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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Diesel and heating oil supplies in the Northeast are more than 50% below the recent average, raising concerns that an extreme weather event could cause supply disruptions, federal officials said.
Fuel supplies are lower than normal across the country for a variety of reasons, including the war in Ukraine. But it’s the worst in the Northeast.
Diesel fuel and heating oil, which comprise the distillate category, are 63% below the five-year average in New England and 58% below the same average from Maryland to New York, according to a survey by the Department of Energy. Gasoline inventories are not as bad, but are still at their lowest levels in nearly a decade along the entire East Coast, the agency said.
The Northeast is heavily dependent on heating oil to keep homes warm in the winter, while other regions rely more on natural gas and electricity. Also, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has projected an active hurricane season, and a powerful weather event could cause disruptions, since most fuel consumed from the Middle Atlantic states to Maine comes from Gulf Coast refineries, energy officials say.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is convening a meeting of New England governors and their energy directors after Labor Day to discuss the situation. In the meantime, she has urged governors in a letter to take whatever steps they can to shore up fuel supplies in coming weeks to prevent any problems.
The Energy Department also sent letters to seven major oil companies, asking them to hold onto their stocks to help offset low stocks.
The federal agency has been monitoring the problem and is attempting to be proactive with outreach. But there’s little incentive for buyers to stock up on high-priced fuel for storage because it is anticipated that prices will drop, said Michael Ferrante, of the Massachusetts Energy Marketers Association.
The fuel inventory concerns come against a backdrop of Russian’s invasion of Ukraine further shaking up an energy supply chain that was seeking to catch up with growing demand. The war is causing worries about the adequacy of energy supplies around the world.
In New England, the immediate concern in the late summer is diesel fuel, but the winter heating season looms not far behind.
Heating oil disruptions would hit the region hard because the percentage of homes that rely on it range from 24% in Massachusetts to more than 60% in Maine, the most heavily dependent states.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, has urged the Energy Department to expedite its meeting with governors to talk about maintaining a stable heating oil supply.
Maine is “distinctly vulnerable to the increased prices and volatility the global fossil fuel market is now experiencing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said Anthony Ronzio, a spokesperson for the Mills administration.
Despite the concern, wholesale suppliers and retailers are working well together, and Ferrante said he anticipates inventories will increase in September and October, easing the immediate concerns.
He said he is optimistic that there will be an ample supply of heating oil.
“Suppliers and retail delivery companies are concerned about prices and inventory, but there’s not any alarm bell being rung at this time,” he said. “I don’t see a crisis at this point.”
The Energy Department created a heating oil reserve that holds 1 million barrels in terminals in the Northeast. Those could be tapped in an emergency.
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Follow David Sharp on Twitter @David_Sharp_AP
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| 2022-09-21T14:16:37Z
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — As hopes faded of rescuing 10 men trapped in a flooded Mexican coal mine, evidence mounted that the current administration’s populist policies have driven the revival of the dangerous, primitive mines that continue claiming lives.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador enacted a plan two years ago to revive coal-fired power plants in northern Mexico and give preference to buying coal from the smallest mines. The purchases were part of the president’s policies to give more income to the poorest Mexicans.
In doing so, the administration resuscitated a form of coal mining so dangerous that lawmakers in both houses of Mexico’s Congress had tried to ban it a decade ago.
Experts say that mines so narrow and primitive that only one miner at a time can be lowered into a narrow shaft — and only one bucket of coal extracted — are inherently unsafe. At some pits, known as “pocitos,” or “little wells,” air is pumped in and water pumped out through plastic hoses. Some don’t even have that. There are usually no safety exits or auxiliary shafts.
Fifteen men were working inside the Pinabete mine in Sabinas, Coahuila, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas, on Aug. 3. A wall of water from an abandoned mine next door — and possibly wastewater pumped in from a nearby town — filled the single shaft about 40 meters (yards) deep. It blew out so many wooden supports that they have formed floating barriers to rescue crews.
Five workers managed to escape as the mine flooded, but there has been no contact with the rest.
Promoting coal is part of López Obrador’s effort to shore up the state-owned power utility, the Federal Electricity Commission, headed by old-guard politician Manuel Bartlett. Not only was the policy questioned by environmentalists; many also said it endangered miners.
“Manuel Bartlett’s brilliant idea of buying more coal from the smallest producers, and less from big producers, gave rise to a black market that wound up in the exploitation of mines that lack the safeguards needed to protect the lives of the workers,” Miguel Riquelme, the governor of Coahuila state and member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, said after the accident.
The government utility had defended its decision to buy about two-thirds of coal for power generation from small mines.
“We had to have the mindset of favoring the smallest (producers) because we had to make their economic conditions more equal,” Miguel Alejandro López, the subdirector of purchasing for the company, said in July, describing the orders he got under López Obrador. “Because as he (the president) has said, one of this country’s main failings is inequality.”
López said small mine owners were required to submit proof they complied with labor laws, which in Mexico govern mine safety.
But even the president acknowledged that the Pinabete mine had not complied with the few existing safety and labor standards.
Accidents at small coal mines have been depressingly frequent.
In June 2021, seven miners were killed at a similar small mine in Muzquiz township, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas. The shaft at the Micarán mine also flooded and partially collapsed, and it took days to recover the miners’ bodies.
The operations resemble wildcat mines from the U.S. Old West: Horizontal coal faces spread out from the bottom of the shaft and are shored up with wooden poles.
At some mines, the pit-head winches used to extract miners and coal are run off old car engines placed on blocks.
Lawmakers already knew the dangers of the narrow, unreinforced vertical shafts; explosive gas accumulations and flooding risks are common.
As far back as 2012, Mexican legislators tried to pass laws to do away with such primitive mines. The 2006 tragedy in the nearby Pasta de Conchos mine, where 65 miners died after a gas build-up caused a fire and explosion, was still fresh in their minds. That was a larger mine where gas monitoring proved to be insufficient.
A 2012 Senate bill proposed “the outright ban on vertical coal mines, also known as ‘pocitos,’ because that is where the greatest risks occur.”
In 2013, a bill in the lower house stated, “Coal mining activities have generalized risks, because their techniques are artisanal and rudimentary … Risky mining practices must be minimized or eliminated.”
It is unclear why those laws were never passed.
Mine safety activist Cristina Auerbach noted that coal is politically sensitive in Coahuila, especially among the impoverished communities that once made a living from it.
“Coal is a political issue in Coahuila, not an economic one,” said Auerbach.
She said that from 2006 through last year at least 80 miners had died in accidents in Coahuila. “The smallest businesses in the coal region are the most precarious, like Pinabete,” she said.
But small-scale coal mining appeared to be dying out in Coahuila until López Obrador directed the Federal Electricity Commission to ramp up purchases.
“The region was revived with the new purchase orders from the federal commission,” said Diego Martínez, a professor of applied earth sciences at the Autonomous University of Coahuila.
López Obrador wanted to eliminate subterfuge and corruption in coal purchases, but apparently failed at that; one man was arrested in connection with the Pinabete mine accident after it was found that the mine was apparently registered under different names or titles on purchase contracts and in labor department records.
No one has been sentenced for the 2006 deaths at the Pasta de Conchos mine.
It is not the first time that Coahuila coal mines have been accused of illegal practices; miners make as little as $200 per week, and even when the few government inspectors have found violations, it has been hard to shut them down.
López Obrador said that the Pinabete mine contract with the Electricity Commission said explicitly it could not be subcontracted, but apparently was anyway.
Auerbach, the mine safety activist, said that hundreds of “high risk” small mines continue operating.
“That’s why we’re asking that all of the coal concessions granted in high risk areas be cancelled, because (miners) are always going to die,” she said.
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| 2022-09-21T14:16:45Z
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INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN) — Check your pantries: Animal cookies sold at Target are being recalled because they may be contaminated with metal.
D. F. Stauffer Biscuit Company, Inc. is recalling its 44-ounce Market Pantry White Fudge Animal Cookies. The cookies, seen below, are white, covered in sprinkles, and sold in a bear-shaped plastic jug at Target stores.
The recall was ordered after a piece of metal wire was found inside “a portion of the cookies,” which could cause injury to people’s mouths or gastrointestinal systems if ingested, the Food and Drug Administration said.
The recalled cookies were sold at Target stores nationwide. The affected cookies weren’t sent to any other distributors, the FDA said.
The recall affects only the following best-by-date, lot numbers, and time stamps, printed on the back side of the container’s product label, below the nutritional panel:
Anyone with the recalled animal cookies should stop eating them and return them to Target for a full refund, the FDA said. Anyone with questions can call D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Co., Inc. at 888-480-1988.
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BOSSIER CITY, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A Bossier City police officer is in custody following his arrest Sunday as part of an ongoing federal investigation into the police union, according to the Bossier City Police Department.
According to a statement released by BCPD early Sunday evening, Sergeant Harold “BJ” Sanford was arrested Sunday afternoon by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
BCPD says Bossier City administration officials were notified Sunday of the ongoing investigation, and federal agents executed a search warrant at the Bossier City Police headquarters at Bossier City Hall for records related to Bossier City Police Local 645 International Union of Police Association.
According to the FBI, the investigation is related to Sanford’s role as president of the local police union. BCPD says Sgt. Sanford was immediately placed on administrative leave and Bossier City officials are cooperating fully with investigators.
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The statement did not indicate what Sanford is charged with or where he is being held.
The statement says Bossier City has no further comments at this time, as the investigation is ongoing.
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| 2022-09-21T14:17:00Z
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Department of Justice is offering, for the 6th time, the opportunity to honor community law enforcement.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced Wednesday his department is accepting nominations for distinguished service in community policing. The award has categories for small, medium, and large communities, broken down into agencies serving populations of under 50,000, 50,000 to 250,00, and more than 250,000.
Three categories for awards within each population category are Innovations in Community Policing, Field Operations, and Criminal Investigations.
Since first instituted, no Arkansas law enforcement officers have received an award under this program. Agency heads and co-workers may submit an officer for an award, and members of the community are also able to submit an officer for an award in any of the categories.
The nomination deadline is 8 p.m. Sept. 23.
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| 2022-09-21T14:17:28Z
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(The Hill) – Republican worries of a midterm flop are growing heading into the critical post-Labor Day campaign season, with analysts who had previously predicted massive GOP gains shifting their forecasts toward Democrats.
Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist and analyst, said the environment looks “not even close” to a red wave election year.
“The enthusiasm is just not there,” Tyler said. “Last time Republicans had a good year, they were six points ahead in the generic poll. Now we’re barely two points ahead. So it’s definitely not going to happen.”
RealClearPolitics averages of polls measuring whether voters would prefer Republican or Democratic control of Congress show the GOP slipping from a 4.8-point advantage in late April to less than a point as of Friday. At around this point in 2010, when Republicans saw historic gains in Congress, generic polls showed a four- to-six-point advantage for the GOP.
Punctuating the narrowing polls was the result in a special election on Tuesday. New York’s 19th Congressional district — which includes suburban areas and went for former President Trump in 2016 but President Biden in 2020 — is representative of the kind of battleground districts that Republicans are hoping to flip across the country.
But while Republican Marc Molinaro stuck to the party’s points about inflation and the economy, topics that Republicans have repeatedly said are top-of-mind for voters, Democrat Pat Ryan narrowly won the seat after focusing heavily on abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this summer.
Former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) said on Newsmax Thursday that after the special election, “Republicans have to start paying attention.”
“The problem is, where Republicans have to pick up in order to win the Congress is in districts like that,” Santorum said. “If you look at the national polls, if you look at a lot of these races like in my home state of Pennsylvania — if this is a red wave year, the polls are not showing it right now.”
Democrats celebrating the win in New York also point to recent special House elections in Minnesota and Nebraska as evidence of enthusiasm. Candidates there overperformed historical trends in GOP-leaning districts, even though they ultimately lost those races.
And in wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision and the controversy surrounding Trump over Jan. 6 and the FBI seizing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Democrats are aiming to emphasize negatives on Republicans rather than make the election a referendum on Biden or Democratic leadership.
“MAGA Republicans hope voters ignore their dangerous extremism, but NY-19 shows us that voters will reject their extreme agenda,” Democratic National Campaign Committee spokesperson Tommy Garcia said in a statement.
Top Republicans have already started tempering expectations of taking back the evenly divided Senate as GOP nominees who were boosted by Trump show signs struggling.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week that the House is more likely to flip control than the Senate, citing “candidate quality.”
Tyler blamed Trump for the shifting dynamic.
“Donald Trump has turned this campaign from a referendum on Joe Biden, inflation, high food prices, high gas prices and affordable housing into a referendum on him,” he said.
Weaknesses for GOP candidates along with results from recent elections have led election analysts at Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics and the Cook Political Report to shift several forecasts for key congressional midterm races toward Democrats. Cook revised its expected GOP gain in the House from 15-30 seats to 10-20 seats, and its Senate outlook from Republicans having an edge to a toss-up.
That marks a stark contrast from nine months ago, when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) predicted that 2022 could be even more of a Republican wave than in 2010, when Republicans won a staggering 63 seats.
Republicans have since warned House members not to measure the drapes early and that the election will be tough, but GOP lawmakers are still largely operating on the assumption that they will win control of the chamber.
A Senate loss and only a small GOP majority in the House would “lead the media to say, ‘You know, this was a split decision,’” Tyler said. “No mandate, no red wave, no rejection of Biden’s policies. That’s a disaster for the Republican Party.”
Other GOP operatives downplay those fears, saying that the New York special election was an outlier case complicated by high Democratic turnout in primaries happening the same day, and noting that there are still months to go before the midterms.
“Anyone who thought retaking the majority was going to be easy needs to buck up,” National Republican Congressional Committee Communications Director Michael McAdams said in a statement. “Majorities are won in November not August and we look forward to prosecuting the case against Democrats’ failed one-party rule.”
Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of Republican Main Street Partnership, cautioned against looking at the New York special election as an indication for what may happen in November. Many voters did not even know the election was happening, she said, or were on vacation.
“I would not red flag it yet. We’re going to wait to see and do some more polling, but I think things are fine,” Chamberlain said.
Republicans have beat expectations before. Despite Democrats having more than a six-point edge on the generic ballot in 2020, Republicans gained House seats and squeezed Democrats into the slimmest majority in the lower chamber in a century.
Democrats are also spending millions on defending seats rather than being offensive in their House map, a GOP strategist noted, with the record number of Democratic House members retiring rather than running for reelection this year helping the GOP expand its pickup opportunities.
Kyle Kondik, managing editor at Sabato’s Crystal Ball, said that weaknesses in GOP Senate and gubernatorial candidates, as well as many Republicans’ position against abortion, has given Democrats the opportunity ”to make the election more of a choice than a referendum.” But he cautioned against fully reevaluating the midterm environment before Labor Day, and that Republicans could still flip both chambers even if they fall below expectations of a “red wave.”
“It is possible that the Democrats’ addition of more college-educated voters, at the expense of losing more non-college voters, has skewed some of these special elections, as the college cohort is a more reliable voting bloc,” Kondik said. “That said, if the GOP had some big enthusiasm edge over the Democrats — and if it was bringing a lot of lapsed GOP voters back into the fold — one would think they’d be doing better than they are.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:17:36Z
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AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Record-setting rainfall Monday brought floods and damage to many parts of Texas. Flash floods in north Texas put busy roads underwater, trapping drivers. Some had to swim to safety, others were saved by rescue teams. A 60-year-old woman, a rideshare driver, died on a flooded Dallas-Fort Worth road.
Brittany Taylor of Dallas was one of many who woke up Monday to her entire apartment flooded, just two days after she moved in.
“I looked out the window, and I might as well have been on a boat because the water was so high outside,” she said.
Taylor said because she had just moved in, she wasn’t sure if the loud rain noises were normal or not. When she finally got out of bed, she looked out the window and saw the flooded streets, only to find it had made its way into her apartment.
“That was my dream apartment. I didn’t even get to have a housewarming party,” she said.
Between her apartment and car, Taylor guesses she lost tens of thousands worth of property. Friends and family have quickly rallied behind her, starting a GoFundMe to help her recover.
“This apartment for me was such a milestone of me being able to provide for myself. It’s been a journey to get here. And in one night, I lost my apartment and my car. It’s one of my biggest financial setbacks,” she said. “I wish I was in a position where I could take care of myself and not need help.”
Some parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area saw upward of 15 inches of rain in a five to six-hour timespan. At a press conference Tuesday morning with state leaders, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the city is assessing how infrastructure held up but acknowledged that amount of rain in a short period of time would be tough for even more flood-prepared cities.
On Tuesday, Governor Abbott went to Dallas, where he signed a disaster declaration for 23 counties affected by the severe weather.
The rain comes at a time when Texas is facing a serious drought. It’s welcomed by farmers and ranchers, even though it may have come too late to make a difference for this year’s crops and cattle.
“We had a great year last year, can’t complain, but this year is for the birds,” said Deborah Hajda, owner of Raising Five Cattle Company in Williamson County.
Hajda said her family’s operations haven’t had the best harvest this year. Their corn crop is mostly stalks, she said, and their cotton never did bloom.
She said the drought along with inflation has driven up feed costs, pushing other ranchers to sell their cattle to offload the burden of feeding them. Hajda said this could have a ripple effect in the grocery store in the near future.
“It’s going to be a three-year hit on this industry,” said Hajda. “You sell off mommas, babies, pregnant mommas, you can’t get those back in the market for three years – so beef could get expensive.”
But there are signs the tide may be turning when it comes to the drought.
“Overall, the drought is not fixed by far, but we are seeing some measurable and significant improvements,” said meteorologist David Yeomans.
He pointed to a map showing last week’s drought conditions across Texas. Then, much of the state was shown to be facing extreme, even exceptional drought. This week’s map shows improvement.
“Much of the state is still in bad drought conditions, but certainly not as bad as it was,” Yeomans said as he looked at the shifting lines on the drought map.
Yeomans also pointed to encouraging signs in the longer-term outlook to ease the drought.
We are seeing consistent signs of wetter than normal weather not only for the next week, not only for the next two weeks through the start of September, but all the way into the beginning of fall,” Yeomans explained.
“Signs are in our favor for continued slow, steady drought improvement through at least November 30,” he added.
Back at her ranch, Hajda said she’s staying optimistic about the future.
“You can’t get into the doom and gloom of the drought,” said Hajda. “Having been through them before, if you can get a 2-inch rain in August, that’s a great sign.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:17:43Z
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — From fire departments to governments, from school districts to corporations, from local utilities to grassroots organizers around the world, Twitter at its best is a tool to get a message out quickly, efficiently, directly.
It’s also a constant risk-and-reward calculation.
A recent bombshell whistleblower report from Twitter’s former head of security alleges that the social media company has been negligently lax on cybersecurity and privacy protections for its users for years. While worrisome for anyone on Twitter, the revelations could be especially concerning for those who use it to reach constituencies, get news out about emergencies and for political dissidents and activists in the crosshairs of hackers or their own governments.
“We tend to look at these companies as large, well-resourced entities who know what they’re doing — but you realize that a lot of their actions are ad hoc and reactive, driven by crises,” said Prateek Waghre, policy director at the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit in India. “Essentially, they’re often held together by cello tape or chewing gum.”
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who served as Twitter’s security chief until he was fired early this year, filed the complaints last month with federal U.S. authorities, alleging that the company misled regulators about its poor cybersecurity defenses and its negligence in attempting to root out fake accounts that spread disinformation. Among Zatko’s most serious accusations is that Twitter violated the terms of a 2011 FTC settlement by falsely claiming that it had put stronger measures in place to protect the security and privacy of its users.
Waghre said the allegations in the complaint about India — that Twitter knowingly allowed the Indian government to place its agents on the company payroll where they had “direct unsupervised access to the company’s systems and user data” — were particularly worrisome. He also pointed to an incident earlier this month where a former Twitter employee was found guilty of passing along sensitive user data to royal family members in Saudi Arabia in exchange for bribes.
The consequences of privacy and security lapses can range from inconvenience and embarrassment — such as when an Indiana State Police account was hacked and tweeted “poo-poo head” earlier this year — to much worse. In October 2021, a Saudi humanitarian aid worker was sentenced to 20 years in prison because of an anonymous, satirical Twitter account that the kingdom says he ran. It’s possible that the case is linked with the men accused of spying on behalf of the kingdom while working at Twitter.
As an advocate for dissidents and others detained in Saudi Arabia, Bethany Al-Haidari has been concerned for years about Twitter’s user privacy safeguards. The new whistleblower allegations make her all the more worried.
“Given what we know about how social media is used around the world, that is incredibly problematic,” said Al-Haidari, who works for The Freedom Initiative, a U.S.-based human rights group. The possibility of hackers or governments exploiting the alleged cybersecurity lapses at Twitter to get users’ identities, private messages or other personal information “is quite disturbing to me,” she said.
Chinese-Australian artist and activist Badiucao, who regularly publishes art that criticizes the Chinese Communist Party, expressed concern about the whistleblower’s allegations, noting that many users provide their phone numbers and emails to Twitter.
“Once that personal information is leaked, it could be used to trace your identity,” he said. Badiucao said he regularly receives death threats and propaganda from what appears to be bot or spam accounts.
But the artist plans to keep using Twitter, saying it’s probably the best option Chinese-speaking activists and artists have for a “shelter for free speech.”
Twitter says the whistleblower claims present a “false narrative” about the company and its privacy and data security practices, and that the claims lack context. “Security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and will continue to be,” the company said in a statement.
Despite the heightened concerns sparked by Zatko’s claims, none of the groups The Associated Press spoke to this week plan to stop using Twitter. Security experts say while the whistleblower’s claims are alarming, there’s no reason for individual users to delete their accounts.
High-profile Twitter users and world governments may be at greater risk than average users, experts say. In 2020, for instance, Twitter suffered an embarrassing hack by a teenager who accessed the accounts of former President Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Musk is currently embroiled in a battle with Twitter as he tries to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the company.
Yet another security incident raised alarms for Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor who follows Twitter closely. In 2017, a Twitter customer support worker deactivated then-President Donald Trump’s account for a few minutes during their last day on the job. While the account was restored quickly, Grygiel said, the incident showed how vulnerable Twitter was when it comes to governments, heads of state and military branches that use the platform.
“Am I surprised and shocked by the whistleblower’s allegations? I’m not,” said Trav Robertson, chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, which uses Twitter to communicate with about 18,700 followers. But he argues that it’s especially important for people not to assume that “the constant attacks on our emails, our databases, our Twitter accounts, our Facebooks” are the new normal. “When we become desensitized to it, we fail to be proactive,” he said.
At the City of Denver’s fire department, public information officer JD Chism acknowledges concern over security issues. But the department has to weight that risk against the way Twitter has become integral to communicating emergencies to the public. The department’s Twitter feed hosts real-time updates on fires and consequent road closures and injuries, alongside retweets from other agencies warning of dangers such as flash floods.
For now, the department will keep using Twitter as it always has, Chism said, “It’s good for taking care of people, and that’s what we are here for.”
—
Associated Press Writers Krutika Pathi in New Delhi; Jesse Bedayn in Denver; Jennifer Peltz in New York; James Pollard in South Carolina; Zen Soo in Hong Kong; Margaret Stafford in Kansas City; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Amy Taxin in Orange County, California; Rebecca Santana in New Orleans; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; and Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this story.
___
This story has been updated to clarify that Barack Obama was former president in 2020.
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| 2022-09-21T14:17:51Z
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INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN) — Three soldiers from The Netherlands were wounded early Saturday morning in a shooting outside their hotel in Downtown Indianapolis.
Police were called just after 3:30 a.m. to the Hampton Inn on South Meridian Street where they found three people had been shot. All were taken to a nearby hospital. Two of the victims were listed in critical condition Sunday, while the other was listed in stable condition.
“It is not something that occurred inside the hotel,” Indianapolis Police Major Joshua Gisi said. “It was a previous altercation, we believe, at another location. We’re still working through that with all of our witnesses.”
The Dutch Ministry of Defense identified the three men as members of a special forces unit. A spokesperson for the Indiana National Guard confirmed that the soldiers were training at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in southern Indiana. The facility is used for training by the U.S. Department of Defense as well as NATO allies.
The spokesperson said the soldiers were visiting Indianapolis on their day off.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the soldiers and families during this difficult time,” the Indiana National Guard spokesperson said in a statement.
Detectives were back at the scene Saturday afternoon canvassing nearby businesses for surveillance footage. One business owner said police had asked to review his camera in hopes of spotting a car that may have driven by at the time of the shooting.
Several panes of glass were busted out on one of the hotel’s doors. Two hotel employees said it happened during the shooting.
Those same employees said the soldiers were staying at the Hampton Inn and the rest of the group checked out today.
No arrests have been made and police have no suspect information. They are encouraging anyone who knows anything about the shooting to contact CrimeStoppers at (317) 262-TIPS.
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| 2022-09-21T14:17:59Z
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(The Hill) – A 24-year-old man from Memphis, Tenn., was the latest American killed in the conflict in Ukraine, according to reports that he died fighting Russian forces in the contested Donbas region.
“American mercenary was destroyed in Ukraine,” Russian official Oleg Kozhemyako said in a Telegram post, Newsweek reported.
The governor of Russia’s eastern Primorsky Krai region, Kozhemyako, reportedly said Primorsky “Tiger” Detachment volunteers killed the U.S. citizen “in the first clash literally immediately after arriving at the front line!”
Reports say Kozhemyako also shared images of a U.S. passport and Ukrainian military card, but outlets have not named the victim.
The Hill has reached out to the State Department for more information. The department confirmed the death of an American to USA Today, but declined to confirm his identity.
The American is said to have been killed in the Donbas region, where much of the recent fighting has been focused.
“Donbas is almost destroyed by Russian strikes, devastated. The proud and glorious Ukrainian Donetsk was humiliated by the Russian occupation and robbed,” Ukrainian President Zelensky said Sunday in an address.
“Russia brought the most terrible thing there — absolute disregard for the value of any life, absolute disrespect for anyone. The invaders brought degradation and death.”
A number of American deaths have now been reported in Ukraine during the war, including video journalist Brent Renaud, U.S. Marine veteran Willy Joseph Cancel, Stephen Zabielski and Jimmy Hill, who was killed while waiting in a bread line.
Volunteer soldiers Luke Lucyszyn and Bryan Young were reportedly ambushed by Russian tanks and killed in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine in July.
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| 2022-09-21T14:18:14Z
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HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — Samantha Diaz, a recent winner of ABC’s “American Idol,” says she was hospitalized with an unknown illness.
Diaz, known by the stage name “Just Sam,” documented her hospital stay on social media this week.
One of the photos she posted shows a scale in what appears to be a doctor’s office. The photo is captioned: “100lbs is crazy, I seriously need help.”
In a post on Friday, the 23-year-old thanked her fans saying, “I’m grateful for the prayers everyone. I’m doing much better now.”
On Saturday, she elaborated, saying the condition that landed her in the hospital “is something that I’ve been dealing with for a while now.” She expressed frustration with “misdiagnoses,” relentless testing, and ongoing pain.
“I’m tired of feeling tired all of the time, I’m tired of the pain and I’m tired of living like this every single day,” she wrote in a post to her Instagram story.
Diaz said Saturday she had been released from the hospital.
Diaz was the winner of “American Idol” in 2020. Before rising to fame on the reality television competition, Diaz sang in New York subway stations and on trains, according to People.
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| 2022-09-21T14:18:21Z
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NEW DELHI (AP) — Two high-rise apartment towers in India were leveled to the ground in a controlled demolition on Sunday after the country’s top court declared them illegal for violating building norms, officials said. They became India’s tallest structures to be razed to the ground.
More than 1,500 families vacated their apartments in the area more than seven hours before the nearly 100-meter- (328 feet) tall towers crumbled inward by the impact of the implosion. The 32-story and 29-story towers, which were being constructed by a private builder in Noida city on the outskirts of New Delhi, were yet to be occupied.
“Largely, everything is OK,” said Ritu Maheshwari, a government administrator, after the demolition. “It happened as expected.”
The demolition was completed within seconds but followed a 12-year court battle between residents in the area and the builder, Supertech Limited.
The razing of the towers occurred after the Supreme Court found that the builder, in collusion with government officials, violated laws prohibiting construction within a certain distance from nearby buildings.
The Supreme Court said the construction of the two towers also was illegal because the builder did not receive mandatory consent from other apartment owners in the area.
Ahead of the demolition, the towers were surrounded by scaffolding, fences, barricades and special covers to block dust from the approximately 88,000 tons of debris that would be generated, officials said. Disposing all of the debris will take three months.
Residents are expected to return to the area Sunday evening after experts examine the impact of the demolition. Some apartments are located just nine meters (29.5 feet) away from the blast site, and the required safe distance is 20 meters (65.6 feet).
“It would come in the top five demolitions in the world in terms of height, volume, steel and tightness of the structure,” said Utkarsh Mehta, a partner with Edifice Engineering, which brought down the building in collaboration with Jet Demolition from South Africa at a cost of 180 million rupees ($2.25 million).
Mehta said 3,500 kilograms (7,716 pounds) of explosives were drilled into thousands of holes in the columns and shears of the towers. Experts used the waterfall method of demolition in which one story collapses on the next.
Joe Brikmann, director of Jet Demolition, said earlier he was confident no harm would come to the buildings adjacent to the demolished towers.
“The buildings in this area are in a high seismic zone (zone IV) and built to experience earthquakes which are much stronger than vibrations from an implosion. We are confident that the implosion of the towers will not cause any damage to properties,” The Times of India newspaper quoted him as saying.
The tallest building demolished in the world with explosives to date was 165 meters tall (541 feet), and occurred in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Nov. 27, 2020, according to Guinness World Records.
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| 2022-09-21T14:18:29Z
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DETROIT (AP) — A 19-year-old man suspected of randomly killing three people on Detroit streets over roughly two hours may have been emboldened when he didn’t encounter police after the first shooting, the mayor said Monday.
The victims included a single mother of five children who was waiting for a bus Sunday. Lari Brisco was planning to move this week to a suburb closer to her job as a medical assistant at an allergy clinic.
“You never expect gun violence to hit close to home. You always hear about shootings, but it’s never someone you know until it is,” said her boss, Dr. Kathleen Dass.
Police still were sorting out details while a suspect who Chief James White said may have a mental illness remained in custody. The man was peacefully arrested at home after a 12-hour search Sunday, following a tip from someone close to him.
He “terrorized our community,” White said.
Mayor Mike Duggan said no one called 911 when the first victim, a 28-year-old man, was shot before dawn, less than two miles from a police station.
“At 4:45 on a Sunday morning, not a lot of people are up. Some people might have thought they were hearing firecrackers,” Duggan said. “I think there’s a strong probability he expected to get caught. … And then 35 minutes later he shoots and kills a second individual and proceeds from there.”
The first incident occurred at 4:45 a.m. The suspect shot a man without provocation, walked away and then returned to fire more shots, White said.
About 30 minutes later and three blocks away, police got their first 911 call for a woman in her 40s shot on a sidewalk. Brisco, 43, was the third victim, shot multiple times while waiting for a bus a short distance away.
Dass said her clinic had planned to give Brisco a cake to celebrate her move to a new home.
“My patients loved her because she treated them all like they were her family,” the doctor said.
A fourth shooting occurred at 7:10 a.m. while an 80-year-old man was walking his dog, said Michael McGinnis, major crimes commander. He survived.
A gun found by police matched the bullet casings at the shooting scenes, McGinnis said.
Bishop Daryl Harris of Total Life Christian Ministries said he could “feel the panic” in his congregation when he informed people that an active shooter was at large Sunday.
“Many of our members were distraught as they ran out of the sanctuary to try to call their loved ones and families,” he said.
Duggan described the victims as “innocent people going about their lives on a Sunday morning.”
He lamented that Detroit has limited use of ShotSpotter, a gunshot-detection technology. It’s used in some precincts but not in the area where the shootings occurred. The City Council in June postponed a vote on expansion.
“Every single detective who came to the command center said the same thing: If we had had ShotSpotter, there was an excellent chance we would have arrested him by five in the morning,” the mayor said.
___
Cappelletti reported from Lansing.
___
Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
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| 2022-09-21T14:18:44Z
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The death toll from an accident when a truck drove off a dike and slammed into a community barbecue in a village south of Rotterdam rose to six Sunday and police said a further seven people are in hospital, including one in critical condition.
Three men and three women were killed, ranging in age from 28 to 75, police said.
Police spokeswoman Mirjam Boers said the truck driver, a 46-year-old Spanish man, is suspected of causing the accident that happened early Saturday evening in the village of Nieuw-Beijerland. His identity was not released, in line with Dutch privacy laws.
The large truck the man was driving left a small rural road and careered down the bank of the dike and plowed into the village gathering. Boers said the driver was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
“We are investigating what could have happened,” Boers said.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima said in a tweet that they were shocked by the accident that they said caused “an unimaginable sadness in this close-knit community. The affected families are in our thoughts and we wish the injured strength on their way to as good a recovery as possible.”
Forensic investigators worked into the night Saturday around the truck where it stopped at the bottom of the dike. Later, a crane and a tow truck hauled it back onto the road.
Photos of the scene showed bunting hanging between trees and chairs scattered around trestle tables with plates still on them.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte also expressed sorrow in a tweet, saying, “My thoughts go out to the victims and next of kin of this terrible drama. I wish them much strength.”
Local Mayor Charlie Aptroot visited the scene Saturday night.
“My condolences go out to the victims, their families, eyewitnesses and first responders,” he said in a statement.
He added that he had spoken to many of the people at the scene and expressed “appreciation for the way in which people are there for each other.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:18:51Z
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ATLANTA (AP) — A federal jury in Atlanta has awarded $100 million to a panhandler who fell and broke his neck after a police officer shocked him with a stun gun during a foot chase, news agencies report.
Jerry Blasingame now needs round-the-clock care costing $1 million a year, and has $14 million in medical bills so far, attorney Ven Johnson told jurors.
Jurors found that Officer Jon Grubbs used unreasonable force against Blasingame, who was 65 years old and had been asking drivers for money on July 10, 2018. He was paralyzed from the neck down and is now 69 years old.
Jurors found that the Atlanta Police Department should pay $60 million and Grubbs should pay $40 million, WXIA-TV and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The city has filed a motion for a directed verdict. A ruling from a judge on that motion may amend the jury’s verdict.
Judge Steve Jones has not yet ruled on that request, online court records indicate. Jones ruled before deliberations began that jurors could reasonably find that Grubbs used excessive force, and that they could consider the city’s argument.
“The record would allow the jury to find that Mr. Blasingame had not been committing a serious crime before he was tased/ that Officer Grubbs did not fear for his safety/ and that the exigent circumstances were not otherwise so severe as to permit Officer Grubbs’s use of force,” Jones wrote Friday.
Blasingame’s conservator, Keith Edwards, sued the city of Atlanta and the officer, Jon Grubbs, for the cost of his past and future medical bills.
Johnson and civil rights attorney Craig Jones said Grubbs violated department policy by using a stun gun on an elderly man who was running away, the newspaper reported.
Edwards’ lawsuit said Blasingame was on the street and asking people for money when Grubbs and another officer arrived and saw him talking with a driver.
Grubbs stepped out of the patrol car and told Blasingame to stop, but he moved out of the street to a guard rail, and Grubbs ran toward him, according to the lawsuit.
“Grubbs gets out of the car and starts chasing my client — a 65-year-old man — and for what? For potentially asking people for money?” Johnson said.
Johnson said the city did not make a thorough enough investigation into Grubbs’ conduct and let him return to full duty six months after the incident and before the investigation was concluded.
“This is how an officer gets away with excessive force,” he told the jury in his closing argument. “You bury it.”
Staci J. Miller, one of the attorneys representing Atlanta and Grubbs, said Blasingame’s injuries were tragic, but city training and department policy were not to blame.
The City of Atlanta’s lawyers, who also represented Grubbs, were not available to comment on the verdict and a spokesperson for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens declined to comment, the newspaper reported.
Grubbs joined the Atlanta Police Department as a cadet in December 2013, according to records of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council. He became a full officer a year later and has served on the force since then.
He has no sanctions in his POST records and is listed as an officer in good standing by the state police certifying agency.
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| 2022-09-21T14:19:07Z
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JACKSON, Miss (AP) — The forecasted flooding in Mississippi could not have come at a worse time for Veronique Daniels, who became homeless three months ago and was sleeping on her mother’s back porch in Jackson when she got wind of the impending disaster.
The Red Cross has opened a temporary shelter at the Jackson Police Department Training Academy. As of Sunday afternoon, Daniels was the first person to arrive. She found out about the shelter on Facebook and had her mother drop her off Sunday morning.
Daniels’ mother lives in Canton Club Circle, the same Jackson subdivision that flooded two years ago. Residents on Sunday were taking precautions as the previous flooding loomed large in their memories.
In 2020, days of torrential downpours caused the Pearl River to reach 36.7 feet (11.2 meters) and Jackson homes in the hardest hit neighborhoods were filled with dirty, snake-infested flood water.
Now, experts predict the river will crest at 35.5 feet (10.8 meters) on Monday. The city estimates that 100 to 150 homes could be impacted by Monday night.
“If you are capable of getting out now, get out now. Get out as soon as possible,” said Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba at a news conference Saturday, the same day Mississippi’s governor declared a state of emergency.
Linda Gagliardi, a Red Cross volunteer deployed from Huntsville, Alabama, said she expects an influx of residents Sunday night.
“Our advice is to have a plan and be ready to leave at a moment’s notice,” Gagliardi said. “And I think that’s what people are waiting for, that moment’s notice.”
As Red Cross volunteers helped Daniels finish a load of laundry, she waited for her 18-year-old daughter and an 11-month-old grandson to arrive. They had stayed with friends the previous night, but the family’s long-term plans are up on in the air.
Some Jackson residents were moving belongings out of their homes. Others were stocking up on sandbags. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency had deployed 126,000 sandbags to act as water barriers in preparation for flooding.
Oscar Day, an inventory control worker at a sandbag distribution site, said Jackson residents started preparing their homes for potential flood damage earlier than in 2020.
“A lot of people took the heat last time,” Day told The Associated Press on Sunday, referring to residents who chose not to take precautions two years ago.
The Mississippi floodwaters arrive in the wake of the destruction and death visited upon Kentucky residents last month. Those floods caused at least 39 deaths and robbed thousands of families of all of their possessions. Nearly a month later, residents are wrestling with the question of whether to rebuild at the place they call home or start over somewhere else.
In Jackson, officials have not implemented a mandatory evacuation order but have said residents risk fending for themselves if they choose to stay home.
A Ridgeland police officer patrolling the grounds of the Harbor Pines Mobile Home Community on Sunday estimated that about 20% of the residents had yet to evacuate by Sunday afternoon.
He warned: “If you stay here and you get stranded, we may or may not be able to come rescue you.”
___
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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| 2022-09-21T14:19:14Z
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BERLIN (AP) — A girl who was on vacation from Italy with her parents has died after a stone statue fell on her at a hotel in Munich, German police said Sunday.
The 7-year-old was hit by the roughly 200-kilogram (440-pound) statue in the courtyard of the hotel on Friday evening, police said. People at the scene were able to free the child and call emergency services, but she died later at a Munich hospital.
It wasn’t clear why the statue toppled over. Police said an investigation was ongoing.
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| 2022-09-21T14:19:22Z
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CAIRO (AP) — Militias patrolled nearly deserted streets in Libya’s capital Sunday, a day after clashes killed over 30 people, and ended Tripoli’s monthslong stretch of relative calm.
The dead included at least 17 civilians, local authorities said. The fighting broke out early Saturday and pitted militias loyal to the Tripoli-based government against other armed groups allied with a rival administration that has for months sought to be seated in the capital.
Residents fear the fighting that capped a monthslong political deadlock could explode into a wider war and a return to the peaks of Libya’s long-running conflict.
Libya has plunged into chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The oil-rich county has for years been split between rival administrations, each backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.
The current stalemate grew out of the failure to hold elections in December and Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s refusal to step down. In response, the country’s east-based parliament appointed a rival prime minister, Fathy Bashagha, who has for months sought to install his government in Tripoli.
Saturday’s fighting centered in the densely populated city center and involved heavy artillery. Hundreds were trapped and hospitals, government and residential buildings were damaged. Burned vehicles were seen littered in the clashes area.
The Health Ministry said at least 32 people were killed and 159 wounded in the clashes.
Michele Servadei, UNICEF’s representative in Libya, said a 17-year-old adolescent was among the dead, and four others as young as a 5-year old, were wounded in the clashes.
Among those killed was Mustafa Baraka, a comedian known for his social media videos mocking militias and corruption. He was shot reportedly while live-streaming on social media. It was not clear whether he was targeted.
The Associated Press spoke to dozens of residents and witnesses. They recounted horrific scenes of people, including women and children, trapped in their homes, government buildings and hospitals. They also spoke of at least three motionless bodies that remained for hours in the street before an ambulance was able to reach the area. They asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from the militias.
“We see death before our eyes and in the eyes of our children,” said a woman who was trapped along with many families in a residential apartment. “The world should protect those innocent children like they did at the time of Gadhafi.”
Militias allied with Tripoli-based Dbeibah were seen roaming the streets in the capital early Sunday. Their rivals were stationed at their positions in the outskirts of the city, according to local media.
Much of the city has suffered nightly power outages. Several businesses were closed Sunday and he state-run National Oil Corp. ordered its employees to work remotely Sunday.
Residents were still weary of potential violence and most stayed in their homes Sunday. Many rushed to supermarkets when the clashes subsided late Saturday to stock up on food and other necessities. Others were seen inspecting their damaged business, homes and vehicles.
“It could be triggered in a flash. They (the militias) are uncontrolled,” said a Tripoli school teacher who only gave a partial name, Abu Salim. “Our demand is very simple: a normal life.”
Dbeibah’s government claimed the fighting began when a member of a rival militia fired at a patrol of another militia in Tripoli’s Zawiya Street. It said the shots came amid a mobilization of Bashagha-allied groups around the capital. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Militia clashes are not uncommon in Tripoli. Last month, at least 13 people were killed in militia fighting. In May, Bashagha attempted to install his government in Tripoli, triggering clashes that ended with his withdrawal from the city.
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| 2022-09-21T14:19:29Z
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KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — For 22 days, Serhiy Chornobryvets barely slept and rarely took off his red paramedic uniform. Day and night, he raced around his hometown of Mariupol, rescuing those wounded by the Russian bombs and shells that pummeled the southern Ukrainian city.
When he finally escaped Mariupol — whose residents endured some of the worst suffering of the war during a nearly three-month siege — he still did not rest. Instead, he joined an organization that sends medics to the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting is currently concentrated.
“Me before Mariupol and me after what happened: It’s two different people,” the skinny, fresh-faced 24-year-old said during a recent interview with The Associated Press in Kharkiv, another city that has endured intense bombardment.
“If I had not survived Mariupol, I would not have gone to work as a paramedic now. I wouldn’t have had enough courage,” explained Chornobryvets, who is simply called “Mariupol” on the battlefield and now wears a patch that bears the symbol of the port city, a yellow anchor, on his camouflage uniform.
In fact, he could see no other way of making sense of the horrors he witnessed in a place that became a worldwide symbol of Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s invasion. Residents suffered relentless bombardment, many trapped without food, water, heat or electricity.
“It was like going back to the Stone Age,” Chornobryvets said. “There was looting, constant shelling, planes, aerial bombardment. People around us were losing their minds, but we got on with our work.”
While many hid in basements or bomb shelters, Chornobryvets said he never did. He stayed above ground to tend to the wounded — all while risking his own life. He finally fled on March 18 — his birthday — still in his red paramedic’s overalls.
His tireless efforts were publicly praised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when the leader accepted an award in May from the Atlantic Council, the Washington-based think tank, on behalf of the Ukrainian people.
Chornobryvets said that his new work on the front and what he did in Mariupol were almost indistinguishable: “Same wounds, only I’m wearing a different uniform.”
In footage from July, he and his fellow medics can be seen rushing toward a soldier hit by Russian fire. They tightened a tourniquet around the man’s right thigh, and then carefully tended to a gaping wounds in an arm and a leg, where the bone was exposed.
He has a year left of college to finish — but resists making plans for the future. Until the war is won, he has vowed to stay on the battlefield.
“Medicine is my life, and my duty is to save people,” said Chornobryvets.
He dreams of one day returning to Mariupol, which fell to the Russians in May, but tries not to think about it too much because it’s too painful.
“My soul will calm down when I enter Mariupol — and the Ukrainian flag is flying over it,” he said.
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Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
___
Associated Press journalists Vasilisa Stepnenko and Evgeniy Maloletka in Kharkiv contributed. Follow Archirova at https://twitter.com/h_arhirova
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| 2022-09-21T14:19:37Z
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Firebrand lawmaker Lee Jae-myung was elected to lead South Korea’s main opposition party on Sunday, months after his narrow presidential defeat to conservative opponent Yoon Suk Yeol left the liberals in disarray.
Lee’s dominant win in the Democratic Party chairperson’s race ends a monthslong leadership void for the liberals, who still control a majority in the Parliament. It revives his rivalry with Yoon, a relative political novice who has seen his popularity decline since taking office in May amid a worsening economy, policy mishaps on education and other domestic issues, and mishandled Cabinet appointments.
Lee, who won nearly 78% of the votes from party members, was announced as the Democrats’ new chairperson in a convention held at a gymnastics stadium in the capital, Seoul. In his acceptance speech, Lee criticized the Yoon administration over what he described as failures to address the country’s stark economic inequalities, but also said he was willing to cooperate with Yoon and the ruling conservative party if “they take the right path for the people and country.”
He stressed that his key mission is to bring the Democrats back to power.
“Today’s convention is the start of our victorious march, including in the parliamentary elections two years later, the mayoral and gubernatorial elections four years later and the presidential election five years later,” Lee said, as his supporters cheered and chanted his name.
Yoon edged Lee by a historically narrow margin of 0.7 percentage points in the March election. Yoon’s spokesperson, Kim Eun-hye, issued a statement Sunday congratulating Lee on his win at the convention and calling for bipartisan cooperation to address the country’s problems.
The Democrats had been without a chairperson since March and the party was being run by an emergency committee after the previous leadership stepped down following Lee’s loss in the presidential election.
Lee, who called for universal basic income and engagement with nuclear-armed North Korea during the presidential campaign, is one of the most polarizing figures in South Korean politics.
Lee’s supporters appreciate his outspoken style and see him as an anti-elitist hero who could fix establishment politics, eradicate corruption and solve growing economic inequality, a decaying job market and soaring house prices.
To his detractors, the 57-year-old is seen as a dangerous populist who demonizes his conservative opponents and fails to back his ambitious vows for welfare spending with realistic funding plans.
Yoon has been off to a rocky start in office as he grapples with an economy battered by rising prices and unemployment and an increasingly aggressive North Korea, which has ramped up its missile tests to a record pace this year while threatening nuclear conflicts with South Korea and the U.S.
Yoon’s approval ratings have dipped to the 30s or below in recent weeks over unpopular policy decisions, including a poorly explained plan to have children start school earlier that triggered fierce public backlash and forced his education minister to resign this month. Yoon doesn’t have a health minister yet, following the withdrawals of two nominees over accusations of nepotism and illegal use of campaign funds.
Yoon was also criticized for his unwillingness to meet U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she visited South Korea following a trip to Taiwan earlier this month that infuriated China. Yoon, who was on vacation, talked to Pelosi by phone instead of face to face. His critics accused him of avoiding seeing her to protect relations with China.
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| 2022-09-21T14:19:43Z
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan topped 1,000 since mid-June, officials said Sunday, as the country’s climate minister called the deadly monsoon season “a serious climate catastrophe.”
Flash flooding from the heavy rains has washed away villages and crops as soldiers and rescue workers evacuated stranded residents to the safety of relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority reported the death toll since the monsoon season began earlier than normal this year — in mid- June — reached 1,061 people after new fatalities were reported across different provinces.
Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani senator and the country’s top climate official, said in a video posted on Twitter that Pakistan is experiencing a “serious climate catastrophe, one of the hardest in the decade.”
“We are at the moment at the ground zero of the front line of extreme weather events, in an unrelenting cascade of heatwaves, forest fires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, flood events and now the monster monsoon of the decade is wreaking non-stop havoc throughout the country,” she said. The on-camera statement was retweeted by the country’s ambassador to the European Union.
Flooding from the Swat River overnight affected northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where tens of thousands of people — especially in the Charsadda and Nowshehra districts — have been evacuated from their homes to relief camps set up in government buildings. Many have also taken shelter on roadsides, said Kamran Bangash, a spokesperson for the provincial government.
Bangash said some 180,000 people have been evacuated from Charsadda and 150,000 from Nowshehra district villages.
Khaista Rehman, 55, no relation to the climate minister, took shelter with his wife and three children on the side of the Islamabad-Peshawar highway after his home in Charsadda was submerged overnight.
“Thank God we are safe now on this road quite high from the flooded area,” he said. “Our crops are gone and our home is destroyed but I am grateful to Allah that we are alive and I will restart life with my sons.”
The unprecedented monsoon season has affected all four of the country’s provinces. Nearly 300,000 homes have been destroyed, numerous roads rendered impassable and electricity outages have been widespread, affecting millions of people.
Pope Francis on Sunday said he wanted to assure his “closeness to the populations of Pakistan struck by flooding of disastrous proportions.’’ Speaking during a pilgrimage to the Italian town of L’Aquila, which was hit by a deadly earthquake in 2009, Francis said he was praying “for the many victims, for the injured and the evacuated, and so that international solidarity will be prompt and generous.”
Rehman told Turkish news outlet TRT World that by the time the rains recede, “we could well have one fourth or one third of Pakistan under water.”
“This is something that is a global crisis and of course we will need better planning and sustainable development on the ground. … We’ll need to have climate resilient crops as well as structures,” she said.
In May, Rehman told BBC Newshour that both the country’s north and south were witnessing extreme weather events because of rising temperatures. “So in north actually just now we are … experiencing what is known as glacial lake outburst floods which we have many of because Pakistan is home to the highest number of glaciers outside the polar region.”
The government has deployed soldiers to help civilian authorities in rescue and relief operations across the country. The Pakistani army also said in a statement it airlifted a 22 tourists trapped in a valley in the country’s north to safety.
Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif visited flooding victims in city of Jafferabad in Baluchistan. He vowed the government would provide housing to all those who lost their homes.
___
Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, and Frances D’Emilio in Rome contributed.
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| 2022-09-21T14:19:50Z
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LIMA, Peru (AP) — A Peruvian judge on Sunday ordered President Pedro Castillo’s sister-in-law to be held in prison up to 2.5 years while she is investigated for criminal association and corruption for her participation in an alleged money laundering scheme involving the president and first lady.
After postponing his decision twice, judge Johnny Gómez said there was “a high probability of fleeing” for Yenifer Paredes, 26, and ordered her pretrial detention.
Paredes had been raised by Castillo and his spouse as their daughter after her mother died. It is the first time in Peru that a relative so close to a sitting president has been sent to prison.
Defense lawyers said they would appeal the decision and Castillo has denied all the accusations against him.
Paredes had turned herself in to the prosecutor’s office on Aug. 10, a day after police went to the presidential palace to arrest her but failed to find her there. She had been serving 18 days while being questioned at a police station.
The prosecutor’s office asked a judge last week to impose a 3-year preventative sentence.
Castillo has not commented on the detention of his relative. But at the time she turned herself in, he said “they will pull out all the stops to continue hitting my family, my parents, brothers, it is part of the struggle but they are not going to break me.”
Prosecutor’s have accused Castillo, several of his relatives, Transportation Minister Geiner Alvarado and a town mayor of being part of a criminal group that created front companies to launder money. The coordinator of the alleged group was the first lady and three relatives of the president, including Paredes, were figureheads.
The prosecution said Paredes helped the owner of one front company obtain a public works project despite not having the economic capacity or experience to guarantee its completion.
Despite only a year in office, Peru’s president faces several criminal investigations, including for influence peddling and leading a criminal network.
Despite being investigated, Castillo cannot be formally accused by a judge because Peru’s constitution says the president can only be accused of treason, dissolving congress without reason and for not allowing elections. Prosecutors must wait until Castillo leaves the presidency to formally present other charges against him.
Castillo was a rural teacher before he shocked Peru’s political elite by winning election as president campaigning on promises to improve education, health care and other services. But the political neophyte’s first year has seen near constant turmoil, with Cabinet members changing multiple times and Castillo staving off two impeachment attempts.
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| 2022-09-21T14:19:58Z
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HOUSTON (AP) — A man evicted from a Houston apartment building shot five other tenants — killing three of them — Sunday morning after setting fire to the house to lure them out, police said. Officers fatally shot the gunman.
The incident happened at about 1 a.m. Sunday in a mixed industrial-residential neighborhood in southwest Houston. Police and fire crews responded to the apartment house after reports of the fire, police Chief Troy Finner said.
The gunman opened fire, possibly with a shotgun, on the other tenants as they emerged from the house, Finner said. Two were dead at the scene, and one died at a hospital. Fire teams rescued two other wounded men, who were hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds, he said.
The man then opened fire as the firefighters battled the fire, forcing them to take cover until police officers spotted the prone gunman and shot him dead, Finner said.
No identities have been released, and Finner said no firefighters or officers were wounded.
“I’ve seen things I have not seen before in 32 years, and it has happened time and time again,” Finner said. “We just ask that the community come together.”
A neighbor, Robin Ahrens, told the Houston Chronicle that he heard what he initially thought were fireworks as he prepared for work.
“I’m just fortunate that I didn’t go outside because he probably would have shot me too,” he told the newspaper.
He said the shooter, who had colon cancer, was behind on his rent, jobless and was recently notified that he was being evicted.
“Something must have just hit him in the last couple of days really hard to where he just didn’t care,” he said.
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| 2022-09-21T14:20:05Z
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Under a white tent on the street outside Our Lady of the Angels on a recent Sunday, the Rev. Adrián Vázquez led parishioners seated in pews and plastic chairs in celebrating 10 o’clock Mass, flanked by piles of rubble from the sanctuary left there by a deadly earthquake nearly five years ago.
To the left stood the still-broken church, with deep cracks in the walls, its half-collapsed dome supported by scaffolding and a leaning column. Behind the priest was a wax painting of the Virgin Mary, a replica of the one on the wall inside the building and all but out of sight for the faithful.
But Vázquez’s excitement was so great that it couldn’t even be hidden by his pandemic facemask as he delivered the good news: Just weeks before the anniversary of the Sept. 19, 2017, quake, work was finally resuming on restoration of the Catholic temple, which houses the treasured Virgin considered miraculous for having survived floods and earthquakes.
He exhorted parishioners to support the church as the restoration progresses, saying, “The wait is not passive, and the temple is not going to be rebuilt on its own or only with the help of the government. How can we all help?”
Set in the working-class residential neighborhood of Guerrero and carrying one of Mary’s titles, Our Lady of the Angels has a history dating to the late 16th century.
In 1580 a painting of the Assumption of the Virgin arrived in the area floating on floodwaters and ended up in the mud on the property of an Indigenous cacique, or chief, known as Izayoque, according to a book about the church written by the Rev. José Berruecos about a century ago. The artwork depicts the Catholic belief that Mary, mother of Jesus, ascended into heaven, body and soul.
“In the midst of the floods, with all the evil they caused,” Berruecos wrote, “against that background of darkness and desolation, the image of Our Lady of the Angels appears in full light as a rainbow in the midst of the storm.”
Izayoque was so taken by the image on the badly damaged canvas that he had a chapel built in the Virgin’s honor with the painting reproduced on an adobe wall. The current sanctuary was finished some 200 years later, with the Virgin still gracing the oratory.
According to the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, Our Lady of the Angels is the second most important church in Mexico City after the internationally revered Basilica of Guadalupe, which is home to its own holy image of the Virgin and draws millions of pilgrims each year.
In an interview, parishioner María González’s voice cracked as she recalled the Sunday in 2017 when the dome caved in. As her cellphone lit up with text messages about the collapse, she and other neighbors rushed to the site to meet the Rev. Cirilo Colín, who at the time led the parish.
“It made a tremendous noise, like an explosion,” González said. “When we saw the dome, we all started to cry. … It was a miracle that no one died.”
The church had been damaged five days earlier by the quake, which killed about 360 people, collapsed dozens of buildings and left many more damaged and destined for demolition.
INAH, which is funding and carrying out the restoration project, began work on Our Lady of the Angels in September 2019. Phase one involved stabilizing the structure with steel supports to prevent further loss, and covering the collapsed dome to keep out rainwater.
That ended in December 2020, and since then it has been a long wait for phase two, which began Aug. 8. At this stage INAH is focusing on restoring a chamber behind the main altar that holds religious and historic artifacts, with the goal of protecting them and also rehabilitating a space that will be used to support the bigger restoration of the nave.
Antonio Mondragón, the project’s lead architect, said phase two is expected to end in December.
For now the image of the Virgin is hidden behind scaffolding, boxed off in a protective framework and covered by glass and wood panels that open and close like a book.
Only a handful of people get to see the Virgin up close, and sporadically so: Sometimes those who help the priest with services and daily chores place flowers before her, or he lets small groups in for a few minutes to look upon the image and pray.
The Virgin returns their gaze with a peaceful expression, draped in a blue cloak in front of a gold background, hands joined together in front of her chest.
Given the fragility of the adobe walls, she is unable to be moved, meaning her destiny is tied to that of the building.
“If we lose the parish,” Vázquez said, “we lose the Virgin.”
Vázquez was assigned to replace Colín in late 2019 and tasked with leading what he called a “comprehensive recovery” of the parish, both physically and as a spiritual community — since the building was damaged, many parishioners began attending other churches.
The 38-year-old priest is constantly urging his flock to invite others to the congregation, working to improve its social media presence and streaming Mass services via cellphone. He has also spent part of his own savings to pay for repairs to electrical wiring, touching up walls and other details.
While there’s still no fixed end date for the restoration, Vázquez said the church is already showing signs of rebirth: On Aug. 2, the feast day of Our Lady of the Angels, at least 900 people packed the celebrations on the street outside.
Parishioners are pitching in, too.
Rosa María Ordoñez, 76, who first attended as a child with her grandmother, is selling clothes and other donated goods to raise money for the church. Other parishioners are teaching catechism or doing chores like cleaning.
María Elena Corona, 85, also helps out however she can. Recently she wrote and illustrated signs explaining the Virgin’s history for display outside the church.
Corona, who first set foot in the sanctuary half a century ago, has moved several times since but always found herself drawn to return — including in 1985, when she moved back from the United States after an even more devastating quake that killed tens of thousands of people and first put cracks in the church’s walls. She settled in a nearby neighborhood and resumed attending Mass at Our Lady of the Angels.
The Virgin “does not let me go,” Corona said.
As the recent street Mass came to an end, Vázquez asked the faithful to turn to their left. That meant they were facing the Virgin’s perch inside the shattered temple, even if they couldn’t see her holy visage.
“Let us sing,” the priest beseeched them, “for the Virgin.”
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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| 2022-09-21T14:20:13Z
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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Opposition parties in Serbia and international rights groups on Sunday denounced a decision by populist President Aleksandar Vucic to cancel next month’s pan-European LGBTQ EuroPride event because of what he said were threats from right-wing extremists.
Most of the groups said that they would ignore the ban announced Saturday by Vucic and go ahead with the Sept. 12-18 events scheduled in the capital, Belgrade.
Vucic said that a political crisis with Serbia’s former breakaway province of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, and economic problems facing the country amid Russia’s war in Ukraine were among the reasons why the Balkan nation’s authorities couldn’t handle EuroPride.
The U.N. office in Serbia said it was concerned about the announced ban, saying it would jeopardize “the right to freedom of assembly as guaranteed by the Serbian Constitution.”
“The EuroPride is also an opportunity to celebrate the foundations of a strong and progressive society based on social equity, equality of all rights, solidarity, friendship and love,” U.N. Resident Coordinator in Serbia Francoise Jacob said.
Members of the European Pride Organizers Association chose Serbia’s capital three years ago to host the annual event, hoping it would represent a major breakthrough for a Slavic country that is traditionally conservative and under a strong influence from the Orthodox Church.
Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but has for years been moving closer to Russia’s political orbit. The Balkan country has voted for U.N. resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow.
In a protest called before the cancellation of the pride event, thousands of right-wing church supporters marched through the Serbian capital Sunday evening in a procession they said was “to save Serbia.” They were led by the Serbian branch of the Night Wolves, the Russian biker group that is considered close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Civic Democratic Forum opposition party accused the Serbian president of “playing dictator” by modeling himself after Putin, and trying to ban the Belgrade pride event.
Civic Democratic leader Zoran Vuletic said in a statement that the party wanted to remind Vucic “that he cannot cancel an event that he did not schedule and that he cannot, according to the constitution, prohibit the gathering of people.”
Vucic on Saturday announced the decision to cancel the EuroPride celebration during a news conference where he also proposed extending the term of Serbia’s prime minister, Ana Brnabic, who is a lesbian.
Brnabic has been frequently accused by Serbia’s gay rights groups of doing nothing to help their status is Serbia during her first two terms in the government. She joined Vucic in supporting the cancellation of the EuroPride event.
“No matter how you turn it, from any angle you look at it, the first inviolable thing is to ensure peace and stability in the country,” Brnabic said.
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| 2022-09-21T14:20:21Z
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ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Adenekan Ayomide had been attending the University of Abuja for two years when the lecturers went on strike in February. The 27-year-old undergraduate student hoped he would return to school quickly but immediately took a job as a taxi driver to pay bills.
Unfortunately for him, the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities has now clocked six months and Ayomide’s hopes of returning to classes anytime soon grow thin.
“Nobody is talking about school again,” said Ayomide, who said he is working more than one job and the budget he had for getting through university now looks unrealistic.
University strikes are common in Nigeria, which has more than 100 public universities and an estimated 2.5 million students, according to Nigeria’s National Universities Commission. The universities here have recorded at least 15 strikes covering a cumulative period of four years since 2000.
The latest strike, however, is biting harder on an education sector that is struggling to recover from a COVID-19 lockdown and an earlier strike that lasted for most of 2020.
No alternative means of learning is provided for students because “more than 90%” of lecturers in Nigerian universities are members of the academic staff union, according to Haruna Lawal Ajo, director of public affairs at Nigeria’s universities commission.
The striking lecturers are demanding a review of their conditions of service including the platform the government uses to pay their earnings, improved funding for the universities and the payment of their salaries withheld since the strike started.
Talks between the lecturers and the government ended in deadlock this month, dashing hopes of a compromise agreement.
Lecturers have faulted the government’s position, arguing that the government has still not provided higher pay for lecturers and more funds for the education sector which it agreed to in 2009.
If the government has not fulfilled a promise made in 2009 by 2022, how can it be trusted? asked Femi Atteh, a lecturer at the University of Ilorin in northcentral Kwara state who now works with his wife to run a food retail business.
“I just see ASUU (the union) trying to fight for the rights of its people. … Nigerian lecturers are far behind in terms of welfare when compared to others,” said Atteh.
Atteh said some of his colleagues are moving abroad for better opportunities and improved pay.
“Our situation in this country is just in a sorry state,” said lecturer Sabi Sani at the University of Abuja. After 12 years of teaching, Sani said his monthly salary is “not even enough to pay my children’s school fees.”
He said that when “more lecturers realize they can migrate, we will be left with unqualified lecturers to teach our children (because) all the qualified ones will run away.”
It is not just lecturers who are eyeing relocation for better opportunities.
Amidat Ahmed, a 22-year-old economics student at the University of Abuja said the strike has prevented her from getting clearance that would see her wrap up her undergraduate studies in the school because lectures are not available. She is now considering going abroad for a fresh undergraduate degree program.
“My life is stagnant,” said Ahmed who said she is working two jobs including one as a shoemaker where she is learning the skill to set up a business later in life.
It is a case of using the lemons to make lemonade, she said.
“Apart from this (learning the shoe-making trade), I don’t think I have done anything with my life all this while and it has been six months.”
Across Nigeria, students are looking for work to survive. Rent and other bills have accumulated, making things worse for many from poor backgrounds in this nation with a 40% poverty rate, according to the latest government statistics.
Some students’ financial situation is better when school is in session as a small proportion of the students get funding provided by nonprofits and government agencies.
After the latest round of talks to end the strike was unsuccessful, Ayomide remained on the roads as a taxi driver.
“I don’t have 5 naira ($0.012) in my account and I cannot go home because there is no money,” said Ayomide. His only option is to work long hours, he said. “Sometimes, I sleep at the airport or inside the car.”
“We just have to double our hustle and hope for the best,” he said. “This is the country where we are, so we have no choice.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:20:29Z
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ISTANBUL (AP) — Greek surface-to-air missiles locked on to Turkish F-16 fighter jets carrying out a reconnaissance mission in international airspace, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said Sunday.
The allegation is the latest claim from Turkey that its neighbor and fellow NATO member Greece has been targeting its aircraft above the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.
The radar of a Greek S-300 missile system based on the island of Crete locked on to the Turkish jets on Aug. 23, Anadolu reported, citing Defense Ministry sources.
The F-16s were at an altitude of 10,000 feet to the west of Greece’s Rhodes island when the Russian-made S-300’s target tracking radar locked on, the report added. The Turkish planes completed their mission and returned to their bases “despite the hostile environment.”
It added that radar lock-ons are considered an act of hostility under NATO rules of engagement.
Calls to the Greek Embassy in Ankara went unanswered Sunday.
Last week, Turkey summoned the Greek military attache and filed a complaint with NATO after Greek F-16s allegedly harassed Turkish F-16s that were conducting a mission for the alliance.
Anadolu said the Greek pilots put Turkey’s aircraft under a radar lock over the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey “gave the necessary response” and forced the planes to leave the area, Anadolu said, without elaborating.
Greece rejected the Turkish version of events. The Defense Ministry said five Turkish jets appeared without prior notification to accompany a flight of U.S. B-52 bombers — which hadn’t been due to have a fighter escort — through an area subject to Greek flight control.
It said four Greek fighters were scrambled and chased off the Turkish planes, adding that Athens informed NATO and U.S. authorities of the incident.
Although both NATO members, Turkey and Greece have decades-old disputes over an array of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean Sea and disputes over the airspace there. The disputes have brought them to the brink of war three times in the past half-century.
Tensions flared in 2020 over exploratory drilling rights in areas of the Mediterranean Sea where Greece and Cyprus claim exclusive economic zones, leading to a naval standoff.
Turkey has accused Greece of violating international agreements by militarizing islands in the Aegean Sea. Athens says it needs to defend the islands — many of which lie close to Turkey’s coast — against a potential attack from Turkey’s large fleet of military landing craft.
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| 2022-09-21T14:20:36Z
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BEIRUT (AP) — Satellite imagery showed widespread destruction at a giant military facility in western Syria targeted in a recent Israeli airstrike, and the head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said Sunday the strike targeted a depot housing hundreds of middle-range missiles for Iran-backed fighters.
Syrian state media reported after the Thursday night attack near the cities of Tartus and Hama that two people were wounded and fires were sparked in nearby forests. It added that the missiles were fired from over the Mediterranean and most of them were shot down.
Syrian opposition activists at the time said the strike targeted an arms depot and a scientific research center near the central town of Masyaf, a government stronghold. Masyaf is almost half way between the coastal city of Tartus and the central city of Hama.
The Times of Israel on Sunday published images taken by Planet Labs PBC and provided by Aurora Intel, a network that provides news and updates based on open-source intelligence.
Aurora Intel tweeted that initial analysis of satellite imagery showed that some buildings and areas sustained heavy damage from the reported airstrikes. It added that areas around the Scientific Studies and Research Center sustained “heavy fire damage due to the secondary explosions.”
The imagery showed that part of the green areas surrounding the facility had been burned.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based opposition war monitor known as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the Israelis struck several positions but the main target hit was a giant arms depot housing about 1,000 precision-guided middle-range missiles. He said the explosions at the facility lasted for more than five hours after the strike.
Abdurrahman added that an underground facility to develop missiles in the area under the supervision of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was not affected by the strikes, probably because it was dug deep in the mountains. He said the strike left one Syrian army captain dead and 14 other Syrians wounded.
“The explosions were among the largest since Israel began carrying out airstrikes in Syria,” he said.
There was no official comment from Israel’s military.
Israel has made hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria over the past decade of its civil war, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
It has, however, acknowledged that it targets bases of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s allies, including Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and other Iran-backed militias. Israeli military officials have said in the past that the strikes are against Iranian entrenchment in Syria.
Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top U.S. Air Force officer in the Middle East, said he was “certainly aware” of reports that Israel targeted an arms depot in Syria in recent days but stressed there was “no connection” between that attack and the U.S. airstrikes that hit Iran-linked targets in Syria last week.
He said that the recent actions that the U.S. military took “are entirely disconnected from any other actors, whether the Israelis or anyone else.”
On the tit-for-tat attacks that raised tensions between the U.S. and Iran-backed militias in Syria last week, Grynkewich said he hoped “things have de-escalated and now we’ve reached a point where deterrence is once again established.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:20:44Z
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(The Hill) – Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Sunday defended former President Trump in the wake of an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property but noted Trump “should have turned over all” of the classified documents authorities said he kept after he left the White House.
“I understand he turned over a lot of documents. He should have turned over all of them. I imagine he knows that very well now as well,” Blunt said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”
Blunt avoided answering several questions about whether Trump was right to take the sensitive material from the White House to his Palm Beach, Fla., resort before conceding that the former president should have turned the documents over to the National Archives as required by the Presidential Records Act.
“He should have turned the documents over and apparently had turned a number of documents over. … What I wonder about is why this could go on for almost two years, and less than 100 days before the election, suddenly we’re talking about this rather than the economy or inflation,” Blunt said.
Blunt questioned the timing of the investigation so close to this year’s midterms as well as why the Justice Department and the director of national intelligence hadn’t flagged the issue to the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which he is a member.
“Why hadn’t we heard anything about this, in fact, if the administration was concerned that there was a national security problem?”
The FBI seized 11 sets of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago when it executed a search warrant there earlier this month. An unsealed warrant indicates Trump is under investigation for possible violations of the Espionage Act and other laws in relation to the documents.
The affidavit justifying the FBI’s search warrant for Mar-a-Lago was released in redacted form last week.
The Missouri senator also tried to draw parallels between Trump’s case and that of Hillary Clinton, who was under FBI investigation for mishandling emails while she served as secretary of State. But he also acknowledged that sensitive government information should be handled appropriately.
“You should be careful with classified documents. I’ve had access to documents like that for a long time. I’m incredibly careful,” Blunt said.
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| 2022-09-21T14:20:59Z
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(KTLA) – A man opened fire inside a crowded bar in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights early Sunday morning, leaving one person in critical condition and wounding five others.
The shooting occurred around 12:45 a.m. at the Holiday Bar located at 2471 Whittier Blvd.
Witnesses tell police a fight had broken out between several individuals when a man pulled out a gun and fired into the crowd.
“It is unknown who he was arguing with,” Lt. Letisia Ruiz with Los Angeles Police said. “When he produced the handgun he shot into the crowd and that’s when individuals got struck by gunfire.”
The chaos spilled onto the street as bar patrons ran for safety, witnesses said.
In total, six people, four men and two women, were wounded, including one victim who was in critical condition.
The suspect, said to be a 25-year-old man, was taken into custody. His name was not immediately released.
Whittier Boulevard between Soto Street and Fickett Street was closed Sunday morning due to the investigation.
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| 2022-09-21T14:21:07Z
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(NEXSTAR) – Millions of Americans are soon going to have much, if not all, of their student loans forgiven. But one of the biggest questions that has remained since President Biden announced his student debt forgiveness plan last week is when borrowers will receive relief.
We have known that as many as 8 million borrowers may qualify for relief automatically based on income data the Department of Education already has access to. For the remaining 35 million borrowers the White House believes qualify for student loan forgiveness, a form will need to be submitted.
What we haven’t known is when exactly that form would be available, and how long it would take for loan forgiveness to be approved and pushed through.
Miguel Cardona, Secretary of the Department of Education, has an answer.
In a post on Twitter, Cardona explained forgiveness will be “as easy as 1,2,3.” He then outlined what the process will look like.
In early October, an application will be launched for borrowers that need to submit information needed by the Education Department.
After you’ve submitted that form (we don’t know what it will look like, but officials have indicated it will be short) Cardona says you can expect relief within four to six weeks.
While you’ll have until the end of 2023 to apply for loan forgiveness, you’ll want to fill out the application before Nov.15, 2022, to receive student debt relief before the payment pause ends, according to the Education Department.
In addition to announcing student loan forgiveness last week, President Biden extended the payment pause through the end of this year. This is the final time the pause, which was enacted in March 2020 by then-President Trump, will be extended, Biden said.
Until the application opens in October, there isn’t much borrowers can do. You can, however, register to be notified when the application is available through the Department of Education by filling out this form.
There are a few factors that will determine how much student loan forgiveness you’ll receive. You can review those here.
In addition to student loan forgiveness, the Biden administration proposed a new rule to create an income-driven repayment plan that will substantially reduce future monthly payments for lower- and middle-income borrowers, as well as long-term changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
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| 2022-09-21T14:21:14Z
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(The Conversation) – A launch window – the period during which a rocket must be launched to reach its destination – opens on August 29 for the first flight to the Moon since 1972 by a spacecraft designed to carry humans there. If all goes well, the Artemis project will be on track to meet its goal of putting humans back on the Moon in 2025.
Project Artemis, the namesake of the sister of Apollo and daughter of Zeus in ancient Greek mythology, is designed to establish a long-term human presence on our nearest celestial neighbour, and to ultimately explore even further afield. Artemis 1 is the first of several missions. It consists of Nasa’s new super-heavy rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which has never been launched before, and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (or Orion MPCV), which has only flown in space once.
Unlike the Command Service Modules of the Apollo missions, which were powered by hydrogen fuel cells, the Orion MPCV is a solar-powered craft. Its distinctive X-wing style solar arrays can be swept forward or backward to reduce stress on the probe during high-thrust manoeuvres. It is capable of carrying six astronauts for up to 21 days in space. The imminent, uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, however, may last as long as 42 days.
Read more: SpaceX vs Nasa: who will get us to the Moon first? Here’s how their latest rockets compare
Also unlike Apollo, Artemis is an international project. The Orion MPCV consists of a US-built capsule for the astronauts and a European-built service module containing supplies of fuel, water, air, solar-arrays and rocket thrusters.
The reliance on the Sun for power places some restrictions on when Artemis-1 can launch as the geometry of the Earth and Moon have to be such that the Orion spacecraft is not in shadow from the Sun for over 90 minutes at any point during the flight. The earliest launch window opens at 08.33 EST on August 29, with further windows on September 2 and 5.
Pioneering flight
The SLS will put Orion into Earth orbit, where its core stage will be discarded – dropped into the ocean. Most of the energy required to fly a spacecraft to the Moon is used in this first phase of the flight, just to reach low-Earth orbit. Orion will then be pushed out of Earth orbit and onto a lunar-bound trajectory by the second stage of the SLS, called the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS).
Orion will then separate from the ICPS and spend the next several days coasting to the Moon. The launch is typically one of the riskiest parts of any spaceflight, especially for a new rocket. If Artemis-1 successfully reaches Earth orbit it will be a significant milestone for the project.
During the mission, Orion will also deploy ten mini satellites known as CubeSats. One of these, BioSentinel, will contain yeast to observe how the microgravity and radiation environment on the Moon affect the growth of microorganisms. Another, NEA Scout, will deploy a solar sail and then fly to a nearby asteroid for a close-up examination. Meanwhile, IceCube will orbit the Moon and search for ice deposits on or near the surface, which may be used by future astronauts.
Entry into lunar orbit will occur just 60 miles above the lunar surface. Orion will fire its onboard thrusters to slow the spacecraft and allow the Moon’s gravity to capture it into orbit. It will orbit the Moon in an unusual, distant retrograde orbit – in the opposite direction to the Moon’s spin. This particular orbit was originally chosen to flight test Orion as part of a now-cancelled mission to learn to redirect asteroids.
During this phase, Orion will travel up to 70,000 km from the Moon and reach the furthest distance from Earth ever for a human-capable spacecraft. If astronauts were onboard, they would have a grand view of the distant Earth and the Moon.
Orion will spend between six and 23 days in lunar orbit, after which it will fire its onboard thrusters once again to accelerate out of lunar orbit and place itself on a return to Earth trajectory.
The surface of the Moon can reach 120°C during the day and drop to -170°C at night. Such large temperature changes can cause significant thermal expansion and contraction of materials, so the Orion spacecraft had to be built with materials able to withstand significant thermal stress without failing. One goal of the mission is to check this, and crucially, ensure that the breathable atmosphere inside the capsule is maintained throughout.
At the distances of the Moon, astronauts would also be outside of the Earth’s magnetic field, which normally protects us from cosmic radiation. Deep space radiation is a serious concern for any future human missions to the Moon. The longest Apollo mission (Apollo 17) lasted 12 and a half days – Orion will be in deep space for three to four times as long. Engineers will, therefore, also keep a close eye on the radiation environment inside the capsule.
On returning to Earth, the Orion crew capsule will separate from the service module, which will be discarded, and then enter the atmosphere protected by its heat shield. It will descend and deploy parachutes to land at sea. In fact, this is the most crucial part of the mission: to ensure that the capsule can survive the high re-entry speeds of a spacecraft returning from the Moon and then make a safe landing. To do so, the heat shield must endure temperatures of 2,750°C while Orion decelerates from 24,500 miles per hour – that’s significantly hotter than the temperatures encountered when spacecraft return from low-Earth orbit.
Assuming a successful launch on August 29, the splashdown would be on October 10.
Artemis-2, currently slated for launch in 2024, will carry four astronauts on a lunar flyby some 9,000km above the Moon’s surface. The astronauts on Artemis-2 will become the record holders for the greatest distance from Earth ever reached by humans.
Nasa has also just announced a short list of landing sites near the Moon’s South Pole for the first lunar landing mission, Artemis-3, aiming to land humans there in 2025. Whether they reach that goal will ultimately depend on how things go for Artemis-1.
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| 2022-09-21T14:21:21Z
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(NerdWallet) – It’s a terrible feeling to arrive at a checkout screen and realize that the cost far exceeds the original listed price.
This practice of adding fees throughout the checkout process is called “drip pricing,” and the travel industry is one of the worst offenders. Airlines add baggage and seat selection fees. Hotels drop resort fees at the last minute. And Airbnb listings carry cleaning fees, service fees and taxes that can balloon the cost of a booking, making it harder to answer the question: “How much is an Airbnb?”
NerdWallet analyzed 1,000 Airbnb bookings across major cities in the U.S. to understand the prevalence and impact of Airbnb fees on prices. For each booking, the base cost of the room was collected, along with additional taxes and fees.
Overall, base price accounted for 68% of the total cost of bookings, with taxes and fees making up the remaining 32%. This discrepancy means that travelers looking to comparison shop on the vacation rental platform should essentially ignore base prices and focus instead on the total charge at checkout.
For comparison, baked-in fees on hotel rooms average 4.4% of the total cost, according to our analysis of hotel resort fees. Hotels do carry other annoying fees, such as those for parking and pets. Yet overall the difference between the listed price and final price on hotels is less dramatic than on Airbnb listings.
How Airbnb prices are displayed
Airbnb likes to tweak its interface, changing how prices and fees are displayed, making it hard to know exactly how prices will appear on any given search. In general, the base price of a property is displayed prominently. On desktop, the total price for the reservation is also included, while on the mobile app it is hit or miss.
Take two Airbnb properties in the Los Angeles area for example. One has a slightly higher base price at $215 than the other at $200. Yet the total price, which includes taxes and fees over two nights, is actually lower for the “higher” priced property, $559 vs. $662. Essentially, the base price is unhelpful in understanding the real cost.
Unlike many hotel brand search engines, which include a “display total price” option or similar, Airbnb does not allow users to search by total price. Instead, you can see only the base price before fees and taxes are added.
Even the property detail page will usually exclude taxes. So, it takes a few taps or clicks to see the total price. This makes it difficult to compare these prices between properties, especially when using the mobile app, where switching between tabs isn’t an option.
Here are some tips to help compare total costs:
- Always compare costs on the final checkout screen.
- Open multiple tabs, if possible.
- Avoid the mobile app for comparison shopping.
How to minimize Airbnb fees
The most straightforward way to avoid extra Airbnb fees is to follow through with the steps outlined above. By comparing final prices rather than base prices, you can make sure you’re accounting for the impact of fees on your trip. You’ll end up choosing properties with lower fees by carefully comparing total prices.
Here’s another tip, if it’s feasible: Stay longer. Although longer stays will cost more overall, the impact of cleaning fees will be lower compared to single-night stays.
Furthermore, taxes are lower or waived for stays of 30 days or more in some locations. So the impact of taxes and fees on these longer-term stays is less pronounced. And many properties offer discounts for longer stays.
Not everyone is planning to stay a month in an Airbnb, of course. So if none of these strategies work and you can’t find a short-term rental without huge fees, it’s always worth considering a hotel. Although resort fees and other add-ons can pop up during hotel bookings, the lack of a cleaning fee makes hotels the more budget-friendly option in some short-term situations.
Airbnb pricing, recapped
It’s annoying to find a higher rate at checkout than you anticipated, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Since service fees, taxes and cleaning fees are built into nearly every Airbnb booking, they might as well be baked into the base nightly cost — but they’re not.
As long as you’re comparing total costs, it shouldn’t matter if the base price is $1 and the cleaning fee is $99 or the other way around. It might feel yucky to pay more in fees than the cost of the “room,” but from a financial perspective, it’s a wash.
Don’t get sucked in by low base prices and ignore the final price. Compare the cost per night across listings by doing a little math after seeing total charges. And consider staying longer at one booking rather than jumping between several if the fees are adding up.
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| 2022-09-21T14:21:29Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — For one day, movie tickets will be just $3 in the vast majority of American theaters as part of a newly launched “National Cinema Day” to lure moviegoers during a quiet spell at the box office.
The Cinema Foundation, a non-profit arm of the National Association of Theater Owners, on Sunday announced that Sept. 3 will be a nationwide discount day in more than 3,000 theaters and on more than 30,000 screens. Major chains, including AMC and Regal Cinemas, are participating, as are all major film studios. In participating theaters, tickets will be no more than $3 for every showing, in every format.
Labor Day weekend is traditionally one of the slowest weekends in theaters. This year, the August lull has been especially acute for exhibitors. Cineworld, which owns Regal Cinemas, cited the scant supply of major new releases in its recent plans to fill for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
But, if successful, National Cinema Day could flood theaters with moviegoers and potentially prompt them to return in the fall. Before each showing, ticket buyers will be shown a sizzle reel of upcoming films from A24, Amazon Studios, Disney, Focus Features, Lionsgate, Neon, Paramount, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony, United Artists Releasing, Universal, and Warner Bros.
“After this summer’s record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” said Jackie Brenneman, Cinema Foundation president, in a statement. “We’re doing it by offering a ‘thank you’ to the moviegoers that made this summer happen, and by offering an extra enticement for those who haven’t made it back yet.”
After more than two years of pandemic, movie theaters rebounded significantly over the summer, seeing business return to nearly pre-pandemic levels. Films like “Top Gun: Maverick,”“Minions: Rise of Gru,”“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Jurassic World Dominion” pushed the domestic summer box office to $3.3 billion in ticket sales as of Aug. 21, according to data firm Comscore. That trails 2019 totals by about 20% but exhibitors have had about 30% fewer wide releases this year.
Organizers of National Cinema Day described the event as a trial that could become an annual fixture. While some other countries have experimented with a similar day of cheap movie tickets, the initiative is the first of its kind on such a large scale in the U.S.
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| 2022-09-21T14:21:36Z
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A new study published by researchers at Washington State University suggests testing how the eye’s pupil changes in response to light could potentially be used to screen for autism in young children.
The proof-of-concept study was published in the journal Neurological Sciences in March and builds on previous research first author Georgina Lynch has done to study the development of a portable technology for screening.
A portable technology tool that could help with diagnoses could allow health care providers to catch children earlier in their development when interventions are more likely to benefit them.
“We know that when we intervene as early as ages 18 to 24 months, it has a long-term impact on their outcomes,” Lynch said. “Intervening during that critical window could be the difference between a child acquiring verbal speech and staying nonverbal. Yet, after 20 years of trying we still have not changed the average age of diagnosis here in the U.S., which is 4 years old.”
The study tested 36 children aged 6 to 17 who had been previously diagnosed with autism. It also tested a group of 24 typically developing children who served as controls.
The children’s pupillary light reflexes — or how their pupils changed in response to light — were tested by trained clinical workers using a handheld pupillometer device, which measures pupil dilation in response when it’s triggered by a visual stimulus.
Research studied the children’s test results and found that children with autism showed significant differences in the time it took for their pupils to constrict in response to light. Their pupils also took longer to return to their original size after light was removed.
“What we did with this study is we demonstrated the parameters of interest that matter — speed of constriction and return to baseline and we demonstrated it with monocular technology because we knew there is no significant difference between eyes in terms of the pupillary response in autism, unlike in head injury or concussion where it’s common to see unequal pupil sizes,” Lynch said.
In a previous study, Lynch tested children’s pupil response using binocular pupillometry in a laboratory setting. However, this method uses an expensive, stationary setup that measures both eyes at once.
Lynch is working on developing her own autism screening tool and the lower expense and portability associated with monocular technology made it possible to move testing into clinical settings, which is where Lynch hopes her future tool will be used.
Lynch said she first thought to use pupil dilation as a method to screen for autism when she was working as a clinician.
“I noticed this state in kids with ASD where their pupils were very dilated even in the presence of bright light,” she said, referring to autism spectrum disorder. “That system is modulated in the brain by cranial nerves rooted in the brainstem, and adjacent cranial nerves affect your ability to acquire speech and language. The pupillary light reflex tests the integrity of that system, so it seemed logical to try this very simple, noninvasive measure to determine whether there were differences between typical development and autism.”
For her next step, Lynch hopes to expand testing to a group of 300 or more 2- to 4-year-olds across a larger number of clinical sites.
The data from the next study will be used to attempt to validate her earlier findings and will be integrated into the screening device that will help providers decide if they need to refer a child for further evaluation.
In the meantime, Lynch is already preparing to file for Food and Drug Administration premarket approval for the screening device she’s been working on. She wants to get it from an academic research setting to use in pediatric clinics.
WSU said an estimated one in 44 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by age 8, but many kids get misdiagnosed or missed altogether due to the subjective nature of the diagnostic process.
Having a quick, objective screening method could help improve the accuracy and speed with which children are diagnosed.
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| 2022-09-21T14:21:44Z
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(NerdWallet) – When making your travel budget, don’t assume that lodging and airfare will be your biggest expense. Now, more than ever, rental cars are shaping up to be one of the biggest — and stubbornly high — aspects of people’s vacation budgets.
While airfare and lodging prices are certainly near all-time highs, rental cars are among the biggest price increases of all travel expenses. When comparing prices for July 2022 versus July 2019 (the last normal summer pre-pandemic), hotel prices are up 7%, according to the latest set of Consumer Price Index data released in August 2022. Airfares are up 16%. But rental cars are up a whopping 48%.
When did rental car prices get so high
Like most travel costs, rental car prices sharply dropped in April and May 2020 as people began calling off vacations to stay at home. But things began to turn around at the beginning of 2021 when prices began increasing every month, building up to a record high set in July 2021.
Road trips were especially hot that summer (thus high demand), but other factors — including a global semiconductor shortage and tourism industry labor shortages — contributed to low supply. In fact, leisure and hospitality sector employment remains 7.8% below pre-pandemic levels, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the U.S. Travel Association.
Prices have slightly dipped from the July 2021 record, but they are still far above pre-pandemic pricing.
How to find affordable rental cars
NerdWallet conducted an analysis of 360 rental car reservations to better understand the cheapest ways to rent. Some of the findings may help you save on your next rental car. Among the rental car companies in the analysis, Enterprise is usually the cheapest, while National is most expensive. The analysis also found that last-minute rentals are typically cheaper than those booked months in advance. And you’ll almost always save by booking at an off-site rental car location versus at the airport.
That knowledge can help you better understand the cheapest places to book, but sometimes booking from a specific location or company might be non-negotiable with the nature of your trip. These other tricks can still help you save:
Use travel credit cards: Some travel credit cards offer rental car insurance as part of their benefits, though it may exclude certain types of expensive cars or rentals in some countries. When it is applicable though, it can save you money on the extra insurance you might have otherwise signed up for at the counter.
Join rental car loyalty programs: Benefits vary based on your level of elite status, though some levels can include free upgrades and waived fees. You might even get automatic status through a credit card. Yet even the entry-level, free-to-join tiers can include perks like priority lines.
Reserve now and pay at the counter: Many rental car companies give you the option to pay at the counter. Paying upon pickup has two major benefits versus paying upfront: First, should you need to cancel your trip, you remove the headache of trying to get a refund since you won’t have put down any money anyway. Second, if rates drop, you can always cancel and rebook at a lower rate.
How to save money on road trips
Throw in high gas prices, and road trips might be one of the most expensive ways to travel these days. Here are some ways to cut back on costs.
Use apps to find cheap gas: Apps like GasBuddy track local gas prices and can help you find the cheapest gas stations along your route.
Consider an electric vehicle: With an electric car, you’ll avoid paying for gas entirely. While you may still have to pay to charge it, some hotels offer free electric vehicle charging as a guest benefit.
Plan a budget-friendly route: If you’re open-minded to location, consider driving through states with lower gas prices. During the last week of July, the three states with the lowest gas prices were Georgia, South Carolina and Texas, according to AAA data.
Why trip planning should start with rental car prices
Before you get too caught up in the excitement of a road trip, make sure you can afford it. With prices so much higher than they were two years ago, you don’t want to get caught off guard. Hold off on booking your flights or hotels until you’ve compared rental car prices and included it in your trip budget.
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| 2022-09-21T14:21:51Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Commanders rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. was shot during an attempted robbery or carjacking, the NFL team said Sunday night.
The 23-year-old former Alabama player was taken to a hospital with what the team called non-life-threatening injuries. The team said in a statement staff members were with Robinson at the hospital.
Coach Ron Rivera said he had been with Robinson.
“He is in good spirits and wanted me to thank everyone for their kind words, prayers & support,” Rivera said on Twitter. “He wants his teammates to know he appreciates them all for reaching out and he loves them all & will be back soon doing what he does best.”
D.C. police reported a shooting in the northeast section of the city and said it was on the lookout for two possible suspects.
Robinson, a third-round draft pick, was was expected to start for the Commanders this season. He had been particularly impressive during training camp and preseason games, likely earning the job over incumbent Antonio Gibson.
“Brian’s been great,” offensive coordinator Scott Turner said recently. “He’s a real serious guy. Football is extremely important to him. He takes a lot of pride in being a physical runner.”
Robinson traveled with the team for its preseason finale at Baltimore on Saturday night but did not dress.
The 6-foot-1, 228-pound back rushed for 1,343 yards and 14 touchdowns last season at Alabama. The Commanders selected him with the 98th pick in the draft.
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| 2022-09-21T14:22:07Z
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(The Hill) – Former assistant special Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman said late Saturday that he thinks the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be closely watching the national security damage assessment reportedly underway regarding documents the FBI obtained from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
“That’s a big issue here. In fact, I think the prosecutors will be investigating some of the same things. I mean, for example, they’re looking at the videos that were on the storage area,” Ackerman told anchor Jim Acosta on “CNN Newsroom.”
“They’re going to want to see who moved things in and out, when they did it in relation to requests that they made,” he added. “I’m sure they’re going to be fingerprinting every one of those documents to try and determine whether anybody else had access to them and who had access to them.”
Ackerman’s remarks come after the redacted FBI affidavit used to convince a judge to approve this month’s search of Trump’s Florida residence was unsealed to the public on Friday.
The 28-page affidavit indicated that authorities found up to 184 classified documents they obtained from the Mar-a-Lago residence, with 25 of those documents containing top secret information.
Ackerman also told Acosta that “the obstruction piece of this” stands out to him from the affidavit.
“The concealment that’s listed in that affidavit, I mean, that is what really triggered this search warrant in the first place because they had evidence that they were being lied to, that they were being played, and that Donald Trump and some others were basically concealing these documents, which leads to the big question why would they even want these documents in the first place, which of course, brings up this issue of what happened to these documents, who had access to them, and were any of our real major secrets blown because of the way this material was handled,” Ackerman said.
“I think from a prosecutor’s standpoint, it’s that obstruction piece that really is important here,” he added.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines reportedly sent a letter to two Democratic representatives on Friday noting that officials would assess the risk resulting from potential disclosure of the classified information in the documents.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing regarding the documents.
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| 2022-09-21T14:22:14Z
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(The Hill) – The White House is rushing ahead to roll out a new COVID-19 booster shot campaign in early September, but is facing an uphill battle to ensure it is successful.
The vaccines being used in the campaign are the first ones that have been manufactured to specifically target the subvariants of omicron that are currently causing the most infections, and administration officials have indicated they’re preparing to start offering the shots shortly after Labor Day.
Immunity from the initial round of vaccines is waning and health officials said they want to ensure the public is protected as much as possible against another wave of infections in the fall and winter. Right now, close to 450 Americans are dying every day from the virus, and there’s concern the numbers could rise as people move indoors.
Both Pfizer and Moderna have asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization for booster shots that target the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. Pfizer’s vaccine will be for everyone aged 12 and older, while Moderna’s will be meant just for adults aged 18 and older.
Administration officials say these new vaccines will be key to controlling a potential fall surge, but they will need to convince an increasingly checked-out public to get the shots.
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha has been front and center trying to promote the reformulated boosters, saying recently that “all the data suggests [they] should be highly effective against the new variants.”
“The big picture bottom line is these are substantial upgrades in our vaccines in terms of their ability to prevent infection, to prevent transmission. Certainly to prevent serious illness. And so it’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shot.” Jha said during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event on Aug. 16.
During an interview with the radio program “Conversations on Health Care,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said the administration wants to provide people with the broadest possible protection.
“So the strategy now is to tailor vaccine for giving us the largest breadth of response, ideally one that would have less waning over time,” Walensky said. “I believe it is best to use a vaccine that is tailored for the variant that we have right now.”
But despite the administration’s optimism, the effort is likely to face major hurdles. Chief among them is a lack of interest from the public. Only about two-thirds of the U.S. population have been vaccinated with a primary COVID-19 vaccine series, while less than half of that group has received even a first booster.
The vaccination rate among children is even lower. According to the CDC, less than 4 percent of eligible kids under the age of 2 have received at least one dose, and only 6 percent of kids between the ages of 2 and 4 have received a single dose.
Rupali Limaye, a vaccine expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said she doesn’t expect the retooled boosters will do much to convince the under-vaccinated population to get another shot.
The same people who rushed to get the initial vaccine series and then the first round of boosters will be the ones to receive the omicron-specific shots, she said, and mixed messages from health officials are partly to blame.
The most recent update to the CDC’s guidance emphasized living with the virus, and downplayed many of its previously recommended mitigation strategies. That doesn’t necessarily mesh with the idea that the public urgently needs to get an updated vaccine.
“I think for the most part, the majority of the public has sort of moved on, if you will. And the messaging has been that this is going to now be with us,” Limaye said. “Why do I need a new vaccine related to a virus that essentially my government has told me is no longer an issue?”
Rather than a broad rollout of the updated vaccines for the general public, Limaye and other scientists have suggested a more targeted approach, tailoring vaccine recommendations to the elderly and immunocompromised.
John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, said it’s not clear how much extra protection the new shots would provide against infection, but predicted they won’t be much better than the first round of boosters.
The protection is likely “somewhere between mediocre and reasonable. I mean, we just don’t know,” Moore said. “A booster will give some additional protection against infection for, you know, a few months before it wanes again.”
Moore said it’s important that health officials provide the public with realistic messaging, and don’t oversell the benefits of the shots.
“It’s not like they’re a magic bullet that gives you super strong protection,” Moore said. “If the public thinks they’re getting something that is really, really against infection, then they might change their behavior and increase the risk of exposure. That’s counterproductive.”
The other concern among some scientists is that the government is moving too quickly to authorize the vaccines. Neither Moderna nor Pfizer has clinical trial data for the vaccine. Instead, their requests are based on data from a booster targeting an earlier version of omicron, as well as preclinical data from mice.
But health officials maintain they don’t need additional data, because vaccine manufacturers are essentially making a minor update to the existing vaccine, which has an established track record of success.
“There’s always a question here of being too slow versus too fast, and I think one of the challenges is if we wait for those data to emerge in human data, not just mice data, in human data, we will be using what I would consider to be a potentially outdated vaccine,” Walensky said. “I believe it is best to use a vaccine that is tailored for the variant that we have right now.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:22:22Z
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(The Hill) – The White House has stepped into tricky legal territory with a plan to erase $10,000 in federal student loan debt for millions of borrowers.
The plan is expected to face legal challenges, which would cause uncertainty for borrowers who stand to benefit from the new policy.
At the same time, there are also expected to be challenges for those planning to sue the administration over the plan.
Demonstrating standing in the case in particular is seen as a hurdle, leading some to doubt a future challenge will be successful.
The Biden administration relied on the 2003 Heroes Act enacted following the Sept. 11 terror attacks to underpin its plan. It argues that because of the COVID-19 emergency, the law gives the Education Department the authority to both suspend loan repayments through Dec. 31 and cancel loan debt for many borrowers.
Groups like the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way have opposed Biden’s plan in part due to the threat of legal challenges.
“We’re very concerned that it is going to get held up in court and leave borrowers in limbo,” said Lanae Erickson, senior vice president for social policy, education and politics at Third Way.
There has been discussion for months about the administration’s legal authority to cancel student loan debt, as progressives increased pressure on Biden to take action. The initial expectation was that the Biden administration would use the Higher Education Act to justify executive action on student loans.
Biden on Wednesday announced plans to cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making under $125,000 per year, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel released a memo outlining the legal justification.
The Heroes Act was passed in 2003 with bipartisan support and gives the Education secretary the authority to waive debt obligations amid a war or national emergency. The law was passed with veterans fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in mind, but the administration believes the coronavirus pandemic is covered by the law because it was declared a national emergency.
“They very clearly narrowed their decision to this very specific national emergency hook,” said Dalié Jiménez, a law professor at University of California Irvine. “I think they did that probably to avoid a legal challenge or prevent it as much as possible.”
“It’s strategically a much better thing to do, and I think it narrows the possibility of successful challenges considerably,” Jiménez said.
Erickson, however, argued that there remains a “very high likelihood” that the action will ultimately be struck down.
“It is still very vague congressional language and I don’t think Congress thought when it was passing Heroes that it was giving the department the authority to wipe out student debt,” she said.
When White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked Thursday if the administration is prepared for potential legal challenges, she declined to get into what she called a hypothetical scenario.
Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council, said Friday that Biden did not want to move forward with loan forgiveness unless he was certain he was on firm legal footing.
“Of course people can challenge actions in court, it happens all the time,” Ramamurti said. “It’s going to be up to the courts to decide whether those are valid claims or not. But we believe we’re on very strong legal ground.”
There are questions about who could demonstrate standing in a case.
“It’s an obvious standing hurdle. It seems plausible to me that some plaintiffs could overcome it,” said Richard Re, University of Virginia law professor. “If someone can show that this measure will cost them something financially, that would probably be the strongest way to have a challenge be heard on the merits.”
Re and others have suggested that loan servicers could potentially sue to stop the loan forgiveness. Erickson said that borrowers who fall just outside the income bracket for the loan forgiveness — such as those who make $126,000 per year — may also be able to sue.
Should they retake control of the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections, Republicans could also file a lawsuit against the student loan forgiveness plan as early as January, she said, like the suit then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) filed over the Affordable Care Act in 2014.
Conservative critics of Biden’s announcement acknowledge there is uncertainty over who would have standing to bring a lawsuit in this case, but they largely agreed that the policy itself is unconstitutional and contradictory.
Critics pointed to comments last July from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) when she cast doubt on the president’s authority to unilaterally wipe out student loan debt.
“People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress,” Pelosi said.
Akash Chougule, vice president of government affairs at Americans for Prosperity, argued using the Heroes Act to justify the measure is a “misreading of the executive branch’s authority,” noting that a former Obama administration counsel for the Education Department determined in a memo earlier this year that the executive branch likely does not have the power to cancel student debt.
Chougule also suggested the administration was hypocritical in describing the COVID-19 pandemic as an emergency that necessitated the loan forgiveness since the White House moved to lift the Title 42 immigration policy on the grounds that the pandemic was no longer an emergency that required the rapid expulsion of migrants.
“The difficulty, I think, is I don’t know who has standing to sue,” said Neal McCluskey, a policy analyst at the CATO Institute. “So, the most direct harm it seems to me is on taxpayers because they’re not getting repaid and they have to cover government spending.”
Alex Gangitano contributed.
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FORT JACKSON, S.C. (AP) — Chaz Andrews has wanted to join the Army since he was 19, but he has failed the service’s academic test more than 10 times over the past decade.
Now, at age 29, Andrews thinks he has a real shot to pass, thanks to a new Army program that gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards.
“I didn’t want to give up on it,” he said during a recent break in his classroom schedule at Fort Jackson, where he is one of more than 300 recruits who have been allowed to enlist in the new Army prep course. And if Andrews, who is from Brooklyn, New York, is able to raise his test score, he will be allowed to continue on to basic training.
The program, which began in early August, is one way the Army is hoping to fill the ranks as it struggles with recruiting efforts that are expected to fall dramatically short of the goals this year. Army officials have described the situation as dire, with some predicting the service may fall 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers short of its recruiting target on Oct. 1 , or as much as 18% to 25%.
Military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the totals are preliminary and could change, said the initial recruiting goal was as much as 60,000 this year, but more realistic expectations later put it at about 55,000. With one month to go, officials are predicting they will come in about 45,000, though it could get better if there is a surge at the end.
Gen. James McConville, the Army chief, traveled to Fort Jackson on Friday for a firsthand look at the pilot program. He and others have acknowledged the recruiting problems and say they are due to a confluence of events and conditions.
The coronavirus pandemic kept recruiters out of schools, fairs and other public events, limiting their in-person contact with students.
Unemployment has been low, other corporate jobs pay well and offer good benefits, and according to estimates, just 23% of young people ages 17 to 24 are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver. Moral behavior issues include drug use, gang ties or a criminal record.
Those academic and physical fitness requirements are the ones the prep course will address.
“We have some young men and women that want to serve, that have some challenges on the academic and physical side here. And what we want to do is give them that opportunity,” McConville said. He added that the Army will not reduce standards to get more recruits into the service, but will do more to help soldiers make the grade.
Inside the classroom, about 30 recruits in Army fatigues are in their first week of the initial three-week session. On the board, “TAXES” is scrawled in large letters, and students are going through math problems tied to the 6% sales tax. Down the hall, others are tackling rates of speed, calculating how long it will take to travel certain distances.
Other classes focus on reading comprehension and vocabulary. Students get study breaks and personal time. Recruits who failed the fitness standard get classes on nutrition, exercise, physical therapy, sleep habits and other health skills leading to safe and healthy weight loss.
The fitness training is for recruits who are between 2% and 6% over the body fat standards for their age and gender. The Army routinely allows recruits to go to basic training if they are up to 2% over because they will automatically lose weight and gain muscle during basic training.
The instructors — some former drill sergeants — are in uniform but wear casual ball caps and have toned down their normal cadence. Noting that the sergeants can often be a bit abrasive, commanders said they instead looked for those who can be mature instructors with good temperaments and communication skills.
Staff Sgt. Jonathan Tenorio, who was a drill sergeant and is now an instructor, said it’s less screaming and directing, and more speaking and teaching.
But this is still the Army.
So students’ days start around 5 a.m. and physical training is first on the schedule. They also are learning how to wear their new uniforms, how to march, and how to figure out ranks and other basics of Army culture. And they are learning to live with less social media time — they get to have their phones only certain parts of the day, not during classes or at night.
Every week they are tested. And every three weeks they can move into basic training if they successfully pass the military’s academic test — which is called the Armed Services Voluntary Aptitude Battery — or if they meet the physical standards. They can stay in the program and keep testing for up to 90 days, but have to leave the Army if they don’t pass by then.
Brig. Gen. Patrick Michaelis, the base commander, said many struggle with test-taking skills. The prep course, he said, doesn’t teach answers to the test, instead it focuses on improving their testing skills.
Outside the classroom building, 2nd Lt. William Paschall, a math instructor, said he’s seen progress. At the start of the week, he asked how many understood a problem on the board and few hands went up. At the end of the week, nearly all raised their hands.
So far the success rate has been high. In the academic program, 75% of the 333 students tested so far improved at least one category, which can allow them to move on to basic training. In the fitness program, 73 of the 152 students who began the program have already met the goal and been able to move to basic training.
A dozen students met with McConville, telling him their individual stories. Most said they’ve been trying to get into the Army for a couple years, but were stalled by the academic test. “This is giving me a second chance,” said one. Others talked about looking for a better life and a good job and, as one said, “my final opportunity to get out of the town I lived in.”
Daysia Holiday, 23, said her goal is to become a Green Beret. She’s taken the academic test and failed three times in the past two years, and sees this as her best chance. Holiday, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said many of her peers didn’t make it out of high school, with some “dead or in jail,” and she wants to set an example for her five younger siblings.
Over time, McConville said he expects the program will expand. Commanders say they believe they can put up to 10,000 through the classes, and it could be set up at three other Army training bases. Other changes could broaden the course so that those who fail both the physical fitness requirements and the scholastic test might be able to get in. Right now, recruits have to meet standards in one of the two.
One week into the course, Andrews is optimistic. “I’ve been trying to do this since I was 19,” he said.
Will he succeed? “Yea, most definitely,” he said. “It’s very helpful.”
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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — As a former ski resort executive, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu knows something about navigating slippery slopes. But recent controversy at a county-owned ski area has raised questions about his grip on the Republican Party heading into the November elections.
Sununu, who is seeking his fourth term, recently inserted himself into a power struggle over Gunstock Mountain Resort, siding with staff who quit en masse and forced a two-week shutdown last month. Pushing back against anti-government activists who want to privatize the ski area, Sununu also called for the ouster this fall of three Republican legislators with an oversight role of the resort.
“These individuals have made bad decisions, and until they are removed from their positions and replaced with good people who recognize the wonderful asset that Gunstock is, the county will continue to suffer,” he wrote in an open letter to area residents.
Sununu’s intervention was seen by many as a rebuke of the Free State Project, a 20-year-old political experiment that promotes a mass migration of 20,000 libertarians to New Hampshire. Fewer than 6,500 have arrived so far, but they have made inroads everywhere from school boards to the legislature. What that means for Sununu, the Republican Party and the state overall is uncertain. But so-called Free Staters are clearly shaking things up.
“In my view the governor is barely holding on to his party in the lower chamber, and some of the crazy things they have tried to pull have damaged his reputation in the state,” said Linda Fowler, professor emirata of government at Dartmouth College.
In 2003, Fowler dismissed the project as a gimmick, saying it was unlikely that even 20,000 people could have a significant impact. But she also did not foresee Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016 or the coronavirus pandemic.
“Both, I think, have contributed to the fact that the Free Staters are now a negative influence on the state’s politics and that their behavior has become an election issue,” she said.
Conceived by a Yale graduate student in 2001, the Free State Project picked New Hampshire — with its low taxes, easy entry into politics and “Live Free or Die” motto — as its destination two years later. By 2016, 20,000 people had promised to pack their bags within five years. That hasn’t happened, and the group’s past president now says the pledge model has fallen by the wayside.
But it hasn’t taken huge numbers to get results.
About 45 Free Staters have been elected to the legislature since 2008; more than 20 serve now. While that is a small fraction of the 424-member legislature, it’s enough to influence policy given the GOP’s slim majority in the House.
The group counts the House majority leader as one of its own, and members often team up with dozens of other lawmakers who make up the wider “freedom caucus,” securing victories on legislation related to school choice, vaccines and limiting the governor’s power during emergencies.
One Free State stronghold is Belknap County, which owns the Gunstock ski area. After months of tension, top managers abruptly resigned last month, then returned after two commissioners were ousted. Sununu’s letter targeted both the commission members and three of the Republican lawmakers who appointed them, saying they had lost the public’s trust.
The governor later described their handling of the ski area as “just the latest episode of their craziness,” noting that one of the three — Rep. Michael Sylvia — supports having New Hampshire secede from the United States. But Sununu said he doesn’t consider them representatives of either the Free State movement or the Republican Party.
“I don’t have any problem with Free Staters,” he said. “These are not Free Staters.”
Sununu also rejected the notion that the rise of the Free State movement poses a long-term problem for his political career or his party, saying voters will reject the most extreme candidates.
“Voters are very smart,” he said. “When they see that kind of extremism, they tend to move it along on both the Republican side and the Democrat side.”
Sununu’s involvement in the Gunstock dispute could signal a turning point, said political consultant Scott Spradling.
“There was, I think, a fine line between Republicans and Free Staters. Now there’s a battle line,” he said. “Gunstock could very well be a high watermark, putting warning lights around the Free State movement for New Hampshire voters who are now going to associate their identity with this controversy.”
Either side could make the other’s lives politically miserable, Spradling said. But Sununu has credibility and popularity on his side.
“Long term, I would put my money on the establishment right, on the Sununu side of the aisle, because his politics appeals to a far broader audience,” Spradling said.
Sununu, who surprised political watchers by seeking reelection instead of running for U.S. Senate, faces five largely unknown opponents in the Sept. 13 primary, and polls show him with a wide lead over the Democratic candidate, state Sen. Tom Sherman. Even Rep. Norm Silber, one of the lawmakers Sununu wants ousted, expects Sununu to be reelected and will vote for him again if he is the nominee. But he contends that it’s Sununu who has strayed from the GOP.
“Running as a Republican with a long family history of supporting the Republican Party, I thought for sure that he would be a real Republican,” Silber said. “And he has, in my view, pandered to non-Republicans in an effort to build a base of support.”
Silber said he is not a Free Stater, but he’s being called one by Democrats hoping to flip seats in November by painting all Republicans with a Free State brush. The ski area controversy has spurred the creation of a political action committee to back candidates from both parties to defeat the “extremist Free State agenda” in Belknap County.
“People on the left, or people who don’t like fiscally conservative Republicans, have a tendency to refer to people they don’t like as Free Staters,” he said.
Carla Gericke, past president of the Free State Project, agreed.
“When there’s something positive, people laud that, but on the flip side, we’ve also become the boogeyman whenever it’s convenient,” she said. “We’re at the stage where we are successful enough that we’re just being used as a pawn between the two parties. And we just do our own thing.”
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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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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — As the sun set in Wyoming, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney described her blowout loss as the beginning of a more consequential step in her political career. She summoned Abraham Lincoln, who lost elections for the House and Senate and still went on to become one of the nation’s most accomplished presidents.
But in the days since, would-be supporters in key states have openly expressed skepticism about a Cheney presidential run, even one solely designed to block Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
In fact, Republican voters and local officials in three of the states that matter most in presidential politics — Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — believe the soon-to-be-unemployed congresswoman has little path to relevancy in a 2024 presidential primary, never mind a path to victory. Some sympathizers fear she would actually help Trump if she runs.
Such is the colossal political challenge ahead for Cheney, a Republican seeking to transform a 37-percentage-point home-state loss into a national campaign to destroy Trump’s White House ambitions. There is no precedent for what she hopes to accomplish.
“The Republican Party is a lot more diverse than it’s given credit for, and there will be some number of people who find her, and her message, appealing, but that is far from saying that there would be a warm reception, or a large reception,” said Micah Caskey, a Republican state representative in South Carolina. “I don’t see a Liz Cheney candidacy as being viable.”
In the hours after she conceded her Wyoming congressional primary to a little-known Trump acolyte, Cheney’s team transferred leftover campaign funds into a new entity she named “The Great Task,” borrowing a phrase from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. She vowed to devote the weeks before the November midterms to defeating Trump loyalists who continue to promote the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
“I will be doing whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office,” Cheney told NBC’s “Today” show. She acknowledged she is thinking about a 2024 presidential run. “I’ll make a decision in the coming months.”
Cheney, the 56-year-old daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has not ruled out running in 2024 as a Republican or an independent. But those close to her now believe an independent run would likely attract more support from Democrats than Republicans, which would undermine her goals. Therefore, if she runs, it would almost certainly be as a Republican.
Her team believes that Cheney would enter the 2024 Republican contest as the undisputed leader of the anti-Trump lane, which could include the likes of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The Cheney name is universally known, they note, and she enjoys a national fundraising base that brought in more than $15 million for her failed reelection bid. She would also have the support of her father and maintains close ties to former President George W. Bush, who hosted a fundraiser for Cheney last fall.
She will continue to play a leading role in the House investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection, which is set to host another round of hearings in September.
Despite those factors, there has been little sign of enthusiasm for Cheney in the states most likely to decide the next GOP presidential nomination.
Voters were openly celebrating her loss at the Iowa State Fair, a must-stop for presidents and presidential contenders ever since the state began hosting the nation’s opening presidential primary contest a half-century ago.
“It’s celebration day at the Iowa Republican Party. Liz Cheney is outta here!” crowed Debra Wyna, a Des Moines-area GOP volunteer and 57-year-old retired salon owner. “Liz Cheney is a swamp monster.”
Other voters who stopped by the GOP booth were less pointed than Wyna but no less dismissive of Cheney’s political ambitions.
“I’m never going to vote for her because I believe she betrayed the Republican Party by voting to impeach President Trump,” said Janet Diers, a 67-year-old retired special education teacher from rural western Iowa.
Gentry Collins, a veteran Iowa and national Republican operative who opposes Trump, said he has “great respect” for Cheney, but he doesn’t see how she wages a viable campaign for president.
“Where do the votes come from? Maybe she aggregates the anti-Trump vote, but that’s not enough,” said Collins, a former political director for the Republican National Committee. “She’s my kind of Republican, but I don’t see an opening.”
It was much the same across New Hampshire, which traditionally hosts the nation’s second Republican primary contest.
While the state prides itself on ushering in presidential candidates every four years, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who has mocked Trump, declined an opportunity to welcome a prospective Cheney campaign when given the opportunity.
“The governor has given no thought or consideration as to who may or may not run for president in 2024,” Sununu spokesperson Ben Vihstadt said. “He is solely focused on the midterms in less than 100 days, and firmly believes every second spent speculating about 2024 is a waste of time.”
Early presidential primary jockeying has been underway for several months. And the first Republican presidential announcement could come any time. Trump is weighing whether to declare his presidential intentions before or after the midterms.
Republican presidential prospects have been flocking to Iowa and New Hampshire for months already. The visitors include former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tom Cotton and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is another frequent name discussed by local Republican primary voters, though he has yet to make an appearance.
Cheney herself delivered a speech in New Hampshire late last year, declaring that Trump was at war with the rule of law.
Caskey, the South Carolina state representative, believes Trump may be vulnerable in a small Republican field, but a large Republican field would divide the anti-Trump vote and help Trump claim his party’s nomination again.
“I think Donald Trump is the odds-on favorite to win if he runs, but I don’t think he has an assured path to victory,” Caskey said. “I think the more candidates that get involved, the more likely it is that he succeeds.”
Matthew Bartlett, a veteran New Hampshire Republican operative who worked in Trump’s State Department but quit after the Jan. 6 insurrection, said there’s plenty of buzz across the state about presidential candidates — save one.
“Not one person is talking about Liz Cheney,” Bartlett said. “I don’t think she knows what she’s doing.”
Nationally, around 7 in 10 Republicans continue to support Trump. That number may have jumped in the days after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Florida estate, though critics note that Trump’s multiple legal entanglements could ultimately damage his standing. Cheney, meanwhile, is lumped near the bottom with Pompeo and Haley, among others, in early public polling.
Voters tend to agree with the political professionals.
Claire Potter wore a Cheney T-shirt on a recent trip to Conway, New Hampshire, to “express my admiration as a Democrat” for the position she has taken against Trump. Potter, a history professor at The New School in New York, also donated $25 to the Cheney campaign.
Just don’t expect her to vote for Cheney in 2024.
“I don’t hope that she runs for president,” Potter said. “I think that could be really dicey in terms of keeping Trump out of the White House. But I trust her political instincts around what she does next.”
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Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
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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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| 2022-09-21T14:22:52Z
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(The Conversation) – Move over bacon and ranch dressing. There’s a new hot flavor in town.
A pickle craze is sweeping the nation, with dill pickle toppings and seasonings in such high demand that they’re appearing on popcorn, chewing gum, seeds and nuts.
The pickle obsessed can now order a pickle pizza with a side of pickle potato chips and wash it down with a pickle beer.
Need dessert? Choose from pickle cotton candy, pickle ice cream and pickle marshmallows. Or you can head over to your local Sonic Drive-In and order a Pickle Juice Slush.
Yet for all the hoopla, pickles remain an acquired taste that some are never able to appreciate. Part of the reason may be rooted in your personality. But if you’re able to get over that initial aversion, pickles can become perfect complement to any dish.
A cornerstone of civilization
In the U.S., pickles tend to be associated with the cucumber, but they can come from any fruit or vegetable preserved in an acidic solution or brine.
Having preserved food available regardless of the season allowed populations to grow and civilizations to develop. With their long shelf life, pickles helped humans traverse the world by foot, animal and boat; helped feed troops fighting in wars; and were also touted for various benefits such as preventing scurvy.
The popularity of the dill pickle – which many in the U.S. consider “the” preeminent pickled fruit or vegetable – is attributed to two sources. Dutch farmers started growing cucumbers in Brooklyn in the 17th century that were eventually pickled and sold. Then, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, surges of Eastern European Jewish immigrants brought kosher dill pickles to New York City.
Yet as chefs and teachers, we’re not surprised that Burger King’s famed jingle, “Have it Your Way,” begins with the omission of the pickle: “Hold the pickles / Hold the lettuce / Special orders don’t upset us…”
For all there is to love about pickles – they can be crunchy, sweet and acidic – they possess certain qualities that can make some people squeamish.
Sour and slimy can be a turnoff
For one, they’re sour.
Most pickles are sour because they soak for a long time in a salty brine. This long soak causes acetic acid bacteria known as acetobacter to grow and multiply. In a sense, pickles create their own vinegar, and that makes them sour.
The ability to detect a sour taste in foods likely came from our aquatic ancestors, who acquired the ability to determine the safety of their environment by detecting abnormalities in acidity.
There are also some evolutionary advantages for enjoying the mouth-puckering sensation. The same lactic fermentation necessary for early pickles also served as a green light for omnivores that a food was safe to consume, as lactic acid limits the reproduction of harmful bacteria.
This might explain why some have developed a taste for it and others haven’t.
In one study of children, their mothers, their ability to detect sour and their preferences for the taste, virtually all could accurately determine and rank acid levels in gelatin. However, some children preferred the highest concentration of acid levels – in other words, the most sour foods. Others blanched at it.
The authors indicate that it is unclear why this phenomenon occurs. They hypothesized that an affinity for sour flavors could be related to a child’s propensity for adventure. And there does seem to be a strong correlation between the aversion to sour in both children and adults and their unwillingness to try new foods.
Preservation methods also change food textures, and food aversions are rooted in texture as much as flavor or smell. The texture of a pickle can be off-putting for some people; foods described as “slippery” or “slimy” are ranked at the top for adult picky eaters. Both words could be used to describe a pickle.
A ‘new dill’ for the American people
But if you can grow to appreciate the texture and taste, there’s a world of possible pickle pairings.
Pickles work well in so many dishes because the leading flavors in most main dishes are fat, umami, salt, something creamy and frequently something sweet. Pickles add acidity and crunch and balance out the dish. Burger King may sound eager to hold the pickle upon request, but a burger with a pickle – from a sensory perspective – is a better burger.
Seen this way, the pickle’s incorporation into pretty much everything starts to make more sense. Take, for instance, its surging popularity as a pizza topping. Much like that burger, pizza has yeasty bread, tomato sauce for acid and sweetness, mozzarella for fatty, rich, and creamy textures, and then all the other toppings you choose to put on to suit your needs.
In the case of the pickle pizzas, the most popular kind is served with a white sauce or olive oil, which adds even more fat and richness to an already-cheesy dish, giving the pie an unbalanced flavor profile. But pickles restore the flavor balance by introducing acidity and adding a texture that wasn’t there before. You’re also adding the temperature contrast and flavors of garlic, dill and subtle spice.
Dill pickle flavoring is versatile because of the combination of salty, sour and sweet, which allows it to complement so many items.
Take, for instance, potato chips or sunflower seeds. These are traditionally salty snacks with a relatively neutral flavor, which is why they so often have flavors added to them. Pickle flavoring adds sour and sweet – which are a classic, balanced duo – to the salty profile.
Pickle-flavored foods are everywhere because the profile works well with almost anything. But if you want to avoid offending your friends with your pickle breath, you might want to avoid the pickle flavored mints after dinner.
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| 2022-09-21T14:22:54Z
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Best products to DIY chunky highlights at home
You can’t look at many magazines these days without seeing ’90s and early 2000s beauty trends that have come back in style. Chunky highlights are just the latest example.
Chunky highlights can add depth to your hair and frame your face to better highlight your features. While you’ll get the best results at the salon, you can pull off the look at home if you have the right products and tools ready to go. Here’s everything you need to achieve a beautiful highlighted look at home.
What are chunky highlights?
Highlights are pieces of your hair that are lighter than your natural hair color. For example, if your hair is a medium brown, you might have highlights in a light brown or even a dark blond shade. On the other hand, if you have blond hair, your highlights are usually paler blond tones.
As their name implies, chunky highlights are thicker than traditional highlights, with most measuring between one-half inch and 1 inch in width. For the best results, chunky highlights shouldn’t be more than two to three shades lighter than the rest of your hair. If you want a more unique look, though, you can use unique colors like bright pink or ruby red for your chunky highlights.
How do you create chunky highlights?
Before attempting chunky highlights yourself, it’s always a good idea to have a trained colorist walk you through the process. While doing them at home can save money, it can also go wrong pretty easily. You may need to go to a salon and pay more to have the color corrected.
To create chunky highlights, you need to lighten areas of your hair. That requires bleach and a developer to lift the color from your hair. Section your hair before applying the bleach to limit it to the pieces you want to lighten. You can use a comb and clips to separate the pieces.
You’ll get better results if you use a coloring brush to apply the bleach. This will allow your hair to become fully saturated and lighten evenly. Bleach can burn and irritate the skin, so wear gloves when applying it.
After bleaching your hair, your hair may take on yellow, orange or brassy tones. Using a toner helps neutralize those colors, so your highlights look more natural. You can also use a purple shampoo, conditioner or mask to tone the highlights. Yellow is the opposite of purple on the color wheel and cancels out those undertones.
Because the bleaching process is so drying and damaging, you should also add moisture and strengthen it after the highlighting process. Use a deep conditioning treatment to repair your hair and make your chunky highlights look even better.
At-home chunky highlight essentials
Bleach and developer
Schwarzkopf Professional Blond Me Premium Lift 9
This powder bleach works well on both natural and colored hair and contains anti-yellow agents for more even, natural lightening. Its flexible mixing ratio also allows you to get the consistency you like best. It’s formulated to minimize breakage. Sold by Amazon
Wella Blondor Multi Blonde Powder Lightener
This dust-free bleach powder contains high-quality ingredients that are gentler on the hair than other lighteners. It’s easy to mix and has a creamy consistency that allows for a mess-free application. It can lighten up to seven levels and is even suitable for pre-colored hair. Sold by Amazon
L’Oreal Paris Quick Blue Powder Bleach
This powder lightener provides quick, bright results with an extra-strength formula that lightens up to seven levels. It also has a nondrip formula that makes application easy. It remains moist throughout the entire lightening process, so it doesn’t require re-mixing, either. Sold by Amazon
Clairol Professional Pure White Hair Developer 10 Vol.
This developer mixes well with any bleach or lightener product. It works well for dark blond to medium brown hair and has a gentle formula that prevents damage. It spreads easily, so it’s easy to apply with a brush. Sold by Amazon
Wella Color Charm Hair Developer 20 Volume
This developer contains conditioning ingredients to minimize damage to lightened hair and works well on natural hair that’s medium brown or darker. It’s also available in two sizes, so you can get the right amount no matter how long your hair is. Sold by Amazon
Application tools
This wide color brush makes applying a lightener for chunky highlights quick and easy. It also has an ergonomically designed handle to give you better control as you paint the bleach on. The design of the bristles ensures that your hair is fully saturated. Sold by Amazon
Madison Reed Pro Color Tool Kit
This set includes all the tools you need to create beautiful chunky highlights. It comes with an application brush, mixing bowl, and four clips for sectioning your hair. It even includes a wide-tooth comb to ensure the bleach is evenly distributed through each section. Sold by Amazon and Ulta Beauty
LoveBB Professional Hair Coloring Kit
With two application brushes and a mixing bowl, this kit makes it easy to achieve chunky highlights at home. One of the brushes features a comb head on the opposite side to distribute the bleach effectively. The set also includes a miniature whisk for mixing the bleach and developer. Sold by Amazon
Leinuosen Rat Tail Comb Three-pack
These rat tail combs let you easily section your hair for perfect chunky highlights at home. They’re lightweight and highly durable, so you don’t have to worry about them breaking. They also have an antislip design, allowing for even sections. Sold by Amazon
Framar Star Struck Silver Pop-up Hair Foil
These professional-quality hair foils help keep the lightener only on the sections of hair you want to highlight. The pop-up design makes it easy to grab single pieces of foil, and the pre-folded edge lets you apply it directly to the hair from the box. They aren’t as noisy as cheaper foils, either. Sold by Amazon
These gloves are designed specifically for coloring and lightening the hair, so they can protect your hands from irritating bleach. They’re extremely thick and resist wear well. They’re also reusable, so you can clean them easily and use them for your next hair coloring task. Sold by Amazon
Magiczone Professional Hairdressing Nylon Cape
Keep your clothing protected while highlighting your hair with this reusable cape. It has an adjustable snap closure to fit most people and has a sewn-in loop for hanging storage. It can also be wiped clean or machine washed on a warm setting. Sold by Amazon
Post-highlighting care
Clairol Professional Shimmer Lights Permanent Cream Toner — Platinum Ice
This toner can help neutralize brassy yellow tones in your chunky highlights. It’s easy to use and only requires a 10-volume developer to mix it. It’s also available in three shade options, so you can get the best tone for your highlights. Sold by Amazon
ArtNatural Purple Hair Mask for Blonde, Silver, & Platinum Hair
If you don’t want to use a permanent toner, this purple hair mask can help reduce yellow and brassy tones. It also contains plant-based ingredients, including aloe, quinoa, sea buckthorn oil and argan oil. The formula is 100% vegan and cruelty-free. Sold by Amazon
Redken All Soft Heavy Cream Super Treatment
This deep conditioning treatment can help soothe and strengthen your hair if it’s dry after highlighting. It contains hydrating argan oil that helps boost shine and smoothness. It works well to combat frizz, too. Sold by Amazon and Ulta Beauty
This styling treatment contains special ingredients to help repair broken bonds in your hair after lightening. It can control frizz for up to 72 hours and allows for faster blow-drying. It doesn’t contain phthalates, paraben or sulfates, either. Sold by Amazon and Ulta Beauty
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Jennifer Blair 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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| 2022-09-21T14:23:02Z
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A light therapy mask is a good choice for beauty aficionados who like to try at-home devices
At-home beauty devices have been growing in popularity over the past few years, and light therapy masks are no exception. Because they provide therapeutic illumination from the comfort of home, many people have turned to them to improve common skin concerns such as blemishes and fine lines.
While you aren’t likely to achieve the professional-level results of in-office treatments that correct skin concerns, there is a chance that your skin will benefit from using a light therapy mask. To help you make an informed purchase, we’ve compiled information along with top-selling masks for your consideration.
How do light therapy masks work?
Light therapy has been used in the fields of dermatology and plastic surgery for years to improve the appearance, texture and firmness of skin. Powered by infrared lights that are designed to treat skin effectively and gently, this therapy works by penetrating the skin to promote healing, collagen production and cell regeneration.
Light therapy mask lights
Light therapy masks emit both red and blue LED light that penetrates the skin. While the red lights reduce inflammation and redness, stimulate collagen, tighten skin and minimize the appearance of fine lines, blue lights treat blemishes and acne by killing bacteria that aggravate such skin imperfections. Most masks have three modes, which allow you to use red or blue lights or a combination of both.
Red and blue lights are the most effective and studied LED lights that are used for professional skincare treatments and in-home light therapy devices and masks. However, some masks offer additional lights such as yellow, green, purple and various hues of blue. While the effectiveness of these light colors have not been studied like their blue and red counterparts, mask manufacturers that incorporate them in their devices suggest that they promote blood circulation, lymph metabolism and more.
At-home light therapy devices, such as light therapy masks, harness light technology for convenient in-home treatments. Although not as effective as the light therapy treatments you’d receive in an office setting by a healthcare professional, noticeable results are possible when a quality mask is used as directed.
How to use a light therapy mask
Another selling point of light therapy masks is ease-of-use. Simply cleanse your face, put on the mask, power it on and use for the length of time suggested by the manufacturer. Keep in mind that the length of time and frequency of use varies depending on the mask and manufacturer.
Most light therapy masks have straps that are optional during use. They can be tightened so the wearer can do other activities during treatment. However, the straps aren’t necessary if the mask is worn while lying back and relaxing.
Light therapy masks are rechargeable. Once fully charged, they are ready to be disconnected from the charging cable and used for treatment.
Concerns associated with light therapy masks
If you are thinking about trying a light therapy mask, you’ll be pleased to know that they are generally safe when used as recommended. They are also much more convenient and affordable than professional treatments that require one or more office visits. However, there are few concerns to consider to help you decide if one of this type of device is right for you.
- They can be pricey. Reputable brands can cost several hundreds of dollars, but provide the peace of mind of being made by a trusted company.
- Results aren’t guaranteed. Some users may experience notable results, while others have minimal to no noticeable changes in their skin.
- Some have a poor fit. They may not fit the shape of the face, or the straps may be difficult to secure.
- Directions must be followed. All quality light therapy masks come with instructions. Following them closely will improve the likelihood of noticeable results and safety during use.
Best light therapy masks
Dr. Dennis Gross DRx SpectraLite Dpl FaceWare Pro Light Therapy Mask
Made by a trusted skincare company, the FaceWare Pro produces red and blue light for targeting a variety of skin imperfections. It’s shaped to fit facial curves for optimal comfort during treatments. Although one of the more expensive options, it’s a quality mask with user-friendly features. Sold by Amazon and Sephora
In addition to red and blue lights, this mask emits green, yellow, purple, light blue and white lights that the company claims to offer numerous skin-perfecting benefits that include improved circulation and reduced redness. It comes with a remote with easy-to-navigate controls. Sold by Amazon
Comfortable and easy to use, this mask delivers red and blue light for numerous skin improvements. It also emits red, green, purple, yellow and cyan lights for addressing a variety of concerns. Sold by Amazon
Aphrona Moonlight 3-Color LED Facial Mask
This light fights acne, improves skin tone and minimizes lines and other imperfections with blue, red and green lights. The design fits the face nicely, which makes it comfortable to wear. Sold by Amazon
Solaris Laboratories NY LED Light Therapy Silicone Mask
The flexible silicone material of this mask stands out in terms of comfort, and also makes it easy to clean. It emits blue and red light to treat acne, signs of aging and more. We like that it’s backed by a one-year warranty. Sold by Macy’s
With seven different light hues, this therapeutic mask addresses numerous skin concerns. It also illuminates blue and red for treating lines, inflammation and breakouts. Sold by Amazon
Pure Daily Care Luma LED Light Therapy Mask
This light therapy mask includes blue and red lights in addition to five other hues that work together to soothe redness, calm inflammation, stimulate collagen and reduce the signs of aging. It comes with an easy-to-use controller. Sold by Amazon
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Jennifer Manfrin 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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| 2022-09-21T14:23:10Z
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What is the best way to keep kids cool during youth football season?
Whether it’s exploring a playground or participating in youth sports, getting outside and being active is vital for kids. While physical activity offers a ton of health benefits, it’s equally as important to keep track of the temperature. One sport that is known to be especially grueling in the heat is youth football. On top of high temps, athletes also have to deal with additional pads and a football helmet, which can raise their core temperature further. So, whether you’re a coach or have a child in youth football, these tips will keep kids safe a cool in the heat.
Tips to keep kids cool
Heat affects over 700 people per year, per the CDC, so keeping kids cool also ensures their safety. The CDC also points out that the risk of heat exhaustion is at its highest during high-humidity days because sweat doesn’t evaporate as quickly. Here are a few tips to keep kids cool.
Hydrate
While sweating on a hot day is essential for cooling down your body, excess sweat means you’re losing fluids. To combat the loss of fluids, hydrate, and then hydrate again. While sugary drinks should be kept to a minimum, sports drinks with electrolytes and sodium are also important to replace the lost electrolytes and refuel muscles.
Wear loose-fitting clothing
Tight clothing doesn’t let sweat evaporate and naturally cool your body, which is why loose-fitting clothing works best to keep your body cool.
Cool down the body’s pulse points
The eight pulse points on the body are the temples, the back of the neck, behind the elbows and knees, the wrists, inside of the thighs and ankles and the top of the feet. Cooling down these pulse points with a cooling towel, ice pack or misting fan will also cool off your blood and lower your body temperature.
Offer shade
While shade doesn’t lower body temperature, it does make the air feel up to 15 degrees cooler than in the sun.
Signs of heat exhaustion in kids
According to the CDC, here are signs of heat exhaustion to watch out for:
- Cold, pale or clammy skin
- Fast and weak pulse
- Nausea or vomiting
- Muscle cramps
- Dizziness
- Headache
- Passing out
Best products to keep kids cool
Under $20
Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Sunscreen With Broad Spectrum SPF 70
Sunscreen is essential to keep kids safe in the heat, and this option is broad spectrum SPF 70. It’s also water-resistant, so it won’t come off when they sweat. Sold by Amazon and Ulta
O2Cool Deluxe Handheld Water Misting Fan
This handheld misting fan is perfect for grueling practices on hot days. It’s battery-powered and can be easily changed on the go if the batteries die, making it ideal for travel. The super fine mist is refreshing on a hot day, and the soft blades are safe for fingers. Sold by Amazon
Mission Original Cooling Towel
When activated with water, this towel instantly cools to 30 degrees below the average body temperature in only 30 seconds. Also, the fabric features UPF 50 sun protection that blocks 98% of the sun’s UV rays, and it’s entirely chemical-free. Plus, it’s machine-washable and reusable and will never lose its cooling ability. Sold by Amazon
Beautify Beauties Spray Bottle
Continually misting youth players during practices or games is a great way to help them cool off. This bottle sprays a continuous mist with a single pump and is entirely aerosol-free. It even sprays when held upside down and features total air isolation in the bottle to eliminate contamination. Sold by Amazon
Under $30
Under Armour Boys’ Tech Big Logo Short-Sleeve T-Shirt
Since it’s made of Under Armour’s Tech fabric which is moisture-wicking and quick-drying, this t-shirt wicks away sweat to keep kids cool. It has a soft, natural feel, and it’s machine-washable. As a bonus, the material is also made with recyclable and traceable polyester and re-uses five bottles per shirt. Sold by Amazon
Gatorade Non-Slip Gx Squeeze Bottles
Never run out of water during games and practice, thanks to this re-fillable Gatorade bottle. It has a custom DIY ring to write a name, a leak-proof lid and a squeezable contour lid. The best feature of this bottle is its pod piercer, which allows kids to electrolyte pods directly into their water to stay hydrated. Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
Gatorade Gx Hydration Sports Drink Concentrate Pods
During hot and humid days, athletes sweat out electrolytes that are vital for hydration. With these sports drink concentrate pods, kids can replace the electrolytes they lost and recover faster. Just add it to your Gatorade Gx squeeze bottle and start the essential hydration process. Sold by Amazon
Misting Fan With Flexible Tripod
Since athletes are busy and tired, they might not have time to hold a misting fan. This option features a flexible tripod that tightly grips to chairs and canopies or can stand independently on the grass. Plus, the rechargeable battery can be charged in four hours and lasts up to six hours. Sold by Amazon
TrekProof Ice Pack Reusable Hot and Cold Therapy Gel Wrap
This three-piece ice pack set can be worn on the forehead, elbows, ankle or back to provide cooling relief. It comes with an adjustable velcro closure comfort strap that fits everyone and is covered in a skin-safe fabric. Just keep it in the freezer and take it out before practice or games on hot days. Sold by Amazon
High-end
Igloo Portable Sports Cooler Dispenser
Staying hydrated is one of the best ways to ensure kids remain cool during practice, and this cooler dispenser holds five gallons of water or Gatorade. A few features include a keeper cord that affixes the lid to the cooler, a pressure fit lid that won’t trap dirt or mold and reinforced handles for strength and durability. Sold by Amazon
Mastercanopy Durable Ez Pop-Up Canopy Tent
Even when it’s scorching, having a shady place to rest can help kids feel like it’s 10 degrees cooler. With a vent on the roof, this canopy has superior ventilation and offers 110 square feet of shade. Plus, choose from three height settings with a toggle leg adjustment that keeps fingers from getting pinched and makes it easier to unlatch. Sold by Amazon
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Bre Richey 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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| 2022-09-21T14:23:17Z
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HERNING, Denmark (AP) — Defending champion Canada trounced Japan 9-0 at the women’s world ice hockey championship on Sunday, with eight players contributing goals in the one-sided encounter, to top the Group A standings ahead of the United States.
The record 11-time tournament winners wasted little time in getting off the mark when Victoria Bach opened the scoring in the second minute of the game with a power-play marker. Marie-Philip Poulin and Emma Maltais also scored in the first period to open a comfortable lead.
Blayre Turnbull added a fourth early in the second before the floodgates opened. Poulin got her second of the game at 33:09 with Ella Shelton and Jamie Lee Rattray also scoring within the next five minutes.
Japan was overmatched from the start and didn’t register a shot on goal until the dying seconds of the second period when already down 7-0.
Sarah Potomak and Sarah Fillier rounded out the scoring in the third period to complete Canada’s 17th straight victory, a stretch that spans the 2021 worlds, the Winter Olympics and now three games at the current tournament.
It was the second meeting of the teams at a world championship and represents an improvement of sorts for Japan, which lost the first in 1990 18-0.
Canada is top with three wins from three games. The U.S. has won its opening two games.
Also, Denmark beat Hungary 1-0.
Julie Ostergaard scored in 43:05 of the Group B game in Frederikshavn, Denmark, following a long pass by Denmark captain Josefine Jakobsen.
Denmark goalkeeper Lisa Jensen got a shutout with 45 saves.
Hungary and Denmark both have three points. The Czechs lead the group with six points, one more than Sweden.
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T14:23:32Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Commanders rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. was shot during an attempted robbery or carjacking, the NFL team said Sunday night.
The 23-year-old former Alabama player was taken to a hospital with what the team called non-life-threatening injuries. The team said in a statement staff members were with Robinson at the hospital.
Coach Ron Rivera said he had been with Robinson.
“He is in good spirits and wanted me to thank everyone for their kind words, prayers & support,” Rivera said on Twitter. “He wants his teammates to know he appreciates them all for reaching out and he loves them all & will be back soon doing what he does best.”
D.C. police reported a shooting in the northeast section of the city and said it was on the lookout for two possible suspects.
Robinson, a third-round draft pick, was was expected to start for the Commanders this season. He had been particularly impressive during training camp and preseason games, likely earning the job over incumbent Antonio Gibson.
“Brian’s been great,” offensive coordinator Scott Turner said recently. “He’s a real serious guy. Football is extremely important to him. He takes a lot of pride in being a physical runner.”
Robinson traveled with the team for its preseason finale at Baltimore on Saturday night but did not dress.
The 6-foot-1, 228-pound back rushed for 1,343 yards and 14 touchdowns last season at Alabama. The Commanders selected him with the 98th pick in the draft.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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| 2022-09-21T14:23:40Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Major league losses leader Patrick Corbin ended Washington’s record 43-game drought without a starting pitcher earning a victory as the Nationals beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 Sunday.
Corbin (5-17) allowed one earned run and four hits in six innings while striking out five. A Washington starting pitcher had not earned a victory since Josiah Gray won at Philadelphia on July 6, shattering the previous big league record of 35 games set by the 1949 Washington Senators.
“Everyone knows that record here that was broken today, but it’s not something that I’m proud of,” Corbin said. “We’ve been pitching good as a staff and a lot of guys have been going out there and giving us a chance to win games.”
Stuart Fairchild homered for Cincinnati, which has dropped 13 of its last 17 but was trying for a weekend sweep.
Corbin has lowered his ERA from 7.02 to 6.56 in three starts since the Nationals skipped his turn in the rotation earlier this month. The left-hander had dropped seven consecutive decisions since defeating Pittsburgh on June 28.
“Since we gave him a little breather, he’s come back and pitched well,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said.
Corbin began the day with four more losses than any other pitcher.
Hunter Harvey worked around a leadoff single in the Reds seventh, Carl Edwards Jr. induced three consecutive flyouts in the eighth and Kyle Finnegan handled the ninth for his eighth save in 12 opportunities.
“To get Pat that win today and put an end to that (streak) was kind of awesome,” Finnegan said. “He pitched a heck of a game and he handed it off to the bullpen and we were able to do our job.”
Ildemaro Vargas led off the fifth with a liner against Nick Lodolo (3-5) to left for his third homer in nine games, breaking a 2-all tie. Lodolo yielded three runs and struck out five over seven innings, which tied the longest outing of the rookie’s career.
Lodolo is 2-3 with a 3.96 ERA in 10 starts since returning from the injured list July 5.
“He continues to pitch to really well,” Cincinnati manager David Bell said. “He really couldn’t be doing much better than he is right now.”
The Reds took an early lead on Kyle Farmer’s RBI grounder in the first and Fairchild’s solo homer in the second. Washington tied it in the fourth with Nelson Cruz’s bases-loaded walk and Riley Adams’ RBI single.
Cincinnati second baseman Jonathan India had two singles to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games.
MENESES KEEPS HITTING
OF Joey Meneses singled in the fifth and has 28 hits in 22 games since debuting after Washington traded Josh Bell and Juan Soto earlier this month. The 30-year-old has the most hits for a Nationals rookie through 22 games, besting the 27 that Anthony Rendon had in 2013.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Reds: OF Nick Senzel (left hamstring tightness) was out of the lineup for the third consecutive day. Bell said the team would likely have to make a decision about placing Senzel on the injured list by Monday. … RHP Hunter Greene (shoulder) will begin a rehabilitation assignment Thursday. Bell said the team hopes Greene can return to the rotation Sept. 11 or 12.
Nationals: Gray is scheduled to return to the rotation during Washington’s series at the New York Mets next weekend. Gray has not pitched since Aug. 20 and has worked 123 1/3 innings this season and has never thrown more than 130 innings in a year since turning pro. “I think he understands where he’s at,” Martinez said. “For the most part, we’re trying to keep these guys healthy for the future and build them up.”
UP NEXT
Reds: RHP Chase Anderson makes his Cincinnati debut Monday at home in the opener of a three-game series against St. Louis. Anderson hasn’t pitched in the majors since Aug. 4, 2021, when he was with Philadelphia.
Nationals: Washington is off Monday before continuing its homestand Tuesday against Oakland. RHP Erick Fedde (5-8, 4.88 ERA) will face the Athletics for the first time in his career.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T14:23:47Z
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Austin Dillon’s wife was doing a rain dance during a lengthy weather delay in hopes of getting the skies to open up again and wash out the rest of the race.
“I got upset,” Dillon said. “I said, ‘Don’t be doing that.'”
There was no jinxing this one. Dillon avoided a massive wreck in the rain to take the lead before a red flag and returned more than three hours later to finish off an improbable victory at Daytona International Speedway and snag a playoff spot in the Cup Series’ regular-season finale Sunday.
Dillon passed Austin Cindric with three laps to go and was unchallenged down the stretch. It was an aggressive move that capped a drama-filled race and set off a wild celebration for a team that’s usually a factor at Daytona.
“It’s crazy,” said Dillon, whose fourth career Cup victory ended a 78-race winless streak. “You just never give up and have faith. We had some tough finishes this year, like Charlotte. I beat myself up over that. I made a good move and just didn’t finish it off. Today we finished it off.”
Martin Truex Jr. was the biggest loser. Truex looked like he would secure the final postseason berth when rain halted the race with 21 laps remaining, but he faded after the restart and allowed Ryan Blaney to make up ground in a points scramble.
Blaney finished seven spots behind Truex in the race but three points ahead in the standings.
“You just try to stay optimistic,” Blaney said. “Definitely a roller-coaster of emotions that ended on a high note.”
Added Truex: “We gave away plenty of points throughout the season. It is what it is.”
Dillon’s victory in the No. 3 Chevrolet was as stunning as Blaney’s comeback. Running 16th at the time of the crash, he turned onto the apron to avoid the 15-car melee between Turns 1 and 2 that was caused by a summer shower everyone saw coming. Cars started sliding sideways heading into the high-banked turn, a result of slick tires losing grip on wet asphalt.
Daniel Suarez and Denny Hamlin were running 1-2 when the pack drove into the rain with 23 laps remaining.
“Just throw the caution before the rain came,” Hamlin said, adding that “better officiating” is needed. “We had rain down the front, so about 10 seconds before we got into Turn 1, it was raining. I’m sure the fans felt it and then they watched us all pile in there.”
For a second, it looked like 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick was going to make it through the mess and grab the lead as the caution flag flew. But then spinning Ty Dillon — Austin’s little brother — sideswiped Harvick and knocked him into the wreckage.
That allowed Austin Dillon, who started the day 19th in points, to essentially steal a playoff spot. It also created a controversial finish — should NASCAR have halted the race earlier? — and provided the kind of “Game 7” moment NASCAR wanted when it moved the regular-season finale to unpredictable Daytona in 2020.
NASCAR seemed intent on fixing its non-call by waiting for a window of sunshine.
“It’s not something you can predict when it’s going to start raining,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition. “Just a super bad situation for everybody.”
Inclement weather was a factor all weekend. Thunderstorms delayed the Xfinity Series race Friday night and pushed the Cup race from Saturday to Sunday morning. More rain was in the forecast Sunday, and dark clouds had surrounded the track for at least half an hour before several drivers reported seeing raindrops on the previous lap.
But it wasn’t enough for NASCAR to stop the race — until it was obvious and too late.
Only 18 cars stayed on track once the green flag dropped and only 10 finished on the lead lap. Dillon’s teammate at Richard Childress Racing, Tyler Reddick, finished second, followed by Cindric, Landon Cassill and Noah Gragson.
LARSON LAST
Defending series champion Kyle Larson was the first driver out of the race. Larson drove his car to the garage after 14 laps with a timing belt issue. He finished last in the 37-car field and missed out on extra playoff points.
It was Larson’s third consecutive DNF at Daytona, including wrecks to end his last two starts at the famed track. He is now winless in 16 Cup starts at Daytona.
“I guess there’s one positive: I didn’t get caught up in a crash,” Larson said.
BUSCH’S FUTURE
This may have been Kyle Busch’s final race at Daytona for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Busch doesn’t have a contract for next season after his longtime sponsor decided to pull out of NASCAR at the end of 2022. Joe Gibbs Racing, with help from Toyota, has worked to find a deep-pocketed replacement for M&M’s and Mars Inc., but if nothing comes together in the next few months, Busch will be driving elsewhere next year.
Busch declined to get into contract negotiations Saturday, refusing to say whether he’s turned down a previous offer from JGR.
“This is not the place to start airing any dirty laundry,” Busch said. “Just trust me: In time, things will work out. And what happens, happens.”
The two-time NASCAR champion (2015, 2019) has 60 career Cup victories, most of those coming since he joined JGR in 2008. He wants to stay in the No. 18 Toyota, and the manufacturer wants him back.
“Kyle Busch is our 60-home-run hitter and we’d be foolish not to put everything in play to keep him in the family, and that’s what we continue to do,” said David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development. “This is not just an offensive consideration. I don’t want to race against a (ticked) off Kyle Busch. Wherever he lands, he’s going to do some damage.”
UP NEXT
The first round of the playoffs begin at Darlington next Sunday. Joey Logano won the May race at the track, with Ford and Chevy claiming 19 of the top 20 spots.
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T14:23:55Z
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The Duke volleyball player who was subjected to racial slurs during a match at BYU said Sunday that officials onsite didn’t react quickly enough when they were made aware of the behavior during play.
Nor did they adequately address the situation immediately after the match, Rachel Richardson said in a statement posted to her Twitter account.
“No athlete, regardless of their race should ever be subject to such hostile conditions,” said Richardson, the only Black starter on the Blue Devils team.
BYU banned a fan from all athletic venues on campus Saturday, a day after the match. The fan was not a student but was sitting in the student section.
Richardson, a 19-year-old sophomore from Ellicott City, Maryland, wrote that she didn’t believe the fan’s actions were a reflection of BYU athletes, saying her opponents showed respect and sportsmanship, adding that BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe had reacted quickly once he was notified.
“This is not the first time this has happened in college athletics and sadly it likely will not be the last time,” Richardson said. “However, each time it happens we as student athletes, coaches, fans, and administrators have a chance to educate those who act in hateful ways.”
Richardson also responded to the idea that some people would have liked to see Duke’s team respond quickly, such as by refusing to continue playing in what became a 3-1 victory for BYU.
“Although the heckling eventually took a mental toll on me, I refused to allow it to stop me from doing what I love to do and what I came to BYU to do: which was to play volleyball,” Richardson said. “I refused to allow those racist bigots to feel any degree of satisfaction from thinking that their comments had ‘gotten to me,’ So, I pushed through and finished the game.
“Therefore, on behalf of my African American teammates and I, we do not want to receive pity or to be looked at as helpless. We do not feel as though we are victims of some tragic unavoidable event. We are proud to be young African American women; we are proud to be Duke student athletes, and we are proud to stand up against racism.”
The Duke team released a statement, saying:
“We stand against any form of racism, bigotry or hatred. As a program we have worked extensively to create an inclusive and safe environment where our student-athletes feel heard and supported but are not naive to the fact that there is always work to be done.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:24:02Z
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SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (AP) — Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen quickly carved his way through the field from 14th to win the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday and widen his lead in the title race.
Verstappen, who in the final race before F1’s summer break drove from 10th to win the Hungarian Grand Prix, produced another imperious drive and moved closer to a second straight world title.
“It’s been a weekend I couldn’t have imagined before,” Verstappen said. “But I think we want more of them and we’ll keep working hard.”
His lead in the standings is now 93 points — but it is over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez because Charles Leclerc dropped to third in another poor Ferrari showing.
“It was quite a hectic first lap to try and stay out of trouble. So many things were happening in front of me, picked the right places to pass people, looked after our tires,” Verstappen said. “Once we were in the lead, it was all about managing everything but this whole weekend has been incredible.”
Verstappen was leading the race by Lap 12, and he earned a bonus point for fastest lap. His third straight win was his ninth this season and 29th overall.
“Amazing Sunday guys, haha!” Verstappen said on his radio after crossing the line.
“Max you have been brilliant, class of your own all weekend,” team principal Christian Horner replied.
The 24-year-old Verstappen — the youngest driver to win a race when he was 18 — said it was probably the most complete drive of his career.
“If you look at the whole weekend, yes,” he said. “This track just seemed to be perfect for the car.”
Perez finished second to jump ahead of Leclerc in the season standings.
“It’s a great team result,” Perez said.
Carlos Sainz Jr. started from pole for Ferrari and finished a disappointing third. Leclerc started 15th and finished fifth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, but Leclerc dropped to sixth after he was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
That pushed Alpine driver Fernando Alonso into fifth, and Leclerc, who is now 98 points behind Verstappen in the standings, was shocked by the penalty and appeared defeated in the championship race.
“I didn’t even know, no one told me,” a surprised Leclerc said of the penalty. “Why did I get the penalty?”
As for his title race with Verstappen?
“I’m not focusing so much on the championship now. Red Bull were on another planet today,” Leclerc added. “We need to know why we’re so far away.”
Lewis Hamilton’s bid for a sixth straight podium ended on the first lap when he clipped Alonso and briefly went airborne.
Sainz started from pole because Verstappen and Leclerc were among several drivers to be hit with grid penalties. Sainz got away at the start and Russell and Hamilton zoomed past Perez and behind Alonso.
Hamilton then overtook Alonso on the outside but clipped the side of his Alpine, sending Hamilton’s Mercedes up in the air. Race stewards reviewed and took no action, though Alonso clearly felt Hamilton had not left him enough room as he tried to regain the position.
“What an idiot closing the door from the outside,” Alonso ranted. “We had a mega start but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first.”
Hamilton later cut off an interviewer who attempted to relay Alonso’s comments to him.
“It doesn’t matter what he said,” said Hamilton, who added he didn’t see Alonso “in my blind spot.”
But in a separate interview, Hamilton accepted he hadn’t left enough room for Alonso.
“It was my fault,” Hamilton said. “I paid the price. I was ahead though.”
For Hamilton it was the fifth time he’s retired on Lap 1, with three retirements coming at the 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit — the longest in F1 and one of the best for overtaking, as Verstappen showed.
Seconds after Hamilton pulled over, Nicholas Latifi slid across the track and nudged the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas into the gravel, bringing out the safety car.
Hamilton stood next to his car as smoke billowed out, then walked slowly back to the team garage. He was later issued a warning for refusing to visit the medical centre.
Bottas, his former Mercedes teammate, was also out while Leclerc came in early as his team changed his tires and removed some debris from another car stuck inside Leclerc’s front right wing.
Later, Ferrari made yet another bizarre call in this strange season of botched strategy decisions when the team called in Leclerc for new tires with one lap remaining in a futile bid to score the fastest lap. Leclerc was overtaken by Alonso as he came out of the pits, and then had to overtake the Spaniard back, consequently failing to register the fastest lap.
Esteban Ocon of Alpine was seventh and followed by Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin, Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri and Alex Albon of Williams.
Next up for Verstappen? His home race in the Netherlands, where he won in style in Zandvoort last year.
“I am going to enjoy today and then next week we’ll see what we can do,” said Verstappen, who is on pace to beat Vettel’s season record of 13 victories set in 2013.
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T14:24:10Z
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Boomerang Writer
A group of consultants is asking Laramie residents, property owners and visitors to analyze what it is they love about the Laramie area and how they want to see it change in the future.
Logan Simpson, the Fort Collins-based planning firm, is working with the city of Laramie and Albany County to create a growth plan that will allow them to navigate the area’s growth as local population numbers continue to increase.
By the end of the project, the city and county will have a written agreement that outlines how both entities should navigate future development projects. The plan will take into account everything from building code to the character of different neighborhoods.
The plan will focus on the areas directly around Laramie, where development is most likely to occur as the population grows.
“We’re basically melding these elements, city and county, together and saying how large is Laramie going to be, and what should that pattern potentially be,” Logan Simpson representative Cameron Gloss said during a meeting with both entities last week.
Since the project began in March, the firm has conducted interviews with community stakeholders from the county and city who may be interested in the growth plan. It also has sought comment from members of the general public through in-person conversations and online questionnaires.
Gloss presented these findings during the meeting and outlined some common opinions among Albany County residents who live within and outside of the city.
There is a widespread desire to maintain the rural character of the city, while also allowing for more affordable housing options, Gloss said. The majority of survey respondents named housing as the top challenge to development, with water, infrastructure and other challenges coming up, as well.
The firm used community input to create an ideal growth scenario for the Laramie area, outlining which areas should stay rural and which will be the site of higher population density as development continues.
This map would generally keep the rural character of Laramie intact throughout the center of the city and create more urban housing options in clusters at the edges.
Laramie Planning Manager Derek Teini explained that once large lots are in place, it becomes difficult to add denser, more affordable housing options. That’s why it’s better to plan ahead, he said.
“You can plan for logical and good growth that’s economically and fiscally responsible for the community and makes sense for the land and areas that we’re trying to grow,” he said.
Larger lot sizes in the southeastern portion of the city have already established a rural pattern of development in the area that will likely remain intact, Gloss said.
Urban housing could be located in the northeastern, northwestern and western sides of Laramie, where there is still space for new developments. These areas could become pedestrian-friendly and include retail options, Gloss said. The area near 30th Street and Interstate 80 is one of the areas where this model could be implemented.
The city and county also could use a variety of methods to ensure the desired types of developments occur in the Laramie area, Gloss said. Some governments have specific design standards for developments, while others offer density bonuses that align with lot size and open space requirements.
Logan Simpson is now in the process of taking local input to create a set of regulations the city and county can implement to guide new development. These topics will be discussed during a joint Planning and Zoning Commission meeting from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday.
During an open house from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 28, the public can read and provide comments on the draft code language.
The firm will then begin working on an intergovernmental agreement on the plan for the city and county.
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SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — For a week and a half at the Little League World Series, no team came close to Hawaii. The championship Sunday was no different.
Hawaii got back-to-back homers from Kekoa Payanal and Kama Angell in the first inning, sparking a 13-3 win in just four innings over Curacao.
The LLWS title is Hawaii’s fourth. It won in 2018 and this same Honolulu team finished third last year, when COVID-19 travel restrictions prevented international teams from participating.
How good was Hawaii? In six games, all victories, the closest margin was four runs. Hawaii outscored opponents 60-5.
“We’re fortunate that everything clicked at the right moment,” Hawaii Manager Gerald Oda said. “I’m very grateful that these kids played loose and relaxed.”
Part of that run was without Oda, who missed several games with COVID-19. Oda also managed Hawaii’s 2018 team.
“After 2018, I thought the next time I came to Williamsport was going to be as a spectator,” he said. “I never thought in my wildest dreams I’d be back in 2022 coaching a team.”
Hawaii starter Jaron Lancaster was dominant once again Sunday as he threw all four innings, while only allowing three runs, three hits and striking out 10 Curacao hitters.
“I knew Curacao was going to be a great team,” Jaron said. “My mindset was to go out there, do my best and do my thing. I know my offense and defense got my back.”
Jaron’s father, James Lancaster, said all the work that went into the title run was worth it.
“It’s been a rough ride,” said Lancaster, whose family lives about 4,800 miles from central Pennsylvania. “We haven’t been home in over a month.”
Curacao took the first lead of any team over Hawaii in the tournament when Davey Jay-Rijke led off the game with what looked like a bloop single, but he bolted on to second when neither middle infielder were covering that bag. Davey-Jay eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.
“Sooner or later, someone’s going to score,” Oda said. “We told our kids to keep fighting and battling. It’s going to be a great day.”
Hawaii only trailed for a few minutes. A home run from lead-off hitter Kekoa to left field, and a shot by Kama that barely cleared the wall in center, reignited the Hawaii side and put the team from the West region up 2-1. It also chased Curacao starter Shemar Jacobus.
“Any time when someone can score a run that’s huge,” Oda said. “When someone hits a home run, the whole team gets excited and lifts everyone’s spirits.”
The game ended in the fourth inning when Kama hit a single down the left-field line that scored Esaiah Wong to clinch the victory and another championship for Hawaii.
Under Little League rules, a team wins if it is leading by 10 runs or more after four innings.
“I saw the ball go down and I saw coach sending in Ruston (Hiyoto),” Kama said. “I was very emotional. It was the best time I had in my life.”
Curacao sits at one title, which came back in 2004. But the team from a small Caribbean island with a population about the size of Springfield, Massachusetts, made it to the final in 2019 as well as this year.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” said Curacao Manager Zaino Everett, whose team won five elimination games to get to the title game. “We are a champion and the second team in the whole world. Nobody expected us to be here.”
After the trophy presentation and news conference were over, and most fans were gone, the Hawaii players celebrated their title in just the way a bunch of 10-to-12-year-old boys would. They went sliding on cardboard sheets down the big hill behind Lamade Stadium.
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Jake Starr is a Penn State journalism student.
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FLAMING GORGE RESERVOIR, Wyo. — Tony Valdez wasn’t worried about being left high and dry when he bought Buckboard Marina three years ago, but that’s changed with the receding waters of Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
This year, he has already dredged 10 feet so boats could still use the marina. Now, with Flaming Gorge becoming a crucial emergency water supply for the region, Valdez worries the reservoir has nowhere to go but lower still.
“I mean, this is our natural resource and it’s going away,” he said. “Water is the most precious thing we have.”
As a 20-year drought creeps ever farther up the Colorado River Basin and seven Western states vie for their fair share of water under the century-old Colorado River Compact, this boating and fishing paradise on the Wyoming-Utah line is a new flashpoint.
Nobody disputes the root of the problem: The agreement dates to a cooler, wetter time and is based on assumptions about precipitation that simply no longer apply, in part due to climate change.
But as business owners like Valdez are finding out firsthand, recreation is just one of many competing priorities while growing demand in the basin’s more populous downstream states — California, Nevada and Arizona — conflicts with dwindling supply from the more rural states upstream — Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Amid jostling by farmers, ranchers, businesses, industries, municipalities and government officials, it’s anyone’s guess who will come out ahead or get left behind — including natural ecosystems that need water, too.
“It’s a complicated mess. And right now the environment is akin to a snake den because everybody is just out for themselves,” said Kyle Roerink, director of the Great Basin Water Network conservation group.
In August, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton agreed for now to let Upper Basin states keep working together on drought plans that emphasize voluntary water conservation rather than have the bureau dictate reservoir releases.
That’s a decision welcomed by Wyoming State Engineer Brandon Gebhart, the state’s chief water regulator. “Reclamation reinforced a position that Wyoming has long agreed with,” Gebhart said. “The solution to our challenges relies on the bedrock of a century of collaboration and partnership.”
Gebhart acknowledged, though, that continued drought could lead to an even lower Flaming Gorge, with the next decision about any new drawdowns due in April.
Fed by the Green River and rimmed by spectacular cliffs and scrubby desert, Flaming Gorge is by far the biggest reservoir in the Upper Basin, which refers to the vast area covering all waters upstream of Lees Ferry on the Colorado River in northern Arizona.
Built in the 1960s to store and control water in the Green River, which flows into the Colorado in southeastern Utah, Flaming Gorge is the Colorado River system’s third-biggest reservoir. It’s now about 75% full, compared to just 25% or so in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the bigger reservoirs downstream.
Snaking over 66 square miles south of Green River, Wyoming, Flaming Gorge remains a renowned spot to catch giant lake trout or take a boat to a secluded cove for a dip in cool, aquamarine waters.
Just be careful about jumping in at places that were deeper a few years ago.
In April, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that under a drought plan for the Upper Basin states, it would release enough water to draw down Flaming Gorge by 15 feet. The goal is to help ensure that Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona can still generate electricity some 450 miles (725 kilometers) downstream.
So far, drawdowns this year and last have left Flaming Gorge about 6 feet lower than a year ago and 12 feet lower than two years ago, reaching lows unseen since 2005.
Besides boats not being able to use his marina, Valdez worries about the reservoir’s kokanee salmon, which are important food for prized lake trout and tasty game fish in their own right.
Lately, kokanee numbers have been down for unknown reasons. The trend could continue as the reservoir falls, reducing spawning habitat and causing lake trout to eat more kokanee, said Wyoming Game and Fish Department Regional Fisheries Supervisor Robert Keith.
“As the reservoir drops, the available habitat for the two species is going to become compacted, so they’re going to overlap more,” Keith said. “So the opportunity for predation is going to be greater.”
Although Wyoming uses only about 60% of the water it’s entitled to under the compact, Gebhart says the Upper Basin states have little to spare given recent flows.
The vast majority of Colorado River Basin water used in Wyoming goes to irrigating grass and alfalfa for cattle. Industry — mainly power plants and minerals processing — accounts for about 9% and cities and towns about 3%.
More conservation by southwestern Wyoming’s 2,500 water rights holders could help keep water in the system. For example, ranchers can install more efficient irrigation with assistance from government grants and other funding, said Cory Toye with Trout Unlimited.
The fish habitat and angler advocacy group has been working with ranchers on such projects in Wyoming for years and the Flaming Gorge drawdowns have heightened awareness of the problem, Toye said.
States in the compact have been funding efforts to boost snowfall by releasing silver iodide from airplanes and ground-based devices in Wyoming and elsewhere in the Rocky Mountains.
Cloud seeding can increase snow somewhat, research shows. But the technique is unlikely to fully offset or reverse drought or bring Flaming Gorge back up from levels threatening Buckboard Marina.
Lucerne Valley Marina, just south of the Utah line, will need to adapt if levels keep falling but could still operate.
“We’re anchoring in 200 feet of water when full,” owner Jerry Taylor said. “We have quite a bit of ability for lake drop. But Buckboard does not.”
In a worst-case scenario, Buckboard would be stranded some distance away from where the Green River flowed more than 60 years ago.
For now, Valdez hopes to lure back tourists who’ve stayed home amid high gasoline prices and the lower water. And he says Wyoming residents also need uncrowded places like Buckboard to enjoy.
“People just don’t get raised like this anymore, get to hunt and fish,” Valdez said. “And have a sustainable source of water.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a collaborative series on the Colorado River as the 100th anniversary of the historic Colorado River Compact approaches. The Associated Press, The Colorado Sun, The Albuquerque Journal, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Arizona Daily Star and The Nevada Independent are working together to explore the pressures on the river in 2022.
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WEST WINDSOR, Vt. (AP) — Kenyan cyclist Sule Kangangi died in a crash Saturday while competing in a gravel race in Vermont.
Kangangi was riding at a high speed in the Vermont Overland race when he crashed.
“Sule is our captain, friend, brother. He is also a father, husband and son. Gaping holes are left when giant’s fall. Sule was a giant,” his Team AMANI posted on social media. “Instead of leading us at the front of the pack, he will now lead us as our guiding pole star as we press forward in the realization of his dream.”
Rachel Ruto, the wife of president-elect William Ruto of Kenya, posted on Twitter that she was shocked to learn the sad news that he had passed away after a tragic crash.
“My heartfelt condolences to his family, and the entire cycling community, that has lost a talented cyclist, a mentor and a friend,” she wrote. “We will all miss him as an individual. Kenya has lost a champion. Rest in peace Sule.”
The Vermont Overland is a 59-mile (95-kilometer) dirt road bicycle race that includes nearly 7,000 feet (2,130 meters) of climbing, according to the race’s website. About 900 cyclists were competing on Saturday in the race that begins and ends in the community of Brownsville in the town of West Windsor, officials said.
“Vermont Overland is heartbroken by the tragic death of Suleiman ‘Sule’ Kangangi during The Overland yesterday,” Ansel Dickey, owner of Vermont Overland, said in a statement on Sunday. “He was a kind friend and an inspiring and heroic athlete to his teammates and the gravel cycling community at large. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, his friends, Team Amani, and the people of Kenya who are mourning his loss today.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:24:33Z
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Summit Rest Area near Laramie to be closedThe Summit Rest Area near mile marker 323 on Interstate 80 east of Laramie will be temporarily closed on Thursday and Friday because of facility and parking lot repairs and deep cleaning.
The closure will begin at 6 a.m. on Thursday and will remain closed through Friday while the repairs, cleaning and maintenance are completed.
Facilities, including restrooms and tourist information areas, will be closed to the public. Truck parking will remain available while car and RV parking will be closed.
Archaeology Awareness Month lectureIn celebration of Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month, Dr. Barbara Mills will present the 23rd Annual George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology sponsored lecture at 4:10 p.m. Thursday at the Business Auditorium on the University of Wyoming campus.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and also will be streamed via wyocast at https://tinyurl.com/5h4y397w. A reception will follow the lecture in the Department of Anthropology foyer.
Mills is a regents professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona and the curator of archaeology at the Arizona State Museum. Her talk is titled “From Frontier to Center Place: The Dynamic Trajectory of the Chaco World.”
Mills has conducted field and laboratory research in several regions of the Southwest (Four Corners, Chaco, Mogollon Rim, Rio Grande, Mimbres, and Zuni areas) as well as Guatemala, Kazakhstan and Turkey. She was director of the University of Arizona Archaeological Field School at Pinedale, where she collaborated with the Hopi and White Mountain Apache Tribes. This was followed by a series of NSF-supported projects including the Southwest Social Networks Project, the Chaco Social Networks Project and her current project, cyberSW.
My Wild LandA new documentary series highlighting Wyoming ranching families that have gone to exceptional lengths to preserve Western ranching and steward big-game populations that depend on working lands.
“My Wild Land” will be screened at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Gryphon Theatre with the doors opening at 5:30 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public and will include a free raffle; a question-and-answer session with ranchers and/or other partners working to maintain Wyoming’s working lands; and a social hour with free food and beverages. The screenings are made possible by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Muley Fanatic Foundation with support from the outdoor equipment company Maven and produced by the Wyoming Migration Initiative at the University of Wyoming.
The three-part series, “My Wild Land,” features ranches from across Wyoming: the Terry Creek Ranch near Laramie, the Bischoff Ranch near Lovell and the Hellyer family ranch near Lander. The series was launched in response to the rapid residential growth of Western states in recent years and subsequent loss of wildlife habitat.
Each film shares the unique perspective of the landowners; their relationship to the land; and the challenges they’ve faced while maintaining cattle operations and promoting wildlife habitat.
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LONDON (AP) — Harry Kane used to be regarded as a slow starter to Premier League seasons.
Not this time.
The England captain scored for the third straight game with his double earning Tottenham a 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest on Sunday and taking Kane to third in the all-time Premier League scoring charts.
Kane also scored a stoppage-time equalizer against Chelsea in the second round and the winner against Wolverhampton last weekend.
Kane had never scored in the season-opening month of August until 2018, a run of 15 matches across different seasons. He also had a poor start to last season, after a summer move to Manchester City didn’t materialize, before finding form in the new year.
After a full preseason, he has hit the ground running in the 2022-23 campaign — and should have had another goal to his name against Forest, only for a second-half penalty to be saved by Dean Henderson.
Also Sunday, West Ham beat Aston Villa 1-0 to earn its first points of the season and Newcastle struck in the 90th minute to leave Wolverhampton with a 1-1 draw.
MOVING UP
Kane scored in either half to draw level with Andrew Cole on 187 Premier League goals — behind only Alan Shearer (260) and Wayne Rooney (208) — and ensure his side’s unbeaten start to the season continues. Tottenham is third with 10 points from four games, two points behind leader Arsenal.
Kane’s perfect day was only spoilt when Henderson’s second penalty save in back-to-back home games saw the England striker’s run of 21 successful spot kicks come to an end.
Antonio Conte’s Spurs found the perfect way to quieten down the home ground as it took the lead after just five minutes. Kane’s touch set Dejan Kulusevski away and, after advancing up the pitch, the Swede returned the ball to the England captain, who found the bottom corner from 20 yards in clinical fashion.
Tottenham was awarded a penalty eight minutes after the break as Steve Cook deliberately handled Ivan Perisic’s cross. When the penalty was finally taken after a VAR check Henderson produced the heroics again — just as he did against West Ham — as he dived full length to his right to palm away Kane’s powerful kick. It was the first spot kick Kane had missed for Tottenham since February 2018.
The visitors did eventually double their lead with nine minutes remaining. Richarlison won the ball back and sent in a delicious cross that Kane headed into an empty net.
FIRST POINTS FOR WEST HAM
West Ham recorded its first points and first goal of the league season with a victory at Aston Villa.
Pablo Fornals scored the only goal of the game. His deflected second-half strike was enough to see the Hammers open their account for the top-flight campaign after losses to Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Brighton.
The win will ease some of the pressure on West Ham coach David Moyes but increase the tension for counterpart Steven Gerrard, whose side were booed off at full time.
Villa thought it had taken the lead in the 14th minute but Ezri Konsa’s goal was disallowed as Lucas Digne’s corner kick had gone fractionally out of play.
Fornals opened the scoring at Villa Park with 16 minutes remaining. Kurt Zouma brought the ball forward and found captain Declan Rice, who picked out Fornals and the Spaniard’s 25-yard effort deflected off Konsa and looped over Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez .
UNBEATEN MAGPIES
Allan Saint-Maximin’s stunning 90th-minute equalizer saw Newcastle snatch a draw at Wolverhampton, salvaging its unbeaten start to the Premier League season.
Under pressure from Jacob Murphy, Hwang Hee-chan sliced a clearance into the air and it dropped for Saint-Maximin to thump a brilliant volley into the corner from 20 yards.
The Magpies then almost turned the match around completely in stoppage time with Elliot Anderson hitting the crossbar.
Ruben Neves’ first-half screamer had given Wolves the lead.
Newcastle needed Saint-Maximin to produce as Eddie Howe was unable to call on new $70 million signing Alexander Isak, with the Sweden international yet to receive his work permit, while Bruno Guimaraes and Callum Wilson were injured.
The point does little to raise hopes at Molineux with Wolves still looking for the first league win of the season.
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Liverpool blew away Bournemouth 9-0 at Anfield on Saturday, equaling the record for the biggest-ever victory in the Premier League.
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland netted a second-half hat trick as City rallied to beat Crystal Palace 4-2 at home.
Arsenal maintained its perfect start to the season by rallying for a 2-1 win over Fulham.
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Seattle Storm are the lowest remaining seed in the postseason and came in looking to steal at least one of the first two road games against the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA semifinals.
Mission accomplished.
Jewell Loyd scored 26 points, including Seattle’s final six, and the Storm edged the Aces 76-73 on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series in front of a Las Vegas playoff-record crowd of 9,944.
Loyd made a go-ahead free throw with 1:16 to play, then a jumper for a three-point lead with 34 seconds remaining before the Storm held on for the win. She had 10 of Seattle’s 16 points in the fourth quarter.
“It wasn’t just me, it was a team effort for sure,” Loyd said. “It helps when you have really good teammates … you believe in them, they believe in you. That’s the biggest thing for us, is that each of us have to stay confident in what we do and what we can bring to the team. That’s been the key for us.”
Associated Press MVP Breanna Stewart had 24 points and six rebounds for the fourth-seeded Storm, while Tina Charles added 13 points and franchise playoff-record 18 rebounds.
“We knew that this was going to be tough. These games against Vegas have been tough all regular season and previous seasons, and we have a lot of respect for their players and what they do,” Stewart said. “We knew that coming here to their home court, we wanted to obviously try to steal one, we wanted to get one and get our momentum going in the right direction.”
Chelsea Gray scored 21 points for the Aces. Kelsey Plum added 20, but missed a tying 3-point attempt with 2.9 seconds to play.
Jackie Young finished with 11 points but Aces star A’ja Wilson was held to just eight on 3-of-10 shooting.
Seattle controlled much of the game, leading through the first 3 1/2 quarters after building a 12-point lead in the first half.
Las Vegas didn’t enjoy its first lead until the fourth quarter, when veteran guard Riquna Williams’ 3-pointer from the corner made it 65-64 with 6:09 left.
The Storm wasted no time in attacking early, as they built a 15-4 lead midway through the first quarter. Seattle got balanced scoring, with five players contributing, including Ezi Magbegor coming off the bench to add four.
Las Vegas struggled to find any sort of rhythm, as a pop-and-shot approach left them with a paltry 5-of-18 (27.8%) shooting performance in the first quarter. Both Wilson and Plum went scoreless while the Storm held a 26-15 lead after one.
“I thought we played tight, especially in the first quarter,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “We played like the world was on our shoulders.”
The Aces responded with a much better defensive effort and seemed to be much more comfortable attacking the rim to climb back into the game.
Led by Wilson, the Aces used a 12-4 run to cut Seattle’s lead to 30-27. Stewart took over from that point, scoring nine of her team’s points during a quarter-ending 13-9 run to send the Storm into the locker room with a 43-36 halftime lead.
BROKEN RECORD
In addition to Charles’ record-breaking night, retiring Sue Bird had 12 assists and no turnovers. Her final assist gave her a WNBA-record 342 in the playoffs. Lindsay Whalen had 341 in 82 games. Bird broke the record in 57.
NOT SO FAST, VEGAS
Taking a page out of the Aces’ playbook, the Storm outscored Las Vegas 16-0 in fast-break points. Seattle also held the edge with second-chance points, 5-0.
GUCCI ROW
The stars came out for the series opener, joining Aces owner Mark Davis and Raiders tight end Darren Waller, fixtures at home games all season. Also in attendance were women’s basketball Hall of Famer Ann Meyers Drysdale, Raiders coach Josh McDaniels, Los Angeles Clippers coach Ty Lue, Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, UFC president Dana White, Golden Knights goalie Logan Thompson, and Governor Steve Sisolak.
UP NEXT:
The Storm and Aces play Game 2 in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
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More WNBA playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-playoffs and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T14:24:57Z
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Drake Maye threw four of his five touchdown passes in the first half in his first collegiate start and North Carolina beat undermanned Florida A&M 56-24 to open the season Saturday night.
Six different North Carolina players scored touchdowns, with Josh Downs making two touchdown catches.
“It was fun out there,” Maye said. “We’ve got a lot of talent. We just have to put it together.”
Florida A&M arrived with a roster reduced by nearly two dozen players because of unresolved eligibility issues. The list of those absent included linebacker Isaiah Land, who led the Football Championship Subdivision in sacks last year.
The game nearly didn’t happen.
“I thought it was my duty to leave this up to our guys,” Rattlers coach Willie Simmons said of Friday’s uncertainty. “They initially decided not to play the game, and after some internal discussions, they decided to play the game. So we got on the plane with the mindset that we were going to play. … I’m extremely proud of how they came together because most teams would have used excuses and come out here, laid an egg, and (instead we) played a game that I’m very proud of.”
Maye, a redshirt freshman and younger brother of former Tar Heels basketball standout Luke Maye and son of ex-North Carolina quarterback Mark Maye, completed 29 of 37 passes for 294 yards – some coming in a light rain.
“He thinks this is what he’s supposed to be doing,” North Carolina coach Mack Brown said. “One of the best first games I’ve ever seen.”
The young quarterback had a couple notable achievements. He’s the first North Carolina player to throw five touchdowns in a season opener and the first to connect for five touchdowns in a first career start.
“That’s kind of how the game worked out,” Maye said of the records.
North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton scored on touchdown runs of 2 and 25 yards in his debut. He finished with 101 rushing yards on 14 carries.
Florida A&M quarterback Jeremy Moussa, a graduate transfer from Vanderbilt, threw for two touchdowns. He completed 28 of 38 passes for 279 yards with an interception.
“He’s no longer a secret,” Simmons said of the arrival of Moussa.
The Rattlers were within 21-14 until Downs’ 2-yard touchdown catch with 5 seconds left in the first half.
Earlier, Maye connected with Kamari Morales for a 19-yard touchdown pass for the game’s first points. It came one play after Maye dodged defenders on the way to a 42-yard run.
The Rattlers responded by driving 75 yards in eight plays and scoring on Moussa’s 17-yard pass to AJ Davis.
On the ensuing possession, Maye hooked up with Bryson Nesbit for a 23-yard touchdown. His next scoring play came on a fourth-and-4 pass to Gavin Blackwell.
HIS TOWN, FINALLY
Veteran North Carolina coach Mack Brown had never defeated a team from Tallahassee, Florida, until this result. As coach of the Tar Heels, Brown, a Florida State alum, had been 0-8 all-time against Florida State.
This was the first football meeting between Florida A&M and North Carolina.
“It was a perfect opening game for us,” Brown said.
Brown, who turned 71 on Saturday, has 266 career coaching victories.
THE TAKEAWAY
Florida A&M: The Rattlers couldn’t sustain their good stretches and that could have come in part because of limited players available. They suited up about 50 players. They won’t play another Football Bowl Subdivision team this year, so repeating the success of a nine-win season from last year appears possible.
North Carolina: The Tar Heels will be happy with what they saw from members of their young offensive backfield. They won’t be so fond of the defense giving up 279 passing yards, with 273 of those coming across the first three quarters.
UP NEXT
Florida A&M: The Rattlers play Jackson State in Miami on Sept. 4.
North Carolina: The Tar Heels play at Appalachian State on Saturday.
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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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| 2022-09-21T14:25:04Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — A mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card sold for $12.6 million Sunday, blasting into the record books as the most ever paid for sports memorabilia in a market that has grown exponentially more lucrative in recent years.
The rare Mantle card eclipsed the record just posted a few months ago — $9.3 million for the jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the contentious “Hand of God” goal in soccer’s 1986 World Cup.
It easily surpassed the $7.25 million for a century-old Honus Wagner baseball card recently sold in a private sale.
And just last month, the heavyweight boxing belt reclaimed by Muhammad Ali during 1974’s “Rumble in the Jungle” sold for nearly $6.2 million.
All are part of a booming market for sports collectibles.
Prices have risen not just for the rarest items, but also for pieces that might have been collecting dust in garages and attics. Many of those items make it onto consumer auction sites like eBay, while others are put up for bidding by auction houses.
Because of its near-perfect condition and its legendary subject, the Mantle card was destined to be a top seller, said Chris Ivy, the director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, which ran the bidding.
Some saw collectibles as a hedge against inflation over the past couple years, he said, while others rekindled childhood passions.
Ivy said savvy investors saw inflation coming down the road — as it has. As a result, sports memorabilia became an alternative to traditional Wall Street investments or real estate — particularly among members of Generation X and older millennials.
“There’s only so much Netflix and ‘Tiger King’ people could watch (during the pandemic). So, you know, they were getting back into hobbies, and clearly sports collecting was a part of that,” said Ivy, who noted an uptick in calls among potential sellers.
Add to that interest from wealthy overseas collectors and you have a confluence of factors that made sports collectibles especially attractive, Ivy said.
“We’ve kind of started seeing some growth and some rise in the prices that led to some media coverage. And I think it all it all just kind of built upon itself,” he said. “I would say the beginning of the pandemic really added gasoline to that fire.”
Before the pandemic, the sports memorabilia market was estimated at more than $5.4 billion, according to a 2018 Forbes interview with David Yoken, the founder of Collectable.com.
By 2021, that market had grown to $26 billion, according to the research firm Market Decipher, which predicts the market will grow astronomically to $227 billion within a decade — partly fueled by the rise of so-called NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which are digital collectibles with unique data-encrypted fingerprints.
Sports cards have been especially in demand, as people spent more time at home and an opportunity arose to rummage through potential treasure troves of childhood memories, including old comic books and small stacks of bubble gum cards featuring marquee sports stars.
That lure of making money on something that might be sitting in one’s childhood basement has been irresistible, according to Stephen Fishler, founder of ComicConnect, who has watched the growing rise — and profitability — of collectibles being traded across auction houses.
“In a nutshell, the world of modern sports cards has been going bonkers,” he said.
The Mantle baseball card dates from 1952 and is widely regarded as one of just a handful of the baseball legend in near-perfect condition.
The auction netted a handsome profit for Anthony Giordano, a New Jersey waste management entrepreneur who bought it for $50,000 at a New York City show in 1991.
“As soon as it hit 10 million I just turned in. I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore,” Giordano, 75, said Sunday morning. His sons monitored the auction for him. “They stayed up and called me this morning bright and early to tell me that it reached where it reached.”
The card was one of dozens of sports collectibles up for auction. In all, the items raked in some $28 million, according to Derek Grady, the executive vice president of sports auctions for Heritage Auctions.
“Sports collectibles are finally getting their due as an investment,” Grady said. “The best sports items are now starting to rival artwork, rare coins and rare artifacts as a great investment vehicle.”
The switch-hitting Mantle was a Triple Crown winner in 1956, a three-time American League MVP and a seven-time World Series champion. The Hall of Famer died in 1995.
“Some people might say it’s just a baseball card. Who cares? It’s just a Picasso. It’s just a Rembrandt to other people. It’s a thing of art for some people,” said John Holden, a professor in sports management law at Oklahoma State and amateur sports card collector.
Like pieces of art that have no intrinsic value, he said, when it comes to sports cards, the worth is in the eye of the beholder — or the pocketbook of the potential bidder.
“The value,” Holden said, “is whatever the market’s willing to support.”
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Follow Bobby Caina Calvan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BobbyCalvan
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| 2022-09-21T14:25:12Z
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TORONTO (AP) — Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout helped the Los Angeles Angels put a rosy finish on a rough road trip.
The Toronto Blue Jays, meanwhile, took another dip on their roller-coaster ride through the AL wild-card race.
Ohtani and Trout homered, and the Angels beat the Blue Jays 8-3 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep.
Ohtani had three hits and scored twice one day after he pitched seven crisp innings in a 2-0 victory. Trout went 2 for 5 with two RBIs and also scored twice.
“We’re trying to win ballgames, we’re trying to build some positive momentum into the offseason,” Trout said. “Obviously we’re going to play some teams down the stretch that are in the race. We’re just trying to shake some things up a little bit.”
Ohtani’s two-run drive made it 6-1 in the seventh, and Trout added a solo shot in the ninth. It was the 28th homer for each slugger.
Luis Rengifo and Kurt Suzuki also connected for the Angels, who had lost six straight and nine of 10 before facing the Blue Jays.
Los Angeles limited Toronto to three runs in three games. The Angels scored 22 runs in the sweep after scoring 12 over the first seven games of the trip.
“I liked the way we went about it this weekend, sure,” interim manager Phil Nevin said. ”It could have gone another way because of the way the road trip was going.”
A few fans in the rapidly thinning crowd of 44,318 booed after an error on Toronto first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. allowed a run to score in the eighth.
“Guys are gonna have to look at the standings and understand that every game is important,” interim Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Three hours out of your day needs to be completely focused on trying to win.”
The Blue Jays finished one game out of a wild-card spot last season.
Toronto had won six of seven coming in but was swept at home for the first time since June 15-17, 2021, when the Yankees took all three games of a series played at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, New York. Buffalo was one of Toronto’s three home ballparks last season when the U.S.-Canada border was closed because of restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The word that’s going to follow the 2022 Blue Jays for the years to come is streaky,” right-hander Ross Stripling said. “We’ve had more highs and lows this year than any team that I’ve been a part of.”
Schneider said he didn’t feel the need to deliver an angry rant to his team.
“I’m never the type of guy that will go in there and flip the table,” he said. “At this point, it’s up to the players to say ‘This is not good enough.’”
After Trout chased right-hander Adam Cimber with an RBI double in the seventh, Ohtani greeted lefty Tim Mayza with an opposite-field drive into the bullpen in left.
“Sho’s at-bats were great,” Nevin said. “The home run was, for me, the biggest blow of the game.”
Trout beat a four-man outfield by homering into the center field batter’s eye off right-hander David Phelps.
“Things went our way this series, for sure,” Trout said.
Stripling (6-4) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. Stripling gave up more than two earned runs for the first time since July 3 against Tampa Bay, snapping a six-start unbeaten streak.
Matt Chapman ended Toronto’s 21-inning scoreless drought with a two-out RBI double in the fourth. The run snapped a 22-inning scoreless streak by Angels pitchers.
Angels left-hander Tucker Davidson allowed one run and three hits in four-plus innings. He matched a career worst with five walks but struck out a career-high five.
“It’s going to be a happy flight home,” Davidson said.
Danny Jansen doubled to begin the fifth and Davidson departed after a four-pitch walk to George Springer. Andrew Wantz (2-0) got Guerrero to ground into a fielder’s choice before Lourdes Gurriel hit into an inning-ending double play.
Springer extended his hitting streak to a season-high 12 games with a solo homer off Gerardo Reyes in the ninth, his 19th.
Back in the lineup after fouling a ball off his left foot Friday, usually speedy Blue Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernández looked to be running with difficulty. He couldn’t score from first base on Chapman’s two-out hit in the fourth. With runners at the corners and two out in the sixth, Hernández wasn’t moving at full speed when he was forced out at second base on an unassisted play by shortstop Andrew Velazquez.
CATCHING CAROUSEL
Suzuki was the third different catcher in as many games for the Angels. Matt Thaiss caught Friday and Max Stassi caught Saturday.
UP NEXT
Angels: LHP José Suarez (4-6, 4.19 ERA) starts Monday as Los Angeles returns home to begin a three-game series against the Yankees. RHP Frankie Montas (4-10, 3.84 ERA) will start for New York.
Blue Jays: RHP José Berríos (9-5, 5.28 ERA) starts Monday in the opener of a three-game interleague series against the Chicago Cubs. RHP Javier Assad (0-0, 0.00) goes for the Cubs.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Wyoming Tribune Eagle
CHEYENNE – Six candidates are vying for three seats on the Laramie County Community College board of trustees in the Nov. 8 general election.
Janine Thompson and Carol Merrell are the two incumbents running for re-election, while the other four candidates are hoping to hold a seat for the first time. Brenda Lyttle is another trustee whose position on the board is available, because she announced she is running as an independent in the Wyoming Legislature’s House District 8 race.
Trustees serve four-year terms with no compensation. They are responsible for upholding LCCC’s mission to prepare students for academic success and for the workforce.
Incumbents
Thompson, 60, is an accounting firm owner who is finishing her first term on the LCCC board.
She also is an alumni of the community college, and taught accounting there for 12 years. She said she has loved working with the students, faculty and board members, and said they’re the reason she hopes to continue her service.
“Our role of community colleges is to seek to enrich the development of students and get them on the right pathway after they leave community college,” she told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Her first priority would be to find a sustainable funding source, especially in the wake of declining budget allocations from the Legislature. She said community colleges statewide have to fight for support every year. Although the Wyoming Constitution requires legislators to fully fund the University of Wyoming and local school districts, she said the same guarantee is not provided to community colleges.
Lowering tuition and making higher education more affordable, as well as increasing student recruitment, are among her other goals.
“I’m qualified because of my experience in the last four years,” she said. “It’s a learning curve.”
By working on the Finance Committee, helping grow the Child Development Center and interacting with students, Johnson said she’s become an even better candidate.
Merrell did not respond to interview inquiries by publication time.
Kathy Emmons
Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Department Director Kathy Emmons, 64, said she is ready to step into a leadership position at the college.
She has a background in political science and career-vocational guidance, as well as a doctorate in management focused. Her decision to run came from her passion for education, her desire to serve and family background.
“My parents were lifelong learners. I remember when I was a kid, they would take classes through the community college where I grew up, and it might be a history class, it might be a pottery class, a stained glass class, just whatever opportunities they had with the community colleges in Nebraska,” she said. “It’s just something I’ve seen my entire life.”
Emmons was the director of the Children’s Discovery Center at LCCC that her children attended, worked closely with the college to develop an integrated technology program under former Gov. Dave Freudenthal and helped the college keep students safe during the pandemic. She said the blend of those experiences have helped her contribute to the college and prepared her for a trustee position.
She wants to increase enrollment if she were elected, which would help ensure adequate funding. She plans to continue to evaluate and address the needs of the community for workforce training, and provide exemplary education programs to allow individuals to complete an associates degree or to move to a more advanced degree.
“They’ve done a phenomenal job in growing LCCC, and being a successful entity in the community, and I feel like I could contribute more to that,” she said.
Ed Wright
Former Wyoming Adjutant General Ed Wright, 72, is looking to utilize his three decades of education experience as an LCCC trustee. He said he worked in private, public and parochial schools in almost all fields before moving to Cheyenne in 2003 to direct the Wyoming Military Department and command the Wyoming National Guard.
“It’s just a matter of a sense of service to the community,” he said. “I have, between my education experience, administrative experience and my experience working for the state, I just think I have a fair amount to offer and give back.”
He said he is a product of community colleges, which led him to receive five degrees from colleges across the nation, including a doctorate of education from Montana State University. He taught as an adjunct instructor at Eastern Wyoming Community College in Torrington, and he said this helped him gain familiarity with how community colleges operate.
Concerns he hopes to address are student enrollment and recruiting and retaining staff. He said he is aware COVID-19 has played a part in low student enrollment, and he wants to find a way to pull prospective students in. The market is competitive for recruiting staff, and he said compensation plays a part in competing with other colleges.
“Community colleges have to be agile in balancing between where they put their resources,” he said. “Is it toward kids who are going on to college? Is it training kids for the workforce? And how do you balance that with what you’re doing for the community?”
Wright said he aspires to be a strong advocate in the Legislature to make sure LCCC has the adequate funding.
Joe Kelly
Joe Kelly, 44, said he wants to help the board keep the momentum it has going in the right direction, as well as bring a fresh perspective. He hopes to build talent at the college that will contribute to a qualified workforce and keep students in the area after graduation, as well as navigate inflation challenges.
His bachelor’s is in marketing and business administration from Oregon State University gives him knowledge in economic development, and he has worked as a financial advisor with Edward Jones in Cheyenne.
“We have businesses that want to come into Laramie County,” he said. “We have to have the workforce to fill those jobs so we can continue to grow.”
He said his personal stake is only wanting to see the community thrive, and that his daughters are in the K-12 education system in the county. This piqued his interest in improving a partnership between LCCC and Laramie County School District 1, because he wants students to see their higher education pathway starting at the community college.
“My wife and I are both business owners, and I spent numerous years coaching and mentoring youth in our community,” he said.
Managing funds is a major way he sees his financial background coming into play. He said trustees have to make sure they’re appropriating money responsibly, and finding creative ways to raise money. He said there could be opportunities to attract outside communities and organizations to use the recreation areas, rodeo grounds and other resources.
Harmon (Bud) Davis
Harmon “Bud” Davis, 76, has lived in Cheyenne for four decades and practiced internal medicine and pulmonary disease critical care for 34 years in the community. He has continued to be the medical director for the pulmonary rehabilitation program at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, and served on other commissions and committees in leadership positions.
He ran for the board three years ago and lost, and he decided to run again because he said he has organizational and strategic planning skills he hopes to offer. He said he also wants to advance the academic and trade visions of the community college.
“I am committed to the college,” he told the WTE. “My wife and I sponsored a program this year for first-generation students at the college. I’ve also been involved in having the college start a respiratory therapy program, which, particularly after the pandemic, I saw a need for.”
His top priorities include improving the college’s 34% completion rate, and being fiscally prudent. He said the college has had setbacks due to the cuts at the state level, and needs to be fiscally responsible. He wants to maintain and improve the campus, as well as to encourage the board to be more aggressive in getting capital construction funding.
An example Davis used was the delay of the recreational and athletic complex renovations. With increases in inflation and no more additional funding from the Legislature, it will likely be incomplete for months.
“Our college is exceptional, even though the competition rate is low,” he said. “It clearly has had an annual increase in the number of students, and so it services a large community. As a result of that, we should have more funding.”
Jasmine Hall is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s state government reporter. She can be reached by email at jhall@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3167. Follow her on Twitter @jasminerhphotos and on Instagram @jhrose25.
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OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Paula Reto won the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open on Sunday for her first LPGA Tour victory, closing with a 4-under 67 for a one-stroke victory over Nelly Korda and Hye-Jin Choi.
“I’m really, really excited and just proud of myself for being able to stick through the shots and the routines,” Reto said. “Sometimes, I find that’s really hard to do, especially if you know you have only a few holes left.”
Reto finished at 19-under 265 at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club. The 32-year-old South African opened with a course-record 62.
She’s the fourth South African winner on the LPGA Tour, following Sally Little, Lee-Anne Pace and Ashleigh Buhai — the British Women’s Open champion this year.
“I was trying not to watch the leaderboard,” said Reto, who played in the final group with Choi and Narin An. “I sort of knew where the girls in my group were, so I was just trying to make sure I stayed with them or maybe one or two ahead. That was the only thing I could control. You can’t do too much.”
Korda missed a chance to reclaim the No. 1 ranking, also shooting a 67.
“I think I had a decent shot at it,” Korda said. “I played good golf, and honestly, I’m just grateful that I am playing golf and I’m out here, and I’m enjoying every second of it.”
Choi, tied for the third-round lead with fellow South Korean rookie An, had a 69.
Three-time champion Lydia Ko had a 63 to finish fourth at 17 under.
An shot a 72 to tie for sixth at 15 under.
Alena Sharp was the top Canadian, shooting a 67 to tie for 17th at 10 under. Canadian star Brooke Henderson tied for 49th at 5 under after a 69 in front of a large gallery.
“It was amazing,” Henderson said about the fans . “I didn’t necessarily expect that because I was thinking, you know, they should go and see some really good golf happening. It’s amazing that they were out there the whole time, just so many people. I felt the love all week.”
Golf Canada said an event-record 75,000 fans attended the event during the week.
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ATLANTA (AP) — This year it became easy to overlook Rory McIlroy’s four majors, 30 wins on four continents and two years at No. 1 in the world. He has been viewed mostly as the strongest voice and staunchest defender of the PGA Tour in its battle against Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
So perhaps it was only fitting that a most tumultuous year for the PGA Tour culminated Sunday with McIlroy holding its biggest prize.
He had the final say with his clubs.
Six shots behind before the Tour Championship started, 10 shots back after two holes, McIlroy rallied from a six-shot deficit in the final round against the No. 1 player in the world and closed with a 4-under 66 to become the first three-time winner of the FedEx Cup.
“It’s been a tumultuous time for the world of men’s professional golf in particular,” he said. “I’ve been in the thick of things. I guess every chance I get, I’m trying to defend what I feel is the best place to play elite professional golf in the world.
“It’s in some ways fitting that I was able to get this done today to sort of round off a year that has been very, very challenging and different.”
It came at the expense of Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world who birdied four of six holes Sunday morning to finish the storm-delayed third round at 66 and build a six-shot lead. Not even McIlroy, who birdied the last two holes in the morning to get into the final group, thought he had a great chance.
But then Scheffler never regained his groove, missing fairways and greens and par putts. He made only one birdie in a closing round of 73 and tied the PGA Tour record for losing a six-shot lead in the final round.
“I just didn’t get off to a good start early, but after that I grinded as hard as I could,” Scheffler said. “For whatever reason my swing wasn’t where it had been the first few days this week.”
McIlroy had a 17-under 263 for his raw score, the best of the week. He started at 4 under as the No. 7 seed and finished at 21 under to capture the $18 million bonus.
Sungjae Im fell back with a double bogey on the 14th hole and still managed a 66 to tie for second with Scheffler. They earned $5.75 million.
McIlroy referred to the final round as a “spectacle,” and not just because of the pro-McIlroy crowd that chanted his name along the closing holes.
“Two of the best players in the world going head-to-head for the biggest prize on the PGA Tour, and I hope everyone at home enjoyed that,” he said.
McIlroy needed plenty of help from Scheffler, who never trailed until the 70th hole. Scheffler looked out of sorts early, and McIlroy capitalized. With three straight birdies, he tied him on the seventh hole. And then it was a nail-biter to the end.
It was a stunning display at East Lake that turned on two shots.
McIlroy holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th hole to tie for the lead.
After he flew the green by some 20 yards on the 16th, his pitch was running fast and headed off the front of the green when it hit the pin and settled 7 feet away. He saved par. Scheffler blasted out of a bunker to just inside 10 feet and missed, making bogey that put him behind for the first time all week.
Scheffler badly misread a 10-foot birdie chance on the 17th to tie, sending the Tour Championship to the final hole with $18 million on the line.
Scheffler’s 4-iron on the par-5 18th sailed short and right and into a bunker, and he blasted out over the green. McIlroy went left against the grandstand, took relief and got onto the green for an easy par.
“I wanted to win the season-long title,” Scheffler said. “I’ve had a really great year and I wanted to finish it off with a win here, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that.”
McIlroy won the FedEx Cup in 2016 in a playoff. He won the FedEx Cup again in 2019, the first year of a staggered start. This might have been the sweetest of fall, coming off a year in which the PGA Tour has been in a nasty battle with LIV Golf, which already has attracted some two dozen players and now is part of an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
It was McIlroy who has declared fierce loyalty to the PGA Tour over the last few years when rival leagues were coming into a view. And it was McIlroy who joined Tiger Woods in leading a momentous player-only meeting last week that led to significant changes ahead for the tour.
So, yes, this had an extra level of satisfaction.
And no, he didn’t mind the burden he carried as the de facto voice of the tour.
“If you believe in something I think you have to speak up, and I believe very strongly about this. I really do,” McIlroy said. “I hate what it’s doing to the game of golf. I hate it.
“I think when you believe that what you’re saying is the right things, you’re happy to stick your neck out on the line.”
Even at the Tour Championship, typically a celebration of the end of the year, there was talk all weekend of more defections coming in next few days. The Daily Telegraph reported three weeks ago that British Open champion Cameron Smith was leaving for LIV Golf, and renewed reports over the weekend confirmed as much.
Two people aware of the moves said Harold Varner III, Marc Leishman and Anirban Lahiri are leaving. They spoke on condition of anonymity because it has not been announced. Cameron Tringale announced his decision on Twitter.
Still to be determined is Joaquin Niemann, whose manager said the Chilean would discuss the options with his father later Sunday.
“Everyone on tour has had to deal with a lot. Even the guys that have went to LIV have had to deal with a lot. It’s just been a very tumultuous sort of era in our game,” McIlroy said. “This is the best place in the world to play golf. It’s the most competitive. It’s got the best players. It’s got the deepest fields. I don’t know why you’d want to play anywhere else.”
With all that speculation, the Tour Championship that looked to be a runaway turned into a dynamic show. And in the end, the tour’s biggest voice had its biggest trophy.
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mike Tomlin will meet with the rest of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ braintrust before announcing who will be the starting quarterback in Cincinnati in two weeks.
Mitch Trubisky presented a pretty compelling case to make sure the conversation is a short one.
Unharried behind an offensive line that remains very much a work in progress, Trubisky finished off a steady if not spectacular preseason with 80 seconds of precision, leading a crisp 92-yard touchdown drive to end the first half in a 19-9 victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
Trubisky’s final throw of a busy August was a 6-yard dart to Steven Sims that gave the Steelers a 16-point lead and likely erased any doubt as to who will run onto the field with the starting offense against the defending AFC North champion Bengals on Sept. 11. Trubisky finished the preseason 24 of 34 for 283 yards and two touchdowns against no interceptions.
“I feel confident with where I’m at,” Trubisky said.
He should, even with rookie Kenny Pickett doing his best to apply some pressure. Pickett went 10 for 14 for 90 yards while playing the majority of the second half and completed 80% (29 of 36) of his passes during the preseason, with three touchdowns and no picks.
“If it’s me (as the starter), I’m going to play as hard as I possibly can and be the best I can be,” Pickett said. “If it’s Mitch or Mason (Rudolph), whoever it is I’ll support them and be ready when my number is called and be the best QB on the sideline that I can be.”
Pickett remains very much a part of Pittsburgh’s future. Trubisky, however, appears to be part of the present. Five months after signing a two-year deal with Pittsburgh in hopes of reviving his career, Trubisky’s professionalism and play since training camp began has given Tomlin little reason to hand the keys to the franchise to the 20th overall pick in the draft so quickly.
Tomlin has grown tired of fielding questions about the quarterback position, maybe because it so rarely happened during his first 15 years on the job with Roethlisberger’s name written in permanent marker atop the depth chart. Clarity will come at some point in the next few days, though Tomlin called the situation “a good problem” to have.
There are a handful of not-so good ones too.
The starting offensive line, excoriated following a shoddy half of work last week against Jacksonville, was again sloppy and at times disorganized. Twice the Steelers started a series inside the Detroit 30 in the first half. Twice they failed to record a single first down and were forced to settle for one of Chris Boswell’s four field goals.
Tomlin played most of his starters on both sides of the ball in the first half, and it nearly cost the Steelers after All-Pro linebacker T.J. Watt and Pro Bowl wide receiver Diontae Johnson both left with injuries.
Watt, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, injured his left knee after receiving a cut block from Detroit tight end T.J. Hockenson in the second quarter. Hockenson seemed to apologize to Watt immediately after the play, and Watt remained in the game briefly before being pulled.
Johnson, who signed a lucrative extension earlier this month, also left in the first half with a shoulder injury after landing awkwardly following a nice 38-yard reception down the sideline.
Tomlin said both injuries appeared to be minor and that they possibly could have returned if the game counted, shrugging off the risk involved with playing them in a meaningless game.
“You can’t box without sparring,” Tomlin said.
BACKUP PLAN?
The Lions (1-2), who have spent the last month taking a rare turn in the spotlight as part of the “Hard Knocks” docuseries, have a slightly lower-profile quarterback competition going. With starter Jared Goff taking the day off, Tim Boyle and David Blough tried to provide some clarity to the backup position.
Neither exactly distinguished himself. Boyle completed just 5 of 15 passes for 64 yards while working the first half. He also threw an interception directly to Pittsburgh cornerback Cam Sutton, who didn’t even have to move as Boyle hit Sutton right between the 2 and the 0 on his jersey as he sat down in zone coverage.
Blough was a little more effective while working against players who are hoping they’ll still have a job in the NFL after teams trim their rosters to 53 on Tuesday afternoon. Blough finished 17 of 32 for 160 yards, including a 5-yard touchdown flip to Quintez Cephus with 30 seconds to go.
“I think (the backup situation) became very clear,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “I think we got things answered and I would leave it at that.”
The Lions could be in the market for a backup quarterback this week. There could be one available in Pittsburgh, where Rudolph appears very much to be the third-man in the three-way race.
UP NEXT
Lions: Welcome Philadelphia to Ford Field on Sept. 11.
Steelers: Begin the season on the road for the eighth straight year when they head to Cincinnati. The Bengals swept the season series from Pittsburgh last fall.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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NEW YORK (AP) — Serena and Venus Williams were drawn to face the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova in the first round of doubles at the U.S. Open.
The U.S. Tennis Association announced the doubles brackets Sunday, a day before the tournament begins. Serena has said she is preparing to retire and the expectation is that the U.S. Open will be her last event.
She plays in singles Monday night. The doubles competition will begin Wednesday, with first-round matches spread over that day and Thursday.
It is the first doubles event for the Williams sisters together since the 2018 French Open. They have won 14 Grand Slam championships in in doubles as a team, most recently at Wimbledon inn 2016.
Two of their doubles titles came at the U.S. Open, in 1999 and 2009.
Hradecka is a 37-year-old who won two major doubles trophies with Andrea Hlavackova — at the 2013 U.S. Open and 2011 French Open. Noskova is a 17-year-old who never has won a Grand Slam match in singles or doubles.
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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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For the last two years, Laramie County has been represented by a monolithic cast of Republican legislators. For the first time since I graduated from the University of Wyoming Law School and moved to Laramie County in 1982, there was not one Democrat member of our county delegation.
This pattern has been repeated across this state, with few exceptions. Wyoming is effectively a one-party state.
With a delegation that comprised one-sixth of the House and Senate and included several chairpersons of critical committees, you might think Laramie County’s delegation would have used those positions to advance solutions to some of the very real problems in our growing community. You would be wrong; a sad fact illustrated by their performance on one issue – public education.
There is no disputing the fact that Wyoming’s public schools hold a special place in our state. The Wyoming Constitution was written and adopted by people who had the civic commitment necessary to transform a territory into a state. Article 1, Section 23 says, “The right of the citizens to opportunities for education should have practical recognition. The legislature shall suitably encourage means and agencies calculated to advance the sciences and liberal arts.”
Article 7, Section 1 requires the Legislature to fund a uniform system of free public education in fulfillment of this fundamental right to education. "The legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction, embracing free elementary schools of every needed kind and grade, a university with such technical and professional departments as the public good may require and the means of the state allow, and such other institutions as may be necessary."
In 1980, the Wyoming Supreme Court held that the right to an equal education was a fundamental right of every school-age child in Wyoming, and charged the Legislature with the tasks to develop a system to give schools the tools to fulfill their functions and to develop a means of funding those schools. At first, the Legislature balked at these directives and incited a series of lawsuits, as school districts fought to make the Legislature take the steps necessary to develop the models and plans that would make the constitutional promise of “a complete and uniform system of public instruction” a reality. In 2008, that litigation finally came to an end, when the Legislature adopted and courts finally approved a formula of state funding that put us on a path to make that promise a reality.
However, we live in a dynamic world. The basic assumptions and variables incorporated in any model must be updated for from time to time in order to accommodate today’s circumstances. The work of the Legislature was not done in 2008. In fact, it was just beginning. It was and is the continuing duty of our Legislature to measure today’s educational needs and to make necessary recalibrations to ensure resources are available to meet those needs.
The future success of the public education system cannot be assumed and has not been assured. It depends upon the good faith commitment of current legislators to honor the promises enshrined in our Constitution and defined by the Supreme Court, promises that were made long before most of them were even elected.
Recent sessions of the Legislature have seen the emergence of a bloc of representatives and senators who have seized the process of recalibration as a tool to rewrite the promises in our constitution. Rather than embrace their constitutional responsibilities to the schoolchildren of Wyoming, they have ignored the recommendations of their own consultants, adopted temporary budgetary fixes, and refused to consider rational solutions to provide secure revenue streams needed to pay for the facilities, tools and staff that our students need to compete in a complex world.
Rather than honor their constitutional mandate to ensure a fair, complete and uniform system of education, the Legislature debated rewriting their constitutional duty and ignored the unrefuted evidence of need. Instead, they generated a smokescreen of imaginary issues to distract attention from their failures to address the real issue of school finance, mounting attacks on transgender student-athletes, raising false alarms about critical race theory and demanding book bans, rather than working together toward solutions.
It now appears that Wyoming is once again on the cusp of more school finance litigation. The Legislature’s refusal to address its responsibility has spawned a new lawsuit filed by the Wyoming Education Association. School districts, including our Laramie County districts, may be drawn into another lengthy vortex, particularly if the Legislature continues to bury its collective head in the sand.
But there is an alternative. The voters of this county and of our state have a choice. Does it make sense to send the same people back to the Legislature, or it is time to send people who are willing to find the means to fulfill the constitutional promises that have been made to our children? It is our choice, and we should exercise it.
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| 2022-09-21T14:26:11Z
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I am trying to find another way to say that even more wet weather is on the way. So, here are the soaking details. I will try to keep it simple. Looking at the Gulf of Mexico, we find a fairly simple ridge of high pressure. There is also a surface low-pressure system lingering in the Gulf as well. With the clockwise rotation around the high-pressure and the counterclockwise rotation around the low-pressure, plentiful moisture surges north into the Arklatex. The low will be moving inland near Sabine Pass or so and will stir up rain and storms for the area Monday and Tuesday.
You likely have noticed the ever-present muggy conditions. However, afternoon high temperatures in the 80s have been the norm lately with morning lows near 70. In the month of August, that has been a welcome diversion. But, get ready for morning lows in the mid-70s followed by afternoon highs on either side of 90. Thankfully, that will not last very long as a cold front should move through the area by the middle of this week. The front will usher in lows on either side of 70 and highs in the low to mid-80s.
There is more good news. As of now, it appears the wet weather will take a break Thursday and Friday as high pressure builds in behind the cold front. There is bad news, as well. It appears our weather will be very unsettled through the Labor Day Holiday Weekend and into the following week with a number of days of possible heavy rain. Of course, that will be closely monitored.
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Ford engineers in Europe are testing headlights able to project various shapes on the road as a way to reduce distraction.
Head-up displays already project vital information within the driver’s line of sight, so engineers tried to do the same with a vehicle’s headlights. Ford’s prototype system can cast light to denote directions, speed limits, or weather information onto the road ahead.
This can help drivers keep their eyes on the road instead of glancing at screens, Ford said, adding that even briefly looking away from the road at normal speeds means covering a significant distance blind.
Using headlights to project information rather than simply relying on a head-up display could also benefit other road users. A crosswalk could be projected onto the road visible to both the driver and pedestrians, or the headlights could show a safe path around cyclists, the automaker suggested.
The technology could also be used to warn drivers of snow, fog, or ice ahead, Ford said. The automaker also suggested it could connect the lights to the navigation system to show upcoming turns, like a more advanced version of the augmented reality navigation available in some Mercedes-Benz models, or project the width of the vehicle so drivers can judge whether they’ll fit through a gap or into a parking space.
Ford isn’t the first automaker to experiment with shape-projecting headlights. In 2018, Mercedes demonstrated something similar with the digital headlights in its Maybach S-Class luxury sedan. At the time, Mercedes said these programmable million-pixel lights could project pathways through construction or use arrows to highlight pedestrians, among other things.
The hardware needed to project shapes onto the road was only recently legalized in the U.S. A previous law dating to 1967 required headlights to have separate high-beam and low-beam elements, effectively banning setups like Mercedes’ digital headlights. Use of these headlights was formally approved earlier this year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which was instructed to do so in the infrastructure law passed in late 2021.
Ford has not discussed plans to commercialize its own shape-projecting headlights for any market, but at least the door is now open to offer the technology for U.S. shoppers.
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(The Hill) – Since the first photos debuted from NASA’s new James Webb in July, a steady stream of breathtaking images have been released by the groundbreaking telescope.
The $10 billion James Webb telescope, which replaced the aging Hubble telescope and launched into space in December 2021, has captured distant galaxies, blazing stars light years away and a new image of Jupiter.
Here are five of the most stunning photos taken by James Webb to date.
Southern Ring Nebula
One of the most widely circulated across the web is of the Southern Ring Nebula, which was among the first Webb photos released on July 12.
Webb captured the remains of a white dwarf — the remnant of a star that has burned up all its nuclear fuel and expelled its outer shell into a planetary nebula.
The telescope collected the images in infrared light. Compared to Hubble, the James Webb telescope can capture space in the infrared with much more power, “providing never-before-seen vistas of the universe,” NASA officials wrote on the agency’s website.
NASA released an image of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light (NIRcam) and mid-infrared (MIRcam), with the former closer to a visible wavelength the normal human eye can see, making its images more colorful and high-resolution.
The MIRcam, however, can pick up objects in more detail. For example, the mid-infrared image of Southern Ring Nebula shows a clearer image of a bright star, gleaming in the background just beyond the white dwarf.
Cosmic Cliffs
Another popular image is the Cosmic Cliffs, the edge of a forming star region that NASA compared to “craggy mountains on a moonlit evening.”
The young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 is more than 7,000 light years away in the Carina Nebula. NASA’s photos of this spot in the universe reveal a massive, gaseous cavity on the edge of NGC 3324 in a collage of orange and blue.
“The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble,” officials wrote on the website.
In NIRcam, viewers can see hundreds of stars hidden from the normal human eye, as well as numerous galaxies shimmering in the background.
NGC 3324 was first recorded by astronomer James Dunlop in 1826.
Cartwheel Galaxy
This Aug. 2 photo of the Cartwheel Galaxy bears similarity to a bright red, galactic ferris wheel in space.
The Cartwheel Galaxy formed about 400 million years ago, the result of high-speed collisions. Webb captured it forming in a “transitory phase,” because images of the universe light-years away are peering into the past, due to the time it takes to reach and record them.
This spiral galaxy is composed of two rings, a brighter inner ring and a colorful outer ring, according to NASA. Inside the cartwheel are spokes, or bright red streaks created by glowing, hydrocarbon-rich dust.
Jupiter
Webb’s newest image released this week is a gorgeous image of Earth’s neighbor in the solar system.
A composite of three filters, the image of Jupiter reveals “hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles” of the gaseous planetary giant.
It also highlights the Great Red Spot, a storm so large that it that would swallow Earth, in a large white band around the gas giant.
Imke de Pater, a professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley, who co-led the observations of Jupiter, said the team was surprised by the details of the planet.
“We hadn’t expected it to be this good,” Pater said in a statement on NASA’s blog. “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image.”
Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723
While appearing a bit cluttered, this image is stunning because it shows thousands of galaxies in a distant cluster known as SMACS 0723.
This image, among the first photos released by Webb on July 12, is the first deep-field image from the telescope.
In the center of the image is a bright, white elliptical galaxy that outshines the rest, stretching its pointed arms in five directions. Surrounding it are galaxies of all shapes and sizes, flooding the image and demonstrating just how massive the universe is.
This image was landmark, NASA wrote in July, as it showcased how Webb “will allow future researchers to finely catalog the precise compositions of galaxies in the early universe, which may ultimately reshape our understanding of how galaxies changed and evolved over billions of years.”
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LARAMIE – With the University of Wyoming opening Mountain West play with a win over Air Force last Friday, WyoSports’ Josh Criswell gives his take on where each team in the conference stands entering week four.
1. Boise State (2-1 overall, 1-0 MW)
The Broncos got off to a rocky start to 2022, getting thrashed by Oregon State 34-17. However, they’ve since rebounded with a pair of convincing victories over New Mexico and a ranked FCS Tennessee-Martin team. Boise State doesn’t look like the perennial powerhouse it typically has, but given the struggles of the rest of the conference, it has a slight edge in the top spot.
2. Fresno State (1-2, 0-0)
Fresno State fans took a gasp during the third quarter of last week’s 45-17 loss to USC, as star quarterback and MW preseason offensive player of the year Jake Haener was carted off the field with a leg injury. The Bulldogs are optimistic that the senior will be able to return at some point from what has been deemed to be a high ankle sprain, but their conference opener at Boise State is just over two weeks away. It’s worth noting that backup Logan Fife was solid while filling in for Haener last week, completing 11 of 12 passes for 140 yards.
3. Wyoming (3-1, 1-0)
A young Cowboys team seemed destined for a rough season after getting blown out 38-6 by Illinois in its first game of the year. However, UW has since rebounded to win three consecutive games, including a 17-14 victory over Air Force last Friday to open MW play. This win could prove pivotal in terms of Mountain Division tiebreakers, as it was a September victory over the Falcons that allowed Utah State to go on to and win the conference title game last year. Quarterback Andrew Peasley has looked like the Cowboys’ best signal-caller since Josh Allen left campus. Over the last three games, he has completed 68.7% of his passes while throwing for three touchdowns, one interception and 462 yards.
4. UNLV (2-1, 0-0)
An afterthought at the start of the season, the Rebels have quietly emerged as a threat in the West Division – especially considering Haener’s recent injury. They have a pair of 31-point wins over North Texas and FCS Idaho State, with their only loss coming by six points to Cal, a game in which they out-scored the Golden Bears 14-6 over the final three quarters. Aidan Robbins leads the league with 115.3 rushing yards per game and six touchdowns on the ground, while Doug Brumfield has been the most efficient passer in the conference through three games.
5. Air Force (2-1, 0-1)
The Falcons seemed like the most sound team in the MW through two weeks, with 31-point routs of Colorado and FCS Northern Iowa to start the season, but a conference-opening loss to UW took some shine off their strong start. The rest of their schedule shapes up nicely, though, and they get perhaps their toughest remaining test – Boise State – at home on Oct. 22.
6. New Mexico (2-1, 0-1)
It was tough to gauge where the Lobos stood through two weeks, after blowing out FCS Maine 41-0 in their opener before losing to Boise State 31-14. However, following a 27-10 win over Texas-El Paso last Saturday, New Mexico doesn’t appear to be the doormat many expected it to be before the season. The Lobos are off this week, before facing UNLV on Sept. 30 in a game that could tell a lot about who both teams truly are.
7. San Jose State (1-1, 0-0)
The Spartans likely don’t have the talent to contend for a division title, but they showed some fight Sept. 10 after nearly getting upset by FCS Portland State in their first game of 2022. Despite keeping it close against Auburn, though, the lack of a rushing attack was alarming. SJSU totaled just 54 yards on an average of 1.9 per carry in the loss.
8. San Diego State (1-2, 0-0)
Picked to finish second in the West Division in the league’s preseason poll, San Diego State has been one of the biggest disappointments in the MW so far this season. The Aztecs are off to a 1-2 start, with lackluster showings against Pac-12 opponents Arizona and Utah. They lost these games by a combined total of 46 points, and currently rank eighth in the conference in both total offense and total defense. Albeit, they’ve had a tougher schedule than most MW teams to start the year, but SDSU looks like a far cry from the team that went 11-1 in the regular season last fall.
9. Nevada (2-2, 0-0)
The Wolf Pack are right about where they were expected to be, following the departures of MW offensive player of the year Carson Strong, coach Jay Norvell and a handful of assistants and transfers. They started out 2-0 with wins over FBS bottom-feeders Texas State and New Mexico State, before losing to a top-10 FCS team in Incarnate Word in their third game of the season. Last week’s shutout loss to Iowa is concerning, though. The Hawkeyes, whose only touchdown of the year prior to last week came when a turnover set them up inside the red zone, found the end zone three times in a 27-0 beatdown.
10. Utah State (1-2, 0-0)
The reigning MW champions opened the season with a comeback win over UConn, but it’s been all downhill since then. A 55-0 hammering by then-No. 1 -ranked Alabama wasn’t unexpected, but a 35-7 loss to FCS Weber State is concerning. The Aggies can get right back on track this weekend, however, as they host UNLV to open league play.
11. Colorado State (0-3, 0-0)
The optimism of the start of the Jay Norvell era has quickly been replaced by the reality of the moment. Colorado State is in full rebuild mode following a disastrous and brief stint with Steve Addazio at the helm, with several players already announcing their intentions to transfer amid an 0-3 start. The Rams host a Sacramento State team that ranks in the top 10 of the FCS this weekend, in what is hardly a sure victory.
12. Hawaii (1-3, 0-0)
After three ugly losses by an average of 43.7 points to start the season, the Rainbow Warriors finally got in the win column last week with a 24-14 victory over FCS Duquesne. They have another winnable game this weekend against New Mexico State, but it’s tough to see them picking up another victory after that without considerable improvement.
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Cinema’s biggest stars just seem to shine a bit brighter at the Venice International Film Festival, which begins this week in the Northern Italian city.
Think of Lady Gaga, a woman who has never shied away from a grand entrance, somehow topping even herself delicately perched over the edge of a moving water taxi and vamping for the cameras like a classic screen siren. Or Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck evoking old Hollywood glamour to make their official debut as a couple just last year.
Whether you’re a celebrity gliding down the red carpet in front of hundreds of flashing cameras or an onlooker an ocean away daydreaming about Timothée Chalamet’s crystal-studded Haider Ackermann suit, or that electric moment between non-couple Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, it is the kind of occasion that ignites the imagination. And that’s all before you even step inside the theater.
For director and actor Olivia Wilde, the dream of Venice was woven into the fabric of her new film, “ Don’t Worry Darling.” Ending up at the festival became a shorthand for the type of movie she wanted to make.
“We had several studios and streamers who wanted to make this film and I sat down with all of them and I said, ‘The path that I see leads us to Venice. Which one of you understands what kind of movie were making based on that dream?’” Wilde said. “To me, a Venice film is a film that really embraces everything that is ambitious and romantic and beautiful about cinema. And this film is truly a love letter to movies.”
Wilde went with New Line and Warner Bros. and her wish came true: The stylish psychological thriller starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles as a picture-perfect couple in an experimental postwar community will have its world debut out of competition on Sept. 5.
Styles, Pugh and Wilde are just some of the stars expected to pose on the docks outside of the opulent Hotel Excelsior and grace the red carpet outside of the Palazzo del Cinema. Their presence, alongside lifetime achievement recipient Catherine Deneuve, Hugh Jackman, Tilda Swinton, Penelope Cruz, Chalamet and many others, helps transform the Lido, the laid-back beach town across the Venetian Lagoon from St. Mark’s Square, into a bastion of glamour, fantasy and cinema on the Adriatic.
This year’s festival is stacked with highly anticipated films and performances in the main competition slate: Ana de Armas is making her debut as Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik’s “ Blonde ”; Brendan Fraser’s turn in Darren Aronofsky’s new film “The Whale” is already being hailed as an awards-worthy comeback; and Cate Blanchett is playing a renowned conductor in “ TÁR,” director Todd Field’s first film in over 15 years.
“Todd Field is as major a film artist as has ever been,” said Peter Kujawski, the chairman of Focus Features. “And what Cate is doing with the character, without saying too much, is just something you don’t see executed on this level very often.”
The festival, which began in 1932 and is heading into its 79th edition, officially begins Wednesday night with the premiere of Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s seminal novel “ White Noise,” starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig.
“White Noise” is one of four high-profile Netflix films hoping to make a splash at the festival, which is an important platform not just for the streaming service, but for all Oscar hopefuls. Baumbach’s last Venice film, “Marriage Story,” went on to get six Oscar nominations and win one for Laura Dern, who is also returning this year in Florian Zeller’s “The Son.” It’s the first of many fall festivals that will refine the awards conversation for the rest of the year.
Field, Baumbach, Aronofsky and Zeller are also among a slew of filmmakers with good Oscar track records who are making their first stop at Venice in competition: There’s also Martin McDonagh’s Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson friendship drama “The Banshees of Inisherin”; Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s comedy “Bardo, or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”; and Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal romance “ Bones and All,” which reunites the Italian director with Chalamet.
There are also two narrative debuts from documentarians Frederick Wiseman (“A Couple”) and Alice Diop (“Saint Omer”) that are among the 23 films vying for the Golden Lion. The coveted award will be decided on by a jury led by Julianne Moore and presented at the festival’s close on Sept. 10.
Participant Media CEO David Linde, a 30-year veteran of the festival, wanted Venice specifically for the debut of two high-profile documentaries: Oscar-winner Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” about photographer Nan Goldin’s fight against the Sackler family, which is playing in competition, as well as Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy,” about nuclear physicist Ted Hall.
“The opportunity to bring people to the festival is something I treasure,” Linde said. “This is really about three great American artists coming to Venice: Laura, Nan and Steve.”
Venice may not always produce the best picture winner, though there are some like “Birdman,” “Spotlight,” “The Shape of Water” and “Nomadland,” and many more nominees. But it has become a reliable launching pad for the eventual best director winner, claiming nine in the past decade alone including Silver Lion winner Jane Campion earlier this year.
The films go beyond Hollywood too, of course, with the entire slate boasting works from some 59 countries including several Oscar hopefuls, like Santiago Mitre’s “ Argentina, 1985 ” and Romain Gavras’ “ Athena.”
The festival is putting a spotlight on both the war in Ukraine, with a devoted day and the premiere of Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary about the war, as well as plight of persecuted directors around the world, like imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi whose film “No Bears” is among the competition titles.
And the slate is not without some potential controversy either: They will also host the premiere of “Call of God,” from the late South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, a past Venice-winner who was also accused of sexual assault.
But after two scaled back editions, it is mostly excitement in the air. The Venice Film Festival is the kind of place that enchants whether you’re a first-timer or an industry veteran.
Maybe it’s the romanticism of Northern Italy or the sense of occasion that comes with being part of the world’s oldest film festival. It could be the desire to step it up a notch to bid farewell to the bombast of the summer movie season and welcome in the more adult fare of the fall. Or perhaps it’s the delightful unpredictability of a festival that one year awards its top prize to “Joker,” helping establish Todd Phillips’ big studio comic book film as a serious awards contender, and another year to “Happening,” a small French drama about abortion.
“You go in both with a sense of purpose and excitement for whatever film you’re bringing, but I think all of us in in the community share the other aspect of it that you also just go in giddy as a fan. Every single thing you might sit down and watch is going to be a thoughtful, meaningful, truly wonderful moviegoing experience,” Kujawski said. “That’s the magic of Venice.”
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
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For more on the Venice Film Festival, visit: www.apnews.com/VeniceFilmFestival
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NEW YORK (AP) — Bob LuPone, who as an actor earned a Tony Award nomination in the original run of “A Chorus Line” and played Tony Soprano’s family physician, and also helped found and lead the influential off-Broadway theater company MCC Theater for almost 40 years, has died. He was 76.
LuPone, brother of Broadway icon Patti LuPone, died Saturday following a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer, according to Matt Ross Public Relations.
“The MCC Theater community mourns the loss of our much loved and uniquely inspiring partner, colleague and dear friend, Bob LuPone, who lived fearlessly and with great curiosity, good humor, a boundless passion for connection, and a whole lot of heart. We will miss him deeply and always,” the theater company said in a statement.
LuPone’s first professional job was in 1966, in the ensemble of the Westbury Music Fair’s production of “The Pajama Game” starring Liza Minnelli. He made his Broadway debut in the 1968 production of Noel Coward’s “Sweet Potato” and later appeared in “Minnie’s Boys,” “The Rothschilds” and “The Magic Show.”
LuPone was initially cast as Al in “A Chorus Line,” but convinced creator and director Michael Bennett to let him play Zach after the original actor left. LuPone would earn a best featured actor Tony nomination for the role.
“Deepest condolences to the Lupone family,” said Betty Buckley on Twitter.
Born in 1946 in Brooklyn, New York, LuPone graduated from The Juilliard School with a bachelor’s degree in dance in 1968.
He was teaching an acting class at New York University when one of his students was Bernie Telsey. Together they would help form Manhattan Class Company in 1986 — known today as MCC Theater.
LuPone, Telsey along with third co-artistic director Will Cantler shaped MCC into a theatrical powerhouse, producing such Broadway-bound works as “Frozen,” “Reasons to be Pretty,” “Hand to God,” “School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play,” “The Snow Geese,” “The Other Place” and the Pulitzer Prize- winning “Wit.”
While serving as co-artistic director of MCC, LuPone also worked as an actor, appearing in “A View from the Bridge,” “True West” and “A Thousand Clowns,” all on Broadway. He was in the Chicago premiere of Sam Shepard’s “The Tooth of Crime and on TV was in “Sex and the City,” Guiding Light,” and “All My Children,” for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination.
He played Dr. Bruce Cusamano on “The Sopranos,” teasingly nicknamed “Cooze” by neighbor mobster Tony Soprano. In one memorable episode, Tony plays a joke by bringing Cooze a sealed box and asking him to hold on to it for a while, not telling his nervous neighbor that the package is filled with sand.
He also served as director of the master’s drama program at the New School for Drama from 2005 through 2011 and served as president of the board of directors of A.R.T/ New York.
LuPone is survived by his wife, Virginia; his son, Orlando; sister, Patti; and brother, William.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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LONDON (AP) — A car driven by Princess Diana in the 1980s sold for 650,000 pounds ($764,000) at auction Saturday, just days before the 25th anniversary of her death.
Silverstone Auctions said there was “fierce bidding” for the black Ford Escort RS Turbo before the sale closed. The U.K. buyer, whose name was not disclosed, paid a 12.5% buyer’s premium on top of the selling price, according to the classic car auction house.
Britain and Diana’s admirers worldwide are preparing to mark a quarter century since her death. She died in a high-speed car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.
Diana drove the Escort from 1985 to 1988. She was photographed with it outside boutique shops in Chelsea and restaurants in Kensington. She preferred to drive her own car, with a member of her security team in the passenger seat.
The RS Turbo Series 1 was typically manufactured in white, but she got it in black to be more discreet. Ford also added features for her security, such as a second rear-view mirror for the protection officer.
The car has just under 25,000 miles on it.
Last year, another Ford Escort that Diana used sold at auction for 52,000 pounds ($61,100).
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LONDON (AP) — The Prince of Wales has edited an edition of British African-Caribbean newspaper “The Voice” to mark its 40-year anniversary.
Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, said he “was so touched” to be asked to edit the edition, which will feature interviews with movie star Idris Elba and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, the campaigning mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racist attack in 1993.
Elba, the Black British actor who starred in “The Wire” and several Marvel movies, tells the weekly newspaper, due to be published on Sept. 1, that a grant from Charles’ youth charity, The Prince’s Trust, at age 16 “opened doors that changed my life.”
Baroness Lawrence will describe a new partnership between the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation and The Prince’s Foundation, another charity, to provide applied arts scholarships for young people from diverse backgrounds affected by social and economic inequality.
Speaking about the publication, Charles said: “Over the last four decades, with all the enormous changes that they have witnessed, Britain’s only surviving black newspaper has become an institution and a crucial part of the fabric of our society.
“This is why I was so touched to be invited to edit this special edition.”
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Follow all AP stories on Britain’s royal family at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii.
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OSORNO, Chile (AP) — In labor with her first child last month, Lucia Hernández Rumian danced around her hospital room while her husband played the kultrun, a ritual drum.
She turned down pain medication from the hospital’s staff to get massages and oil rubdowns instead from her cultural liaison, who had ceremonially purified the space according to Mapuche customs.
“It became my own space,” Hernández said.
The largest public hospital in the southern Chilean city of Osorno is finding new ways to incorporate these and other Indigenous health care practices. There’s a special delivery room with Native images on the walls and bed, forms for doctors to approve herbal treatments from trusted traditional healers, and protocols for “good dying” mindful of spiritual beliefs.
The hospital’s efforts validate cultural practices at a time when Chile’s Indigenous groups — particularly its largest, the Mapuche — are fighting for rights and restitutions with unprecedented visibility as the country gets ready to vote on a new constitution next month.
But they also restore a crucial spiritual component to health care, according to health professionals and patients at Hospital Base San José de Osorno.
“It must be a guarantee – we take charge of the physical part, but without transgressing on the spiritual dimension,” said Cristina Muñoz, the certified nurse-midwife who launched new delivery protocols that Indigenous pregnant women can customize and are believed to be the first in the country.
Cristina Aron, the patient who first inspired Muñoz more than a decade ago, has now become a cultural liaison to Hernández and two dozen other women from pregnancy into early motherhood.
“Childbirth is a spiritual energy event for the mother, the baby and the community,” Aron said.
She had hoped to deliver her daughter in the countryside with a traditional midwife. But Chilean law requires professional health workers to deliver babies because of past high maternal mortality.
So Aron turned to Osorno’s hospital and negotiated her delivery conditions with Muñoz, including being accompanied by a woman conversant in Mapuche practices and taking her placenta to bury ceremonially in her ancestral lands.
Mapuche people see the placenta as holding a twin spirit to the child’s. Its burial, often with a tree planted on top to grow as the newborn does, is believed to create a lifelong connection between children and the natural elements of their family’s territory.
“It’s something very poetic and very revolutionary,” said Alen Colipan, whose son’s placenta was placed by a river near his paternal grandmother’s house. “He will not feel this uprooting from his land.”
Colipan was 17 when she gave birth in Osorno’s intercultural delivery room, with a floor-to-ceiling photo across three walls of the rocky beach that is home to grandfather Huentellao, a protector spirit revered by the Mapuche Huilliche, the region’s Indigenous group.
Colipan said her then-85-year-old midwife, Irma Rohe, who had never entered a hospital, was allowed to receive the infant “without gloves and other imposed things” and ritually clean him.
“We’re going back to wanting to give birth with people with ancestral knowledge,” Colipan said. “Even our way of being born was dominated. We have to begin to liberate it.”
Chilean law now requires hospitals to give the placenta to mothers if requested. For a decade it has also mandated intercultural care in places with a significant Indigenous population. Mapuche people account for one-third of Osorno’s inhabitants and eight of 10 in the adjacent province of San Juan de la Costa, said Angélica Levicán, who has been in charge of Indigenous relations for the hospital since 2016.
“Health care among Indigenous people always existed. Then came another system to invalidate our own system,” she said. “Our intention is that they complement each other.”
To join both kinds of medicine is not easy. Many Indigenous people perceive public hospitals as yet another state institution that discriminates against their beliefs.
Mapuche medicine, based on spirituality, is also different from what doctors are trained for, said José Quidel Lincoleo, director of a center for Mapuche health care studies in Temuco, another southern city with a large Indigenous population.
Mapuche healers seek to connect with a patient’s spirit to discover the “biological, social, psychological and spiritual root of the problem” that is manifesting as a disease, Quidel added.
“It could be another previous life, or some harm done to you, or a lack of self-knowledge that makes us transgress on our worldview,” he said.
But doctors and traditional healers say they can complement one another’s work by realizing that every expert only knows a fraction of what’s possible, especially when battling new diseases like COVID-19.
“One understands that saving a body needs to be compatible with beliefs,” said Dr. Cristóbal Oyarzun, a rheumatologist and coordinator of internal medicine at Osorno’s hospital. “A patient with inner peace has better opportunities to heal.”
That’s hard to achieve in the aseptic, isolated environment of a hospital, especially during the pandemic. Mapuche healers continued to pray and “spiritually accompany” patients from afar, said Cristóbal Tremigual Lemui, a healer from San Juan de la Costa who has long collaborated with Osorno’s hospital.
“For us that is essential … so patients can receive the energy they need,” he said.
Family members also flocked to the hospital’s prayer space — an outdoor circle of small sacred laurel and cinnamon trees with a firepit next to the parking lot — to hold ceremonies for the dying, Levicán said.
Walk-ins and admitted patients who identify as Indigenous — an average of 50 a day — are welcomed and accompanied by Erica Inalef, the hospital’s intercultural facilitator, so that “they don’t feel so very alone.”
When, as a teen, she took her elderly father to a hospital, doctors would barely talk to them, and “body and spirit were separated.”
Now, doctors can see the enthusiasm with which patients welcome the arrival of consulting traditional healers, and that helps build mutual trust, Inalef said.
Trust can manifest in a traumatologist signing off on a patient’s lawenko — an herbal tea whose exact composition the healers hold secret — or in an obstetrician allowing a woman in labor to wear her munulongko, a headscarf believed to protect her.
Cultural clothing is one section in the labor plan Muñoz developed five years ago, which pregnant women can customize. She hopes more will become aware of this option — only about 20 of the hospital’s 1,500 births each year are intercultural deliveries.
“Indigenous women are doubly timid, discriminated against for being women, Indigenous, poor and rural,” Muñoz said. “We tell her, your body is the first territory you’re going to recover.”
Reclaiming ancestral practices is what drew Angela Quintana Aucapan to have her baby — Namunküra, or “firm step” in Mapudungun — in the special delivery room recently, while relatives played traditional instruments.
“I was able to do it as my ancestors did,” she said. “With a ceremony while we waited for the new addition to the family, I felt supported as I received my baby.”
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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| 2022-09-21T14:27:12Z
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A New Mexico man was arrested on Friday after he allegedly tried to create an ISIS training center in the state, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
A DOJ release states that a federal grand jury indicted 45-year-old Herman Wilson, also known as Bilal Mu’Min Abdullah, on Tuesday on charges that he attempted to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempted to obstruct, influence and impede at least one official proceeding.
Court records state that Wilson allegedly attempted to provide material support to ISIS between January 2020 and November 2021 by trying to establish an “Islamic State Center” in New Mexico to teach ISIS ideology, provide training in martial arts and tactical maneuvers and serve as a “safe haven” for people planning to travel and fight for ISIS.
The release also states that Wilson allegedly helped run an online platform from May 2019 to September 2020 to promote ISIS teachings, recruit others and discuss terrorist attacks in the United States and around the world.
Wilson allegedly attempted to obstruct, influence and impede at least one official proceeding by ordering and inducing the destruction of records in shutting the platform down, per the DOJ.
Two individuals who were arrested in September 2020 and later pleaded guilty to providing material support to ISIS said Wilson radicalized them to support ISIS, according to the release. After they were arrested, Wilson allegedly ordered platform members to destroy evidence that they used the online group.
Wilson could face up to 20 years in prison for each count if convicted.
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| 2022-09-21T14:27:27Z
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JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (AP) — When Diane Swonk first attended the Federal Reserve’s annual economic conference in Jackson Hole in the late 1990s, there was a happy hour for women who attended the event. It barely filled a single table.
Now, the “Women at Jackson Hole” happy hour draws dozens of female economists and high-level decision-makers, from the United States and overseas.
“I’m just glad that now there’s a line for the ladies’ room,” said Swonk, a longtime Fed watcher who is chief economist for the accounting giant KPMG.
It’s not just at Jackson Hole but also in the Fed’s boardroom where its leadership has become its most diverse ever. There are more female, Black and openly gay officials contributing to the central bank’s interest-rate decisions than at any time in its 109-year history. Many are also far less wealthy than the officials they have replaced.
Over time, economists say, a wider range of voices will deepen the Fed’s perspective as it weighs the consequences of raising or lowering rates. It may also help diversify a profession that historically hasn’t been seen as particularly welcoming to women and minorities.
“Broadly, that’s helpful,” said William English, a former senior economist at the Fed who teaches at the Yale School of Management. “There’s evidence that diverse groups make better decisions.”
The central bank, as it is doing now, raises its benchmark short-term rate when it wants to lower inflation, and reduces it when it wants to accelerate hiring. Such moves, in turn, affect borrowing costs throughout the economy — for mortgages, auto loans and business loans, among others.
On Friday, in his speech to the Jackson Hole symposium, Chair Jerome Powell stressed that the Fed plans further rate hikes and expects to keep its benchmark rate high until the worst inflation bout in four decades eases considerably — even if doing so causes job losses and financial pain for households and businesses.
Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe, an economist who is president of the Women’s Institute for Society, Equity and Race, said she welcomed the broadening of the Fed’s leadership. Sharpe said she’s “hopeful that a more diverse group of people will pay attention” to what the Fed does and aspire to high-level economic roles.
Colleges and universities, she suggested, should do more to encourage and prepare students for economic careers, including steering more of them to study mathematics.
The change at the Fed has been a rapid one, with three African Americans and three women having joined the central bank’s 19-member interest-rate committee just this year. (Under the Fed’s rotating system, only 12 of the 19 committee members vote each year on its rate decisions.)
The Fed’s influential seven-member Board of Governors, based in Washington, now includes two Black economists, Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson, who were both nominated by President Joe Biden and were sworn in this May. They are the third and fourth Black people on the board. Governors get to vote on every Fed rate decision.
Biden also elevated Lael Brainard, a governor since 2014, to the board’s powerful vice chair position.
In addition, two of the presidents of the Fed’s 12 regional banks are now Black — Raphael Bostic of the Atlanta Fed and Susan Collins of the Boston Fed. Collins, formerly provost of the University of Michigan, became Boston Fed president this year. Bostic took office in 2017.
Just last week, Lorie Logan, a former senior official at the New York Fed, became president of the Dallas Fed. Five of the regional bank presidents are women.
Nela Richardson, chief economist at the payroll processing firm ADP, noted that the education and experience of the new policymakers are similar to their predecessors, with Cook, Jefferson and Collins all Ph.D. economists — an above-average proportion among new Fed officials, she said.
Richardson suggested that having more women in the Fed’s leadership is particularly important now, because many of the problems the central bank faces — including very low unemployment that is fueling wage increases and inflation — are related to women’s ability to join the workforce. Fewer women, particularly mothers of young children, are working now compared with pre-pandemic trends.
That shortfall is driven, in part, by a drop in the number of childcare workers since the pandemic. With fewer women working or seeking work, many businesses must raise pay to compete for a smaller pool of labor. Those higher wages are then often passed on to consumers as higher prices, thereby fueling inflation.
Swonk credits Esther George, president of the Kansas City Fed, for driving change at the Jackson Hole conference by inviting more women over the years, including Cook and Collins, to attend and participate in panels. Each year, about 130 influential central bankers and economists gather at Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole at the end of August to network and discuss the economy’s challenges.
Even as it has significantly diversified its leadership, the Fed has yet to address one issue: A Hispanic American has never served on the Fed’s rate-setting committee — a frequently voiced complaint of Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat. For that reason, Menendez voted this year against confirming Powell’s reappointment for a second four-year term as Fed chair.
This year, Biden also named Michael Barr, a former Treasury Department official, as a Fed governor, filling all seven seats on the board for the first time in nearly a decade.
Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed economist who is now at Dreyfus and Mellon, said it’s unusual for the Fed to have experienced so much turnover so quickly. Fed governors serve staggered terms that are intended to result in one vacancy every two years. The regional bank presidents have five-year terms that can be renewed.
“This has got to be the most dramatic change in Fed leadership in one year on record,” he said.
The new members, including Barr, are more likely to favor lower rates to support the economy and hiring, Reinhart said. Yet for now, with inflation near a 40-year high, the Fed’s policymaking committee is moving unanimously to sharply raise rates to try to cool the economy and lower inflation. There’s little sign of any dissent from that approach, for now.
Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist at SGH Macro, suggested that the Fed is unlike the Supreme Court in one important respect: Just because a president has nominated several new Fed board members doesn’t necessarily affect the central bank’s policymaking.
The Fed is a more technocratic institution, Duy said, “where you’re more likely to see people’s views evolve over time,” in response to changing economic data. At its July meeting, all 12 members of the Fed’s policy committee voted for a large three-quarter-point rate hike — an unusually large increase.
Still, Reinhart said, if inflation should fall substantially and appear to be under control and if unemployment began to rise as the Fed’s rate hikes squeeze the economy, some of Biden’s appointees could start to argue for an end to the increases — or even to cut rates.
The result might be less unanimity around the Fed’s decisions, Reinhart said. Or Powell might end up suspending rate hikes earlier than he would prefer, to preserve consensus.
“There’s a lot more opportunity for differences of opinion as we get longer into this rate-hiking cycle,” he said.
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| 2022-09-21T14:27:43Z
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The NBA fined Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards $40,000 for making anti-gay comments in a video posted on Instagram.
In the video, he rolls down the window of his vehicle and makes derogatory comments about a group of men standing on a sidewalk.
Edwards issued an apology on Twitter, where he has 179,000 followers.
"What I said was immature, hurtful, and disrespectful, and I’m incredibly sorry," Edwards said. "It’s unacceptable for me or anyone to use that language in such a hurtful way, there’s no excuse for it, at all. I was raised better than that!"
The Timberwolves also apologized for Edwards' comments.
“We are disappointed in the language and actions Anthony Edwards displayed on social media. The Timberwolves are committed to being an inclusive and welcoming organization for all and apologize for the offense this has caused to so many," said Tim Connelly, president of basketball operations for the Timberwolves.
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| 2022-09-21T14:27:47Z
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LONDON (AP) — Stinking piles of garbage on the streets of Edinburgh are threatening the health and safety of the public, a health authority warned Saturday as strikes by garbage collectors in the Scottish capital moved into their ninth day.
The warning from Public Health Scotland came as garbage collectors in Newham, a borough of London, also walked out for a week over a pay dispute.
Images of food waste and diapers rotting on the streets is just adding to scenes of chaos in U.K. as industrial disputes multiply amid soaring food and energy costs. Bathers in the U.K. were warned last week to stay away from dozens of beaches as heavy rain flushed raw sewage into rivers and seas.
Public Health Scotland told local authorities that the “decontamination of public areas where bins have overflowed may be required.” It warned that “if organic waste builds up, it can become a risk to human health.”
Garbage collectors walked out on Aug. 18 and plan to stay off work until Aug. 30. Even more strikes lay ahead if the pay dispute is not resolved.
Britain is facing a massive cost-of-living crisis, with wage increases failing to keep up with inflation, which last week stood at 10.1%. Those financial challenges have only been increased due to soaring energy costs — authorities say residents in Britain will see an 80% increase in their annual energy bills in October.
The country has seen waves of strikes this summer, with the public transport system grinding to a virtual halt on several days due to rail strikes. Primary schools and nurseries in Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, will be forced to close for several days next month if a strike from council workers goes ahead.
In London, garbage drivers in Newham Council began a week of walkouts on Saturday, with union officials warning there could be more. Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said those workers were paid less than others in neighboring councils.
“The council must now focus on reaching a deal with the workers, who face a financial crisis,” Graham said. “If they don’t, then the coming days will undoubtedly mean more industrial action.”
Britain’s image has taken a battering this summer. French lawmakers in the European Parliament complained this week that the raw sewage flushed into rivers and seas by the U.K. also threatens bathing waters, fishing grounds and biodiversity in the European Union as well.
Parts of Britain’s sewage system became overwhelmed after several days of unseasonably heavy rainfall.
___
Follow all AP stories on the environment at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
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| 2022-09-21T14:27:50Z
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(The Hill) – A man who beat a Washington, D.C., police officer with a Trump flag during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack was sentenced to 46 months in prison on Friday.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Howard Richardson received the sentence after pleading guilty earlier in the year to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.
Richardson waved his flagpole after entering a restricted area of Capitol grounds, according to the Department of Justice, before later hitting a police officer multiple times with the pole.
“He raised it and forcefully swung it downward to strike an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department who was standing behind a metal barricade,” the DOJ wrote of Richardson and the flagpole.
“Richardson then struck the officer two more times, using enough force to break the flagpole.”
Richardson then pushed a “large metal sign into a line of law enforcement officers” along with other rioters, according to the department.
The Pennsylvania native, 72, was arrested in November 2021 before pleading guilty in April.
Richardson will be subject to three years of supervised release after completing his almost four-year prison sentence, and is required to pay $2,000 in restitution.
More than 860 people have been arrested since Jan. 6 in connection with the attack on the Capitol, according to the DOJ.
More than 260 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
Richardson’s sentencing follows the DOJ’s announcement earlier Friday that it would seek an over-17-year sentence for an ex-police officer who was found guilty in May of five felonies and a misdemeanor for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack, including assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon and engaging in an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.
That sentence is by far the longest yet received by a Jan. 6 defendant.
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| 2022-09-21T14:28:06Z
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MIAMI (WFLA) — The OnlyFans model accused of murdering her boyfriend is back in Florida, this time behind bars.
Miami-Dade jail records showed that 26-year-old Courtney Clenney, also known as Courtney Tailor, was booked into jail Friday afternoon after being extradited back to Florida from Hawaii.
Clenney is accused of stabbing her boyfriend, 27-year-old Christian Obumseli, to death in Miami on April 3, according to authorities.
Obumseli would later die after being taken to a trauma center.
Charges were not immediately filed, according to NewsNation. But police in Miami-Dade County eventually issued an arrest warrant for Clenney, for the offense of murder in the second degree with a deadly weapon, Nexstar’s KHON reported.
Police said Clenney was arrested “without incident at an undisclosed location” in Laupahoehoe, Hawaii, on Aug. 10 — four months after Obumseli’s death. She was initially being held at the East Hawai’i Detention Center.
Clenney and her attorney had originally said she threw a knife at her ex-boyfriend in self-defense after he tried to choke her, but authorities said a medical examination found Obumseli’s injuries to be too severe for that to be the case. Instead, they believed his wound was caused by a downward strike with a knife.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle also said Obumseli was heard in a 911 call saying he was dying and losing feeling in his arm while Clenney was heard saying. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
As of Saturday, Clenney remained in jail without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami.
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| 2022-09-21T14:28:14Z
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Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A robbery was captured on surveillance footage Thursday morning, and now a Shreveport business owner is sharing the footage in hopes that someone can identify the man in the video.
The owner of Quality Outdoor Power Equipment on Mansfield Road says the robbery happened between 3:20 a.m. and 5:20 a.m. on August 25.
Surveillance video captured a man driving a black Cadillac Escalade as he rolls over and through a barrier fence. Once the man is on the property, he proceeds to steal items from the property, including a landscape trailer and a utility trailer.
The owner said he filed a report with the Shreveport Police Department and is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the man’s identity and arrest.
Anyone with information about this or other crimes should call Shreveport police.
Video courtesy of Quality Outdoor Power Equipment.
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| 2022-09-21T14:28:22Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Shreveport police are at the scene of a late morning stabbing in southwest Shreveport.
Just before 11 a.m. Saturday, SPD officers responded to reports of a stabbing in the 2700 block of Stanberry Drive.
When they arrived, officers found a 36-year-old woman suffering from stab wounds. She was rushed to Ochsner LSU Health Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Police took a male suspect into custody at the scene. He will be transported to Shreveport Police Station to be interviewed.
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| 2022-09-21T14:28:29Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The City of Shreveport will host a panel discussion Wednesday to provide the public with a better understanding of the Real Time Crime Center.
Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith, Chief Technology Officer Keith Hanson, and Real Time Crime Center Manager Kevin Thomas will be present for the discussion and to answer questions about center operations.
“Real Talk on the Real Time Crime Center” will take place on Wednesday, August 31 at 5 p.m. in Government Chambers located at 505 Travis Street.
Citizens are encouraged to submit questions ahead of time and may submit them via email to safershreveport@shreveportla.gov.
RTCC leadership will be available after the discussion to answer questions immediately following the program.
Anyone unable to attend may watch the live stream on Mayor Perkins’ Facebook page.
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| 2022-09-21T14:28:37Z
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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A billboard seen in San Francisco appears to warn people against moving to Texas. The mysterious billboard located at the intersection of 7th Street and Folsom reads “The Texas Miracle Died in Uvalde” and is accompanied by a menacing-looking figure wearing a hood and sunglasses.
Along with a larger message, the billboard also has the words “Don’t mess with Texas” crossed out, and in the bottom right corner, reads, “Don’t move to Texas.” No other information is seen on the billboard. According to a report in SFGate, the billboard at Folsom and 7th is leased to advertisers by FoxPoint Media.
While it’s not explicitly stated, the billboard appears to reference the Robb Elementary School shooting that happened in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24. Texas leaders have faced intense scrutiny over state gun laws since the tragedy that resulted in 21 fatalities, which includes the deaths of 19 children.
Texas is a “permitless carry” state. The practice is sometimes referred to as “constitutional carry” by proponents — the law allows anyone who can legally have a gun to do so without undergoing training or background checks. Per current Texas gun laws, you only need to be 18 to buy rifles and 21 to buy handguns.
According to posts from Reddit users in Los Angeles, the mysterious billboard has also popped up in Los Angeles.
Texas has seen an influx of people relocating from California in recent years. Several major tech companies, including Tesla, Oracle, and Hewlett Packard, have moved their headquarters from the Bay Area to Texas.
KRON4 News reached out to FoxPoint Media for information regarding the billboard but has not heard back.
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| 2022-09-21T14:28:44Z
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook’s corporate parent has reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit alleging the world’s largest social network service allowed millions of its users’ personal information to be fed to Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s victorious presidential campaign in 2016.
Terms of the settlement reached by Meta Platforms, the holding company for Facebook and Instagram, weren’t disclosed in court documents filed late Friday. The filing in San Francisco federal court requested a 60-day stay of the action while lawyers finalize the settlement. That timeline suggested further details could be disclosed by late October.
The accord was reached just a few weeks before a Sept. 20 deadline for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his long-time chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, to submit to depositions during the final phases of pre-trial evidence gathering, according to court documents.
Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in 2004 as a Harvard University student, could have been deposed for up to six hours. Sandberg, who is stepping down as chief operating officer after a 14-year stint, could have been questioned for up to five hours.
The case sprang from 2018 revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a firm with ties to Trump political strategist Stephen Bannon, had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign that culminated in Trump’s election as the 45th president.
The ensuring uproar led to a contrite Zuckerberg being grilled by lawmakers during a high-profile congressional hearing and spurred calls for people to delete their Facebook accounts. Even though Facebook’s growth has stalled as more people connect and entertain themselves on rival services such as TikTok, the social network still boasts about 2 billion users worldwide, including nearly 200 million in the U.S. and Canada.
The lawsuit, which had been seeking to be certified as a class action representing Facebook users, had asserted the privacy breach proved Facebook is a “data broker and surveillance firm,” as well as a social network.
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| 2022-09-21T14:28:52Z
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(KTVI) — Can you last 24 hours without any screen time? Reviews.org is looking to pay a “digital detoxer” $2,400 to go a full day without cell phones, TV, gaming consoles, computers, or any smart devices.
The rules state that the “digital detoxer” will be required to submit a screen time report to show they went 24 hours without tech.
The contestant will have to submit a report explaining their experience, any challenges they faced, and benefits from the detox. The statement should also include if you plan on cutting down screen time in the future.
To apply, you must be 18 years old and eligible to work in the U.S. The contestant will receive $2,400 for completing the Digital Detox Challenge, along with a $250 Amazon gift card to build a “tech-less survival kit” during the challenge.
The deadline to apply is Sept. 21. Reviews.org will announce the name of the challenger on Sept. 30 on its website and social media.
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| 2022-09-21T14:28:59Z
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TEXARKANA, Texas (KTAL/KSHV) – A group of Texarkana firefighters prepares to honor those killed on 9/11.
The seven Texarkana, Texas fire Department volunteers will join firefighters from across the nation in Dallas to participate in the stair climb.
It has been over 20 years since terrorists attacked and destroyed the towers at the World Trade Center in New York.
Hundreds of first responders climb or walk the equivalent of 110 floors in full gear to honor the sacrifices of local heroes and those who died on that day in New York City.
“These guys consider it an honor to be able to climb and represent and never forget the responders that went in the World Trade Center. They didn’t hesitate; they got off the firetruck knowing that they weren’t going to come back, and they climbed anyway,” Fire & EMS Coordinator for the Dallas Stair Climb Marty Lawrence said.
The National Foundation of Fallen Firefighters website says, “through firefighter and community participation, we ensure that each of the 343 firefighters is honored and that the world knows that we will never forget. These 9/11 Memorial Stair Climbs help the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation create and maintain programs that support fire service survivors. Your support of the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb events assists the surviving families and co-workers of the 343 firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice on September 11, 2001.”
On September 11, 2001, 343 firefighters and 90 police officers died.
The climb is on September 10 at Fountain Place in downtown Dallas.
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| 2022-09-21T14:29:07Z
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(The Hill) – The primaries in Florida and New York this week marked the final major nominating contests of 2022, and the country’s attention is now poised to shift to the general elections that will determine control of Congress for the next two years.
Primaries for both parties stretching from March through this week offered up some key hints about the two main parties and their voters, as well as what the coming fall campaign season could look like.
Here are five takeaways from the 2022 primaries:
The GOP is still Trump’s party — and 2020 is still top of mind
Former President Trump may have left the White House more than a year and a half ago, but this year’s GOP primaries proved that he remains the most influential Republican in the country.
The impact of Trump’s endorsements was clear: He shaped Republican messaging, scrambled primary contests and elevated to victory candidates that even some top GOP officials had concerns about.
Perhaps no issue was more important in obtaining Trump’s endorsement than the 2020 presidential election and his false claim that it was rigged against him. Republican candidates frequently echoed that talking point on the campaign trail — with some centering their races around it — hoping to win the former president’s favor.
The end result: In most of the nation’s high-profile Republican primaries, voters sided with Trump.
All of the GOP nominees in the most competitive Senate races were backed by the former president ahead of their primaries. Of the six House Republicans who ran for reelection after voting last year to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, only two won renomination.
And candidates who have questioned or flat-out denied the results of the 2020 election will be on ballots across the country in November, having secured nominations for governor, Senate, House and secretary of state.
Of course, there are a few exceptions. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, for instance, won in a landslide against his Trump-backed primary opponent, former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). And in South Carolina, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) made it through her primary against Trump-endorsed Katie Arrington.
Still, if the 2022 Republican primaries made one thing clear, it’s that GOP voters are still overwhelmingly aligned with Trump.
Democrats largely played it safe, but progressives scored some key wins
Despite ongoing debates over the direction of the Democratic Party, voters across the country largely sided with more moderate or establishment-backed candidates in their primaries, apparently seeing them as their best bets for winning in an otherwise punishing political environment for Democrats.
In Ohio, for example, former state Sen. Nina Turner, a progressive former co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, lost for a second time to Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio), who had the support of the party establishment.
Likewise, Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas), a conservative South Texas Democrat, narrowly defeated progressive Jessica Cisneros in a race that drew intense national attention.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t all bad for the party’s left flank.
Progressives won Senate nominations in two key swing states. In Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman beat out Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), a moderate who cast himself as the candidate better able to court suburban and rural voters, while Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes won the chance to challenge Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). And just this week, Central Florida Democrats tapped Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Sanders-backed gun control activist, to succeed Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) in the House.
Still, this year’s primaries were far from the ideological turning point that progressives were hoping for.
It was a tough season for a lot of House incumbents
There are still a few primaries left, but 2022 is already on track to see the most U.S. House incumbents lose renomination in more than two decades.
So far this year, 15 House members — nine Republicans and six Democrats — have lost their bids to return to Capitol Hill, according to Ballotpedia, which has been tracking the losses.
In some cases, the circumstances were simply out of members’ control, mostly because of the decennial redistricting process.
This week, for example, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), a 30-year veteran of the House, lost her primary to fellow longtime incumbent Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) after redistricting combined their Manhattan congressional districts. From the get-go, one of them was bound to lose.
But in other races, incumbents suffered from their political choices, most notably, their votes to impeach Trump. That decision spelled the end for Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Tom Rice (R-S.C.), Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), all of whom were defeated by Trump-backed primary challengers who hammered them for their impeachment votes.
Others, like Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), found themselves on the losing end of their primaries after becoming the subject of various controversies.
Democrats found their footing
For the first half of the year, Democrats were staring down some daunting problems. Their legislative agenda in Congress had largely stalled out, inflation was reaching its highest levels in decades and their main political foil was no longer in the Oval Office.
To make matters worse for Democrats, they were also contending with the reality that the party in power almost always loses ground in Congress in midterm elections.
That fact may still hold true. But things have notably shifted for Democrats in the months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That decision gave the party a powerful message with which to rally voters fearing an erosion of protections for reproductive rights and helped reenergize Democrats amid concerns over complacency.
Perhaps the biggest turning point for Democrats came in Kansas, when voters rejected by a wide margin a proposed amendment that would have stripped abortion rights from the state constitution.
Since then, Democrats have homed in on a clearer messaging strategy: They’ve warned what GOP congressional majorities would mean for reproductive rights, touted the passage of a massive tax and climate bill, and sought to cast themselves as a steady hand in government.
Of course, while Democrats’ midterm prospects appear to have brightened somewhat, they’re still facing a brutal political landscape and strong historical headwinds that could give an edge to Republicans.
But Republican voters are still energized
The outlook may be brightening for Democrats. But this year’s primaries have still given credence to what Republican leaders have been claiming for over a year: GOP voters are motivated.
In top-of-the-ticket races across key battleground states, Republican primary turnout repeatedly outpaced Democratic turnout, a sign that GOP voters are eager to cast their ballots this year.
In Georgia, nearly a half million more Republicans voted in the Senate primary than Democrats. In Arizona, over 200,000 more voters cast ballots in the top Republican primaries. The turnout advantage also holds true in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada and Florida.
To be sure, the higher Republican turnout may not have been due to voter enthusiasm alone. In Georgia, for example, Republicans saw a hotly contested gubernatorial primary, while the Democratic candidate, Stacey Abrams, went unchallenged for the nomination.
The same is true is North Carolina, where Republicans were faced with a choice between Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and former Gov. Pat McCrory in the primary to succeed retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). Democrats, meanwhile, had already largely coalesced behind Cheri Beasley as their nominee.
But Florida’s most competitive race was on the Democratic side, and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had hotly contested contests on both sides of the aisle.
And for much of the year, public polling has shown that Republicans are more enthusiastic to vote in November than Democrats are. But as Democrats’ prospects have improved, they’ve also begun to close that enthusiasm gap.
A Morning Consult poll released last week showed that 65% of Republican voters are either “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic to cast their ballots in the midterm elections. Meanwhile, 62% of Democrats said the same.
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| 2022-09-21T14:29:14Z
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Three Dutch soldiers were shot and wounded early Saturday in a shooting in downtown Indianapolis after what local police believe was a disturbance outside the hotel where they were staying, authorities said.
The shooting occurred about 3:30 a.m. EDT in Indianapolis’ entertainment district. Indianapolis police said officers found three men with gunshot wounds and they were taken to area hospitals.
The Dutch defense ministry said one soldier was in critical condition and the two others were conscious, while Indianapolis police said two of the soldiers were in critical condition and the third was stable.
The ministry said the three soldiers were from the Commando Corps and were in Indiana for training when the shooting occurred during their free time in front of the hotel where they were staying.
Indianapolis police said they believe some sort of altercation between the three victims and another person or people led to the shooting.
The ministry said that the shooting victims’ families have been informed while Indianapolis police continue investigating the shooting.
No arrests have been made.
The Indiana National Guard said the soldiers had been training at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a 1,000-acre (405-hectare) complex about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Indianapolis. The Guard said in a statement that the center is used for training by the Department of Defense “as well as other allies.”
“The Dutch soldiers visited Indianapolis at the end of their duty day. Our thoughts and prayers are with the soldiers and families during this difficult time,” the Guard said, WXIN-TV reported.
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| 2022-09-21T14:29:22Z
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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Two decades after her release from prison, Teresa Beatty feels she is still being punished.
When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford home she and her siblings inherited. It said she owed $83,762 to cover the cost of her 2 1/2 year imprisonment for drug crimes.
Now, she’s afraid she’ll have to sell her home of 51 years, where she lives with two adult children, a grandchild and her disabled brother.
“I’m about to be homeless,” said Beatty, 58, who in March became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state law that charges prisoners $249 a day for the cost of their incarceration. “I just don’t think it’s right, because I feel I already paid my debt to society. I just don’t think it’s fair for me to be paying twice.”
All but two states have so-called “pay-to-stay” laws that make prisoners pay for their time behind bars, though not every state actually pursues people for the money. Supporters say the collections are a legitimate way for states to recoup millions of taxpayer dollars spent on prisons and jails.
Critics say it’s an unfair second penalty that hinders rehabilitation by putting former inmates in debt for life. Efforts have been underway in some places to scale back or eliminate such policies.
Two states — Illinois and New Hampshire — have repealed their laws since 2019.
Connecticut also overhauled its statute this year, keeping it in place only for the most serious crimes, such as murder, and exempting prisoners from having to pay the first $50,000 of their incarceration costs.
Under the revised law, about 98% of Connecticut inmates no longer have to pay any of the costs of their incarceration after they get out, said state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat and a sponsor of the repeal legislation.
The state retained its ability, though, to collect some prison debts already on the books before the law changed. It’s unclear whether the change in the law, made after Beatty sued, will be enough to keep her in her home. That will be decided in court.
Her lawyers have asked a federal judge to block the state from enforcing the law against anyone, saying it remains unfair even after the amendments.
Beatty acknowledges she was guilty of selling and possessing drugs, but said nobody told her when she went to jail that every day behind bars would cost her more than a night at a fine hotel.
“It just drags you back to despair,” said Beatty, who has had other brushes with the law over drug possession since her release from jail, but has also become a certified nursing assistant. “That’s where I feel like I’m at. I feel like no hope. Where do I go? All of this work and it feels like I’ve done it in vain.”
Pay-to-stay laws were put into place in many areas during the tough-on-crime era of the 1980s and ’90s, said Brittany Friedman, an assistant professor of sociology at University of Southern California who is leading a study of the practice.
As prison populations ballooned, Friedman said, policymakers questioned how to pay for incarceration costs. “So, instead of raising taxes, the solution was to shift the cost burden from the state and the taxpayers onto the incarcerated.”
Laws vary from state to state. Many, like Connecticut, only go after inmates for the cost of incarceration if they come into money after leaving prison. A few, such as North Carolina, have laws on the books but almost never use them, Friedman said.
Connecticut’s partial repeal went into effect July 1. The state is projected to collect about $5.5 million less per year from ex-prisoners because of the change.
State Sen. John Kissel, the top Republican on the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said he opposed the repeal passed by the Democratic majority, but might support reforms like allowing inmates to pay off debt in installments.
Kissel said that while Beatty’s situation tugs at one’s heartstrings, “Everybody has issues.”
“The policy is to make one appreciate that your incarceration costs money,” he said. “The taxpayers footed the bill. They didn’t do anything wrong. And knowing that one has to pay the state back a reasonable sum on a regular basis is not a bad policy.”
Connecticut used to collect prison debt by attaching an automatic lien to every inmate, claiming half of any financial windfall they might receive for up to 20 years after they are released from prison, said Dan Barrett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. That included things like insurance settlements, inheritances and lottery winnings.
The state even collected money awarded to inmates in lawsuits over alleged abuse by prison guards.
Former Connecticut inmate Fred Hodges, who served more than 17 years in prison for killing a man while trying to retrieve his son’s stolen bicycle, came into $21,000 after his car was totaled in a 2009 traffic accident. The state claimed half of that, he said. After paying his lawyer, he was left with about $3,000.
“I have seven grandchildren and the money could have helped them. It could have helped me,” said Hodges, who works for a nonprofit that helps other inmates reenter society. “You’d be surprised at the effect it can have on you psychologically when they tell you you owe them $249 a day. I was locked up for 17 1/2 years. At $249 a day, how are you going to come up out of that?”
Beatty’s lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, argues that the pay-to-stay seizures violate the excessive fines clause of the Constitution.
Da’ee McKnight, who works with Hodges as a coordinator for an organization called Family ReEntry, said the state took an insurance settlement from him, even though he served most of his sentence before the law was on the books.
“Here, I’m being penalized for something that I was not even made aware of at the time I was sentenced, because it did not even exist,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Dave Collins contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T14:29:30Z
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BARRETOS, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro traveled to Latin America’s biggest rodeo — a bubble of staunch support — to connect with voters from the countryside ahead of October’s vote.
On Friday evening, the far-right leader rode a horse while holding a cowboy hat in his outstretched arm and greeting supporters draped in Brazil flags, while his campaign jingle “The People’s Captain” played. He joked with them and they prayed together for the future of the country. All major polls show Bolsonaro trailing well behind former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but one wouldn’t know it from the scene at the rodeo in the municipality of Barretos, in Sao Paulo state.
“This event is already part of our history. Moved by agribusiness, by the work of countryside men and women, Brazil is projecting itself onto the global stage,” Bolsonaro told the crowd, which chanted the word “legend” in reference to him. “Our motto is God, country, family and freedom. Yeee-hooo!”
The multi-day spectacle had tens of thousands of attendees who were predominately white and middle-class. Many came decked out in the national colors of green and canary yellow that Bolsonaro has transformed into symbols of support for his administration. The packed arena roared when Bolsonaro was introduced to the tune of DJ Snake’s and Lil Jon’s song “Turn Down for What,” which his supporters have used in hundreds of videos to portray him as defiant.
Outside, a vendor sold towels bearing the faces of Bolsonaro and da Silva of the leftist Workers’ Party, and displayed a board showing how many of each candidate had been purchased. Barely any featuring da Silva had sold, and attendees took it as a signal their candidate will win the vote. Elsewhere in Brazil, such towel sales scoreboards point in the opposite direction.
Despite da Silva’s lead in the polls, a dozen farmers, cattle ranchers and rodeo fans in Barretos told The Associated Press that Bolsonaro doesn’t need to reach out to many moderate voters, which da Silva is openly attempting to do — most notably, with his selection of a center-right rival turned running mate.
“The last time the polls didn’t say Bolsonaro was going to win,” said 57-year-old Gualter Silveira, who owns a small farm. ‘’This year it is going to be the same. I see him going everywhere. Lula doesn’t. How can Bolsonaro be behind?”
Wearing a Brazilian flag as a scarf, businessman Daniel Tales, 43, said he felt goosebumps in his mustache after seeing Bolsonaro in person. The proud cowboy from neighboring Minas Gerais state said he believes his candidate will need a run-off against da Silva to secure a second term.
“But he doesn’t need to change anything. He doesn’t need to do anything else or anything less,” Tales said. “He has a strong personality, he is the man of the moment, he came to make a revolution.”
Asked how Bolsonaro could bring undecided voters to his side, he replied: “He needs to be himself. That’s all.”
Four years ago, Bolsonaro won almost 74% of the vote in Barretos in the second round vote against Fernando Haddad, the Workers’ Party’s candidate after da Silva was declared ineligible. The president receives a lot of love in the region for professing conservative values and defending farmers, and also because he created a National Rodeo Day in 2020 and loosened regulations for such events in Brazil. Friday wasn’t his first time at the Barretos rodeo; he came in 2019 as president and three other times during his career as a lawmaker to help his son’s bid for Congress.
This time, Bolsonaro brought along cabinet ministers, politicians running for office and some business leaders whose properties were searched by police earlier this week due to their alleged participation in a private chat group that included comments favoring a possible coup and military involvement in politics. One of them, Luciano Hang, wore his customary yellow shirt and green pants, and he did his best to rile up the the crowd.
Bolsonaro and his allies have routinely scoffed at the polls, sometimes saying the president will not just win the election, but do so in the first round without need for a run-off. They say a more accurate way to gauge the upcoming result is watching the turnout at Bolsonaro rallies.
Bolsonaro supporters who spoke to the AP said they are ready to heed his call and take to the streets for Independence Day on Sept. 7. Some politicians and analysts have expressed concern that it could turn violent.
“We’ll see you out on Independence Day,” emcee Cuiabano Lima said as Bolsonaro left the rodeo arena. Lima also said da Silva is a thief who belongs in prison, and the crowd chanted in agreement.
Da Silva, who governed from 2003 to 2010 and is universally known as Lula, was barred from running in 2018 after being jailed due to convictions for corruption and money laundering, which the Supreme Court later annulled on the basis that the judge in the case had been biased. That cleared the way for him to run in 2022.
Silvana Cunha, 47, is concerned about the possibility da Silva could return to power. She works with cattle raisers and says Bolsonaro improved her life due to higher beef prices during his administration. Although she trusts he will win in October, she acknowledged the challenges he faces.
“It took time to organize everything as he wished,” said Cunha, a fervent Catholic who has attended the Barretos rodeo for years. “No matter who wins, it will be very difficult. We will need a strong hand. It is a massive task to put the country back on the track for growth after this pandemic. We need to be very careful. Either we will have a setback or an evolution.”
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| 2022-09-21T14:29:39Z
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Authorities transferred some 400 asylum-seekers away from a makeshift camp outside an overcrowded migrant reception center in the northeastern Netherlands after a damning report called the site where hundreds of people were sleeping rough a health hazard.
Leon Veldt, a spokesman for the government’s asylum-seeker accommodation organization, said Saturday that the migrants were moved overnight to alternative accommodations in other locations.
The move came after a team from the Inspectorate for Health Care and Youth visited the squalid, temporary camp in the village of Ter Apel and said there was “a serious risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases as a result of the total lack of hygiene.”
A day earlier, 150 people were transferred to two sports halls in a central city in a bid to alleviate the crisis that has seen some 700 people sleeping outside the packed center this week. Refugee advocates likened the situation to overcrowded camps in Greece and Italy, which are common first destinations of Europe-bound asylum-seekers.
A 3-month-old baby died this week in a sports hall at the Ter Apel center, and authorities are investigating the cause of death. Two men were taken to the hospital, one for a heart attack and another for diabetes that had gone untreated for weeks.
The conditions were so bad that the Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders sent a team there on Thursday, the relief agency’s first deployment in the Netherlands.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday he was ashamed of the scenes in Ter Apel, On Friday night, Rutte’s government announced a raft of measures aimed at easing the country’s asylum-seeker accommodation crisis.
They include temporarily reining in refugee family reunions and the number of arriving migrants earmarked for the Netherlands under a 2016 deal between the European Union and Turkey.
The government said it also was working with local municipalities to create more homes for people who receive refugee status so they can more quickly move out of asylum-seeker centers, freeing up space for new arrivals.
The Dutch military was tasked with setting up a new camp to house people who are waiting to register asylum claims at the Ter Apel center.
Milo Schoenmaker, the board chairman of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers, welcomed the moves, saying: “With the measures that have been announced, the application center in Ter Apel can hopefully be relieved quickly. At the same time, there are still insufficient available places to accommodate everyone.”
While many Dutch towns and cities have offered places to stay to Ukrainians who fled the war in their country, the welcome has worn thin for asylum-seekers from other countries. Most people arriving in Ter Apel are Syrians fleeing their nation’s grinding civil war.
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Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
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| 2022-09-21T14:29:46Z
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CAIRO (AP) — Deadly clashes broke out Saturday in Libya’s capital between militias backed by its two rival administrations, portending a return to violence amid a long political stalemate.
At least 23 people were killed and 140 more wounded, the Health Ministry said. It added that 64 families were evacuated from areas around the fighting.
The escalation threatens to shatter the relative calm Libya has enjoyed for most of the past two years. The oil-rich nation plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Among the fatalities was Mustafa Baraka, a comedian known for his social media videos mocking militias and corruption. Baraka died after he was shot in his chest, said Malek Merset, an emergency services spokesman.
Merset said emergency services were still trying to evacuate wounded and civilians trapped in the fighting that erupted overnight and continued into Saturday evening.
The Health Ministry said in a statement hospitals and medical centers in the capital were shelled, and ambulance teams were barred from evacuating civilians, in acts that “amount to war crimes.”
The municipal council of Tripoli blamed the ruling political class for the deteriorating situation in the capital, and urged the international community to “protect civilians in Libya.”
The violence caused widespread panic among Tripoli residents. Footage circulated online showed houses, government facilities, and vehicles apparently damaged from the fighting. Other footage showed militia forces deploying and heavy fire being exchanged across the night sky.
The U.N. mission in Libya said the fighting involved “indiscriminate medium and heavy shelling in civilian-populated neighborhoods” of Tripoli.
The mission called for an immediate cease-fire, and for all parties in Libya to “refrain from using any form of hate speech and incitement to violence.”
The clashes pitted the Tripoli Revolutionaries’ Brigade militia, led by Haitham Tajouri, against another militia allied with Abdel-Ghani al-Kikli, an infamous warlord known as “Gheniwa,” according to local media. Later on Saturday, more militias joined the fighting which spread in different areas in the capital.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s government, which is based in Tripoli, claimed the clashes broke out when one militia fired at another.
The fighting, however, is highly likely part of ongoing power struggle between Dbeibah and his rival Prime Minister Fathy Bashagha who is operating from the coast city of Sirte.
Both Dbeibah and Bashagha are backed by militias, and the latter was mobilizing in recent weeks to try to enter Tripoli to dislodge his rival.
An attempt in May by Bashagha to install his government in Tripoli triggered clashes that ended with his withdrawal from the capital.
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland urged for de-escalation “before things get worse” and for Libyan parties to agree on an early date for elections.
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| 2022-09-21T14:29:54Z
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains across much of Pakistan have killed nearly 1,000 people and injured and displaced thousands more since mid-June, officials said Saturday.
The new death toll came a day after Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif asked for international help in battling deadly flood damage in the impoverished Islamic nation.
The monsoon season, which began earlier than normal this year, has lashed Pakistan with particularly heavy rains and rescuers have struggled to evacuate thousands of marooned people from flood-hit areas. The crisis forced the government to declare a state of emergency.
In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, flooding destroyed the gates of a major water control system at the Swat River, leading to flooding in the districts of Charsadda and Nowshera, said Sania Safi, a top administrator in Charsadda.
“We preempted the situation and warned and forced hesitating residents to leave their homes for safety and move to relief camps established at government buildings in safe places,” she said.
Safi said there was concern of further rising of the Swat and Kabul rivers, adding to the misery of residents who have already suffered the loss of lives and property.
In Nowshera district, local administrator Quratul Ain Wazir said flood waters submerged streets before the gushing waters headed toward low-lying areas.
“Our administration has evacuated many people and taken others to relief camps where government provided beds and food in safe buildings,” she said. … “We will use police to force those hesitant to leave their homes.”
Khushal Wahab, who lives in a neighborhood in Nowshera submerged in water, said residents recalled catastrophic flooding that took place 2010 and many evacuated fearing similar danger. “People are scared,” he said.
Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb said soldiers and rescue organizations were helping people to reach safety in many districts of southern Sindh, northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eastern Punjab and southwestern Baluchistan provinces.
“Government has sanctioned sufficient funds to financially compensate the affected people and we will not leave our people alone in this tough time,” she said.
Aurangzeb asked wealthy people and relief organizations to come forward with aid to help flood-affected Pakistanis.
In response to Sharif’s appeal for international aid, the United Nations planned a $160 million flash appeal for donations, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Asim Iftikhar. He said in his weekly briefing Friday that the appeal will be launched Aug. 30.
The picturesque Kalam Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is one of the areas most affected by the rains and flooding. Waters from overflowing rivers swept away entire buildings, including an iconic hotel.
“The situation is pretty serious as we don’t have any road link left with the rest of the province, we don’t have electricity, gas and communications network and no relief is reaching here,” said Muzaffar Khan, whose grocery store was swept away along with many other shops.
Thousands whose homes were swept away now live in tents, miles away from their inundated villages and towns, after being rescued by soldiers, local disaster workers and volunteers, authorities said.
In Baluchistan, Asadullah Nasir, a spokesperson at the provincial disaster management authority, said all 34 districts of the impoverished province were badly affected by heavy rain and flooding. He said road networks were destroyed and bridges washed away and relief was only possible by deploying helicopters, which are not often able to operate because of bad weather. He said provincial officials have confirmed 235 deaths but the number was expected to increase significantly after communications are restored.
In eastern Punjab province, the Rajan Pur district appeared to be the hardest hit along with the district of Dera Ghazi Khan. Thousands of mud and brick houses were inundated by water, most of them completely demolished or at least partly destroyed.
Residents made homeless by the flood took shelter on higher ground, where they waited for relief goods and other help.
Rahim Hasan, 52, said he lost his home and two children — a daughter and a son ages 14 and 16, respectively.
“I have nothing left in life, my home was destroyed and my children swept away by gushing water and now we are lying helpless on this road under open sky where soldiers are feeding us,” he said.
The National Disaster Management Authority in its latest overnight report said 45 people were killed in flood-related incidents from Friday to Saturday. That brought the death toll since mid-June to 982 with 1,456 injured.
Monsoon rains were expected to continue this week, mainly in the south and southwest. The season usually runs from July to mid September in Pakistan.
Heavy rains and subsequent flash floods have damaged bridges and road networks across Pakistan, disrupting the supply of fruit and vegetables to markets and causing a hike in prices.
Much of neighboring Afghanistan was also hit by heavy rain and flooding. Mohammad Nasim Haqqani, spokesman for the country’s National Disaster Management Ministry, said at least seven people were killed in eastern Nangarhar province over a 24-hour period, and more than 600 others were rescued by Defense Ministry helicopters. The seven in addition to 182 fatalities announced dead earlier in the week.
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Associated Press reporters Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Abdul Sattar in Quetta and Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan and Rahim Faiez in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A truck drove off a Dutch dike and slammed into a neighborhood barbecue in a village Saturday evening, and police said two people were confirmed killed and multiple people were injured.
Police were trying to determine why the truck left the road in the village of Nieuw-Beijerland just south of Rotterdam and careered down the side of a dike.
They said in a statement said that the driver, a 46-year-old man from Spain, was arrested as part of the investigation and taken to a police station.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. “For the time being, we are keeping all scenarios about the facts open,” the police statement said.
Photos of the scene showed bunting hanging between trees and chairs scattered around trestle tables.
Police worked into the night around the truck before a crane and a tow truck hauled it back onto the road.
Local Mayor Charlie Aptroot visited the scene Saturday night.
“My condolences go out to the victims, their families, eyewitnesses and first responders,” he said in a statement.
He added that he had spoken to many of the people at the scene and expressed “appreciation for the way in which people are there for each other.”
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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The European Union’s foreign policy chief announced Saturday that Serbia and Kosovo have agreed on how to resolve a dispute over their identity documents, settling one of the problems that have sparked the latest tensions between the former Balkan war foes.
The comments by Josep Borell come after a flurry of international diplomatic efforts to defuse concerns that the problems could escalate further amid the war in Ukraine and Serbia’s close ties with Russia.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Belgrade does not recognize.
Tensions soared late last month when Kosovo’s government declared that Serb-issued identity documents and vehicle license plates would no longer be valid in Kosovo’s territory, just as Kosovo-issued ones are not valid in Serbia. Serbia in the past years required Kosovo ID holders to acquire special passes when traveling through Serbia to show it does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Kosovo said it was responding with reciprocity to Serbia. But Kosovo Serbs reacted furiously, blocking roads in the Serb-dominated north. Belgrade accused Kosovo of pressuring minority Serbs in the north, who largely reject Kosovo-issued documents in defiance of Kosovo’s statehood and hold Serbian ones.
In the past two weeks, EU officials mediated a meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Brussels, and U.S. and EU envoys traveled to the region to try to resolve the issue.
“We have a deal,” Borrell said on Twitter. “Serbia agreed to abolish entry/exit documents for Kosovo ID holders and Kosovo agreed to not introduce them for Serbian ID holders.”
“Kosovo Serbs, as well as all other citizens, will be able to travel freely between Kosovo & Serbia using their ID cards,” he added.
Kosovo President Vlosa Osmani said on Facebook that the deal meant “reciprocity and equality.”
“Freedom of movement is the foundation of democratic societies and European values,” she said, adding that Kosovo will continue to strive for “mutual recognition.”
Earlier Saturday, Vucic told reporters that if the ID deal is reached, Serbia will issue a “general disclaimer” on the boundary, saying the use of Kosovo ID cards is enabled for “practical reasons and freedom of movement,” and does not mean Serbia’s recognition of Kosovo or its future status.
However, he said the Serbian car registration plates that many Kosovo Serbs still use remains an unresolved issue.
Kosovo’s independence has been recognized by Washington and most EU countries, while Serbia has relied on support from Moscow and China for its bid to retain the former province. Belgrade lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after NATO bombed the country to stop its brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatist rebels.
For several years, the EU has mediated negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, seeking to normalize their relations and move forward their efforts to join the European Union.
NATO peacekeepers have stepped up their presence in northern Kosovo in response to the increased tensions.
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