washington has responded to the missiles with tough statements and weapons launches of its own in military drills with ally Seoul. So far, however, there’s been little indication that the Biden administration will — or even can — pursue the messy, politically dangerous diplomacy needed to peacefully solve a problem that has bedeviled U.S. presidents for decades. Thursday’s launches, believed to be two short-range ballistic missiles, were North Korea’s sixth round in less than two weeks. On Tuesday, Pyongyang staged its longest-ever launch, sending a missile capable of hitting U.S. military concerns on Guam flying over U.S. ally Japan and into the Pacific. Later Thursday, North Korea flew 12 warplanes near the Korean border, the world’s most heavily armed, prompting South Korea to launch 30 military planes in response. North Korea is a small, impoverished, widely shunned nation sandwiched between great powers, but it has built, against great odds, its atomic weapons program through tenacity, shrewd political maneuvering and cutthroat persistence. Each North Korean weapons test does at least three things at once. It allows Kim Jong Un to show his people that he’s a strong leader capable of standing up to foreign aggressors. His scientists can work on solving the technological issues still holding back the weapons program, including miniaturizing warheads so they fit on an array of missiles and making sure the long-range missiles can smoothly reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. And, perhaps most important, each test sends a clear message that despite all the many problems the Biden administration faces — the war in Ukraine; increasing Chinese aggression; a shaky economy at home — Washington must deal with North Korea as it is. Meaning, a nation that, after many years of striving, is on the edge of being a legitimate nuclear power, and not one that has shown any recent signs of being willing to abandon its nuclear weapons. Long-term, Kim likely wants U.S. recognition that North Korea is a full nuclear state. Negotiations could then arrange a North Korean roll-back of parts of its weapons program in return for lifting crippling international sanctions and eventually signing a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War. Further down the road, North Korea wants the nearly 30,000 U.S. forces in South Korea to leave, opening the way for its eventual control of the peninsula. In the short term, Pyongyang has maintained that talks can’t happen unless Washington abandons its “hostility.” Presumably, this means economic sanctions, the presence of those U.S. troops and their annual military drills with South Korean soldiers that the North sees as invasion preparation. It is unclear, however, how patient Kim can afford to be. The North’s economy, never great, appears to be worse than at any time in Kim’s rule, after three years of some of the tightest border controls in the world during the pandemic, crushing sanctions, natural disasters and government mismanagement. Its weapons tests may be a move to force more favorable conditions in future talks. Something similar happened after a sequence of long-range missile and nuclear tests during the Trump administration that had many fearing war. Donald Trump staged face-to-face summits with Kim in 2018-19 aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear program in return for economic and political benefits. These ultimately failed, with North Korea refusing to go far enough in its disarmament pledges. After taking office last year, Biden signaled a rejection of both Trump’s personal diplomacy with Kim and Barack Obama’s more hands-off “strategic patience” policy, in favor of a more incremental approach, where the North gave up parts of its program in return for benefits and sanctions relief. The goal, however, remained the same: North Korea’s total denuclearization. A growing number of analysts believe that this might now be impossible, as Kim likely sees a completed nuclear weapons program as his sole guarantee for regime survival. In the meantime, confrontation rules the day. For the second time in two weeks Washington has sent the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier to waters east of South Korea, a move North Korea called “a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.” The United States and South Korea responded this week to the missiles with their own land-to-land ballistic missiles and precision-guided bombs dropped from fighter jets. As the Biden administration considers next steps, it is closely watching how North Korea’s weapons tests influence its allies in Northeast Asia. When the North fired its midrange missile over Japan on Tuesday, there were moments of panic as sirens alerted residents in northern Japan to evacuate, train service stopped and newspapers put out special editions. In South Korea, whose capital Seoul is about an hour’s drive from the inter-Korean border, each progression in the North’s nuclear program raises doubts about Washington’s pledge of nuclear protection, leading to calls for an indigenous nuclear program. The question for some in Seoul is: If North Korea threatens to hit U.S. cities with its nuclear-armed missiles, will Washington really step in should Pyongyang attack? Looking ahead, then, expect more missile tests — and, possibly, just in time for crucial U.S. midterm elections in November, a nuclear explosion — as North Korea continues to maneuver in its long face-off with Washington and its allies. ___ Foster Klug, AP’s news director for the Koreas, Japan, Australia and the South Pacific, has covered North Korea — from Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang — since 2005. Read More Here

U.S. Rep. Brooks Calls Out Alabama Delegation — Says 'Americans Get… https://digitalarkansasnews.com/u-s-rep-brooks-calls-out-alabama-delegation-says-americans-get/ America’s national debt reached a new high on Monday after surpassing $31 trillion for the first time, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. While some may blame inflation or increased government spending for the ballooning debt, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) said the responsibility ultimately falls to voters. In a tweet expressing frustration over the record-breaking news, Brooks wrote, “USA debt hits $31 TRILLION: $95,000/EACH American man, woman & child. Result: INFLATION, national insolvency &/or bankruptcy. Cause? Americans get what they vote for. Maybe 10% of Congress (3 of 9 in Alabama) financially responsible. Rest are not. BAD!” USA debt hits $31 TRILLION: $95,000/EACH American man, woman & child. Result: INFLATION, national insolvency &/or bankruptcy. Cause? Americans get what they vote for. Maybe 10% of Congress (3 of 9 in Alabama) financially responsible. Rest are not. BAD! https://t.co/UKsFZui40h — Mo Brooks (@RepMoBrooks) October 5, 2022 The three “financially responsible” congressmen he was referring to were Reps. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover), Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) and himself, Brooks told 1819 News. “We consistently vote against spending money we don’t have,” he said. “[Moore] and I consistently vote against new, bigger government programs we have to borrow money to fund. None of the other six [congressmen] do that.” Brooks said he sees little chance of the U.S. digging itself out of such a major financial hole, but if there is any hope, it lies with American citizens. “There is a declining chance America can avoid a national insolvency and bankruptcy and the horrific consequences that will ensue,” Brooks said. “To do that, voters must be smarter and wiser. What chance is there of that?” Brooks called out outgoing U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa), as well as those who voted for him, for playing a pivotal role in racking up the national debt. “I challenge anyone to name an elected official more responsible for America’s $31 trillion debt than Richard Shelby. I can’t,” he said. “Alabama voters did that.” Brooks even cast aspersions on former President Donald Trump for expanding the national debt in spite of his campaign promises. “Even President Trump — to get elected — promised to eliminate our annual deficit. Yet [he] presided over the worst deficit in American history; $3+ trillion in [fiscal year] 2020 alone,” Brooks said. “American voters did that. In sum, we are a Republic, which means voters are, by definition, 100% responsible for the government we get.” To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com. Don’t miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning. Read More Here

My Generation Needs To Tell Biden And Trump They’re Too Old | Mulshine https://digitalarkansasnews.com/my-generation-needs-to-tell-biden-and-trump-theyre-too-old-mulshine/ It was one of those moments that made the long drive to New Hampshire worthwhile. The occasion was a rally for Bernie Sanders in the run-up to the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Warming up the crowd for Sanders was a band from New York called Sunflower Bean. The band was fronted by Julia Cumming, a blonde, part-time model who looked like the very image of youthful enthusiasm – which isn’t hard to do when you’re just 24 years old. I didn’t know most of the songs until Cumming played that catchy bass line that leads into the Who’s “My Generation.” The crowd went crazy. No one seemed to notice the line that goes “I hope I die before I get old.” Peter Townshend was just 20 when he wrote that line. Sanders was 78 at the time of that rally. That didn’t seem to register with the crowd of college kids – or with the Democratic primary voters across the state. They gave the win to Bernie. Technically he’s not even a Democrat, however. So the party leaders chose to unite around Joe Biden, then a mere youngster at 76. Now they’re stuck with him – just as the GOP is stuck with Donald Trump. It’s an open question which one is showing the most age-related impairment. At a recent anti-hunger event in the White House, Biden called out for a congresswoman who had died in a car crash the month before. His press secretary was forced to issue an explanation that didn’t explain anything – something she does on a regular basis. Meanwhile Trump has become one of those crazy old coots who spews out wacky ideas to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, his lawyers have to listen. So when he came up with the idea of suing CNN on the grounds that their unflattering coverage cost him the 2020 election, no one could tell him that’s insane. Every election hinges on press coverage. Don’t miss the best in editorials, opinion columns and commentary from NJ.com writers. Add your email here: Similarly, when Biden recently said about a 2024 re-election bid, “I’m going to do it again,” there was no one to tell him, “No, you’re not. You’re already too old.” Both these guys would profit from listening to the guy who wrote that song, Peter Townshend. Townshend was 20 when he wrote it in 1965. As he got older, interviewers would ask him about it. When he was 61, Townshend gave this response to one such interviewer: “I hope I die while I still feel this alive, this young, this healthy, this happy, and this fulfilled. But that may not happen. I may get creaky, cranky, and get cancer, and die in some hospice with a massive resentment against everyone I leave behind.” Pete’s now made it to 77 without getting creaky or cranky. But then he’s not president. Biden is – both president and creaky. As for Trump, he may not be as creaky but he’s certainly more cranky. In a recent online rant against the National Archives, he declared “I want my documents back!” – even though they’re not his documents. Then there was his Truth Social rant against Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in which he asked if McConnell’s support of spending bills meant he has a “DEATH WISH.” Trump put those words and lots of others in capital letters. That’s the sort of thing you get from a distant relative – often not distant enough. In this case it’s not merely cranky; it’s close to criminal. In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal wrote that “A left-wing follower of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders opened fire on Republican Members of Congress in 2017 and came close to killing Rep. Steve Scalise.” The editorial went on to state that “Many supporters took Mr. Trump’s rhetoric about former Vice President Mike Pence all too seriously on Jan. 6.” My sailing buddy, a former airline pilot, tells me that at a certain age “the airline tells you that you have to go.” Unfortunately we’d need to amend the Constitution to implement an age limit. But there is nothing stopping the leaders of the two major parties from making a deal: We’ll get rid of our old crank if you get rid of yours. I doubt such a deal is forthcoming, But the party that dumps its crank first will have a big advantage in 2024. As it happens, we baby-boomers were the ones who put Trump over the top in 2016, by a margin of 53 percent. The Donald likes to play rock tunes before his rallies. Someone needs to tell him to add “My Generation” to the list. More: Recent Paul Mulshine columns Paul Mulshine may be reached at pmulshine@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @Mulshine. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook and on Twitter. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More Here

Donald Trump Is Building A Labyrinth Of Lawsuits In Which To Keep Justice At Bay https://digitalarkansasnews.com/donald-trump-is-building-a-labyrinth-of-lawsuits-in-which-to-keep-justice-at-bay/ © Allison Joyce – Getty Images Donald Trump this week suggested he was appealing the 11th Circuit Court’s stay of a lower court’s decision, which allowed the Department of Justice continued access to classified documents it recovered from the former president’s home in Florida. Ultimately, when you’re cornered, you go with your best play. You look at the calendar, make a quick couple of calculations in your head, and you decide to sharpen the edges of the calendar and use it to carve your way out of the corner you’re in. The former president* has the delay game going full throttle right now. Of course, this also works splendidly when paired with the distraction game. He’s rolled the whole vaudeville act into the federal courts, which now has to perform in a supporting role as though everything about this makes any sense at all except as a means of escape from the cascade of writs coming down on his head. For example, he’s insisting that the courts take valuable time to adjudicate the bug he’s got up his hindquarters about CNN. He wants $475 million in punitive “damages,” and nobody has yet put him in a dark room. From AP: The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, focuses primarily on the term “The Big Lie” about Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud that he says cost him the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Trump repeatedly attacked CNN as president, which resonated with his conservative followers. He has similarly filed lawsuits against big tech companies with little success. His case against Twitter for knocking him off its platform following the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection was thrown out by a California judge earlier this year. Numerous federal and local election officials in both parties, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even Trump’s own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of the election fraud he alleges. So CNN cancels Brian Stelter’s media criticism show just in time for the network to have to re-enact it in federal court. (And that’s not to mention that the former president* has aimed his mighty potato gun at CNN just when the network seems to be sliding to the right. Tell me not to be worried about that, I dare you.) The suit is preposterous, but lawyers get very wealthy pursuing preposterous lawsuits as far as they can take them, all the way to the far horizons of human reason—which, of course, is the former president*’s home court. His primary casus belli—and I can’t believe I’m typing this—is the use of the phrase “the Big Lie” in reference to the former president*’s big lie about the outcome of the 2020 election, and also that CNN also is slandering him because CNN is terrified that he’ll run again in 2024. (I also am terrified at that prospect.) From NBC News: Trump’s lawyers alleged in the lawsuit that CNN has used both false and defamatory labels against the former president, including “racist,” “Russian lackey” and “insurrectionist.” His attorneys also referred to what they said was “CNN’s persistent association of the Plaintiff to Adolf Hitler and Nazism.” According to the lawsuit, CNN refused Trump’s request in July to retract 34 articles and TV segments he considered defamatory and wouldn’t comply with demands that it stop referring to his false claims about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election as “lies.” Meanwhile, and with even more noise, he’s gone to the Supreme Court to ask it to throw some more sand in the gears of the special master arrangement regarding the Pool Shed Papers down in Florida. This arrangement, of course, exists because of the meddling of a federal judge to whom he gave a last-minute appointment, and the special master was appointed from the list his own lawyers provided. But then the 11th Circuit stayed the order as it pertained to the classified documents, allowing the Department of Justice to continue to examine those files as part of its wider investigation. (As a parenthetical, we note that said circuit has also granted the DOJ’s motion for an expedited hearing for its appeal of the appointment of the special master in the first place—a motion that Trump, naturally, opposed.) It is the circuit court’s stay that El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago wants the Supreme Court to dissolve, which would almost guarantee that the process would extend past Election Day. And who is the Supreme Court justice who supervises the 11th Circuit? Glad you asked. It’s Clarence Thomas. From NPR: “In sum, the Government has attempted to criminalize a document management dispute and now vehemently objects to a transparent process that provides much-needed oversight,” Trump’s team said in the request. “The Government’s attempt to shield the purportedly classified documents from the ambit of a Senior United States District Judge … illustrates precisely why the District Court found a special master was appropriate and necessary under the circumstances.” Common sense tells us that, with its approval rating dropping into numbers usually associated with tropical skin diseases, the Supreme Court would know better than to play along with such an obvious stalling tactic from such an obvious source. Even Thomas should be able to figure that out. Tell me why I shouldn’t be worried about that. Microsoft and partners may be compensated if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. Read More Here

Exclusive Spectrum News/Siena College Poll: Malliotakis Leads Rose https://digitalarkansasnews.com/exclusive-spectrum-news-siena-college-poll-malliotakis-leads-rose/ Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is leading her Democratic challenger, former Rep. Max Rose, by 6 percentage points in New York City’s only swing House district, according to an exclusive Spectrum News/Siena College poll released Thursday. Malliotakis’ numbers are boosted by independents and even Democrats in the district encompassing Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn, the poll of likely voters found. She has 49% support, the poll shows, while Rose has 43%. What You Need To Know Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis has edge over Democratic challenger, former Rep. Max Rose, with help from independents In conservative district, one out of five Democrats surveyed say they would cross party lines to back Malliotakis Likely voters’ top concerns are overwhelmingly economic issues and crime The congresswoman is vying for a second term against her rival, who held the seat before her. The exclusive Spectrum News/Siena College poll found 62% of independents back her compared to 25% who support Rose. It also found one in five Democrats would cross party lines to vote for Malliotakis, though the majority —74% — are with Rose. “Rose obviously is winning Democrats, winning them big, but I would argue perhaps not winning them back enough,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg told NY1. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the 11th Congressional District when it comes to voter enrollment. “But despite that, Republicans tend to win in this district, at the congressional level, at the borough level, at the legislative level,” Greenberg said. “And that’s because these Democrats are not your average Upper-West-Side-of-Manhattan Democrats.” The pollster note, as Malliotakis and Rose also have, that residents of the district are more politically conservative. They include blue collar New Yorkers and those who work for the city in the NYPD, FDNY and Department of Sanitation. Malliotakis has been touting inflation and crime as constituents’ top concerns and the poll results track with her platform. The survey showed 65% of district residents say economic issues, including inflation and cost of living, are either most or next most important in determining which candidate they back. Crime ranks at 42% as most or next most important, with threats to democracy, healthcare and abortion rounding out the top five. In the district, Democratic President Joe Biden is viewed more unfavorably — 58% — than former Republican President Donald Trump, 49%, according to the poll. Malliotakis, a former state Assembly member, is endorsed by Trump. Rose, who served one term in Congress and is a U.S. Army combat veteran, has sought to distance himself from Biden, calling for a new generation of leadership. The Spectrum News NY1-Siena College poll was conducted between Sept. 27 and 30. It has a sample size of 451 likely voters in the district and an overall margin of error of plus-or-minus 5.2% points. Read More Here

Letter: If Trump https://digitalarkansasnews.com/letter-if-trump/ Elizabeth City, NC (27909) Today Partly cloudy. High 77F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. Updated: October 6, 2022 @ 5:51 am Read More Here

Little Rock Mayoral Candidate Greg Henderson Hits Steve Landers’ Plan To Use More Police Dogs And Drones https://digitalarkansasnews.com/little-rock-mayoral-candidate-greg-henderson-hits-steve-landers-plan-to-use-more-police-dogs-and-drones/ Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. (left), Greg Henderson, Glen Schwarz and Steve Landers are shown in this undated combination photo. All four men are candidates in the Little Rock mayoral election in November. Little Rock mayoral candidate Greg Henderson took a swipe at opponent Steve Landers Sr. at a mayoral forum Wednesday when he argued that deploying “attack dogs” or drones, as Landers has suggested, would be counterproductive. Henderson said that “policing through fear” would kill recent momentum on improving the relationship between police and the community. With regard to bringing in dogs and drones, Henderson said, “That’s not community policing and that’s not progressive policing.” His remarks came at a forum at the Southwest Community Center that was attended by three of the four candidates running for Little Rock mayor. Mayor Frank Scott Jr. is seeking a second term. In addition to Henderson and Landers, Scott faces perennial candidate Glen Schwarz in the first round of the contest on Nov. 8. Brenda Stallings, an attorney who ran unsuccessfully for circuit judge earlier this year, served as the forum’s moderator. Stallings read a series of questions for the candidates, who did not take live questions from audience members. Landers, who was absent from the forum Wednesday, gave an interview to the Arkansas Times recently in which he suggested that the department ought to rely on more police dogs and drones. Drones could make up for the absence of the Police Department’s helicopter program, Landers indicated, according to the Times. As of July 2020, the department was working to sell its last helicopter, which had not flown since December 2018, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported two years ago. As far as canines, “Every shift needs a dog because a lot of times, a dog can defuse,” Landers told the Times. “They can get in there so quickly instead of a man or woman walking in somebody’s house where a guy has a gun on somebody. I want to have a dog available in case it’s the right thing to do. Every circumstance is different.” The Central Arkansas businessman known for building a series of car dealerships has made crime the central focus of his campaign. Landers has repeatedly hit Scott over an increase in homicides in Little Rock. A recent campaign mailer paid for by the Landers campaign listed his three-point plan on crime and noted that he has been endorsed by the largest local police union. His program calls for increasing law enforcement collaboration on both sides of the Arkansas River, funding better technology and training and recruiting more officers to allow them to patrol every neighborhood in the city. At the forum, Henderson said he would double down on community-oriented policing if elected mayor. He later argued that in order to break a cycle in which crime increases every 10 to 15 years, officials ought to invest in after-school programs and education. “We have to make sure that we’re investing in those kids,” Henderson said. Henderson, 39, is a real estate agent and the publisher/president of the food blog Rock City Eats who unsuccessfully sought positions on the Little Rock Board of Directors in the two previous election cycles. If no mayoral candidate receives at least 40% of the vote in the first round on Nov. 8, a runoff election between the top two candidates will occur four weeks later.     Little Rock mayoral candidate Greg Henderson, left, speaks Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022 at a mayoral forum at the Southwest Community Center as Mayor Frank Scott Jr. looks on. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Joseph Flaherty)    Read More…

Fed Rate Hikes: What Will And Won https://digitalarkansasnews.com/fed-rate-hikes-what-will-and-won/ Fed rate hikes have triggered a stock sell-off and heightened the risk of recession. But they also aim to stop rising prices. Which prices could the hikes lower and which prices won’t be affected? The Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes this year have triggered a massive stock market sell-off and significantly increased the risk of recession all in the name of bringing down soaring inflation.  But will it work?  Rising rates increase consumer and business borrowing costs, which reduces demand for products and services broadly, leading suppliers to cut prices or stop raising them. But the immediate effect varies significantly across individual goods and services. “When consumers start to feel those higher interest rates hitting wallets… and when their desire or ability to buy is diminished, you’ll start to see demand ease,” says Katie Thomas, who leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, a think tank that studies consumer behavior.  For instance, some prices, like food, continue to go up, in part, because demand is so strong, said John Cochrane, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. “People are paying those higher prices. If people weren’t paying those higher prices, the prices would go down.”  Hikes and your wallet:: Fed raises interest rates by 0.75% again: Here’s how it will hit your wallet and portfolio What happens when the Fed raises interest rates? Traditionally, higher interest rates have had the most profound effect on big-ticket purchases like houses, cars and appliances that rely heavily on consumer financing, says Laura Veldkamp, a professor of economics and finance at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.  Where higher interest rates may help lower prices:   Appliances, furniture  The Fed’s actions should help lower the prices of appliances and furniture. Low and middle-income shoppers frequently finance purchases of living room sets or appliances with in-store financing at rates that can range from zero to upward of 30%.  As rates rise, some shoppers are likely to turn to less expensive models or forgo purchases altogether, Veldkamp says.  That softer demand should, at least on the margins, help nudge prices lower. But such impacts can take about two years to play out, Veldkamp says.  Homes  Home prices should continue to decline as a result of the hikes. The housing market already has significantly weakened because of the Fed’s hiking campaign. The average 30-year mortgage rate has shot up to more than 6% from 3.2% in January. That increases the monthly payment on a typical $312,000 mortgage by nearly $500.  A homebuyer’s market?: Home prices decline at rates seen close to a decade ago Inflation Reduction Act of 2022: Answering your common questions about the legislation. Existing home sales are down 20% from a year ago as of August and median home prices are down 6% since reaching a record high in June, according to the National Association of Realtors.  Rent  Rent should go down as the central bank raises borrowing costs. Wages are up almost 7% compared with a year ago, according to the Atlanta Fed’s Wage Growth Tracker. That’s the fastest rise in more than 20 years. That’s allowing producers to pass on more price increases to consumers.   To get inflation under control the Fed needs to slow wage growth, said Omair Sharif, founder of research firm Inflation Insights. The Fed can accomplish that by raising interest rates to a point where it causes employers to slow hiring or lay off workers. That’s already happening in the tech sector.   When hiring demand slows, the wages employers are willing to pay for workers go down and raises are harder to get. Landlords typically base rental rates off renters’ incomes, which is often a requirement to disclose in a rental application. Last year when applicants’ incomes were higher than those in the prior year, landlords knew they could hike rent, Sharif said.   “If they see income going up 4%, they’re not going to raise rent by 6%,” he added.  Also, lower home prices should spur more renters to buy, easing demand and prices in the rental market, said Kathy Bostjancic, U.S. chief economist at Oxford Economics.  For the first time since December 2020, rents across the country fell by 0.1% in August, according to a report from property data company CoStar Group.  Airfares and hotels  Airfares and hotels should go down as rates go up. Since these purchases are discretionary, higher credit card rates, along with higher prices, should prompt many consumers to put off expensive trips until rates and borrowing costs come down, Channel and Thomas say.  Where higher interest rates may not help lower prices:   For the most part, the increase or decrease in supplies of goods is outside the Fed’s control. Yet they’re playing a significant part in boosting prices. For instance, nationwide outbreaks of avian flu, which began in February and continue to spread, are causing farmers to kill flocks of chicken. As a result, a carton of eggs is costing consumers nearly 40% more than a year ago.   Here the Fed’s primary tool, raising interest rates, isn’t going to help.  In Cochrane’s view, lawmakers bear a significant amount of blame for the inflation we’re experiencing as a result of doling out $5 trillion in stimulus aid during the pandemic. The aid, which included stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits, successfully gave consumers an appetite to spend money. But because of supply side problems, producers couldn’t accommodate the spike in demand leading to persistently higher prices, Cochrane argued.   “Congress put the gas pedal on the floor and now they’re asking monetary policy to pull on the parking brake. That’s an imperfect way to run the economy.”  Cars  Fed rate hikes aren’t likely to help lower the price of cars just yet. New vehicle prices were up 10.1% annually in August, according to the consumer price index. Meanwhile, interest rates on auto loans are the highest in 12 years, according to Bankrate.   But that isn’t deterring consumers from buying cars. Sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers rose by 2.8% in August on a monthly basis, according to retail sales data figures published by the Census Bureau.  Hate car shopping?: Here’s how to navigate the current seller’s market Brace yourself: Winter bills will send shivers up your spine with energy prices set to rise Historically, rate hikes have helped bring down car prices because so many consumers need to borrow money to buy a car, said Jacob Channel, senior economist at LendingTree.    But they’ve had a minimal impact on car prices lately since they’ve been overpowered by the effect of ongoing computer chip shortages which have constrained production and resulted in lower vehicle supplies and higher prices, he said..   Food  Fed rate hikes should have a minimal effect on food prices. Those prices, up 11.4% annually, largely have been propelled higher by supply chain bottlenecks, higher cost of labor, ingredients and fuel, unfavorable weather and Russia’s war in Ukraine, said William Snell, an agriculture economist at the University of Kentucky.  Consumers have already changed their buying habits as a result of high prices, opting for generic brands and fewer organic produce and meat alternatives, Snell said. But these switches aren’t significant enough to bring down prices, he added.  ‘Most expensive crop in decades’: Farmers face higher stakes than ever with inflation Cutting costs wherever possible: How farmers are managing sky-rocketing inflation Many consumers, of course, do pay for groceries by credit card, whose rates are directly affected by Fed rate moves. Yet since food is a necessity, shoppers are unlikely to stop buying bread or milk because their credit card rate rises, Channel says.   Gas  Gas prices won’t be very responsive to Fed hikes. Gasoline prices are mostly determined by oil prices, which are set on a global market, Veldkamp says. Still, Americans have driven less since U.S. gas prices peaked at about $5 in June, helping lower pump prices by about 20%.  Like food, even though consumers often pay for gas with a credit card, rate increases aren’t likely to cause them to cut back on gas, Veldkamp says.  Read More Here

Missing Merced Family Of 4 Found Dead Following Kidnapping: Sheriff https://digitalarkansasnews.com/missing-merced-family-of-4-found-dead-following-kidnapping-sheriff/ A baby girl, her parents and uncle who were kidnapped at gunpoint from their central California business two days ago were found dead Wednesday, the sheriff of Merced County said. “Our worst fears have been confirmed,” Sheriff Vern Warnke told reporters Wednesday night. A farmworker found the bodies close together in a Merced County orchard, he said. The announcement came after authorities released surveillance video of a man kidnapping 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri; her mother Jasleen Kaur, 27; father Jasdeep Singh, 36; and uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, on Monday. The Merced County Sheriff’s Office holds a press conference to update the community about the kidnapped family found dead Wednesday. Authorities said they were taken by a convicted robber who tried to kill himself a day after the kidnappings. “There’s no words right now to describe the anger I feel and the senselessness of this incident,” Warnke said. “I said it earlier: There’s a special place in hell for this guy.” Investigators, including crime lab technicians from the California Department of Justice, would be processing the crime scene through the night, Warnke said. He didn’t immediately supply other details. The family members were taken from their business in Merced, a city of 86,000 people about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco in the San Joaquin Valley, California’s agricultural heartland. Relatives of Jesus Salgado, 48, contacted authorities reporting that he had admitted to them he was involved with the kidnapping, Warnke told a local station on Tuesday. Salgado tried to take his own life before police arrived at a home in nearby Atwater, and he has since been hospitalized. Efforts to reach Salgado’s family were unsuccessful Wednesday. The video released earlier Wednesday showed the suspect first walking by the property before talking to one of the men. Later, it shows him leading the men, who had their hands zip-tied behind their backs, into the back seat of Amandeep Singh’s pickup truck. The suspect then went back to the trailer that served as the business office and led Jasdeep Singh, who was carrying her baby in her arms, out and into the truck before the suspect then drove away. Family members said nothing was stolen from the trucking company but that their relatives were all wearing jewelry. Warnke had said that after the kidnappings, an ATM card belonging to one of the victims was used in Atwater, about 9 miles (14 kilometers) north of Merced. Warnke said the kidnapper made no ransom demands in what he believes was a financially motivated crime. Relatives of the victims had earlier asked anyone who owns a convenience store or gas station in the area to check their surveillance cameras for images of the suspect or the family. They said they were worried the baby wasn’t being fed because the family didn’t have any baby food with them at the time of the kidnapping. “Please help us out, come forward, so my family comes home safe,” Sukhdeep Singh, a brother of the victims, said, his voice breaking. The Merced County Sheriff’s Office released footage of the kidnapping of four family members at gunpoint in Merced, California. At the earlier news conference, Warnke said detectives had not been able to speak to Salgado, who has been under medical sedation in the hospital, but they were hoping to do so Wednesday with the help of doctors. “I can tell you that every time he has even come near consciousness he has been violent,” Warnke said. Salgado was previously convicted of first-degree robbery with the use of a firearm in Merced County, as well as attempted false imprisonment and an attempt to prevent or dissuade a victim or witness. He was sentenced to 11 years in state prison in that case, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was released from prison in 2015 and discharged from parole three years later. He also has a conviction for possession of a controlled substance, the corrections agency said. Investigators have not found a link between Salgado and the family to show they knew each other before the kidnapping. “As of right now, we believe it was random,” Deputy Alexandra Britton said. “We don’t have evidence to prove otherwise.” Family members told a Sacramento TV station that the office for Unison Trucking Inc., the family’s business, had only opened about a week earlier. “My husband is very peaceful and calm person. We don’t have any clue why they kidnapped them,” said Jaspreet Caur, wife of the kidnapped uncle. The sheriff said detectives believe the kidnapper destroyed unspecified evidence in an attempt to cover his tracks. The sheriff’s office said that firefighters on Monday found Amandeep Singh’s truck on fire. Merced Police Department officers went to Amandeep Singh’s home, where a family member tried to reach him and the couple. When they were not able to reach their family members, they called the Merced County Sheriff’s office to report them missing, the office said. Merced County Undersheriff Corey Gibson said a farmer found a phone belonging to one of the victims on a street in Dos Palos, a town 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Merced, and answered it when the family called it. Warnke said that while detectives have not established any motive or determined whether Salgado worked with any accomplices, he believes the suspect was driven by money and colluded with someone else. Stefanie Dazio reported from Los Angeles. News Researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York also contributed to this report. Read More Here

Thailand Shooting: Children Among At Least 34 Killed At Child Care Center, Officials Say | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/thailand-shooting-children-among-at-least-34-killed-at-child-care-center-officials-say-cnn/ Bangkok, Thailand CNN  —  At least 22 children were among 34 people killed in a mass shooting at a child care center in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, officials in the country said. Authorities immediately launched a manhunt for the suspected shooter, later identified by Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) as a 34-year-old former policeman who had been involved in an ongoing court case for allegedly selling drugs. The suspect had appeared in court in Nong Bua Lamphu province hours before “opening fire while the kids were sleeping,” according to Maj. Gen. Jirapob Puridet of the CIB. Investigators later confirmed the suspect had killed his wife and child before taking his own life. It is unclear if the shooter and his family are included in the current death toll. The mass shooting took place at the Child Development Center in Nong Bua Lamphu province’s Uthaisawan Na Klang district, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. “The prime minister has expressed his condolences on the shooting incident,” the statement read. Puridet told CNN the former officer was dismissed from duty and “charged with selling narcotics” last year. Gun ownership in Thailand is relatively high compared with other countries in Southeast Asia. Mass shootings in the country are rare but a 2020 incident saw a soldier kill 29 people in a shooting spree that began at a military site and then sent shoppers hunting for cover after the gunman entered a mall. Read More Here

Historic Russellville ‘Green Book’ House Moved To New Location https://digitalarkansasnews.com/historic-russellville-green-book-house-moved-to-new-location/ The Latimore Tourist Home in Russellville, featured in several editions of the “Green Book” as a tourist home for Black travelers from the late 1930s until the mid-1960s, was moved 2½ blocks down the street on Wednesday. More photos at arkansasonline.com/106house/. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford) The historic Latimore Tourist Home in Russellville was moved 2½ blocks down the street Wednesday to a temporary location before it’s eventually placed on a new foundation at the corner of South Houston and West Fifth streets. The move was necessary to save the two-story house, which was built around the turn of the 20th century, and was featured in several editions of the “Green Book” as a tourist home for Black travelers from the late 1930s until the mid-1960s. “Today was a huge milestone in this project moving forward,” said Betsy McGuire, vice president of the board of Friends of the Latimore Tourist Home, a nonprofit organization. Combs House Moving of Ratcliff moved the house, while police, street department workers and utility workers assisted by trimming trees or doing whatever else was needed, said McGuire. “They started the engine and tooted the horn — a sign they were getting ready to roll,” she said. “Watching that thing move out after it had sat there for 100 years — they’re pulling that house down the street. It’s much larger than what you think it is. It was overlapping the street by 15 feet.” After three hours, the house was in its temporary location, where it’ll remain for six months to a year while site work is done, utilities are installed and a new foundation is built. The permanent location for the house will be across Houston Street from James School Park, once the site of a school for Black students. “I am proud of the efforts by all those that made this move possible,” said Russellville Mayor Richard Harris. “This is the first big step in ultimately restoring this home to its original beauty. Future generations will be able to see history and learn from our past.” Some restoration work can begin on the house while it’s in the temporary location, said McGuire. The house sat empty for years. After it’s restored, the house could serve as a stop along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, she said. It may also be used as a meeting or event center. “Operated by Eugene Latimore and Cora Wilson Latimore and their daughter Anna, the home offered short-term accommodations for African Americans, many of whom worked on the railroad,” according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “Eugene Latimore also worked as a veterinarian. … The house operated as a tourist home even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ceasing operations between 1970 and 1976.” During the Jim Crow era, Black people traveling through the South in particular could have trouble finding places to eat, sleep, buy gasoline or get a haircut. Victor H. Green and Co. of New York City began publishing The Negro Motorist Green Book in 1936, a listing of businesses that were friendly to Black customers. “With the introduction of this travel guide in 1936, it has been our idea to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trips more enjoyable,” read the introduction to the 1949 Green Book. The Latimore home was listed in annual editions of the Green Book published from 1939 through 1966. It was the only lodging listed for Black travelers between North Little Rock and Fort Smith from 1948 through 1966. Publication of the Green Book was suspended during World War II but resumed in 1947. Victor Green died in 1960 and the Green Book ceased publication in 1967, shortly after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 opened public facilities (at least in theory) to all Americans. A 2018 movie called “Green Book” brought attention to the historic travel guides. The Bridge Church donated two vacant lots at the site that will become the permanent home of the Latimore house, said McGuire. Additional adjacent land may be purchased. The Latimore house was previously located at 318 S. Houston Ave. on land owned by New Prospect Missionary Baptist Church. But that church needed the lot for expansion. McGuire said the city purchased the house for $1. The Latimore Tourist Home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. In 2018, Preserve Arkansas listed the Latimore house as one of the state’s Ten Most Endangered Properties: https://bit.ly/3yjbw0F. To view the Green Books online, go to https://on.nypl.org/2DoXpO5. More information on Eugene and Cora Latimore is available at https://bit.ly/3HVRMn5.     People watch from their balconies as the Latimore Tourist Home in Russellville is moved down the street on Wednesday. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)    Read More Here

Henry E. Crandall https://digitalarkansasnews.com/henry-e-crandall/ Henry E. Crandall of Tuckerman, departed this life in Batesville on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022, at the age of 103. He was born Dec. 5, 1918, in Stuttgart, the son of Walter Webster Crandall and Lurie M. (Dilday) Crandall. Mr. Crandall was a 1936 graduate of Stuttgart High School. Following high school, he moved with his family to Tuckerman, where he worked at a service station and as a bookkeeper for Graham Brothers. In the late 1930s, he began farming with his grandfather, H.D. Dilday and his father, W.W. Crandall. Mr. Crandall continued the family tradition forming Crandall Farms in partnership with his son, Morris. He was a devoted member of the Tuckerman First United Methodist Church, and over the years, he served the church as a trustee and on many of the church boards. He also served on the Board of Riceland Foods for a number of years. As a younger man, Mr. Crandall enjoyed duck hunting and fishing. He became an avid golfer at the age of 55. Mr. Crandall did everything well and with a bit of a competitive spirit, especially the game of Mexican Train in dominoes, which he played regularly with friends and family. Mr. Henry Crandall will forever be remembered for his loving and kind spirit, his devotion to the church and his great love of family. Mr. Crandall especially delighted in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 67 years, Willie Mae (Ashley) Crandall; his grandson, Alex Wayne Crandall; and one brother, Homer Crandall. Mr. Crandall is survived by one son, Morris Crandall and wife DuLane of Tuckerman; two grandchildren, Andy Crandall and Brandi Crandall Gayle and husband, Chris; three great-grandchildren, Alex Crandall, Anna Layne Crandall and Cora Ainsley Gayle; one great-great-granddaughter, Adeli Crandall; and a lifetime of friends. Graveside services were Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Gracelawn Cemetery. Arrangements were by Jackson’s Newport Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Aaron Meals, 127 Avenue B., Apalachicola, FL 32320 or aaronmeals.com; or to the First United Methodist Church Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 848, Tuckerman, AR 72473. An online guestbook is available at www.jacksonsfh.com. Read More Here

How Crypto Twitter Could Change Under Musk’s Leadership https://digitalarkansasnews.com/how-crypto-twitter-could-change-under-musks-leadership/ Barring another change of heart and certain conditions to be met, Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter looks set to go ahead, prompting the question of whether some or all of the changes he initially hinted for the platform will become a reality.  The platform is a popular communication and news tool for crypto enthusiasts, users and investors, not to mention crypto scammers, with the social media platform seeing roughly 120,000 tweets per day about #Bitcoin alone, according to BitInfoCharts. Looking back at Musk’s initial commentary when he proposed a buyout of Twitter could shed some light on what changes he envisions for the platform. This includes a focus on free speech, eliminating spam bots, fake accounts, an edit function and possibly even crypto payments have all been considered and could still be on the agenda if the deal goes through. Spam bots and fake accounts One potential area of focus is around Twitter’s alleged spam bots. During a TED talk in Vancouver in April, Musk said that if his offer to buy Twitter were successful, a “top priority” would be the elimination of spam and scam bots from the platform, noting at the time: A top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies that are on Twitter. “They make the product much worse. If I had a Dogecoin for every crypto scam I saw, we’d have 100 billion Dogecoin,” he said. He has proposed to topple them by “authenticating all humans,” and even made the statement “we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” Issues relating to spam bots later became one of the key arguments Musk used to try and walk away from the deal. Free speech, and return of Trump? Musk initially addressed his stance on free speech in a tweet back in April, stating at the time, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.” In the months since, he has not publically changed his stance and elaborated on what that could mean for the platform, including a return of former United States President Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. He stated in a May 13 tweet that while he thinks Trump should probably not run for president again because he is “divisive,” Musk does think he should be “restored to Twitter.” Algorithm made public Musk has also thought about making Twitter’s algorithm accessible to the public, even creating a poll that ultimately saw over one million votes and had 82% of respondents saying “Yes” to the proposal. It’s not entirely clear what Musk has in mind but it could mean allowing the software to be open for public inspection and allow users to read the code, use it for their applications and make suggestions for changes to how it works. Other ideas Other ideas have either fizzled out or have already been implemented, such as plans to use blockchain technology and charging 0.1 Dogecoin (DOGE) per tweet or retweet, which Musk later said would not be feasible. Musk also had the idea of adding an edit button and long-form tweets. However, Twitter may have beaten him to the punch with the edit button after the platform revealed that option recently. The crypto community continues to be divided over whether the move will be a positive move for the platform, but others have taken to poking fun at the whole situation. Twitter appears ready to accept the terms of the deal, announcing in an Oct. 4 Twitter post they intend to close the transaction at $54.20 per share. Information on these pages contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Markets and instruments profiled on this page are for informational purposes only and should not in any way come across as a recommendation to buy or sell in these assets. You should do your own thorough research before making any investment decisions. FXStreet does not in any way guarantee that this information is free from mistakes, errors, or material misstatements. It also does not guarantee that this information is of a timely nature. Investing in Open Markets involves a great deal of risk, including the loss of all or a portion of your investment, as well as emotional distress. All risks, losses and costs associated with investing, including total loss of principal, are your responsibility. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of FXStreet nor its advertisers. Read More Here

Stock Futures Little Changed On Thursday After Two-Day Market Rally Ends https://digitalarkansasnews.com/stock-futures-little-changed-on-thursday-after-two-day-market-rally-ends/ U.S. stock futures were about flat on Thursday morning after falling in the regular trading session and breaking a massive two-day rally. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined by 14 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 futures were little changed, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.11%. Stocks fought to hold onto the winning streak Wednesday but ultimately fell short. The Dow closed about 42 points lower, or 0.14%, rebounding from the session’s low of nearly 430 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.20% and 0.25%, respectively. Rising yields added pressure to stocks Wednesday. The rate on the 10-year U.S. Treasury topped 3.7%, rising from 3.6% a day earlier. “Few are convinced that the recent move is more than a bear market rally, with skepticism over the durability,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “Confidence remains weak, ranging from CEOs, small businesses, consumers, and investors. Universal pessimism is bullish from a contrarian perspective, though timing of the pendulum swing is difficult to predict.” Investors continue to monitor economic data to see if inflation is cooling off, or if the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes are pushing the U.S. closer to a recession. Data from ADP showed that the labor market remained strong among private companies in September, when businesses added 208,000 jobs. That beat the 200,000 job estimate from Dow Jones. On Friday, the September jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be released, giving the central bank and investors another piece of data. Some companies are reporting earnings, as well. On Thursday, Constellation Brands will announce its results before the opening bell, and Levi Strauss will report after the market closes. Mizuho says OPEC+ supply cut confirms ‘naked desire for price buoyancy’ OPEC and its allies’ decision to cut production by 2 million barrels per day confirms the group’s “naked desire for price buoyancy, not just support,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank. A supply cut of around 1 million barrels per day would have resulted in price gains without a compromise on volumes, but a larger cut shows the alliance’s “disregard for the economic woes of, and geo-political alignment with, global partners,” he wrote. “What may have been argued as an opportunistic gamble exploiting geo-political supply kinks for self-interest advantage is now in danger of being interpreted as an affront to the U.S. and its allies (in protestation of Russia price cap plans) that aligns with Russia,” he added. — Abigail Ng CNBC Pro: Time to buy the dip? Some stocks are still trading at lows with further big upside The beginning of this week has brought something of a relief rally to stocks. Still, global as well as Wall Street indexes, are still well in the red year-to-date. That could present an opportunity for investors looking for quality stocks and future upside in a volatile environment. CNBC Pro screened for stocks trading within 10% of their 52-week low, but have a buy rating from more than 50% of Wall Street analysts that cover them. The stocks have an average price target upside of 20% or more, and earnings growth expectation for 2022 of at least 10%. Here are the stocks that turned up. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Weizhen Tan CNBC Pro: NYU’s Aswath Damodaran names big tech stocks that are a better bet than ‘traditional safe’ ones NYU’s Aswath Damodaran loves companies that can “withstand a hurricane, a catastrophe if it does happen.” The professor of finance at New York University, who is sometimes referred to as the “Dean of Valuation, believes big tech stocks can do just that, and reveals the stocks he owns. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong October could be the start of a bull market rally, Detrick says Even though stocks pulled back Wednesday, stopping a major two-day win streak, October may still be the start of a new bull market rally according to Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. “We think this could be the start of a pretty decent-sized end of year rally,” Detrick said during CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” That’s because, traditionally, stock performance improves in October in midterm election years, said Detrick. He also noted that even though markets ended the day lower, stocks posted a major rally in the afternoon that regained a lot of lost ground. That’s a positive, according to Detrick. —Carmen Reinicke Stock futures open flat Wednesday Stock futures opened flat Wednesday evening after all three major averages closed lower, failing to continue a major two-day rally that started this week. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by 7 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.02% and 0.03%, respectively. – Carmen Reinicke Read More Here

Twitter Under Musk? Most Of The Plans Are A Mystery https://digitalarkansasnews.com/twitter-under-musk-most-of-the-plans-are-a-mystery/ Traders gather around a post as Twitter shares resume trading on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Credit: AP Photo/Seth Wenig A super app called X? A bot-free free speech haven? These are some of Elon Musk’s mysterious plans for Twitter, now that he may be buying the company after all. After months of squabbling over the fate of their bombshell $44 billion deal, the billionaire and the bird app are essentially back to square one—if a bit worse for wear as trust and goodwill has seemed to erode on both sides. Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and Twitter’s most high-profile user since former President Donald Trump was booted from it, has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform. While he’s touted free speech and derided spam bots since agreeing to buy the company in April, what he actually wants to do about either is shrouded in mystery. He could own one of the world’s most powerful communications platforms with 237 million daily users in a matter of weeks, though the deal is not final. The lack of clear plans for the platform are raising concern among Twitter’s constituencies, ranging from users in conflict regions where it offers an information lifeline to the company’s own employees. “Both users and advertisers are—understandably—anxious about whether the move will fundamentally change the culture of the platform,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, a professor at Cornell University who studies social media. “And so, Musk will need to decide whether he wants to quash their concerns by retaining core features (the content moderation system, for instance) and keeping the company public—or whether he will undertake a full-scale overhaul.” Muddling things further, on Tuesday Musk tweeted that “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” without further explanation. Although Musk’s tweets and statements have been cryptic, technology analysts have speculated that Musk wants to re-create a version of China’s WeChat app that can do video chats, messaging, streaming, scan bar codes and make payments. He gave a little more detail during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in August, telling the crowd at a factory near Austin, Texas, that he uses Twitter frequently and knows the product well. “I think I’ve got a good sense of where to point the engineering team with Twitter to make it radically better,” he said. Handling payments for goods could be a key part of the app. Musk said he has a “grander vision” for what X.com, an online bank he started early in his career that eventually became part of PayPal, could have been. “Obviously that could be started from scratch, but I think Twitter would help accelerate that by three-to-five years,” Musk said at the August meeting. “So it’s kind of something that I thought would be quite useful for a long time. I know what to do.” For now, Twitter has immediate and pressing problems Musk will need to deal with if he takes ownership of the company. Its social media rivals are struggling with declining stock prices and some, like Snap, even announced layoffs. Government regulation and attracting younger users away from TikTok are also challenges. And Musk’s vision of a free speech haven has social media and content moderation experts, as well as digital and human rights advocates, concerned. “When this all started in the spring, we had indicators and a strong sense of what Musk might do with the platform,” said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters, a watchdog group that opposes the takeover. “Because of the lawsuit, we know who he’s been talking to, what he’s been saying and the types of far-right ideological decision makers he wants to put in place. To put it bluntly, the worst fears have been confirmed.” Twitter employees, under former CEO Jack Dorsey and his predecessors, have spent years working to tame the platform once called the “free-speech wing of the free-speech party” where hate and harassment abound into something where all are welcome and safe. While it’s far from perfect, critics worry Musk’s ownership will mean turning back the clock on years of this work. “Musk made it clear that he would roll back Twitter’s community standards and safety guidelines, reinstate Donald Trump along with scores of other accounts suspended for violence and abuse, and open the floodgates of disinformation,” Carusone said. The company, for instance, was an early adopter of the “report abuse” button in 2013, after U.K. member of parliament Stella Creasy received a barrage of rape and death threats on the platform, echoing the experiences of other women over the years. In subsequent years, Twitter continued to craft rules and invest in staff and technology to detect violent threats, harassment and misinformation that violates its policies. After evidence emerged that Russia used their platforms to try to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, social media companies also stepped up their efforts against political misinformation. The big question now is how far Musk, who describes himself as a “free-speech absolutist,” wants to ratchet back these systems—and whether users and advertisers will stick around if he does. Aiming to tamp down such worries, Musk said in May he wants Twitter to be “as broadly inclusive as possible ” where ideally, most of America is on it and talking—a far cry from the far-right playground his critics are warning against. And while Musk has hinted he’d consider reinstating Trump’s account, it’s not clear the former president, who has since launched his own social media platform, would return. Then there’s the matter of Twitter’s employees, who’ve been living with uncertainty, high- (and low-) profile departures and a potential owner who’s publicly derided them on their own platform. Musk has also targeted Twitter’s work-from home policy, having once called for the company’s headquarters to be turned into a “homeless shelter” because, he said, so few employees actually worked there. As a hyper-frequent Twitter user with over 100 million followers, Musk does know how to use the platform. During an all-hands staff meeting Musk attended in June, he said his goal was to make it “so compelling that you can’t live without it.” If he’s able to realize this, it could finally put Twitter in the big leagues of social media, with TikTok and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, where users are counted in the billions, not mere millions. Of course, Musk is also well known for predictions that are delayed or may not come true, such as colonizing Mars or deploying a fleet of autonomous robotaxis. “This is not a car manufacturer where, good enough, all you have to do is beat General Motors. Sorry, that isn’t really that hard,” said David Kirsch, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland who’s studied Twitter bots’ effect on Tesla’s stock price. “You are dealing here with all of these other companies (that) also have very sophisticated AI programs, very sophisticated Ph.D. programmers…everyone is trying to crack this nut.” © 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Citation: Twitter under Musk? Most of the plans are a mystery (2022, October 6) retrieved 6 October 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news/2022-10-twitter-musk-mystery.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Read More Here

US Moves Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Near Korea After North's Missile Launches, South Korea Says | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/us-moves-aircraft-carrier-strike-group-near-korea-after-norths-missile-launches-south-korea-says-cnn/ Seoul, South Korea CNN  —  A US Navy aircraft carrier strike group is moving into waters off the Korean Peninsula as tensions flare after a spate of North Korean missile launches over the past two weeks, South Korean security officials said. South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) held an emergency meeting on Thursday after North Korea launched two more short-range ballistic missiles, the sixth such launch in 12 days, the country’s Presidential Office said in a statement. The NSC warned that North Korea’s provocation will face a stronger response, as demonstrated by the redeployment of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, following Pyongyang’s launch on Tuesday of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that flew over Japan. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said on Wednesday that the US carrier strike group would be redeployed to the waterway, in what it characterized as a “very unusual” move meant “to demonstrate the resolute will of the SK-US alliance to respond decisively to any provocation or threat from North Korea.” Asked about the South Korean statement on the Reagan’s movements, a US 7th Fleet spokesperson told CNN, “The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Sea of Japan.” The Navy said it does not comment on future operations. The South Korean statement on the US Navy strike group’s movements drew a harsh response from Pyongyang. “The DPRK is watching the US posing a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity by redeploying the carrier task force in the waters off the Korean peninsula,” read a statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry posted on the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Pyongyang’s missile launches Thursday are the 24th such tests this year, including both ballistic and cruise missiles – the highest annual tally since Kim Jong Un took power in 2012. It closely followed the highly provocative launch by the isolated country on Tuesday, when North Korea fired a ballistic missile without warning over Japan – the first in five years – prompting Tokyo to urge residents in the north to take shelter. The United States and South Korea responded with missile launches and exercises around the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday and Wednesday. Speaking Wednesday during a trip to South America, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that if North Korea continues “down this road” of provocation, “it will only increase the condemnation, increase the isolation and increase the steps that are taken in response to their actions.” Last month, the US, Japanese and South Korean navies conducted joint anti-submarine exercises in international waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula to improve response capability against North Korean submarine threats. The Reagan carrier strike group and destroyers from South Korea and Japan were involved in that joint exercise, according to the South Korean Navy. 02:28 – Source: CNN Explained: How much damage can North Korea’s weapons do? The latest North Korean launch came hours after a Security Council briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York about Pyongyang’s weapons program. Speaking at the council, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia and China, without naming them, of enabling North Korea. North Korea has “enjoyed blanket protection from two members of this council. These two members have gone out of their way to justify the DPRK’s repeated provocations and block every attempt to update the sanctions regime,” she said. Referring to Russia and China, Thomas-Greenfield said, “Two permanent members of the Security Council have enabled (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un” to continue these “provocations.” But China countered that it was Washington ratcheting up tensions. “The US has recently been bolstering its military alliances in the Asia Pacific region and intensifying the risk of military confrontation on the nuclear issue,” Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Geng Shuang said during the Security Council meeting. The US is “poisoning the regional security environment,” he added. Russia, too, blamed Washington. “It is obvious that missile launches by Pyongyang were a response to the short-sighted confrontational military activities of the US,” said Anna Evstigneeva, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN. 03:29 – Source: CNN Tanks, Apaches, and drones. See South Korea’s state-of-the-art weapons Andrei Lankov, professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, said military displays from the US and its allies have no effect on the North Korean weapons program. “Yes, American strategic assets are deployed, but does it make any difference?” Lankov asked. “It doesn’t make any difference where an American aircraft carrier is … They’re just testing their missiles,” he said of the North Koreans. Experts have warned that North Korea’s recent tests suggest an even greater escalation in weapons testing could be on the horizon. “North Korea is going to keep conducting missile tests until the current round of modernization is done,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told CNN earlier this week. Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii, said North Korean leader Kim has both domestic and regional audiences in mind with the testing. Kim is telling his own people, “We can deal with whatever the threat the West, the US and South Korea can come up with,” Schuster said. “He’s also telling the South Koreans that if they go too far, he can rain destruction on them. He’s also signaling to Japan, ‘I can reach you and I’m not afraid to do so.’” Schuster also said that Kim can be expected to up the ante soon by testing a nuclear weapon. Lewis agreed, saying a nuclear test could come “anytime.” South Korean and US officials have been warning since May that North Korea may be preparing for a nuclear test, with satellite imagery showing activity at its underground nuclear test site. If North Korea conducts a test, it would be the country’s seventh underground nuclear test and the first in nearly five years. Read More Here

Abrams Won’t ‘question The Outcome’ Of Kemp Rematch But Does ‘question’ Ga. Voting Rules – Deltaplex News https://digitalarkansasnews.com/abrams-wont-question-the-outcome-of-kemp-rematch-but-does-question-ga-voting-rules-deltaplex-news/ (ATLANTA) — Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams said she has continuing doubts about voting equity in her upcoming rematch with incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, telling ABC News in a new interview that she would “not question the outcome of the election” but would continue to “question the process.” Abrams, a former state lawmaker-turned-prominent voting rights advocate, repeatedly attacked Kemp in 2018 given that he was her rival and the sitting secretary of state who was overseeing their race. Abrams also challenged what she said were Georgia’s excessively strict regulations around voter registration and more, calling them tantamount to suppression. Kemp said he wanted to ensure election integrity. Abrams waited more than a week to acknowledge Kemp’s victory after the 2018 election. Pressed twice by ABC News congressional correspondent Rachel Scott in an interview on Sunday about whether she would concede the 2022 gubernatorial election if she lost, Abrams repeatedly drew a distinction between conceding the outcome — which she said she would do — and criticizing the process, including regulations restricting voter access to polling places and absentee voting. “I have always acknowledged the outcome of elections,” she said in a clip from the interview, set to air Oct. 9 on Hulu’s “Power Trip.” “What is deeply concerning to me is the conflation of access to the right to vote and the outcome of elections.” “Voter access is not the same as election outcomes,” Abrams continued, “and when those become conflated and we buy into the conflation, when we buy into the false equivalency, we erode access to democracy.” Conservatives have tried to draw comparisons between Abrams’ handling of the 2018 race and former President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, who won the popular vote by a margin of more than 7 million. (Abrams lost to Kemp in 2018 by some 54,000 votes.) When Abrams finally acknowledged on Nov. 16, 2018, that Kemp had won, she pointedly stated that it was “not a concession speech.” But as she later stressed, she doesn’t deny Kemp’s victory — unlike Trump. She echoed that position to ABC News. “What I said in that speech is that I would not concede [to] a system that would not permit voters to be heard,” she said. “I will always acknowledge the victor, but I will never say that there is a system in place that denies access that should be validated.” She added, “For those who do not appreciate nuance, my response is always going to be: Yes, I will acknowledge the victor. I did so in ’18. I will do so in 2022. But in 2022, I intend to be the victor myself.” On Friday, shortly before her interview with ABC News, a federal judge knocked down a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s election practices, ruling in favor of the state. Fair Fight Action, a group founded by Abrams, filed the suit shortly after the 2018 election and as part of the suit called for an overhaul of Georgia’s voting system. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, an Obama-era appointee, wrote in his order that “although Georgia’s election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the [Voting Rights Act of 1965].” Kemp and other Republicans seized on the ruling and accused Abrams of using her group’s challenge to advance her own political interests — a claim Abrams dismissed to ABC News. “This was not a lawsuit about my election,” she said. “This is a lawsuit about voting issues that were exposed by my election but were endemic to the state of Georgia.” If elected governor, Abrams said she would continue to fight to expand voting access and propose changes to the state’s voting laws. Hulu’s “Power Trip,” with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, releases new episodes on Sundays. Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read More Here

High School Football Statistics https://digitalarkansasnews.com/high-school-football-statistics/ RUSHING NAME, SCHOOLATTYDSYPCTD Dennis Gaines, E. Poinsett Co.1241,2189.816 Chris Young, Newport1231,1179.111 Jalen Dupree, Malvern841,0081212 Garrion Curry, Magnolia989709.912 Dede Johnson Jr., Searcy1068558.111 Noah Freeman, Joe T. Robinson6174012.115 Heath Ballance, Glen Rose966747.07 Seth Case, Southside Batesville747279.84 Josh Ficklin, Bentonville1127126.411 Sloan Perrin, Nashville796608.48 Timothy Brown, Blytheville6162810.39 Isaac Gregory, FS Southside836037.267 Walker Ward, Walnut Ridge1045885.78 Kai Watson, Walnut Ridge625869.511 Cedric Hawkins, Stuttgart615779.59 Arthur Alvarez, Clarksville775757.58 Koby Turner, Rivercrest635659.010 Courtland Loudermill, Texarkana675648.45 Keandre Pope, Nettleton1105635.11 Kenny Jordan, Pulaski Academy705618.05 Sheldon Smith, Gurdon635568.84 Jayden Smith, White HallN/A552N/A11 Boogie Carr, Conway665398.27 Travion Dickens, Prescott4152012.79 Jacob Woodfield, Mount Ida765196.84 Kollin Robinson, Episcopal Coll.615058.37 Ronny Anokye, LR Christian1095014.63 Jermaine Dobbins, Mountain Pine3049516.510 Shadarious Plummer, El Dorado644841.68 Jace Baker, Cedarville844745.65 Colton Arnold, Cedarville794726.03 Tyler Givens, Perryville814625.77 Floyd Williams III, Gosnell724596.47 Justin Crutchmer, Lake Hamilton694496.55 Carson Turley, Valley View604447.46 Brock McCoy, Jonesboro514408.62 Camden Brooks, Hoxie864365.14 PASSING NAME, SCHOOLCOMPATTYDSTD Kel Busby, Pulaski Academy1272041,85718 Achillies Ringo, Mills981491,77416 Hunter Houston, Greenwood1411821,62418 Drew Moore, Lincoln871481,58420 Drake Lindsey, Fayetteville951551,47313 Matthew Contreras, Hot Springs831561,45820 Owen Miller, Harding Academy1061291,42918 Donovyn Omolo, Conway951351,41915 Eli Wisdom, Shiloh Christian861321,36518 Wesley McKissack, Vilonia1061771,31710 Donovan Whitten, Arkadelphia771311,19515 Carter Nye, Bentonville781131,17616 Dane Williams, Rogers781051,13113 Carston Poole, Prescott59881,12410 Cole Ketchum, Hackett651101,11413 Tyler Strickland, Searcy831441,06910 Cedric Simmons, Malvern44651,0496 Jake Casey, Bentonville West831341,0458 Walker White, LR Christian791461,02314 Peyton Mills, Cutter-Morning Star58971,0129 Grayson Wilson, CAC861531,00410 Maddox Hampton, Nettleton58891,00113 Bradon Allen, Lonoke62949969 Rhett Hilger, Gravette6511596210 Joseph Patterson, Hope4910392411 Kolin Parker, El Dorado611019099 Zhy’Qkis Jackson, Lafayette Co.651058979 Dae’Marion Savoy, FS Northside558388310 Easton Hurley, Lake Hamilton336286810 Sam Sanders, LR Catholic55928649 Tyler Givens, Perryville54998609 Jordan Walker, Bryant58898469 Martavius Thomas, Camden FV509382711 George Herrell, FS Southside561287915 Jackson Taylor, Hector571007806 RECEIVING NAME, SCHOOLRECYDSTD Grant Karnes, Greenwood5276611 Jaylin McKinney, Pulaski Academy407136 Kaylon Morris, Fayetteville336753 Clayton Weldon, Cutter-Morning Star296407 QJ King, Mills406036 Jack Vines, Vilonia406014 Brycen Hamilton, Hackett295797 Bodie Neal, Shiloh Christian335687 Camron Williams, Gosnell245597 Carter McElhany, Greenbrier255476 DeAndra Burns Jr., El Dorado365457 Jace Birkes, Lincoln185408 Kyle Hoover, Harding Academy385359 Q Thompson, Nettleton285248 Derrick Hicks, Hot Springs255205 Courtney Crutchfield, Pine Bluff165149 Dyelon Caradine, Malvern215013 Caleb Cunningham, Searcy354883 Justin Crutchmer, Lake Hamilton164835 Octavius Rhodes, Hot Springs2446710 Gabriel Holmes, Gravette294646 Curtez Smith, Nettleton274566 Mauri Smith, Fort Smith Northside224468 Aiden Kennon, Greenwood374451 Endy McGalliard, Harding Academy284407 Kellar Price, Lincoln354407 Brooks Ward, LR Catholic184366 Juan Diggs, Fountain Lake154336 John Mark Charette, Pulaski Academy264313 Landon Koch, Harding Academy254274 Guillermo Petty, Dumas324276 Tyler Johnson, Mills174123 Jabrae Shaw, Mills233983 Cade Bowman, Little Rock Christian243946 Damarion Dedner, Lafayette County233835 PJ Henderson, Hector223813 Jaison Delamar, Fayetteville273752 TACKLES NAME, SCHOOLTOT Brody Koch, Subiaco Academy81 Marshon Jordan, White Hall76 Ethan Cruce, Dumas71 Mason Moore, Gosnell70 Ty Hannaford. Mountain Home69 Jace Wooten, Central Arkansas Christian68 Aiden Mchan, White Hall67 Mike Townsley, Batesville65 Izic Clenney, Lake Hamilton64 Charlie Collins, Mills64 Taderian Partee, Gosnell64 Cooper Bahnks, Central Arkansas Christian63 Caleb Sain, Mills63 Lewis Garcia, Searcy63 Ashtyn Williams, Joe T. Robinson63 Cody Amato, Lonoke62 Jaron Adams, Fountain Lake61 Evan Williams, Greenwood61 Peter Waite, Hector60 Isaac Wallis, Southside Batesville60 INTERCEPTIONS NAME, SCHOOLTOT Jabrae Shaw, Mills8 Ra’Shawn Bell, Prescott4 Gabriel Bonner, Joe T. Robinson4 Cayden Rose, Russellville4 Talon Stephen, Harrison4 Patton Whicker, Pulaski Academy4 Camron Williams, Gosnell4 Myles Williams, Nettleton4 SACKS NAME, SCHOOLTOT Derrick Murdock, Mills8 Dayjon Matlock, Mountain Pine6 Taderian Partee, Gosnell6 Jordan Pigram, Nettleton5.5 Brooks Yurachek, Fayetteville5.5 Zion Brown, Greene County Tech5 Brent Casto, Hector5 Robert Dover, Mountain Home5 Jeremiah Jones, Texarkana5 DJ King, Camden Fairview5 Jude Onuoha, LR Parkview5 John Parkinson, Fort Smith Southside5 SCORING OFFENSE SCHOOLGPTSPG Mineral Springs631051.7 Greenwood630550.8 Prescott524949.8 Carlisle524849.6 Gentry524749.4 Mountain Pine524048.0 Shiloh Christian524048.0 Pulaski Academy523947.8 East Poinsett County523847.6 Conway523547.0 Hazen523547.0 SCORING DEFENSE SCHOOLGPTSPG Hazen5204.0 Carlisle5275.4 Blytheville5377.4 Ashdown5448.8 Lavaca5448.8 Mansfield5469.2 Spring Hill6569.3 Brinkley55010.0 Marked Tree55210.4 Mountain View55210.4 Cabot56112.2 NOTE Email statistics and statistical discrepancies to slane@adgnewsroom.com by noon Wednesday. Overall statistics will be published every Thursday. Read More Here

Arkansas Postcard Past https://digitalarkansasnews.com/arkansas-postcard-past-4/ El Dorado, 1921: Dr. Samuel Busey rescued a failed oil-well drilling project with an investment that gave him a 51% stake in the well. El Dorado, 1921: Dr. Samuel Busey rescued a failed oil-well drilling project with an investment that gave him a 51% stake in the well. It paid off, for oil was struck at the site in a cotton patch a mile south of the Union County seat. The well was soon producing 10,000 barrels of crude per day and ignited the area’s oil boom. Arkansas Postcard Past, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, AR 72203 Read More…

She Had An Abortion With Herschel Walker. She Also Had A Child With Him. https://digitalarkansasnews.com/she-had-an-abortion-with-herschel-walker-she-also-had-a-child-with-him/ After a woman revealed that Republican senatorial candidate Herschel Walker had urged her to have an abortion, Walker adamantly denied the story and claimed he had no idea who this woman could be. But there’s a good reason the woman finds that defense highly doubtful: She’s the mother of one of his children. When the woman first told The Daily Beast her story, we agreed not to reveal certain details about her identity over her concerns for safety and privacy. But then Walker categorically denied the story and said he didn’t know who was making this allegation. On Wednesday morning, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade asked Walker whether he had figured out the woman’s identity, based on details in the original report. “Not at all,” Walker replied. “And that’s what I hope everyone can see. It’s sort of like everyone is anonymous, or everyone is leaking, and they want you to confess to something you have no clue about.” Walker then spun the report as an attack from “desperate” Democrats eager to maintain control of the pivotal Senate seat. Instead of being deterred by his now-public hypocrisy, he said he now feels “energized.” “They see me as a big threat, and I know that and I knew it when I got into this race. But they don’t realize that I think they came for the wrong one. They energized me,” Walker said. “They energized me, because I know how they really want to try to keep this seat.” The anonymous woman said that defense sounded ridiculous. “Sure, I was stunned, but I guess it also doesn’t shock me, that maybe there are just so many of us that he truly doesn’t remember,” she said. “But then again, if he really forgot about it, that says something, too.” The woman, a registered Democrat whose years-long relationship with Walker continued after the abortion, told The Daily Beast that her chief concern with revealing her name was because she is the mother of one of Walker’s own children and she wanted to protect her family’s privacy as best she could while also coming forward with the truth. (Walker has publicly acknowledged the child as his own, and the woman proved she is the child’s mother and provided credible evidence of a long-term relationship with Walker.) The Walker campaign declined to comment for this story. But even with the woman remaining anonymous, the story has still rocked Walker’s family in other ways. After Walker denied the report, one of his three sons, conservative social media influencer Christian Walker, released a series of angry statements and videos condemning his dad as a liar, and alleging that the University of Georgia football hero had threatened to murder him and his mother—Walker’s ex-wife. “I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us,” Christian Walker tweeted after the abortion story broke Monday night. “You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence.” The anonymous woman said that while she’s been a “good sport” about the campaign, after Walker’s denial, she could no longer keep this information from the public. “I’ve been very civil thus far. I keep my mouth shut. I don’t cause any trouble. I stay in the background. But I’m also not gonna get run over time and time again,” she said. “That’s crazy.” Walker and his campaign have put out seemingly conflicting messages to battle the story, denying it on one hand as a “lie” while also appealing to themes of religious redemption and forgiveness on the other. On Wednesday, Walker put out a new ad where he discusses overcoming his struggles with mental health “by the grace of God.” But if Walker is seeking redemption for the abortion, that would be a recent shift. He lied about his role in abortions just this year—once in a June interview with The Daily Beast, and later to a Democratic activist posing as a Walker supporter, who caught his denials on video. 1407942028 Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images Asked about the role faith played in Walker’s life, the anonymous woman, who identifies as a Christian herself, said even though Walker often talked about Christianity, he uses it “when it works for him.” She said Walker frequently talked about being a Christian, but never once expressed any misgivings about abortion generally—or any regret about the one that they had. When she got pregnant again years later, the woman says she made a different choice, even though Walker said it still wasn’t “a convenient time” for him. “He didn’t express any regret. He said, ‘relax and recover,’” the woman recalled, alluding to the message on the “get well” card Walker sent her along with the abortion payment. “He seemed pretty pro-choice to me. He was pro-choice, obviously,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anywhere in the Bible where it says ‘Have four kids with four different women while you’re with another woman.’ Or where it praises not being a present parent. Or that an abortion is an OK thing to do when it’s not the right time for you, but a terrible thing for anyone else to do when you are running for Senate. He picks and chooses where it’s convenient for him to use that religious crutch,” she said. The campaign has used the woman’s desire to remain anonymous to raise money, saying in its first fundraising email after the news broke that “Now, they’re using an anonymous source to further slander me.” Asked how she felt about the campaign’s boast that Walker saw record-setting contributions in the hours after he called her a liar, the woman said she hoped they would give the money away. “It would be really nice if when he loses they would turn that money over to someone who needs it,” she said. “Maybe to a mental health organization. It would be really nice of them, instead of taking that and putting it in some other politician’s pockets, they used it to help someone else.” Walker finds his campaign in crisis as election day is a month away. The outcome of the race could tip the balance of the Senate, and polls are tight. Recent surveys taken before the abortion news broke show Walker narrowly trailing his Democratic opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock. But the woman’s allegation has reframed the race and sent Republicans scrambling. According to The Daily Beast’s reporting, after Walker and the woman first conceived a child in 2009, he urged her to have an abortion and then reimbursed her for it. The woman provided a receipt from the clinic showing the date of the procedure, along with a signed personal check Walker had mailed her inside a “get well” card five days later. But many Republican backers and media personalities—including Walker himself—have seized on the woman’s anonymity to dismiss the report. On Tuesday, former National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch called her “one broad” and a “skank.” On the whole, however, the story has clearly had traction. “It’s good to see my story has been so well received,” the woman said, “because I’m telling the truth. I’m not trying to glorify abortion—that’s a very personal choice that everyone has to make for themselves—but I have no shame in it. It is what it is. It’s part of my story, and what makes me who I am today.” The woman continued that she hopes her story makes other people feel less alone, “to maybe find comfort and a sense of dignity.” “You’re not a monster, not a murderer,” she continued. “These are real life decisions that can completely change your life. Making it so black-and-white makes it easy for these old men to say it’s wrong or it’s right, but they’ve never been put in a position where it’s done to their body.” She said it was wrong, however, for Walker to use abortion when it suited him personally and try to deny others the procedure when it suits him politically. “He didn’t accept responsibility for the kid we did have together, and now he isn’t accepting responsibility for the one that we didn’t have. That says so much about how he views the role of women in childbirth, versus his own. And now he wants to take that choice away from other women and couples entirely,” she said. “This was a decision I had to make—twice—about my future and a potential child’s future, and I was able to make it, both times. And Herschel was also able to have a say. The fact he now thinks it’s OK to just take that away,” she said, “I just can’t understand.” Read More Here

Art Notes: Satirist Andy Borowitz Sets Sights On Politics’ Cult Of Ignorant Personality https://digitalarkansasnews.com/art-notes-satirist-andy-borowitz-sets-sights-on-politics-cult-of-ignorant-personality/ During the second half of the Trump years, Andy Borowitz went on a comedy tour called “Make America Not Embarrassing Again.” If this sounds like a partisan enterprise, it kind of was. In his act, Borowitz, the celebrated name behind the satirical Borowitz Report, riffed on how Sarah Palin’s slipshod candidacy for vice president in 2012 prepared the ground for Donald Trump. The tour was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, but it left Borowitz with a deeper curiosity about where the trend of anti-intellectualism and ignorance on the part of America’s top leaders came from. It used to be that presidents had to seem well-informed, and for the most part, they were. Now, not so much. “The frame I came up with was the last 50 years,” Borowitz said in a phone interview Tuesday. The period spans Ronald Reagan’s successful 1966 bid for governor of California and Trump’s win in 2016. The link? Both men were TV hosts who ultimately won the White House. In the 1960s, political handlers figured out that it’s easier to find someone who’s good at TV and teach them just enough to run for office than it is to prepare a person who’s capable of leadership to look good on TV. “We really haven’t looked back since,” Borowitz said. The result of his research is a new book, Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber. The book came out last month, and Borowitz has taken it on the road to New York and Los Angeles before bringing it back to Hanover, where Borowitz has lived since mid-2020. He’ll take the stage at Dartmouth College’s Hopkins Center for the Arts on Tuesday. If Profiles in Ignorance sounds like a partisan enterprise, it isn’t quite. Borowitz finds ignorance among politicians of every stripe (Bill Clinton cultivating his “Bubba” personality, for instance) and in his own habits of mind. But the bulk of the damage done to the American public by a politician’s ignorance — the Iraq War, needless deaths from HIV and coronavirus — has been done by Republicans, he said. The list of those episodes, from the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra affair to Trump’s comment about the “very fine people on both sides” of a white nationalist rally, is mind-boggling. The book is a litany, or a series of them, with one alarming event following another. It’s also a bit of a departure for Borowitz, who has written The Borowitz Report since 2001. Yes, there is much to poke fun at in this epic tale of political cluelessness, but the subject of why so many of our recent presidents and other top leaders have been so knowledge-averse is inherently serious. As a result, writing the book made him more a reporter than a satirist. After the 2016 election, friends told him he had it made, that satire would pour forth. Not so, he said. “It’s so hard to make fun of someone who’s so clownish and absurd,” Borowitz said of the nation’s 45th president. In writing about Reagan’s approach to AIDS and homelessness and George W. Bush’s approach to terrorism, jokes are there for the picking, but not satire. “There’s absolutely nothing funny about a lot of this,” Borowitz said. “It turned out to be a very different book from what I set out to write.” Profiles in Ignorance breaks its 50 years of history into three pieces: Ridicule, when people still mocked ignorant people in politics; Acceptance, when it became normalized; and Celebration, where Trump and his acolytes have brought us. But a conclusion follows, and it is less grim, and more humble, than the grandiose ignorance that precedes it. Borowitz grew up and went to public schools in the Cleveland suburbs, then went to Harvard, so education is important to him, so much so that he thought it would solve the problem of ignorance in politics. “(B)ut there isn’t a ton of evidence that it would result in our electing smarter leaders,” he wrote in his conclusion. “Why? Because our emotional, not-very-rational engagement with politics renders even the best-educated among us capable of voting like dopes. This is true no matter where you sit on the political spectrum.” The antidotes are humility and community, Borowitz said, and living in Hanover while he was writing the book helped him see that. Living in Los Angeles (where he and his first wife created The Fresh Prince of Bel Air in the 1990s), and later in New York, politics tended to be abstract and impersonal, he said. “I think living in Hanover has reformed this view,” he said. Town meetings and smaller-scale government, where people work together to solve problems, offer “our best chance for democracy,” he added. He’s joining the corporate board of the town’s Howe Library later this month, his first foray into town government. While they moved to Hanover from New York during the pandemic, Borowitz and his wife, Olivia Gentile, had the Upper Valley in the back of their mind. Gentile (pronounced jen-tilly) got her start in journalism at the Rutland Herald, working out of its Springfield, Vt., bureau and covering the Upper Valley. The journalism instinct has rubbed off on Borowitz, but he can’t not make jokes. Reality requires laughter. “It’s very depressing,” he said. “But I think one thing that’s really positive for me about being a comedian is that I find telling a joke really cathartic.” Tuesday’s event at the Hopkins Center will mix the serious and the ridiculous. Borowitz will be in conversation with Charles Wheelan, a Dartmouth lecturer who has written some funny books of his own. And Karyn Parsons, who played Hilary Banks on the original Fresh Prince of Bel Air, will be on hand, mainly to read Borowitz’s selection of the 20 choicest quotes from Dan Quayle, the walking malapropism who served as vice president from 1989 to 1993. Borowitz said he sees a glimmer of hope that the political winds are shifting away from ignorance and back to knowledge and competence. Voters in Alaska defeated Sarah Palin in an Aug. 31 special election. “I think that is in part a reflection of Alaskans’ desire not to elect a national joke,” he said, adding that “at least in this one test case, ignorance didn’t win.” For tickets ($25+) to “An Evening With Andy Borowitz” got to hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422. A book-signing event will follow in the Hood Museum’s atrium. God’s Country, the debut feature film from Hanover native Julian Higgins, screens at 7 p.m. Friday in the Hopkins Center’s Spaulding Auditorium. Higgins will be on hand to talk about the film after the screening. Tickets are $10. I’m not going to give out all the details here, because the joy of First Friday is to just go and be pleasantly surprised. OK, a few details: Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, in the Tip Top Media Arts Building on North Main Street, is hosting “Multiple Avenues: Artists Explore Printmaking,” a faculty show, through October. A reception is planned for 5 to 7 Friday evening. And Kishka Gallery, on Gates Street, will hold a reception for artist Edie Fake, in collaboration with the Center for Cartoon Studies. In between those two places, don’t forget to stop at Scavenger and Long River galleries, and at the Main Street Museum, where the player piano will be making music. FLAME The Band, an Upstate New York ensemble, plays at 4 p.m. Sunday at Lebanon Opera House, a benefit show for Visions for Creative Housing Solutions, a local nonprofit. The band itself has a story to tell: Its members have developmental and physical disabilities. They have earned an international following for demonstrating that anyone so moved can rock out. Tickets are free, but registration is required through lebanonoperahouse.org or at 603-448-0400. A $5 to $10 donation at the door, by cash or check, for the housing group, would be welcome. Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207. Read More Here