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HONOLULU (AP) — The last bits of ash and greenhouse gases from Hawaii’s only remaining coal-fired power plant slipped into the environment this week when the state’s dirtiest source of electricity burned its final pieces of fuel.
The last coal shipment arrived in the islands at the end of July, and the AES Corporation coal plant closed Thursday after 30 years in operation. The facility produced up to one-fifth of the electricity on Oahu — the most populous island in a state of nearly 1.5 million people.
“It really is about reducing greenhouse gases,” Hawaii Gov. David Ige said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And this coal facility is one of the largest emitters. Taking it offline means that we’ll stop the 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases that were emitted annually.”
Like other Pacific islands, the Hawaiian chain has suffered the cascading impacts of climate change. The state is experiencing the destruction of coral reefs from bleaching associated with increased ocean temperatures, rapid sea level rise, more intense storms and drought that is increasing the state’s wildfire risk.
In 2020, Hawaii’s Legislature passed a law banning the use of coal for energy production at the start of 2023. Hawaii has mandated a transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045, and was the first state to set such a goal.
But critics say that while ending the state’s dirtiest source of energy is ultimately a good move, doing so now is not. Renewable sources meant to replace coal energy are not yet on line because of permitting delays, contract issues and pandemic-related supply-chain problems. So the state will instead burn more costly oil that is only slightly less polluting than coal.
“If you are a believer that climate change is going to end because we shut down this coal plant, this is a great day for you,” said Democratic state Sen. Glenn Wakai, chair of the Committee on Economic Development, Tourism and Technology. “But if you pay an electricity bill, this is a disastrous day for you.”
The end of coal and the additional cost of oil will translate to a 7% increase in electricity bills for consumers who already face the nation’s highest energy and living costs.
“What we’re doing … is transitioning from the cheapest fossil fuel to the most expensive fossil fuel,” Wakai said. “And we’re going to be subjected to geopolitical issues on pricing for oil as well as access to oil. ”
The AES coal plant closure means Hawaii joins 10 other states with no major coal-fired power facilities, according to data from Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit advocating for a global transition to clean energy. Rhode Island and Vermont never had any coal-fired power plants.
While Hawaii is the first state to fully implement a ban on coal, a handful of others previously passed laws. The 2015 law in Oregon, the first state to pass a ban, isn’t effective until 2035. Washington state’s 2020 coal ban starts in 2025. California, Maine and Texas are among states that have restricted construction of new coal-fired plants.
The number of coal-burning units in the United States peaked in 2001 at about 1,100. More than half have stopped operating since then, with most switching to more cost-effective natural gas.
U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows oil generated about two-thirds of Hawaii’s electricity in 2021. That makes Hawaii the most petroleum-dependent state, even as it tries to make a rapid transition to renewables.
Hawaii already gets about 40% of its power from sustainable sources including wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal.
State Sen. Kurt Fevella, a Republican and the Senate Minority Leader, suggested that Hawaiian Electric Company and other energy corporations should absorb the additional cost of shifting to renewables.
“The fact that Hawaii’s families are already doing what is necessary to reduce their energy uses while still paying the most in the nation for household electricity is unsustainable,” said Fevella. “While I believe utility companies like HECO can do more to reduce the energy burden passed on to Hawaii’s ratepayers, I also believe developers of renewal energy projects should also bear a greater portion of the transmission costs.”
Hawaiian Electric Company, the state’s sole distributor of electricity, said it can do little to change the prices to consumers.
“We’re a regulated monopoly,” said Vice President of Government and Community Relations and Corporate Communications Jim Kelly. ”So we don’t set the prices. We don’t make any money on the fuels that we use to generate electricity.”
AES, the operator of Hawaii’s last coal plant, has transitioned to creating clean energy and is working on large solar farms across the state, including one in West Oahu that will replace some lost coal energy when completed next year.
“Renewables are getting cheaper by the day,” said Leonardo Moreno, president of AES Corporation’s clean energy division. “I envision a future where energy is very, very cheap, abundant and renewable.”
Sustainable energy experts say getting rid of coal is critical in curbing climate change. While the current renewable landscape is not perfect, they say technologies are improving.
“This is the decade of climate action that we really need to be moving on right now,” said Makena Coffman, University of Hawaii professor and director for the Institute for Sustainability and Resilience. “And so these are available technologies and they might get incrementally better, but let’s not wait 10 years to do it.”
Profits from the increased electricity costs to Hawaii consumers will go mostly to overseas oil producers, said Hawaii’s Chief Energy Officer Scott Glenn.
Hawaii’s petroleum is distributed by Par Pacific, a Houston-based company which has traditionally sourced the state’s oil from Libya and Russia. But after the invasion of Ukraine, Hawaii halted oil shipments from Russia and replaced it with products from Argentina.
Extending the coal plant’s operation would be complicated and costly, Glenn said, noting that the plant has been planning decommissioning for years and would now have to buy coal at market price.
“Coal is going up. It’s getting more expensive,” he said of the supply Hawaii gets from clearcut rainforests in Indonesia. “If we were using U.S. coal, it would not be the cheapest energy source on the grid.”
Why would Hawaii, a small U.S. state in the middle of the Pacific, try to lead the way in moving to sustainable energy?
“We are already feeling the effects of climate change,'” Glenn said. “It’s not fair or right to ask other nations or states to act on our behalf if we are not willing and able to do it ourselves. If we don’t, we drown.”
___
Associated Press data journalist Mary Katherine Wildeman in Hartford, Conn. contributed to this report.
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Follow Caleb Jones on Twitter: @CalebAP. Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
___
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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| 2022-09-21T12:38:22Z
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BEIRUT (AP) — Forty years since Hezbollah was founded at the height of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the group has morphed from a ragtag organization to the largest and most heavily armed militant group in the Middle East.
The Iranian-armed and funded Hezbollah, which has marked the anniversary with ceremonies in its strongholds in recent weeks, dominates Lebanon’s politics and plays an instrumental role in spreading Tehran’s influence throughout the Arab world.
But the Shiite powerhouse, once praised around the Arab world for unrelentingly standing against Israel, faces deep criticism on multiple fronts.
At home in Lebanon, a significant part of the population opposes its grip on power and accuses it of using the threat of force to prevent change. Across the region, many resent its military interventions in Iraq and in Syria’s civil war, where it helped tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar Assad’s forces.
There is no specific date on when Hezbollah was founded, starting as a small, shadowy group of fighters helped by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. But the group says it happened during the summer of 1982.
The 40th anniversary comes this year as Hezbollah officials have warned of a possible new war with Israel over the disputed gas-rich maritime border between Lebanon and Israel.
Over the years, Hezbollah has boosted its military power. It boasts of having 100,000 well-trained fighters. And now its leader says they have precision-guided missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel and prevent ships from reaching Israel’s Mediterranean coast, as well as advanced drones that can either strike or gather intelligence.
“Hezbollah has evolved tremendously in the past four decades in its organizational structure, global reach, and regional involvements,” says Middle East analyst Joe Macaron.
Hezbollah’s biggest achievement over the past 40 years was its guerrilla war against Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Lebanon. When Israel’s army was forced to withdraw in May 2000 — without a peace deal like the ones it reached with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians — the victory brought Hezbollah praise from around the Middle East.
“Who would have imagined that our enemy could be defeated?” Hezbollah’s chief spokesman Mohammed Afif said a press conference held in July to mark the anniversary.
But since the withdrawal, the controversy over Hezbollah has steadily grown as its role has changed.
In 2005, Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the most powerful Sunni politician in the country at the time, was killed in a massive truck bomb in Beirut. A U.N.-backed tribunal accused three Hezbollah members of being behind the assassination. Hezbollah denies the charges.
Hezbollah was blamed for other assassinations that followed, mostly targeting Christians and Sunni Muslim politicians and intellectuals critical of the group. Hezbollah denies the accusations.
“Hezbollah’s danger to Lebanon is huge,” says journalist and former Cabinet minister May Chidiac who lost an arm and a leg in a 2005 assassination attempt with explosives placed in her car. She said Hezbollah has been expanding Iran’s influence in Lebanon, “and this is a long-term plan that they have been working on for 40 years.”
Asked if Hezbollah is to blame for the attempt on her life, Chidiac said: “Of course. There is no doubt about that. All these assassinations are linked.”
Lebanese have been sharply divided by Hezbollah’s determination to keep its weapons since Israel’s withdrawal. Some call for its disarmament, saying only the state should have the right to carry weapons. Others support the group’s stance that it must continue to be able to defend against Israel.
Hezbollah fought Israel to a draw in a 34-day war in the summer of 2006. Israel today considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating that the militant group has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at it.
In early July, the Israeli military shot down three unmanned aircraft launched by Hezbollah heading toward an area where an Israeli gas platform was recently installed in the Mediterranean Sea. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that Israel will not be allowed to benefit from its gas fields in the disputed maritime border area before a deal is reached with Lebanon.
Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the incoming head of Israel’s Northern Command, described Hezbollah as a “serious threat,” due to both its proximity to Israel and its arsenal.
“This is a very strong terror army,” he told The Associated Press in Jerusalem. “Not as strong as the Israeli military, not as strong as the Israeli air force. We are in a completely different place when it comes to our military capabilities. But it can do some significant damage. I have to say that.”
Afif, the Hezbollah spokesman, said that “as long as there is an aggression, there will be resistance.”
In 2008, the government of Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Saniora decided to dismantle Hezbollah’s telecommunications network. Hezbollah responded by capturing by force Sunni neighborhoods in Beirut. It was the worst internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war ended and marked a breach in Hezbollah’s pledge never to use its weapons at home.
Perhaps the most controversial decision Hezbollah has made was by sending thousands of fighters to Syria since 2013 to back Assad against opposition fighters, as well as against al-Qaida-linked fighters and the Islamic State group.
The intervention “meant becoming entangled in the internal conflict of a neighboring Arab country rather than fulfilling Hezbollah’s claimed mandate of resistance against Israel,” Macaron said.
Across the Arab world, it cemented an image of Hezbollah as a sectarian Shiite force fighting mainly Sunni insurgents and spreading Iran’s power.
Hezbollah was also accused of helping Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, leading at least six Arab countries to list the group as a terrorist organization.
Within Lebanon, Hezbollah has used its powerful support among the Shiite community and tough tactics to gain political dominance.
In 2016, it secured the election of its Christian ally Michel Aoun as president, then it and its allies won a parliament majority in subsequent elections.
But that also sealed its role as part of a governing system whose decades of corruption and mismanagement have been blamed for Lebanon’s economic collapse, starting in late 2019. With the currency crumbling and much of the population thrown into poverty, the political elite, which has been running Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war ended, has resisted reforms.
Massive protests demanding the removal of those politicians began in late 2019, and days afterward, hundreds of Hezbollah supporters attacked the protesters in downtown Beirut, forcing them to flee. In October, Hezbollah supporters and a rival militia had an armed clash in Beirut over investigations into the 2020 devastating explosion at Beirut’s port.
Voters punished Hezbollah and its allies in this year’s elections, making them lose their parliamentary majority.
One former senior figure in Hezbollah, Sobhi Tufaili, pointed to the new image of the group as part of the system in a recent interview with a local TV station.
“There is a ship full of thieves,” he said, “and Hezbollah is its captain and protector.”
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Associated Press writer Josef Federman contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
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| 2022-09-21T12:38:29Z
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sent a written response early Friday in negotiations over a final draft of a roadmap for parties to return to its tattered nuclear deal with world powers, though the U.S. cast doubt on Tehran’s offer.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement that “the sent text has a constructive approach with the aim of finalizing the negotiations.”
However, as in the last round of written proposals and counters, Iran offered no public acknowledgment of what it said. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state in the country’s Shiite theocracy, largely has been silent in recent weeks on the negotiations.
In Washington, the State Department confirmed it received Iran’s response through the European Union, which has served as an intermediary for the indirect talks after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in 2018.
“We are studying it and will respond through the EU, but unfortunately it is not constructive,” the State Department said, similarly not elaborating on what the proposal contained.
The 2015 deal saw Iran greatly curtail its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Under the deal, Iran could have only 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 3.67% under constant scrutiny of International Atomic Energy Agency surveillance cameras and inspectors.
Now, however, the last public IAEA count shows Iran has a stockpile of some 3,800 kilograms (8,370 pounds) of enriched uranium. More worrying for nonprofileration experts, Iran now enriches uranium up to 60% purity — a level it never reached before that is a short, technical step away from 90%. Those experts warn Iran has enough 60%-enriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least one nuclear bomb.
While Iran long has maintained its program is peaceful, officials now openly discuss Tehran’s ability to seek an atomic bomb if it wanted. Meanwhile, a series of attacks across the wider Mideast since the deal’s collapse have raised tensions of a wider conflict breaking out.
Both the U.S. and Iran have tried to portray the ongoing negotiations as bending in their favor on issues like the American sanctions targeting Tehran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Earlier this week, Iran’s hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi maintained that an IAEA investigation into traces of man-made uranium found at undeclared nuclear sites in the country must be halted.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:38:44Z
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MYKHAILO-KOTSYUBYNSKE, Ukraine (AP) — It was the first day of school in Ukraine on Thursday but children weren’t sharing memories of fun vacations with their families. Their stories were of surviving war. For many, their last day of school was the day before the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of their country.
At least 379 children have been killed since the war began, while the whereabouts of 223 others are unknown, according to Ukraine’s General Prosecutors office. Another 7,013 children were among Ukrainians forcibly transferred to Russia from Russian-occupied areas.
Six months of war damaged 2,400 schools across the country, including 269 that were completely destroyed, officials said.
Civilian areas and schools continue to be hit, and children keep being killed. But after the first months of shock, 51% of schools in Ukraine, despite the risk, are reopening to in-person education, with an option to study online if the parents prefer.
But safety remains the priority. At schools that don’t have quick access to shelters or are located close to the borders with Belarus and Russia, or near active military zones, children will only study online.
That’s the case for the seventh graders in Mykhailo-Kotsyubynske, just 20 miles (35 kilometers) from the Belarus border, who gathered at their badly damaged school this week to pick up textbooks for studying online.
“We haven’t seen each other for such a long time. You all have grown so much,” said their teacher, Olena Serdiuk, standing in a corner of the classroom, where windows were covered with thick black polythene instead of glass.
Oleksii Lytvyn, 13, remembers very well the day Russian missiles hit the school twice. It was March 4, and he was in the school’s bomb shelter with his family and dozens of other people.
Just minutes before the blast, he had been playing with a friend. After the loud explosion, the walls began shaking and he couldn’t see anything but a huge cloud of debris. One person was killed, a woman who worked at the school.
“We were sleeping in the corridor, and there was a corpse of a dead person behind the wall,” Oleksii recalled. His family stayed one more night before fleeing town, though they have since returned for the start of the school year.
Oleksii’s classmates shared similar stories about that day and the monthlong Russian occupation that followed.
“When I’m at school, I think about the person who died in the debris. I feel deeply sorry for her,” 12-year-old Mykola Kravchenko said.
Their school is still badly damaged. Debris fills the second floor, and the roof and heating system need to be repaired — money the school doesn’t have.
Even though they will be studying online, the students had to undergo security training. Serdiuk told the class to follow her to the same bomb shelter where many survived the blast in March.
In the dimly lit shelter were water supplies and long benches with labeled seats for each classroom. When the children took the seats assigned to their class, Serdiuk told them they had to go there whenever they heard a siren.
She said many parents tell her their children are begging to return to school, but for now that isn’t allowed because of the danger of being so close to the Belarus border.
“It does become kind of the new normal for children,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine M. Russell, told The Associated Press. “That’s not the way children should go through life, thinking that they are going to get attacked at any moment.”
Schools in the Kyiv and Lviv regions were among those welcoming students back to classrooms Thursday, including more than 7,300 displaced students forced to flee their hometowns.
In a neighborhood of Irpin, north of Kyiv, still bearing the scars of war, with destroyed homes and shrapnel-marked fences and walls, first-grade children lined up excitedly for their first day of classes in their newly renovated school.
Hit by a missile during the early days of the war, Irpin School Number 17 was rebuilt with the help of UNICEF, the faint smell of fresh paint still lingering as the students walked into their classrooms hand-in-hand.
“This year is different to the others. We are in a war situation,” said first grade teacher Olga Malyovana. “We were really worried about the children and their safety, but we fixed all the facilities, we have a shelter.”
First order of the day was an evacuation drill, with a fire alarm going off and all the children lining up to head to the basement bomb shelter or designated safe — and windowless — areas in the corridors.
Oleksandra Urban came to drop off her 6-year-old daughter, Veronika, the normal trepidation of the first day of school mingling with worry about classes during wartime, even though strikes on Kyiv and nearby areas are now rare.
She’s explained to Veronica how to evacuate to a bomb shelter, she said. “She is worried only when I am worried. That’s why I am trying to be calm.”
Urban and her husband discussed distance learning for Veronika, but decided physical presence in school was essential, both for contact with other children and with the teacher.
“I believe that school will save the life of my kid,” Urban said.
Murat Sahin, UNICEF representative in Ukraine, agreed.
“Two years of Covid and … six months of war, it is having disastrous impact on children’s growth and learning and mental health,” Sahin said. “So we need to bring that normalcy.”
In Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, there’s no hope for schools to open their doors — the city has been under constant shelling since the beginning of the war.
In one school, the first-grade classroom was all ready: tables, chairs, a clean blackboard, the alphabet and numbers hanging on the wall. The only thing missing was the students.
Seated in the empty room was Oleksandr Novikov, the school’s director for 12 years and a teacher for more than 20.
“It is very depressing, it is very unpleasant to feel that you come to an empty school,” he said. “There will be no children laughing at school.”
While Ukraine tries to defend itself from the Russian invasion, Novikov dreams of better times.
“I would like a real first bell, a real meeting with children and teachers, a real lesson, when eyes look at you with inspiration, trust and a desire to hear something new, to learn something new.”
“This is what I would like to see,” he said.
___
Fisch reported from Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros contributed from Irpin.
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Follow Arhirova at https://twitter.com/h_arhirova
___
Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T12:38:51Z
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi officials set up emergency distribution centers for handouts of water and hand sanitizer Thursday in the capital city of Jackson, as efforts to restore a flood-impaired, long-troubled water system continued.
Jackson’s residents were already under a boil-water order before flooding from the Pearl River exacerbated long-standing problems at one of the city’s two water treatment plants.
Officials said they made progress overnight in refilling tanks, treating water and increasing pressure at the O.B. Curtis Water Plant, the facility at the root of the latest water woes. Residents closer to the facility had pressure approaching normal levels, the city said in a news release, but added that many in the city still had little or no water pressure.
“It’s quite unnerving,” Jackson resident Shirley Harrington said Thursday. “It’s like playing Russian roulette. You don’t know if you’re going to wake up with water, don’t know if you got water, don’t know what condition the water is in. There’s so many statements: ‘Do not drink,’ ‘Do not use,’ ‘You can use, but don’t drink,’ so you’re like, ‘What do I really do?’”
At a midday news conference with Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and other officials, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced the opening of seven sites for distributing drinking water, non-potable water and hand sanitizer. He said 600 National Guard members were aiding the response. The seven new “megasites” follow smaller scale distribution efforts at city fire stations, churches, nonprofits and businesses.
“To everyone in the city: I know that you are dealing with a profoundly unfair situation,” Reeves said. “It’s frustrating, it’s wrong and it needs to be fixed.”
The governor and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency director Stephen McCraney promised that the state would look for long-term solutions to the city’s water problems.
The water crisis affects the city’s 150,000 residents — many of whom have been unable to take showers or flush toilets — plus an estimated 30,000 who come into the city to work at businesses without water pressure, Reeves said.
Reeves said those businesses are suffering major economic harm because of the crisis. McCraney said the state will look into the availability of federal Small Business Administration loans to aid them.
City communications director Melissa Payne said all of the water system’s customers — 46,000 residential accounts and 6,000 commercial — were affected by low water pressure at some time during the crisis. The latest available figures from the city showed that 80% of the water system’s customers had little or no water as of Wednesday morning. It was unclear how many had been substantially restored as of Thursday.
Jackson schools held classes online Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and some restaurants closed. Portable toilets are parked outside the Capitol. Jackson State University brought in temporary restrooms for students.
Reeves declared a state of emergency Monday night after excessive rainfall and flooding from the Pearl River exacerbated problems at the treatment plant. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for the state. Biden called Lumumba on Wednesday to discuss response efforts, including support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure we’re helping the people of Mississippi,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. “We are in close touch.”
Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell plans to visit the state Friday, Jean-Pierre said.
Thursday morning, the city reported “significant progress” in restoration efforts at the treatment plant, with output measuring 78 pounds per square inch, approaching a goal of 87 PSI.
“There are still challenges to navigate as the intake water source changes chemistry again. Operator schedules have been adjusted to increase coordination between shifts,” the city statement said.
In addition to on-site repairs, the city is working to obtain more chemicals needed for treatment.
___
Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.
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Associated Press video journalist Stephen Smith in Jackson and writer Kevin McGill in New Orleans contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:38:59Z
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — In a failed attempt to bar the admission into evidence several swastikas Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz drew on assignments, his attorneys made an unusual argument Thursday at his penalty trial: he was an equal opportunity killer who shot his victims without regard to race or religion.
The attorneys told Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer outside the jury’s presence that the Nazi symbol creates such strong anger and revulsion that allowing the panel to see those drawings violates his right to a fair trial because there is no evidence that his 2018 murder of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High was driven by bigotry. Those killed and the 17 wounded included white, Black, Hispanic and Asian people, Christians and Jews.
They also listed the numerous times they asked Scherer before jury selection to rule on whether the swastikas would be admitted, saying her failure affected the questions they asked prospective jurors and their trial strategy. They asked for a mistrial, which Scherer angrily rejected, calling their argument “disingenuous.”
She and prosecutors pointed out that the defense was not against admitting drawings Cruz made that included a gross slur used against Black people, which they said is equally offensive. The 12 jurors and 10 alternates include people who are white, Black, Asian and Hispanic.
Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October; the trial will only determine whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole. The jury must be unanimous to impose a death sentence.
His public defenders are in their second week of presenting testimony about Cruz’s troubled life— from his birth to a crack-addicted, hard-drinking prostitute who put him up for adoption to a childhood filled with emotional and psychological problems that witnesses said were never adequately addressed.
Their strategy is aimed at counteracting the emotional, gruesome and graphic evidence and testimony the prosecution presented over three weeks as it laid out the killings and how Cruz planned the attack.
The swastikas were drawn on English assignments presented by the defense — they wanted the symbols blacked out while maintaining other troubling drawings they contained. After Scherer rejected the lawyers’ attempt to redact the swastikas, they still presented the assignments. The jury saw the swastikas, but neither side singled them out.
The assignments were given by Carrie Yon, who taught Cruz in eighth grade at Westglades Middle School four years before the shooting. Cruz had been in special education classes for his behavior problems, but was now being allowed into some mainstream classes like Yon’s.
Yon testified Thursday she usually returned a student’s material, but kept Cruz’s because she wanted to document his behavior thinking it might be needed at some point. She also made contemporaneous notes. She turned the material over to the lawyers after the shootings.
On assignments shown in court Thursday, Cruz wrote obscenities and gay slurs and drew photos of stick figures shooting each other and having sex. He once wrote to Yon, “I hate you. I hate America.”
She said Cruz would yell in class, flash his middle fingers, throw objects and make threats. He once told her “You better give me a good grade on this assignment” and another time lunged at her and then laughed. He hit other children during one fire drill and ran into the street in another, almost getting struck by a car.
She tried working with Cruz by giving him candy and compliments when he behaved. One time, she praised him for doing his assignment, telling him she knew he could be a good student. He replied, “I’m a bad kid. I want to kill.”
On one assessment, Yon wrote, “I strongly feel Nikolas is a danger to the students and faculty at this school. He does not understand the difference between his violent feelings and reality.”
She said she originally thought Cruz wanted attention from teachers and other students, but eventually believed he wanted to get kicked out of Westglades because he had no friends and couldn’t do the work.
She frequently complained about Cruz to administrators and showed them his assignments, but some were not helpful. She said one told her, “He has a right to an education. He has a right to be here like any other kid.”
A special education teacher told Yon she was too fearful of Cruz, that she needed to “get in his face” and tell him, “Hit me, go ahead and hit me.” She refused to do that.
When asked if in her 12 years as a teacher if she ever had another student who acted like Cruz, she had a simple response.
“No.”
John Vesey, the then-Westglades principal, said in 35 years in education he also never had another student like Cruz.
“He was a much more needy kid than any kid I had ever seen,” Vesey said.
Before the end of eighth grade, Cruz was sent to a school, Cross Creek, that is for students with emotional and disciplinary problems. Cruz did relatively well there, which allowed him to eventually attend Stoneman Douglas. He was expelled from there a year before the shooting.
Vesey said success at Cross Creek is not necessarily predictive that a student like Cruz will succeed at a school like Stoneman Douglas with more than 3,000 students.
Cross Creek is “150 kids with support built in and you can make sure they are much more medication compliant,” Vesey said.
Vesey wishes he had warned Stoneman Douglas administrators about Cruz before he arrived.
“I feel very guilty about it,” he said.
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| 2022-09-21T12:39:07Z
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MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin privately laid flowers at Mikhail Gorbachev’s coffin on Thursday, snubbing the weekend’s public funeral in a move reflecting the Kremlin’s uneasiness about Gorbachev’s legacy.
Just before departing for a working trip to Russia’s western-most Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Putin visited a Moscow hospital where Gorbachev’s body was being kept before Saturday’s funeral.
Russian state television showed Putin walking to Gorbachev’s open casket and putting a bouquet of red roses next to it. He stood in silence for a few moments, bowed his head, touched the coffin, crossed himself and walked away.
“Regrettably, the president’s working schedule wouldn’t allow him to do that on Saturday, so he decided to do that today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at the age of 91, will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife, Raisa, following a farewell ceremony at the Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions, an iconic mansion near the Kremlin that has served as the venue for state funerals since Soviet times.
The Kremlin stopped short of declaring a state funeral, with Peskov saying the ceremony will have “elements” of one, such as honorary guards, and the government will help organize it. He wouldn’t elaborate, however, on how the ceremony will differ from a full-fledged state funeral.
If the Kremlin had declared a state funeral for Gorbachev, it would have made it awkward for Putin to snub the official ceremony. A state funeral would also oblige the Kremlin to send invitations to foreign leaders, something that Moscow would be reluctant to do amid soaring tensions with the West after sending troops into Ukraine.
Putin’s decision to pay a private visit to the hospital while staying away from Saturday’s public ceremony, combined with uncertainty surrounding the funeral’s status, reflect the Kremlin’s dichotomy about the legacy of Gorbachev. The late leader has been lauded in the West for reforms that put an end to the Cold War but reviled by many at home for actions that led to the 1991 Soviet collapse and plunged millions into poverty.
While avoiding explicit criticism of Gorbachev, Putin in the past has repeatedly blamed him for failing to secure written commitments from the West that would rule out NATO’s expansion eastward — an issue that became a major irritant in Russia-West ties for decades and fomented tensions that exploded when the Russian leader sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
In Wednesday’s letter of condolence released by the Kremlin, Putin praised Gorbachev as a man who left “an enormous impact on the course of world history.”
“He led the country during difficult and dramatic changes, amid large-scale foreign policy, economic and society challenges,” Putin said. “He deeply realized that reforms were necessary and tried to offer his solutions for the acute problems.”
Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, observed that Putin’s decision to privately pay tribute to Gorbachev reflected both “security problems and utter unpopularity of Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies.” At the same time, Putin wanted to show his respect to the former head of state, Markov said.
The Kremlin’s ambivalent view of Gorbachev was mirrored by state television broadcasts, which paid tribute to Gorbachev as a historic figure but described his reforms as poorly planned and held him responsible for failing to safeguard the country’s interests in dialogue with the West.
The criticism echoed earlier assessments by Putin, who has famously lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”
On Wednesday, Peskov said that Gorbachev was an “extraordinary” statesman who will “always remain in the country’s history,” but noted what he described as his idealistic view of the West.
“Gorbachev gave an impulse for ending the Cold War and he sincerely wanted to believe that it would be over and an eternal romance would start between the renewed Soviet Union and the collective West,” Peskov said. “This romanticism failed to materialize. The bloodthirsty nature of our opponents has come to light, and it’s good that we realized that in time.”
The Russian public has remained deeply divided over Gorbachev’s legacy, with some praising him for ending the Cold War and offering political freedoms after seven decades of totalitarian rule and others accusing him of betrayal.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man who spent a decade in prison on fraud and tax evasion charges widely seen as a political vendetta for challenging Putin’s power, hailed Gorbachev for dismantling the repressive Communist system.
“In Russia, Gorbachev will be remembered, on the one hand as the man who was able to give the country freedom; on the other hand, he will be remembered as the man who was not able to help Russia make use of this freedom,” Khodorkovsky, who lives in London, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Khodorkovsky described the Russian military action in Ukraine as a redux of the Russian imperial past that Gorbachev sought to demolish.
“What is happening now, the war between Russia and Ukraine, is an extension of the process of imperial collapse,” Khodorkovsky said.
___
AP journalist Susie Blann in London contributed to this report.
___
More AP stories on Mikhail Gorbachev here: https://apnews.com/hub/mikhail-gorbachev
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| 2022-09-21T12:39:15Z
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TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — Survivors and families of the victims of a sunken migrant boat off the coast of Lebanon on Thursday said they have filed a lawsuit accusing the military of detaining two missing survivors.
The boat that sank in April carried dozens of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians trying to migrate by sea to Italy. It went down more than five kilometers (three miles) from the port of Tripoli, following a confrontation with the country’s navy.
Survivors say the Lebanese navy rammed their vessel, while the military claims the migrants’ boat collided with one of their ships while trying to get away. The captain of a submarine mission last week said they found the remains of at least 10 migrants and the wreckage of the sunken boat with dents and damages.
Now, the survivors say the army has been holding two survivors who have been missing since the night of the sinking and has refused to reveal footage of the wreckage from the submarine mission. They also say the military barred them from attending a press conference with the submarine’s captain and navy officials.
The military says the investigation is ongoing and the footage from the submarine investigation has been transferred to the military probe.
“We’ve been waiting for you and the state for four months throughout this whole turmoil,” Amid Dandachi, a survivor of the doomed boat whose three children and wife drowned, said at the news conference. “I challenge you to show us the videos of the pursuit of the boat.”
Ten bodies were recovered the night the boat sank — including one of a child — while 48 survivors were pulled from the Mediterranean. According to navy estimates, 30 people were believed to have gone down with the boat.
The wreck remains some 450 meters (about 1,470 feet) below the surface.
The survivors’ lawyers have blasted the authorities’ sluggish investigation. Diala Chehade, one lawyer representing the survivors and victims’ families, urged authorities to retrieve its wreckage.
“A key reason of the submarine mission was to try to recover what remains from the bodies so their loved ones can mourn them in dignity and pray for their souls,” Chehade said at the press conference. “But there is also another key reason, which is to find and retrieve the drowned boat and forensically examine it.”
Chehade also called for transferring the probe from the military tribunal to a civic court, claiming it would be more transparent and impartial for such a case.
The April sinking was the greatest migrant tragedy for Lebanon in recent years and put the government further on the defensive at a time when the country is in economic free fall and public trust in the state and its institutions is rapidly crumbling.
With a population of about 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees, Lebanon has been mired since 2019 in an economic meltdown that has plunged three quarters of the population into poverty.
Once a country that received refugees, Lebanon has become a launching pad for dangerous migration by sea to Europe. As the crisis deepened, more Lebanese, as well as Syrian and Palestinian refugees have set off to sea, with security agencies reporting foiled migration attempts almost weekly.
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| 2022-09-21T12:39:30Z
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PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday pledged to keep up France’s humanitarian, economic and military support to Ukraine and to bolster European unity as a way to pile pressure on Russia and prevent it from winning it war in that country.
“We cannot let Russia militarily win the war,” Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors at the Elysee presidential palace.
He set the goal of enabling Ukraine to either win militarily or be put in a strong position to achieve “a negotiated peace.”
“We must get prepared for a long war,” Macron said, adding that this would involve tensions escalating over Ukraine’s nuclear plants.
Macron said France strongly supported the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency that arrived Thursday to the Zaporizhzhia plant to assess its safety. The French president suggested he would call his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after the IAEA mission concludes.
Macron vowed to “keep talking” to Russia despite criticism from some countries, especially in eastern Europe, which defend a hardline stance against Moscow. “We must do everything to make a negotiated peace possible” when Russia and Ukraine will be ready to sit for talks, he said.
“We must not let Europe get divided” over the war in Ukraine and its consequences, Macron said, adding that the EU mustn’t align itself with “warmongers” or allow countries from eastern Europe to act alone in support of Kyiv.
In a nearly two-hour speech meant to outline the goals of the French diplomacy in the upcoming year, Macron praised the views expressed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier this week in Prague as “fully in line” with his own plea for a stronger, more independent and sovereign Europe.
Macron called on Europe to “defend” its freedoms and values and to “fight” for them.
He also urged French diplomats to push back more aggressively against misinformation, fake news and propaganda spread on social media.
Paris needs to use some communication tools to “break the Russian, Chinese or Turkish storytelling” and be able to “say when France is wrongly attacked, to say what France really did,” he said.
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| 2022-09-21T12:39:37Z
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A man was detained Thursday night after he aimed a handgun at point-blank range toward Argentina’s politically powerful Vice President Cristina Fernández, and President Alberto Fernández said the assassination attempt failed because the gun did not fire.
“A man pointed a firearm at her head and pulled the trigger,” the president said in a national broadcast.
He called it “the most serious incident since we recovered democracy” in 1983 and urged political leaders, and society at large, to repudiate the incident.
Supporters of the vice president have been gathering in the streets surrounding her home since last week, when a prosecutor called for a 12-year sentence for Fernández as well as a life-long prohibition in holding public office as part of a case involving alleged corruption in public works during her 2007-2015 presidency. Fernández, who is not related to the current president, has denied all charges.
The president spoke shortly after video from the scene broadcast on local television channels showed Fernández exiting her vehicle surrounded by supporters outside her home when a man could be seen extending his hand with what looked like a pistol.
The vice president ducked as supporters surrounding the person appeared shocked at what was happening amid the commotion in the Recoleta neighborhood of Argentina’s capital.
The man, whose identity was not released by authorities, was detained seconds into the incident.
The president said the firearm had five bullets “and didn’t fire even though the trigger was pulled.”
There was no indication that the vice president suffered any harm. Her wheareabouts were unknown.
“A person who was identified by those who were close to him who had a gun was detained by (the vice president’s) security personnel,” Security Minister Aníbal Fernández told local cable news channel C5N.
The minister said he wanted to be careful in providing details until the investigation learned more.
Unverified video posted on social media shows the pistol almost touched Fernández’s face.
State-run news agency Télam identified the alleged gunman as Fernando Andrés Zabak, a Brazilian citizen. Officials had not confirmed the information.
Government officials were quick to describe the incident as an assassination attempt.
“When hate and violence are imposed over the debate of ideas, societies are destroyed and generate situations like the one seen today: an assassination attempt,” Economy Minister Sergio Massa said.
Ministers in President Alberto Fernández’s government issued a news release saying they “energetically condemn the attempted homicide” of the vice president. “What happened tonight is of extreme gravity and threatens democracy, institutions and the rule of law,” reads the release.
Former President Mauricio Macri also repudiated the attack. “This very serious event demands an immediate and profound clarification by the judiciary and security forces,” Macri wrote on Twitter.
Patricia Bullrich, president of the opposition Republican Proposal party, criticized the president, saying he is “playing with fire” because “instead of seriously investigating a serious incident, he accuses the opposition and the press, decreeing a national holiday to mobilize activists.”
Tensions have been running high in the upper class Recoleta neighborhood since the weekend, when the vice president’s supporters clashed with police in the streets surrounding her apartment amid an effort by law enforcement officers to clear the area. Following the clashes what had been a strong police presence around the vice president’s apartment was reduced.
When Fernández leaves her apartment every day at around noon, she greets supporters and signs autographs before getting in her vehicle to go to the Senate. She repeats the same routine every evening.
Following the incident, allies of the vice president quickly pointed the finger at the opposition for what they say is hateful speech that promotes violence. In recent days, several key officials have said opposition leaders were looking for a fatality.
“This is a historic event in Argentina that must be a before-and-after,” Buenos Aires Gov. Axel Kicillof said.
Regional leaders also condemned the attack.
“We send our solidarity to the vice president in this attempt against her life,” Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro said on Twitter.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, who is a candidate in that nation’s presidential election next month, also expressed solidarity with Fernández, calling her a “victim of a fascist criminal who doesn’t know how to respect differences and diversity.”
___
Associated Press writer Daniel Politi in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:39:44Z
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has proposed legislation that would transfer the country’s nominally civilian National Guard to total military authority, completing a dramatic shift for a politician who earlier in his career called for soldiers to return to the barracks.
In addition to the dizzying political evolution the change would mark, the proposal is almost certain to face constitutional challenges.
López Obrador created the National Guard in 2019, arguing that Mexico’s federal police were hopelessly corrupt and incapable of confronting Mexico’s powerful drug cartels. He enshrined it in the constitution, putting it under the authority of the civilian public security apparatus.
Critics argue that reforms to enabling legislation responsible for the National Guard is not sufficient to shift its constitutionally established civilian authority to the military.
“It is very clear in Article 21 of the Mexican Constitution that establishes first that the National Guard is a body of civilian character and under the authority of the Security and Citizen Protection Secretary,” said analyst Ana Lorena Delgadillo, director of the Justice Foundation. “So any change that you want to make to move the National Guard to (the defense ministry) would have to pass first though a constitutional reform.”
She added that even if they tried for a constitutional reform lawmakers would need to evaluate if putting the National Guard under military command would be in line with the spirit of civilian security that governs the constitution.
López Obrador no longer appears to have the votes in Congress for a constitutional reform.
In his proposal, López Obrador makes a multi-pronged argument: civilian police forces have failed to secure the country; the military is Mexico’s most trusted institution; and, the National Guard is already essentially a military institution.
Of the more than 110,000 members of the National Guard, more than 80% came from the army and the navy, the president notes. The National Guard is only functioning because of the military leadership that organized it and the military’s extensive logistics capabilities.
Much of López Obrador’s proposal reads as an ode to the military as a central pillar in Mexican society. The tone is one Mexicans will recognize. The president has given the military more responsibilities than any Mexican leader in recent memory putting them in charge of not only battling drug cartels, but also fuel theft. He had them build a new airport for the capital and a tourist train on the Yucatan Peninsula. They build bank branches in rural areas and were key in the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The transfer of operational and administrative control of the National Guard to (the defense ministry) responds to the immediate necessity to overcome administrative obstacles and the availability of resources,” López Obrador wrote, going on to argue that it is the only way to match the geographic breadth, logistical capabilities and firepower of organized crime.
In his state-of-the-nation address Thursday, López Obrador said, “The goal isn’t to militarize or become authoritarian, but rather to entrust to the oversight of the Defense Department the growth of what should be the country’s main public safety force.”
The military has been in the streets in a critical security role for years, well before López Obrador took office. It has been accused of human rights abuses and the United Nations has long called for it to be taken out of policing.
Neither the National Guard nor the military have been able to lower the insecurity in the country, however. Last month, organized crime groups rampaged in four states in a week’s time, burning businesses and killing bystanders.
Critics say the National Guard lacks the investigative and intelligence capacities of a police force. They are a visible presence on patrols and respond to violence, but do little to prevent it.
Sen. Emilio Álvarez Icaza, an independent politician, said that last year, the National Guard reported making 14 arrests product of its own investigations — there were many other arrests in cases where they caught people in illegal acts. They reported turning over 50 people accused of organized crime to prosecutors.
“The National Guard has 115,000 members; it is a disaster in its own numbers,” he said.
“They believe that by being there it fixes things and nothing happens,” Álvarez said. “They believe that doing nothing is best. They believe that their presence inhibits and that is absurd.”
López Obrador’s proposal does not address the question of how the military is the correct institution to lead what he continues to call a national police force. The president speaks often of the impunity that plagues the country, but it remains unclear how a security force composed of and lead by the military will be able to perform the work of law enforcement necessary to bring criminals to justice.
The package of reforms was submitted to Congress ahead of the start of its new legislative session Thursday.
___
Associated Press writers Fabiola Sánchez and Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:39:52Z
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — For at least the third time in a dozen years, portable toilets are parked outside the ornate Mississippi Capitol because Jackson’s water system is in crisis.
The big “Gotta Go” trailer is just one example of the city’s desperation. Many homes, businesses and government offices have had little or no running water this week, forcing people to wait in long lines for drinking water or water to flush toilets.
The scenes testify to the near collapse of a water system that residents could not trust even in the best of times. The failure to provide such an essential service reflects decades of government dysfunction, population change and decaying infrastructure. It has also fueled a political battle in which largely white GOP state lawmakers have shown little interest in helping a mostly Black city run by Democrats.
“We’re on a budget, and we have to go buy water all the time. All the time,” said Mary Huard, whose child has been forced to shift to online schooling because in-person classes were called off due to weak water pressure.
Even before the pressure dropped, Jackson’s system was fragile, and officials had warned for years that widespread loss of service was possible. A cold snap in 2021 froze pipes and left tens of thousands of people without running water. Similar problems happened again early this year, on a smaller scale.
Broken water and sewer pipes are also common in Mississippi’s largest city. The Environmental Protection Agency told Jackson months ago that its water system violates the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
The crisis deepened after heavy rain last week flooded the Pearl River and exacerbated trouble at the main water-treatment plant during the weekend.
The lines for water formed at churches, fire stations, community centers and outside big-box stores.
Outside a high school, volunteers used a pump connected to a tanker to distribute water to people who showed up with whatever empty containers they could find. One woman brought a truck bed full of empty paint buckets. A school maintenance worker hauled away a garbage container with water sloshing over the sides.
When Gov. Tate Reeves and President Joe Biden declared the situation an emergency, residents had already been advised for a month to boil their water before doing everything from brushing teeth to boiling pasta.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said fixing the problems could cost billions of dollars — far beyond Jackson’s ability to pay. That ability has been limited by a shrinking tax base that resulted from white flight, which began about a decade after public schools were integrated in 1970.
The population peaked in 1980 at nearly 203,000. It currently stands at about 150,000, with about 25% of residents living in poverty.
In the past half-century, the racial composition of Jackson has also changed. Once majority white, it is now more than 80% Black. The suburbs encircling Jackson are generally whiter and more prosperous and have newer infrastructure.
The mostly white, Republican-dominated Mississippi Legislature has been reluctant to offer assistance, even though the problems have disrupted daily life in the Capitol where lawmakers work for at least a few months every year.
The Democratic mayor and the Republican governor rarely speak to each other. And when Reeves held a news conference Monday to announce a state of emergency, Lumumba was nowhere to be seen. Reeves said he did not invite the mayor.
They held separate news conferences again Tuesday and Wednesday, although Lumumba insisted they are working as a team. By Thursday, the two finally appeared together.
“Right now, what we’re focused on is the operational unity that we have,” Lumumba said as he stood by Reeves. “Operational unity means that we’re focused more on our common ends and objectives than any differences that we may have revealed at some point in time.”
Reeves frequently criticizes Jackson for its crime rate and has said the city’s water problems stem from shoddy management.
“I know that the team at the state Department of Health as well as the EPA has been working tirelessly since 2016 trying to convince the city to come into compliance with the orders that have been put forth. They were generally unsuccessful at that,” Reeves said Monday.
Cecil Brown is a Democrat who represented part of Jackson in the Mississippi House for 16 years before serving on the state Public Service Commission. He urged city, state and congressional leaders to work together.
“If you don’t like each other, it’s OK, let’s say, ‘If we can’t work together, let’s put our staff together,” Brown said in an interview Thursday.
The governor has blocked some efforts to alleviate the water woes. After the city hired a private contractor to handle water billing, some customers went months without receiving bills, while others skipped payments.
In 2020, Reeves vetoed legislation that would have let Jackson forgive at least a portion of the unpaid water bills for poor people. He took a more passive approach in 2021, allowing water-payment legislation to become law by letting the proposal sit for five days without his signature.
Lumumba has complained that Mississippi, a state with almost a 40% Black population, is often overlooked by national Democrats and taken for granted by Republicans.
Criticism about the Jackson water debacle is not strictly partisan.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat whose district includes most of Jackson, said in mid-August that Jackson leaders had not provided specific proposals for improvements.
“The city fathers and mothers will have to step up, produce that plan that we can begin to sell from Jackson to Washington,” Thompson told television station WJTV.
An infrastructure bill signed into law last year by Biden is designed to address problems like Jackson’s, but it’s unclear how much of that money the Mississippi capital will receive.
At the same time, Mississippi is slashing taxes. This year, Reeves signed the state’s largest-ever tax cut, which will reduce revenue by an estimated $185 million the first year and $525 million the final year.
The governor argued that cutting the income tax would “lead to more wealth for all Mississippians,” even as one of the poorest states in the nation struggles to support schools and rural hospitals.
Reeves has not said whether he will call a special session of the Legislature before January to consider aid for Jackson. Any proposals will face opposition from some Republicans who say the state should not rescue Jackson from its predicament.
But Republican state Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula, along the Gulf Coast, said he is willing to help if the aid includes an accountability plan.
“The state ‘bailing out’ the city after what appears to be decades long neglect & failed leadership violates my sense of accountability & conservative principles,” Wiggins wrote on Twitter. He added that he remembers government aid after Hurricane Katrina.
“In the end, it’s about the safety of Jackson’s citizens & its economic viability,” Wiggins said.
Even when Jackson is not under a boil-water notice, Sharon Epps said she buys bottled water for her family because she doesn’t trust the tap water. She said her landlord replaced a broken line that spewed raw sewage into the back yard.
“When you can’t use the bathroom like you want to, and it’s floating in your back yard, that’s the saddest part about it. And then you can’t sit out in the back yard because it smells so bad,” Epps said. “It’s a disaster, baby.”
___
Associated Press Writer Michael Goldberg contributed to this report. Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.
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| 2022-09-21T12:40:00Z
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — As Braylon Price remembers it, he struggled with pretty much everything the first full school year of the pandemic. With minimal guidance and frequent disruptions, he had trouble staying on top of assignments and finishing homework on time.
It was so rocky his parents asked for him to repeat sixth grade — a decision they credit with getting him on a better track.
“At first I didn’t really want to do it,” said Braylon, now 13. “But then later in the year I thought it would probably be better for me if I did.”
The number of students held back for a year of school has surged around the country. Traditionally, experts have said repeating a grade can hurt kids social lives and academic futures. But many parents, empowered by new pandemic-era laws, have asked for do-overs to help their children recover from the tumult of remote learning, quarantines and school staff shortages.
Twenty-two of the 26 states that provided data for the recent academic year, as well as Washington, D.C., saw an increase in the number of students who were held back, according to an Associated Press analysis. Three states — South Carolina, West Virginia and Delaware — saw retention more than double.
Pennsylvania, where the Price family lives, passed a pandemic-era law allowing parents to elect to have a redo for their kids. The following year, the number of retained students in the state jumped by about 20,000, to over 45,000 students.
Braylon’s mother has no regrets about taking advantage of the new law.
“Best decision we could have made for him,” said Kristi Price, who lives in Bellefonte, in central Pennsylvania.
While the family’s two daughters managed to keep up with school despite limited supervision, Braylon struggled. He went back to in-person school for the first full academic year of the pandemic but it was “wishy-washy,” his mother said. Students were quarantined on and off, and teachers tried to keep up with students learning at home, online and in hybrid models. That winter, Braylon suffered a spinal cord injury from wrestling that forced him to go back to remote learning.
On his repeat of sixth grade, Braylon had an individualized education program that helped him build more focus. Having more one-on-one attention from teachers helped too. Socially, he said the transition was easy, since most of his friends had been in lower grades or attended different schools already.
Research in the education world has been critical of making students repeat grades.
The risk is students who’ve been retained have a two-fold increased risk of dropping out, said Arthur Reynolds, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Human Capital Research Collaborative, citing studies of students in Chicago and Baltimore.
“Kids see it as punishment,” Reynolds said. “It reduces their academic motivation, and it doesn’t increase their instructional advancement.”
But backers of retention say none of the research was conducted in a pandemic, when many children wrestled with Zoom lessons and some stopped logging in entirely.
“So many children have struggled and have had a lot of problems,” said Florida state Sen. Lori Berman, a Delray Beach Democrat. Berman authored a law aimed at making it easier for parents to ask for kindergarten to fifth graders to repeat a grade in the 2021-22 school year. “I don’t think there is any stigma to holding your child back at this point.”
Generally, parents can ask for children to be held back, but the final decision is up to principals, who make decisions based on factors including academic progress. California and New Jersey also passed laws that made it easier for parents to demand their children repeat a grade, although the option was only available last year.
In suburban Kansas City, Celeste Roberts decided last year for another round of second grade for her son, who she said was struggling even before the pandemic. When virtual learning was a bust, he spent the year learning at a slower pace with his grandmother, a retired teacher who bought goats to keep things fun.
Roberts said repeating the year helped her son academically and his friends hardly noticed.
“Even with peers, some of them were like, ‘Wait, shouldn’t you be in third grade?’ And he’s just like, ‘Well, I didn’t go to school because of COVID,’” she said. “And they’re kind of like, ‘OK, cool.’ You know, they move on. It’s not a thing. So it’s been really great socially. Even with the parent circles. Everybody’s just like, ‘Great. Do what your kid needs to do.’”
Ultimately, there shouldn’t be just two options of repeating a grade or going on to the next, said Alex Lamb, who has been looking at research on grade retention as part of her work with the Center for Education, Policy Analysis, Research and Evaluation at the University of Connecticut to help advise school districts.
“Neither of those options are good,” she said. “A great option is letting students move on, and then introducing some of these supports that are research-backed, that are effective and that allow for academic and social-emotional growth of students and then communities.”
In Pennsylvania’s Fox Chapel Area School District, two students were retained at the behest of educators, while eight families decided their students would repeat a grade. Another six discussed the new legislation with the school and ultimately decided against holding their students back.
“As a school district, we take retention very seriously,” Superintendent Mary Catherine Reljac said. She said the district involves parents, a team of educators, school counselors and principals to help decide what is best for each child.
Price says Braylon’s retention helped him obtain an individualized education program, or IEP. The special ed plan gave him more support as he navigated sixth grade again. When he thinks about the difference between rounds one and two of sixth grade, Braylon said he felt like the extra support was instrumental, noting he likes having one-on-one aid from teachers sometimes.
“In online school, you didn’t really do that,” he said. “You did the work and then you just turned it in.”
He doesn’t want to be given the answer, he said, but guided enough that he can figure it out on his own.
“I think because of the pandemic, we, as parents, were able to see how much he was struggling and we were able to recognize that he was barely keeping his head above water, and that he needed more help in order to be successful on his own,” Price said.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that a total of 26 states and Washington, D.C., provided data on grade retention for the recent academic year.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Schultz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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For more back-to-school coverage, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/back-to-school
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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea called the U.N.’s top expert on the country’s human rights “a puppet” of the United States, warning Friday that it won’t tolerate an American-led plot to use the rights issue to overthrow its political system.
North Korea’s government is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of its rights record, viewing it as an attempt to slander and rattle its authoritarian rule of its 26 million people, most of whom have little access to foreign news.
Its comments come as Elizabeth Salmón, the U.N. special rapporteur on the North’s human rights, is making her first visit to South Korea this week to meet officials, activists and North Korean defectors since her appointment last month.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry accused Salmón of displaying “ignorance and biased vision” on the North. It also accused Washington of being behind Salmón’s mandate as part of an anti-North Korea scheme.
“The ‘human rights’ racket of the U.S. and other hostile forces … is nothing but the most politicized hostile means for tarnishing the dignified image of (North Korea),” it said in a statement. “(North Korea) will never pardon the U.S. and its vassal forces’ ‘human rights’ racket … which is aimed at overthrowing its social system.”
It repeated its earlier position that it will never recognize or deal with any U.N. special rapporteur on its human rights. Salmón’s predecessors were denied access to North Korea, which observers say has made it difficult for them to gather independent and credible information on rights abuses.
During a news conference in Seoul on Friday, Salmón said she was “fully aware that the lack of cooperation in that country is a challenge, no doubts about it.”
“But at the same time, you know, I have been reading a lot, studying a lot during this time and there has been 18 years of work. I am new but the mandate is not new,” she said.
Salmón said she will keep trying to engage with North Korea and expressed worries about its economic, food and other hardships amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We should not give up on engagement with (North Korea) because what is at stake are the lives of the North Korean people and their human rights,” she said.
In a new report circulated Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said North Korea has increased the repression of the rights and freedoms of its people and the U.N. Security Council should consider referring it to the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity.
Salmón said her first report on North Korea’s rights issue will be presented to the U.N. General Assembly in late October.
North Korea remains under multiple rounds of U.N. sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs. During a meeting in Hawaii on Thursday, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts condemned North Korea’s continued development of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while the U.S. reaffirmed its “ironclad alliance commitments” to its two key Asian allies, according to a U.S. statement.
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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:40:15Z
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DENVER (AP) — The anxious-looking women talk directly to the camera, warning that the Colorado Republican running for the U.S. Senate opposes the state’s reproductive rights law and supports the conservative Supreme Court justices who revoked the constitutional right to abortion this summer.
“It’s not even close,” one says as the ad for the Democratic senator wraps up. “We need Michael Bennet fighting for us.”
The spot is significant because the man it slams on abortion, businessman Joe O’Dea, is a rare Republican supporter of at least some abortion rights. O’Dea said he would back a law to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade, though he opposes abortions after 20 weeks except in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.
Analysts say similarly nuanced positions were once considered the political sweet spot in the complex world of abortion politics, coming closest to representing the views of the typical conflicted voter. But that may be changing as abortion restrictions kick in following the fall of Roe with the high court’s ruling in June.
“We are here in this country, right now, with patients traveling thousands of miles for care because politicians have been given the room for the least little bit of nuance,” said Adrienne Mansanares of Planned Parenthood Action Colorado during a recent news conference to back Bennet.
The message from Democrats: Republicans can’t be trusted on the issue, regardless of their personal beliefs.
In New Hampshire, Democrats are going after Republican Chris Sununu, who is running for reelection as a self-described “pro-choice governor,” for supporting a ban on abortions after 23 weeks of pregnancy.
In Connecticut, Democrats slammed as “extreme” former state Sen. George Logan in his race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes — despite Logan receiving an “A” rating in 2017 and 2018 from the Connecticut chapter of NARAL, an abortion rights group. Democrats note the rating was based on Logan’s statehouse votes on other issues of importance to NARAL such as paid family medical leave, rather than abortion.
Also in Connecticut, the Republican candidate for governor, Bob Stefanowski, is out with a television ad highlighting how he and his Democratic opponent “are both pro-choice.” In an interview, Stefanowski said he was responding to repeated Democratic attacks on abortion, which he compared to lies.
“I don’t know how many times I can say I’m not going to change Connecticut law,” Stefanowski said in an interview. “I’m going to support a woman’s right to choose.”
Abortion has become an increasingly partisan issue over recent decades, but public views have always been more shades of gray.
Typically, support for abortion rights is highest for women in the earliest stages of pregnancy and tapers off as the pregnancy advances, until it is lowest for abortions very close to delivery, said Jocelyn Kiley of the Pew Research Center. Still, exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother are popular at all stages.
“Most Americans see this as a nuanced issue and not legal all the time or illegal all the time,” Kiley said. But, she noted, “it’s possible that Americans’ underlying opinions about this are shifting in the past couple of months.”
On June 24, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority overturned Roe and triggered abortion bans in at least 13 states, many of which don’t provide exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.
The reason this is happening, said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, is “you now have state legislatures that have taken positions opposed by 9 out of 10 Americans.”
“What the Dobbs decision has done along with these trigger laws is focus attention on the early part of pregnancy, not late term,” Ayres said.
While many people back some restrictions on abortion, especially after the first trimester, the most extreme measures introduced in some Republican-led states are at odds with public opinion, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in July.
There are several signs that momentum is with abortion-rights backers. In conservative Kansas, a ballot measure to remove that state’s right to abortion lost by more than 150,000 votes. Democrats won a special election in a narrowly divided upstate New York swing district last week after their candidate focused on abortion. In a survey shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, Pew found that 62% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, the highest share in nearly 30 years of tracking the issue.
That’s emboldened Democrats to go after any Republican on abortion, regardless of the details of their position, said Jennifer Lawless, a politics professor at the University of Virginia who has long tracked the politics of reproductive health.
“Although the nuance on the issue is largely gone, the nuance of the case Democrats can make is stronger,” Lawless said.
She noted that Democrats can now make the more technical argument that any Republican elected increases the power of the party that overturned Roe and could spread abortion bans further across the country.
That’s an argument Colorado Democrats have tried to make, unsuccessfully, before. In 2014, Democratic Sen. Mark Udall lost his race to Republican Cory Gardner, an abortion rights opponent who defused the issue by backing over-the-counter women’s contraception to demonstrate he wasn’t hostile to reproductive health.
Gardner’s supporters mocked Udall as “Mark Uterus” for hammering relentlessly on abortion and they assured voters that Roe wasn’t at risk. Gardner lost his reelection bid in 2020, when Colorado voters replaced him with a Democrat supporting abortion rights after then-President Donald Trump picked now-Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the deciding vote in Dobbs, in the campaign’s final weeks.
Now Democrats are trying again with O’Dea. In an interview, the first-time candidate said of his opponent’s attack: “It’s pretty dishonest, pretty disingenuous.”
Yet in 2020, O’Dea voted for a statewide ballot measure to bar abortions after 22 weeks that failed by 18 percentage points. The measure didn’t contain exceptions for rape, incest or to protect the mother’s life. He now says he thinks those exceptions are essential and added that he would support allowing the termination of nonviable pregnancies.
He noted he wasn’t a candidate for office when the measure was on the ballot.
“I didn’t look at all the nuances,” O’Dea said.
Colorado has a long history of backing abortion rights. It was the first state to legalize the procedure in cases of rape, incest and to protect the mother, taking that step in 1967. Earlier this year, the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed one of the most sweeping laws protecting abortion rights, guaranteeing no restrictions on abortions regardless of when in the pregnancy they occur. O’Dea opposes that law because of his belief that abortions should be outlawed past 20 weeks.
The race is playing out as Colorado has become a refuge for women seeking care after the Dobbs decision activated trigger laws in nearby states, especially Texas.
Karen Middleton, a former Democratic state lawmaker who runs the reproductive rights group Cobalt, recalled in an interview talking to a woman with an ectopic pregnancy driving hundreds of miles from Texas to Colorado to obtain an abortion who began bleeding in a remote area between the states.
“We’re a lot less willing to compromise,” she said.
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Haigh reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
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Follow AP’s coverage of abortion at https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
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| 2022-09-21T12:40:22Z
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West Point cadets pass by historical reminders constantly — from Grant Hall and Bradley Barracks to the statues of Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower overlooking the parade fields.
Now a commission created by Congress is recommending changes at the storied academy when it comes to buildings, places and memorials that include the names or images of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate officers during the Civil War. The commission also took aim at towering bronze panels in a science building that depict dozens of historical events and people, including a hooded figure above the words “Ku Klux Klan.”
The report from the Naming Commission this week on the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy is part of the military’s broader efforts to confront racial injustice. The panel was created to identify Confederacy-affiliated military assets.
The commission last month recommended that nine Army installations honoring Confederate officers be renamed. For West Point, the recommendations include renaming buildings like Lee Barracks and modifying memorials that include Confederate officers.
“The Commissioners do not make these recommendations with any intention of ‘erasing history,’” the panel said in its report. “Rather, they make these recommendations to affirm West Point’s long tradition of educating future generations of America’s military leaders to represent the best of our national ideals.”
West Point said it was reviewing the recommendations and will collaborate with the Army to implement changes, once approved.
“As a values-based institution, we are fully committed to creating a climate where everyone is treated with dignity and respect,” the academy said in a prepared statement.
More than a half-dozen of the commission’s recommendations for West Point involve Lee, who graduated second in his class in 1829 and later served as superintendent at the academy on the Hudson River. That was before he resigned from the U.S. Army to lead Confederate troops during the Civil War.
The commission recommended that Lee Barracks, Lee Road, Lee Gate, Lee Housing Area and Lee Area Child Development Center all be renamed. Also, a portrait of Lee in his Confederate uniform in a library building should be relocated or removed.
And Lee’s quote about honor at the academy’s “Honor Plaza,” should also be removed, the panel said.
The report said Lee’s armies “were responsible for the deaths of more United States soldiers than practically any other enemy in our nation’s history.”
“I think sometimes we forget that Lee didn’t fight against the Union. He fought against the United States Army,” said Ty Seidule, a retired brigadier general who serves as vice chair of the commission.
Two other Confederate officers in the commission’s crosshairs were West Point grads P.G.T. Beauregard and William Hardee. The panel called for Beauregard Place and Hardee Place to be renamed.
The commission also found issues with a trio of 11-foot high bronze plaques at an entrance to Bartlett Hall, which depicts dozens of historical people from Benjamin Franklin to Clara Barton.
The panel said the triptych, dedicated in 1965, should be modified to remove the names and images of Lee and others who served in the Confederacy. The commission also noted that toward the lower left of one of the plaques is the image of an armed man in a hood, with “Ku Klux Klan” written below.
The panel said that while the KKK image is not strictly within its Confederacy-focused mission, “there are clearly ties in the KKK to the Confederacy.” They encouraged the U.S. defense secretary to address military assets that highlight the KKK.
West Point said in a statement that the artist, Laura Gardin Fraser, wanted to document “both tragedy and triumph in our nation’s history.” In a guide to the work, the artist referred to the KKK as “an organization of white people who hid their criminal activity behind a mask and sheet.”
The estimated cost of addressing the recommendations is more than $420,000 — with $300,000 of that for changes to Reconciliation Plaza, which includes a series of markers illustrating acts of reconciliation between the North and South. The panel said engraved images that commemorate people who served in the Confederacy should be removed.
The panel said Confederate memorials didn’t crop up at West Point until well into the 20th century with the rise of the “lost cause” movement, which emphasized the supposed nobility and righteousness of the South while downplaying the fact that the Confederacy was meant to perpetuate slavery.
Seidule, who headed the history department at West Point and is now a professor at Hamilton College, said this is an opportunity to rename military assets like Lee Barracks for “true American heroes.”
“I don’t know who that’s going to be,” he said. “But it will be somebody who fought for their country, not somebody who tried to destroy it.”
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| 2022-09-21T12:40:29Z
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s top politician said Thursday that the government will seek equivalent of some $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany for the Nazis’ World War II invasion and occupation of his country.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the Law and Justice party, announced the huge claim at the release of a long-awaited report on the cost to the country of years of Nazi German occupation as it marks 83 years since the start of World War II.
“We not only prepared the report but we have also taken the decision as to the further steps,” Kaczynski said during the report’s presentation.
“We will turn to Germany to open negotiations on the reparations,” Kaczynski said, adding it will be a “long and not an easy path” but “one day will bring success.”
He insisted the move would serve “true Polish-German reconciliation” that would be based on “truth.”
He claimed the German economy is capable of paying the bill.
Germany argues compensation was paid to East Bloc nations in the years after the war while territories that Poland lost in the East as borders were redrawn were compensated with some of Germany’s pre-war lands. Berlin calls the matter closed.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday the government’s position remains “unchanged” in that “the question of reparations is concluded.”
“Poland long ago, in 1953, waived further reparations and has repeatedly confirmed this waiver,” the ministry said in an emailed response to a Associated Press query about the new Polish report.
“This is a significant basis for today’s European order. Germany stands by its responsibility for World War II politically and morally.”
Poland’s right-wing government argues that the country which was the war’s first victim has not been fully compensated by neighboring Germany, which is now one of its major partners within the European Union.
“Germany has never really accounted for its crimes against Poland,“ Kaczynski said, claiming that many Germans who committed war crimes lived in impunity in Germany after the war.
Top leaders including Kaczynski, who is Poland’s chief policy maker, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki attended the ceremonial release of the report at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, rebuilt from wartime ruins.
The release of the three-volume report was the focus of national observances of the anniversary of the war that began Sep. 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany’s bombing and invasion of Poland that was followed by more than five years of brutal occupation.
The head of the report team, lawmaker Arkadiusz Mularczyk, said it was impossible to place a financial value on the loss of some 5.2 million lives he blamed on the German occupation.
He listed losses to the infrastructure, industry, farming, culture, deportations to Germany for forced labor and efforts to turn Polish children into Germans.
A team of more than 30 economists, historians and other experts worked on the report since 2017. The issue has created bilateral tensions.
The war was “one of the most terrible tragedies in our history,” President Andrzej Duda said during early morning observances at the Westerplatte peninsula near Gdansk, one of the first places to be attacked in the Nazi invasion.
“Not only because it took our freedom, not only because it took our state from us, but also because this war meant millions of victims among Poland’s citizens and irreparable losses to our homeland and our nation,” Duda said.
In Germany, the government’s official for German-Polish cooperation, Dietmar Nietan, said in a statement that Sept. 1 “remains a day of guilt and shame for Germany that reminds us time and again not to forget the crimes carried out by Germany” that are the “darkest chapter in our history” and still affect bilateral relations.
Reconciliation offered by people in Poland is “the basis on which we can look toward the future together in a united Europe,” Nietan said.
Poland’s government rejects a 1953 declaration by the country’s then-communist leaders, under pressure from the Soviet Union, agreeing not to make any further claims on Germany.
An opposition lawmaker, Grzegorz Schetyna, says the report is just a “game in the internal politics” and insists Poland needs to build good relations with Berlin.
In a country where bullet holes from the war could still be seen on houses not so long ago, recent surveys have shown that Polish public opinion is roughly equally divided on the issue of reparations. Many families still keep alive memories of family members lost in the war.
Some 6 million of Poland’s citizens, including 3 million Jews, were killed in the war. Some of them were victims of the Soviet Red Army that invaded from the east.
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AP writers Frank Jordans and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.
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| 2022-09-21T12:40:37Z
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Officials in Ethiopia’s restive Tigray region allege that Ethiopian forces have again teamed up with those from neighboring Eritrea to attack the northern area.
Ethiopia’s government did not comment Thursday after the allegations by the Tigray External Affairs Office and by Tigray forces spokesman Getachew Reda, who said a “massive” offensive had begun in northwestern Tigray.
But the government alleged in turn that Tigray forces’ own fighting had intensified.
Claims by both sides in the renewed conflict are difficult to verify since the Tigray region remains largely cut off from the world and without basic services. The conflict that began in November 2020 had calmed earlier this year but resumed last week after efforts at peace talks failed.
With both sides choosing to fight instead of talk, millions of people in Tigray remain severely deprived of food and other supplies and those in the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions again fear for their lives.
Ethiopia’s foreign minister and the lead negotiator for the previously planned talks, Demeke Mekonnen, told diplomats in the capital, Addis Ababa, that the government is still open to peace efforts. “But we will take whatever measures are needed to secure the country’s sovereignty,” he said.
A witness in the Afar region’s capital, Semera, told The Associated Press he saw a large contingent of Ethiopian army units mobilizing on Sunday and Monday and moving north toward Eritrea, next to the Tigray region, the next day. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Eritrea’s Information Ministry, in a statement Thursday, accused the Tigray forces of starting the latest fighting.
In a rare admission, Ethiopian officials last week said federal and allied forces had retreated from the strategic Amhara region town of Kobo, south of Tigray.
On Wednesday, both Ethiopia’s government and Tigray forces announced the opening of a new front in the border area with Sudan.
A resident of the historic Lalibela town in the Amhara region told the AP he saw a “previously unseen” level of aircraft movement on Thursday, following Tigray officials’ allegation that federal forces were conducting several dozen flights to the town.
Ethiopia’s government on Thursday again warned against publicizing military movements, saying anyone who supports or assists the propaganda of the “enemy” will face up to life in prison.
On social media, many Ethiopians are expressing their support to the government in the latest fighting. But some question Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration’s handling of the war, and organizations like the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia are calling on both sides to give peace a chance and sit for talks.
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| 2022-09-21T12:40:44Z
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GENEVA (AP) — Swiss police arrested two people Thursday in connection with a federal investigation into their suspected support for, or participation in, the banned Islamic State group, authorities said.
The police operation, which also involved searches of four houses in the Geneva and Vaud cantons, or regions, was part of a criminal case opened in July last year by the Swiss attorney general’s office.
The case centers on a Swiss-Macedonian dual national and a citizen of Kosovo, who lived separately in the two Swiss regions. The arrests were made in French-speaking western Switzerland.
The two suspects, who were not identified by name, were transferred to the Swiss capital, Bern, for questioning by the attorney general’s office, which will decide whether to keep them in custody pending trial.
Switzerland, whose policy of neutrality aims to keep it out of conflicts, has largely avoided the violent extremism that has swept across other parts of Europe.
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| 2022-09-21T12:40:59Z
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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — One summer night, Misty Castillo stepped out of her house in Salem, Oregon, called 911 and asked for the police, saying her son was mentally ill, was assaulting her and her husband and had a knife.
“He’s drunk and he’s high and he’s mentally ill,” Castillo told the emergency dispatcher, emphasizing again her son’s mental condition. Less than five minutes later, a police officer burst into the house and shot Arcadio Castillo III dead as he stood, his mother said later, “frozen like a deer in headlights.”
“He didn’t try to calm him down. He just came in and immediately shot my son,” Castillo said.
Time and time again across the U.S., people experiencing mental health crises are being killed by police, but the exact number remains unknown because of a yawning governmental information gap.
The 21st Century Cures Act, passed by Congress with bipartisan votes in 2016, requires the Department of Justice to collect and publish data on how often federal, state and local officers use force, how many times that force ends up being fatal and how often the deceased had a mental illness. But the law doesn’t require police departments to tell the DOJ how many people their officers killed.
The FBI tries to collect the statistics, but for the first quarter of this year it estimated that only 40% of all sworn law enforcement agencies submitted use-of-force numbers. That figure is far below the participation level necessary to justify policy changes.
Arcadio’s parents had sought mental health treatment for their 23-year-old son, but the system, such as it is, failed them. In the weeks before he was killed, they couldn’t get him diagnosed or committed.
Across the country, in West Virginia, another system failure, another death.
Matt Jones was apparently suffering from a severe manic episode while standing on a highway with a handgun. Police were everywhere, sirens wailing. The scene on July 6 in the community of Bradley was captured by a bystander on video. One officer took a shot and then others opened fire, killing Jones in a hail of bullets.
The 36-year-old had been unable to get his medication refilled and was experiencing delusions and hallucinations, his fiancée, Dreamer Marquis, said.
“He desperately wanted help,” Marquis said. “He knew that he needed the medication in order to live a normal life because he knew that he would have manic episodes that would get him in trouble.”
Advocates for people with mental illness say it’s clear they face greater risk of a police encounter resulting in their death.
Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said the deaths of Castillo and Jones “highlight a larger systemic problem that we have in helping people who are struggling with their mental health or are in a mental health crisis.”
Many communities lack a mental health crisis infrastructure, with nearly 130 million people in the United States living in an area with a shortage of mental health providers, she said.
“So when somebody might be acting out as a result of their symptoms, the only option often is to send police, and that can escalate the situation and lead to these tragic outcomes,” she said. “I think we are failing people much earlier in the process because we’re letting it get to the point of crisis.”
The launch in July of 988, a national hotline for mental health emergencies, is an enormous step forward, she said.
“It’s really spurring this development of a crisis system, but it’s going to take years to get there,” Wesolowski said. “I think we’re closer to the starting line than the finish line of reimagining our crisis response in this country.”
Nearly one in five U.S. adults has a mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Yet people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other people approached by law enforcement, the Treatment Advocacy Center said in a 2015 report.
In Portland, Oregon, for example, 72% of the 85 people who were shot to death by police from 1975 to 2020 were affected by mental illness, drugs or alcohol, or some combination thereof, according to Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland. The group does not have the numbers for those affected by mental illness alone, but sometimes they’re intertwined. Long-term methamphetamine use, for instance, can cause psychosis.
In 2012, the federal government sued the city of Portland over the Portland Police Bureau’s disproportionate use of violence against people with mental illness. But since then, use of force on the mentally impaired actually increased, according to an analysis presented in federal court.
Renaud said that of 25 people shot and killed by law enforcement officers from various agencies in the Portland metro area since 2012, every one was suffering from mental illness, substance-abuse disorders, or both.
Lt. Nathan Sheppard, a Portland Police Bureau spokesperson, said he couldn’t confirm those numbers. He emphasized that all Portland police officers receive crisis intervention training. The department also established a unit to coordinate the response of law enforcement and the behavioral health system to people in crisis from mental illness and drug or alcohol addiction.
But Sheppard said more must be done to address what he described as a “public health emergency that has existed for decades in which services and treatment are not readily available or easily accessible for those in need of mental health treatment.”
“There is need for more proactive, appropriate, individual-person-centered approaches to assisting persons with mental illness,” Sheppard said.
A year after Arcadio Castillo III was killed by a police officer on July 9, 2021, his mother is suing the officer and the city of Salem in federal court for the failure to use crisis intervention tactics and training before resorting to deadly force.
A grand jury found the shooting was justified. The Marion County district attorney’s office said Arcadio rushed towards the officer, who was not wearing a body camera, with a knife raised in a stabbing position.
“He never did that. He never rushed him,” Arcadio’s mother said as she stood over the spot in the living room where her son died after being hit by four bullets. She said the family “feels betrayed because a person who is supposed to serve and protect us in a time of crisis took away my child.”
After symptoms of mental illness emerged in Arcadio’s teens, Marion County mental health workers diagnosed him with attention deficit disorder and prescribed Ritalin, but the anxiety only got worse, his mother said. He began using drugs and alcohol to cope. A case worker at a psychiatric crisis center said she couldn’t diagnose Arcadio because of the drug and alcohol use, according to Castillo.
Arcadio’s parents tried to have him committed to a psychiatric institution, “but everywhere we turned we were told he wasn’t sick enough to be committed,” Castillo said. “And one week later he was killed.”
“It was so frustrating to me because he just wasn’t getting the right diagnosis, treatment, or medication that he desperately needed, and his anxiety kept getting worse and worse,” she said.
Arcadio’s ashes are kept in a teardrop-shaped blue urn on the mantelpiece in the family’s rental house. His mother plans to have some of the remains placed in cremation necklaces for his loved ones.
A video of the West Virginia killing hit social media before Jones’ loved ones were informed about his death.
Nicole Jones, his sister-in-law, was scrolling through Facebook when she clicked on a video that showed a man with red shoulder-length hair walking on a highway, pursued by at least eight police officers with guns drawn. The man held his arms above his head, a pistol in one hand as he backed away from the officers. He pointed the gun at his own head briefly.
Jones’ heart dropped as she recognized the man’s mannerisms — his walk, the way he flipped his hair over his shoulder with the shake of his head — and realized it was her husband’s brother.
State police have concluded their investigation into the shooting and sent their report to Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield, who will determine whether the deadly force was justified. Hatfield said Matt Jones had carjacked at least one vehicle at gunpoint shortly before he was shot.
He had been in and out of incarceration for almost two decades. His brother, Mark Jones, said it was clear to the family that Matt, who was a star baseball player and wrestler, struggled with mental health since childhood. His parents took him to counseling and tried to find a medication that would help.
Matt built a landscaping and tree removal company but was also getting in trouble — often DUIs or driving without a license. Most of his charges stemmed from violating probation, his family said.
In jail, Matt was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and placed on medication, which helped. But he got trapped in a cycle where he’d struggle to get care, experience a mental health crisis and get arrested again.
He lived for a while at his brother and sister-in-law’s house in Culpeper, Virginia. Nicole Jones recalls him spending hours playing with her kids on a tire swing. But after a while he had trouble sleeping and said he was hearing voices. He asked her to help him schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist, but the counselor never called back.
Weeks before his death, Matt was running low on pills and broke down crying, his fiancée said.
Matt didn’t have a driver’s license. His social security card and birth certificate were elsewhere. That made it difficult to make medical appointments, Marquis said. They eventually went to a walk-in clinic that would tend to people without ID, but left after waiting for eight hours without being seen, she said.
Mark Jones was at work landscaping when he saw the video of his brother being shot.
“I was trying to understand, ‘What was he thinking?’” he said. “What I keep coming back to is that he was lost and he really wanted help — not just one time, but his whole life.”
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Willingham reported from Charleston, West Virginia. Associated Press reporter Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:41:07Z
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MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Danielle formed Thursday in the Atlantic and is expected to become the first hurricane of an unusually quiet storm season.
But the storm is not currently a threat to any land.
The storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph (65 kph). Additional strengthening is forecast and the storm is expected to become a hurricane in two days or so, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The storm is centered about 960 miles (1,545 kilometers) west of the Azores and is moving east near 2 mph (4 kph). The hurricane center said the storm is expected to meander in the Atlantic over the next few days.
The tropical storm comes amid what had been a calm hurricane season. It is the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic has gone from July 3 to the end of August with no named storm, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach had told The Associated Press earlier.
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The Langley School in McLean celebrated the start of the 2022-23 school year and its 80th anniversary by officially opening the doors of the school’s new Crossroads Building during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 6.
A key component of The Langley School’s campus master plan, the 40,000-square-foot facility was designed to support student learning, promote an inviting campus community, and position the school as a national leader in preschool-through-eighth-grade education, school officials said.
“We are so excited to kick off the school year with the opening of this magnificent new facility,” Head of School Michele Claeys said. “Developed with the needs of our students, teachers and programs in mind, it provides the ideal environment for teaching and learning.”
The new facility includes classrooms for students in preschool, junior kindergarten, kindergarten and fifth grade; a new library; a technology and innovation lab; STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] space; and a multi-purpose room.
The building was funded through Langley School’s Next Generation Campaign, which was launched in 2019 and has raised more than $14.4 million to date. In addition to funding construction of the Crossroads Building, the campaign also allowed the school to double its endowment from $5 million to $10 million, ensuring Langley’s long-term stability and affordability.
Founded in 1942, The Langley School offers an inquiry-based academic curriculum paired with a unique social-emotional learning program for students.
The school “has shaped confident, kind, self-aware learners who are prepared to thrive in the nation’s top high schools and beyond,” school officials said.
[https://sungazette.news provides content to, but otherwise is unaffiliated with, InsideNoVa or Rappahannock Media LLC.]
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In response to requests from local residents, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation recently installed signage on a newly renamed stretch of county roadway.
The new name – “Valluvar Way” – honors the Tamil poet and philosopher ThiruValluvar. Tamil residents of Fairfax County had requested a road naming to honor his life and works.
“I was pleased to work with the Tamil community and Virginia Dels. David Bulova and Dan Helmer to designate a street in the Sully District, ‘Valluvar Way,’” said Supervisor Kathy Smith (D-Sully).
Fairfax County is home to approximately 10,000 residents of Tamil descent, part of a group of 50,000 in Virginia.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution for the designation earlier this year. Legislation permitting the change was passed by the General Assembly and in April received the signature of Gov. Youngkin.
Though little is known with certainty about the life of ThiruValluvar, he is believed to have been the author of Tirukkural, a collection of poetry on topics ranging from politics and economics to ethics and love. Specific dating of the work is also unknown, with various sources suggesting anywhere from 300 B.C. to 500 A.D.
[https://sungazette.news provides content to, but otherwise is unaffiliated with, InsideNoVa or Rappahannock Media LLC.]
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| 2022-09-21T12:41:24Z
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ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — A U.N. inspection team entered Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Thursday on a mission to safeguard it against catastrophe, reaching the site amid fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces that prompted the shutdown of one reactor and underscored the urgency of the task.
The 14-member delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in a convoy of SUVs and vans after months of negotiations to enable the experts to pass through the front lines and get inside Europe’s biggest nuclear plant.
“The IAEA is now there at the plant and it’s not moving. It’s going to stay there. We’re going to have a continued presence there at the plant with some of my experts,” IAEA director Rafael Grossi, the mission leader, declared after the group got its first look at conditions inside.
But he added: “I will continue to be worried about the plant until we have a situation which is more stable.”
As the experts made their way through the war zone toward the complex, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling the area and trying to derail the visit. The fighting delayed the team’s progress.
“There were moments when fire was obvious — heavy machine guns, artillery, mortars at two or three times were really very concerning, I would say, for all of us,” Grossi said.
Just before the IAEA team arrived, Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear power company, said Russian mortar shelling had led to the shutdown of one of its reactors by its emergency protection system and had damaged a backup power supply line used for in-house needs.
One of the plant’s reactors that wasn’t operating was switched to diesel generators, Energoatom said.
Once inside the plant, Grossi said, his experts were able to tour the entire site, including control rooms, emergency systems and diesel generators. He said he met with the plant’s staff and residents of the nearby village, Energodar, who asked him for help from the agency.
He reported that the team had collected important information in its initial inspection and will remain there to continue its assessment.
“It is obvious that the plant and the physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times by chance, deliberately — we don’t have the elements to assess that,” Grossi said. “And this is why we are trying to put in place certain mechanisms and the presence, as I said, of our people there.”
The Zaporizhzhia plant has been occupied by Russian forces but run by Ukrainian engineers since the early days of the 6-month-old war. Ukraine alleges Russia is using it as a shield to launch attacks, while Moscow accuses Ukraine of recklessly firing on the area.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had tough words for the IAEA delegation. While applauding its arrival at the plant, he said independent journalists were kept from covering the visit, allowing the Russians to present a one-sided, “futile tour.”
And he said that while Grossi agreed to support Ukrainian demands for the demilitarization of the plant — including the withdrawal of Russian forces from it — the IAEA has yet to issue such a call publicly.
Fighting in early March caused a brief fire at its training complex, and in recent days, the plant was briefly knocked offline because of damage, heightening fears of a radiation leak or a reactor meltdown. Officials have begun distributing anti-radiation iodine tablets to nearby residents.
Experts have also expressed concern that the Ukrainian staff is overworked and stressed out from the occupation of the plant by Russian forces — conditions they say could lead to dangerous errors.
Grossi said after his initial tour that the Ukrainian employees are “in a difficult situation, but they have an incredible degree of professionalism. And I see them calm and moving on.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow expects “impartiality” from the team.
“We are taking all the necessary measures to ensure that the plant is secure, that it functions safely and that the mission accomplishes all of its plans there,” he said.
Ahead of the visit, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian forces unleashed an artillery barrage on the area and sent a group of up to 60 scouts to try to seize the plant on the Dnieper River. It said that the Ukrainian troops arrived in seven speedboats but that Russian forces “took steps to destroy the enemy,” using warplanes.
Some of the Ukrainian shells landed 400 meters (yards) from the plant’s No. 1 reactor, Russian authorities said.
The Russian-installed administration in Enerhodar reported that at least three residents were killed early Thursday by Ukrainian shelling.
Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, accused Russian forces of shelling Enerhodar and a corridor that the IAEA team was set to go through.
Neither side’s version of events could immediately be independently verified.
The fighting came as Ukraine endeavored to start the new school year in the middle of a war. Just over half of the country’s schools are reopening to in-person classes despite the risks.
In other developments, authorities with the Russian-backed separatist government in the eastern region of Donetsk said 13 emergency responders were killed by Ukrainian shelling in Rubtsi, a village in neighboring Kharkiv province. Much of the fighting in recent weeks and months has centered on the area.
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Gatopoulos reported from Kyiv, Ukaine.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T12:41:29Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. federal agents on Thursday simultaneously searched properties in Manhattan, a posh Hamptons beach community, and an exclusive Miami island that have been linked to a billionaire Russian oligarch whose $120 million yacht was seized in April.
The FBI confirmed it was at a Park Avenue high-rise, an estate in Southampton, New York, and the enclave of Fisher Island on Thursday, conducting what Miami-based FBI spokesperson Jim Marshall described as “court-ordered law enforcement activity.” The bureau would not provide more information. Dozens of federal agents could be seen carrying boxes out of the Park Avenue property.
FBI agents and Homeland Security Investigations personnel searched the properties, linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. There was no immediate response to a request for comment sent to lawyers who have represented Vekselberg.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Vekselberg was the target of the searches. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
A similar search occurred in Fisher Island, a stone’s thrown from Miami Beach, where dozens of agents from the FBI and other federal agencies could be seen on properties linked to Vekselberg and his associates.
NBC News first reported the searches.
A federal task force has been looking into Russian oligarchs and the money trail that helps fuel Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the task force is working to enforce U.S. financial restrictions imposed on Russia and its billionaires. A spokesperson for the task force declined to comment.
Vekselberg, a Ukrainian-born businessman, built a fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era. According to U.S. Treasury Department documents, Vekselberg heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets.
He was one of the first Putin allies sanctioned in April 2018 by the U.S. Treasury Department in response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen, and American companies are barred from doing business with him and his entities.
In April, the U.S. government seized a 254-foot yacht owned by Vekselberg at a port in Spain. At the time, the U.S. Justice Department asserted that the yacht could be forfeited for violations of U.S. bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions laws.
All the properties searched Thursday are owned by Vekselberg’s childhood friend Vladimir Voronchenko or companies tied to Voronchenko’s family and associates. Voronchenko was the founding director of a St. Petersburg museum built to house the oligarch’s Faberge egg collection.
Among the properties were four luxury condominiums on Fisher Island. Three were purchased for a combined $42 million but are worth considerably more today, property records show. Two are owned by The Medallion Inc., a Panama-registered company that lists Voronchenko’s wife, Olesya Kharlamova, as a director.
Kharlamova, who like her husband was born and raised in Ukraine, is also an officer of a condominium association for two luxury high rises on Fisher Island, which is so favored by jet-setting Russians that they’ve been dubbed the “Red Zone” by other residents. Amenities include infinity-edge pools, a state-of-the-art theater and a fur coat storage facility to protect garments from Miami’s humidity.
In New York, Medallion Inc. in 2008 paid nearly $11 million for a penthouse unit at 515 Park Avenue in Manhattan and $11.4 million for the Southampton home. Both were searched Thursday.
Voronchenko’s family and associates did not immediately respond to a call placed to them seeking comment.
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Goodman reported from Miami.
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| 2022-09-21T12:41:36Z
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani health officials on Thursday reported an outbreak of waterborne diseases in areas hit by recent record-breaking flooding, as authorities stepped up efforts to ensure the provision of clean drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes in the disaster.
The U.N. children’s agency said more than 3 million children were in need of humanitarian assistance and stood at heightened risk of diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding in Pakistan’s recent history.
Pakistani authorities and aid agencies also were working to secure medical facilities to thousands of pregnant women, who are among 33 million people affected by floods.
Diarrhea, skin diseases and eye infections are spreading at relief camps set up by the government across the country. Over 90,000 diarrhea cases were reported from one of the worst-hit provinces, Sindh, in the past 24 hours, according to a report released by the health officials. But the illnesses were also reported from other flood-hit areas.
The grim updates came a day after Pakistan and the World Health Organization raised concern over the spread of waterborne diseases among flood victims. Pakistan blames climate change for unusually early and heavy monsoon rains, which since June have caused flash floods that have killed 1,191 people and affected 33 million people. About a million homes have also been damaged or destroyed
Flood waters continued to recede in the most of the country, but many districts in southern Sindh province remained underwater, forcing displaced people to stay at donated camps.
Among those flood victims staying at a relief camp in the district of Shikar Pur in Sindh was Mundam Ali, 21, who is seven months pregnant. She said she has a backache and cough. Ali said she had no other choice except to live in the relief camp, as her village was still submerged.
Ramesh Kumar, a medical doctor in Shikar Pur, said he treated scores of flood victims and most of them had waterborne diseases.
Nearly half a million flood displaced are living in relief camps. In Sindh province, thousands of medical camps have been set up in flood-stricken areas to treat victims, said Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, the provincial health minister. Mobile medical units have also been deployed. The World Health Organization says it is increasing surveillance for acute diarrhea, cholera and other communicable diseases and providing medical supplies to health facilities.
Doctors say initially they were initially seeing mostly patients traumatized by the flooding, but are now treating thousands of people suffering from diarrhea, skin infections and other waterborne ailments. Many pregnant women living in flood-affected areas were also exposed to risks.
Farah Naureen, the director for Pakistan at international aid agency Mercy Corps, said waterborne diseases were increasing at a faster pace among displaced people in flood-hit areas. In a statement, she said other than infectious diseases, the health of women was of particular importance.
“Around 73,000 will be giving birth within the next month, and they need skilled birth attendants, privacy, and birth facilities, or the survival of the mother and the newborn will be at risk,” she said.
According to Minister for Poverty Alleviation, Shazia Marri, the government was aware of the problems faced by pregnant women and children and was acting swiftly to help.
According to the U.N. Population Fund, 6.4 million flood victims in Pakistan need humanitarian assistance. It said about 650,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas, including 73,000 expected to deliver in the next month, need maternal health services.
Children were at special risk, UNICEF said in a statement.
“When disasters hit, children are always among the most vulnerable,” said Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF representative in Pakistan. The floods damaged 17,566 schools, the agency said.
Meanwhile, rescuers, backed by the military, continued operations to evacuate marooned people to safer places. Rescuers are mostly using boats, but helicopters are also flying to evacuate stranded people from those areas where bridges and roads were destroyed, making it difficult to evacuate people and deliver food to them.
Days ago, Pakistan and the United Nations issued an appeal for $160 million in emergency funding to Pakistan. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday took to Twitter, thanking the United Arab Emirates for delivering the first tranche of relief goods worth $50 million. He also thanked the United States for announcing $30 million in aid.
So far, several countries, including Turkey, China, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, have sent planeloads of aid to flood victims in Pakistan. According to initial government estimates, the devastation caused $10 billion in damages.
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Associated Press writer Muhammad Farooq contributed to this story from Shikar Pur, Pakistan
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CHILDERSBURG, Ala. (AP) — Michael Jennings wasn’t breaking any laws or doing anything that was obviously suspicious; the Black minister was simply watering the flowers of a neighbor who was out of town.
Yet there was a problem: Around the corner, Amber Roberson, who is white, thought she was helping that same neighbor when she saw a vehicle she didn’t recognize at the house and called police.
Within minutes, Jennings was in handcuffs, Roberson was apologizing for calling 911 and three officers were talking among themselves about how everything might have been different.
Harry Daniels, an attorney representing Jennings, said he plans to submit a claim to the city of Childersburg seeking damages and then file a lawsuit. “This should be a learned lesson and a training tool for law enforcement about what not to do,” he said.
A 20-minute video of the episode recorded on one of the officers’ body cameras shows how quickly an uneventful evening on a quiet residential street devolved into yet another potentially explosive situation involving a Black man and white law enforcement authorities.
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“Whatcha doing here, man?” Officer Chris Smith asked as he walked up to Jennings, who held a hose with a stream of water falling on plants beside the driveway outside a small, white house.
“Watering flowers,” Jennings replied from a few feet away. Lawn decorations stood around a mailbox; fresh mulch covered the beds. It was more than an hour before sunset on a Sunday in late May, the kind of spring evening when people often are out tending plants.
Smith told Jennings that a caller said she saw a strange vehicle and a person who “wasn’t supposed to be here” at the house. Jennings told him the SUV he was talking about belonged to the neighbor who lives there.
“I’m supposed to be here,” he added. “I’m Pastor Jennings. I live across the street.”
“You’re Pastor Jennings?”
“Yes. I’m looking out for their house while they’re gone, watering their flowers,” said Jennings, still spraying water.
“OK, well, that’s cool. Do you have, like, ID?” Smith asked.
“Oh, no. Man, I’m not going to give you ID,” Jennings said, turning away.
“Why not?” Smith asked.
“I ain’t did nothing wrong,” the pastor replied.
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Jennings, 56, was born in rural Alabama just three years after George C. Wallace pledged “segregation forever” at the first of his four inaugurations as governor. His parents grew up during a time when racial segregation was the law and Black people were expected to act with deference to white people in the South.
“I know the backdrop,” Jennings said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, the officers who confronted him on May 22 work for a majority-white city of about 4,700 people that’s located 55 miles (88 kilometers) southeast of Birmingham down U.S. 280. Most members of the city council and police department are white, as is the mayor, past police chief and current acting chief.
Jennings went into the ministry not long after graduating from high school and hasn’t strayed far from his birthplace of nearby Sylacauga, where he leads Vision of Abundant Life Ministries, a small, nondenominational church, when not doing landscaping work or selling items online. In 1991, he said, he worked security and then trained to be a police officer in a nearby town but left before taking the job full time.
“That’s how I knew the law,” he said.
Alabama law allows police to ask for the name of someone in a public place when there’s reasonable suspicion the person has committed or is about to commit a crime. But that doesn’t mean a man innocently watering flowers at a neighbor’s home must provide identification when asked by an officer, according to Hank Sherrod, a civil rights lawyer who reviewed the full police video at the request of the AP.
“This is an area of the law that is pretty clear,” said Sherrod, who has handled similar cases in north Alabama, where he practices.
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Cuffed and seated between two shrubs on the front stoop of his neighbor’s home, Jennings told Smith and Gable how his son, a university athletics administrator, had been wrongly “arrested and profiled” in Michigan after a young woman at a cheerleading competition said a Black man had hugged her.
Jennings said he felt “anger and fear” during his interaction with the Alabama police officers not only because of what happened to his son but due to the accumulated weight of past police killings — George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others — plus lower-profile incidents and shootings in Alabama.
“That’s why I didn’t resist,” he said.
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Jennings was already in the back of a patrol car by the time Roberson, the white woman who called police, emerged. Jennings, she told officers, was a neighbor and a friend of the home’s owner, Roy Milam.
“OK. Does he have permission here to be watering flowers?” Smith asked.
“He may, because they are friends,” she replied. “They went out of town today. He may be watering their flowers. It would be completely normal.”
Milam told the AP that was exactly what happened: He’d asked Jennings to water his wife’s flowers while they were camping in the Tennessee mountains for a few days.
A few moments later, officers told Roberson that a license plate check showed the gold sport utility vehicle that prompted her call in the first place belonged to Milam. They got Jennings out of the patrol car and he told them his first and last name.
“I didn’t know it was him,” Roberson told police. “I’m sorry about that.”
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The officers spent much of their remaining time on the scene in a discussion that began with a question from Smith: “What are we going to do with him?”
After weighing different options, they settled on a charge of obstructing governmental operations that was thrown out within days in city court. The police chief who sought the dismissal after reviewing the 911 call and bodycam video, Richard McClelland, resigned earlier this month. City officials haven’t said why he quit, but city attorney Reagan Rumsey said it had nothing to do with what happened to Jennings.
Childersburg’s interim police chief, Capt. Kevin Koss, didn’t return emails seeking comment.
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Michael Jennings is still friends with Milam, the neighbor with the flowers. Milam, who is white, said he feels bad about what happened, and the two men will continue watching out for each other’s homes, just as they’ve done for years.
“He is a good neighbor, definitely. No doubt about it,” Milam said.
Jennings also recently spoke with Roberson for the first time since the arrest.
The pastor, who lives less than a third of a mile from the police station, said he has not seen any of the three officers who were involved in his arrest since that day. He believes all three should be fired or at least disciplined.
“I feel a little paranoid,” he said.
Nonetheless, he still waves at police cars passing through his neighborhood, partly out of the Christian call to be kind to others.
“You’re supposed to love your neighbor, no matter what,” he said. “But you’ve heard the saying, ‘Keep your enemies close to you, too.’”
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Reeves is a member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity Team.
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| 2022-09-21T12:41:52Z
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban announced they have arrested and will soon sentence an Afghan woman who appeared in a video on social media earlier this week and said a senior Taliban official forced her into marriage and raped her repeatedly.
In the video, the woman, who identified herself only by her first name Elaha, wept as she described being beaten and raped by former Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman Saeed Khosti. She said she was speaking from an apartment in Kabul where the Taliban had confined her after she tried to escape the country, and she pleaded for rescue.
“These may be my last words. He will kill me, but it is better to die once than to die every time,” she said.
Late Wednesday, a day after the video surfaced, the Taliban-run Supreme Court said in a tweet that Elaha had been arrested for defamation on orders of the chief justice Abdul Hakeem Haqqani. Without mentioning any trial taking place, it said she would “soon be sentenced according to Sharia law.”
“No one is allowed to harm the name of Mujahideen or defame the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the 20-years of holy jihad,” it said, referring to the Taliban and their war against U.S.-led troops and the U.S.-allied government, which the hardline insurgents toppled just over a year ago.
Since the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021, Afghan women activists, as well as Amnesty International, have reported an increase in forced marriages of women — including cases where Taliban officials coerced women into marriage by intimidating them or their families.
In the video, Elaha identified herself as a medical student at Kabul University and the daughter of an intelligence service general under the former government. She said Khosti had forced her into marriage six months ago, when he still held the spokesman post. Khosti tried to marry her sister to another Taliban official, but her family successfully fled, she said.
“Saeed Khosti beat me a lot. Every night he raped me,” she said, breaking into tears.
She said she tried to escape to neighboring Pakistan, but the Taliban arrested her at the border crossing and brought her back to Kabul and confined her to an apartment there. After they brought her back, she heard a Taliban member telling Khosti that she had lived under the former government for 20 years and should be stoned to death as an infidel, she said.
In tweets Wednesday, Khosti confirmed that he had married Elaha, but he denied mistreating her. “I assure you that I have not done anything illegal,” he wrote. In recent months, Khosti was transferred out of his spokesman post and it is not clear what his new position is.
Khosti said he divorced her after finding she “has a problem in her faith” and he accused her of insulting Islam’s holy book, the Quran.
Elaha’s video was widely shared on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp groups, sparking a wave of calls for help and denunciations of the Taliban from women activists.
Since seizing power, the Taliban have imposed increasing restrictions on women. They have prevented many women from working, barred teenage girls from school and required women in public to cover themselves completely except for their eyes. The world has refused to recognize the Taliban’s rule, demanding it respect human rights and show tolerance for other groups.
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| 2022-09-21T12:41:59Z
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KENNER, La. (WGNO) – A baggage handler at Louis Armstrong International Airport died after being injured on the job Tuesday night. Jermani Thompson, 26, was removing luggage from a plane when her hair became entangled with the machinery of the belt loader, said Mike Hough, the CEO of GAT Airline Ground Support, which contracts with Frontier.
According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, Thompson was taken to a Kenner hospital to be treated but died shortly afterward from her injuries.
“Yesterday at approximately 10:20pm, we had a fatality in our New Orleans operation,” Hough said in a statement. “One of our supervisory team members was injured and subsequently died while working to offload an inbound aircraft. What we know so far is that her hair became entangled with the machinery of the belt loader. We are heartbroken and are supporting her family and her friends as best as we are able. Please send your well wishes to our team member’s family and to everyone at our New Orleans station during this very difficult time.”
Kevin Dolliole, Director of Aviation for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, released a statement on the incident.
“We are deeply saddened about the tragic loss of GAT Airline Ground Support team member, Jermani Thompson. The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport extends its sincere condolences to her family and friends, and also to our partners at GAT and Frontier Airlines. Jermani was a part of our Airport family, and we will continue to support one another in any way we can during this trying time.”
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| 2022-09-21T12:42:14Z
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NEW CASTLE, Colo. (KDVR) — A woman staying at a Colorado home credits her dog for possibly saving her life when she was attacked by a bear early Wednesday morning.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed it was a black bear that charged her around 2 a.m. when she went out back to check on the hot tub cover.
Akasha Jensen said her dog ran out behind her and started barking at a tree. Next thing she knew, the bear was all over her.
“I was yelling, so, it came at me!” she said.
She said the encounter lasted about five minutes but the bear injured her arm, shoulder and back. She was taken to a hospital in nearby Glenwood Springs.
When New Castle police arrived, they determined there were four bears – the sow and three cubs. CPW was informed of the incident and instructed the officers to shoot and kill the sow. New Castle officers successfully tracked down the sow, and shot and killed it.
Officers with CPW were able to find three cubs in the area. One was euthanized and two others stayed in a tree, which prompted CPW to make the decision to tranquilize and remove them rather than euthanize them.
The investigation into the incident uncovered that the sow was the only bear that attacked the woman so the surviving cubs were sent to be rehabilitated.
The bears had been spotted in the area but showed no aggression toward humans or threatening behavior which is why they were not relocated.
CPW officers will generally euthanize bears if they no longer have fear of humans or after an attack to prevent future bear attacks.
Wildlife officers remind those in bear country to be bear aware
It’s the time of year bears fatten up for hibernation and the lack of food sources will draw them into human spaces to find food. Here are some ways to avoid bears coming near your home:
- Don’t feed bears, and don’t put out food for other wildlife that attracts bears.
- Be responsible about trash and bird feeders.
- Burn food off barbeque grills and clean after each use.
- Keep all bear-accessible windows and doors closed and locked, including home, garage and vehicle doors.
- Don’t leave food, trash, coolers, air fresheners or anything that smells in your vehicle.
- Pick fruit before it ripens, and clean up fallen fruit.
- Talk to your neighbors about doing their part to be bear responsible.
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| 2022-09-21T12:42:21Z
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The American West is experiencing its driest period in human history, a megadrought that threatens health, agriculture and entire ways of life. DRIED UP is examining the dire effects of the drought on the states most affected — as well as the solutions Americans are embracing.
AUSTIN, Texas (The Hill) — As the Western U.S. suffers under its worst drought in a millennium, the government of Texas, a state that faces its own unique set of dangers from extreme weather, is at last turning to deal with the threat that climate change poses to its long-term water supply.
Texas’s situation is sufficiently dire that in July, a majority-Republican panel on the state legislature voted unanimously to require the state water planning board to consult with the state climatologist as it advises cities in planning to meet the state’s water needs in the future.
The rule change “removes the possibility that the political climate could harm [local water officials’] ability to plan responsibly for the future,” state Sen. Nathan Johnson (D), a major backer of the shift, told The Hill.
“It kind of insulates the regional water authorities from political pressures that would harm their ability to do what they need to do,” Johnson said.
But that process won’t bear fruit for years — and Texans increasingly worry that the crisis is here now.
Never rains but it pours
The most recent demonstration of the volatile climate was last month’s flash downpours that stunned Johnson’s hometown of Dallas — a record rainfall that interrupted the city’s longtime drought, running off baked earth and acres of asphalt infrastructure to flood much of the city.
Those kinds of events offer a foretaste of the future that Texas can expect, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe told The Hill.
“You saw record dry conditions week after week after week — and then all of a sudden, a summer’s worth of rain in a single day,” Hayhoe said.
For much of the state, annual levels of rainfall may not change much — but that average conceals potentially lethal extremes of drought and flood, she said. “The amount of precipitation is staying the same. But the distribution is changing. It’s getting more extreme in both directions.”
Even if rainfall totals and distribution both stayed the same — which is unlikely — the simple fact of rising heat under climate change could presage water shortages, state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon told The Hill.
“Lakes evaporate faster, water in the ground evaporates faster,” said Nielsen-Gammon, who is also a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University.
That’s a problem for a state whose water storage strategy relies heavily on a collection of nearly 200 open-air reservoirs, exposed at all times to the baking sun. Moisture sucked into the air can also worsen flash storms, making rain events large enough to overwhelm the ability of soils to absorb them and catchment infrastructure to trap them.
Population growth looms
When these disruptive impacts are added to the booming populations foreseen by the Texas Water Development Board — expected by 2070 to surge from around 30 million to 52 million — they create a situation that worries many water planners interviewed by The Hill.
Much of that growth is expected along the dry and vulnerable I-35 corridor that connects Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley to San Antonio, Austin and the enormous collection of towns and cities surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth. The highway roughly divides Texas’s wet east from its dry west.
With that influx of people will come new water-dependent industries, from manufacturing plants such as the new Tesla facility going up outside Austin to more than a dozen high-tech semiconductor factories. And even with climate change making the weather ever more extreme, the state is fighting hard to protect fossil fuels. Those take a lot of water too, particularly when oil and gas is extracted through fracking.
“If any community in the state fails, and its water supply, that is big national, international news, and then has impacts on, I would argue, on the economic growth and perception of Texas,” Robert Mace of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment told local station KXAN, which is owned by The Hill’s parent company, Nexstar Media.
The looming prospect of a more intense and unpredictable drought-flood cycle presents a fearsome challenge for water planners.
It’s also one that — at least as it pertains to climate change — local officials have largely been left to figure out on their own, state water experts told The Hill.
For now, members of the Water Development Board “certainly don’t appear to be addressing [climate issues] directly,” Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist, told The Hill.
In contrast to the state’s specific and data-driven approach to planning for population growth, “there isn’t any official projection as far as streamflow or groundwater recharge impacts from climate change,” he added.
“It’d be really nice if individual water suppliers weren’t left to their own devices to tackle the issue.”
But the Texas Water Development Board’s planning process has traditionally looked backward, not forward, in envisioning the worst-case scenario that managers should plan for.
“By not considering climate change, we’re counting on water that’s probably not going to be there in the future,” Mace told KXAN. “And so that increases the risk of reservoirs going dry, and of people losing their water supplies.”
Incorporating climate planning, however, is extraordinarily difficult.
“The key word with climate is complicated,” Matt Nelson, a water resources professional at the Texas Water Development Board, told The Hill.
Even at the state level, Nelson said, models are ambiguous, leaving the coming effects on the ground unclear. That means that state officials who move quickly to, say, increase supply are at risk of installing expensive and potentially “maladaptive” infrastructure aimed at solving the wrong problem, he added.
The long-term trend of climate change — to the extent that it’s clear — is also easily drowned out in the near-term chaos of Texas weather, he said.
“There can be more substantial risk in the near term than a climate long-term effect,” Nelson said.
Local groups take action
Some individual water suppliers have taken the state’s absence as an invitation to make their own plans.
For the city of Austin, the onrushing threat of climate change has led the city to study its own vulnerability — and to secure its water supply out past 2100, by which point its population is expected to triple from 1.1. million to 3.3 million.
“Water utilities are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change. The nature of our product is such that we have to be responsive and adaptive to these changes as they’re happening in real time,” program manager Marisa Flores Gonzalez, of Austin Water, told The Hill.
Over the turbulent century to come, “we may have periods of time where we have plenty of water around — more water than we want,” Flores Gonzalez said.
“But we need to be able to take advantage of those supplies when they’re present during average or wet conditions and store that water so that we can make use of it during drought times.”
Austin is exploring a number of ways to do this. City officials are scouting locations where excess water could be injected into natural subterranean caverns in periods of abundance — in effect creating an artificial aquifer, immune to evaporation, that the city can draw on during the extended dry periods to come.
Groundwater injection is a measure that many other cities around the state are pursuing — most notably San Antonio, an hour’s drive south of Austin, but also smaller cities such as El Paso and even folk music mecca Kerrville.
Dallas-Fort Worth and other cities of the north Texas sprawl are building new reservoirs as fast as possible, and both Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are exploring ways to pipe in water from other basins as they look to a future where their own stores will be overtaxed.
But with “really out of the box unprecedented things are definitely being discussed, we often neglect the easiest and most common one — which is conservation,” Hayhoe said.
Austin, for example, has winnowed the amount of water needed per person per day by nearly a third since the 1990s, and it’s about a quarter of the way through a campaign to switch all the city’s analog water meters to leak-detecting smart ones.
And the city is experimenting with pilot sewage recycling systems — which treat wastewater on-site for reuse in watering, fountains and flushing toilets — which could ultimately cut demand for water by 75 percent, KXAN reported.
At the extreme end of this strategy, the residents of Big Spring, Texas — in the state’s arid far west — drink purified and treated wastewater, a system officially called “direct potable reuse” and sometimes derided as “toilet to tap,” public radio station WHYY reported.
‘The lowest point that I’ve ever seen’
Nelson at the Water Development Board says the board is working to incorporate usable climate models into its planning process. Board researchers are working with Nielsen-Gammon to try and derive standardized rules and models that are sufficiently flexible to bring to bear on state planning processes, such as trying to figure out how changing heat levels will impact evaporation from different regions’ lakes and rivers.
The state itself lags behind growing cities such as Austin, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, where local governments have done their own expensive climate forecasting — and many of which are already in the process of securing new supplies against their booming populations.
But most of Texas’s more than 1,200 incorporated towns and cities don’t have the resources to do their own climate planning — and are less likely to have multiple options to draw from in the case of a crisis.
That’s happening even just west of Austin, as former cattle ranches in the region known as the Hill Country — popular for its wineries and swimming holes — get converted into housing developments, which demand water for taps, toilets and lawns.
“With the explosive growth, the wells [are] at the lowest point that I’ve ever seen,” hydrologist Douglas Wierman told KXAN.
Wieman warned that these communities are draining the Lower Trinity Aquifer to the “tipping point where our demand for water resources has outpaced the ability of our aquifers and rivers to replenish themselves,” Wierman added.
In the Hill Country, that’s meant a booming business for “water haulers” making deliveries to families whose wells no longer reach the shrinking water table, KXAN reported.
A cruel paradox of Texas water politics is that those municipalities most vulnerable to climate change are likely to be least willing or able to prepare on their own.
The smaller the city, Nielsen-Gammon said, “the smaller the water supply — and the less likely they will be able to deal with climate change and possibly not even be willing to consider it because they have more immediate concerns.”
It’s those bodies that are at the greatest risk from climate change, Perry Fowler of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network told KXAN.
“If local entities aren’t already looking at fortifying their water sources, then they’re already really behind the eight ball on that,” Fowler said.
KXAN’s Mia Abbe and Christopher Adams contributed to this report.
Previously in this series:
Texas cattle industry faces existential crisis from historic drought
Lakes Mead and Powell are at the epicenter of the biggest Western drought in history
Seven stats that explain the West’s epic drought
Why Great Plains agriculture is particularly vulnerable to drought
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| 2022-09-21T12:42:28Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A retired New York Police Department officer was sentenced on Thursday to a record-setting 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters.
Thomas Webster’s prison sentence is the longest so far among roughly 250 people who have been punished for their conduct during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The previous longest was shared by two other rioters, who were sentenced separately to seven years and three months in prison.
Webster, a 20-year NYPD veteran, was the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried on an assault charge and the first to present a self-defense argument. A jury rejected Webster’s claim that he was defending himself when he tackled Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun and grabbed his gas mask outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Webster, 56, to 10 years in prison plus three years of supervised release. He allowed Webster to report to prison at a date to be determined instead of immediately ordering him into custody.
“Mr. Webster, I don’t think you’re a bad person,” the judge said. “I think you were caught up in a moment. But as you know, even getting caught up in a moment has consequences.”
Webster turned to apologize to Rathbun, who was in the courtroom but didn’t address the judge. Webster said he wishes he had never come to Washington, D.C.
“I wish the horrible events of that day had never happened,” he told the judge.
The judge said Rathbun wasn’t Webster’s only victim on Jan. 6.
“The other victim was democracy, and that is not something that can be taken lightly,” Mehta added.
Federal prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 17 years and six months. The court’s probation department had recommended a 10-year prison sentence. Mehta wasn’t bound by the recommendations.
In a court filing, prosecutors accused Webster of “disgracing a democracy that he once fought honorably to protect and serve.” Webster led the charge against police barricades at the Capitol’s Lower West Plaza, prosecutors said. They compared the attack to a medieval battle, with rioters pelting officers with makeshift projectiles and engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
“Nothing can explain or justify Mr. Webster’s rage. Nothing can explain or justify his violence,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Mirell said Thursday.
Defense attorney James Monroe said in a court filing that the mob was “guided by unscrupulous politicians” and others promoting the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from the Republican incumbent. He questioned why prosecutors argued that Webster didn’t deserve leniency for his 25 years of service to his country and New York City.
“That is not how we measure justice. That is revenge,” Monroe said.
In May, jurors deliberated for less than three hours before they convicted Webster of all six counts in his indictment, including a charge that he assaulted Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, the flagpole.
Also Thursday, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty to using pepper spray on police officers, including one who later died. Officer Brian Sicknick suffered a stroke the day after the riot and died of natural causes. He and other officers were standing guard behind metal bicycle racks as the mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Julian Khater, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon. He could face up to 20 years in prison, though will likely face a sentence ranging from about 6 1/2 to 8 years at a hearing set for December.
The case against Khater and a second man have been among the more notable brought by the Justice Department. George Pierre Tanios brought the pepper spray in a backpack. Tanios previously pleaded guilty and is also set to be sentenced in December.
Webster had testified at trial that he was trying to protect himself from a “rogue cop” who punched him in the face. He also accused Rathbun of instigating the confrontation.
Rathbun testified that he didn’t punch or pick a fight with Webster. Rathbun said he was trying to move Webster back from a security perimeter that he and other officers were struggling to maintain.
Rathbun’s body camera captured Webster shouting profanities and insults before they made any physical contact. The video shows that Webster slammed one of the bike racks at Rathbun before the officer reached out with an open left hand and struck the right side of Webster’s face.
After Rathbun struck his face, Webster swung a metal flag pole at the officer in a downward chopping motion, striking a bike rack. Rathbun grabbed the broken pole from Webster, who charged at the officer, tackled him to the ground and grabbed his gas mask, choking him by the chin strap.
Webster drove alone to Washington, D.C., from his home near Goshen, New York, on the eve of the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, where Trump addressed thousands of supporters. Webster was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a Marine Corps flag on a metal pole when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol.
Webster said he went to the Capitol to “petition” lawmakers to “relook” at the results of the 2020 presidential election. But he testified that he didn’t intend to interfere with Congress’ joint session to certify President Joe Biden‘s victory.
Webster retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service, which included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s private security detail. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 before joining the NYPD in 1991.
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| 2022-09-21T12:42:36Z
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(KTLA) – The intensity of a brush fire near Castaic, California, was captured on KTLA video Wednesday afternoon when a series of “fire tornadoes” or “fire whirls” were spotted.
The fire tornadoes developed around 3:20 p.m. as crews worked to contain the Route Fire, which had forced evacuations and the complete closure of the 5 Freeway.
The largest appeared to reach 20 feet in height.
The U.S. Forest Service defines a “fire whirl” as a “spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris, and flame.”
They can range in size from less than 1 foot to more than 500 feet in diameter.
The Route Fire was initially reported around noon Wednesday near northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway, according to the Angeles National Forest.
Eight firefighters suffered heat-related injuries as crews struggled to contain the fire in 100-degree temperatures amid a heat wave that has developed over much of Southern California.
KTLA captured footage of a much larger fire tornado on Aug. 10 during the Sam Fire in northwestern Los Angeles County.
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(The Hill) — In a matter of weeks, the Biden administration is set to unveil applications for student borrowers to register for up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness.
Under the effort announced last week, some borrowers will be able to apply for up to $10,000 in forgiveness and double that sum for Pell Grant recipients.
The administration says up to 43 million borrowers could see relief as part of the broad program, and the vast majority of these borrowers make under $75,000 per year.
Applications are expected to drop by early October, and borrowers will have a short window to apply if they want to see relief take effect before the end of the year.
Here are a few key steps student borrowers can take now to prepare for the application process.
Log into your student aid account
It’s been a long time since many student borrowers have had to make payments on their debt, and some new borrowers have yet to do so thanks to a years-long pandemic freeze on repayments set to lapse in the next few months.
One of the first things experts have urged borrowers to do in the coming weeks is log into their account at StudentAid.gov. There, borrowers will be able to view a breakdown of their federal loan and grant information as well as track and manage their federal loans.
“Some borrowers, depending on when they were enrolled, may have to first create an FSA [Federal Student Aid] ID to log into that student aid account,” said Rachel Gentry, director of government relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “Some borrowers already have that ID from when they were students.”
Gentry stressed that borrowers should ensure now “that their contact information is all up to date” with both their loan servicers and the Education Department in their StudentAid.gov account.
The agency has said about 8 million borrowers could be eligible for automatic relief if their “relevant income data is already available” to the office. But borrowers will also be able to apply for forgiveness by early October if the agency doesn’t have that income data.
Borrowers who continued to make payments during the pandemic could also be eligible for a partial refund.
More details are expected to come out about the plan in the weeks ahead, but borrowers can also sign up for updates on the department’s main website.
Find out which loans you have
President Joe Biden’s forgiveness plan likely won’t relieve private loan debt, experts say, though there are questions about whether borrowers with certain loans issued by private lenders will be able to see relief.
In particular, experts are awaiting more information on how the department will handle Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans.
FFELP loans “were issued by private and state lenders, but they were guaranteed by the federal government,” Gentry explained. “So what that means is that if one of those borrowers were to default on their loan, the government would pay those private and nonfederal entities who are the lenders a substitute to kind of make up for their losses.”
“When we transitioned to 100 percent direct lending a little over a decade ago, some of those [FFELP] lenders’ portfolios were purchased by the federal government … so those loans that were purchased at that time basically became like federal loans,” she continued.
However, Gentry said some of the commercially held FFELP loans are still owned by private and state lenders.
“We’re still waiting for more information on what folks with commercially held [FFELP] loans are going to need to do to access the forgiveness, whether there will be a way for them to not have to take action to receive forgiveness or whether they’ll have to consolidate,” she said.
Check your income eligibility
Eligibility for the relief extends to borrowers with incomes of less than $125,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples and heads of households.
Experts say the amount will be based on income earned in 2020 and 2021, so borrowers may need to have that information available.
“Borrowers should make sure that they have access to those tax returns so that they have a sense of what their reported income is in those years,” Katharine Meyer, a fellow for the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, said.
“My read of the policy is going to be based on the lower of those two, so they should be familiar with which of their household incomes was lower in those two years,” she said.
Meyer also said borrowers shouldn’t be too concerned about a tax implication of this forgiveness program, noting “an exemption on taxing forgiven debts right now that runs through the end of 2025.”
However, there have been questions raised about borrowers who could have to pay some state taxes on the relief depending on where they reside.
Get acquainted with other programs
Many borrowers can participate in a federal income-driven repayment plan and could be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
The Education Department currently lists four income-driven repayment plans online that have varying durations and pay thresholds depending on factors such as level of higher education attained and income.
Under the current PSLF program, borrowers with government jobs or who work at nonprofit organizations could be eligible for forgiveness after 120 qualifying monthly payments, or a decade of consistent repayment.
Experts have urged borrowers to move quickly on applying for that program ahead of an October deadline.
“One potential area for confusion that borrowers are going to face in the coming months is the dual deadlines of submitting for potential forgiveness, and the process to apply for the temporary public service loan forgiveness program waiver,” Meyer said. “That program has a deadline at the end of Oct. 31.”
That deadline matters, Meyers said, because of the Education Department’s temporary loosening of eligibility requirements for the PSLF program that is set to lapse.
“These are things like counting prior payments that were not made under an income-driven repayment plan toward forgiveness,” she said.
“Many individuals may need to consolidate their loans in order to be eligible for that program,” she added. “That consolidation shouldn’t affect the eligibility of those loans to then get forgiven whenever that process gets rolled out. But I could see how a lot of borrowers will be confused about that.”
Prep that budget
Borrowers will have until the end of next year to apply for the broader forgiveness program announced last week. But they are advised to apply by Nov. 15 if they want to see the relief take effect before the end of the year — which is when the current pandemic freeze on repayment will expire.
The moratorium, which also applies to interest accrual, was extended last week through Dec. 31, marking the seventh such time the pause has been renewed since it was first enacted in March 2020.
However, the Biden administration has made clear it won’t be shooting for an eighth extension, which means many borrowers will likely have to prepare to make regular payments for the first time in years.
A report released by the Education Data Initiative earlier this year placed the average monthly student loan payment at around $460. But borrowers can pay more or less depending on their payment plan.
For example, the Education Department notes on its website that some borrowers could qualify for zero-dollar payments if they make under a certain amount.
”If you are experiencing financial difficulty and you expect to be experiencing financial difficulty, you can explore your options with a loan servicer,” student loan expert Mark Kantrowitz said. “Don’t wait until Dec. 31 to call the loan servicer.”
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| 2022-09-21T12:42:51Z
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SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida couple was arrested Thursday for their alleged connection to a disturbing viral video that showed a raccoon being burned alive in a dumpster.
“Today we share another video likely to go viral depicting the two people responsible,” the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a tweet.
Alicia and Roddy Kincheloe, both of Sarasota, were arrested following “one of the most extensive investigations ever conducted by our Agricultural Unit,” the sheriff’s office added.
In a now-deleted Facebook video, a woman could be seen recording the raccoon as it growled and showed its teeth while trapped inside a dumpster.
In a second video, the woman can be heard laughing as she approached the same dumpster with the animal’s charred and smoking remains inside.
“Some people say throw an apple with bleach in there,” the woman can be heard saying in the video. “We just toasted his a–. Who’s hungry?”
The Kincheloes now face felony charges including aggravated animal cruelty. More details are expected to be released Friday.
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| 2022-09-21T12:42:58Z
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HOCKESSIN, Del. (WXIN) — A company is recalling infant bath seats sold on Amazon.com because they fail to meet federal safety standards.
The Consumer Product and Safety Commission said the recall involves bath seats sold by Yuboloo from May 2021 through November 2021. So far, no incidents have been reported.
The seats are being recalled because they don’t comply with federal safety standards, including requirements for stability and leg openings. They can tip over while in use, posing a drowning hazard to babies.
The recalled bath seats are made of molded plastic in a navy blue and orange color combination. The COSC said they have suction cups on the bottom. The bath seats have a plastic seat back, flat base, and t-shaped handle. “Baby Bath Seat, X002TS8NDN and Made in China” is printed on the packaging.
Anyone with the recalled bath seat should stop using it and contact Yuboloo for a pre-paid label to return it. A full refund will be issued once the bath seat is returned.
You can contact Yuboloo by email at suiwenlu1009@sina.com.
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FREMONT, Calif. (KRON) – A Northern California man has been charged with a hate crime in connection with a religiously charged rant at a Taco Bell, the Fremont Police Department said this week.
Singh Tejinder, 37, of Union City, was filmed shouting at another man at a Taco Bell in Fremont on Aug. 21, according to police.
The victim, Krishnan Jayaraman, told Nexstar’s KRON that the suspect’s offensive rant lasted more than eight minutes.
“He again said, ‘Hey, pick up your bean burrito and leave. You’re a vegetarian right? You don’t eat beef. You should eat beef. You Indians should eat beef,’” Jayaraman told KRON.
Jayaraman also said the suspect spat on him and called Hindus “disgusting.”
Police responded to the location of the incident after a Taco Bell employee called to report a disturbance between two customers. Officers arrived to find the men in an “active argument,” the Fremont Police Department wrote on Facebook.
Police interviewed both men involved and “confirmed that a disparaging comment about a particular religion was stated during the verbal argument,” FPD said. Tejinder was not arrested, as there was not yet enough evidence to confirm a hate crime, according to the department.
After reviewing the video, the police again interviewed Jayaraman. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office ultimately charged Tejinder with assault, disturbing the peace by offensive language, and a hate crime in violation of civil rights.
Tejinder was not in custody in Alameda County as of Monday night, police said. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call 510-790-6803.
Jayaraman also said there should be no tolerance for such hateful acts.
“We have grown numb to these kinds of things,” Jayaraman told KRON. “We need to be sensitive to a fellow human being.”
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HONOLULU (KHON) — Hawaiian Airlines operated its first flight with a mother and daughter pilot Wednesday.
The mother, Captain Kamelia Zarka, and her daughter, First Officer Maria Zarka, took flight over the Pacific. Both pilots flew from neighboring islands in the Boeing 717 aircraft.
According to Hawaiian Airlines, the daughter was hired as a Boeing 717 first officer earlier this year, and the mom, a Boeing 717 captain who earned her pilot wings in 1999, was the first Tongan woman to captain a commercial airline.
“It was a dream come true. I’ve been so lucky on my aviation career so far, but being able to fly right seat with my mom was an unbelievable lifetime experience,” said First Officer Maria Zarka. “Everybody always comes up to me and tells me how amazing my mom is to fly with, and today, I got to experience that firsthand.”
Captain Kamelia Zarka, who began as a flight attendant for Hawaiian Airlines, said flying with her daughter has been a dream ever since her daughter became interested in aviation as a child.
The mother and daughter pilot duo is encouraging other young girls to follow their dreams.
According to the Pilot Institute, the number of women pilots has grown each year since 2017. Yet there were still only 64,979 women pilots as of 2021, accounting for 9.02% of the total.
“While other industries, such as the medical field or law enforcement, have enjoyed a marked improvement in female representation, aviation is still struggling,” stated the Pilot Institute. “It’s going to take the collaborative effort of communities, corporations, training facilities, and individuals to help more women succeed in aviation.”
Currently, the airline industry as a whole is struggling with an overall pilot shortage that has resulted in worldwide cancellations and fewer flights.
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| 2022-09-21T12:43:28Z
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(The Hill) – The House Oversight Committee on Thursday reached an agreement to obtain former President Trump’s financial records, Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) announced.
The agreement would end a yearslong legal battle to obtain Trump’s financial records and require his accounting firm Mazars USA to turn the documents over to the committee.
“After numerous court victories, I am pleased that my Committee has now reached an agreement to obtain key financial documents that former President Trump fought for years to hide from Congress,” Maloney said in a statement.
The Oversight Committee launched an investigation into Trump’s finances in 2019 over possible conflicts of interest, inaccurate financial disclosures and violations of emoluments clauses.
After the committee subpoenaed Mazars for the former president’s financial records in March 2019, Trump sued to prevent the accounting firm from releasing the documents.
A federal appeals court ruled in July of this year that the Oversight Committee had the authority to subpoena Trump but required that the committee narrow its request.
“These documents will inform the Committee’s efforts to get to the bottom of former President Trump’s egregious conduct and ensure that future presidents do not abuse their position of power for personal gain,” Maloney added.
In a separate lawsuit, a federal appeals court ruled last month that the House Ways and Means Committee was entitled to review Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020. That lawsuit is not covered the Oversight Committee’s recent agreement, according to CNBC.
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| 2022-09-21T12:43:35Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Math and reading scores for America’s 9-year-olds fell dramatically during the first two years of the pandemic, according to a new federal study — offering an early glimpse of the sheer magnitude of the learning setbacks dealt to the nation’s children.
Reading scores saw their largest decrease in 30 years, while math scores had their first decrease in the history of the testing regimen behind the study, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the U.S. Education Department.
The declines hit all regions of the country and affected students of most races. But students of color saw some of the steepest decreases, widening the racial achievement gap.
Much of the nation’s standardized testing didn’t happen during the early days of the pandemic, so the findings released Thursday gave an early look at the impact of pandemic learning disruptions. Broader data is expected to be released later this year as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation’s Report Card.
“These are some of the largest declines we have observed in a single assessment cycle in 50 years of the NAEP program,” said Daniel McGrath, the acting associate commissioner of NCES. “Students in 2022 are performing at a level last seen two decades ago.”
The study reflects two years of upheaval in American education as schools shut down for months at a time amid COVID-19 outbreaks. Many students spent a year or more learning from home, and virus outbreaks among staff and students continued the disruption even after kids returned to the classroom.
In math, the average score for 9-year-old students fell 7 percentage points between 2020 and 2022, according to the study. The average reading score fell 5 points.
The pandemic’s upheaval especially hurt students of color. Math scores dropped by 5 percentage points for white students, compared with 13 points for Black students and 8 points for Hispanic students. The divide between Black and white students widened by 8 percentage points during the pandemic.
Decreases were more uniform in reading: Scores dropped 6 points for white, Black and Hispanic students.
For Asian American students, Native American students and students of two or more races, there was little change in reading or math between 2020 and 2022, the study found.
Geographically, all regions saw decreases in math, but declines were slightly worse in the Northeast and Midwest compared with the West and South. Outcomes were similar for reading, except that the West had no measurable difference compared with 2020.
Although it marks a sharp drop since 2020, the average reading score was 7 points higher than it was in 1971, and the average math score was 15 points higher than in 1978, the study found.
Overall, the results paint a “sobering picture” of schooling during the pandemic, said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the NCES.
Federal officials say this is the first nationally representative study to compare student achievement before the pandemic and in 2022, when most students had returned to in-person learning. Testing was completed in early 2020, soon before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and in early 2022.
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| 2022-09-21T12:43:42Z
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CHICAGO (WGN) — A group of migrants from Texas arrived at Chicago’s Union Station Wednesday night, according to Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor, citing the Biden administration and Chicago’s sanctuary city status, said that the city will now be a drop-off location.
In April, Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to charter buses to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to Washington D.C. Earlier in August, he directed that New York City be added as a second drop-off location.
According to the governor’s office, thousands of undocumented migrants have been transported to D.C. and New York City, providing “much-needed relief to Texas’ overwhelmed border communities.”
Abbott cited Chicago’s “Welcoming City Ordinance” as a reason why he selected it as the state’s third drop-off location.
“President Biden’s inaction at our southern border continues putting the lives of Texans — and Americans — at risk and is overwhelming our communities,” said Gov. Abbott in a statement. “To continue providing much-needed relief to our small, overrun border towns, Chicago will join fellow sanctuary cities Washington, D.C. and New York City as an additional drop-off location. Mayor Lightfoot loves to tout the responsibility of her city to welcome all regardless of legal status, and I look forward to seeing this responsibility in action as these migrants receive resources from a sanctuary city with the capacity to serve them.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office released a statement Wednesday night saying they received approximately 60 migrant. He also described Gov. Abbott’s actions at “racist practices.”
“As a city, we are doing everything we can to ensure these immigrants and their families can receive shelter, food, and most importantly protection,” the statement read, in part. “This is not new; Chicago welcomes hundreds of migrants every year to our city and provides much-needed assistance. Unfortunately, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is without any shame or humanity. But ever since he put these racist practices of expulsion in place, we have been working with our community partners to ready the city to receive these individuals.”
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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the percentage of canceled flights for Southwest.
(The Hill) – U.S. airline passenger complaints doubled in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, according to a Department of Transportation (DOT) report published this month.
Passengers filed nearly 16,000 complaints with the DOT against U.S. airlines from January to June. That’s more than double the 6,827 complaints filed in first half of 2021.
American Airlines recorded the most complaints in the first half of 2022, with 3,186 filed against the Fort Worth, Texas-based company on everything from flight problems, refunds, fares, refunds, baggage and accessibility issues.
United Airlines recorded 2,391 complaints from January to June of this year, while passengers filed 1,909 complaints against Spirit Airlines.
Ranking fourth was Frontier Airlines, at 1,750 filed complaints. In fifth place was Jetblue Airways, with 1,676 filed complaints.
Airlines have struggled to meet high consumer demand this year as travelers emerged from the pandemic’s peak waves and shutdowns, leaving many flights canceled and delayed, to the frustration of the public.
Companies have blamed everything from a pilot shortage to high fuel costs and extreme weather for the mass cancellations and delayed flights.
The travel disruptions have angered the Biden administration and congressional lawmakers, especially as thousands of flights were canceled over holiday travel weekends, including for the Fourth of July and Juneteenth.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met with airline executives in June and House Democrats introduced a bill this month that would force companies to give up cash refunds to passengers if a flight is canceled or significantly delayed.
The DOT’s latest Air Travel Consumer Report, filed by The Office of Aviation Consumer Protection, also breaks down the number of flight cancellations recorded in the first half of the year.
More than 106,000 flights were canceled from January to June. In the same period last year, just over 41,000 flights were canceled.
Southwest Airlines canceled the most flights, with 16,321 of them scrubbed in the first half of 2022.
According to the DOT report, American Airlines canceled the second most number of flights, at 16,288 from January to June. Republic Airways cut 10,270 flights in the first half of 2022, ranking third.
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| 2022-09-21T12:43:57Z
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(WJW) – The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife announced Wednesday it has confirmed cases of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) in white-tailed deer in 13 Ohio counties.
EHD, sometimes referred to as “zombie deer,” is a viral infection deer get from biting midges. The infected deer can lose their fear of humans and have other neurological signs like circling, weakness, not eating. Deer that die from EHD often have a swollen tongue, eyelids, neck or head. While it’s usually fatal, some deer survive and develop immunity.
The deadly disease has been documented in other states as well.
In July, more than 300 deer on a Wisconsin farm were killed after the affliction spread throughout the population.
“It’s a viral disease that affects a variety of different types of deer in Indiana,” Katherine Michelle Benavidez Westrich, a biologist for Indiana Fish and Wildlife, told Nexstar’s WXIN in 2019. “Whitetail deer are the animal that’s most affected, it causes flu-like signs. So these deer oftentimes will develop fevers. For that reason, they tend to seek out water to alleviate those fevers and as the disease progresses, they start to display what looks like neurological science. So they’ll be drinking the water over and over again, they might start having what looks like seizures.”
Once infected, deer can die within 36 hours of onset symptoms.
People and pets can’t be infected, and it’s not spread animal-to-animal.
EHD deaths typically subside after the first frost, when the midges die off.
Here’s where the infected deer have been found: Athens, Butler, Champaign, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Highland, Madison, Perry, Preble, Ross, Union, and Warren counties.
Sightings of sick or dead deer should be reported to local wildlife officials.
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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Bernadette Demientieff said she cried when she learned of Democrat Mary Peltola’s win in Alaska’s U.S. House special election, making Peltola the first Alaska Native to be elected to Congress.
“I feel a little bit of relief knowing that somebody will be down there that can really relate and understand what it is to be Alaskan, to be an Alaska Native and to have that connection to our homeland,” said Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. The indigenous Gwich’in have fought for years against efforts to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and she hopes to lay out their concerns with Peltola.
Peltola, 49, who is Yup’ik, is set to serve the remainder of the late Republican Rep. Don Young’s term, which ends in January.
Young, who died in March, held the seat for 49 years. Zack Brown, a former spokesperson in Young’s office, said that “many staffers over the years heard the Congressman express that he’d like to see the seat one day held by an Alaska Native woman.”
But even as Peltola celebrated Wednesday, when results of the Aug. 16 ranked choice special election were released, she was looking toward November, when she will once again face Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, her competitors in the special election. The November general election will decide who wins a full two-year term.
Peltola sought to stay above the fray during a campaign in which Begich cast Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and a former governor, as unserious and chasing fame.
Palin, who touted widespread name recognition and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, questioned Begich’s Republican credentials and issued perhaps her strongest rebuke of him Thursday, saying “Negative Nick” had divided Republicans with his “dirty campaigning” and should drop out of the race. Begich comes from a family of prominent Democrats but has said he’s a lifelong Republican.
This was the first statewide ranked voting election in Alaska. Supporters of ranked voting say it encourages candidates to run positive campaigns to earn support from beyond their traditional bases. Scott Kendall, who helped write the ballot measure passed by voters in 2020 that scrapped party primaries and instituted ranked voting in general elections, said Begich “ran a clinic on how to perform poorly in a ranked choice election.”
“He was negative,” he said. “And what do you know? When you tell your supporters that the other Republican is worthless, maybe they believe you.”
Begich finished third in first choice votes, meaning he was eliminated. Voters who ranked him first had their votes count for their next choice. Of the Begich voters who ranked a second candidate, about 36% chose Peltola and 64% chose Palin, according to preliminary figures.
Peltola said she is “very excited to work for Alaskans” over the next few months but also “very committed to staying focused to the campaign for the two-year seat and really focused on November.”
She acknowledged the historic nature of her win, which Peltola said Wednesday was “still sinking in,” but said she is “much more than just my ethnicity or gender.” Peltola also will be the first woman to hold Alaska’s House seat.
Alaska is a diverse state, she noted, and “we really need to be focused on all working together to overcome our challenges.”
Peltola served five terms in the Alaska House, ending in 2009, and most recently worked for a commission aimed at rebuilding salmon resources on the Kuskokwim River. Her time in the Legislature overlapped with Palin’s time as governor and the two have been cordial.
Peltola said she began fishing as a child with her father. The self-described salmon advocate said she was motivated to run for the U.S. House by environmental issues facing Alaska and wanted to draw attention to issues of ocean productivity and food insecurity. She has raised concerns over low salmon runs.
With the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June, Peltola has said she wanted to be “an advocate for safe and legal abortions.”
Peltola said any additional leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge “should proceed as long as there is support by the people that live there and protections in place for our natural resources, including the caribou.”
Joe Nelson, board chairman at Sealaska, an Alaska Native corporation, said Peltola understands the importance of a subsistence way of life — living off the land and harvesting fish, berries and wildlife. Sealaska had encouraged voters to support Peltola and on Wednesday lauded her win as a “historic moment.”
Nelson, who is also Peltola’s ex-husband, said having an Alaska Native in Congress is “long overdue” and said more Native voices in leadership roles are needed.
Andrew Halcro, a Republican, said he ranked Peltola first in the special election and Republican write-in candidate Tara Sweeney second. Halcro and Peltola served in the state Legislature together, he from Anchorage and Peltola from the rural hub community of Bethel. He said he was a “know-nothing guy” who made some “unfortunate comments” around a program that provides economic assistance to communities where electricity costs can be far higher than in more urban areas.
He said this was at a time when the “urban/rural divide was raging” in the Legislature and that Peltola came to his office saying, “Hey, if you’re interested, I’d be happy to educate you on this.”
Peltola “was really one of the rural lawmakers in my freshman year that really changed my outlook on rural Alaska and really helped me get educated on the challenges that they face,” he said.
Supporters of Peltola say she has a knack for connecting with people. Peltola said one thing she’s learned during the campaign that she hopes to build on is “how much we all need positivity and hope and inspiration.”
Beth Kerttula, a Democrat who served in the Legislature with Peltola, said Peltola’s victory is not a “fluke.”
“Sometimes it’s the right person in the right place at the right time, and that’s Mary,” she said, calling Peltola a gifted speaker and coalition builder who “just shines.”
“If you didn’t know who she was, then it’s like, wow, look at that,” she said of Peltola’s win. “But that was no mistake. People believed in Mary.”
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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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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will meet with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa this month, the White House announced Thursday, as the administration looks to draw African nations closer to the U.S. at a time when South Africa and many of its neighbors have staked out neutral ground on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Announcement of the Sept. 16 visit comes on the heels of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Africa last month, in which he said the Biden administration sees Africa’s 54 nations as “equal partners” in tackling global problems.
But the administration has been disappointed that South Africa and much of the continent have declined to follow the U.S. in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
South Africa abstained in a United Nations vote to condemn Russia’s action, and Ramaphosa has avoided any criticism of Russia and instead has called for a mediated peace.
Biden and Ramaphosa, who spoke by phone in April, are expected to focus their talks on trade and investment, infrastructure, climate and energy, public health and South Africa’s leading role on the continent, officials said.
“The two Presidents will reaffirm the importance of our enduring partnership, and discuss our work together to address regional and global challenges,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement announcing this month’s meeting.
Biden also plans to host a U.S.-Africa leaders summit in December.
During the Blinken visit, Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor maintained South Africa’s neutrality on the Ukraine war. In a press briefing following the meeting, Pandor accused the U.S. and other Western powers of focusing on the Ukraine conflict to the detriment of other international issues.
“We should be equally concerned at what is happening to the people of Palestine, as we are with what is happening to the people of Ukraine,” she said.
Blinken for his part underscored that Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has led to scarcities in grain, cooking oil and fertilizer — an issue that has had disproportionate impact on Africans.
“The U.S. is there for African countries in this unprecedented crisis, because that’s what partners do for each other,” Blinken said. “The United States will not dictate Africa’s choices, and neither should anyone else. The right to make these choices belongs to Africans, and Africans alone.”
South Africa’s neutral position is largely because of the support the Soviet Union gave during the Cold War era to Ramaphosa’s African National Congress in its fight to end apartheid, South Africa’s regime of repression against the Black majority that ended in 1994. South Africa is seen as a leader of the several African countries that will not side against Russia.
The Biden meeting will come at a critical time for Ramaphosa, who is facing criticism from opposition parties and from within his own party for a scandal over revelations that $4 million was stolen from his cattle ranch.
He has been grilled this week by members of Parliament about whether the foreign cash had been properly registered with South Africa’s financial authorities and why he did not immediately report the theft. The scandal has damaged Ramaphosa’s reputation as a leader committed to battling his nation’s rampant corruption.
Ramaphosa faces significant opposition in his efforts to be reelected as the leader of his party at a conference in December. If he fails to win the party leadership he won’t be able to stand for reelection as South Africa’s president in 2024.
South Africa’s economy has been in recession since even before the COVID-19 pandemic and has unemployment of 34%, so Ramaphosa would welcome any announcement of economic support from the U.S.
During Blinken’s visit to South Africa last month, he praised South Africa and Ramaphosa for achieving a multi-racial democracy after years of white minority rule. He also used the visit to formally launch a new U.S. strategy toward Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Meldrum reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
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| 2022-09-21T12:44:20Z
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Joe Biden charged in a prime-time address that the “extreme ideology” of Donald Trump and his adherents “threatens the very foundation of our republic,” as he summoned Americans of all stripes to help counter what he sketched as dark forces within the Republican Party trying to subvert democracy.
In his speech Thursday night at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, Biden unleashed the trappings of the presidency in an unusually strong and sweeping indictment of Trump and what he said has become the dominant strain of the opposition party. His broadside came barely two months before Americans head to the polls in bitterly contested midterm elections that Biden calls a crossroads for the nation.
“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” he said before an audience of hundreds, raising his voice over pro-Trump hecklers outside the building where the nation’s founding was debated. He said he wasn’t condemning the 74 million people who voted for Trump in 2020 but added, “There’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans,” using the acronym for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.
The explicit effort by Biden to marginalize Trump and his followers marks a sharp recent turn for the president, who preached his desire to bring about national unity in his inaugural address.
Asked on Friday if he considered all Trump supporters a threat to the country, Biden said, “I don’t consider any Trump supporter a threat to the country.”
He added: “I do think anyone who calls for the use of violence, fails to condemn violence when it’s used, refuses to acknowledge when an election has been won, insists on changing the way in which the rules to count votes, that is a threat to democracy.”
He said that when people voted for Trump, “they weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol. They weren’t voting for overruling the election. They were voting for a philosophy he put forward.”
Biden, who largely avoided even referring to “the former guy” by name during his first year in office, has grown increasingly vocal in calling out Trump personally. Now, emboldened by his party’s summertime legislative wins and wary of Trump’s return to the headlines, he has sharpened his attacks, last week likening the “MAGA philosophy” to “semi-fascism.”
Wading into risky political terrain, Biden strained to balance his criticism with an appeal to more traditional Republicans to make their voices heard. Meanwhile, GOP leaders swiftly accused him of only furthering political divisions.
Delivering a preemptive rebuttal from Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Biden was born, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said it is the Democratic president, not Republicans, trying to divide Americans.
“In the past two years, Joe Biden has launched an assault on the soul of America, on its people, on its laws, on its most sacred values,” McCarthy said. “He has launched an assault on our democracy. His policies have severely wounded America’s soul, diminished America’s spirit and betrayed America’s trust.”
Asked about McCarthy’s criticism, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier Thursday that “we understand we hit a nerve” with the GOP leader, and quoted the Republican’s prior statements saying Trump bore responsibility for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump plans a rally this weekend in the Scranton area.
White House officials said the sharp tenor of Biden’s remarks reflected his mounting concern about Trump allies’ ideological proposals and relentless denial of the nation’s 2020 election results.
“Equality and democracy are under assault” in the U.S., Biden charged, casting Trump and his backers in the GOP as a menace to the nation’s system of government, its standing abroad and its citizens’ way of life.
Trump and the MAGA Republicans “promote authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence,” he said. They “are determined to take this country backwards.”
“Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love,” he said, referencing the social issues that Democrats have looked to place front-and-center for voters this fall.
Biden’s appearance was promoted as an official, taxpayer-funded event, a mark of how the president views defeating the Trump agenda as a policy aim as much as a political one. Red and blue lights illuminated the brick of Independence Hall, as the Marine Band played “Hail to the Chief” and a pair of Marine sentries stood at parade rest in the backdrop. Still, the major broadcast television networks did not carry the address live.
The president appealed for citizens to “vote, vote, vote” to protect their democracy. “For a long time, we’ve reassured ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. But it is not.”
Biden harked back to the 2017 white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, which he said brought him out of political retirement to challenge Trump. Biden argued that the country faces a similar crossroads in the coming months, and he cast defending the “soul of the nation” as “the work of my presidency — a mission I believe in with my whole soul.”
But Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufman said in a statement that Biden was using the tactics of an authoritarian regime, “trying to turn his political opponents into an enemy of the state.”
Larry Diamond, an expert on democracy and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said calling Trump out for attacks on democracy “can be manipulated or framed as being partisan. And if you don’t call it out, you are shrinking from an important challenge in the defense of democracy.”
The White House has tried to keep Biden removed from the legal and political maelstrom surrounding the Department of Justice’s discovery of classified documents in Trump’s Florida home. Still, Biden has pointed to some Republicans’ quick condemnation of federal law enforcement, to argue “you can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American.”
His trip to Philadelphia was just one of his three to the state within a week, a sign of Pennsylvania’s importance in the midterms, with competitive Senate and governor’s races. However, neither Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democrats’ Senate nominee, nor Attorney General Josh Shapiro, their pick for governor, attended Thursday night.
The White House intended the speech to unite familiar themes: holding out bipartisan legislative wins on guns and infrastructure as evidence that democracies “can deliver,” pushing back on GOP policies on guns and abortion that Biden says are out of step with most people’s views.
The challenges have only increased since the tumult surrounding the 2020 election and the Capitol attack.
Lies surrounding that presidential race have triggered harassment and death threats against state and local election officials and new restrictions on mail voting in Republican-dominated states. County election officials have faced pressure to ban the use of voting equipment, efforts generated by conspiracy theories that voting machines were somehow manipulated to steal the election.
Candidates who dispute Trump’s loss have been inspired to run for state and local election posts, promising to restore integrity to a system that has been undermined by false claims.
There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines. Judges, including ones appointed by Trump, dismissed dozens of lawsuits filed after the election, and Trump’s own attorney general called the claims bogus. Yet Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling has shown about two-thirds of Republicans say they do not think Biden was legitimately elected president.
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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller reported from Washington. Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed.
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| 2022-09-21T12:44:28Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been more than a decade since President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, welcomed back George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, for the unveiling of their White House portraits, part of a beloved Washington tradition that for decades managed to transcend partisan politics.
President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are set to revive that ritual — after an awkward and anomalous gap in the Trump years — when they host the Obamas on Wednesday for the big reveal of their portraits in front of scores of friends, family and staff.
The Obama paintings will not look like any in the White House portrait collection to which they will be added. They were America’s first Black president and first lady.
The ceremony will also mark Michelle Obama’s first visit to the White House since Obama’s presidency ended in January 2017, and only the second visit for Barack Obama. He was at the White House in April to mark the 12th anniversary of the health care law he signed in 2010.
Portrait ceremonies often give past presidents an opportunity to showcase their comedic timing.
“I am pleased that my portrait brings an interesting symmetry to the White House collection. It now starts and ends with a George W,” Bush quipped at his ceremony in 2012.
Bill Clinton joked in 2004 that “most of the time, till you get your picture hung like this, the only artists that draw you are cartoonists.”
Recent tradition, no matter the party affiliation, has had the current president genially hosting his immediate predecessor for the unveiling — as Clinton did for George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush did for Clinton and Obama did for the younger Bush.
Then there was an unexplained pause when Donald Trump did not host Obama.
Two spokespeople for Trump did not respond to emailed requests for comment on the lack of a ceremony for Obama, and whether artists are working on portraits of Trump and former first lady Melania Trump.
The White House portrait collection starts with George Washington, America’s first president. Congress bought his portrait.
Other portraits of early presidents and first ladies often came to the White House as gifts. Since the 1960s, the White House Historical Association has paid for most of the paintings.
The first portraits financed by the association were of Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, and John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, said Stewart McLaurin, president of the private, nonprofit organization established by first lady Kennedy.
Before presidents and first ladies leave office, the association explains the portrait process. The former president and first lady choose the artist or artists, and offer guidance on how they want to be portrayed.
“It really involves how that president and first lady see themselves,” McLaurin said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The collection includes an iconic, full-length portrait of Washington that adorns the East Room. It is the only item still in the White House that was in the executive mansion in November 1800 when John Adams and Abigail Adams became the first president and first lady to live in the White House.
Years later, first lady Dolley Madison saved Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington from almost certain ruin. She had White House staff take it out of the city before advancing British forces burned the mansion in 1814. The painting was held in storage until the White House was rebuilt.
President and first lady portraits are seen by millions of White House visitors, though not all are on display. Some are undergoing conservation or are in storage.
Those that are on display line hallways and rooms in public areas of the mansion, such as the Ground Floor and its Vermeil and China Rooms, and the State Floor one level above, which has the famous Green, Blue and Red Rooms, the East Room and State Dining Room.
Portraits of Mamie Eisenhower, Pat Nixon, Lady Bird Johnson and Lou Henry Hoover grace the Vermeil Room, along with a full-length image of Jacqueline Kennedy. Michelle Obama’s portrait likely will join Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush along the Ground Floor hallway.
The State Floor hallway one floor above features recent presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Gerald Ford’s portrait and the likeness of Richard Nixon — the only president to resign from office — are on view on the Grand Staircase leading to the private living quarters on the second floor.
Past presidents’ images move around the White House, depending on their standing with the current occupants. Ronald Reagan, for example, moved Thomas Jefferson and Harry S. Truman out of the Cabinet Room and swapped in Dwight Eisenhower and Calvin Coolidge.
In the Clinton era, portraits of Richard Nixon and Reagan, idols of the Republican Party, lost their showcase spot in the Grand Foyer and were replaced with pictures of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman, heroes of the Democrats. Nancy Reagan temporarily moved Eleanor Roosevelt to a place of prominence in the East Room in 1984 to mark the centennial of her birth.
One of the most prominent spots for a portrait is above the mantle in the State Dining Room and it has been occupied for decades by a painting of a seated Abraham Lincoln, hand supporting his chin. It was placed there by Franklin Roosevelt.
Bill Clinton’s and George W. Bush’s portraits hang on opposing walls in the Grand Foyer.
Clinton’s would be relocated to make room for Barack Obama’s if the White House sticks to tradition and keeps the two most recent Oval Office occupants there, McLaurin said.
“That’s up to the White House, to the curators,” he said.
The association, which is funded through private donations and the sale of books and an annual White House Christmas ornament, keeps the portrait price well below market value because of the “extraordinary honor” an artist derives from having “their work of art hanging perpetually in the White House,” McLaurin said.
Details about the Obamas’ portraits will stay under wraps until Wednesday.
Biden will be the rare president to host a former boss for the unveiling; he was Obama’s vice president. George H.W. Bush, who held Ronald Reagan’s ceremony, was Reagan’s No. 2.
Betty Monkman, a former White House curator, said during a 2017 podcast for the White House Historical Association that the ceremony is a “statement of generosity” by the president and first lady. “It’s a very warm, lovely moment.”
The White House portraits are one of two sets of portraits of presidents and first ladies. The National Portrait Gallery, a Smithsonian museum, maintains its own collection and those portraits are unveiled before the White House pair. The Obamas’ unveiled their museum portraits in February 2018.
Linda St. Thomas, chief spokesperson for the Smithsonian Institution, said in an email that a $650,000 donation in July from Save America, Trump’s political action committee, was earmarked for the couple’s museum portraits. Two artists have been commissioned, one for each painting, and work has begun, St. Thomas said.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:44:37Z
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When news hit that Mikhail Gorbachev had died at age 91, Associated Press journalists around the world began sharing their “Gorby” stories from covering the last Soviet leader or interviewing him in Russia or abroad in the three decades that followed. They remember his temper and sense of humor, his sharp intellect even in his later years, when he was willing to talk at length about his hopes and his regrets.
That is if you could follow his long, rambling sentences in his southern Russian accent and his annoying tendency to refer to himself in the third person. For some of them, though, it was the warmth of an aging Gorbachev that they remember. The shared tea, the arm around the shoulder. Gorbachev was a man who changed the world, and the AP was there.
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Gorbachev came to power in 1985 with no less of a goal than to transform the Soviet Union and the lives of his fellow citizens, many still desperately poor. The obstacles he faced were monumental.
For AP correspondents in Moscow at the time, “it was like covering sports,” remembers Andrew Katell. “What was the score? Was the development we were reporting good or bad for Gorbachev, a win or a loss?”
It was hard for reporters in Moscow to get close enough to Gorbachev to ask those questions. When he traveled abroad, however, he was usually eager to press the flesh and talk to the press. So, when Katell was covering Gorbachev’s official trip to Madrid in 1989, he thought his chance had come.
He raised his hand repeatedly at a news conference, but was ignored. Afterward, he rushed the stage and asked the Soviet leader if he could ask one more question. Gorbachev “smiled, said nothing, extended his hand for a shake, then walked away.”
AP correspondent Brian Friedman also got the Gorbachev treatment. In summer 1992, less than a year after the Soviet Union disintegrated, Friedman trailed him as he left the Fourth of July party at the U.S. ambassador’s residence. Shorn of his security detail and big limousine, Gorbachev was carrying his suit coat over his shoulder as he walked back to a simple Volga sedan.
“I tried to politely ask him a question about the upcoming court case the following week over the legacy of the banned Communist Party. I then extended my tape recorder to get his response,” Friedman said. “Gorbachev, the former president of the USSR, looked at me, looked at my tape recorder and said, ‘This we don’t need!’ and knocked my recorder out of my hand to the ground. He then stormed off.”
Friedman had seen a more amiable, if wistful, Gorbachev at a going-away party for his staff on Dec. 26, 1991, the day after his nationally televised address in which he announced his resignation as president.
“He held a small glass of lemon-flavored vodka. Known in his career as a teetotaler and for his anti-alcohol campaigns, Gorbachev said with a twinkle in his eye, ‘You think I can’t do it? Now I can afford to!’ And he then gulped it down.”
It was mostly the amiable Gorbachev who greeted correspondents in his years out of power.
In the early 1990s, he sent out a press release inviting journalists to a news conference at the airport before he embarked on one of his many international speaking tours. Larry Ryckman remembers that most everyone in the AP’s Moscow bureau rolled their eyes, busy with covering the emergence of a new chaotic Russia. But he was game and headed out to the airport. He was one of only a couple of journalists.
“Gorbachev’s wife, Raisa, gave me a look that seemed to be a mix of gratitude that I had bothered to show up and embarrassment at the pitiful turnout,” Ryckman said. “We ended up sitting around a small table in the airport lounge chatting for a few minutes — with just Gorbachev, his wife and a couple of aides. He didn’t end up saying anything particularly newsworthy, but it’s one of my favorite memories from my time in Moscow.”
During the next few years, Gorbachev built his foundation, a think tank designed to defend his legacy, and he toured the world, often drawing huge enthusiastic crowds. At home he struggled to stay relevant.
For journalists working in Moscow, Gorbachev was of interest mainly as the anniversaries of the 1991 pivotal events rolled around. But even in August 1996, only five years after a failed coup mounted by a group of communist hardliners, the AP story quoted only two sentences from an interview with him.
“These five years have proved all that I said — that the breakup of the Soviet Union would bring grave calamity for Russia and all the other republics,” Gorbachev said. “I find myself in the role of a Cassandra.”
His long-shot, comeback candidacy for the presidency had been crushed earlier that year. Julia Rubin, who interviewed him then, remembers him as genial and friendly, joking with the AP’s television camera operators about getting the angles right. But he was also a little testy about being sidelined politically. “He had strong opinions and still wanted to be part of the conversation” about where the countries of the former Soviet Union were headed.
He also wanted his voice heard on the dangers posed by the steadily deteriorating relations between Russia and the U.S.
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Russians called him the American Gorbachev because of his promises to bring change. Interested to hear what the real Gorbachev had to say, the AP sat down with him one evening at his foundation. And, yes, he agreed that America was ready for its own perestroika.
What interested him more was whether Obama would “muster his courage” to ease tensions with the Kremlin. Gorbachev was proud of his part in bringing an end to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race, and wanted that legacy preserved. At the end of the interview, Lynn Berry remembers that he mused about the possibility of a feature film to tell his story to coming generations. Perhaps he could be played by Leonardo DiCaprio?
“When we posed for a photograph before leaving, Gorbachev linked his arm around mine,” Berry said. “It was awkward and the picture shows my arm hanging limply by my side. Later, though, I really wished I had returned the kind gesture.”
While largely ignored in Russia, Gorbachev remained a figure of historical importance to the rest of the world. When he traveled to Berlin in 2011, David Rising leapt at the opportunity to interview him.
Gorbachev, then 80, talked animatedly about the Arab Spring demonstrations in Egypt following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. In a break with the Kremlin, he said the demonstrations seeking democratic reforms in Egypt and across the region were of “vital importance.” At the same time, he lamented the backsliding of democracy in his own country under Vladimir Putin.
“As genial as he was thoughtful, after our formal interview was over Gorbachev seemed in no hurry to wrap up, putting his arm warmly over my shoulder and continued to share his thoughts on the end of the Cold War and the current state of democracy in Russia,” Rising said.
Rising was struck that he was speaking to the last Soviet leader in an office in former East Berlin not far from where President Ronald Reagan in 1987 stood on the other side of the Berlin Wall and implored him to “tear down this wall.”
“The privilege of talking with the man whose policies of perestroika and glasnost helped lead to the fall of that wall only two years later is one I’ll never forget,” Rising said.
The AP caught up with Gorbachev again in February 2014 in the city of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, where he was speaking at a conference. For Adam Schreck, as for Rising, this was a chance to talk to a man who had “earned a place solidly in the history books.”
The Moscow-friendly president of Ukraine had just been ousted after months of protests, which Gorbachev attributed to the president’s failure “to act democratically.” Over tea served with lemon in a darkened and ornate hotel room, Gorbachev shared his fears for Ukraine. He said the situation was “a real mess” and it was “important not to tear it apart.”
Schreck remembers thinking at the time that Gorbachev was hinting at something deeper, “that Ukraine’s future as an independent, democratic state might not be smooth. I’d return to those words on my way to Kyiv to cover the war earlier this year.”
Within days of the interview, Russia seized control of the Crimean Peninsula, helping lay the groundwork for the current conflict.
In December 2016, the 25th anniversary of the Soviet collapse, Gorbachev spoke bitterly of the West’s failure to provide vital aid in the 1990s, calling it a wasted chance to build a safer world. In a lengthy interview with the AP in Moscow, he made an urgent plea for Russia and the U.S. to work together. “Together, they could lead the world to a new path.”
By the time Russia invaded Ukraine in February of this year, Gorbachev’s health was too poor for him to tell the world what he thought.
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| 2022-09-21T12:44:46Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A retired New York Police Department officer was sentenced on Thursday to a record-setting 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters.
Thomas Webster’s prison sentence is the longest so far among roughly 250 people who have been punished for their conduct during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The previous longest was shared by two other rioters, who were sentenced separately to seven years and three months in prison.
Webster, a 20-year NYPD veteran, was the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried on an assault charge and the first to present a self-defense argument. A jury rejected Webster’s claim that he was defending himself when he tackled Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun and grabbed his gas mask outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Webster, 56, to 10 years in prison plus three years of supervised release. He allowed Webster to report to prison at a date to be determined instead of immediately ordering him into custody.
“Mr. Webster, I don’t think you’re a bad person,” the judge said. “I think you were caught up in a moment. But as you know, even getting caught up in a moment has consequences.”
Webster turned to apologize to Rathbun, who was in the courtroom but didn’t address the judge. Webster said he wishes he had never come to Washington, D.C.
“I wish the horrible events of that day had never happened,” he told the judge.
The judge said Rathbun wasn’t Webster’s only victim on Jan. 6.
“The other victim was democracy, and that is not something that can be taken lightly,” Mehta added.
Federal prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 17 years and six months. The court’s probation department had recommended a 10-year prison sentence. Mehta wasn’t bound by the recommendations.
In a court filing, prosecutors accused Webster of “disgracing a democracy that he once fought honorably to protect and serve.” Webster led the charge against police barricades at the Capitol’s Lower West Plaza, prosecutors said. They compared the attack to a medieval battle, with rioters pelting officers with makeshift projectiles and engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
“Nothing can explain or justify Mr. Webster’s rage. Nothing can explain or justify his violence,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Mirell said Thursday.
Defense attorney James Monroe said in a court filing that the mob was “guided by unscrupulous politicians” and others promoting the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from the Republican incumbent. He questioned why prosecutors argued that Webster didn’t deserve leniency for his 25 years of service to his country and New York City.
“That is not how we measure justice. That is revenge,” Monroe said.
In May, jurors deliberated for less than three hours before they convicted Webster of all six counts in his indictment, including a charge that he assaulted Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, the flagpole.
Also Thursday, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty to using pepper spray on police officers, including one who later died. Officer Brian Sicknick suffered a stroke the day after the riot and died of natural causes. He and other officers were standing guard behind metal bicycle racks as the mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Julian Khater, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon. He could face up to 20 years in prison, though will likely face a sentence ranging from about 6 1/2 to 8 years at a hearing set for December.
The case against Khater and a second man have been among the more notable brought by the Justice Department. George Pierre Tanios brought the pepper spray in a backpack. Tanios previously pleaded guilty and is also set to be sentenced in December.
Webster had testified at trial that he was trying to protect himself from a “rogue cop” who punched him in the face. He also accused Rathbun of instigating the confrontation.
Rathbun testified that he didn’t punch or pick a fight with Webster. Rathbun said he was trying to move Webster back from a security perimeter that he and other officers were struggling to maintain.
Rathbun’s body camera captured Webster shouting profanities and insults before they made any physical contact. The video shows that Webster slammed one of the bike racks at Rathbun before the officer reached out with an open left hand and struck the right side of Webster’s face.
After Rathbun struck his face, Webster swung a metal flag pole at the officer in a downward chopping motion, striking a bike rack. Rathbun grabbed the broken pole from Webster, who charged at the officer, tackled him to the ground and grabbed his gas mask, choking him by the chin strap.
Webster drove alone to Washington, D.C., from his home near Goshen, New York, on the eve of the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, where Trump addressed thousands of supporters. Webster was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a Marine Corps flag on a metal pole when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol.
Webster said he went to the Capitol to “petition” lawmakers to “relook” at the results of the 2020 presidential election. But he testified that he didn’t intend to interfere with Congress’ joint session to certify President Joe Biden ‘s victory.
Webster retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service, which included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s private security detail. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 before joining the NYPD in 1991.
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Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:44:54Z
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas contacted at least two Wisconsin state lawmakers, including the chair of the Senate elections committee, urging them to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win in the tightly contested state, emails obtained Thursday by The Associated Press show.
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist, also had sent messages to more than two dozen lawmakers in Arizona.
In her communications with lawmakers in both states, Thomas urged Republicans to choose their own slate of electors after the election, arguing that results giving Biden a victory in the states were marred by fraud. Despite numerous reviews, lawsuits and recounts , no widespread fraud calling into question the results has been discovered in either state.
The emails received at the exact same time on Nov. 9, 2020, by Wisconsin state Sen. Kathy Bernier and state Rep. Gary Tauchen were first reported Thursday by The Washington Post. The AP obtained the email from Bernier, and the watchdog group Documented posted the email Tauchen received.
The emails were sent at almost the exact same time as the ones Thomas sent to lawmakers in Arizona.
Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment, made to the court Thursday.
Bernier, in a telephone interview with the AP, said she did not recall receiving the email from Thomas, which was one of thousands her office and other Wisconsin lawmakers received around that time. The message was sent over the FreeRoots platform that allows for mass mailing of prewritten emails. Bernier said she had no contact with Thomas aside from receiving the email.
“Please stand strong in the face of political and media pressure,” Thomas wrote in the emails received by the Wisconsin lawmakers. “Please reflect on the awesome authority granted to you by our Constitution. And then please take action to ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen for our state.”
Thomas also asks the Wisconsin lawmakers to meet with her, either virtually or in person, “so I can learn more about what you are doing to ensure our state’s vote count is audited and our certification is clean.”
Bernier said Thursday that she didn’t fault Thomas for sending the message, which she doesn’t recall reading at the time.
“Ginni is not a constituent, so therefore not top priority to respond to,” Bernier said. “And so I am sure we did not respond to her.”
Bernier, who has been outspoken in saying there was no widespread voter fraud in Wisconsin’s election that Biden fairly won, said she had no issue with Thomas contacting her about the election.
“I don’t believe this is hair raising crazy stuff that everybody’s making it out to be,” she said of the Thomas email. “There were a lot of Republicans at the time that thought there was massive voter fraud. … I’m sure she would have preferred taking it back, especially after all of the evidence.”
Tauchen declined comment through a spokesperson.
Clarence Thomas was the only member of the Supreme Court who voted against the court’s order allowing the U.S. House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to obtain Trump records that were held by the National Archives and Records Administration. The court voted in January to allow the committee to get the documents.
Ginni Thomas’s role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election won by Biden is being looked at by members of the House committee investigating the riot. The committee asked her in June to sit for an interview.
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Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.
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For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege
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| 2022-09-21T12:45:01Z
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — During a primary debate in May, Iowa Republican Zach Nunn and his two rivals were asked to raise their hand if they thought all abortions should be illegal. “All abortions, no exceptions,” the moderator clarified.
Nunn’s left hand went up.
The image has shadowed the Iowa state senator as he seeks to unseat U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, one of the most vulnerable House Democrats this election season. The two-term congresswoman has featured video of Nunn from the debate in TV ads she’s been running since early August.
Nunn is among well more than a dozen strictly anti-abortion Republicans running in competitive House, Senate and governor’s races this fall in Minnesota, Nevada, Kansas, Arizona and elsewhere who are trying to distance themselves from their past statements.
In newspaper op-eds, during interviews and on their campaign websites, Republican challengers who expressed support for banning most or all abortions — some in cases of rape, incest and to protect the life and health of the mother — are at a minimum downplaying those positions and at most backtracking at a time when abortion rights have complicated Republicans’ focus on the economy heading into the November midterm elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision recognizing a federal right to abortion, has prompted a backlash from abortion rights supporters and shined a light on politicians whose anti-abortion positions were only hypothetical when Roe was the law of the land.
“I think that the bait and switch will matter for those for whom abortion rights is a very important voting issue, which is an expanded group since Roe was overturned,” Christine Matthews, a pollster who has worked for Republicans, said of GOP candidates trying to soften their profile on the issue. “And it may matter to a wider group if it appears that they are deceptive.”
Accusing Axne of misrepresenting his position, Nunn wrote in an op-ed published in The Des Moines Register last month that he supported exceptions for rape, incest and the life and health of the mother when he voted in 2018 for a ban on abortions after six weeks — a measure that was blocked by the courts.
Asked in an Associated Press interview why he raised his hand to the “no exceptions” question during the debate, Nunn misstated the question as “Do you support life?” instead of the actual wording, “In your mind, should all abortions be illegal in this country? Hand up if you say yes.”
“Let me be perfectly clear. I believe life begins at conception,” Nunn said in the interview. “I recognize the viability of a child. I recognize the health of the mother.”
Still, in 2017, Nunn voted for a measure requiring women seeking an abortion to wait 72 hours, which included an exception to protect the life of the mother but made no mention of rape or incest.
In Kansas, Republican Amanda Adkins — who is running against two-term Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids — wrote in a Kansas City Star op-ed published last week, “I don’t support a federal ban on abortion.”
The mention came after months of silence by Adkins after the May leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion signaling Roe was in jeopardy. A decade earlier as Kansas’ Republican chair, Adkins had supported a strict abortion ban in the party’s platform.
Adkins’ Star piece also followed close on the heels of Kansas voters’ decisive rejection of a constitutional amendment that would have nullified a state Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right to an abortion. Notably, the referendum failed in Johnson County — the teeming, suburban heart of Davids’ district — by more than 2-to-1. Adkins publicly supported the amendment.
Nunn’s and Adkins’ efforts to deemphasize their previous conservative stances on abortion are conspicuous. Others have been more subtle.
In a northwest Indiana district that includes working-class cities outside Chicago, Republican Jennifer-Ruth Green answered “none” in a 2022 online questionnaire before the Supreme Court overturned Roe that asked under “what circumstances should abortion be allowed?”
Yet, as the GOP nominee facing Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan, Green says she supports an anti-abortion measure passed by the Indiana legislature in August that includes exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother.
In suburban Minneapolis, Republican Tyler Kistner, who lost narrowly to two-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in 2020, is challenging her again. In 2020, his website included a section on abortion that stated he wanted to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In this year’s campaign, his website does not mention abortion.
Republicans running statewide in battleground races have undertaken similar efforts.
Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters called abortion “demonic” during the GOP primary and called for a federal personhood law that would give fetuses the rights of people. He’s toned down his rhetoric more recently, deleting references to a personhood law from his campaign website and dropping language describing himself as “100% pro-life.”
In Nevada, where a 1990 referendum guarantees the right to abortion, Republican gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo said during a May primary debate that he would consider signing a ban on the Plan B pill. The pill, which is different from the abortion pill, can significantly lower the chance of pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.
In August, after Justice Clarence Thomas indicated in the Roe reversal that other high court rulings, including ones protecting the use of contraceptives, should also be reconsidered, Lombardo said he would not block contraceptives and has since noted on his website that he would “ensure that contraceptives stay accessible to Nevadans.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs v. Mississippi decision overturning Roe, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed 22% of U.S. adults named abortion or women’s rights, in an open-ended question, as one of up to five problems they wanted the government to address. That’s more than doubled since December, when an AP-NORC poll found a notable uptick in mentions of abortion from years before, likely in anticipation of the Dobbs ruling.
In Iowa, 60% of adults say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll taken in July, higher still in the suburbs.
That would seem to be a consideration for Nunn, running in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes the metro area surrounding the capital Des Moines and its booming suburbs to the north and west, as well as vast tracts of more conservative, rural southwestern Iowa.
“While it’s a small group on both sides, it energizes them because it’s an important issue,” Nunn said, adding that Axne is “not even willing to have a conversation about where she’s been on this.”
The counterpunch is a veiled reference to bills including one passed in July in the Democratic-controlled House with Axne’s support that block limits on abortions late in a pregnancy — a position Republicans have characterized as extreme.
Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Dobbs has reversed earlier Republican momentum by increasing enthusiasm among abortion rights advocates.
“Clearly there’s been movement in the Democrats’ favor,” said Ayres, who is an adviser for a super PAC supporting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign. “The Dobbs decision gave them a reason to get engaged, and that’s evident in increased Democratic enthusiasm.”
___
Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix, Hannah Schoenbaum in Raleigh, N.C., and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nev., contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics.
For AP’s full coverage on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
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| 2022-09-21T12:45:09Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee seeking financial records from former President Donald Trump has reached an agreement that ends litigation on the matter and requires an accounting firm to turn over some of the material, the panel’s leader announced Thursday.
The long-running case began in April 2019, when the House Committee on Oversight and Reform first subpoenaed a wealth of records from Trump’s then-accounting firm, Mazars USA. The committee cited testimony from Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, that it said raised questions about the president’s representation of his financial affairs when it came to seeking loans and paying taxes.
Under the agreement, Trump has agreed to end his legal challenges to the subpoena and Mazars USA has agreed to produce responsive documents to the committee as expeditiously as possible, said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who heads the committee.
“After numerous court victories, I am pleased that my committee has now reached an agreement to obtain key financial documents that former President Trump fought for years to hide from Congress,” Maloney said.
Trump is facing investigations on several fronts, including the storage of top-secret government information discovered at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and whether the former president’s team criminally obstructed the inquiry. In Georgia, prosecutors are investigating whether he and allies illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. Meanwhile, congressional committees are following through on investigations that began when he was president.
The settlement over Mazars follows a July decision by a federal appeals court in Washington that narrowed what records Congress is entitled to obtain. The court said the committee should be given records pertinent to financial ties between foreign countries and Trump or any of his businesses for 2017-18.
The appeals court also ordered Mazars to turn over documents between November 2016 and 2018 relating to the Trump company that held the lease granted by the federal government for the former Trump International Hotel, located between the White House and the Capitol.
In the decision, the court said Trump’s financial records would “advance the Committee’s consideration of ethics reform legislation across all three of its investigative tracks,” including on presidential ethics and conflicts of interest, presidential financial disclosures, and presidential adherence to Constitutional safeguards against foreign interference and undue influence.
The House investigation dates February 2019, when Trump’s former personal attorney, Cohen, testified to the committee that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.
Cohen served time in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to tax crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations, some of which involved his role in orchestrating payments to two women to keep them from talking about alleged affairs with Trump.
But his testimony prompted the committee to seek key financial documents from Mazars, and in April 2019, the committee issued a subpoena to Mazars seeking four targeted categories of documents.
The following month, Trump sued to prevent Mazars from complying with the subpoena. The case has been winding its way through the court system since.
Mazars earlier this year said it had cut ties with Trump and warned that financial statements the firm had prepared for Trump “should no longer be relied upon” by anyone doing business with him.
Another House committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, has been seeking Trump’s tax returns and waging its own litigation. In that case, a three-judge appellate court panel agreed last month with a lower court’s decision in favor of Congress and that the Treasury Department should provide the tax returns to the committee.
The Justice Department, under the Trump administration, had defended a decision by then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to withhold the tax returns from Congress. Mnuchin argued that he could withhold the documents because he concluded they were being sought by Democrats for partisan reasons. A lawsuit ensued.
After Biden took office, the committee renewed the request, seeking Trump’s tax returns and additional information from 2015-2020. The White House took the position that the request was a valid one and that the Treasury Department had no choice but to comply. Trump then attempted to halt the handover in court.
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| 2022-09-21T12:45:17Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is seeking information from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about his communications with senior advisers to then-President Donald Trump in the days leading up to the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, wrote in a letter sent to Gingrich on Thursday that the panel has obtained emails Gingrich exchanged with Trump’s associates about television advertisements that “repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election” and were designed to cast doubt on the voting after it had already taken place.
Thompson wrote that Gingrich also appeared to be involved in Trump’s scheme to appoint fake electors and emailed Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, about those efforts on the evening of Jan. 6, after Trump supporters had attacked the Capitol.
“Information obtained by the Select Committee suggests that you provided detailed directives about the television advertisements that perpetuated false claims about fraud in the 2020 election, that you sought ways to expand the reach of this messaging, and that you were likely in direct conversations with President Trump about these efforts,” Thompson wrote to Gingrich.
The request for Gingrich to cooperate voluntarily comes as the committee has been quietly continuing its investigation and preparing for a new set of hearings next month. Lawmakers and staff have been interviewing witnesses and compiling a final report in recent weeks after a series of hearings in June and July shed new light on Trump’s actions before and after the deadly rioting — and his lack of a response as the violence was underway at the Capitol.
If he cooperates, Gingrich would be one of more than 1,000 witnesses interviewed by the committee, including dozens of Trump allies. The committee’s eight hearings this summer featured not only live witness testimony but also clips of video interviews with some of the former president’s closest aides, Cabinet secretaries and even family members. The panel is expected to resume the hearings in September, ahead of the midterm elections.
In the letter to Gingrich, Thompson said the former Georgia lawmaker exchanged emails with top Trump aides in which he provided “detailed input” into the television advertisements that encouraged members of the public to contact state officials and pressure them to overturn Trump’s loss to Joe Biden. “To that end, these advertisements were intentionally aired in the days leading up to December 14, 2020, the day electors from each state met to cast their votes for president and vice president,” Thompson wrote.
That came as Georgia election officials were facing intimidation and threats of violence.
In an Dec. 8, 2020, email to the White House aides, according to the committee, Gingrich wrote: “The goal is to arouse the country’s anger through new verifiable information the American people have never seen before. … If we inform the American people in a way they find convincing and it arouses their anger, they will then bring pressure on legislators and governors.”
The panel also cited a Nov. 12, 2020, email from Gingrich, just days after the election, to Meadows and then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone: “Is someone in charge of coordinating all the electors? … the contested electors must meet on (D)ecember 14 and send in ballots to force contests which the house would have to settle.”
On the evening of Jan. 6, Gingrich wrote Meadows at 10:42 p.m., after the Capitol had been cleared and after Congress had resumed certifying Biden’s win. He asked about letters from state legislators concerning “decertifying electors,” the committee says.
“Surprisingly, the attack on Congress and the activities prescribed by the Constitution did not even pause your relentless pursuit,” Thompson wrote.
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| 2022-09-21T12:45:25Z
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ruled that constitutional protections don’t shield U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham from testifying before a special grand jury investigating possible illegal efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May rejected Graham’s argument that all his calls with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, were protected under the U.S. Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which shields members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.
She did, however, agree with lawyers for the South Carolina Republican that legislative protection applies to parts of the calls specifically pertinent to “Georgia’s then-existing election procedures and allegations of voter fraud in the leadup to his certification vote” — portions she noted were “legislative fact-finding.”
Despite the decision, continuing appeals in the case mean the senator’s appearance is not imminent. The ruling does push Graham — one of Trump’s top congressional allies and a key figure in the former president’s postelection activities — one step closer to testifying before the special grand jury empaneled this year by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Willis has sought testimony from a number of other close Trump allies and advisers, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell and conservative lawyer L. Lin Wood Jr., who said this week he’s been told Willis wants him to appear.
On Wednesday, a judge ruled that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp must testify, while agreeing with the Republican’s request to delay that appearance until after the Nov. 8 election. Kemp faces a rematch with Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump lawyer who’s been told he may face criminal charges in the investigation, testified in mid-August.
Graham has asked for a partial quashing of the subpoena, which had initially instructed him to appear before the special grand jury last month. The judge had previously rejected Graham’s attempts to challenge the subpoena, but an appeals court sent the matter back to May to decide whether the subpoena should be partially quashed or modified because of the constitutional protections.
Graham is already challenging his possible appearance with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will now consider his objections yet again, based on May’s order.
Prompted by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Raffensperger, during which Trump suggested Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state, Willis and her team have said they want to ask Graham about two phone calls they say he made to Raffensperger and his staff shortly after the 2020 general election.
During those calls, Graham asked about “reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Willis wrote in a petition seeking to compel his testimony.
Graham also “made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign,” she wrote. She said in a hearing last month that Graham may be able to provide insight into the extent of any coordinated efforts to influence the results.
Republican and Democratic state election officials across the country, courts and even Trump’s attorney general found there was no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to affect the outcome of the election.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
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More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
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| 2022-09-21T12:45:32Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House counsel under former President Donald Trump and his top deputy are set to appear Friday before a federal grand jury investigating efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.
Pat Cipollone was the top White House lawyer at the end of the Trump administration as Trump and outside allies pressed for ways to overturn the results of the election, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Cipollone vigorously resisted efforts to undo the election and has said he did not believe there was sufficient fraud to have affected the outcome of the race won by Democrat Joe Biden.
He and Patrick Philbin, a deputy White House counsel also set to appear before the grand jury, have already cooperated with a separate House committee probe investigating the Jan. 6 attack and attempts to subvert the election.
The person who confirmed their appearance before the grand jury was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. ABC News was first to report the appearance. Spokespeople for the Justice Department declined to comment.
The scheduled grand jury appearances underscore how Justice Department officials examining schemes to overturn the presidential contest have been seeking the cooperation of senior White House officials and advisers who opposed those efforts.
Federal prosecutors have been especially focused on a scheme by Trump allies to elevate fake electors in key battleground states won by Biden as a way to subvert the vote. They have issued subpoenas in recent weeks to multiple state Republican Party chairmen.
Portions of Cipollone’s private interview to the House Jan. 6 committee were featured prominently in hearings over the summer. Lawmakers aired video clips of him discussing a heated December 2020 meeting at the White House during which outside aides and advisers to Trump discussed a proposed executive order calling for the seizure of voting machines.
“To have the federal government seize voting machines? That’s a terrible idea for the country. That’s not how we do things in the United States,” Cipollone testified, adding, “I don’t understand why we even have to tell you why that’s a bad idea for the country.”
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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
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| 2022-09-21T12:45:40Z
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for governor on Thursday sued the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, contesting its legal ability to force him to answer questions about it.
The lawsuit filed by Doug Mastriano contends that the committee lacks appointees of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and thus does not comply with House rules for conducting a compelled deposition of witnesses.
A properly appointed ranking minority member is necessary for a witness to have access to protections provided in House rules on deposition authority, the lawsuit says.
Last month, Mastriano cut short a closed-door interview without answering questions from committee members. The committee refused to let Mastriano record the deposition, Mastriano’s lawsuit said, and Mastriano has concerns about how the committee might disseminate excerpts to the public from a closed-door deposition with him, the lawsuit said.
A committee spokesperson declined comment on the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington.
Still, Mastriano’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, has said his client is willing to voluntarily testify publicly before the panel and has told the FBI that he didn’t know about a planned insurrection or any coordination behind the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Mastriano, a state senator and retired U.S. Army colonel who won the GOP nomination for governor in May, was in regular communication with Donald Trump as the then-president sought to stay in power despite his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Mastriano helped organize efforts in Pennsylvania to submit alternate presidential electors beholden to Trump and was seen outside the Capitol as pro-Trump demonstrators attacked police.
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| 2022-09-21T12:45:48Z
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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — An abortion-rights group on Thursday asked the Michigan Supreme Court to approve a November ballot question on whether a right to abortion should be enshrined in the state constitution.
Reproductive Freedom for All filed its request with the high court after the state canvassing board rejected the ballot question on Wednesday. That body deadlocked 2-2 along partisan lines, with a pair of Republican commissioners citing what they called spacing errors in the petitions calling for the ballot question.
Abortion-rights supporters say it’s important for state residents to be able to weigh in on the abortion question, especially because of a 1931 law that would ban all abortions except to save the life of the mother that abortion opponents had hoped would be triggered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June. The law has been blocked by months of court battles.
In the filing, the group asked the court to order the Board of State Canvassers to certify the question for the November ballot, and to do so by Wednesday. That would give board members time to certify the initiative before the board’s meeting on Sept. 9, which also is the deadline set by state law for the board to certify the ballot to the Secretary of State.
RFFA submitted more than 750,000 signatures, attorneys for the group wrote, making it the largest number submitted for a ballot initiative in state history. State law required a minimum of about 425,000 valid signatures, and state officials determined last week that the petition contained nearly 600,000 valid signatures.
RFFA said the volume of signatories demonstrated “widespread grassroots support.”
“This Court should safeguard the right of the People to exercise their political power and protect it from strained interpretations of law that stand to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters,” attorneys argued.
Abortion-rights supporters have criticized the Republican members of the state board — a panel once seen as handling largely routine, administrative matters — as bowing to political pressure to try to stop the measure from appearing on the ballot.
Democrats believe the issue has helped the party gain ground on Republicans this election cycle since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated constitutional protections for abortion. In conservative Kansas, for example, voters overwhelmingly defeated a measure that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban the procedure outright.
Michigan, a swing state that also is a presidential battleground, has several high-stakes races on the ballot in November, including contests for governor, secretary of state and attorney general.
RFFA argued in its filing to the Michigan Supreme Court that its petitions met all prerequisites to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot, both in number of signatures and the format, and that the Board of State Canvassers overstepped its authority, violating “its clear legal duty,” when it rejected the initiative.
No party has disputed that the group turned in enough signatures, RFFA noted. Rather, opponents “resorted to hyperbole” regarding the spacing of language on the petition, calling the small spaces between some words “gibberish” and “incomprehensible argle-bargle,” the group said in its filing. They argue that Michigan election law doesn’t provide requirements for spacing and said the opponents “are unable to point to a single individual that did not understand” the petition.
Opponents of the ballot initiative said the board did the right thing in rejecting what they called a “mistake-riddled, anything goes” proposal. They said the initiative would insert “gibberish” into the state constitution.
“The Michigan Supreme Court should support this move to protect our constitution from their vandalism as well,” Christen Pollo, of Citizens to Support Michigan Women and Children, said after Wednesday’s vote.
John Pirich, a Michigan election law expert, said that the petition’s language could be understood even with the spacing issues and that “any language that would be in doubt will be printed with the proper spacing in the constitution.”
“The question is: Does someone read this and have they been confused as to what the intent is or misled as to what the intent of the petition is?” Pirich said. “I clearly understood the language.”
In a statement Wednesday, abortion-rights supporters said they are confident the court will decide in their favor and order the initiative go before voters on the November ballot. A majority of justices were put on the court by Democrats.
Abortion opponents protested outside of Wednesday’s board meeting, their yells at times audible inside the hearing room. The board also heard several hours of public comment, primarily from people who oppose abortion and told the board the procedure is immoral.
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Burnett reported from Chicago.
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Joey Cappelletti is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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| 2022-09-21T12:45:55Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid months of mass flight cancellations and delays, the Department of Transportation has launched a customer service dashboard to help vacationers ahead of the travel-heavy Labor Day weekend.
Starting Thursday, travelers will be able to check the dashboard and see what kinds of guarantees, refunds or compensation the major domestic airlines offer in case of flight delays or cancellations. It’s designed to allow travelers to shop around and favor those airlines that offer the best compensation.
The dashboard is part of an extended pressure campaign from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has publicly challenged the major carriers to improve service and transparency after a summer marred by cancellations and flight delays. As summer travel returned to nearly pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, airlines struggled to keep pace, with mass cancellations being blamed on staffing shortages, particularly among pilots.
“Passengers deserve transparency and clarity on what to expect from an airline when there is a cancelation or disruption,” Buttigieg said in a statement Wednesday. The new tool, he said, will help travelers to “easily understand their rights, compare airline practices, and make informed decisions.”
The dashboard compares all the major domestic airlines’ policies on issues such as which offer meals for delays of more than three hours and which offer to rebook flights on the same or different airlines at no additional charge. It focuses on what it calls “controllable” cancellations or delays — meaning those caused by mechanical issues, staffing shortages or delays in cleaning, fueling or baggage handling. Delays or cancellations caused by weather or security concerns do not count.
The Department of Transportation is hoping that the dashboard will encourage competition among airlines to offer the most transparency and the best protections for customers.
So far this year, airlines have canceled about 146,000 flights, or 2.6% of all flights, and nearly 1.3 million flights have been delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware. The rate of cancellations is up about one-third from the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, and the rate of delays is up nearly one-fourth.
Federal officials have blamed many of the disruptions on understaffing at airlines, which encouraged employees to quit after the pandemic started. The airlines have countered by blaming staffing problems at the Federal Aviation Administration, which employs air traffic controllers.
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Associated Press writer David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of air travel at https://apnews.com/hub/air-travel.
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| 2022-09-21T12:46:02Z
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A lawyer for the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group has been charged with conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, authorities said Thursday.
Kellye SoRelle — general counsel for the antigovernment group — was arrested in Texas on charges including conspiracy to obstruct the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory, the Justice Department said.
SoRelle, 43, is a close associate of Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers’ leader who is heading to trial later this month alongside other extremists on seditious conspiracy charges.
After Rhodes’ arrest in January, SoRelle told media outlets she was acting as the president of the Oath Keepers while he’s behind bars.
Prosecutors have accused Rhodes and his militia group of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of power and keep former President Donald Trump in office, purchasing weapons, organizing military-style trainings and setting up battle plans.
SoRelle told The Associated Press last year — when FBI agents seized her phone as part of the Jan 6. investigation — that she had no knowledge of or involvement in the Capitol breach. She called the seizure of her phone “unethical” and the investigation “a witch hunt.”
SoRelle made an initial court appearance in Austin, Texas, and was released pending a virtual hearing scheduled for Tuesday before a Washington, D.C., federal court judge, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C. said. It wasn’t immediately clear if she has an attorney to speak on her behalf.
SoRelle was photographed with Rhodes outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and was present at an underground garage meeting the night before the riot that’s been a focus for investigators.
The meeting included Rhodes and and Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, who is charged separately with seditious conspiracy alongside other members of the extremist group that describes themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.”
Publicly released video of the meeting doesn’t reveal much about their discussion and prosecutors have said only that one of the meeting’s participants “referenced the Capitol.”
SoRelle was also on a call with Rhodes and other Oath Keepers days after the 2020 election during which Rhodes rallied his followers to prepare for violence, according to a transcript made public in court.
SoRelle is also charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice for tampering with documents and a misdemeanor charge for entering Capitol grounds. The indictment says she persuaded others to destroy and conceal records sought by investigators.
SoRelle told the AP last September that agents seized her phone and provided her a search warrant that said it was related to an investigation into seditious conspiracy, among other crimes. The indictment against SoRelle made public Thursday does not include a charge of seditious conspiracy.
Rhodes and four co-defendants scheduled to go on trial starting Sept. 26 have said there was no plot to attack the Capitol and that their communications in the run up to Jan. 6 were about providing security for right-wing figures such as Roger Stone or preparing for attacks from left-wing antifa activists.
Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009. The group recruits current and former military, police and first responders and pledges to “fulfill the oath all military and police take to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
A slew of its members have been charged in connection with Jan. 6. Three Oath Keepers have already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, a rare Civil War-era charge that’s historically been hard to prove. They are also cooperating with the Justice Department.
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Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.
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For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege
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| 2022-09-21T12:46:10Z
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge Thursday appeared to give a boost to former President Donald Trump’s hopes for appointing an outside legal expert to review government records seized by the FBI, questioning the Justice Department’s arguments that Trump couldn’t make the request and that a special master would needlessly delay its investigation.
“Ultimately, what is the harm” in such an appointment, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon asked department lawyers. But she did not rule on the request, saying she would do so later.
Lawyers for Trump say the appointment of a special master is necessary to ensure an independent inspection of the documents seized by the FBI during the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.
This kind of review, they say, would allow for “highly personal information” such as diaries or journals to be filtered out from the investigation and returned to Trump, along with any other documents that may be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
Chris Kise, a Trump lawyer and former Florida solicitor general, told Cannon that appointing a neutral party would restore public faith in the investigation.
“This is an unprecedented situation. We need to lower the temperature,” Kise said. “We need to take a deep breath.”
The Justice Department has said an appointment is unwarranted because investigators have completed their review of potentially privileged records and already identified “a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information.” The government also says Trump lacks legal grounds to demand the return of presidential documents because they do not belong to him since he no longer occupies the White House.
“He is no longer president, said Jay Bratt, the head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section. “He is unlawfully in possession of them.”
The department has also expressed concerns that the appointment could delay the investigation, in part because a special master probably would need to obtain a security clearance to review the records and special authorization from intelligence agencies.
But Cannon, who said she would issue a written ruling at some point, pressed the government on its resistance, asking, “Ultimately what is the harm?”
The request for a special master last week opened the door for the Justice Department to disclose additional information from its investigation that might not otherwise have become public at this point. Late Tuesday, for instance, the department filed a document that cited efforts to obstruct the investigation, saying documents were “likely concealed and removed” from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago.
Cannon had said on Saturday, before the latest arguments in the matter, that her “preliminary intent” was to appoint a special master. It was not clear whether she might make a final determination Thursday or how her view might be affected by the fact that the Justice Department says it has already reviewed potentially privileged documents.
It was also not clear who might be serve as that outside expert. In some past high-profile cases, the role has been filled by a former federal judge.
Cannon was nominated by Trump in 2020 and confirmed by the Senate 56-21 later that year. She is a former assistant U.S. attorney in Florida, handling mainly criminal appeals.
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Tucker reported from Washington.
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More on Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
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(The Hill) – President Biden’s approval rating hit 40 percent during the month of August in a new Quinnipiac University poll, a 9-point spike from just one month ago.
The new poll, published on Thursday, found that 40 percent of respondents approve of the job Biden is doing in the Oval Office, rising from the 31 percent low approval rating he received from Americans in the same poll in July.
Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president.
Along party lines, 83 percent of respondents who identified as Democrats said they approve of the job Biden is doing, an 11-point increase from last month’s poll.
Ninety-two percent of Republican respondents said they disapprove of the job Biden is doing, while 55 percent of Independent respondents also disapproved.
When asked about Biden’s handling of current issues, 50 percent of respondents approve of Biden’s approach toward the COVID-19 pandemic, and 44 percent of respondents approve of his approach toward climate change.
Twenty-seven percent of respondents approve of Biden’s approach to the situation at the Mexican border, the lowest reading he has received in the questionnaire, the poll said.
The poll comes as Biden and his administration have seen a slew of legislative victories in the past month, which includes the passing of his climate, health care, and tax package and his announcement last week of his administration’s initiative to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans.
Fifty-three percent of respondents approve of the administration’s plan to cancel some student loan debt for many Americans, while 43 percent of those surveyed disapprove of the new initiative.
The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted from August 25-29 with a total of 1,419 respondents. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
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| 2022-09-21T12:46:41Z
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PHILADELPHIA (NewsNation) — President Joe Biden continues his campaign-like tour in Pennsylvania Thursday. The president is expected to deliver a prime-time speech billed as the “Soul of the Nation” in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence.
The president will try to draw a contrast between Republicans and Democrats, framing his party as defending fundamental American democracy and freedoms, while his opponents threaten that very democracy.
This is a very different tone and a more partisan message than when candidate Biden campaigned as a unifier. Recently the president has gone on the offensive, calling out “MAGA Republicans” and unapologetically using the term “semi-fascist” to describe the MAGA wing of the GOP — a comment he took some heat for.
A source from the White House shared this statement with NewsNation on what to expect from Biden’s speech:
“He will speak about how the core values of this nation — our standing in the world, our democracy — are at stake. He will talk about the progress we have made as a nation to protect our democracy, but how our rights and freedoms are still under attack. And he will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy.”
However, Biden is expected to face some counterprogramming. Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced he’ll be speaking just before Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the president’s hometown.
McCarthy’s focus will be on rising crime, record-high inflation and other hardships, according to his office.
And on Saturday, former President Donald Trump will hold a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where Biden spoke earlier this week.
The president delivered remarks on his Safer America Plan earlier this week, focusing on gun safety in America.
Biden’s plan moves to ban assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and ghost guns; requires background checks for all gun sales with some exceptions; clears court backlogs and improves pretrial supervision of criminal cases; and invests in recruiting and training 100,000 additional police officers for community policing over the next five years.
He also forcefully defended the FBI at a time when the agency and its employees have come under increased criticism and threats of violence since executing a search warrant at Trump’s Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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MANY, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – You can find living history and many community members that have lived through significant historical events across Northwest Louisiana.
Just three months shy of his 100th birthday, Jesse Mahaffey relives his time during World War II. Mahaffey now resides in Many, Louisiana, surrounded by community members. But before that, he survived the attack on Pearl Harbor.
According to Mahaffey, his military journey began in May 1941 after graduating from Florien High School.
“The day I got out of high school in Florien, Louisiana. Me and two little boys took us a whole day to get to Shreveport.”
Mahaffey and his friends created a master plan to hitchhike from Florien to Shreveport to join the Navy. Unfortunately, they arrived too little too late to register.
“We didn’t have any money. We went to the station, and they said it was too late for us to do anything. Come back tomorrow.”
So, they stayed overnight at a police station. The following morning, they enlisted in the United States Navy. He says they were walking along the sidewalk when a police officer picked them up.
Shortly after joining, Jesse went to San Diego for boot camp training with one of his friends. After his training, he boarded the USS Oklahoma.
“He was placed inside the city office, and I was put on a battleship in Oklahoma,” said Mahaffey.
The USS Oklahoma made its way to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Soon after, during an inspection, the unimaginable happened to the ship.
“Then I got sunk on Dec. 7. First, it all started with Oklahoma. It was easy. She gradually rolled over, and we slid off the bottom of it,” said Mahaffey.
Three torpedos hit the ship soon after the attack started. Two more struck the vessel as it began to capsize. As the battleship overturned, some crew members became trapped inside a few surviving air pockets. They remained there until air rescuers could cut holes in the bottom to rescue them.
Jesse spent about five years serving in the United States Army.
“Right out of High School ’41 and stayed in the war was over in ’45.”
Not only did he survive the Pearl Harbor bombing, but he also survived the sinking of the USS Northampton in the Battle of Tassafaronga. On Nov. 30, 1942, the Northampton was struck by two Japanese torpedoes, tearing a hole through the port side and destroying decks and bulkheads. Destroyers rescued most of the crew within an hour. However, 50 crewmen died when the heavy cruiser sank.
He says he’s very thankful he made it out alive, but some of his best memories were off the ship.
“We got to go ashore, off the ship, to try and find a pretty little lady,” he said.
Mr. Mahaffey will turn 100 years old on Nov. 23, 2022.
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| 2022-09-21T12:46:56Z
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WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Heading into the Labor Day holiday weekend, the U.S. Department of Transportation launched a new website aimed at helping airline travelers navigate potential delays or cancellations.
The Airline Customer Service Dashboard was created in reaction to a year filled with airline travel headaches.
“It is a great day for the traveling public,” Carlos Monje, the under secretary of transportation for policy, said Thursday.
The dashboard is meant to make clear which major airlines offer things like no-cost rebooking, complimentary food, hotels or ground transportation in the event of disrupted plans.
“Secretary Pete Buttigieg from the U.S. Department of Transportation asked the airlines to up their game when it comes to their customer service plans and most of them did,” Monje said. “Now, after this dashboard, eight of the 10 biggest airlines are offering hotels and nine are offering meals.”
The dashboard focuses on what the department calls “controllable” problems, like those caused by mechanical problems, shortages or problems with fueling or baggage handling. It does not cover weather delays.
The effort is the latest in a string of actions the Department of Transportation is taking to address flight disruptions. Monje said the DOT is investigating 20 airlines for customers service violations and proposing new rules guaranteeing passengers more rights.
“The airlines have a huge incentive to get this right,” Monje said.
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| 2022-09-21T12:47:04Z
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WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – The recently passed federal law to fight climate change includes provisions to help Americans save money.
Some rebates are available now because they are extensions of existing programs and tax credits can be written off when you file your 2022 taxes.
Americans can now access thousands of dollars to make their homes more energy efficient.
David Smedick with RMI, a non-profit that focuses on clean energy, explained “the Inflation Reduction Act, especially for the building sector, has the opportunity to be just a massive game changer.”
Advocates say the rebates and tax credits the new law provides put major home efficiency upgrades within reach for many consumers.
“A low-income household could receive $14,000 for energy electrification retrofits in their house,” Smedick said.
Smedick says low- and middle-income Americans can use that money to install heat pumps, insulation and electrical wiring.
Plus, a 30% tax credit is available for installing solar panels and energy-efficient windows, doors and appliances — things the American Clean Power Association says bring more savings.
“You’re using less power at home, that means you’re saving on your electricity bill,” Heather Zichal of the American Clean Power Association said.
However, Richard Meyer with the American Gas Association says the Inflation Reduction Act falls short, saying there are “provisions that focus exclusively on electric equipment without really focusing on whether it improves overall energy efficiency or reduces greenhouse gas emissions.”
Some question if small savings on energy bills justify the high cost of the upgrades, but supporters say the savings will be especially helpful to people who are replacing aging and broken systems.
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LAKE CITY, Fla. (AP) — Three puppies in northeast Florida were saved from a burning house after a delivery driver noticed a fire in the home whose owner was away, fire officials said.
The driver for Amazon was delivering a package on Tuesday when she noticed smoke coming from the home and called 911. Firefighters rescued the pups from the home and revived them from smoke inhalation, according to Columbia County Fire Rescue. Firefighters contained the fire to the room where it was started.
“Thank you to the Amazon driver who noticed the smoke and called 911,” Columbia County Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post. “Since the homeowner was not at home at the time, she saved the home and the puppies’ lives!”
The county is located about 60 miles (about 97 kilometers) west of Jacksonville, Florida.
It’s not the first time a delivery driver has come to the rescue.
In January, a newspaper delivery woman in Georgia saved the lives of three adults, four children and several household pets after she noticed smoke billowing from the family’s garage. In July, a UPS driver administered emergency CPR to a girl who had nearly drowned in a swimming pool near Soap Lake, Washington.
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| 2022-09-21T12:47:16Z
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ROCKPORT, Mass. (AP) — When Laura Hernandez fell into the water and lost her iPhone while paddleboarding off Massachusetts earlier this month, she figured it was probably gone for good.
But the next day the New York woman returned to the Rockport beach and approached the instructor of a novice scuba diving class and told him her situation.
Instructor Larry Bettencourt told her the odds of finding it, even with its distinctive pink case, were not good, but he told the class to keep an eye out for it, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.
Amazingly, Vanessa Kahn, 26, of Peabody, making her first open-water ocean dive spotted the phone in water about 25 feet deep.
“The bright pink waterproof case stuck out like a sore thumb … it was like almost neatly placed into a bed of green seaweed,” Kahn said. She waved the phone around in the water and the screen glowed. She returned to the surface, turned on the camera and snapped a selfie, then waved the phone in triumph to Hernandez standing on the beach.
“Her face lit up,” she said. “I could tell that she was so excited.”
Excited enough to give Kahn a $300 reward.
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| 2022-09-21T12:47:22Z
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OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — The Baltimore Ravens are making a feathered addition to their injured reserve list.
In a video posted on Twitter on Thursday, coach John Harbaugh announced that Poe, the team’s bird mascot, was going on IR. Poe was carted off the field at halftime of the Ravens’ preseason game against Washington last weekend. Poe was joined by other mascots for a halftime game before being injured.
On Sunday, the Ravens tweeted a picture of the mascot with ice on his left knee, saying he was “resting comfortably in his perch awaiting further test results.”
In his video Thursday, Harbaugh said Poe had a season-ending injury to his drumstick, and the team would find a replacement.
“We’re going to get right into evaluating our options and see where we go next,” Harbaugh said. “See if we can find somebody to replace Poe.”
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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What’s the best selfie tripod?
There are many ways to take a photo, but there is no better method than capturing your surroundings with you in the frame. The most common method is to hold a camera at arm’s length and snap away, whether with a cellphone or DSLR camera. But a selfie stick is a great choice for those who want the perfect composition and framing.
However, you still need to hold the selfie stick, creating the “disappearing arm” problem. A selfie tripod such as the Texlar 48-Inch Selfie Stick Tripod with Remote is an excellent alternative to prevent that.
What to know before you buy a selfie tripod
The tripod’s height
Consider where and how you’ll take most of your selfies and determine the best height for the tripod. Small tripods easily stand firmly on a desk or table, but there are also tripods with a bit more height to them. This comes in handy if you want to capture a photo while standing and there isn’t a lower surface available. Most selfie tripod makers combine a selfie stick and tripod into one gadget, with the tripod feet folding in to create the stick’s handle.
Device attachment
A three-legged metal stand is only one part of taking the perfect selfie. On top of the tripod is the component that keeps the camera or phone in place. The right attachment depends on your camera. You’ll need a sturdy grip or holder for a phone, but two plastic clasps won’t secure a digital camera or larger device. So you must ensure that the tripod attachment has the correct diameter screw on the top.
Most digital cameras have a tripod attachment hole on the bottom for this purpose.
Be aware of the dangers
Using a selfie stick isn’t dangerous, but it can be deadly if you aren’t aware of your surroundings. Several deaths have been linked to people going to extreme lengths to get the “perfect” selfie. Before buying a selfie stick or tripod, read up on the risks and when you shouldn’t use a selfie tripod.
What to look for in a quality selfie tripod
Sturdy construction
Taking photos is exciting, but it will end in heartache if your phone or camera detaches and crash to the ground. The tripod must be made from sturdy materials such as metal and hardened plastic. When fully extended, it must carry the full weight of the camera and not topple over in the slightest breeze. Its top clips and grabbers must be strong enough to prevent the camera from slipping out, while the nuts and bolts shouldn’t untie themselves if you can angle portions of the tripod.
Remote control
Since your arms can’t reach the camera on a tripod, you’ll need a secondary way to take the photo. Some cameras let you set up a timer, but you can never be sure when the photo is taken. The best solution for this is to get a good-quality tripod that comes with a Bluetooth remote control. Through the push of a button, you can compose the photos as you want them and snap away.
Large base and stable legs
A good-quality selfie tripod has a large base and stable legs to provide as much stability as possible. Look for a tripod that has non-slip rubber feet or some endcap to prevent sliding without scratching the surface you place it on.
How much you can expect to spend on a selfie tripod
The price depends on the maker, the length and if it comes with a small remote controller. A basic tripod that extends into a selfie stick costs $5-$10, while a sturdy gadget with a Bluetooth controller runs $20-$40.
Selfie tripod FAQ
Does a selfie tripod work with tablets?
A. For the most part, but you must ensure that the attachment to hold the tablet is large and strong enough to support it.
Do they require a battery?
A. The tripod doesn’t need a battery to operate, but an included Bluetooth remote control does. These are usually flat, round batteries, commonly found in wristwatches and very affordable.
What’s the best selfie tripod to buy?
Top selfie tripod
Texlar 48-Inch Selfie Stick Tripod with Remote
What you need to know: Compact and lightweight, this selfie tripod doubles up as a selfie stick.
What you’ll love: It has three sturdy legs attached to a metal pole with an adjustable holder for your phone. It is large enough to accommodate most Android phones, and from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 13. The tripod is 8 inches at its shortest, but can extend to 48 inches. It comes with a rechargeable wireless remote, and there is a quarter-inch thread at the top for digital cameras.
What you should consider: Some users said that the legs keep opening when stored in a bag.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top selfie tripod for the money
SelfieShow Portable Selfie Stick Tripod with Wireless Remote
What you need to know: This affordable selfie tripod can securely grip phones in landscape and portrait orientation.
What you’ll love: At its shortest, this tripod is 7.6 inches, but it extends to 27 inches. The clamp head at the top can rotate 225 degrees, and it comes with a Bluetooth remote.
What you should consider: Some reviewers said the plastic bolt isn’t as tight as they had hoped.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Atumtek 51-Inch Selfie Stick Tripod
What you need to know: This selfie tripod stands 51 inches tall and has a detachable Bluetooth remote.
What you’ll love: Made from hardened plastic and metal, it’s strong enough to support most Android and iPhones. The legs stand 10.6 inches apart and have three non-slip pads on the bottom. The clamp head can rotate 180 degrees in either direction.
What you should consider: Some customers said the remote pops out of the holder.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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The best game tables for an indoor Labor Day party
Summer is almost over, but that doesn’t mean the fun has to end quite yet. Labor Day is just around the corner, so it’s not a bad idea if you want to make the best of it by throwing a big bash.
However, it can still be pretty hot this time of year, so you can keep cool by hosting an indoor party instead. In addition to the usual party essentials, you can make your party a success with a few game tables.
What to consider before buying a game table
Size
A standard-size game table might take up too much room if you live in an apartment or a small house. However, many game tables are 36 inches to 480 inches. Some have a lightweight design with a collapsing mechanism that makes it easy to fold them for convenient storage.
Party games
Some games are more suitable for parties than others. For example, popular party games you can play on a game table include table tennis, air hockey, foosball and beer pong. Billiards is also a good party game, but the gameplay pace is significantly slower.
What to look for in a game table
Multigame tables
A multigame table is an excellent alternative if you don’t want to spend money on a high-end air hockey or foosball table. Multigame tables usually come with at least three games, the most popular being table tennis, billiards, push hockey and foosball. However, more comprehensive tables include other games such as a basketball free throw hoop, shuffleboard, curling and soft-tip darts.
Dedicated game tables
You can buy a dedicated game table for popular party games such as table tennis and air hockey. The best ones are usually expensive but offer tournament or arcade standards and are built to last.
The only downside to a dedicated game table is that they can be expensive, often costing several hundred dollars. They also aren’t as versatile as a multigame table, which can be more fun to have at a party as it lets you switch from one game to another and keep guests more engaged and entertained.
Accessories
Any game table you purchase should include all the necessary accessories for playing each game included. Also, you’ll want to ensure it comes with several replacements, as game equipment can break down over time from wear and tear, or you could lose a couple. For example, an air hockey table should include multiple pucks and pushers.
12 excellent game tables to spice up your indoor Labor Day party
Best dedicated game tables
Prince Tournament 6800 Indoor Table Tennis Table
This table has an 18-millimeter medium-density fiberboard table top for superior bounce and a 2-inch box steel apron for durability. Also, it has storage slots that can hold up to two paddles and six balls on each side. Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Atomic 72-inch Air Hockey Table
Air hockey is a classic arcade game. If you don’t mind spending the money on this table, it can make any party a hit. It has multicolored lighting, in-game music, LED pucks and pushers and end panels for added support. Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Atomic 55-inch Cobalt LED Foosball Table
Although it might be too hot for your guests to kick a ball around at your party, you can still enjoy some soccer action with this foosball table. It has LED lighted rails, an electronic scoring system and robot-style players. Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Mainstreet Classics 36-inch Miniature Foosball Table
This miniature table is an excellent alternative if you don’t have the space in your home for a regulation-size foosball table. It has an automatic ball return function, three rods on each side and comes with two balls. Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
GoSports Shuffleboard and Curling 2-in-1 Table Top Board Game
Get two games for the price of one with this versatile game table. It comes with eight rollers for shuffleboard or curling, and the board measures 45 inches by 13 inches and is made with high-quality wood. Sold by Amazon
This tear-resistant mat fits all standard tables and has a waterproof design. It rolls up easily for convenient storage and traveling. It comes with 15 red cups, 15 blue cups and eight ping-pong balls. Sold by Amazon
NHL Rush Indoor Hover Midsize Hockey Game Table
This air hockey table measures 48 inches and is easy to set up. It has an electronic automatic LED scoring system, a premium surface for smooth gameplay and sturdy construction with leg levelers for stability. Sold by Amazon
Best multigame tables
Triumph 3-in-1 Swivel Multigame Table
Can’t decide between billiards, air hockey or table tennis? If so, then this game table is for you. It offers all three games and everything you need to play them, and you can switch from one game to another in seconds. Sold by Amazon
Best Choice Products 4-in-1 Multigame Table
This affordable game table lets you switch between billiards, air hockey, table tennis and foosball. It has all the necessary accessories, a sturdy wood construction, a durable medium-density fiberboard frame and a 7.5-inch storage compartment. Sold by Amazon
MD Sports Multigame Combination Table Sets
Plenty of game tables include popular arcade games such as air hockey and foosball, but this one also lets you shoot some hoops. It has a durable build and a built-in slot for storing all accessories. Sold by Amazon
Triumph 13-in-1 Combo Game Table
If you want to get the most bang for your buck, this table features a whopping 13 games. It includes popular games such as table tennis and billiards and other favorites such as bean bag toss and soft tip darts. Sold by Amazon
Sunnydaze 10-in-1 Multigame Table
This versatile 40-inch table has a high-quality build and offers 10 games. Bust out the billiards, push hockey, foosball and table tennis for the party, and kick back with a quiet game of chess, checkers or backgammon once all the guests are gone. Sold by Amazon
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Kevin Luna writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-09-21T12:47:42Z
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Which farmhouse end table is best?
Farmhouse furniture is a popular style that gives your space a cozy, down-home feel. It celebrates the aesthetics of simple rural living without forfeiting modern comforts. If you’re looking to furnish your room in this decor, adding some farmhouse end tables can add true rustic charm. Many farmhouse-style end tables are made out of distressed wood and come in light or neutral colors.
If you want a lovely two-toned piece, Laurel Foundry Modern Farmhouse Isakson Tall Trestle End Table is a top pick.
What to know before you buy a farmhouse end table
Farmhouse style elements
Farmhouse decor prioritizes function and practicality, which is why furniture in this style aims for simplicity over ornamentation. Many favor natural materials, such as reclaimed wood, wicker, metal and stone. The upholstery is often made of cotton, canvas or linen. Colors are also natural and neutral, highlighting earth tones, grays, whites and beiges. You’ll usually see accent colors in light blue, green or yellow.
Uses
An end table is a small table you can place next to your couch, sofa or comfy chair. They’re about the same height as the arm of a chair, making it easy to reach a book or a cup. End tables are also a great spot for a decorative vase, table lamp, clock or a candle.
Material
Most farmhouse end tables are made from wood. Natural wood showcases the grain, though some manufacturers paint their wooden end tables. Distressed or weathered wood is a popular look. You’ll also see end tables made from antiqued metal, such as bronze or iron, which have a vintage look.
Shape
End tables come in various shapes, often using a square, rectangular or round tabletop. Select end tables come in a drum or barrel shape. The main consideration when choosing a shape is that it’ll fit in the space you’re placing it. Farmhouse style focuses more on a mix-and-match style instead of a coordinated look, so don’t try too hard to match your end table with existing furniture.
Size
Most end tables measure 18 to 24 inches in height. You want your end table to be within 2 inches of the height of your sofa arm. Also, you don’t want an end table that’s lower than the sofa or chair you’re placing it next to. And you want it wide enough to place your items, ideally around 20 inches wide. Before purchasing an end table, check its dimensions to ensure it fits in your space.
What to look for in a quality farmhouse end table
Storage
For added versatility, select an end table that has storage. Look for tables with shelves beneath the tabletop for open storage or, if you prefer closed storage, one with a drawer or cabinet.
Nesting
Nesting farmhouse end tables come in a set of two or more tables. Each table fits beneath one another in descending sizes. This is a good option in small spaces because you can pull out the extra tables when you need them or leave them under the primary end table when you don’t.
Legs and accents
Most farmhouse end tables feature the traditional four legs. You may also see curved legs or a single, pedestal-style leg. While simplicity dominates the farmhouse style, you may also see minimal accents such as a scalloped apron or crossbuck.
How much you can expect to spend on a farmhouse end table
Quality farmhouse end tables vary in price depending on materials, size and brand. They start at $60 and can cost upwards of $200.
Farmhouse end table FAQ
Where does farmhouse style get its name?
A. Farmhouse style is influenced by the original homesteads in the rural U.S. when function and practicality were more important than frills. The early settlers sourced materials from one’s immediate surroundings, either through repurposing or relying on natural resources such as timber.
Can I use a farmhouse end table as a nightstand?
A. Absolutely. Many end tables have similar dimensions to a nightstand. Look for one with a drawer or cabinet to place by your antiqued bed.
What’s the best farmhouse end table to buy?
Top farmhouse end table
Laurel Foundry Modern Farmhouse Isakson Tall Trestle End Table
What you need to know: This beautiful natural wood tabletop features a matte metal frame and a shelf.
What you’ll love: The construction is heavy and sturdy. It’s easy to assemble. The wooden plank-style top is distressed. It also comes in solid, neutral colors, as well as a matching coffee table.
What you should consider: Not all reviewers liked the weathered look of the wood.
Where to buy: Sold by Wayfair
Top farmhouse end table for the money
Laurel Foundry Modern Farmhouse Kistler Tall Wood End Table
What you need to know: You can’t get more rustic than this unfinished wood end table if you’re looking for an authentic, “roughing it” look.
What you’ll love: This reasonably priced table comes fully assembled. The rough, natural wood has a distressed look and a certain charm. The size is perfect.
What you should consider: A few reviewers noticed the stain came off and transferred onto other materials.
Where to buy: Sold by Wayfair
Worth checking out
Andover Mills Oreland Tall End Table with Storage
What you need to know: The clean, simple design of this end table comes in classic farmhouse colors and will work well with any existing farmhouse items.
What you’ll love: This end table has a drawer for closed storage. It comes in white, gray oak and a light brown. It’s taller on the taller end at 23 inches high and works well next to platform beds. It only takes a few minutes to assemble.
What you should consider: It’s made from particleboard, so this end table isn’t as durable as authentic wooden ones.
Where to buy: Sold by Wayfair
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Ana Sanchez writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-09-21T12:47:49Z
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Solo Stove introduces a new tabletop fire pit
A fire pit is a great addition to a backyard or even a camping trip. It gives you a place to gather, sets the mood and provides warmth. However, individuals who live in an urban area might not have room for a full-size fire pit. A compact model that safely functions in a limited space, such as on a picnic table, is ideal for someone who doesn’t have a backyard.
Solo Stove is a trusted name in fire pits. The company is known for its innovative and highly efficient products. The latest model is called the Mesa, and it’s specifically designed for use on an outdoor table. This compact, smokeless fire pit employs the company’s signature 360-degree airflow technology, and it can be used with small pieces of wood or pellets.
This sounded like an excellent addition to the company’s line, but we were curious if the Solo Stove Mesa lived up to the high bar other Solo Stove models have set. We tested the new tabletop fire pit, and this is what we found.
Testing the Solo Stove Mesa
Our tester has extensive experience with outdoor products such as fire pits. They were a scout and their family camped out often while growing up. Now that our tester is an adult, they frequently host outdoor events. Besides being familiar with a more traditional bowl-shaped fire pit, our tester has used a number of Solo Stove’s products and had a positive experience with each.
When using the Mesa, our tester paid attention to ease of setup, portability, stability and how easy the fire pit was to clean.
What is the Solo Stove Mesa?
The Solo Stove Mesa is a tabletop fire pit that might be best described as “cute and tiny.” It’s only 6.8 inches tall (with its stand) and 5.1 inches wide. We particularly like that the company finally addressed one of the design areas that we had long been hoping they would. The Mesa is the first Solo Stove fire pit that’s available in six color options: stainless steel, deep olive, mulberry, bone, ash and water.
Because it’s so small, we were curious about Mesa’s weight. When we placed it on a kitchen scale, the diminutive fire pit weighed just under 1 1/2 pounds. This weight included the pellet adapter and the convenient drawstring bag that fits the unit nicely.
Regarding the size of this model, it really is small enough to fit on any table. The Mesa uses tiny pieces of wood or the adapter to supply pellets for fuel. The heat is suitable for about four people who are seated within marshmallow-roasting range.
Solo Stove Mesa price and where to buy
The Solo Stove Mesa tabletop fire pit costs $79.99, and it’s available at Solo Stove.
How to use Solo Stove Mesa
Solo Stove’s Mesa only has four pieces. It’s simple enough to assemble without even looking at the directions. However, we recommend reading them to make sure each piece is placed where it belongs and is facing the proper direction.
The Mesa must only be used with the included stand. Before using, unfold the legs. This allows you to safely place the fire pit directly on wood, grass, wicker, plastic, metal or composite materials.
If you prefer, you can use the Mesa with the included pellet adapter to modify the unit so it can be used with pellet fuel. This is a little more convenient because you won’t need to chop up wood into tiny pieces before use.
When the tabletop fire pit has completely cooled, you’ll find there isn’t much left inside. This is because of the efficient design. To clean, simply turn the unit upside-down over a bag or a can and give it a shake until the ash falls free. It’s a simple and straightforward cleaning process.
Solo Stove Mesa benefits
The Mesa is lightweight, portable, features a durable design and burns with extreme efficiency. There’s barely any smoke once the fire gets started, and it provides a surprising amount of heat for such a tiny unit. We love that you now have color choices when purchasing, plus the convenience of burning wood or pellets. It cleans without effort and makes a fun addition to any backyard, patio or porch space.
Solo Stove Mesa drawbacks
This tabletop fire pit has only one minor design flaw that we could find during our extensive testing. The folding feet which give the Mesa its stability don’t always work well on slatted wood, because the feet might line up with the spaces and create an unstable condition. However, this is not a deal-breaker as a paving stone, tile, small piece of wood paneling or nearly any other flat object can be placed under the fire pit to solve the slat-gap problem.
Should you get the Solo Stove Mesa?
While this isn’t the type of fire pit that will warm you on a crisp night, it’s a nearly flawless product that delivers everything it promises. If you live in an urban area where there isn’t a lot of outdoor space or if you want a portable tabletop fire pit that you can take anywhere, there’s simply no better option available than the Solo Stove Mesa.
Consider other products
If you prefer a propane option, this tabletop model is a solid choice. It has an antique bronze finish and provides 8,000 BTU of heat. The flame is adjustable, but you must purchase the propane tank separately.
Sold by Home Depot and Amazon
If you want a larger option from Solo Stove, the Bonfire 2.0 is the latest model. It’s the company’s mid-size fire pit. The Bonfire 2.0 includes the upgraded removable ash pan and features smokeless burning.
Sold by Solo Stove and Amazon
Outland Living 410 Series Outdoor Propane Gas Fire Table
If you don’t have a table, this fire table from Outland Living conveniently serves as both a table and a fire pit. It provides a cozy gathering place for outdoor parties and features a push-button ignition system for ease of lighting.
Sold by Amazon
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Allen Foster writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-09-21T12:47:56Z
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Why leg day is your most important day
We all understand how physical activity can make the body stronger. But there is increasing evidence that physical activity combats depression as well. Still, with all the evidence we have of how important exercise is, there is one thing even diehard fitness fanatics tend to skip: leg day.
Judd NeSmith is the founder of Serious Fitness and BestReviews’ fitness expert. We asked him why leg days are so important to your fitness regime and if it’s ever OK to skip them. Here’s what we learned.
In this article: NordicTrack Select-A-Weight Adjustable Dumbbell Set, Bowflex SelectTech 840 Kettlebell and URBNFit Exercise Ball
What is leg day?
Many people do not realize or they neglect to consider that legs make up the entire lower half of the body. Leg day is any day that you focus on working out the glutes, hamstrings, calves and quads.
Why do people skip leg day?
NeSmith thinks the answer is simple: “Training the lower body is a lot harder than training the upper body, so some people take the easy way out,” he said. “They just do the easy exercises like chest presses, rows, pullups and bicep curls. When you ask them to train their lower body with any kind of squat variation or dead lift variation, they shy away from lower body exercises because they are hard.”
Why is it so important to train the lower body?
Overall fitness
“To be fit overall, you have to do more than just walking or running or riding a bike,” NeSmith said. “You have to perform some strength-training exercises to help you build more muscle, to burn more calories, to prevent injuries and help improve your posture.”
NeSmith explained that the quads, glutes and hamstrings make up the largest muscle groups in the body. Whenever you recruit those muscles in a strength-training exercise, you’re going to burn more calories because those muscles need more energy to perform. But what people don’t understand is when you engage those larger muscle groups, it will help you build more muscle throughout the entire body.
“When you perform any type of squat exercise or dead lift exercise or any kind of compound movement in the gym, you are going to raise your growth hormone and your testosterone levels, which is going to build more lean muscle in the entire body,” NeSmith said.
Preventive care
“A lot of injuries happen because people have very weak hips,” NeSmith began. “They have a weak hip imbalance, meaning they are either weak in their hamstrings, weak in their glutes or weak in their quadriceps. When you have a weak hip imbalance, it leads to a lot of issues, such as lower back pain, knee pain and even neck and shoulder pain. This is because your hips are your foundation. It’s the center of all movement, so when someone is weak in their hips they are definitely at jeopardy of having a lot of muscle imbalances which can cause pain throughout the body and lead to injuries. That is why it’s really important to train your legs.”
Should older people ease up on leg day?
As you get older, building and maintaining more lean muscle becomes a big concern. NeSmith said it is even more important to continue to work out once you are over 50 because you need lean muscle mass to prevent osteoporosis and sarcopenia.
Osteoporosis
“Osteoporosis is bone loss. You lose bone density because you are not doing enough weight-bearing exercises, so you can’t protect and build stronger bones,” NeSmith said.
Sarcopenia
“Sarcopenia is common with a lot of individuals who only do cardiovascular exercise. They may just ride bikes throughout the week or walk or jog or run. This is great for cardiovascular health, but it doesn’t provide enough resistance as a stimulus to build and maintain lean muscle. Sarcopenia is when someone older gets frail because they do not have enough muscle mass to support their joints,” NeSmith said.
How many times a week should you focus on your legs?
NeSmith is a fan of the full-body workout. If you have 45 minutes to an hour to spend in the gym, and you want to burn more fat and get leaner, you should work your chest, your back, your quadriceps, your hamstrings, your glutes, your biceps and your triceps. According to NeSmith, this is because “you get a phenomenal muscle-building response when you train the body as a whole.”
However, if you are more concerned with bodybuilding or you are a strength-training enthusiast, NeSmith recommends four days at the gym.
This routine would look something like the following:
- Monday, train lower body
- Tuesday, train upper body
- Wednesday, work cardio
- Thursday, train lower body
- Friday, train upper body
Alternatively, you could do a full-body workout every other day, such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Should you ever skip leg day?
“Absolutely,” NeSmith responded. “And for a lot of my clients, that’s not uncommon because they are athletes. Let’s say you were running a 5K, a 10K or a marathon, and your race is on a Saturday. I would tell you not to work your lower body with resistance probably that entire week because you want to have fresh legs for your race. The same goes for cyclists who have a race or for serious recreational athletes who compete in a sport that requires their legs. If you are playing in a competitive soccer league and you have an important game on Saturday, for example, skip your leg day on Friday.”
Products to help you get the most out of leg day
NordicTrack Select-a-Weight Adjustable Dumbbell Set
A quality pair of dumbbells helps you get the most out of your lower body exercises, such as squats and lunges. This offering from NordicTrack lets you quickly choose from 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10 and 12.5 pounds to customize your workouts. Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
Bowflex SelectTech 840 Kettlebell
A kettlebell can deliver a high-intensity lower body workout in as little as 15 minutes. This model has a weight selection dial that adjusts from 8 to 40 pounds, offering convenience while saving you storage space. Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
Using a balance ball lets you increase the range of lower body exercises you can perform, giving you a comprehensive workout that targets all the desired muscle groups. The URBNFit stability ball is made with anti-slip, anti-burst, high-quality PVC that can handle a 600-pound weight load. Sold by Amazon
The TRX PRO3 Suspension Trainer
Besides providing a high-intensity workout, a suspension trainer can give you confidence to really dig deep and maximize your range of motion when it comes to lower body exercises. This pro set gives you three suspension anchors, rubber-grip handles, padded foot cradles, access to the TRX Training Club app and more. Sold by Amazon
Sweet Sweat Mini Loop Resistance Bands
Resistance loop bands add resistance to your exercises, so you can gently increase the intensity. There are five bands in this set which range from 5 to 40 pounds. Sold by Amazon
Want to shop the best products at the best prices? Check out Daily Deals from BestReviews.
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Allen Foster writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-09-21T12:48:11Z
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CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell is going east.
The All-Star guard is on his way to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who acquired one of the NBA’s best scorers Thursday in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.
Cleveland is sending guard Collin Sexton, forward Lauri Markkanen and rookie guard Ochai Agbaji along with three unprotected first-round picks to the Jazz, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it still must be approved by the league.
ESPN was the first to report Mitchell’s exit from Utah.
Sexton, who played in just 11 games last season before undergoing knee surgery, will sign a four-year, $72 million contract as part of a sign-and-trade agreement with Utah, his agent Rich Paul confirmed for AP.
There had been speculation for months that Mitchell might get moved, and it appeared the New York Knicks were the frontrunner for him. But when talks with Utah broke down, Cleveland jumped in and general manager Koby Altman added a player capable of pushing the Cavs into title contention.
Cleveland hasn’t made the playoffs since 2018, when LeBron James led the Cavs to their fourth straight Finals.
The 6-foot-1 Mitchell can take over a game, and he’ll give Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff a player to run his offense through as well as another late-game option.
The Cavs are also giving up unprotected first-round picks in 2025, 2027 and 2029 and swapping picks in 2026 and 2028, said the person.
A three-time All-Star in five seasons with Utah, the 25-year-old Mitchell is one of the league’s elite backcourt players and his acquisition could push the Cavs, who won 44 games last season — a 22-game improvement — with a young nucleus, among the top teams in the loaded Eastern Conference.
Mitchell, who averaged 25.9 points per game last season, will pair in Cleveland with All-Star point guard Darius Garland. He’ll also play with All-Star center Jarett Allen and forward Evan Mobley, who had a strong rookie season averaging 15.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks.
Mitchell signed a five-year, $163 million contract in 2020 and is under contract through the 2026 season.
Cleveland also has Garland and Allen locked up to long-term deals.
The 23-year-old Sexton was hoping to make a comeback this season with the Cavs, who couldn’t work out an extension with him last season. He was a restricted free agent this summer, but there was little market for him.
Sexton’s a proven scorer (he averaged 24.3 in 2020), but became expendable for Cleveland due to Garland’s development and the club’s talented frontline.
The 7-foot Markkanen averaged 14.8 points and 5.7 rebounds in his first season with the Cavs, who made the play-in round last season before losing to Brooklyn and Atlanta.
Agbaji was drafted by Cleveland with the No. 14 overall pick this year after helping Kansas win a national championship.
This is the second major trade during this offseason for Utah, which started its rebuild in July by trading All-Star center Rudy Gobert to Minnesota.
The Mitchell trade gives Utah even more draft capital. The Jazz now have at least 13 first-round picks, plus the two swaps that were part of this deal, over the next seven drafts. The Jazz currently have three first-round picks in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029.
But the Jazz are starting over now, in so many ways.
The re-do in Utah started in early June when Quin Snyder — who had guided the Jazz to six consecutive playoff appearances, but never got them out of the second round — decided to end his eight-year run as coach.
The last straw may have been how this past season started with great promise before fizzling. Utah started 7-1 and was 26-9 at one point but went just 25-28 after Jan. 1.
Utah eventually hired Will Hardy to coach, though there was still speculation then about whether the Jazz would break up the 1-2 punch of Mitchell and Gobert. Now, they’re both gone.
The Mitchell-Gobert relationship was clearly strained at times, going back to at least the start of the pandemic, when Gobert was the first NBA player to test positive for COVID-19 and Mitchell tested positive a day later.
They now get new starts elsewhere, and the Jazz are in the full throes of a rebuild — just as Cleveland was not long ago.
___
AP NBA Writer Tim Reynolds contributed from Miami.
__ More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:48:18Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Edwin Díaz struck out Gavin Lux on a 102.8 mph fastball to escape a jam in the eighth inning, and the New York Mets beat the major league-best Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 on Thursday.
Francisco Lindor hit a tying double in the sixth and scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Darin Ruf after the Mets were held to one hit in five innings by Clayton Kershaw, who made his first start since Aug. 4.
NL East-leading New York took two of three from Los Angeles, its first series win against the Dodgers since Sept. 3-5, 2011. LA lost consecutive games for the first time since July 25-26. The last time the Dodgers dropped two straight at Citi Field was exactly seven years before that — July 25-26, 2015.
“They got a really good team,” Díaz said. “We showed them we have a really good team, too. That’s the team we might play in the playoffs.”
Chris Bassitt (12-7) allowed two runs and six hits in six innings for his fifth straight victory, matching his win total from last season with Oakland. He departed after the Mets took a 3-2 lead in the sixth.
New York led 5-2 when Díaz opened the eighth by walking Freddie Freeman and plunking Will Smith. Freeman advanced to third on a warning-track flyball by Max Muncy and scored on Justin Turner’s flyball near the 408-foot sign in center.
“I was a little bit angry because I wasn’t commanding my slider the way I want to,” Díaz said.
After a mound visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, Díaz escaped by whiffing Lux on the hardest pitch of his career and calmly walked off the mound. It was the fifth time in his last 13 appearances that the Mets closer pitched in the eighth inning.
“He’s the best closer in baseball for a reason,” Lux said.
It was only the third run allowed in the last 34 appearances for Díaz, who has converted 19 of 19 save chances in that span.
“I think he realized that he wasn’t carrying the normal torque on his breaking ball,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “He almost got hurt on a couple of them. He just decided to go to option B.”
Adam Ottavino followed with a perfect ninth for his third save.
Kershaw returned from a back injury and settled down after a rocky beginning. He struck out six and walked three but was on a pitch count and was pulled after throwing 73 pitches — three more than his simulated game on Saturday in Miami.
“First inning was a little rough obviously, but I’m thankful to kind of bounce out of that and get through five at least,” Kershaw said.
It was the 15th time Kershaw allowed one hit or fewer and third time this season.
Lindor’s single three batters in was New York’s only hit until Starling Marte opened the sixth against Chris Martin (4-1) with an infield single. One pitch after hooking a ball foul down the right field line, Lindor doubled to center field as Marte easily scored.
Lindor stole third on the second pitch of Ruf’s plate appearance, which came Showalter pulled left-handed hitting Daniel Vogelbach from the on-deck circle. After fouling off three pitches, Ruf lifted a high flyball to the left-field corner and Lindor trotted home.
Brandon Nimmo added an RBI double in the seventh when his popup dropped between second baseman Lux and right fielder Mookie Betts. Nimmo then scored on Marte’s single.
“Miscommunication, probably a ball I gotta catch,” Lux said.
Kershaw walked three in a 25-pitch first inning, including Mark Canha with the bases loaded — the eighth bases-loaded walk of the left-hander’s career and his first since 2015. Kershaw then got Jeff McNeil on a popup and retired his final 13 batters.
Chris Taylor hit a two-run single in the second for the Dodgers.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: RHP Brusdar Graterol (right elbow inflammation) was placed on the injured list and will get an MRI Friday. … RHP Tony Gonsolin (right forearm strain) will get an MRI Friday and will remain shut down for a few more days.
Mets: C Francisco Alvarez, the club’s No. 1 prospect, was diagnosed with a loose body in his right ankle and a tentative plan is for him to resume baseball activities in three to four days based on his response to an injection. … Rookie 3B Brett Baty underwent surgery for a torn ligament in his right thumb.
UP NEXT
Dodgers: Dustin May (1-1, 1.64 ERA) makes his third start since returning from Tommy John surgery as Los Angeles opens a series Friday against visiting San Diego and RHP Yu Darvish (11-7, 3.41).
Mets: LHP David Peterson (7-3, 3.21) opposes RHP Josiah Gray (7-8, 4.67) of visiting Washington on Friday.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:48:41Z
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A wild summer transfer window was about to close on Thursday with Manchester United and Manchester City completing deadline-day signings and other Premier League clubs still active in the market despite England’s top flight already spending more than $2 billion on new players.
By the time the window shuts at 11 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), Chelsea and Liverpool were likely to have made last-minute purchases to plug gaps in their squads while Nottingham Forest might even make it to a remarkable 20 signings, or more, since returning to the league.
Chelsea — the biggest spender in Europe this window after an outlay of about $265 million — was on the brink of signing striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who joined Barcelona from Arsenal only in February. Left back Marcos Alonso could go the other way as part of the deal.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp belatedly has made signing a midfielder a priority because of a slew of injuries in that department, most recently to captain Jordan Henderson, and was reportedly about to sign Arthur Melo on loan from Juventus.
Forest made its 19th signing of the window by bringing in defender Willy Boly from Wolverhampton and was reportedly in talks with two or three other players. The promoted team has already spent more than $150 million this summer.
A number of major moves had already been made, none bigger than Brazil winger Antony completing his switch to Man United from Ajax for $95 million to take the club’s own spending in this window to nearly $240 million.
Hours later, United signed Slovakia goalkeeper Martin Dubravka on a season-long loan from Newcastle as a backup to David De Gea.
The future of Cristiano Ronaldo has been a hot topic since the end of last season — he has pushed to leave because United isn’t in the Champions League — but manager Erik ten Hag reiterated Wednesday that he is counting on the Portugal forward this season. Ronaldo was on the bench for United for a Premier League match against Leicester on Thursday.
City decided to bolster its defensive options, signing Switzerland internationalManuel Akanji from Borussia Dortmund for $17.5 million to get a fifth center back in its squad.
Senegal midfielder Idrissa Gueye sealed a return to Everton from Paris Saint-Germain, which sent left back Layvin Kurzawa to Fulham on loan for the season. Fulham also signed former Chelsea and Arsenal winger Willian on a free transfer after he recently left Brazilian club Corinthians.
Leicester chose the final day of the window to make its first outfield signing of the summer, Wout Faes from French club Reims. Faes filled the vacancy left by Wesley Fofana, who joined Chelsea on Wednesday for 75 million pounds ($87 million).
That was one of the most eye-catching moves of the summer as the Premier League reverted to pre-pandemic levels of spending — and then some — on the back of its huge global broadcasting broadcasting deals worth about 10 billion pounds ($11.8 billion) over three seasons.
The rest of Europe just cannot compete, with clubs in the top leagues in Spain, Italy, Germany and France on course to spend less combined than England alone.
Chelsea could yet take its spending on players to around $300 million, like it did two summers ago when the likes of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner joined for huge fees.
The Premier League’s record for spending in a single season — covering both summer and winter transfers windows — stands at 1.86 billion pounds ($2.18 billion) in 2017-18. That figure should be comfortably surpassed in this transfer window alone.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:48:49Z
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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh cornerback MJ Devonshire spent a portion of the summer watching highlights of old Backyard Brawls wondering what it might be like to make one of the iconic plays in a a series whose history stretches to the 19th century.
He doesn’t have to wonder anymore.
Devonshire snagged a pass that caromed off the hands of West Virginia wide receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton and raced 56 yards to the end zone with 2:58 remaining as the Panthers rallied for a 38-31 victory Thursday night in the return of the Brawl following a 10-year hiatus.
“This is one of the greatest rivalries in college football and I just did something crazy I’m going to get to tell my kids about,” Devonshire said.
The Panthers had just tied it on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Kedon Slovis to Israel Abanikanda with 3:41 to go. Four plays later, West Virginia quarterback JT Daniels found a wide-open Ford-Wheaton only to see the ball smack of Ford-Wheaton’s hands and settle into Devonshire’s awaiting arms.
The Pittsburgh-area native who started his college career at Kentucky before coming home in 2021, felt his old punt returner skills come flooding back as he weaved his way through traffic to give Pitt its second score in 43 seconds to turn a seven-point deficit into a lead the Panthers wouldn’t relinquish.
“I just knew I had to run as fast as I could,” Devonshire said.
The Mountaineers drove deep into Pitt territory in the final minute and Daniels hit Reese Smith on a fourth-down fling that appeared to bring the ball to the Pitt 1.
Briefly anyway. Replays showed the ball skimmed the turf before Smith could bring it in and the crowd of 70,622 — the largest to attend a sporting event in the city’s history — erupted.
“They’ve got a really good football team and I respect them a lot, I really do,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “But we made a bunch of mistakes, too.”
Pitt turned two Mountaineer turnovers into touchdowns.
Southern California transfer Kedon Slovis threw for 308 yards and a touchdown in his debut with the Panthers in the opener for both teams. Rodney Hammond ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns before leaving in the fourth quarter because of a right leg injury that appeared serious.
Daniels, looking to revive his career following stints at USC and Georgia, completed 23 of 39 passes for 214 yards with two touchdowns to Ford-Wheaton and the pick that Devonshire turned into Pitt’s first victory over its longtime rivals since 2008.
FOURTH-DOWN JITTERS
The Mountaineers piled up 190 yards on the ground, but fourth-year coach Neal Brown didn’t feel confident enough in his running game to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Pitt 48 midway through the fourth quarter and his team up 31-24.
Daniels lined up in an effort to draw the Panthers offside and when he didn’t, the Mountaineers punted.
Pitt didn’t waste the opportunity. Slovis led the defending ACC champions 92 yards in seven plays, the last on a flip to running back Israel Abanikanda in which he slipped through three tackles for a 24-yard touchdown.
Brown said afterward he would punt again, pointing to the chance to give the Panthers a long field and the way West Virginia had stuffed Pitt on its previous series, sacking Slovis twice in the process.
“If I had to do it again, I would do that same decision,” Brown said.
THE TAKEAWAY
West Virginia: Brown likely needs the Mountaineers to take a step forward in 2022 to engender a little job security. While Daniels definitely appears like an upgrade at quarterback, his coach continues to be snake-bit in tight games. His inability to trust an offensive line that held its own against a defensive front that expects to be among the best in the ACC if not the country was curious and ultimately, costly.
Pitt: The Panthers are aiming even higher than the ACC crown the claimed last winter. The schedule is user-friendly and while Slovis needed time to get warmed up, he did a fairly solid impression of former Pitt star Kenny Pickett, who helped unfurl the ACC championship banner he led the Panthers to in 2021 on his way to being a Heisman Trophy finalist and a first-round NFL draft pick.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
The Panthers will stick in the poll for a second straight week and could rise a bit depending on results elsewhere this weekend.
UP NEXT
West Virginia: The Mountaineers open Big 12 play at home on Sept. 10 against Kansas. West Virginia has won eight straight against the Jayhawks.
Pitt: The Panthers welcome Tennessee on Sept. 10. Pitt edged the Volunteers 41-34 in Knoxville last September.
___
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25.
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| 2022-09-21T12:49:05Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — The next woman who must deal with the daunting task of playing Serena Williams at the U.S. Open, Ajla Tomljanovic, considers herself an admirer of the 23-time Grand Slam champion.
“I’ve been a Serena fan,” Tomljanovic said, “since I was a kid.”
Tomljanovic, an Australian who is 29, will face Williams, who turns 41 next month, for the first time on Friday night — in front of what is sure to be another exuberant and partisan full house — in the third round at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“She kind of has that aura, like Roger (Federer), Rafa (Nadal), and deservedly so,” Tomljanovic said. “I always get happy when she says ‘Hi’ to me.”
Tomljanovic recalled watching on TV as Williams won major trophies. Also tuning in over the years — but never across the net from Williams in a match until this U.S. Open — was the player Williams beat in the second round on Wednesday, No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit, who’s 26. Same for the player Williams beat in the first round on Monday, Danka Kovinic, who’s 27.
This is not why Williams is winning these contests in what is expected to be the last tournament of her career, but it sure can’t hurt.
Must not be easy to try to defeat someone whose success is oh-so-familiar, someone you looked up to before you turned pro yourself, someone you admire to this day.
“Oh, it factors in a lot. When I was young, I knew I had to beat members of a certain generation to move up. And Serena’s always been the one to beat,” said Billie Jean King, the Hall of Famer who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles in the 1960s and 1970s, plus another 27 in women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
“It can work in your favor if you thrive on playing the best player ever and you know it’ll help your career if you win,” King said in a telephone interview Thursday. “But the other side of the coin is, ‘Oh, no! I have to play her?’ And with the crowd, the history, you really have to try to embrace the situation and the occasion.”
That certainly is not easy.
Especially when Williams is playing as well as she did against Kontaveit, particularly in the moments that mattered the most in the 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 victory — the first-set tiebreaker and the third set.
“Well,” Williams said with a laugh, “I’m a pretty good player.”
Sure is.
And her opponents sure know it, of course.
Back when Williams and her older sister Venus — who lost in the first round of doubles together Thursday night — were swapping the No. 1 ranking the way other siblings might share clothing and meeting each other in nine all-in-the-family finals at Grand Slam tournaments, they often took the court with something of an advantage that went beyond their considerable talents.
Some other players were simply in awe.
So even though Williams plays less, and wins less, nowadays than she used to in her heyday — her 2022 record was 1-3 before this week — listen to what Kovinic had to say about learning she was drawn to face the American at Flushing Meadows: “I was happy. I won’t lie. I’m honored to play against her, never mind whether I win or lose. It’s a privilege to share the court with Serena.”
How did that go? Williams won 6-3, 6-3.
Here is what Kontaveit’s thoughts were when her matchup against Williams was assured: “I’m really excited. I was really rooting for her to (advance to the second round). I’ve never played against her. I mean, this is the last chance. Better late than never.”
Kovinic and the 46th-ranked Tomljanovic expressed similar sentiments.
Jessica Pegula, a 28-year-old American who is seeded No. 8 in New York and won Thursday to reach the third round, played Williams once, losing to her in the final of a tournament at Auckland, New Zealand, in January 2020.
“I knew it was a big moment. … I felt OK, but then once we started playing and you could kind of feel her power — and feel her hitting a winner, coming at you, serving — I think that’s when you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, I’m playing Serena,’” Pegula said. “I think we all kind of have those moments for the first time.”
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More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:49:12Z
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Jimmy Garoppolo moved over one field, rejoined his San Francisco 49ers teammates at practice for the first time since last season and was firing off passes the same way he always has.
The big difference was he is now No. 2 in the pecking order behind Trey Lance.
After the past six months when Garoppolo had shoulder surgery that prevented a possible trade, spent training camp throwing on a side field away from his teammates, and then negotiated a drastic pay cut to remain in San Francisco, Garoppolo is ready for his new role as a backup.
“It was weird,” Garoppolo said Thursday. “It was different than any situation I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been in some weird ones, too, so that’s saying something. Things worked out for the best. There were a lot of ups and downs, rocky roads here and there, but throughout the whole thing, I’m happy with where I’m at. I’m happy to be with the Niners, and I think the Niners are happy to have me back. Things are working out pretty well.”
No one expected them to work out this way.
After the Niners lost to the Rams in the NFC title game last January, Garoppolo said his goodbyes and was ready to join a new team with San Francisco handing the offense over to Lance.
But when a lingering shoulder injury from late in the season required surgery, everything changed. The trade market that had at least two teams very interested in striking a deal, according to San Francisco general manager John Lynch, immediately dried up and Garoppolo was in limbo.
He was finally cleared to return to practice at the start of training camp but the 49ers had decided they didn’t want to keep Garoppolo as a backup with a $24.2 million salary so they didn’t risk injury by having him practice.
Garoppolo said he never demanded his release because he didn’t want to “ruffle the feathers too much.” Garoppolo’s representatives talked to a few teams in August but were unable to find an interested team that he found desirable.
“I saw the opportunities that were out there,” he said. “You weigh the pros and cons of everything. Trust me, there was a lot of back and forth going on just with other teams, and what I wanted my future to look like. This is what I wanted. I’m happy the way it worked out. The familiarity was a big part of it.”
With the roster-cut deadline looming earlier this week, he struck the deal Monday to stay in San Francisco on a $6.5 million salary with the chance to earn up to $16 million depending on playing time and other incentives.
He rejoined team meetings the following day and everything was back to the way it had been except for the depth chart that now had Lance as the starter.
Lance and Garoppolo both stressed there is no awkwardness in their relationship and see no reason why Garoppolo’s return would be any sort of distraction.
Garoppolo talked about the need to “check your ego a little bit” and Lance said he’s happy to get to continue to learn from Garoppolo.
“It’s good to have him back and good to have him back in the QB room again,” Lance said. “He’s been a big brother to me since my first day in the league. I know he’s got my back and I have his back. I know he’s going to add a lot to our QB room.”
The other big roster news this week came at running back, where undrafted rookie Jordan Mason made the team and 2021 third-round pick Trey Sermon got cut Wednesday after San Francisco claimed offensive lineman Blake Hance off waivers from Cleveland.
Sermon played nine games as a rookie and had 41 carries for 167 yards and a touchdown. Lynch said Sermon came into camp this season much more prepared but he averaged just 2.1 yards per carry in the preseason compared to 5.0 for Mason.
“The bottom line, J.P. Mason just played too well,” Lynch said. “We felt like he made our team better.”
NOTES: The Niners signed DB Dontae Johnson to the practice squad after cutting him earlier in the week. Johnson could be activated to play in the season opener with S Jimmie Ward on IR with a hamstring injury. … WR Deebo Samuel (knee), DL Arik Armstead (undisclosed), LB Oren Burks (knee), and OL Daniel Brunskill (hamstring) didn’t practice.
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More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:49:20Z
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HERNING, Denmark (AP) — United States forward Hilary Knight broke the record for career points at the women’s hockey world championship with a goal and an assist Thursday as the Americans overpowered Hungary 12-1 in the quarterfinals.
The 33-year-old Knight has a total of 87 points from 12 appearances at the worlds, surpassing Canadian forward Hayley Wickenheiser’s previous mark of 86.
Knight also has the record for goals in the tournament with 51.
Hannah Bilka and Taylor Heise both had a hat trick for the U.S., which only led 1-0 after the first period but scored nine goals in the second.
Amanda Kessel had five assists.
Defending champion Canada was playing Sweden later for a place in the semifinals. Switzerland beat Japan 2-1 after a shootout in the first quarterfinal.
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:49:27Z
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Mick Schumacher declined several opportunities on Thursday to discuss his future in Formula One amid speculation he’ll be dropped by Haas at the end of the season.
The son of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher is in his second season with Haas, where he was promoted to from the Ferrari Driver Academy. He’s been associated with Ferrari since 2019 after winning the European F3 championship.
Schumacher’s contract with the the academy is set to expire at the end of this year and Haas, which has an engine partnership with Ferrari, would not be obligated to keep the 23-year-old German if Schumacher is no longer part of the program.
Schumacher was asked ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix if he planned to stay at Haas for a third season; if he was talking to other teams; and, “what do you see as the pros and cons of what you do going forward?”
He skirted all three questions.
“I see the pros that I will be racing this weekend and the weekend after and hopefully in Singapore and Suzuka and the races to come,” Schumacher said at Circuit Zandvoort. “I’m excited for this weekend and our car should be quite strong and hopefully I will be able to score some points.”
Schumacher remained stone-faced when asked directly if he wanted to speak about his 2023 plans, and passed on two other questions about his future. The first asked about any conversations he’s had about remaining part of the Ferrari Driver Academy.
“I think in that sense what is being discussed behind the scenes between us is something that is between us, and I would rather keep between us and not speak publicly,” he said.
Schumacher later said “that’s contractual matters, which I can’t go into detail with,” when asked about his future on the F1 grid. If Haas does not retain Schumacher for next season and he’s unable to find another seat, the grid would lose both its German drivers because four-time champion Sebastian Vettel is retiring.
Schumacher was publicly put on notice earlier this season by Haas team principal Guenther Steiner to pick up his performance. He missed the second race of the season when he crashed in Saudi Arabia and was taken briefly to the hospital for evaluation. Schumacher also crashed out at Monaco.
He at last scored the first F1 points of his career in July at the British Grand Prix by finishing eighth at Silverstone. Schumacher was sixth the next race in Austria and has a total of 12 points. Kevin Magnussen, who returned to Haas this season after a one-year parting, leads F1’s only American team with 22 points.
Schumacher, meanwhile, has regressed since his back-to-back breakout races. He was 15th in France, 14th in Hungary and 17th last week in Belgium. Schumacher ranks 15th in the 20-driver standings.
Should he lose his current seat, there aren’t a ton of options for Schumacher. Daniel Ricciardo has been bought out of his contract at McLaren and is looking for a job and McLaren is hoping to win a fight with Alpine to use Oscar Piastri, the Alpine reserve driver, to fill Ricciardo’s seat.
Alpine wants Piastri for the seat opening when Fernando Alonso leaves to replace Vettel at Aston Martin.
Schumacher did receive one endorsement on Thursday when Alpine driver Esteban Ocon said he’s made it clear to the team that Schumacher is his choice to replace Alonso.
“My choice if I had anything to say would be Mick if he doesn’t have anything lined up for next year,” Ocon said. “Mick is a good friend of mine, so if I can help on that, that’s no problem. I think he has shown talents in the junior categories.
“He’s been very fast, you know, sometimes in Formula One. It’s not easy to perform with a car that’s a bit on the backfoot, and he’s a great guy and he could perform very well if he joined a competitive car and at the moment Alpine is competitive.”
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:49:34Z
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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Minor league baseball players are a hearty bunch. They’re used to long bus rides, low pay, low job security and have traditionally thought of those drawbacks as the cost of chasing a Major League Baseball dream.
Some of those things might be starting to change.
Players on the Single-A Tampa Tarpons — which is an affiliate of the New York Yankees — have been talking individually about efforts to unionize minor league players and the idea is gaining momentum. The Major League Baseball Players Association took the step of sending out union authorization cards earlier this week, paving the way for thousands more players to potentially join the organization.
“It’s something that a lot of people are definitely interested in,” said Tarpons centerfielder Spencer Jones, a former Vanderbilt star taken 25th overall in this year’s draft.
“As we get more information I’m sure guys will get more into it. It’s definitely something that interests me, and I’m excited to see what it looks like moving forward.”
Signed cards from 30% of minor leaguers in the bargaining unit would allow the union to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a union authorization election, which would be decided by majority vote. Minor league players would have a separate bargaining unit from their big league counterparts.
“It seems like 30% will be pretty attainable, so we’ll see.” said Tampa reliever Ryan Anderson, a 12th-round selection in 2019. “I did get the text and stuff like that, so I’m thinking about sending it in. There’s definitely some benefits.”
While the average major league salary is above $4 million, players with minor league contracts earn as little as $400 a week during the six-month season. Though a handful of minor league players will eventually get the big payday, the vast majority won’t.
“We’ve found that 74% of guys believe they’re going to make the majors and that number is really about 10%. The average career is three to five years,” said Simon Rosenblum-Larson, the cofounder and program director for More Than Baseball, which has advocated for improved working conditions for minor league players. He also pitched for four years in the Tampa Bay Rays organization before getting released in June.
Rosenblum-Larson believes a union could help those three to five years be slightly more lucrative. He said the idea of joining MLBPA is attractive to many players because they’ve seen what the big-league union has done for salaries over the years.
“I’ve looked at it, kind of just what they’re trying to do with the unionization,” Anderson said. “It makes a lot of sense on our side because we have no union, so anything that we can have in our favor that will give us, maybe, some better benefits down the line, I think is a good thing.”
MLB estimates there are 5,000 to 6,500 U.S.-based minor leaguers at any given time, with the number increasing when new players sign each summer. It’s a diverse group of players that includes teenagers and others in their 30s at the higher levels.
MLB raised weekly minimum salaries for minor leaguers in 2021 to $400 at rookie and short-season levels, $500 at Class A, $600 at Double-A and $700 at Triple-A. For players on option, the minimum is $57,200 per season for a first big league contract and $114,100 for later big league contracts.
If the minor leaguers decide to unionize, dues are expected to be minimal, acknowledging their current low compensation.
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AP Sports Writer David Brandt in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:49:42Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — A Ukrainian player declined to shake hands with Victoria Azarenka after the three-time U.S. Open runner-up from Belarus beat her at Flushing Meadows on Thursday.
Marta Kostyuk waited at the net with her racket held up, which Azarenka tapped with her racket following her 6-2, 6-3 victory.
Belarus helped Russia launch its invasion of Ukraine in February, and Kostyuk said it had been on her mind since she saw the U.S. Open draw that she may have to play Azarenka in the second round.
“It’s pretty personal,” Kostyuk said. “It wasn’t a personal match for me because it was Vika specifically, but overall it was not just a casual match that I play in a tournament.”
Asked about the traditional handshake that follows a match, Kostyuk said: “I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do in the circumstances I’m in right now.”
Azarenka said she had already faced that situation with a Ukrainian player when she played Dayana Yastremska last month in Washington.
“It is what it is. I just move on,” Azarenka said. “I cannot force anybody to shake my hand. It’s their decision.”
Kostyuk said she texted Azarenka a day before the match to inform her there would be no handshake. Azarenka returned the text, telling Kostyuk she was no longer onsite, so Kostyuk dropped the subject because she wanted to deliver the message in person.
Azarenka said she reached out to all the Ukrainian players she has a relationship with in March after the invasion. Kostyuk isn’t one of them, but Azarenka said she tried nevertheless.
“Well, I’ve offered many times through the WTA, because I believe that there is a sort of sensitivity. I’ve been told that that’s not a good time,” Azarenka said.
“If Marta wants to speak with me, like she texted me yesterday, I replied. I’m open any time to listen, to try to understand, to sympathize. I believe that empathy in the moment like this is really important, which has, again, been my clear message in the beginning.”
Kostyuk questioned Azarenka being part of the “Tennis Plays for Peace Exhibition” that the U.S. Tennis Association held the week before the tournament to raise money for Ukraine. Azarenka was dropped from the lineup the day of the event, which helped generate more than $1 million for humanitarian assistance.
“Everyone is trying to be super democratic about this thing that happened and because it’s like, my nation is being killed daily, I’m going to tell you from my perspective very quickly so I don’t think I ever want to answer this question again,” Kostyuk said. “Imagine there is a World War II and there is a fundraiser for Jewish people and a German player wants to play. During the war, not 70 years after the war happened. During the war. I don’t think Jewish people would understand.”
Azarenka, a member of the WTA Tour players council, said the important thing was that the event was held, not whether she was part of it.
“I feel like I’ve had a very clear message from the beginning, is that I’m here to try to help, which I have done a lot,” Azarenka said. “Maybe not something that people see and that’s not what I do it for. I do it for people who in need, juniors who need clothes, other people who need money or other people who needed transportation or whatever. That’s what is important to me, to help people are in need.”
Russian and Belarussian players were banned from Wimbledon in response to the war. They are allowed to play at the U.S. Open, without their nations or their flags being listed.
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More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:49:49Z
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OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Brian Robinson Jr. will miss at least the Washington Commanders’ first four games of the NFL season after being shot during at attempted robbery last weekend.
The team put the rookie running back on the non-football injury list Thursday, a move that makes Washington’s game Oct. 9 against Tennessee the first game Robinson will be eligible to play. Coach Ron Rivera said the decision was made on the advice of doctors.
“After four weeks we’ll go from there,” Rivera said at the Commanders’ preseason Welcome Home Luncheon. “Knowing who he is and knowing the type of young man he is and wanting to be back as quick as he would like to, I think the doctors probably thought that might be a good decision.”
Robinson had surgery Monday after being shot twice in the right leg Sunday in Washington and was released from the hospital hours later. He visited the team facility on crutches the next two days to meet with doctors, coaches and teammates.
Co-owner Tanya Snyder singled out Robinson during her remarks at the luncheon, calling the shooting a “senseless attack in broad daylight.”
“We were blessed to see him back in our facility just days after the incident, a testament to his courage, his resilience and what he means to his teammates,” Snyder said. We all pray for your full recovery, Brian, both physically and mentally.”
It was not clear if Dan Snyder attended for any private get-togethers at MGM National Harbor, though he was not at his wife’s table during the public portion of the annual event, which was celebrating its 60th anniversary and the franchise’s 90th.
The Commanders have not provided an estimate on when Robinson might be able to play again. Robinson’s college coach, Alabama’s Nick Saban, said it was possible the 23-year-old might be able to get back on the field this season.
With Robinson out, Washington has three other running backs on the roster: 2021 starter Antonio Gibson, pass-catching specialist J.D. McKissic and veteran Jonathan Williams, whose style most closely resembles Robinson’s.
Putting Robinson on the NFI list and rookie tight end Curtis Hodges on injured reserve with a designation to return allowed the team to bring back linebackers Jon Bostic and David Mayo. Bostic returns after signing and spending training camp with New Orleans, while Mayo made the initial Commanders 53-man roster and was released briefly to accommodate waiver wire additions of defensive backs Rachad Wildgoose and Tariq Castro-Fields.
Bostic played the past three seasons for Washington before a torn pectoral muscle limited him to four games last year. Rivera, who’s going into his third year in charge, said the team played well when Bostic was on the field and the 31-year provides some veteran depth at the position.
“We get the old man back,” starting linebacker Cole Holcomb said. “I love J.B., man. Him and I, we go way back. I just remember he helped me a lot, so it feels good to have him here.”
Rivera also cited the benefit of Bostic in the development of 2021 first-round pick Jamin Davis, who has struggled to adapt to the pro game.
“I think that’ll be really good for Jamin to see a guy like that out there working, preparing, getting himself ready to go,” Rivera said.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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| 2022-09-21T12:49:57Z
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ATLANTA (AP) — Spencer Strider struggled to understand why his Braves teammates started talking to him about John Smoltz when he completed the eighth inning against Colorado.
The rookie had no idea he broke an Atlanta record held by the Hall of Famer.
Strider struck out 16 batters — the most by any Braves pitcher since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966 — while allowing two hits in eight innings to lead the Braves to a 3-0 win over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday night.
Strider fanned his last two batters with two runners on base in the eighth — with his fastball still hitting 98 mph — to complete his masterful 106-pitch outing.
“I lost track after five (innings),” said Strider of his strikeout count. Teammate Kyle Wright filled in the rookie about the record.
“I came out of the game and Kyle was telling me something about John Smoltz or whatever. It didn’t make any sense,” Strider said.
Finally, Strider was made to understand.
“It’s pretty wild, the guys who’ve thrown in this organization, it’s a long, incredible list,” Strider said. “I’m just grateful to be here and having success.”
Austin Riley and rookie Michael Harris II hit solo home runs for Atlanta.
Strider threw only 42 pitches threw his first four innings, setting a pace that allowed him to log his longest career start. He did not walk a batter.
Smoltz struck out 15 in a game twice — against Montreal on May 24, 1992 and against the New York Mets on April 10, 2005. Hall of Famer Warren Spahn holds the overall Braves record with 18 strikeouts against the Chicago Cubs on June 14, 1952, when the team played in Boston.
Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth for his 31st save in 36 chances.
The Braves won two of three against Colorado and remained three games behind the NL East-leading New York Mets.
Strider (9-4) was dominant in extending the Rockies’ road woes. Colorado fell to 20-44 away from Coors Field, a .313 winning percentage that ranks last in the majors. The right-hander struck out the side in the second and seventh innings.
Strider lasted only four innings and had five walks in the Braves’ 6-2 win at Colorado on June 4. This time, the rookie had far better control.
“It’s plus velocity and I felt like one thing he was able to do better tonight was throw his slider more effectively,” Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon said. “I think that’s kind of what made him better tonight. It looked like he settled in and had a very good feel for that slider.”
Strider’s previous high was 13 strikeouts in a 13-1 win over Philadelphia on Aug. 2.
Strider retired Colorado’s first 12 hitters before C.J. Cron lofted a soft single into right field to lead off the fifth. He didn’t allow another hit until Michael Toglia’s single to right with one out in the eighth.
Elias Díaz then reached when first baseman Matt Olson was charged with an error after missing shortstop Dansby Swanson’s throw, leaving runners on first and third. Swanson struck out Elehuris Montero and then fanned Sean Bouchard — both of whom whiffed on sliders — to polish off his gem.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said Strider inspired comparisons to former Braves closer Craig Kimbrel, now with the Dodgers, in spring training.
“Now he looks more like Tom Seaver,” Snitker said.
KUHL FADES IN FIFTH
Rockies right-hander Chad Kuhl (6-8) allowed three runs on five hits, including two homers and one walk in 4 2/3 innings. Kuhl recorded his first four outs on strikeouts but left the game after giving up two runs in the fifth, including Dansby Swanson’s run-scoring single.
STRIDER’S STRIKEOUTS
Making only his 30th career appearance and 17th start, Strider posted his fifth career game with at least 10 strikeouts. He has won his last three decisions and has shown no signs of fading late in the season. He began the year in Atlanta’s bullpen.
Strider set a Braves single-game rookie record for strikeouts, the most for any pitcher in the majors since Colorado’s John Gray had 16 while shutting out San Diego on Sept. 17, 2016.
Strider’s performance tied for the second-most strikeouts without a walk by a rookie. The Cubs’ Kerry Wood had 20 Ks and no free passes against the Houston Astros on May 6, 1998.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rockies: OF Yonathan Daza (shoulder) is beginning a rehab assignment with Triple-A Albuquerque. … RHP Chad Smith and IF Alan Trejo were recalled from Albuquerque.
Braves: 2B Ozzie Albies (broken left foot) had no hits in four at-bats as he began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Gwinnett. … RHP Mike Soroka (right Achilles tendon) was reinstated from the injury list and optioned to Gwinnett, where he is scheduled to make his fourth rehab start on Friday. … IF Orlando Arcia (strained left hamstring) was activated from the IL after missing 20 games. … RHP Jesse Chavez, claimed off waivers from the Angels on Tuesday, was activated.
UP NEXT
Rockies: LHP Kyle Freeland (7-9, 4.88 ERA) is scheduled to face Reds RHP Luis Cessa (3-2, 5.36) in Friday night’s opener of a three-game series at Cincinnati.
Braves: RHP Charlie Morton (6-5 4.10) will look to improve his career 10-5 record and 4.08 ERA against Miami when he faces Marlins RHP Sandy Alcantara (12-6, 2.13). Alcantara is 4-1 with a 1.74 ERA in nine career starts against the Braves, including a 2-0 mark in five starts at Truist Park.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:50:04Z
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STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy deflected credit when he reached a career milestone.
Spencer Sanders passed for a career-high 406 yards and accounted for six touchdowns and No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan 58-44 on Thursday night to give Gundy his 150th coaching victory.
Gundy improved to 150-69 in his 18th season coaching his alma mater.
“Cool deal,” he said. “Like I told the team, it takes a lot of really, really quality people and good young men for a guy to stay in one place long enough to win 150 games. I’m just lucky enough to be along for the ride.”
Sanders matched a career high with four touchdown passes and set a career mark with two rushing scores in the opener for both teams.
“Knock on wood, he’s really good,” Gundy said. “He understands our concepts. He understands second nature where to go with the ball. And it’s a big advantage for us.”
Braydon Johnson had career highs of six catches for 133 yards and Brennan Presley added five catches for 83 yards.
Daniel Richardson passed for a career-high 424 yards and threw four touchdown passes for Central Michigan. Lew Nichols III, the nation’s leading rusher last year, ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.
Sanders passed for 313 yards and three touchdowns in the first half and ran for two more scores to help the Cowboys take a 44-15 lead.
The Cowboys led 51-15 less than a minute into the third quarter before Central Michigan climbed back into the game. Jalen McGaughy’s 54-yard touchdown pass from Richardson cut it to 58-44 with 3:15 remaining. McGaughy had six catches for 126 yards and two scores.
“As I said from the beginning, I really like our football team,” Central Michigan coach Jim McElwain said. “We’re going to win a lot of games. And those kids are going to learn from this video and we’re going to get a little bit better.”
Central Michigan outscored Oklahoma State 29-14 in the second half and outgained the Cowboys 281 yards to 138 after the break.
“It’s credit to those kids,” McElwain said. “Since we’ve been here and started to establish the program, there’s a certain mentality it takes to be a Chippewa. And these guys have started to understand a little bit what that is.”
THE TAKEAWAY
Central Michigan: The Chippewas came in with high hopes after going 9-4 last season and beating Washington State in the Sun Bowl. But Sanders was too much for them early, and they couldn’t get their running game going well enough to control the clock and slow his rhythm.
Oklahoma State: The defense carried much of the load last season, but the offense put up 531 total yards on Thursday, mostly in the first half. The running game still could use some work, though. The Cowboys had just 45 yards on 20 carries in the second half and struggled to put the game away.
“We were very effective playing fast,” Gundy said. “And one thing that works against us a little bit is once you get ahead … obviously, you don’t want to play fast. So then you slow down, and we’re probably not as good at that as we are playing fast. But I was pleased with our ability to play fast and make plays in space.”
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Oklahoma State could get penalized for being sluggish in the second half, depending on what else happens in the upcoming days.
GUNNAR PLAYS
Redshirt freshman Gunnar Gundy, Mike Gundy’s son, got action in the opener for the Cowboys. He did not attempt a pass, but he carried once for five yards.
The younger Gundy, a walk-on, has risen to No. 2 on the depth chart.
“This is a big deal … Everybody wants to see their kids do good and get out there,” coach Gundy said. “I was proud of him.”
NICHOLS SLOWED
Nichols rushed for 1,848 yards last season and ran for at least 100 yards his final eight games. His streak ended as he averaged just 2.8 yards per carry on Thursday.
QUOTABLE
McElwain joking about Bullet, the horse that runs onto the field after Oklahoma State’s touchdowns: “When they scored 30 in a row, I was probably more concerned with that damn horse cramping up that kept running around the end zone there.”
UP NEXT
Central Michigan: Hosts South Alabama on Saturday, Sept. 10.
Oklahoma State: Hosts Arizona State on Saturday, Sept. 10.
___
Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: twitter.com/CliffBruntAP
___
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://bit.ly/3pqZVaF
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| 2022-09-21T12:50:11Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Serena and Venus Williams traded fist bumps or palm slaps and chatted between points. They smiled while conversing in their seats at changeovers.
When their first doubles match together in 4 1/2 years ended with a loss at the U.S Open on Thursday night, the siblings hugged each other, then left the court to a standing ovation.
The Williams sisters were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova 7-6 (5), 6-4 at Flushing Meadows.
“I was speechless when I found out I’m going to face these two. I mean, they’re legends. And I was always such a big fan of them, especially Serena. She has been my idol since ever, probably,” said Noskova, a 17-year-old making her Grand Slam debut in doubles. “So I was really happy, excited, but kind of scared, to face them.”
Arthur Ashe Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match — for women or men, during the night or day — until this one featuring two members of one family who have combined to claim 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles.
“It’s something incredible, because playing first round in a huge stadium, with 23,000 people, is something amazing,” said the 37-year-old Hradecka, who won major doubles trophies with Andrea Hlavackova at the 2013 U.S. Open and 2011 French Open. “I don’t think (when) we played the final here, it was packed like this.”
The Williams sisters, who did not do interviews after the match, were partnering up for the first time since the 2018 French Open. According to the WTA, this was just their second first-round doubles defeat at a Slam; the only other one came all the way back at the 1997 U.S. Open.
“I’m still in shock that we won,” Hradecka said in an on-court interview right after the match’s conclusion.
Speaking to the sellout crowd of 23,859, she said: “I’m so sorry for you that we beat them, but we are so happy that we did it.”
The fans were not nearly as boisterous as they were for each of the two victories in singles this week for Serena, who has hinted that this will be the final event of her career.
Serena plays Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday night in the third round of singles; Venus was bounced from that bracket in the first round.
After a rather subdued entrance from the locker room by Hradecka and Noskova, who were competing as a team for the first time, a video tribute to the Williams-Williams pairing played on the Ashe videoboards, with a narrator introducing “two of the greatest athletes on Planet Earth” and, in a reference to Serena’s looming retirement, saying, “It’s not too late to change your mind.”
There was footage of them through the years, including as kids with white beads in their hair (like Serena’s daughter, Olympia, wore on opening night) and, later, winning titles.
Olympia, who turned 5 on Thursday, was not there for this one, Serena’s husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian was, as were the sisters’ mother, Oracene Price, and their sister, Isha.
During the pre-match warmup, the announcer noted that the sisters are 14-0 in Grand Slam doubles finals and declared: “They’ve transformed and elevated the sport as we know it.”
The spectators saved their biggest cheers for some of Serena’s best efforts, whether aces or putaways or an on-the-run forehand winner. The sisters went up 5-4 early and held two set points there on Noskova’s serve, but could not convert either.
The loudest moment probably arrived after a 19-stroke point won by the sisters during the first-set tiebreaker, featuring three swinging volleys by Serena. That put them ahead 4-3, and soon it was 5-3.
But Hradecka and Noskova grabbed the next four points to claim that set. They then jumped ahead 3-0 in the second, and after the Williams sisters made it 4-all, the Czech team pulled away.
The Williams siblings received a wild-card entry into this year’s doubles field. Serena, who turns 41 next month, and Venus, who turned 42 in June, won doubles trophies at the U.S. Open in 1999 — the year Serena won her first major singles trophy at age 17 in New York — and 2009.
They have a total of 30 major trophies in singles: 23 for Serena, seven for Venus.
“Playing against the Williams sisters,” Noskova said, “is a special moment for everybody.”
___
More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:50:19Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. Open tennis tournament (all times local):
12:35 a.m.
Rafael Nadal has come back to win at the U.S. Open after cutting himself on the bridge of his nose when his racket bounced off the court and smacked him in the face against Fabio Fognini.
Nadal was bleeding and took a medical timeout. A trainer put a bandage on his nose.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion won the second-round match 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
They started Thursday night and finished after midnight.
Play resumed after about a five-minute delay when Nadal hurt himself on the first point of a game with Nadal leading 3-0 in the fourth set.
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12:20 a.m.
Rafael Nadal was cut on the bridge of his nose when his racket bounced off the court and smacked him in the face during the fourth set of his second-round match at the U.S. Open.
Nadal was bleeding and took a medical timeout. The 22-time Grand Slam champion layed down on his back on the sideline while being treated by a trainer.
Fognini went over to check on Nadal.
Play resumed after about a five-minute delay.
It happened on the first point of a game with Nadal ahead at 3-0 in the fourth set.
He was moving to his right when he hit a backhand and his racket deflected off ground and caught him on the nose. Nadal immediately grimaced, dropped his racket and put his right hand to his face. Then he placed both hands on his head, before going over to the sideline.
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9:40 p.m.
Serena and Venus Williams were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the first round of women’s doubles.
Arthur Ashe Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match until this one featuring two American sisters who have combined to claim 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles but were partnering for the first time since the 2018 French Open.
This was their fourth first-round doubles defeat at a Slam; the most recent had been at the 2013 French Open.
The 17-year-old Noskova was making her Grand Slam doubles debut. The 37-year-old Hradecka won two major doubles trophies with a different partner.
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8:40 p.m.
Serena and Venus Williams will have to come from behind to say in the women’s doubles tournament.
The sisters lost the first set in a tiebreaker, with Lucia Hradecka and Linda Noskova taking it 7-5.
The Williams sisters have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and decided to play together again after Serena said she was preparing to end her tennis career.
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7:50 p.m.
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, the No. 2-seeded team, have been knocked out in the first round of the women’s doubles.
The team of 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez and Daria Saville knocked off the Americans 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5).
Gauff and Pegula were the runners-up at the French Open and the 18-year-old Gauff recently became the second-youngest player to reach No. 1 in the WTA doubles rankings.
Gauff also reached the U.S. Open final last year with partner Caty McNally.
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7:25 p.m.
Serena and Venus Williams are back on the doubles court together for their first match in four years.
The 14-time Grand Slam doubles champions are facing the Czech team of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova.
With Serena Williams preparing to end her tennis career, the sisters decided to play again in this tournament they have won twice. Venus served first to open their match.
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5:30 p.m.
Nick Kyrgios has been fined $7,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct during his second-round victory Wednesday.
Kyrgios was warned after using profanity toward someone in the stands. It appeared the Wimbledon runner-up was yelling at someone in his own box, telling the person to be more supportive or leave.
The temperamental Australian also complained to the chair umpire about the smell of marijuana during the second set.
The fine was the highest given to a player at the tournament thus far.
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5 p.m.
It will be Friday night under the lights for Serena Williams.
Williams’ third-round match against Ajla Tomljanovic has been scheduled to open the night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday. Williams has played in the same spot on the schedule for both matches thus far in what could be the final tournament of her career.
Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev will follow against Wu Yibing, the first Chinese man to win a U.S. Open match in the professional era, which began in 1968.
Andy Murray opens day play on Ashe against No. 13 seed Matteo Berrettini, followed by a meeting between Americans Coco Gauff and Madison Keys.
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4:40 p.m.
No. 3 seed Carlos Alcaraz beat Federico Coria of Argentina 6-2, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the third round.
Alcaraz earned his 46th win of the season, tying Stefanos Tsitsipas for the ATP Tour lead. Tsitsipas was eliminated in the first round of the U.S. Open.
Coria ended Alcaraz’s first professional tournament by eliminating him in the second round in Rio de Janeiro in 2020. Since then, the 19-year-old from Spain has rapidly climbed the world rankings while winning four titles this year.
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2:30 p.m.
American Jenson Brooksby earned a spot in the third round by upsetting No. 25 seed Borna Coric 6-4, 7-6 (10), 6-1.
Brooksby reached the fourth round last year at age 20, taking a set from Novak Djokovic before falling. He was the youngest American to get that far since Andy Roddick reached the 2002 quarterfinals at the same age.
Coric just won the hard-court tune-up in Cincinnati, but Brooksby pulled away after winning the 77-minute second set in the tiebreaker.
Brooksby will play No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz or Federico Coria on Saturday.
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2 p.m.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek had no trouble with Sloane Stephens, beating the 2017 U.S. Open champion 6-3, 6-2 to move into the third round.
In her WTA Tour-leading 50th win of the season, Swiatek easily handled her first match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, breaking Stephens’ serve four times.
Stephens fell to 0-10 against No. 1-ranked players.
Other early winners included No. 8 seed Jessica Pegula, No. 13 Belinda Bencic and three-time U.S. Open finalist Victoria Azarenka.
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11:55 a.m.
No. 1 Iga Swiatek will have to overcome past U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens to avoid becoming the next top woman out of the U.S. Open.
Rafael Nadal will need to beat the first player ever to come back from two sets down to beat him in a Grand Slam match to continue his unbeaten season in the majors.
Nadal will face Fabio Fognini in the nightcap at Arthur Ashe Stadium, after Serena and Venus Williams play their women’s doubles opening match. Fognini beat the four-time U.S. Open champion in New York in 2015.
Afternoon play on Ashe was set to begin with Swiatek facing the 2017 champion in Flushing Meadows. Already, No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit — who lost to Serena Williams on Wednesday — and No. 3 Maria Sakkari are out, along with past champions Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu.
Men’s No. 3 seed Carlos Alcaraz was set to follow the Swiatek-Stephens match against Federico Coria.
The first round of the doubles tournaments began Wednesday and continued Thursday. The Williams sisters were to play the Czech duo of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova.
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More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:50:26Z
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GRAMBLING, La (KMSS/KTAL) – In week one of the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation, we hear from Athletic Director Dr. Trayvean Scott on the process of hiring head football coach Hue Jackson.
You can catch the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation throughout the season on Thursdays at 6:30 on KSHV.
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| 2022-09-21T12:50:50Z
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by: John Sartori Posted: Sep 1, 2022 / 10:14 PM CDT Updated: Sep 1, 2022 / 10:14 PM CDT SHARE GRAMBLING, La (KMSS/KTAL) – In week one of the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation, we recap the Tigers’ 2022 Fall Camp. You can catch the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation throughout the season on Thursdays at 6:30 on KSHV.
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| 2022-09-21T12:50:57Z
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GRAMBLING, La (KMSS/KTAL) – In week one of the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation, we discuss the players to watch out for in Grambling’s matchup with Arkansas State.
You can catch the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation throughout the season on Thursdays at 6:30 on KSHV.
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| 2022-09-21T12:51:12Z
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GRAMBLING, La (KMSS/KTAL) – In week one of the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation, we get to know Offensive Coordinator John Simon.
You can catch the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation throughout the season on Thursdays at 6:30 on KSHV.
GRAMBLING, La (KMSS/KTAL) – In week one of the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation, we get to know Offensive Coordinator John Simon.
You can catch the Southern Quality Ford G-Men Nation throughout the season on Thursdays at 6:30 on KSHV.
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| 2022-09-21T12:51:20Z
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SHREVEPORT, La (KMSS/KTAL) – Welcome to the party, Louisiana! In week two of the Johnny’s Pizza House Friday Night Blitz presented by Car Giant Louisiana high school football kicks off in week one, while Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma roll into week two. Wesley Boone’s perfect week of predictions has him in the driver’s seat of our standings. All rankings are reflective of our KTAL Power Rankings across Louisiana, and Texas.
Re-Bath Game of the Week: (#3) Pleasant Grove at (#2) Byrd
This game will last roughly 27 minutes. Two teams that line up under center and run the option and the wing-t. Pleasant Grove made a statement in week one with their 28-7 win over 2021 Class 3A-I runner-up Brock. The Yellow Jackets return the majority of their offensive production from last season, as Lake Lambert prepares for his third season as starting quarterback. Running backs Josh Allen and Devon Strickland are also back to lead the ‘Jacket rushing attack. Linebacker Brooks Brossette will have a tall task against the Hawks, who ran for 344 yards in week one. Spencer Danner led the way with 166 yards and 2 touchdowns.
PREDICTION: I think Byrd is the best preseason team in District 1-5A. That said, Pleasant Grove made a statement in week one. They’ll make another in week two.
PLEASANT GROVE: 21 BYRD: 7
NEVILLE AT EVANGEL
As the Evangel Eagles look to return to their winning ways in 2022, they’ll get one of their toughest tests of the year to begin the season. The Eagles return the Fulghum connection between quarterback Peyton and wide receiver Parker, who combined for over 1,200 yards and 7 touchdowns in 2021. Louisiana-Lafayette commit WR/DB Kody Jackson is also back for ECA, to go along with Brayden Curry who rounds out a deep receiving core. Defensively, Gabriel Reliford is back after finishing 4th in the state with 15 sacks as a Sophomore. Neville will have to replace Nebraska running back AJay Allen this year. Leading the way will be 5-star offensive lineman LSU commit Zalance Heard.
PREDICTION: Evangel should have their best season post-COVID in 2022, but I think the Tigers are determined to make a run to the Superdome this season. Tough task to open the season for the Eagles.
NEVILLE: 34 EVANGEL: 21
UNION PARISH AT (#10) HOMER
The only state champion from the ArkLaTex is ready to defend a state title for the first time since 1939 when they open the season against Union Parish. Union Parish’s Trey Holly is on pace to become the state’s all-time leading rusher toward the midway point of the season. The Pelicans ground attack isn’t too shabby, as state championship MVP Elyjay Curry returns for his Junior season. Defensively, Brendon Harris leads the Pelican defense, holding an offer from Northwestern State heading into his senior season.
PREDICTION: This game comes down to who has the least amount of question marks heading into game one. Homer having to replace Takeviuntae Kidd at quarterback is the difference. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m wrong on this one.
UNION PARISH: 44 HOMER: 42
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| 2022-09-21T12:51:35Z
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SHREVEPORT, La (KMSS/KTAL) – Lighting and rain had different plans for the start of the high school football season in Northwest Louisiana. Delays forced multiple games to different dates, while a handful of contest actually finished.
FINAL
Glenbrook 12, Cedar Creek 6
North Caddo 46, Bossier 0
Haughton 35, Red River 0
Northwood 12, Benton 34
Tatum 35 , Daingerfield 48
DELAYED
Airline at North Desoto at 7PM on Saturday, September 3
Minden at Parkway at 10AM on Saturday, September 3
Logansport at Calvary at 5PM on Saturday, September 3
Loyola at Captain Shreve at 3PM on Friday, September 2
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| 2022-09-21T12:51:43Z
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METAIRIE, La. (WGNO)—New Orleans Saints safety Marcus Maye was arrested on Thursday morning, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. The JPSO reports Maye was taken into custody in Metairie on a single charge of aggravated assault with a firearm.
Detectives say Maye’s arrest stems from a believed road rage incident that happened on Monday. Details on what led up to the incident were unclear, however, the sheriff’s office reports Maye was driving a black SUV when he pointed a firearm at another vehicle that was occupied by several juvenile females.
Maye was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center and was released after posting a $30,000 bond. The incident remains under investigation by the JPSO.
The arrest comes just 10 days before the Saints kick off their season opener in Atlanta for what would be Maye’s first season in New Orleans. He was traded to the Saints earlier this year after being drafted by the New York Jets in 2017.
The Saints have not yet commented on Maye’s arrest. WGNO will keep this story updated as more information becomes available.
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| 2022-09-21T12:51:51Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – After a mostly dry and hot day yesterday, there will be an increasing chance of thunderstorms for the remainder of the week with on and off rainfall expected through at least the middle of next week.
We will begin the day with dry weather, but an area of low pressure is now moving across Texas, and as it encounters the warm and humid air building midday, scattered to widespread storms are expected to develop after the noon hour. The threat of severe weather is low, but gusty winds and frequent lightning will accompany any thunderstorms through sunset with rain tapering off overnight.
The scattered thunderstorms should cool our temperatures several degrees today, but you will feel some heat before any rain is able to get going. Highs will be in the upper 80s and low 90s, with a heat index below 100 degrees. Wind will be light and out of the east and northeast at 5 to 10 miles per hour.
Generally, most areas will receive less than an inch of rain today, but with the thunderstorms expected to be slow-moving, if you see an hour or two of rainfall some areas could receive over 2 inches of rain. With the ground still saturated from 6 to 8 inches of rain last week, the ground won’t be able to hold a lot of rainfall before it runs off into creeks and roads. We could see some isolated flash flooding today. The chance of this will be highest throughout east Texas where is a ‘slight risk’ of excessive rainfall that may lead to flash flooding.
The chance of storms will continue Friday, as there will be another round of scattered to widespread storms. The rain may develop earlier in the day which may bring comfortable highs in the low to mid-80s to end the work week.
Labor Day weekend is going to bring some on-and-off rainfall. If you are looking to do outdoor activities, the mornings will give us a few hours of dry weather, but there will be scattered storms each afternoon Saturday, Sunday, and Labor Day on Monday. Make sure you have some backup indoor plans this weekend for the afternoons.
Rainfall accumulations may average 1 to 3 inches between now and late Sunday.
A cold front will stall and become stationary across the ArkLaTex late this weekend into next week, this will keep slight to scattered rain chances going for much of next week as well. 7-day rainfall accumulations will be 2 to 4 inches across much of the region with isolated higher accumulations.
Get exclusive severe weather details on storms as they approach your area by downloading the Arklatex Weather Authority app, now available in the App Store and Google Play
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Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue over the ArkLaTex for the next several days. We will likely see a decent chance of rain through the Labor Day weekend and most of next week. Daytime temperatures will likely remain below normal.
The rain returns: After a dry day Wednesday over most of the ArkLaTex, scattered showers and thunderstorms have increased in coverage Thursday. Futurecast shows that the rain that has developed today will likely come to an end for most of the area Thursday night. As some upper-level energy approaches from the northwest, showers and thunderstorms will become even more likely during the day Friday with several pockets of heavy rain looking likely. This rain will decrease Friday evening and Friday night. More rain is looking promising Saturday but the coverage will probably not be as extensive as Friday’s rain.
September begins on a wet note: Futurecast shows that it is likely that much of the area could receive at least one inch of rain from now through Saturday. The heaviest rain could fall over parts of East and Northeast Texas where there could be some reports of two to over three inches.
Temperatures to ease with high humidity: Thanks to more clouds and a better chance of rain for the next few days, daytime temperatures will likely not be as hot as today. The rather humid conditions will keep overnight lows slightly above normal. Lows Friday morning will once again be in the low to middle 70s. Highs Friday afternoon will be several degrees below normal as we will struggle to make it into the mid to upper 80s over most of the area. We likely won’t see much change in temperatures through the Labor Day weekend with highs staying in the mid to upper 80s. Overnight lows will stay slightly above normal thanks to all of the humidity. Expect lows during the next ten days to stay in the low to middle 70s.
How much rain? It’s should be no surprise that with the chance of rain possible during the entire ten-day period ahead of us that rainfall totals will be well above normal for this time of year. Most models show that all of the area will have a good chance of seeing at least two inches during this period. Given the scattered nature of the rain, we will probably have a big variation in rainfall totals. Some areas could get less than an inch and a few areas could see four to six inches.
Drought had ended for most of the ArkLaTex: The latest Drought Monitor was released today and it shows that most of the ArkLaTex is no longer experiencing drought condtions. We continue to see level one to level four drought over the northwest corner of the area with the driest conditions over McCurtain County. These areas will likely see some improvement with the rain expected in the next few weeks.
Get daily forecasts and exclusive severe weather details on storms as they approach your area by downloading the Arklatex Weather Authority app now available in the App Store and Google Play
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HOBART, Australia (AP) — About 230 whales have been stranded on Tasmania’s west coast, just days after 14 sperm whales were found beached on an island off the Australian state’s northwestern coast.
The pod stranded on Ocean Beach in Macquarie Harbour appears to be pilot whales and at least half are presumed to still be alive, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said Wednesday.
A team from the Marine Conservation Program was assembling whale rescue gear and heading to the area, the department said.
The whales beached two years to the day after the largest mass-stranding in Australia’s history was discovered in the same harbor.
About 470 long-finned pilot whales were found on Sept. 21, 2020, stuck on sandbars. After a weeklong effort, 111 of those whales were rescued but the rest died.
The entrance to the harbor is a notoriously shallow and dangerous channel known as Hell’s Gate.
Local salmon farmer Linton Kringle helped in the 2020 rescue effort and said the latest challenge would be more difficult.
“Last time they were actually in the harbor and it’s quite calm and we could, sort of, deal with them in there and we could get the boats up to them,” Kringle told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“But just on the beach, you just can’t get a boat in there, it’s too shallow, way too rough. My thoughts would be try to get them onto a vehicle if we can’t swim them out,” Kringle added.
Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist specializing in marine mammals, said it was too early to explain why the stranding had occurred.
“The fact that we’ve seen similar species, the same time, in the same location, reoccurring in terms of stranding at that same spot might provide some sort of indication that there might be something environmental here,” Pirotta said.
David Midson, general manager of the West Coast Council municipality, urged people to stay clear.
“Whales are a protected species, even once deceased, and it is an offense to interfere with a carcass,” the environment department said.
Fourteen sperm whales were discovered Monday afternoon on King Island, part of the state of Tasmania in the Bass Strait between Melbourne and Tasmania’s northern coast.
Griffith University marine scientist Olaf Meynecke said it’s unusual for sperm whales to wash ashore. He said that warmer temperatures could also be changing the ocean currents and moving the whales’ traditional food.
“They will be going to different areas and searching for different food sources,” Meynecke said. “When they do this, they are not in the best physical condition because they might be starving so this can lead them to take more risks and maybe go closer to shore.”
The pilot whale is notorious for stranding in mass numbers, for reasons that are not entirely understood.
___
This story corrects that King Island is northwest of Tasmania, not southeast.
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U.S. stock futures are modestly higher Wednesday ahead of a widely expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve as it continues to cool the worst inflation in 40 years.
Futures for the Dow Jones industrials and S&P 500 each rose 0.4%.
It is no longer a question of if the Fed will raise rates Wednesday, but how high at the conclusion of the central bank’s two-day meeting.
Bond yields mostly edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 3.56% from 3.52% from late Monday and is trading at its highest levels since 2011.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which tends to follow expectations for Fed action, held steady at 3.96%, hovering around its highest levels since 2007.
Stocks have slumped and Treasury yields have taken off as the Fed raises the cost of borrowing money to cool the economy.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell bluntly warned in a speech last month that the rate hikes would “bring some pain.”
In Europe, markets mostly rebounded at midday from earlier losses, with France’s CAC 40 up 0.2%, Germany’s DAX inching into positive territory and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.9%.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 1.4% to finish at 27,313.13. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.6% to 6,700.20. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.9% to 2,347.21. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1.8% to 18,444.62, while the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2% to 3,117.18.
Global tensions are adding to uncertainties. Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine have announced plans to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia.
The Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war against Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently blasted what he described as U.S. efforts to preserve its global domination and ordered officials to boost weapons production.
The war has killed thousands of people, driven up food prices worldwide and caused energy costs to soar. Natural gas futures are up 5% Wednesday after Putin’s televised speech and stock in natural gas producers are among the biggest gainers on the S&P.
Later Wednesday, the Fed is expected to raise its key short-term rate by three-quarters of a point for the third time. That would lift its benchmark rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, to a range of 3% to 3.25%, the highest level in 14 years, and up from zero at the start of the year.
The language used by Powell is read as closely as the decision on rate hikes, with markets seeking any clue as to how the Fed views the health of the U.S. economy.
Central banks worldwide are in the same dilemma, attempting to cool red-hot economies without tipping them into recession.
The Bank of Japan began a two-day monetary policy meeting Wednesday, although analysts expect the central bank to stick to its easy monetary policy. Rate decisions from Norway, Switzerland and the Bank of England are next. Sweden surprised economists this week with a full point hike.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.57 to $86.02 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 1.5% Tuesday, weighing down energy stocks. Brent crude, the international standard, added $2.11 to $92.73 a barrel.
The average price for a gallon of gas went up for the first time in more than three months, rising to to $3.681 from $3.674, according to motor club AAA.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar inched up to 144.04 Japanese yen from 143.74 yen. The euro fell to 99.09 cents from 99.73 cents.
___
Kageyama reported from Tokyo; Ott reported from Washington.
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NOVOMYKOLAIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — An unexploded rocket sticks out of a field, and another is embedded in the ground of the farm compound. Workers found a cluster bomb while clearing weeds, and there’s a gaping hole in the roof of the shrapnel-scarred livestock barn.
All work has halted on this large eastern Ukrainian farm, whose fields and buildings have been hit so many times by mortars, rockets, missiles and cluster bombs that its workers are unable to sow the crater-dotted land or harvest crops like wheat.
Returning to planting and harvesting “will be difficult, very difficult,” said Viktor Lubinets, who handles crop production at the Veres farm. Even if the fighting ends, the fields must first be cleared of unexploded ordnance and shrapnel.
And the fighting is far from over. The roar of an incoming projectile fills the air, the nearby detonation shaking the ground and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky. Lubinets barely flinches.
“I’ve got used to it. It was frightening during the first couple of days, but now — a person can get used to anything,” the 55-year-old said, the smoke dissipating behind him. “And we have to work. If we give all this up, we will abandon, other farmers will abandon, what will happen then?”
Agriculture is a critical part of Ukraine’s economy, accounting for about 20% of gross national product and 40% of export revenue before the war, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. The country is often described as the breadbasket of Europe and millions rely on its affordable supplies of grain and sunflower oil in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia where many already face hunger.
But Russia’s invasion in late February has dealt a heavy blow, damaging farmland, crops, livestock, machinery and storage facilities, as well as severely hampering transport and exports.
The FAO estimated in July that preliminary damage to the industry ranges from $4.3 billion to $6.4 billion — 15% to 22% of the total value of Ukraine’s pre-war agriculture sector, estimated at $29 billion.
The Veres farm is a stark example. Its 5,700 hectares (14,085 acres) of land would usually grow wheat, barley, corn and sunflowers, and it had 1,500 cattle.
But its location made it particularly vulnerable in what has been largely an artillery war. It lies in an almost direct line between the strategic city of Izium, seized by Russian forces in early April and retaken by Ukraine in September, and Kramatorsk, the largest city in the eastern Donetsk region still in Ukrainian hands.
The farm complex has been hit 15 to 20 times, Lubinets says, and he’s lost count of how many times the fields have been struck. The grain storage has been shelled, the electricity generation facility was destroyed, and multiple rockets rained down on the cattle barn — empty since the livestock was sold off as the war started. Of a prewar workforce of 100 employees, most were evacuated and only about 20 remain.
Workers managed to plant wheat, but they didn’t have time to harvest it. The crops burned down during a bombing on July 2.
Lubinets was devastated. As an agronomist, he had been looking forward to examining the results of five new types of wheat they had planted, part of annual research on crop performance.
“All this research work was destroyed,” he said. “You see, how can I feel? How can a person feel if you wanted to do something, but somebody came and ruined it?”
Some farms in the area have been luckier. Nearly 10 kilometers (six miles) to the southwest of Novomykolaivka, a combine harvester moves methodically up and down a field, slicing dried sunflowers from their stalks and pouring their black seeds into waiting trucks.
The war forms a jarring backdrop. The machine is scarred by shrapnel from an exploding rocket, and a nearby field is mined. Helicopters skim over the sunflowers and corn, and fighter jets streak low above the rolling plains.
Farmworkers, breaking for lunch in the field, ignore the booms of distant shelling.
“It became very hard and scary to work during the war, because you don’t know what to expect and where,” said 36-year-old worker Maksim Onyshko. “The war has never brought anything good. Only sorrow and harm.”
Sergiy Kurinnyi, director of the 3,640-hectare KramAgroSvit farm, said it had been risky to plant sunflowers in May without knowing whether the front line would engulf the fields.
“We could see with our naked eyes the military action,” Kurinnyi said. “So there was a risk of whether we could harvest these crops, but we decided to take this risk.”
It paid off, with good weather helping produce a decent yield from the 1,308 hectares of sunflowers. They also planted 1,434 hectares of wheat, 255 hectares of barley, 165 hectares of winter rapeseed and some animal feed crops. They lost 27 hectares of wheat to a fire triggered by bombing but managed to harvest the rest.
A rocket strike killed 38 of the farm’s 1,250 cattle in April, prompting managers to sell off most of the remaining herd, keeping 215 cattle in its dairy production. The next day, a rocket hit the equipment storage area, destroying a grain harvester and damaging other equipment, Kurinnyi said.
Calculating the total loss from the war isn’t easy, Kurinnyi said, but he estimated that about 10 million hryvnias (about $270,000) had been lost from crop production and around 1 million hryvnias ($26,700) for the 38 cattle killed in the strike.
With Ukraine’s counteroffensive pushing the front line further east, he said they were more confident of being able to plant and were starting to prepare the soil for winter crops.
But for the heavily damaged farm where Lubinets works, a return to the fields is still far off.
“We had been living calmly before this war, we had been working, we had … achieved something, had been striving to do something — and now what?” he said. “Everything has been damaged, everything has been destroyed, and we have to rebuild all this, starting from scratch.”
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine and the food crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/food-crisis.
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