Most Registered US Voters Say Trump Shouldnt Be Allowed To Serve A Second Term Says New Poll Other Media News Tasnim News Agency
Most Registered US Voters Say Trump Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Serve A Second Term, Says New Poll – Other Media News – Tasnim News Agency https://digitalarkansasnews.com/most-registered-us-voters-say-trump-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-serve-a-second-term-says-new-poll-other-media-news-tasnim-news-agency/
With several investigations into Trump’s conduct ramping up, 51 percent of registered voters say that the allegations of wrongdoing are enough to preclude the former president from launching another campaign, The Hill reported.
In comparison, just 35 percent of respondents believe that he should be able to run again.
The poll was conducted immediately after New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a sweeping $250 million lawsuit against Trump, his family business and three of his children, alleging that they used false financial statements to mislead investors.
That lawsuit was only the latest in a series of mounting legal threats for Trump, who has openly floated the possibility of running for the White House in 2024.
He’s also facing a federal investigation into his removal of sensitive documents from the White House, as well as a criminal investigation in Georgia focusing on his and his allies’ attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.
The latest Yahoo News-YouGov poll suggests that Trump’s legal challenges may be catching up to him politically — even if he hasn’t been formally charged or convicted of a crime.
Still, there’s some evidence that he remains a potent political force.
The poll found that, in a hypothetical 2024 matchup against President Biden, Trump trails by only 2 percentage points. That’s down from a 6-point lead for Biden in a previous Yahoo News-YouGov poll.
But in another sign of potential weakness for Trump, fewer than half of Republican and GOP-leaning voters say they support him for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, while 36 percent say they will back somebody else for the party’s nod. Seventeen percent are unsure.
That could suggest that GOP voters may be beginning to look past the former president as they consider who is best suited to take on Biden or another Democrat in 2024.
The Yahoo News-YouGov poll surveyed 1,566 registered voters nationwide from Sept. 23-27. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
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Opinion: Joe Biden Is Becoming A Quasi-Lame Duck Rich Lowry | Prescott ENews
Opinion: Joe Biden Is Becoming A Quasi-Lame Duck – Rich Lowry | Prescott ENews https://digitalarkansasnews.com/opinion-joe-biden-is-becoming-a-quasi-lame-duck-rich-lowry-prescott-enews/
Joe Biden’s highly touted political comeback is failing to live up to the hype.
He’s up from his midsummer trough of an approval rating that averaged below 40%, but he’s still at about 42%. This represents a shift from the cataclysmic to the merely dismal.
The over-optimistic takes early in Biden’s presidency were that he could be another FDR or LBJ. The over-optimistic takes from this past summer were that maybe he’s pretty good at this.
The reality is that he is persistently unpopular and an enormous drag on his party, with little obvious upside potential before he may have to declare that he’s not running again a year or so from now.
After winning the presidency by default in 2020 as the one major-party presidential candidate who wasn’t Donald Trump, he could prove a parentheses in political history between Trump presidential terms or the brief, forgettable bridge to much-younger, more contemporary Democrats like Kamala Harris or Pete Buttigieg.
He was dealt a weak hand on the economy — any president elected in 2020 would have had to cope with price pressures and supply-chain disruptions — but he has played it badly.
His strategy on inflation has been hoping that it goes away, and, as they say, hope is not a strategy. If he’d been lucky, inflation would have dropped and he could have attributed the favorable trend to the Inflation Reduction Act, even though it’s not by any reasonable metric a genuine anti-inflation measure.
In fact, there’s nothing about it — except the title — that’s any different than if inflation were 2 percent.
Biden could have credited inflation worries early on and scaled back the spending in his initial COVID relief bill. He could have acknowledged the reality of inflation once it was undeniable and adjusted his further spending ambitions accordingly. He could have adopted a bipartisan agenda to stoke the supply side of the economy by deregulating, lifting tariffs and encouraging energy production.
He did none of the above. He contended inflation was transitory until he couldn’t anymore, and prematurely declared we’d turned a corner when we hadn’t.
Now, the Federal Reserve has no alternative but to stomp the brakes on the demand side of the economy, risking a recession that, of course, Biden officials insist isn’t coming.
For a while, it seemed the issue of abortion might fundamentally change the trajectory of the race, but it is proving a second-tier issue, and Biden has understandably been doing all he can to elevate Trump. The Republican looms large for a former president, yet he isn’t on the ballot himself and even he, with all his ability to dominate the stage, can’t overshadow the economy.
For his part, Biden simply isn’t a dominant figure. He’s not bonding anyone to him with his Obama-like charisma. He’s not impressing anyone with his boundless Teddy Roosevelt-like energy. He’s not winning over fence-sitters with his Clinton-like triangulation. He’s not taking the edge off of the opposition to him with his Reagan-like humor.
He’s pretty much a straight partisan Democratic president with no particularly notable talents or appeal, dealing with a enormously challenging political environment at a time in his life when no one would blame him if he were happily retired in Ron Desantis’ Florida.
Biden is fast approaching quasi-lame duck status, an extraordinary fact for a first-term president who has been insistent that he’s running again.
Everyone knows that he’s about to turn 80, and can see it reflected in how he performs. The ABC News-Washington Post poll found that only 35% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents — all of whom presumably have nothing against him and wish him well — want Biden to run for a second term.
Whatever attempts there might be to puff Biden up in the press, these voters clearly have no unrealistic expectations.
(Rich Lowry is on Twitter @RichLowry)
(c) 2022 by King Features Syndicate
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Ukraine Troops Approach City That Lies In A Region Putin Illegally Annexed
Ukraine Troops Approach City That Lies In A Region Putin Illegally Annexed https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ukraine-troops-approach-city-that-lies-in-a-region-putin-illegally-annexed/
Image
Ukrainian soldiers near the city of Lyman in the eastern Donetsk region. The Ukrainian administrative leader of Donetsk said on Friday that the city was “half encircled.”Credit…Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Even as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia illegally moved to gobble up sovereign land in four territories of Ukraine on Friday, Ukrainian forces appeared to be edging closer to encircling Lyman, a strategic rail hub in the country’s east that lies within the territory Mr. Putin is claiming.
Denis Pushilin, the leader of Russia’s proxy administration in the Donetsk People’s Republic, where Lyman is located, said on Friday that the town was “half encircled.”
“This is very unpleasant news, but we must look soberly at the situation and draw conclusions from our mistakes,” he said. Mr. Pushilin also said on Telegram that Russia had lost control of Yampil and Dobryshev, villages north and east of Lyman.
The advance of Ukrainian forces in disregard of Mr. Putin’s attempt to redraw the map of Ukraine underscored the huge challenges he faces to solidify Russia’s control over Russian-occupied territory. It also appeared to illustrate that for all of Mr. Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling, Ukraine remained unbowed and that the fronts in the war had not altered.
The Ukrainian military has closed in on Lyman from the west and south, aiming to envelop the city and cut off the remaining Russian troops, according to the Institute for the Study of War, an American analytical group. The routes out of Lyman appear to be controlled by Ukraine or within its artillery range, complicating a potential Russian withdrawal.
Control of Lyman is seen as a test of whether Ukraine can build on military gains made in recent weeks, but the exact status of the battle was not immediately clear. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, said on Telegram that Russian forces “will have to ask for an exit” from Lyman.
Donetsk Province, where Russia holds significant territory, is one of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia is illegally annexing after staged referendums in recent days that Ukraine and Western governments have denounced as fraudulent. On Friday, Mr. Putin signed decrees to declare the four regions part of Russia.
Fighting for Lyman, which is in the northern part of Donetsk Province, has intensified over the past few weeks after Ukraine made a series of gains during a rapid counteroffensive in Kharkiv Province in the country’s northeast.
If Ukraine were to recapture Lyman, it would not only increase its chances of regaining more land in Luhansk and Donetsk, but also put additional pressure on the Kremlin as it has been facing blowback at home over its conscription of hundreds of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine.
Mr. Putin’s war of words against Ukraine and the West escalated on Friday, when he criticized the United States for “Satanism.”
Even by Mr. Putin’s increasingly antagonistic standards, the speech he gave in announcing the annexation of the Ukrainian regions was an extraordinary combination of bluster and menace. He mixed conspiratorial riffs against an American-led “neocolonial system” with an appeal to the world to see Russia as the leader of an uprising against American power.
He referred to “the ruling circles of the so-called West” as “the enemy.” And he again raised the specter of nuclear weapons, which the Kremlin has made veiled threats about using, noting in a cryptic aside that the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan in 1945 had “created a precedent.”
Marco Hernandez and Josh Holder contributed reporting.
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Residents casting their votes in a referendum on Sunday in Donetsk, a province of eastern Ukraine that Russia has claimed as part of its territory.Credit…Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
WASHINGTON — President Biden condemned Russia’s claimed annexation of captured Ukrainian territory on Friday, responding to Moscow’s latest escalation with a range of sanctions and a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin that the United States would defend “every single inch” of NATO territory from a potential attack.
Hours after Mr. Putin gave a speech asserting Russian control over four eastern Ukrainian regions, Mr. Biden called the action a “fraudulent” violation of international law that showed “contempt for peaceful nations everywhere.”
“The United States is never going to recognize this, and quite frankly the world is not going to recognize it either,” Mr. Biden said from the White House. “He can’t seize his neighbor’s territory and get away with it. It is as simple as that.”
World leaders rallied around Mr. Biden in a forceful collective denunciation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Emmanuel Macron of France said Russia had committed a “serious violation of international law and Ukrainian sovereignty” and vowed on Twitter to help Ukraine “recover its full sovereignty over its entire territory.”
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, called Mr. Putin’s move “an illegal and illegitimate land grab” and pledged to continue assisting Ukraine until it defeated the aggressor.
Even among Russia’s traditional allies, no country stepped forward to recognize the annexation. Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, issued a statement before Mr. Putin’s speech calling for “respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and the noninterference in the internal affairs of other states.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine responded to Russia’s claims by announcing that he was fast-tracking his country’s application to NATO. In a video, he accused the Kremlin of trying to “steal something that does not belong to it.”
“Ukraine will not allow that,” he said.
But Mr. Zelensky’s request to join the alliance drew a less resounding response.
“Right now, our view is that the best way for us to support Ukraine is through practical, on-the-ground support in Ukraine,” said Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser.
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The leaks from the Nord Stream undersea pipelines, hit by explosions in recent days, could be among the largest-ever human-caused releases of planet-warming methane gas into the atmosphere, scientists say — equal to the size of a whole year’s emissions from a city the size of Paris, or a country like Denmark.
Now, researchers at the Integrated Carbon Observation System, a Europe-wide research network that runs air monitoring stations across the continent have taken readings of methane gas from the leaks and combined them with weather and other atmospheric patterns to model the path of the plume. The gas curled its way north over the Baltic Sea to the Finnish archipelago before swinging west toward Sweden and Norway and reaching the British Isles.
The researchers say that the modeling is preliminary; it shows the emissions ending, for example, though methane continues to surge from the damaged pipelines, causing a mass of bubbles on the water’s surface. And estimating an exact reading of the amount of methane released is still tricky, said Alex Vermeulen, an atmospheric scientist who heads the European network’s carbon monitoring effort.
There was no direct safety or health risk to regions directly below the methane plume, Dr. Vermeulen said. Concentrations of methane at that point in time after the explosions would be far below levels where the gas would be explosive, or pose direct health hazards.
Still, the ground-based observations from measuring stations in Scandinavia and in the United Kingdom were proving valuable in tracking the release, especially because satellites, blocked by cloudy weather in the region, have struggled to get a clear picture of the leaks. GHGSat, a company that uses satellites to measure greenhouse gas emissions from space, said Friday that one of the leaks was releasing 23 tons of methane an hour — the equivalent of burning 630,000 tons of coal every hour.
Even a leak of this magnitude is just a fraction of overall global emissions. But methane is a particularly potent if short-lived greenhouse gas, warming the atmosphere about 30 times more than carbon dioxide over a period of 100 years, helping to worsen climate change. Just Thursday, scientists said that the oil and gas industry was likely releasing more methane into the atmosphere than previously estimated.
“All these leaks together, we have gas going into the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate,” Dr. Vermeulen said. “That’s a big concern.”
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Kadri Simson, the European commissioner for energy, and Deputy Prime Minister Jozef Sikela of the Czech Republic at a news conference after a European Union Energy Ministers meeting on high energy prices, in Brussels, on Friday.Credit…Yves Herman/Reuters
BRUSSELS — Energy ministers in the European Union agreed on Friday to tax the profits of energy companies as part of a set of emergency measures aimed at softening the impact of soaring energy prices on businesses and consumers.
Europe’s energy crisis, aggravated by Russia’s periodically cutting off parts of the bloc’s energy supply to punish it for supporting Ukraine, has led to historically high heating and electricity bills in the 27-member bloc.
Last month, tens of thousands of Europeans took to the streets in at least four countries — the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Belgium — to protest against spiraling energy prices and record inflation. With winter approaching, governments have been under mounting pressure to shield Europeans from blackouts and bankruptcy, while at the same time ensuring a continued energy flow from alternative suppliers.
The measures approved by the bloc’s energy ministers focused on taxing energy-company profits — the proceeds of which would be used to fund subsidies for struggling...
The Latest Kissinger: Leadership And The Eavesdropping On History
The Latest Kissinger: Leadership And The Eavesdropping On History https://digitalarkansasnews.com/the-latest-kissinger-leadership-and-the-eavesdropping-on-history/
“What is the good of passing from one untenable position to another, of seeking justification always on the same plane?”-Samuel Beckett, Endgame
The Adversarial Chessboard
In response to the growing aggressiveness of its North Korean nuclear adversary, the United States needs to fashion its pertinent policy positions on comprehensive analytic foundations. More precisely, Kim Jung Un’s latest threats[1] to consider a full-scale nuclear retaliation for variously tangible American acts against leadership figures in Pyongyang (1) will have to be assessed in prudent detail and (2) will need to include multiple scenarios of US policy reaction. Among other things, these specific narratives will need to focus on assorted strategic, doctrinal and legal criteria of assessment.[2] Though the US is evidently “more powerful” than North Korea, any actual nuclear exchange between these two countries would assuredly prove catastrophic for both.[3] This is likely to be the case even in the absence of alliance partner interventions rendered on behalf of North Korea.
There will be relevant particulars, many of them bewildering and intersecting. Details will be critical. Immediately, the American president and his counselors will have to determine the plausible contours of Kim Jung Un’s expected rationality.To the extent that the North Korean leader would appear convincingly irrational (i.e., actually willing to resort to his recently-threatened first use of nuclear weapons), the usual and essential premises of stable deterrence would no longer obtain.
There would also arise complementary issues concerning North Korea’s self-reaffirmed right of nuclear preemption. In proper jurisprudential terms, Kim would seek to justify this alleged right of defensive “first use” as a legitimate expression of “anticipatory self-defense.”[4] At the same time, of course, following any actual first use of nuclear weapons, refined questions of law would promptly become moot.
Kim Jong Un has been expanding and modernizing his country’s already-substantial nuclear arsenals. These expansions and refinements are creating destabilizing ripples in our anarchic world legal system.[5] Whether suddenly or incrementally, certain long-prevailing patterns of global power management could devolve from the “mere” absence of global authority structures to total or near-total world system instability.[6]
Such an authentic chaos would be much worse than “Westphalian” anarchy.
Meanings of Atomic Chaos vis-a-vis North Korea
In January 2021, after describing the United States as “our biggest enemy,” the North Korean dictator called for more advanced national nuclear weapons and infrastructures. At that moment, Kim summarized his country’s basic strategic posture succinctly and ominously: “Our foreign political activities should be focused and redirected on subduing the United States, our biggest enemy. No matter who is in power in the US, the true nature of the US and its fundamental policies towards North Korea never change.”
“Subduing the United States….” For Pyongyang, the only “true nature” of specifically American significance lies in Kim’s worrisome assessment of White House intentions. Accordingly, it is high time to inquire:
Going forward, what expressly tangible nuclear threats from North Korea will face US President Joe Biden?
What intangible or “opaque” nuclear threats should America’s decision-makers now take into careful and increasing account?
What should the United States do in response to both intersecting forms of nuclear threat?
Despite their simple declarative style, these questions entail near-staggering complexity. Among other things, pertinent threats to the United States from Pyongyang are now both direct and indirect.[7] Today, at a critical tipping point in American strategic planning, these risks have become conspicuously grave, many-sided and potentially even existential.[8]
A compelling query arises: What should and should not be done about North Korean nuclear threats?
For the US president, growing nuclear uncertainties with North Korea represent hazards of palpable urgency. What exactly shall be required of his relevant planners in dealing with such urgent strategic matters? As a start, Jo Biden will need to acknowledge something that was never properly understood by his predecessor. After all, Donald J. Trump promised the American people that he had taken care of the North Korea nuclear problem by “falling in love” with Kim Jung Un. And this after calling for the use of American nuclear weapons against hurricanes.
Prima facie, it was an ill-fated “romance.” The dissembling former president never understood that national security and war preparedness must be science-grounded and theory-based.[9] Always, he could never acknowledge, it must receive the dialectical imprimatur[10] of “mind over mind.”[11]
Overall, regarding North Korean nuclear developments and threats, the United States is already in its “eleventh hour.” Any foreseeable elevations of US strategic thought would need to be based upon an ever-greater American appreciation of relevant complexities, politicalandmilitary. These persistently intersecting complexities would likely include multiple “synergies.”
What would all this imply? To begin, in synergistic intersections,[12] the “whole” of any particular outcome mustbe greater than the sum of its “parts.” Further, in such challenging analytic matters, US policy-making must always be kept suitably distant from any distracting considerations founded upon wishful thinking. Recall, in this connection, Greek historian Thucydides’ summary assessment of the Peloponnesian War: “Hope is by nature an expensive commodity, and those who are risking their all on one cast find out what it means only when they are already ruined….[13]
Though several millennia old, this ancient warning remains timely and valid.
Contests of “Mind Over Mind”
For the White House and Pentagon, serious analytic methods will be necessary. As corollary, history will deserve a more conspicuous pride of place. The ancient Greeks regarded war and war-planning not as a purely personal or ad hoc activity, but as a daunting contest of “mind over mind.” Anticipating the later writings of Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz (On War, 1832), these thinkers seemingly based their tactical and operational policies upon a body of dialectical “conversations.” At that earlier stage, the primary and preeminent battlefield would have had to be conceptualized before the onset of any actual troop movements or military engagements.
Correspondingly, any foreseeable victories in such engagements would have had to follow a mind-based articulation of strategic doctrine.[14]
In such many-layered strategic matters, comprehensive theory must remain necessary. Always, the interrelated geo-political world, like the myriad human beings who comprise it, must be regarded as a system.[15] Among the most serious lessons of this metaphor, is this: Any more-or-less major conventional conflict in northeast Asia could heighten the prospect of destabilizing international conflicts elsewhere. This is the case, moreover, whether derivative consequences would occur immediately or in expectedly assorted increments.
At some point, and among other possibilities, these prospects could include a regional nuclear war. Such fearsome conclusions could be enlarged by misguided American searches for a no-longer credible strategic outcome. A clear example of such a gravely mistaken search would be one that is directed toward some allegedly decipherable forms of “victory.”
There are good reasons for offering such a paradoxical warning. A non-traditional observation about “victory” is persuasive, at least in part, because the core meanings of victory and defeat have been changing steadily over time. These are no longer the same meanings as those offered earlier by Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz’ classic On War (1832).
There is still more to be considered. In most identifiable wars between nation-states, there no longer obtain any confirmable criteria of demarcation between victory and defeat. Even a so-called “victory” on some recognizable field of battle might not in any meaningfully-calculable way reduce security threats to the United States. Such threats, whether foreseen or unforeseen, could include sub-state aggressions (terrorism) and/or widening attacks upon regional and/or non-regional US allies.
Always, for policy planners and strategists, the broad arena of world politics must be understood not only as a system , but also as an anarchic system,[16] a “state of nature” in classical philosophic terms.[17]
There is still time for refined conceptual thought. Once acknowledged as a distinct foreign-policy objective, any declared US search for “victory” over North Korea would only exacerbate America’s strategic risks without enhancing its prospective gains. Such a patently meaningless declaration could create corrosively lethal escalatory dynamics with Pyongyang, ones from which Washington could no longer expect any palpable military advantages. Moreover, this injurious creation could take place in unanticipated increments or suddenly, as an unexpected or “bolt-from-the-blue” enemy attack.[18]
In the foreseeable worst case, any unwitting US forfeiture of “escalation dominance” could signify irreversible American losses. These losses include chaotic conditions that could create (a) tens or even hundreds of thousands of prompt ...
Brazil Kit Becomes Key Issue In Bolsonaro https://digitalarkansasnews.com/brazil-kit-becomes-key-issue-in-bolsonaro/
Brazilians will vote tomorrow with supporters of the incumbent president accused of co-opting famous shirts and making it a symbol of far-right politics
(
Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Brazilians head to the polls tomorrow for the opening round of a polarising presidential election in which left wing candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, is expected to secure a victory over the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
But football, the South American country’s greatest passion, finds itself locked in the middle of a divisive campaign with the national team’s iconic yellow jersey at the heart of it and flashiest player Neymar backing far-right Bolsonaro in a TikTok video on Thursday.
The Paris Saint-Germain forward’s post, featuring a dance to a Bolsonaro jingle, arrived 24 hours after the current president visited a charitable institute near Sao Paulo belonging to the footballer.
Neymar was widely criticised online for his support but doubled down with a response on Friday afternoon. “They talk about democracy and a lot of things, but when someone has a different opinion he is attacked by the very people who talk about democracy,” he said. “Go figure.”
But the divisive debate around the meaning of the famous yellow shirt is even more significant with Bolsonaro’s supporters accused of co-opting it as a symbol of far-right nationalism.
Jair Bolsonaro presents Donald Trump with a Brazil shirt in Washington in 2019. (
Image:
Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images)
“Football is something iconic for Brazil, it is what brings everybody together most of the time,” a 25-year-old named Isabela Guedes told Al Jazeera about the fight for the shirt’s identity.
“When they [right-wing supporters] take something so meaningful for the country and use it with political intentions, it is like they are stealing it from us. I don’t feel comfortable hanging a flag on my window during the World Cup because I will be mistaken for people with completely different political views. They have taken the flag and yellow jersey and turned them into political symbols.”
When the Selecao’s new shirt for November’s World Cup was released, sales were below what would normally be expected but the blue away strip sold out.
Some football fans have said they feared going to buy the new strip because they do not want to appear associated with Bolsonaro but his backers claim they are also concerned about wearing the kit – because of a supposed fear of violence from Lula’s supporters.
Bolsonaro has long used football as a campaigning tool. A Palmeiras fan, he has regularly appeared at stadiums and gifted a Brazil kit to US president Donald Trump during a visit to Washington DC in 2019.
Critics fear Bolsonaro could take a similar approach to Trump if he loses the election by making baseless fraud claims. His supporters last year trying to occupy the Supreme Court in a move inspired by the 2021 assault on the US Capitol. He was also one of the last world leaders to recognise Joe Biden as the new American president.
Several other footballers have publicly backed Bolsonaro in the past, including Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker.
“We have lived years where the left-wing has economically sunk the country,” Alisson said in 2020. “They did good things, they mainly helped the poorest, but what was the goal? What they did badly was much more serious than the positive things.
“You don’t have to put it on a scale. He did something wrong, he stole, but he helped so-and-so, the poor. It’s not like this.
“I see people who didn’t vote for Bolsonaro hoping he does something wrong to be right. It’s not a question of being right. If he’s a good president, it will be good for everyone, even those who didn’t vote for him.”
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Little Rock Catholic Defense Pitches Shutout In Second Half To Get Past West Memphis
Little Rock Catholic Defense Pitches Shutout In Second Half To Get Past West Memphis https://digitalarkansasnews.com/little-rock-catholic-defense-pitches-shutout-in-second-half-to-get-past-west-memphis/
By Jeff Halpern | Photos by Tommy Land
LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock Catholic Rockets pitched a shutout in the second half in a 37-16 victory over West Memphis.
The ninth-ranked Rockets (5-0, 4-0 6A-East Conference) outscored the Blue Devils (4-1, 3-1) 23-0 by holding West Memphis to 2 first downs and 1 total yard in offense and recovered a fumble. (West Memphis lost 31 yards when a bad snap on punt resulted in a safety). On offense, the Rockets scored on three of their four possessions and had nine of their 20 first downs in the second half.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of adjustments,” said Catholic head coach John Fogleman. “We did some things we hadn’t planned on like the quarterback runs on the opening drive.”
West Memphis head coach Robert Hooks said, “They came out and got after us. We missed a lot of tackles, and we turned the ball over and once they got on top of us, we started to get our heads down.”
Trailing 16-14 at halftime, the Rockets opened the second half with a 12-play, 77-yard drive that saw quarterback Sam Sanders handle the ball for eight plays (3-of-4 passes for 18 yards and 4 rushes for 26 yards), which ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Dominic Keeton on a swing pass at the 6:19 mark. Will Aaron’s extra point was good and the Rockets were up 21-16.
For the game, Sanders had 74 yards rushing and scored 2 touchdowns. He completed 10-of-17 passes for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“Sam’s a baller,” said Fogleman. “He’s a competitor. He doesn’t like to lose. He does a good job leading.”
After both teams exchanged punts, West Memphis’ Jarrell Shephard fumbled on an end around and Cole Eichler recovered at the Rockets’ 32-yard line with 1:23 left in the third quarter. Nine plays later, with the ball on the West Memphis 3, Sanders took the snap, started to his left and cut back for a touchdown with 7:10 left in the game. Aaron’s extra point made it 28-16.
Four plays later with West Memphis lining up to punt from its 31, a bad snap forced Shephard to chase the ball into the end zone where he tossed it out of the end zone for a safety making it 30-16 with 4:56 to play.
The Rockets kept the ball for nine plays before Sanders threw a 28-yard strike to Brooks Ward with 55 seconds left on third and 12 to ice the game. Aaron’s kick made it 37-16.
For the game, Catholic had 323 yards in total offense. Ward caught 4 passes for 103 yards and 2 touchdowns. West Memphis had 226 yards was led by Keland Mills, who had 68 yards rushing on 15 carries and completed 6-of-20 passes for 121 yards. Dylan Greer caught 2 passes for 90 yards including a 40-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.
“He wasn’t quite as comfortable,” said Fogleman on his team’s defensive effort against Mills in the second half. “In the first half, he got to sit back there and make those throws.”
West Memphis opened with a 3-0 lead at the 8:01 mark of the first quarter when Edgar Gudino made a 28-yards field goal.
After both teams punted, Sanders connected on a 21-yards pass to Ward at the 2:58 mark of the first quarter to put the Rockets’ ahead 7-3 after Aaron made the extra point.
After a West Memphis punt, Sanders scored from a yard out at the end of the quarter. Aaron’s kick was good and the Rockets were up 14-3.
West Memphis closed to 14-10 on a 40-yard pass from Mills to Greer at the 9:27 mark and Gudino’s kick.
Gudino added field goals of 31 and 30 yards to put the Blue Devils ahead 16-14 at halftime.
Hooks was less than thrilled with what he saw in the second half.
“I’m very disappointed because we looked like losers in the second half with a lot of bickering and guys trying to do other people’s jobs instead of their own,” said Hooks. “It’s one thing to lose but we didn’t lose the right way.”
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Michigan Women Fight To Preserve Abortion 1 Chat At A Time
Michigan Women Fight To Preserve Abortion, 1 Chat At A Time https://digitalarkansasnews.com/michigan-women-fight-to-preserve-abortion-1-chat-at-a-time/
Published Friday, Sept. 30, 2022 | 9:48 p.m.
Updated 0 minutes ago
UTICA, Mich. (AP) — At a wine bar in suburban Detroit, about a dozen women strategized about how to preserve the right to abortion in their state.
This was not a typical political event; there were no microphones, no literature to hand out and few who would consider themselves activists. Among them was a mother of four whose only previous political experience was pushing for later school start times, a busy medical student and a retired teacher who, at 75, has never felt comfortable knocking on doors or cold calling for a candidate.
“But I feel strongly about abortion,” said Mary Ann Messano-Gadula. “Women should be able to take care of their own bodies.”
Messano-Gadula, who attended the late September “Vino the Vote” event with two friends, described herself as the most shy of the bunch. But she said she planned to do what organizers asked of attendees — post some Facebook messages and text some friends to try to get them to support an amendment to the state constitution guaranteeing abortion rights.
“I’m going to give it a shot,” she said.
Across Michigan this year, similar, more intimate events are playing out alongside the larger, traditional get-out-the-vote efforts, with major stakes for both abortion rights and the candidates — mostly Democrats — who support them.
Michigan is one of a handful of places where abortion rights will be on the ballot in November, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June and left the issue to states to decide. A ban approved in 1931 was suspended, then struck down by state court rulings, but it is no guarantee that the procedure won’t one day be outlawed.
That has mobilized people in Michigan, as it has done in previous elections this cycle, including in Kansas and New York. And it could have major implications beyond the state.
Michigan is one of the country’s most competitive presidential battlegrounds. It was also among the states where former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, falsely claiming the election was stolen. Voters this fall also will decide statewide offices, including governor and secretary of state, who will be in place for the 2024 election.
The race for governor already has centered around abortion. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer filed a lawsuit prior to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling seeking to overturn the 1931 ban and said she “will continue using every tool in my toolbox to fight like hell for women and health care providers.” Republican Tudor Dixon, who opposes abortion except to save the life of the mother, has criticized Whitmer for supporting abortion without limits, and suggested voters who support the constitutional amendment could vote in favor of it and still support her campaign for governor.
The issue already has generated intense interest among voters and pushback from Republicans and abortion opponents. Reproductive Freedom for All, the coalition supporting the abortion-rights amendment, collected over 750,000 signatures on petitions to put the question on the ballot — more than any other ballot initiative in Michigan history.
Opponents turned out in force for a meeting of the Board of State Canvassers, the once-staid panel that decides what questions and candidates qualify for the ballot. With anti-abortion protesters outside the building audible inside the hearing room, the board split along party lines, with two Republicans voting no and two Democrats voting yes. That meant the measure didn’t qualify for the ballot, but Reproductive Freedom for All appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, where justices — a majority of whom were appointed by Democrats — ordered it be put on.
Red, Wine & Blue, the organization that held the wine bar gathering, is among the members of the RFFA coalition in Michigan. Their strategy is to ask suburban women — a key swing demographic in recent elections — to reach out to and talk with friends, family members and other acquaintances and ask them to vote.
The model, known as relational organizing, was used successfully by candidates such as Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who won a runoff election to help Democrats win control of the U.S. Senate, and Pete Buttigieg, who went from little-known mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to a top candidate for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
Greta Carnes, who led the effort for Buttigieg’s campaign, said it is particularly effective in turning out suburban women and on the often sensitive and personal issue of abortion. The approach is also more efficient and effective, because people can contact dozens of people in a matter of minutes via text, and a voter receiving a message from someone they know is more likely to read and consider, rather than delete it.
“Especially on an issue like abortion, we can’t just have activists” knocking on doors, Carnes said.
Lakshmi Vadlamudi, a medical student from Franklin, Michigan, saw firsthand the power of using her personal network when she helped gather signatures to put the abortion question on the ballot this summer. She told a few friends she would be in a parking lot one day collecting signatures, and word spread like wildfire, she said.
Vadlamudi started getting text messages from people wanting her to come to their house so they could sign. Her Indian “aunties” — women with whom she is close but not related — wanted to circulate their own petitions. Some had family members in the medical profession and feared legal repercussions of performing an abortion if the 1931 ban takes effect, while others worried for their daughters or granddaughters. They ended up with 20 filled petitions.
“We got as many as we could get our hands on,” Vadlamudi recalled. “People kept asking,” she said, and interest in the issue hasn’t stopped.
Red, Wine & Blue’s Michigan group is aiming to reach 157,000 voters in the state through these “relational” contacts, according to Katie Paris, the organization’s national director. The group’s leader in Michigan, Kelly Dillaha, said they are recruiting 5,000 women to contact their networks and report back to the group on their progress via an app.
Kathy Nitz, a mother of four from Rochester Hills, started working with Red, Wine & Blue after volunteering at her kids’ schools, leading the PTA and spearheading an effort to start schools later in the morning. Those issues always felt like “safe” topics, she said. Talking about abortion, on the other hand, was a bit like saying the word “Voldemort” — the name that characters in the “Harry Potter” books fear would bring great danger if uttered.
But Nitz has grown more comfortable with the topic, even discussing the nuances with her very Catholic and anti-abortion mother. And she believes these small conversations among women like herself could add up.
“What I’ve come to realize as a suburban woman and mother myself is that we’re undervalued. We are underappreciated and under estimated, but we’re also strong,” Nitz said. “We build communities, we make networks. That’s what we’ve always done.”
___
Associated Press reporters Aaron Kessler in Washington and Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
___
For AP’s full coverage of abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics
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Bill Maher Defends Biden From Complaints Of His Age Following 'Where's Jackie?' Gaffe
Bill Maher Defends Biden From Complaints Of His Age Following 'Where's Jackie?' Gaffe https://digitalarkansasnews.com/bill-maher-defends-biden-from-complaints-of-his-age-following-wheres-jackie-gaffe/
“Real Time” host Bill Maher went to bat for President Biden following his latest gaffe involving him calling out for a deceased congresswoman at a White House event this week.
At Wednesday’s Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, Biden seemingly searched the crowd for Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind.
“Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? She must not be here,” Biden looked around before continuing his speech.
Walorski died in a car accident in early August along with two staffers, which Biden himself acknowledged in a statement released after her passing. She had been a legislative champion of a bipartisan bill that tackles nutrition and hunger. A video tribute honoring her memory played at the event.
BILL MAHER SUGGESTS BIDEN BUMPS KAMALA HARRIS FROM DEM TICKET IN 2024: ‘I JUST THINK SHE’S A BAD POLITICIAN’
US President Joe Biden speaks at the White House Conference On Hunger, Nutrition And Health in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. (Yuri Gripas/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
During Friday’s monologue, Maher said Republicans “lost their s—” over the gaffe, “the kind he’s made for 50 years.”
“There’s 535 members of Congress, OK?… I’m not saying it was a great moment. Again, 535 members. He forgot she was dead. The last guy forgot we were a democracy! Can we have a little perspective?” Maher excused Biden before railing former President Donald Trump for one of his memorable gaffes.
‘WHERE’S JACKIE?’ BIDEN’S LATEST GAFFE IGNORED ON-AIR BY CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC
Later during the panel discussion, Maher clashed with one of his guests, The Atlantic staff writer Caitlin Flanagan, who suggested Biden shouldn’t seek re-election in 2024 because he’s “super old.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being old, there’s no shame to it… but there are natural processes that happen and it certainly seems like he’s losing his acuity, which a lot of older men do,” Flanagan said.
“I’m so disappointed that you, like me, not so young, would say this. It’s such bulls—,” Maher reacted.
“Real Time” host Bill Maher pushed back at the notion that President Biden is too old to seek reelection, calling the argument “bulls—.” (HBO)
“First of all, the same week that he did this, Kamala Harris was over in Korea saying ‘our longtime ally North Korea,’” Maher continued.
“Again, the bar is low,” Flanagan stressed. “But I’m just saying that he is — nobody is wrong to say — “
“He’s the same guy. He was always a gaffe machine,” Maher pushed back. “He’s actually more disciplined than he used to be.”
BILL MAHER TORN ON BIDEN’S ANTI-MAGA SPEECH: I LIKE THAT HE GAVE IT, ‘BUT THE WAY HE DID IT? NOT GOOD’
CNN contributor Van Jones chimed in, saying, “When Biden’s strong, he’s very strong. And when he’s weak, he’s very weak,” which is “what people are responding to.”
“If the public in 2024 sees what they perceive to be a weak insider versus a scary outsider, a Trump or a DeSantis — that’s a perception… I do think that people have a reason to be concerned if he continues to be perceived to be weak, but the reality is, what’s the alternative to Biden?” Jones asked.
U.S. President Joe Biden looks out at attendees as he speaks at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in Washington, U.S., September 28, 2022. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
“You don’t see, at all, any concerns at all?” Flanagan asked.
“Concerned? Compared to what?” Maher shot back. “Would I like to have great wisdom in the body of a 20-year-old? Yes, everybody would, but that’s not life. And it doesn’t matter.”
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“I admit he is going to have trouble in the debates, debates are gonna look bad. Prepare for it now. There’s gonna be some senior moments. He could show up without pants… But it doesn’t matter. It has nothing to do with running the country. You run the country behind the scenes. It’s all show. It’s all bulls—,” Maher added.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to joseph.wulfsohn@fox.com and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.
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Arkansas Family Pleads For Answers 28 Years After Disappearance
Arkansas Family Pleads For Answers 28 Years After Disappearance https://digitalarkansasnews.com/arkansas-family-pleads-for-answers-28-years-after-disappearance/
SEARCY, Ark. — A family calling for help in Searcy 28 years to the day after their loved one, Jarrod Green went missing in the small town.
Green’s death is still being investigated as a homicide, and no remains have ever been recovered. Friday was the first time Jarrod’s mother and sister held a public event asking the community to “Bring Jarrod Home.”
“All it takes is for that one person who has the knowledge to hear. To hear it and feel compelled and speak,” stressed Shannon Green.
Surrounded by friends and strangers on Friday night, she is told the story of the one person she wishes was around the most, her brother, Jarrod Green.
“People gravitated to him because he was so full of life, light and love,” Shannon said. “Life was a big adventure for him, and his adventure was cut drastically short.”
On September 30, 1994, the 20-year-old disappeared. Court documents show investigators believe Jarrod Green had plans to meet a man in North Little Rock, but his car never left town. Officers found it abandoned in a shopping center parking lot days later.
His family is convinced Jarrod was murdered, but do not have enough to by to prove it yet.
“When you go for 28 years with a question mark hanging over how did they die, why did they die, where are they? That’s what will kill you,” Shannon lamented.
Jarrod’s mother Sharon Green added, “As a parent I have never had another happy day in 28 years because I don’t know where my son is.”
Jarrod’s father passed away a few years ago, and his mother is asking for the closure her husband never got.
“I would like to bring his remains home, so that I can bury him. Just imagine if that was your child and the years don’t help,” Sharon urged.
The family has gained and lost leads in recent years. In 2017, Searcy police arrested a man on charges of capital murder and abuse of a corpse, but the case was dropped a few months later in order for detectives to investigate more.
“In a case like this, we have one shot at getting a suspect prosecuted and in jail,” current Police Chief but then Sergeant Steve Hernandez said in 2018. “We want to make sure that the one shot we get, we get everything right.”
The Green’s used to go by the slogan “Justice for Jarrod” but not for Friday’s event.
Shannon admitted, “I would be lying if I said I didn’t want that. I do want the person responsible to be brought to justice for him, but honestly, I just want my brother back. I just want his remains. I want to be able to bury him. I want to give him the least that he deserves.”
The Green family hope Friday’s gather will be the push which leads them where Jarrod is.
“We know people know where he is, and we want them to come forward, and we are never going to stop looking,” Shannon concluded.
You can call the Searcy Police Department if you have any information, you think would be useful to giving the Green family closure.
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Ian Arrives In North Carolina After Bringing Flooding Damage To South Carolina; Death Toll Rises In Florida
Ian Arrives In North Carolina After Bringing Flooding, Damage To South Carolina; Death Toll Rises In Florida https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ian-arrives-in-north-carolina-after-bringing-flooding-damage-to-south-carolina-death-toll-rises-in-florida/
11:43 PM
Ian pounds South Carolina; washes away piers and floods streets
Rain from Hurricane Ian floods a street on Sept. 30, 2022, in Charleston, South Carolina. Getty Images
Ian slammed coastal South Carolina as a hurricane on Friday, ripping apart piers and flooding streets after the ferocious storm caused catastrophic damage in Florida. As Ian moved across South Carolina on its way to North Carolina Friday evening, it dropped from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone.
While Ian’s center came ashore near Georgetown, South Carolina, on Friday with much weaker winds than when it crossed Florida’s Gulf Coast earlier in the week, the storm left many areas of Charleston’s downtown peninsula under water. It also washed away parts of four piers along the coast, including two at Myrtle Beach.
Online cameras showed seawater filling neighborhoods in Garden City to calf level.
After the heaviest of the rainfall blew through Charleston, Will Shalosky examined a large elm tree in front of his house that had fallen across his downtown street. He noted the damage could have been much worse.
“If this tree has fallen a different way, it would be in our house,” Shalosky said. “It’s pretty scary, pretty jarring.”
Ian’s heavy rains and winds crossed into North Carolina on Friday evening. Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents to be vigilant, given that up to 8 inches of rain could fall in some areas.
“Hurricane Ian is at our door. Expect drenching rain and sustained heavy winds over most of our state,” Cooper said. “Our message today is simple: Be smart and be safe.”
10:16 PM
Florida’s DeSantis warns against looting amid hurricane recovery: “We’re a Second Amendment state”
In a press conference addressing Hurricane Ian damage and recovery efforts, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Friday expressed concern over looting and robberies in impacted areas.
“The other thing we’re concerned about, particularly in those areas that were really hard hit, is we want to make sure we’re maintaining law and order,” DeSantis said. “You can have people bringing boats into some of these islands and trying to ransack people’s homes.”
The governor warned the community against looting, implying that law enforcement would be watching for it. He also referenced the Second Amendment.
“Don’t even think about looting. Don’t even think about taking advantage of people in this vulnerable situation,” DeSantis said. “I can tell you, in the state of Florida, you never know what may be lurking behind somebody’s home. And I would not want to chance that, if I were you, given that we’re a Second Amendment state.”
DeSantis said that law enforcement was monitoring potential robberies. He also offered local jurisdictions state assistance in controlling crime, if necessary.
Lee County, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, includes the cities of Fort Myers and Cape Coral, both of which were hard hit by the hurricane. Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno warned against looting in a press conference Thursday, threatening jail time.
“Don’t do it in this county. Don’t make that mistake,” Marceno said. “Because one thing we do have is vacancy at the jail. And I guarantee you if you try to prey on one of our great residents, you will find yourself in that jail.”
7:47 PM / September 30, 2022
Ian knocks out power in Carolinas, Virginia
More than 60,000 residents are without power in Virginia as Ian moves further north, poweroutage.us reported Friday night. To the south, over 270,000 people in North Carolina and 164,000 in South Carolina are in the dark.
Meanwhile, 1.5 million people still do not have power in Florida, several days after Ian swept across the peninsula.
7:25 PM / September 30, 2022
Ports in Tampa Bay, Canaveral reopening
The ports of Tampa Bay and Canaveral both reopened on Friday, two days after Hurricane Ian forced them to close.
In Tampa Bay, cargo ships are moving in and out of the port. However, cruises have not yet resumed — the first will be the Carnival Paradise, which is scheduled to arrive on Saturday.
Across the peninsula, in Canaveral, vessels weighing 500 gross tons and less were welcomed back beginning at 4 p.m. The port said it would reopen to all traffic beginning at midnight.
6:46 PM / September 30, 2022
“We’ve never seen anything like this”: Severe floods swamp Orlando
Many houses and apartment complexes in Orlando, Florida, are still completely surrounded by water.
Lidianys de Dios stayed up all night as hurricane Ian hit, watching the rising water creep up to her front door, knowing that she has no flood insurance. She said she’s never had flooding like this in her neighborhood.
“We’ve been in this house for like 16 years and then in the country for like 20-something years and we’ve never seen anything like this before,” she said.
Across Orlando, airboats made their way through flooded neighborhoods all day Friday, rescuing residents who had no way out. Some braved the flooded streets by car, others used kayaks to get around.
“This is definitely the worst hurricane I’ve been through,” said Orlando resident Juan Ceballos, who was evacuated by the National Guard. “We just packed like a quick tub full of stuff and walked out.”
Harrowing rescues after severe floods swamp Orlando 02:03
6:27 PM / September 30, 2022
U.S. Army shares video of rescue mission in Sanibel
Soldiers with the Florida National Guard flew to Sanibel Island to “assist with medical evacuations and search and rescue operations,” the U.S. Army tweeted Friday. It shared a video of the soldiers looking out over the devastation from a helicopter.
— U.S. Army (@USArmy) September 30, 2022
5:08 PM / September 30, 2022
16 still missing after migrant boat sank off Florida coast as Ian arrived
Two people were found dead, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday, and 16 are still missing after a migrant boat sank off the southern coast of Florida several days ago.
A total of 27 people were on the boat when it took on water off Stock Island on Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. Four people, identified by authorities as Cuban migrants, made it to shore in the immediate aftermath.
The Coast Guard said the next day that three people were located 2 miles off Boca Chica and taken to area hospitals for exhaustion and dehydration. Later that same day, the Coast Guard said nine people had been safely located and rescued.
The boat sank as Hurricane Ian approached Florida’s west coast, bringing storm surges, roaring wind and punishing rain to much of the state.
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4:43 PM / September 30, 2022
NFL Foundation to donate $1 million, auction off game jerseys for relief efforts
The NFL Foundation said Friday it is donating $1 million to Hurricane Ian relief efforts. It comes after the Glazer family, who owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, announced they were donating $1 million Thursday.
The foundation will also auction off “a limited number of game-worn jerseys and other unique items” from this weekend’s Tampa Bay-Kansas City game to benefit the American Red Cross’ hurricane relief efforts. Fans will be able to bid on the items at NFL.com/auction.
“The NFL family’s thoughts are with the various communities affected by Hurricane Ian during this difficult time and we will continue to find additional ways to provide help and support to those in Florida who need it now and in the months ahead,” the foundation said in a statement.
4:11 PM / September 30, 2022
Hundreds of thousands without power in Florida and Carolinas
As of 3:45 p.m. ET on Friday, more than 1.7 million customers in Florida, 210,000 in South Carolina and 82,000 in North Carolina were without power, according to poweroutage.us.
4:02 PM / September 30, 2022
Florida sheriff’s office shares photos of devastation
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office was surveying damage Friday on Pine Island and Matlacha, two islands located very close to where Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida. Officials shared stunning photos of the destruction left there: a buckled road, flooded streets, a trapped car, a leveled home and downed palm trees.
“The devastation is heartbreaking,” a Facebook post said.
Destruction left by Hurricane Ian in Pine Island and Matlacha, Florida. “The devastation is heartbreaking,” the Lee County Sheriff’s Office wrote on its Facebook page on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Lee County Sheriff’s Office
Several homes are destroyed on the Florida island. Lee County Sheriff’s Office
Debris is seen scattered outside of a restaurant on Matlacha. Lee County Sheriff’s Office
3:32 PM / September 30, 2022
U.S. officials warn of hurricane-related scams
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is warning people about “malicious cyber activity targeting potential disaster victims and charitable donors following a hurricane.”
In an alert on Friday, the agency told people to be on the lookout for fraudulent emails with “hurricane-related subject lines, attachments, or hyperlinks.”
“In addition, be wary of social media pleas, texts, or door-to-door solicitations relating to severe weather events,” the bulletin said.
2:46 PM / September 30, 2022
Biden says it’ll take “months, years” for many to rebuild in Florida
Speaking from the White House’s Roosevelt Room, President Biden gave an update on Hurricane Ian as it continues to thrash the South. The president reiterated that the federal government will handle 100% of the cost to clear debris in Florida’s hardest-hit counties.
“We’re just beginning to see the scale of that destruction,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s likely to rank among the worst … in the nation’s history. You’ve all seen on television homes and property wiped out. It’s going to take months, years to rebuild. And our hearts g...
Japan Spent Record Of Nearly $20.0 Bln On Intervention To Support The Yen
Japan Spent Record Of Nearly $20.0 Bln On Intervention To Support The Yen https://digitalarkansasnews.com/japan-spent-record-of-nearly-20-0-bln-on-intervention-to-support-the-yen/
Intervention drains nearly 15% of readily available funds
Japan can avoid selling U.S. Treasury bills for now – analysts
Impact of further intervention may diminish – analysts
TOKYO, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Japan spent up to a record 2.8 trillion yen ($19.7 billion) intervening in the foreign exchange market last week to prop up the yen, Ministry of Finance data showed on Friday, draining nearly 15% of funds it has readily available for intervention.
The figure was less than the 3.6 trillion yen estimated by Tokyo money market brokers for Japan’s first dollar-selling, yen-buying intervention in 24 years to stem the currency’s sharp weakening.
The ministry’s figure, indicating total spending on currency intervention from Aug. 30 to Sept. 28, is widely believed to have been used entirely for the Sept. 22 intervention. It would surpass the previous record for dollar-selling, yen-buying intervention in 1998 of 2.62 trillion yen. Confirmation on the dates of the spending will be released in November.
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“This was a big burst of intervention, if it had happened on a single day, underscoring Japanese authorities’ determination to defend the yen,” said Daisaku Ueno, chief forex strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
“But the impact of further intervention will diminish as long as Japan continues to intervene solo,” he said.
The intervention, conducted after the yen slumped to a 24-year low of nearly 146 to the dollar, triggered a sharp bounce of more than 5 yen per dollar from that low, although the currency has since drifted down again to around 144.25.
“Recent sharp, one-sided yen declines heighten uncertainty by making it difficult for companies to set business plans. It’s therefore undesirable and bad for the economy,” Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda was quoted as saying at a meeting with cabinet ministers on Friday.
Japan held roughly $1.3 trillion in reserves, the second biggest after China, of which $135.5 billion was held as deposits parked with foreign central banks and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), according to foreign reserves data released on Sept. 7. Those deposits can easily be tapped to finance further dollar-selling, yen-buying intervention.
“Even if it were to intervene again, Japan likely won’t have to sell U.S. Treasury bills and instead tap this deposit for the time being,” said Izuru Kato, chief economist at Totan Research, a think-tank arm of a major money market brokerage firm in Tokyo.
If the deposits dry up, Japan would need to dip into its securities holdings sized around $1.04 trillion.
Of the main types of foreign assets Japan holds, deposits and securities are the most liquid and can be converted into cash immediately.
Other holdings include gold, reserves at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and IMF special drawing rights (SDRs), although procuring dollar funds from these assets would take time, analysts say.
($1 = 144.4000 yen)
(This story corrects to add dropped word ‘to’ in first paragraph)
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Reporting by Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Sam Holmes, Edmund Klamann & Shri Navaratnam
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Scientists Discover Massive Ocean Near Earth's Core
Scientists Discover Massive “Ocean” Near Earth's Core https://digitalarkansasnews.com/scientists-discover-massive-ocean-near-earths-core/
The transition zone’s high water content has far-reaching consequences (Representational Image)
Scientists have discovered a reservoir of water three times the volume of all the oceans beneath the Earth’s surface, according to an international study. The water has been found between the transition zone of the Earth’s upper and lower mantle. The research team analyzed a rate diamond formed 660 meters below the Earth’s surface using techniques including Raman spectroscopy and FTIR spectrometry, ANI reported.
The study confirmed something that for a long time it was just a theory, namely that ocean water accompanies subducting slabs and thus enters the transition zone. This means that our planet’s water cycle includes the Earth’s interior.
“These mineral transformations greatly hinder the movements of rock in the mantle,” explains Prof. Frank Brenker from the Institute for Geosciences at Goethe University in Frankfurt. For example, mantle plumes — rising columns of hot rock from the deep mantle — sometimes stop directly below the transition zone. The movement of mass in the opposite direction also comes to standstill.
Brenker says, “Subducting plates often have difficulty in breaking through the entire transition zone. So there is a whole graveyard of such plates in this zone underneath Europe.”
However, until now it was not known what the long-term effects of “sucking” material into the transition zone were on its geochemical composition and whether larger quantities of water existed there. Brenker explains: “The subducting slabs also carry deep-sea sediments piggyback into the Earth’s interior. These sediments can hold large quantities of water and CO2. But until now it was unclear just how much enters the transition zone in the form of more stable, hydrous minerals and carbonates — and it was therefore also unclear whether large quantities of water really are stored there.”
The prevailing conditions would certainly be conducive to that. The dense minerals wadsleyite and ringwoodite can (unlike the olivine at lesser depths) store large quantities of water- in fact so large that the transition zone would theoretically be able to absorb six times the amount of water in our oceans. “So we knew that the boundary layer has an enormous capacity for storing water,” Brenker says. “However, we didn’t know whether it actually did so.”
An international study in which the Frankfurt geoscientist was involved has now supplied the answer. The research team analysed a diamond from Botswana, Africa. It was formed at a depth of 660 kilometres, right at the interface between the transition zone and the lower mantle, where ringwoodite is the prevailing mineral. Diamonds from this region are very rare, even among the rare diamonds of super-deep origin, which account for only one per cent of diamonds. The analyses revealed that the stone contains numerous ringwoodite inclusions — which exhibit a high water content. Furthermore, the research group was able to determine the chemical composition of the stone. It was almost exactly the same as that of virtually every fragment of mantle rock found in basalts anywhere in the world. This showed that the diamond definitely came from a normal piece of the Earth’s mantle. “In this study, we have demonstrated that the transition zone is not a dry sponge, but holds considerable quantities of water,” Brenker says, adding: “This also brings us one step closer to Jules Verne’s idea of an ocean inside the Earth.” The difference is that there is no ocean down there, but hydrous rock which, according to Brenker, would neither feel wet nor drip water.
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US Justice Dept Seeks Expedited Ruling In Trump Special Master Case
US Justice Dept Seeks Expedited Ruling In Trump Special Master Case https://digitalarkansasnews.com/us-justice-dept-seeks-expedited-ruling-in-trump-special-master-case/
The US Justice Department on Friday moved to expedite its appeal of an order appointing a special master to review all of the records the FBI seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
In a court filing late on Friday, the Justice Department said its inability to access the non-classified documents held at Trump’s estate is still hampering significant aspects of its investigation on the retention of government records at the Florida property that pertain to the classified records.
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The Justice Department is asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to order all papers be filed in the case by Nov. 11, and hold any necessary hearing in the case as soon as that briefing is completed.
Trump’s lawyers are opposing the request, the government said. The former president’s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Justice Department said an expedited schedule may allow the government, if it wins the appeal, “to more quickly resume its full investigation without restraints on its review and use of evidence seized pursuant to a lawful search warrant.”
The government attorneys added that, if the Atlanta-based appeals court rules in the Justice Department’s favor, it would end the litigation over materials seized in the search as well as the outside review of those documents.
That review, being conducted by special master Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, is currently set to end by Dec. 16.
The appeals court earlier this month sided with the Justice Department in lifting parts of the ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that had prevented the department from relying on classified materials taken in the search as part of its investigation, such as bringing up the sensitive records’ contents in witness interviews or presenting charges to a grand jury.
The 11th Circuit also blocked Dearie from accessing the classified records as part of his proceedings.
Cannon on Sept. 5 granted Trump’s request for that third-party review of the seized documents, over the objections of the Justice Department. That process has already been delayed, as Trump and the government have not yet been able to secure a contract with an outside vendor to host the documents as part of the review.
Cannon on Thursday also rejected Dearie’s instruction that Trump verify the list of documents taken from the property, after the former president’s lawyers argued that requirement was outside the scope of the special master’s authority.
Trump has claimed without evidence that FBI agents planted evidence as they searched his resort on Aug. 8, but his attorneys have not repeated the same allegations in court.
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US court says Trump criminal probe can resume classified records review
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Trump Intensifies Attacks On McConnell With 'death Wish' Remark On His Social Media Platform
Trump Intensifies Attacks On McConnell With 'death Wish' Remark On His Social Media Platform https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-intensifies-attacks-on-mcconnell-with-death-wish-remark-on-his-social-media-platform/
Former President Donald Trump raised the specter of political violence Friday with a fresh attack on Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, suggesting that the GOP leader had “a death wish” because he had voted to approve legislation sponsored by Democrats.
In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump asked if McConnell had supported the unspecified bills “because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am opposed to them.”
“He has a DEATH WISH,” Trump added.
While Trump did not specify which Democratic-sponsored bills McConnell supported, the Senate on Thursday passed a bill to keep the government funded in a 72-25 vote that included support from McConnell and other Republicans. Earlier in the week, McConnell said he would back a bipartisan legislation aimed at protecting against election subversion — putting him at loggerheads with Trump.
When asked about Trump’s comments on Friday, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich said it was “absurd” to suggest the former president’s post could be construed as dangerous.
“Mitch McConnell is killing the Republican Party through weakness and cowardice. He obviously has a political death wish for himself and Republican Party, but President Trump and the America First champions in Congress will save the Republican Party and our nation,” Budowich said in a email to NBC News.
Trump has frequently lambasted McConnell, with the attacks intensifying after the Senate Republican leader rebuked Trump following the Capitol riot. More recent attacks have included derogatory comments about McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who served as transportation secretary during the Trump administration.
On Truth Social last month, Trump called Chao “crazy,” while referring to McConnell as a “broken down hack politician.”
Chao resigned a day after the attack on the Capitol, when a pro-Trump mob chanted “hang Mike Pence” while storming the building. She later sat for a videotaped interview with the House Jan. 6 committee.
On Friday, Trump said McConnell must “immediately seek help and advise from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!”
Chao was born in Taipei.
NBC News has reached out to McConnell’s office for comment.
Zoë Richards is the evening politics reporter for NBC News.
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Trump Fraud Lawsuit Goes To Judge Who Held Him In Contempt
Trump Fraud Lawsuit Goes To Judge Who Held Him In Contempt https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-fraud-lawsuit-goes-to-judge-who-held-him-in-contempt/
In a letter Thursday to the court’s administrative judge, Trump lawyer Alina Habba argued that the lawsuit should instead be assigned to the courts Commercial Division, which is set up to handle complex corporate litigation.
Associated Press
October 01, 2022 / 08:53 AM IST
Donald Trump (Image Courtesy: Reuters)
The New York attorney generals lawsuit accusing Donald Trump and his company of fraud has been assigned to a state court judge who repeatedly ruled against the former president in related subpoena disputes including holding him in contempt, fining him $110,000 and forcing him to sit for a deposition.
Trumps lawyers are objecting to Manhattan Judge Arthur Engorons continued involvement and accused Attorney General Letitia James office of attempting to judge shop because, in paperwork seeking assignment of a judge, it noted Engoron’s knowledge of the case and linked the lawsuit and subpoena disputes as “related” matters.
In a letter Thursday to the court’s administrative judge, Trump lawyer Alina Habba argued that the lawsuit should instead be assigned to the courts Commercial Division, which is set up to handle complex corporate litigation.
James office, which filed the lawsuit last week, is angling to get the case to trial by the end of next year before the first primaries in the 2024 presidential election. In a response, it said the case should remain with Engoron in part because of the level of familiarity he’s developed in handling discovery and subpoena issues in the underlying investigation.
Given the fact that this action involves allegations of an ongoing scheme and conspiracy to obtain millions of dollars through fraudulent activity, and that defendants repeatedly have sought to delay the conclusion of (James’ investigation), it is imperative that this case proceed quickly, Wallace wrote.
A court spokesperson said Engoron had no comment.
James’ lawsuit alleges Trump and the Trump Organization inflated his net worth by billions of dollars and misled banks and others for years about the value of prized assets like golf courses, hotels and his Mar-a-Lago estate. She is seeking $250 million and a permanent ban on Trump doing business in the state.
Trumps three eldest children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, were also named as defendants, along with two longtime company executives. A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump sent a letter Thursday to the administrative judge echoing Habba’s call to move the case to the courts Commercial Division.
Engoron, a Democrat, has been involved in Trump-related cases since 2020, when he was assigned to intervene in quarrels among Trumps lawyers and James office over demands for evidence and the direction of her investigation.
Trump, a Republican who’s been laying groundwork for a potential comeback campaign for president, claimed bias after several of Engoron’s rulings went against him, saying in a statement: I cant get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible.
In February, Engoron enforced a subpoena for Trump and two of his children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., to give deposition testimony under oath. They testified in August after a state appeals court rejected attempts to overturn the ruling. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times.
In April, Engoron held the former president in contempt of court and fined him for being slow to respond to a subpoena requiring him to turn over certain documents. Engoron lifted the contempt finding in June after Trump paid the $110,000 fine and complied with other demands.
Engoron has also issued rulings ordering the Trump Organization and its appraiser, Cushman & Wakefield to hand over evidence, and requiring another son, Eric Trump, to testify at a deposition.
Trump has decried James’ lawsuit as Another Witch Hunt and noted that his companys financial disclosures warned banks not to trust the information provided.
Habba said the allegations in the lawsuit are meritless.
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Trevor Noah Says Hes Exiting As Host Of The Daily Show NewZimbabwe.com
Trevor Noah Says He’s Exiting As Host Of ‘The Daily Show’ – NewZimbabwe.com https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trevor-noah-says-hes-exiting-as-host-of-the-daily-show-newzimbabwe-com/
By Associated Press
NEW YORK: Trevor Noah says that he’s leaving “The Daily Show” as host, after seven years of a Trump and pandemic-filled tenure on the weeknight Comedy Central show.
Noah surprised the studio audience during Thursday’s taping, dropping the news after discussing his “feeling of gratitude” that it was the seventh anniversary of when he took over for Jon Stewart.
“I realized, after the seven years, my time is up,” Noah said.
Neither Noah nor Comedy Central offered a timetable for his departure. The network said it was “grateful to Trevor for our amazing partnership” and indicated that it was excited “for the next chapter” of “The Daily Show.”
Television late-night comedy’s ranks have been shrinking, with Conan O’Brien pulling the plug on his show last year and Samantha Bee ending hers this year.
Noah, a relatively unknown comic from South Africa, was a bold choice to replace the popular Jon Stewart in 2015. But he slowly made the show his own and built a dedicated audience.
“So many people didn’t believe in us,” he said. “It was a crazy bet to make. I still think it was a crazy choice — this random African.”
He said hosting the show has been one of his greatest challenges and joys.
“I wanted to say thank you to the audience for an amazing seven years,” he said. “It’s been wild. It’s been truly wild.”
Like most of his fellow comedians, he dealt with the firehose of material during Donald Trump’s presidency and, when the pandemic started, found himself suddenly thrust into the challenge of producing a program without an audience.
He said he realized there was more that he wanted to do recently when he was able to travel again.
“I miss learning other languages,” he said. “I miss going to other countries and putting on a show.”
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Live Updates: Greg Abbott, Beto O https://digitalarkansasnews.com/live-updates-greg-abbott-beto-o-2/
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke are gearing up for the live televised debate on Friday, September 30 at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg near the United States-Mexico border.
8:41 p.m.: Texas governor debate ends with …
Friday night’s one and only Texas gubernatorial debate came and went in flash, with Gov. Greg Abbott and Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke trading political blows in a lightning round-style debate. They addressed abortion, energy, the Texas power grid, immigration, property taxes, and gun control.
Abbott was kept mostly on the defense, wavering especially in his answers to questions on abortion care for victims of rape or incest and access to alternatives to health care like Plan B. He pointed instead to “living assistance” programs that provide “baby supplies.”
But O’Rourke and Abbott stuck to their stance on the aforementioned issues, which have already proven to be popular among their supporters, but don’t do much for “Independent” and “undecided” voters. With this being the only debate, it’s hard to tell if this will move the needle for either candidate. By 8:14 p.m., Gov. Abbott’s campaign has already sent out an email declaring victory. O’Rourke’s followed at 8:20 p.m. with pointed notes on Abbott’s “dangerous extremism” and how the incumbent was held accountable throughout the debate.
8:22 p.m. Abbott: “I will never raise property taxes”
Factcheck: Data from the Texas comptroller says property taxes increased by at least $20 billion since Abbott was elected governor, as O’Rourke claims. Property taxes went from a total of $52.2 billion in 2015 to $73 billion in 2021.
However, property taxes are set by counties and smaller municipalities, and not by the state. State-level policy and funding availability can impact how local governments set property tax rates.
Californians, who have been migrating to Texas, also pointed out on TikTok recently that Texans are paying more in taxes than Californians.
8:08 p.m. Texans sound off as governor debate comes to a close
San Antonio Express-News columnist Cary Clack tweeted his thoughts about the debate. He wrote, “It wasn’t as much Beto who put Abbott on the defensive-though he did-as it was Uvalde, abortion, the grid and his responses and non-responses to them.”
It wasn’t as much Beto who put Abbott on the defensive-though he did-as it was Uvalde, abortion, the grid and his responses and non-responses to them.
— cary clack (@caryclack) October 1, 2022
Journalist Scott Braddock tweeted his opinion that both leaders delivered solid performances but said he’s struggling to identify breakout moments from either participant. He said, “Overall dynamics of the race would seem unchanged.”
Both @GregAbbott_TX and @BetoORourke delivered solid performances. But I’m struggling to identify any breakout moments for either of them. Abbott had the most downside risk, Beto had the most to gain. Overall dynamics of the race would seem unchanged #TxLege #TxGovDebate
— Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) October 1, 2022
Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith calls it “disgraceful” that Texas only gets one debate.
it’s disgraceful that we get only one debate #txgov
— Evan Smith (@evanasmith) October 1, 2022
Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton said O’Rourke would be a terrible chairman in the Texas House.
Watching the @GregAbbott_TX and @BetoORourke debate. Wow. Beto would be a terrible chairman in the Texas House. #txlege
— Bryan Slaton (@BryanforHD2) October 1, 2022
Former Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia tweeted he found out why Abbott wanted no audience. He said, “@BetoORourke was on point, passionate, and all about solutions.”
I guess we found out why @GregAbbott_TX only wanted one #TXGovDebate with no audience. @BetoORourke was on point, passionate, and all about solutions. #txlege
— Manny Garcia (@MannyGarciaTX) October 1, 2022
Austin reporter tweeted he’s surprised the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t get brought up once during the debate. He said, “90,000+ TEXANS DEAD due to a response that put economic considerations above saving lives.”
wow. The Texas response to the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t come up ONCE in the #TxGovDebate. 90,000+ TEXANS DEAD due to a response that put economic considerations above saving lives.
— Fred Cantu (@fredcantu) October 1, 2022
7:55 p.m. O’Rourke: Texas teachers are underpaid by $7,500 a year
Factcheck: This is true. Texas teachers lag behind the national average pay for teachers by some $7,500 a year, according to new rankings from the National Education Association. Texas ranked No. 28 overall among states.
7:59 p.m. Rep. Jared Patterson calls O’Rourke disrespectful
Texas Rep. Jared Patterson of District 106 tweets that O’Rourke is “wrong” on key issues. He adds, “He’s just rude and disrespectful in general. That’s why Governor Abbott wins by a wide margin.”
In a recent poll from Quinnipiac University, Abbott leads by a 7-point margin over O’Rourke.
Beto O’Rourke is wrong on key issues and he’s just rude and disrespectful in general. That’s why Governor Abbott wins by a wide margin.
— Rep. Jared Patterson (@JaredLPatterson) October 1, 2022
7:53 p.m. O’Rourke: Texas has the highest number of rape cases
Factcheck: O’Rourke made a previous claim that Texas had the highest number of rape cases after Abbott said he would “eliminate rapists” in response to a question about exceptions to a state ban on abortions.
FBI data for 2020 says Texas had an estimated 13,509 rape offenses, which is more than California’s 13,449 estimated rape offenses for the same period of time.
7:52 p.m. Senator Gutierrez calls out Abbott once more for Uvalde response
Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, noted Abbott didn’t call for a special legislative session after the mass shooting that killed 21 people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24. He said, “Guns are still making their ways inside our schools.”
@GovAbbott said we don’t need a special session as he has already done so many things to make them safer. Kids and parents are TERRIFIED to go back to school!
Guns are still making their ways inside our schools. We are NOT safer! #TXGovDebate pic.twitter.com/xJtd500PHa
— Senator Roland Gutierrez (@RolandForTexas) October 1, 2022
7:43 p.m. Castro on mental health
Former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro tweeted that Gov. Greg Abbott bragged about Texas being No. 27 in the country in mental health. He tweeted, “Sums it all up about Abbott. He’s just bad at his job.”
Greg Abbott just bragged in the gubernatorial debate about Texas being “27th in mental health funding.” Sums it all up about Abbott. He’s just bad at his job.
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) October 1, 2022
7:40 p.m. Abbott: More border crossings under Biden
Fact check: Figures from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol say that agents recorded 1.66 million arrests along the southern border in 2021, which was President Joe Biden’s first year in office. This number surpasses the record high of 1.64 million arrests in 2000.
However, in 2021, there were 63%, or just over 1 million, of immigrants expelled from the country under a Trump-era order Title 42.
7:37 p.m. O’Rourke: Texas cut $211 million in mental health care
Fact check: Gov. Abbott has been pushing the need for mental health care as the reason behind the 18-year-old gunman shooting and killing students in Uvalde.
But Texas has cut nearly $211 million in funding for the state department that is responsible for mental health care, Health and Human Services. In 2021, the state cut $173.3 million from HHS and $93.4 million in 2022.
7:34 p.m. Senator Roland Gutierrez slams Abbott’s comments on Uvalde
Senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, tweeted Abbott hasn’t done anything for the families in Uvalde after the mass shooting. He stated, “They are struggling.”
Abbott says he feels the pain of the parents from #Uvalde. Yet, he hasn’t done ANYTHING to help the families. They are struggling. THEY WANT ANSWERS AND ACTIONS.
They are tired of Abbott’s excuses and so am I. #TXGovDebate pic.twitter.com/WX1yimK0iA
— Senator Roland Gutierrez (@RolandForTexas) October 1, 2022
7:33 p.m. Abbott: O’Rourke said ‘There is no problem in the border’
Fact check: Beto O’Rourke has avoided calling the immigrants coming across the Texas-Mexico border a “crisis” but has not said that it is not a problem.
In April, O’Rourke told the Tribune that he is in favor of the border and wants to support Border Patrol.
7:30 p.m. Abbott: Can’t raise age to buy assault-style rifles
Fact check: Gov. Abbott has made this claim multiple times after the Uvalde mass shooting that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers. He said that raising the age is “unconstitutional” due to recent court rulings.
While there are cases circulating the courts, legal experts say the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legal age to buy an assault-style rifle or other firearms.
7:24 p.m. More migrant encounters
Fact check: O’Rourke noted there are more migrant encounters at TX border since Abbott began Operation Lonestar. Texas Tribune reported the state has seen a slower rate of growth than other states but still more encounters.
In #TXGovDebate, O’Rourke noted there are more migrant encounters at the TX border since Abbott began Operation Lonestar.
Here’s more from @James_Barragan, who reported TX saw a a slower rate of growth than other states but still more encounters: https://t.co/XhY1foBbpQ
— María Méndez (@anxious_maria) October 1, 2022
7:17 p.m. Abbott fumbling over words
Texas Representative Julie Johnson tweeted she believes Abbott is nervous and fumling over his words.
Is it me or does Abbott seem nervous and fumbling all over his words? #TXGovDebate
— Julie Johnson (@juliejohnsonTX) October 1, 2022
7:15 p.m. Social r...
WILLIAMS: Politicians Should Learn To Practice Quiet After The Storm
WILLIAMS: Politicians Should Learn To Practice Quiet After The Storm https://digitalarkansasnews.com/williams-politicians-should-learn-to-practice-quiet-after-the-storm/
By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS
Richmond Times-Dispatch
IN U.S. politics, it’s all fun and games until the hurricane winds roar. Which explains why our current model of blowhard leadership needs to change.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finds himself in need of federal aid from a president he has trolled as “President Brandon,” to the delight of audiences who break out into the insipid “Let’s Go, Brandon!” chant.
Please don’t ask me to explain how “Let’s go, Brandon!” — weird code for “(bleep) Joe Biden” — became the rallying cry of the American political right. Suffice it to say that this puerile behavior should have no place in the serious business of governance, where lives are at stake.
But every day is election season in today’s politics.
Virginia has no natural immunity to storms like Ian, which will only become more intense as global warming increases, even as Republicans in thrall to the fossil fuel industry oppose measures to combat this existential threat.
Virginia’s governor might want to consider the inevitable crises and not go out of his way to antagonize Biden by campaigning on behalf of election denier Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, as he plans to do in October.
“I am comfortable supporting Republican candidates and we don’t agree on everything,” Youngkin said by way of explanation, as if the insurrection-stoking, democracy-threatening lie of the stolen election is just another mundane policy position on which people can disagree agreeably.
“I have said that I firmly believe that Joe Biden was elected president,” he added. “I have to say in all candor I wish he wasn’t, because I don’t think he’s done a good job for America.”
Youngkin’s superpower, so far, is to appear more moderate than his stances suggest. But he needs to sit out the Arizona campaign because the GOP candidate he would lend support to has staked out disqualifying ground that renders her manifestly unfit to hold office.
As for Youngkin’s election’s regrets, Biden is the president we’ve got and the president whose support we will need in Virginia should disaster strike. Hurricanes have no respect for politics or partisanship.
Some of the most damaging U.S. storms in recent memory have devastated red states or states governed by Republicans.
The slow response to flood-devasted New Orleans after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina led rapper Kanye West to say, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.”
Republicans lost their minds during the bromance of then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and then-President Barack Obama after the latter’s support in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
That moment was recalled Thursday by FOX News commentator Jesse Watters, who asked political operative Karl Rove: “Is Biden going to fly to Florida, and is he going to try to hug Ron DeSantis, and should Ron DeSantis hug him back?”
This foolishness, during a moment of devastation, suffering and loss of life, should tell us that our partisanship has become too poisonous for the body politic.
Hurricane Harvey (2017) arrived on Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana and hung around like an unwanted house guest who wouldn’t leave, inundating Houston. Four years later, a severe winter storm would take out Texas’ power grid, leaving millions of people without power for days.
Recall, after the devastation in Puerto Rico following 2017’s Hurricane Maria, then-President Donald Trump flinging rolls of paper towels into a crowd and complaining that the ravaged island had “thrown our budget out of whack.” His administration subsequently withheld $20 million in hurricane aid, according to a HUD Office of Inspector General report.
Puerto Rico hadn’t fully recovered from Maria before being hit by Hurricane Fiona on Sept. 18, and stands to be even more forgotten in Ian’s wake.
Meanwhile, the same DeSantis who as a congressman voted against federal aid to victims of Sandy quickly sought federal assistance this week, as he should have.
“We live in a very politicized time,” DeSantis — fresh off his shameless political stunt of flying 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vinyard — told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday.
“But you know, when people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they’ve lost everything — if you can’t put politics aside for that, then you’re just not going to be able to.”
A migrant who reads the plight DeSantis described might think: “Hey, that sounds like me!”
DeSantis and Biden spoke, presumably like adults. We can assume the governor called the president by his given name, and Florida will receive the help it needs.
But that moment of calm in the partisan storm should have us asking: Can we make the pause button permanent?
Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Michael Paul Williams was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for his commentary on Virginia history.
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Obituaries In Fort Smith, AR | Times Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/obituaries-in-fort-smith-ar-times-record-57/
Cody Francis Shaw, 74, of Springdale, AR, passed away on September 25th surrounded by his family. Cody was born on July 19th, 1948 to Francis Marion and Veda Warren Shaw in Cavanaugh, Arkansas. Cody graduated from Southside High School in 1969. Shortly after graduation, he was introduced to Cindy Bradney, and they married in the summer of 1969. They were married for 53 years and had 5 children: Rebecca, Christy, Kyle, Kara, & Kimberly.
Throughout his life, Cody served in a variety of positions both professionally and as a volunteer. Eventually Cody landed a position at Sparks Regional Medical Center, where he worked for over 20 years. After Sparks, he briefly worked at Regency Hospital then finished up his working life at KMF, Inc. He also loved his side jobs as a basketball referee and co-owner of Simple Pleasures.
As a volunteer, Cody served as the School Board President at St. Boniface Catholic School and served as President of the Board of Directors at the Sparks Federal Credit Union. Cody and Cindy organized and planned the St. Boniface Lawn Social for a number of years.
Cody was preceded in death by his parents, Veda (Warren) and Francis Shaw; his nephew, Bill Shaw; and his infant daughter, Rebecca. He is survived by his loving wife, Cindy, four children, eighteen grandchildren, and one great-grandson: Christy & David Koprovic and their children: Brittney, Brigitte (Shaun Crisel) and their son Adder, Bethany, Travis Landry (Maddie Jensen), Olivia (Juan Araujo), Jackie, Yazmin, Koby McMahand, and Mckenzie; Kyle & Danielle Shaw and their children: AnnaClaire, Holden, Bradney, & Journey; Kara and Kevin Rowe and their children: Kinley, Kadie, & Knox; Kimberly Willson, and her children Bekah and Nicodemus, and their father Nick Willson. He is also survived by his brother, Darrell and his wife, Jeannie, as well as countless in-laws, nieces, and nephews.
Visitation and Rosary will be held on Sunday, October 2nd, 2022 from 3:00-5:00 p.m. at Heritage Funeral Home in Springdale, Arkansas. Funeral Mass will be held on Monday, October 3rd, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Springdale.
Posted online on September 30, 2022
Service Information
Visitation & Rosary
Heritage Funeral Home 1591 S 48th St. Springdale, AR 72762
October 02, 2022
at
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Funeral Mass
St. Raphael Catholic Church 1386 S West End St. Springdale, AR 72764
October 03, 2022
at
10:00 AM
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Obituaries In Fort Smith, AR | Times Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/obituaries-in-fort-smith-ar-times-record-56/
Helen “Frances” Kelly, 71 of Van Buren passed away Thursday, September 29, 2022 in her home. Frances lived a life with many hats and had a story for everyone. Whether it was driving a truck for Dolly-Madison, selling shoes at Dillard’s, or helping her granddaughters with crafts, she put her whole heart into whatever she was doing. Having grown up in California, Frances then went on to live in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and eventually settled back in Arkansas. Because she lived in many areas of the country she had a myriad of experiences throughout her life. When her granddaughters were born, she gained a new title, Nana. She taught them to sew and craft throughout summers. She took them on outings and celebrated their achievements. She was fascinated by history and loved to learn about even the most random things (this made her quite the at-home Jeopardy adversary). Frances left a lasting mark on anyone she met and the world will feel a little less fun without her distinctive laugh. She was preceded in death by her father, Earl Teague and her brother, David Teague.
Funeral service will be at 10:00 A.M. Tuesday, October 4, 2022 at Ocker Memorial Chapel in Van Buren with burial at Newberry Cemetery in Alma under the direction of Ocker Funeral Home.
She is survived by two daughters, Deona Lollis and husband, Tracy of Van Buren, Barbara Kelly of Barling; her mother, Helen Teague of Van Buren; two brothers, Steven Teague and wife, Nellie of Gate City, Virginia, Timothy Teague and wife, Debbie of Alma; three grandchildren, Natalie Coleman and husband, John of Fort Smith, Ashley Lollis and husband, Nick and Leslie Robinson and husband, Jerad of Van Buren all of Van Buren; eight great grandchildren; one great great grandchild; two bonus daughters, Tracy Warriner of Indiana, Casey Janes of Fort Smith.
Pallbearers will be Anthony Sims, Tony Sims, Nick Bogart, Tim Teague, Steven Teague and John Coleman. Honorary pallbearer will be Damon Steele.
Visitation will be Monday, October 3, 2022 from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. at Ocker Funeral Home 700 Jefferson Street Van Buren.
Online tributes: www.ockerfuneralhome.com
Posted online on September 30, 2022
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Live Updates: Greg Abbott, Beto O https://digitalarkansasnews.com/live-updates-greg-abbott-beto-o/
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke are gearing up for the live televised debate on Friday, September 30 at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg near the United States-Mexico border.
8:41 p.m.: Texas governor debate ends with …
Friday night’s one and only Texas gubernatorial debate came and went in flash, with Gov. Greg Abbott and Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke trading political blows in a lightning round-style debate. They addressed abortion, energy, the Texas power grid, immigration, property taxes, and gun control.
Abbott was kept mostly on the defense, wavering especially in his answers to questions on abortion care for victims of rape or incest and access to alternatives to health care like Plan B. He pointed instead to “living assistance” programs that provide “baby supplies.”
But O’Rourke and Abbott stuck to their stance on the aforementioned issues, which have already proven to be popular among their supporters, but don’t do much for “Independent” and “undecided” voters. With this being the only debate, it’s hard to tell if this will move the needle for either candidate. By 8:14 p.m., Gov. Abbott’s campaign has already sent out an email declaring victory. O’Rourke’s followed at 8:20 p.m. with pointed notes on Abbott’s “dangerous extremism” and how the incumbent was held accountable throughout the debate.
8:22 p.m. Abbott: “I will never raise property taxes”
Factcheck: Data from the Texas comptroller says property taxes increased by at least $20 billion since Abbott was elected governor, as O’Rourke claims. Property taxes went from a total of $52.2 billion in 2015 to $73 billion in 2021.
However, property taxes are set by counties and smaller municipalities, and not by the state. State-level policy and funding availability can impact how local governments set property tax rates.
Californians, who have been migrating to Texas, also pointed out on TikTok recently that Texans are paying more in taxes than Californians.
8:08 p.m. Texans sound off as governor debate comes to a close
San Antonio Express-News columnist Cary Clack tweeted his thoughts about the debate. He wrote, “It wasn’t as much Beto who put Abbott on the defensive-though he did-as it was Uvalde, abortion, the grid and his responses and non-responses to them.”
It wasn’t as much Beto who put Abbott on the defensive-though he did-as it was Uvalde, abortion, the grid and his responses and non-responses to them.
— cary clack (@caryclack) October 1, 2022
Journalist Scott Braddock tweeted his opinion that both leaders delivered solid performances but said he’s struggling to identify breakout moments from either participant. He said, “Overall dynamics of the race would seem unchanged.”
Both @GregAbbott_TX and @BetoORourke delivered solid performances. But I’m struggling to identify any breakout moments for either of them. Abbott had the most downside risk, Beto had the most to gain. Overall dynamics of the race would seem unchanged #TxLege #TxGovDebate
— Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) October 1, 2022
Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith calls it “disgraceful” that Texas only gets one debate.
it’s disgraceful that we get only one debate #txgov
— Evan Smith (@evanasmith) October 1, 2022
Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton said O’Rourke would be a terrible chairman in the Texas House.
Watching the @GregAbbott_TX and @BetoORourke debate. Wow. Beto would be a terrible chairman in the Texas House. #txlege
— Bryan Slaton (@BryanforHD2) October 1, 2022
Former Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia tweeted he found out why Abbott wanted no audience. He said, “@BetoORourke was on point, passionate, and all about solutions.”
I guess we found out why @GregAbbott_TX only wanted one #TXGovDebate with no audience. @BetoORourke was on point, passionate, and all about solutions. #txlege
— Manny Garcia (@MannyGarciaTX) October 1, 2022
Austin reporter tweeted he’s surprised the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t get brought up once during the debate. He said, “90,000+ TEXANS DEAD due to a response that put economic considerations above saving lives.”
wow. The Texas response to the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t come up ONCE in the #TxGovDebate. 90,000+ TEXANS DEAD due to a response that put economic considerations above saving lives.
— Fred Cantu (@fredcantu) October 1, 2022
7:55 p.m. O’Rourke: Texas teachers are underpaid by $7,500 a year
Factcheck: This is true. Texas teachers lag behind the national average pay for teachers by some $7,500 a year, according to new rankings from the National Education Association. Texas ranked No. 28 overall among states.
7:59 p.m. Rep. Jared Patterson calls O’Rourke disrespectful
Texas Rep. Jared Patterson of District 106 tweets that O’Rourke is “wrong” on key issues. He adds, “He’s just rude and disrespectful in general. That’s why Governor Abbott wins by a wide margin.”
In a recent poll from Quinnipiac University, Abbott leads by a 7-point margin over O’Rourke.
Beto O’Rourke is wrong on key issues and he’s just rude and disrespectful in general. That’s why Governor Abbott wins by a wide margin.
— Rep. Jared Patterson (@JaredLPatterson) October 1, 2022
7:53 p.m. O’Rourke: Texas has the highest number of rape cases
Factcheck: O’Rourke made a previous claim that Texas had the highest number of rape cases after Abbott said he would “eliminate rapists” in response to a question about exceptions to a state ban on abortions.
FBI data for 2020 says Texas had an estimated 13,509 rape offenses, which is more than California’s 13,449 estimated rape offenses for the same period of time.
7:52 p.m. Senator Gutierrez calls out Abbott once more for Uvalde response
Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, noted Abbott didn’t call for a special legislative session after the mass shooting that killed 21 people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24. He said, “Guns are still making their ways inside our schools.”
@GovAbbott said we don’t need a special session as he has already done so many things to make them safer. Kids and parents are TERRIFIED to go back to school!
Guns are still making their ways inside our schools. We are NOT safer! #TXGovDebate pic.twitter.com/xJtd500PHa
— Senator Roland Gutierrez (@RolandForTexas) October 1, 2022
7:43 p.m. Castro on mental health
Former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro tweeted that Gov. Greg Abbott bragged about Texas being No. 27 in the country in mental health. He tweeted, “Sums it all up about Abbott. He’s just bad at his job.”
Greg Abbott just bragged in the gubernatorial debate about Texas being “27th in mental health funding.” Sums it all up about Abbott. He’s just bad at his job.
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) October 1, 2022
7:40 p.m. Abbott: More border crossings under Biden
Fact check: Figures from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol say that agents recorded 1.66 million arrests along the southern border in 2021, which was President Joe Biden’s first year in office. This number surpasses the record high of 1.64 million arrests in 2000.
However, in 2021, there were 63%, or just over 1 million, of immigrants expelled from the country under a Trump-era order Title 42.
7:37 p.m. O’Rourke: Texas cut $211 million in mental health care
Fact check: Gov. Abbott has been pushing the need for mental health care as the reason behind the 18-year-old gunman shooting and killing students in Uvalde.
But Texas has cut nearly $211 million in funding for the state department that is responsible for mental health care, Health and Human Services. In 2021, the state cut $173.3 million from HHS and $93.4 million in 2022.
7:34 p.m. Senator Roland Gutierrez slams Abbott’s comments on Uvalde
Senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, tweeted Abbott hasn’t done anything for the families in Uvalde after the mass shooting. He stated, “They are struggling.”
Abbott says he feels the pain of the parents from #Uvalde. Yet, he hasn’t done ANYTHING to help the families. They are struggling. THEY WANT ANSWERS AND ACTIONS.
They are tired of Abbott’s excuses and so am I. #TXGovDebate pic.twitter.com/WX1yimK0iA
— Senator Roland Gutierrez (@RolandForTexas) October 1, 2022
7:33 p.m. Abbott: O’Rourke said ‘There is no problem in the border’
Fact check: Beto O’Rourke has avoided calling the immigrants coming across the Texas-Mexico border a “crisis” but has not said that it is not a problem.
In April, O’Rourke told the Tribune that he is in favor of the border and wants to support Border Patrol.
7:30 p.m. Abbott: Can’t raise age to buy assault-style rifles
Fact check: Gov. Abbott has made this claim multiple times after the Uvalde mass shooting that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers. He said that raising the age is “unconstitutional” due to recent court rulings.
While there are cases circulating the courts, legal experts say the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legal age to buy an assault-style rifle or other firearms.
7:24 p.m. More migrant encounters
Fact check: O’Rourke noted there are more migrant encounters at TX border since Abbott began Operation Lonestar. Texas Tribune reported the state has seen a slower rate of growth than other states but still more encounters.
In #TXGovDebate, O’Rourke noted there are more migrant encounters at the TX border since Abbott began Operation Lonestar.
Here’s more from @James_Barragan, who reported TX saw a a slower rate of growth than other states but still more encounters: https://t.co/XhY1foBbpQ
— María Méndez (@anxious_maria) October 1, 2022
7:17 p.m. Abbott fumbling over words
Texas Representative Julie Johnson tweeted she believes Abbott is nervous and fumling over his words.
Is it me or does Abbott seem nervous and fumbling all over his words? #TXGovDebate
— Julie Johnson (@juliejohnsonTX) October 1, 2022
7:15 p.m. Social rea...
Five Arkansas Billionaires On Forbes List Of Wealthiest Americans For 2022
Five Arkansas Billionaires On Forbes List Of Wealthiest Americans For 2022 https://digitalarkansasnews.com/five-arkansas-billionaires-on-forbes-list-of-wealthiest-americans-for-2022/
by: Alex Kienlen
Posted: Sep 30, 2022 / 08:05 PM CDT
Updated: Sep 30, 2022 / 08:05 PM CDT
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Forbes magazine is out with its Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, and Arkansas has five names on the list.
Top of the Arkansas list and 10 on the Forbes list is Jim Walton at $57.9 billion, up one spot from 2021. Walton is the son of Walmart founder Sam Walton and chairman of the Bentonville-headquartered Arvest Bank. Forbes reports he and his sister Alice are leading a program that will issue $300 million in bonds for charter schools to invest in facilities.
Rob Walton, center, is flanked by Condoleezza Rice, left, and Mellody Hobson during a news conference at the Denver Broncos’ headquarters Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, in Centennial, Colo. Rice and Hobson are limited partners in the Walton-Penner ownership group which has purchased the Broncos. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Rob Walton has the second position for Arkansas, with a $56.7 billion net worth. The retired Walmart chairman is Sam Walton’s oldest son. He is also the twelfth name on the Forbes 400 list. In June, Walton led a group that agreed to purchase the NFL’s Denver Broncos for $4.7 billion, a record price for a sports franchise.
Heirs of Sam Walton own roughly half of all Walmart stock, Forbes reports. Alice Walton, Sam’s only daughter, has a net worth of $55.7 billion and ranks 15 on the Forbes 400. A Texas resident, Alice’s name is not part of the Arkansas list. In total, seven members of the Walton family are on the Forbes 400 list.
Johnelle Hunt
Johnelle Hunt is number three on the Arkansas list, with a $4.2 billion net worth. Her wealth results from her and her late husband selling their home in 1961 to finance what would become J.B. Hunt Transport Services, one of the largest transportation companies in the country. She has donated $5 million to the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Center in Springdale.
Little Rock investment banker Warren Stephens is number four on the Forbes list for Arkansas. Stephens Inc. was founded in 1933 by Stephen’s uncle Witt in 1933 and underwrote Walmart’s initial public offering in 1970. Stephens became CEO of the investment bank in 2006. Forbes does not mention it, but Stephens founded The Alotian Club, which has the only golf course in Arkansas to make America’s Greatest 100 Courses list, according to Golf Digest.
Coming in at number five on the Arkansas Forbes 400 list is Barbara Tyson, with $3 billion in net worth. Tyson inherited a stake in Tyson Foods when her husband Randal died in 1986. She serves on the board of the company, which produces roughly 20% of America’s beef, pork and chicken since 1988, Forbes reports. She is now a company consultant, having retired as a Tyson Foods vice-president in 2002.
To see full list of the richest people in America, head to Forbes.com/400.
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Judge Says Trump Administrations Pork Inspection Rules Do Not Violate Industry Health Standards
Judge Says Trump Administration’s Pork Inspection Rules Do Not Violate Industry Health Standards https://digitalarkansasnews.com/judge-says-trump-administrations-pork-inspection-rules-do-not-violate-industry-health-standards/
OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge sided with the feds Friday, finding that Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s rules for inspecting pigs before they are sent to slaughter are not “arbitrary and capricious,” nor do they violate food safety standards.
A group of three nonprofits including the Center for Food Safety, Food & Water Watch and the Humane Farming Association alleged in federal court in February 2020 that Perdue’s rollback of food-safety inspection regulations at pig-slaughtering plants will result in dangerous pork products. After the groups moved for summary judgment in January this year, the feds filed an opposition and cross-motion for summary judgment on Feb. 24.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture rolled out a New Swine Inspection System (NSIS) in 2019, couching it as an effort to modernize pork inspections throughout the country by establishing a “voluntary inspection system” for slaughterhouses while speeding up the slaughter lines for more efficient processing. The environmental advocacy groups claimed the government’s move to turn hog inspection over to private companies will lead to adulterated and unwholesome pork products ending up in grocery stores and restaurants throughout the country.
The plaintiffs said the feds’ program relies in large part on meat company employees conducting inspections instead of government inspectors, and by changing historic practices could increase danger to public health. They said an examination of USDA data showed that plants that piloted the new system had significantly more regulatory violations for fecal and digestive matter on carcasses than traditional plants.
The groups also alleged that employees in these plants repeatedly could not perform newly assigned inspection tasks, such as slicing and feeling lymph nodes, usually performed by trained federal USDA inspectors to identify animal conditions and diseases.
The federal government is likely to adopt these rules at plants producing more than 90% of the U.S. pork supply, the advocates said.
“The Trump administration implemented this outrageous self-policing initiative that hands over inspection duties to meat companies themselves — even though 48 million Americans get sick every year due to foodborne illness,” said Zach Corrigan, senior attorney for Food & Water Watch in a statement.
In February 2021, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White — a George W. Bush appointee — greenlit the lawsuit, finding the threat of tainted pork on American dinner tables enough to give the groups standing to bring their case. In April this year, White granted the plaintiffs’ request to voluntarily dismiss two claims for relief with prejudice.
But on Friday, White said the environmental groups did not prove their claim that the new inspection program did not meet the government’s own standards — denying the groups’ motion for summary judgment and instead granting it for the government.
He said the government’s argument, asserting that plaintiffs’ declarations used an “erroneous” claim that pork produced under the NSIS program is “higher risk” than pork produced under the traditional inspection system, was only an argument on the merits. But he said he agreed with the federal government’s statement that the pre-inspection sorting conducted by plant employees does not replace federal inspection and is an additional step in the process before federal inspection occurs.
“Under NSIS, federal inspectors still inspect each animal before it is slaughtered for meat,” White wrote. He cited the government’s report that pre-inspection divides healthy and abnormal animals, and federal inspectors then inspect healthy animals to determine any suspect conditions.
“Thus, the pre-inspection sorting process does not replace federal inspection; federal inspectors still inspect the animals ‘before they shall be allowed to enter into any slaughtering establishment, in which they are to be slaughtered’ … and thus the Final Rule does not injure plaintiffs or their members,” White wrote.
He also agreed with the government that the practice of isolating animals suspected of abnormal conditions, and subsequently being examined to determine being unfit for slaughter, meets the agency’s own health standards.
White found that the NSIS program is not “capricious,” and the fact that federal government inspectors may have ignored instances of worker non-compliance with inspection standards is not sufficient to find the NSIS arbitrary. The judge was also not convinced that the feds’ failure to allow notice and comment on a revised risk assessment altered the NSIS in a way that prevented the public from providing comment on proposed illness reductions.
White issued a subsequent judgment to close the case in favor of the federal government.
“Because the court failed to condemn these Trump-era reductions in safety measures for hog slaughter, we can only hope we don’t see more foodborne illness or even further pandemics that should be protected by our federal meat processing law,” said Amy van Saun, senior attorney with Center for Food Safety.
“We are disappointed that the court upheld USDA’s dangerous rules, allowing profit-driven meat companies to ramp up line speeds and police their own slaughterhouses, putting both workers and consumers at risk in the process,” said Tarah Heinzen, legal director of Food & Water Watch. “While USDA continues to let the fox guard the henhouse, Food & Water Watch will keep working to hold Big Ag accountable for its harms to frontline workers, consumers, animals, and the environment.”
Farm Sanctuary president and co-founder Gene Baur said by email after reviewing the lawsuit outcome Friday that he thinks “Entrenched factory farm interests wield undue influence in political and legal institutions, and they act irresponsibly. In the absence of proper government oversight, citizens can take matters into their own hands by voting with their dollars and avoiding animal products.”
Robert Field, a professor of public health and law at Drexel University, said in an interview that he was not surprised by the judge’s ruling, as he said judges tend to give federal agencies “wide deference to interpret the extent of their own powers.”
Because federal agencies are required to gather evidence before issuing a rule, Field said being found “arbitrary or capricious” usually only happens when a court finds an agency is actually acting outside of its authority. But he said he was surprised that the Biden administration is maintaining and defending Trump-era policies like the NSIS, and disappointed that the industry is being allowed to inspect itself -— which he considers “going backwards.”
“We assume in this country that our food is going to be generally safe,” he said. “We don’t think about it until there’s a problem, and this industry self-inspection has the potential to create health hazards.”
Field said he does expect the issue of federal agency discretion to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, possibly within the year.
“Conservative Supreme Court justices have indicated that they would like to restrict discretion of federal agencies,” he said. “Their concern is these bureaucratic agencies led by unelected officials could go ‘too far.’ Allowing broad agency discretion is usually going to favor consumers or broad interest groups. But in this case, agency discretion seems to be favoring the industry over consumers.”
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Trump Officials Sabotaged Biden Transition In Very Petty Ways Book Claims
Trump Officials Sabotaged Biden Transition In Very Petty Ways, Book Claims https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-officials-sabotaged-biden-transition-in-very-petty-ways-book-claims/
In the final days of the Trump administration, weeks after an insurrection that tried to thwart Congress from certifying the election results, White House staff attempted to sabotage Biden’s entry into the executive branch, according to details released in Maggie Haberman’s new book, Confidence Man. Among other things, transition employees faced delays when dealing with the Pentagon, were refused a computer terminal password for budget building, and were left a broken air conditioning unit from an employee of the prior administration, stuffed to the brim with photocopies of Hunter Biden’s face. Top members of Biden’s team were also reportedly baffled by the actions of Mark Meadows, who appeared completely out of the loop of typical procedure, at one point allegedly asking his Biden counterpart Ron Klain how many days out of the week the future President would be needing the intelligence briefing.
Read it at Politico
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Biden Signs Bill To Avert Government Shutdown Aid Ukraine
Biden Signs Bill To Avert Government Shutdown, Aid Ukraine https://digitalarkansasnews.com/biden-signs-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown-aid-ukraine/
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed into law Friday a bill that finances the federal government through mid-December and provides another infusion of military and economic aid to Ukraine after lawmakers acted to avert a partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight.
The bill passed the House by a vote of 230-201 earlier in the day. Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the measure. Some wanted to extend government funding into January when, based on the results of the midterm elections, it’s possible they’ll have more leverage over setting federal spending for the full fiscal year. Others argued the measure needed to do more to address border security.
Democrats said passing the bill was important to helping Ukraine as well as victims of recent natural disasters in the U.S., including Hurricane Ian, as it provides a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster fund with a year’s worth of money up front rather than for two-and-a-half months.
“Turn on the news. Look what’s happening in Florida right now. Look at what happened to Puerto Rico. Look at what’s happening in Alaska. I mean, people need help,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “And look at what’s happening in Ukraine. Do we support helping preserve democracy in Ukraine or not? That’s what’s at stake here.”
But Republicans complained the bill brought to the floor was not subject to bipartisan negotiations in the House and didn’t reflect their priorities.
“We know we have a crisis on the southern border. You can turn on the television every night. You can look at the fentanyl pouring into the country, You can see the tragedy of human trafficking. Is there anything in this bill that asks us to do anything different, anything new?” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. “No, you just ask, ‘please allow us to continue the current state of affairs on the southern border.’ That is a travesty.”
In the end, support for the bill was unanimous among Democratic lawmakers. Only 10 Republican lawmakers joined them in voting yes.
Later Friday, former President Donald Trump responded to the bill’s passage with a racist message on his social media platform attacking Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his Asian American wife, who also served in Trump’s administration as a Cabinet secretary. Trump ominously wrote that McConnell has a “death wish.”
The bill finances the federal government through Dec. 16 and buys lawmakers more time to agree on legislation setting spending levels for the 2023 fiscal year. The bill generally keeps spending at current levels, though it does provide more than $12.3 billion in Ukraine-related aid. The money will go to provide training, equipment and logistics support for the Ukraine military, help Ukraine’s government provide basic services to its citizens and replenish U.S. weapons systems and munitions.
“This contribution ensures we continue upholding our moral responsibility to support the people of Ukraine in the face of a vicious invasion that continues to demand decisive action by us,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
Disaster assistance was also attached to the stopgap bill, including $2.5 billion to help New Mexico communities recover from the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, the largest wildfire in the state’s history; $2 billion for a block grant program that aids the economic recovery of communities impacted by recent disasters; and $20 million for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements previously authorized for Jackson, Mississippi.
“We cannot leave communities behind that are still picking up the pieces from disastrous floods, wildfires and hurricane, and even basic water system failures,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.
The bill would provide an additional $1 billion for a program that helps low-income households heat their homes. And it would transfer $3 billion from a Pentagon aid program to the State Department for continued Afghan resettlement operations.
Lawmakers also included a reauthorization of the Food and Drug Administration’s user fee agreements for five years, which ensures the agency can continue critical product safety reviews and won’t need to issue pink slips for thousands of employees working on drug and medical device applications.
One thing missing from the bill is the billions of dollars in additional funding that Biden sought to aid the response to COVID-19 and monkeypox. Republicans criticized the health spending as unnecessary. The White House said the money would have been used to accelerate the research and development of vaccines and therapeutics, prepare for future COVID variants and support the global response.
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This Week https://digitalarkansasnews.com/this-week/
At a Good Clip
The Bullet That Missed, British TV presenter-turned-novelist Richard Osman’s “diverting third Thursday Murder Club mystery,” per our review, “delivers laughs along with a nicely woven plot involving fraud, murder, and life in the Kent retirement village of Coopers Chase.” It hits our hardcover fiction list at #3, with stronger first-week print unit sales than those of its bestselling predecessors combined.
Literary Callbacks
Characters from a pair of lit fic heavy hitters return, convening on our hardcover fiction list. At #7, Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea is the latest “captivating entry in the Lucy Barton series,” per our starred review, after 2021’s Oh William! “This time, Lucy decamps to rural Maine during the first year of the Covid lockdown,” where “loneliness, grief, longing, and loss pervade intertwined family stories as Lucy and William attempt to create new friendships in an initially hostile town.”
Five years after the publication of his Pulitzer-winning Less, Andrew Sean Greer is back with Less Is Lost, “another delightful road story featuring middle-aged writer Arthur Less,” according to our review. “Though a bit overboard at times, Greer packs in plenty of humor and some nicely poignant moments,” and lands at #14 on our list.
Maybe New
Sure, a Colleen Hoover bestseller isn’t exactly news anymore. But how about a new Colleen Hoover novel? Or new-ish, anyway: in 2018, after Atria had published Hoover’s Maybe Someday and Maybe Not, the author began posting the series finale, Maybe Now, one (unedited) chapter at a time for free on Wattpad; self-published paperback and e-book editions followed. This week, a new trade paper edition from Atria, which includes a new chapter, is the #7 book in the country. And watch this space: It Starts with Us, the sequel to Hoover’s It Ends with Us, is out October 18.
NEW & NOTABLE
THE DIVIDER
Peter Baker and Susan Glasser
#3 Hardcover Nonfiction
For this “comprehensive and scathing chronicle of the Trump administration,” our starred review said, married journalists Baker and Glasser enrich “their own reporting with the juiciest material from the slew of books about the Trump presidency, fashion[ing] a coherent narrative out of the chaos.”
ODDER
Katherine Applegate
#16 Children’s Fiction
“Applegate delivers an uplifting tale of an inquisitive sea otter pup raised by scientists after being separated from her mother,” per our starred review. “Though humans make cameo appearances in this edifying novel about otter life, the focus remains rightfully on its enigmatic star: a lovable otter who not only survives against the odds but thrives.”
A version of this article appeared in the 10/03/2022 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Behind the Bestsellers Sept. 18–24, 2022
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Plea Deal For Ex-Trump Adviser Accused Of Unwanted Advances
Plea Deal For Ex-Trump Adviser Accused Of Unwanted Advances https://digitalarkansasnews.com/plea-deal-for-ex-trump-adviser-accused-of-unwanted-advances/
Crime
While he does not admit to any wrongdoing, Corey Lewandowski will undergo eight hours of impulse control counseling and 50 hours of community service.
The Associated Press
By Associated Press
September 30, 2022 | 7:47 PM
LAS VEGAS (AP) — An ex-adviser to former President Donald Trump has taken a plea deal to resolve allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances to a GOP donor at a Las Vegas event.
Corey Lewandowski entered into a plea agreement earlier this month involving a charge of misdemeanor battery, according to online Clark County records.
While he does not admit to any wrongdoing, Lewandowski will undergo eight hours of impulse control counseling and 50 hours of community service.
Court documents dated Monday state that the charge will be dismissed if he satisfies these requirements and stays out of trouble for one year.
“A misdemeanor case was filed but we are pleased to say the matter has been resolved,” defense attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld said in a statement. “The court set conditions that Mr. Lewandowski will fulfill and the case will ultimately be dismissed.”
The plea agreement was first reported by Politico.
Trump donor Trashelle Odom publicly alleged Lewandowski repeatedly touched her without her permission, made lewd comments and stalked her throughout a September 2021 fundraising event. Odom is the wife of Idaho construction executive John Odom.
The allegations led to several Republican figures cutting ties with him.
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