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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Being the state capital of California, there’s always something to do in Sacramento! This weekend marks the end of April and the beginning of May, so here's a list of events going on in Sacramento that might put a 'spring' in your step.
Love Modesto will have music, free giveaways, free food and refreshments with over 40 vendors (Trader Joe's, Starbucks, Pepsi, Blue Diamond, Frito-Lay, Yogurt Mill, etc.), free kids activities and much more!
- 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday, April 30th
- Located in front of the Gallo Center for the Arts (1000 I St., Modesto)
- Organized by Love Modesto
More information about this event HERE.
California Duck Days is a family-oriented, community-based outdoor festival with activities for people of all ages, including on-site activities, interactive exhibits, wetland-themed arts and crafts, and much more!
- 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday, April 30th
- Located at Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Headquarters (45211 Co Road 32B, Davis)
- Organized by the Yolo Basin Foundation, Visit Davis, and Visit Yolo
- More information about this event HERE.
This is a family car show and features live music, live entertainment, and a newly added mechanical bull! There will also be a Disfruta El Calor Reggeaton Day Party in the same location from 4 p.m. – 10 p.m.
- 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday, April 30th
- Located at R Vida Cantina (7040 Sunrise Blvd., Citrus Heights)
- Organized by El Compa Trokas, Mayra Primos Auto Insurance, and Elk Grove Buick GMC
- More information about this event HERE.
The Spring Fling Market is a market featuring local vendors and live music with sound provided by Diego Valle of LTHM and Bumpin'. You can shop for friends, family and yourself!
- 4 p.m. – 7 p.m., Saturday, April 30th
- Located at Panama Pottery (4421 24th St., Sacramento)
- Organized by The Witching Hour Collective, Happy Harry Taggs, and Cut by Cota
- More information about this event HERE.
There will be a foam party at Esther’s Park with food, AfroBeats, Reggae, Dancehall and opportunities to network with others!
- 5 p.m. – 10 p.m., Saturday, April 30th
- Located at Esther's Park (3408 3rd Ave., Sacramento)
- Organized by Conscious Vibes Presents
- More information about this event HERE.
This is a self-care day, consisting of Zumba, yoga, massages, a self-care market, bottomless mimosas and music by DJ Stace. There will also be a 'Spa In The Park' section where there will be henna, vision board making, makeup tutorials and more!
- 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Sunday, May 1st
- Located at The Bridge District | Garden Park (440 Garden St., West Sacramento)
- Organized by Self Care Sundays Sacramento
- More information about this event HERE.
This is a free family-friendly event featuring food trucks, free raffles, music, performances, and add your hand to the Paint-By-Number mural wall!
- 12 p.m. – 3 p.m., Sunday, May 1st
- Located at S&P Market Lot (2630 Northgate Blvd., Sacramento)
- Organized by The Sacramento Office of Arts + Culture and Community Murals Sacramento
- More information about this event HERE.
A celebration of a Big Day of Giving, featuring a QTBIPOC market. There will be a chance to support different fundraisers as well as to support local makers in Sacramento's community.
- 12 p.m. – 4 p.m., Sunday, May 1st
- Located at 3823 V St., Sacramento
- Organized by the Gender Health Center and the Big Day of Giving
- More information about this event HERE.
This is a special, family-friendly festival to celebrate the return of spring, often with festive activities that include dancing around a decorated tree (or maypole). There will be activities throughout the day including a waltz demonstration, gold panning and lawn games.
- 12 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Sunday, May 1st
- Located at the Sacramento History Museum (101 I St., Sacramento)
- Organized by The Sacramento History Museum, Old Sacramento Living History, and the Sacramento Country Dance Society
- More information about this event HERE.
Live jazz and soul music are provided by RealKMS. DJ Mel and DJ Stace Lace. The brunch menu ranges from breakfast potatoes to cheesy shrimp and grits. You can choose from two brunch time slots, but feel free to enjoy the entire event!
- 12 p.m. – 8 p.m., Sunday, May 1st
- Located at Our Place (1107 Firehouse Alley, Sacramento)
- Organized by Old School Entertainment
- More information about this event HERE.
Throughout the Weekend
After a nearly three-year hiatus, Sol Blume music festival is back in full bloom this weekend! The mission of Sol Blume is to create a space where like-minded individuals can gather to celebrate some of today’s most acclaimed R&B, soul, and hip-hop music acts, with an underlying emphasis on art, culture, love, social diversity, and good vibes.
- 12 p.m. – 12 a.m. Saturday and Sunday
- Located at Discovery Park
- Organized by Sol Blume and ENT Legends Concerts
- More information about this event HERE.
Celebrate Cinco De Mayo at Southside Park with performances from Los Diablos, Inner Secrets, the Midnight Players, the David Perez Band, Peligro Brass, Mariachi Bonitas, Ballet Folklorico de Sacramento, Aztec Dancers and much more. There will also be food, drinks, a kids zone, a car show, a bike show, and crafts for everyone!
- 4 p.m. – 9 p.m. Saturday, April 30th, and 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. Sunday, May 1st
- Located at Southside Park (2115 6th St., Sacramento)
- Organized by Fiesta En La Calle
- More information about this event HERE.
This is a three-day, family-friendly event and will feature over 500 custom hot rods, muscle cars, trucks, lowriders and motorcycles from across the country competing to win some of the industry's most prestigious awards, with up to 400 additional vehicles expected to participate in the 14th Annual Sacramento Autorama Drive-In.
This is a three-day event featuring live performances, spoken word, theatre, an art exhibit, a short film premiere and an intercultural vendors parking lot 'Pop-Up Get Down'.
- 7 p.m. – 10 p.m., Friday, April 29th and Saturday, April 30th, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m., Sunday, May 1st.
- Located at California Stage Co. (2509 R St., Sacramento)
- Organized by Teatro Espejo
- More information about this event HERE.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10: 'Wake Up Call' on 106.5 The End give Rocklin Theater Company post-pandemic boost
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/word-on-the-street-sacramento-events/103-f7396f13-2f10-4390-9c2a-70b6676b84ea
| 2022-04-29T02:25:45
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/word-on-the-street-sacramento-events/103-f7396f13-2f10-4390-9c2a-70b6676b84ea
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STOCKTON, Calif. — After 20 homicide cases in just four months, some young residents in Stockton have become familiar with scenes of yellow crime tape and police lights.
For people like Brittany Bobian, a community leader in Stockton, the rash of violent crimes early in the year has led to a need for creative solutions to engage the young generation, who are vulnerable to becoming involved in and impacted by violence.
"These politicians, they're very disconnected. Even some of these other organizers, they're very disconnected from what really is going on right here," Bobian said.
In 2018, after seeing a rise in shootings in Stockton, Bobian and others in the community got together and created a program called "Balloons over Bullets."
The mission and method of the group at launch was simple: host impromptu water balloon fights at schools and public spaces to encourage youth to spend time with water balloons and positive activities instead of bullets and violence.
"It was the quickest and easiest, cheapest way to get the kids out of the house and kind of give them that moment of relief." Bobian said. "It's actually evolved into something more than that, because it's like a conditioning system where we get the community and the people to kind of see the village that they've been neglecting."
After the city of Stockton surpassed 20 homicides in 2022 with the death of 15-year-old Stagg High School student Alycia Reynaga, Bobian and organizers knew it was time to act.
The group decided to start their annual summer events weeks early, hosting unique outreach and water balloon fight events at five Stockton high schools beginning May 2.
Bobian said it started with a quick call to her fellow coordinators.
"I called them and I was like, 'it's 2018 all over again,' so we have to bring that same energy, but this time we're a lot bigger," Bobian said. "The kids need it, and it's pushed us even more now, especially seeing that there has been no real reaction or nothing (done) for any of the kids."
On Monday, the group says they will be setting up their event at Bear Creek High School followed by Chavez High School on Tuesday, Edison High School on Wednesday, Franklin High School on Thursday and ending at Stagg High School Friday.
"We're just going to pull up right as they're getting out of school and have a water balloon fight and basically a little party in the parking lot," Bobian said. "It's not just Stagg that is affected by what's going on, it is every high school and I don't think we pay attention to the high school kids that much."
As the water starts flying, coordinators say that is when the connections begin.
"That's when you have the moment to like pour into the kids, to talk to them, to ask them questions," Bobian said. "It's a disconnect from the stresses of reality and then you get to reconnect them back to the community, into the people that love them."
In addition to hosting a gaming truck, food vendors and local artists at the after-school events next week, the group has partnered with local pastors and trauma-healing organizations who will be offering services and resources.
"It was just going to be us, but now we're like, 'OK, we need to bring more resources,'" Bobian said. "We're going to have food boxes, people there from the Lighthouse Healing Services, people there that (students) can talk to."
With warm weather forecasted for Stockton next week, Bobian says the group's original method of connecting with youth through a water balloon fight and through engagement will still take precedence.
"Kids to this day still see us even when I don't have a Balloons over Bullets shirt on. They're like, 'Hey, you got any more water balloons?' It's that transactional relationship," Bobian said. "I think people get excited when they see 10,000 water balloons - if they've never seen something like that - so that little bit of hope and relief is something that we're proud of."
For some Stockton students, an approaching summer break will also come with an influx of free time.
Bobian and others hope their event will help students heal from what has been a difficult school year for many, leaving them with hope and a positive activity for the next three months.
"It's the end of the year and we want to give them a little something to set the tone for the summer," Bobian said. "People will have meetings all day long about (crime) and I'm like, 'Well, while you guys are having these meetings, people are really affected,' and that's why it's important that the people do more."
Watch More from Stockton from ABC10: Students at Stockton's Merryhill Preschool release thousands of ladybugs to celebrate Earth Day
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/stockton/balloons-over-bullets/103-897a9555-2104-4d0d-8a28-6c9eeaa87ace
| 2022-04-29T02:25:51
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/stockton/balloons-over-bullets/103-897a9555-2104-4d0d-8a28-6c9eeaa87ace
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PULLMAN, Wash. — The parents of a Washington State University (WSU) freshman from Bellevue who died after a fraternity party in 2019 say the university's negligence played a role in their son's death.
A Pullman police investigation, as well as a WSU investigation, found the events leading up to 19-year-old Sam Martinez’s death constituted "illegal hazing."
Parents Hector Martinez and Jolayne Houtz said university officials missed multiple opportunities to curb a culture of hazing at WSU, and that they lost their son because of that negligence.
“Washington State University has accumulated all of this information and evidence about the bad behavior of specific frats in its Greek system, yet they don’t share that [with the public],” said Houtz. “We were blindsided.”
According to university records, the school documented repeated problems with its fraternal organizations, including alcohol violations, alcohol abuse and poisoning, injuries, assaults, hospitalizations and hazing, which is illegal in Washington state.
“We just didn’t know all of this. If we had known just a tiny fraction of it, I think that Sam would still be alive,” said Houtz.
Sam Martinez, who attended Newport High School in Bellevue, pledged the Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity in July of 2019. He began classes in Pullman in August and died three months later, on the morning of November 12, 2019. His cause of death was acute alcohol poisoning.
The night before, Sam Martinez attended an alcohol-fueled fraternity function called "Big-Little Night." The event is when pledges find out the identity of their big brothers, records show. Police found the big brother assigned to Sam and one other pledge gave them a half-gallon of rum, the equivalent of 40 shots, to share between the two.
“We know it now, but we had no way to know it back then. But WSU knew it. They knew it dating back to at least 2013 that ATO was a bad actor [and they had a duty to share it],” said Houtz.
WSU finds "culture of higher risk" in its fraternities
University officials at the highest levels began documenting a reckless and risky pattern of behavior in WSU fraternities at least a decade ago.
In 2012, WSU President Elson Floyd convened a task force to address alcohol and drug problems within the student body. The WSU Presidential Task Force on Prevention and Education for Alcohol and other Drugs concluded that being a member of a Greek organization put students at far greater risk for alcohol-related problems compared with other students.
“At WSU, students in the Greek community drink significantly more often, are about twice as likely to binge drink, and to experience harmful consequences and impaired academic performance as a result of drinking,” wrote Task Force authors. "Examples of negative consequences included serious falls, hospitalizations, and ‘a near-fatal recent alcohol poisoning,’” Task Force representatives wrote.
The Task Force recommended that because of the Greek "culture of higher risk," freshmen should not be allowed to live in fraternity houses. According to Task Force leaders, there was full consensus on this step to better protect freshmen, except for the school's Center for Fraternity and Sorority Life and student representatives from the Greek community. In the end, the university decided freshmen could continue to live in fraternities as long as the organization was alcohol-free.
When Sam Martinez’s parents sought information about fraternities in 2019, they said they saw none of this information. Instead, the University’s Center for Fraternity and Sorority Life touted the many benefits of Greek life membership on its official school website:
- A home away from home
- Lifelong friendships
- Leadership development
- Community service opportunities
- Academics: "a pillar of fraternity and sorority life"
Sam Martinez and his parents also attended a new student orientation event in Pullman on July 6, 2019. They said the school again promoted fraternities as a healthy, success-driven environment for incoming freshmen.
“Since 1906, [the Greek community] has had a rich and rooted role in campus culture and continues to make men better men and women better women,” university representatives wrote.
“We were all excited. We were on top of the world,” said Hector Martinez, adding he was especially impressed with the community service focus in the Greek environment.
“That’s the most incredible thing to me," he continued. "They knew, but they only put out the positive and not the negative.”
In July 2020, Sam Martinez’s parents sued WSU and the ATO organization. In the complaint, they argued WSU had a duty to protect students from foreseeable harm and enforce Washington state hazing laws.
“WSU continuously promoted, sanctioned and recognized ATO…despite being aware of continuing violations of alcohol, hazing, and other student conduct rules… WSU breached their duty to their students when it failed to curtail ongoing dangerous activities,” wrote plaintiff attorney Becky Roe in the complaint.
The family has settled with ATO for an undisclosed amount. A judge dismissed the case against WSU last month, stating there was “no ‘special relationship’ between the plaintiff and [WSU] that would create a duty owed to the plaintiff by [the University].”
Sam Martinez’s parents are appealing the decision.
Citing the ongoing litigation, WSU officials declined to be interviewed or comment. In legal documents connected to the case, WSU attorneys said the school didn’t have power or control over the fraternity.
“The University did not owe a legal duty to protect Sam from the harm he suffered because of the illegal conduct of other adults at a private, off-campus establishment,” wrote university attorneys from the Attorney General’s Office. “[ATO] sought and was granted recognition by the University… the relationship agreement is facilitative and supportive, not controlling or micromanaging.”
WSU documented troubled history at ATO fraternity
Just as the WSU Presidential Task Force began its probe in 2013, the WSU Conduct Board investigated a hazing complaint against ATO.
The Board found the chapter broke hazing, reckless endangerment, and alcohol laws after, on two occasions, "pledges" - who are recruits trying to gain full membership status - were made to clean up raw sewage without protective gear. The Conduct Board found that violated reckless endangerment laws and university policy by "needlessly jeopardizing" the health of members. The Board also cited ATO for violating alcohol and hazing laws by waking pledges up in the middle of the night and providing them alcohol during a run across the campus.
The Conduct Board assigned the most serious sanction possible: loss of chapter recognition by the University for a year, with two years of probation to follow. When a Greek organization loses school recognition, that essentially shuts a house down as it prohibits them from recruiting new members and forbids them from accessing any university support or resources. However, the sanction didn’t stick. The WSU president reduced the loss of recognition to an eight-month probation.
“It’s just this ridiculous cycle," said Houtz. "Why would you repeat past mistakes? You know it’s not working. When were they going to take it seriously? [WSU officials] were talking about the issues around this fraternity. They knew and they didn’t tell us. That’s not right.”
In 2015, WSU received at least two complaints against ATO for alleged violations of WSU Standards of Conduct for Students. In one case, the Student Conduct Board received information that “new ATO members may have been forced to drink,” and that a new ATO member was injured after drinking.
In that case, the Conduct Board declined to formally investigate, but school officials warned ATO leadership that “forced drinking could be considered hazing. Washington State University has a zero-tolerance for hazing and organizations found responsible for hazing will lose University recognition.”
Sam Martinez’s parents said ATO got another pass from WSU.
“They know who the ones are who are the hazers, and they look the other way... I find that very hard to forgive,” said Houtz.
Problems persisted. In 2016, fraternity and sorority student leaders for the entire Greek system took drastic action after “a growing problem” with alcohol-related incidents. The leadership councils sent out a press release to the WSU administration and others announcing they were banning all social events for a semester due to “a concerning rise in the number of assaults, rapes, falls and hospitalizations due to the overuse of alcohol and/or drugs by Greek members in the community,” wrote the student leaders. “With the current negative reputation our community possesses, it is needless to say that the future of Greek Life at the institution is in jeopardy.”
The next year, WSU received another complaint of hazing from the mother of an ATO pledge.
The mother reported her son had been forced to drink “large quantities of alcohol,” and withstood “physical and emotional abuse.”
“My son’s college experience, as well as his friends, were completely ruined because of the acts of this fraternity, and he is too scared to continue his time at Washington State University,” wrote the mother in the complaint to the school. The mother included photos that she described as pledges being forced to stand in toilets with upperclassmen around them drinking and a photo of a freshman getting tackled to the ground.
On July 3, 2017, the WSU Office of Student Conduct wrote to the president of ATO to say “there is insufficient information to find ATO responsible for violating any of the standards.”
In 2018, emails and legal records show ATO expelled nearly half of its members after complaints of hazing. In connection with the internal investigation, the fraternity conducted interviews and drug tests that WSU officials helped to organize.
Also in 2018, the year before Sam died, his parents say WSU missed yet another opportunity to send a zero-tolerance message on hazing. On August 20, 2019, WSU’s Center for Community Standards received a complaint from the mother of a Sigma Nu pledge. The Sigma Nu fraternity shared housing space with ATO. The mother said her son was being “forced to drink” and that the “constant drinking” was putting him in a ‘bad place.’ The mother wrote her son was “threatening self-harm” and she worried for his safety.
Three days later, WSU’s Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs sent a letter to the Sigma Nu fraternity informing them of a serious consequence for hazing. Associate Vice President of Student Engagement Ellen Taylor informed the chapter they were imposing an interim loss of recognition because they’d found new members were asked to "binge drink" on numerous occasions and “participants in the reported activities experienced emotional and physical harm as a result of participation."
The loss of recognition would mean Sigma Nu would have to shut down at WSU. That didn’t happen. On September 9, 2019, the Acting Vice President of Student Affairs, Terry Boston, wrote to the Sigma Nu leadership, saying he was reinstating the chapter recognition. Sigma Nu could stay and get another chance, but the house was forbidden from hosting social events involving alcohol or holding new member activities.
Two months later, Sam Martinez died after a hazing incident that took place in the house ATO shared with Sigma Nu.
“What does that say to everybody in the whole system? It says at the end of the day, you simply aren’t going to be held accountable. And that was a really important and terrible message that was sent to everyone [in the Greek system],” said plaintiff attorney Becky Roe.
After Sam Martinez’s death, WSU removed official recognition from ATO for five years. In the last legislative session "Sam’s Law" was passed. It requires all universities in Washington state to publicize hazing violations on its website. WSU representatives sent legislators a letter in support of the legislation.
Seven ATO members were found guilty of supplying alcohol to a minor. Police recommended hazing charges, but the statute of limitations for that crime had passed. One of the ATO members served 19 days in jail.
“It’s inexplicable to me," said Houtz. "Why are we still talking about hazing? Can’t we just agree that it’s long past time for everyone to do their part, including Washington State University, to stop it in its tracks?"
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/wsu-hazing-death-sam-martinez-fraternity-greek-row/281-958e625a-72ed-4dc4-a541-c5c297552788
| 2022-04-29T02:25:57
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/wsu-hazing-death-sam-martinez-fraternity-greek-row/281-958e625a-72ed-4dc4-a541-c5c297552788
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – During a camp clean-up, Portland police found several guitars after they were stolen from a band touring Portland ahead of their April 18 show at the Roseland Theater.
According to the Portland Police Bureau, officers were working to abate a camp near the I-405 onramp by North Kirby Avenue – near the location of a recent homicide and where stolen cars have been recovered.
During the camp clean-up, police found five of the six guitars taken from the band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The guitars are reportedly from the 1960s and band members said they hold sentimental value and are not easy to replace.
According to the band, over $50,000 worth of gear was stolen from their bus parked outside Courtyard by Marriot hotel near the Convention Center.
At the camp, police found a stolen Subaru, what they suspect to be fentanyl pills and damaged car parts including a catalytic converter. Police also found a litter of 3-week-old puppies with their owner, who planned to take them to another location.
PPB said the investigation is ongoing as they find the owners of the stolen items along with suspects.
“I am extremely proud of the efforts of our dedicated district and NRT officers who worked together to address this criminal base of operations,” North Precinct Commander Tina Jones said in a statement. “We are happy to be able to locate and reunite valuable and sentimental items with their rightful owners and hope the actions taken improve public safety in this area. The conditions of the area were deplorable and a public safety hazard. We also appreciate our partners who assisted in cleaning up the detritus to improve the condition of our city.”
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/ppb-finds-bands-guitars-other-stolen-items-in-camp-clean-up/
| 2022-04-29T02:35:21
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/ppb-finds-bands-guitars-other-stolen-items-in-camp-clean-up/
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The Tunnel Fire’s containment increased to 43% Thursday as firefighting crews continue to “mop up” and secure the blaze’s perimeter in the Sunset Crater National Monument and Black Mountain areas.
The fire’s total acreage was reduced to 19,075 acres following a more accurate measuring of the fire’s edge south of Darton Dome. Crews will remain active for several days to patrol, mop up small fires and address reports of smoke as needed.
There are currently nine crews for a total of 338 active personnel with two dozers, 16 engines, one air attack plane and one helicopter. As work is accomplished, personnel will be released to respond to priority fires elsewhere in the Southwest. Friday morning will see fire management transition to the hands of a smaller, local Type 4 Team from the Coconino National Forest.
The dust is starting to settle around the Tunnel Fire, but important questions about the fire’s cause and early management remain unanswered. Primarily, much of the public has expressed concern with what occurred between when the fire was reported on Sunday, April 17, and when it erupted to destructive strength on Tuesday, April 19.
The Arizona Daily Sun has been in close contact with Coconino National Forest to provide the community with updates on their investigation. The U.S. Forest Service planned to release data logs directly to the Daily Sun, but after conferring with their law enforcement division, had to retract the offer in the interest of investigative integrity. Forest supervisor Laura Jo West and acting special agent in charge Brian Webb offered statements on the Tunnel Fire investigation and the release of information.
“We know you want answers, and you deserve to have them,” wrote Jo West in her statement to the Daily Sun.
She described how the data logs detailing Forest Service response between April 17-19 were “fully intended” for public release, but deemed to “include details relevant to the current investigation into the cause of the fire.”
“Releasing them at this point could potentially compromise the integrity of that investigation,” wrote Jo West. “Law enforcement has asked us to wait until its investigation has concluded before we release that information.”
On behalf of law enforcement, Webb wrote that “premature release of information about an investigation damages the integrity of the investigation and could irreparably damage the government’s ability to prosecute a case, either criminally or civilly.”
“We understand that the time needed to complete an investigation can be frustrating,” Webb said, “especially to those that may have suffered traumatic loss from this wildfire, but an accurate, thorough and professional investigation is necessary to determine, as accurately as possible, the facts surrounding the fire. We would ask that the public be patient while we complete our investigations.”
While the raw data might not be released until the investigation concludes, Jo West did offer her personal assessment of what she reviewed.
“I have full confidence that Forest Service firefighters acted appropriately, professionally, and aggressively to suppress the Tunnel Fire from the beginning,” she wrote. “I am proud of them and profoundly humbled to work alongside them. What I see when I look at what transpired is a deeply committed team of professionals giving their all to protect their neighbors and their community. The wind may have had the upper hand on that terrible day, but they never gave up.”
Forest Service offers statements on Tunnel Fire investigation
Following the Tunnel Fire, the Arizona Daily Sun has been working with the U.S. Forest Service to obtain updates and information surrounding investigations of the fire's cause and early management. Initially, the Forest Service offered the Daily Sun access to their call and dispatch logs in the interest of full transparency, but further internal consideration with their law enforcement division led them to temporarily retract the offer to preserve the integrity of the investigation. In the meantime, Forest Service leadership has offered the following statements to the public.
From Coconino National Forest Supervisor Laura Jo West
“All of us on Coconino National Forest share our deepest condolences with our neighbors and community on the destruction and loss resulting from the Tunnel Fire. We know you want answers, and you deserve to have them.
"An independent team of law enforcement professionals are currently investigating the cause of the fire. Fire investigations can take a significant amount of time to conduct; it is difficult to predict when the investigation will conclude. We intend to release the findings as soon as they are made available to us from law enforcement.
"Many also have questions about the response to the fire, beginning on Sunday, April 17, through the wind-driven conflagration on Tuesday, April 19. The response to the incident is not included as part of the law enforcement investigation on the fire’s cause.
"The Coconino National Forest is deeply committed to transparency. It’s important to us that you know the facts of what we do. We had fully intended to publicly release, as soon as they were gathered, the data logs that depict the events that transpired over the course of those two days. Unfortunately, those logs also include details relevant to the current investigation into the cause of the fire. Releasing them at this point could potentially compromise the integrity of that investigation. Law enforcement has asked us to wait until its investigation has concluded before we release that information. I hope that you can understand the importance of waiting. We will release the information as soon as we can.
"While I am unable to release the raw data at this point, I and my staff have reviewed the agency’s response over the course of those days. I have full confidence that Forest Service firefighters acted appropriately, professionally and aggressively to suppress the Tunnel Fire from the beginning. I am proud of them and profoundly humbled to work alongside them. What I see when I look at what transpired is a deeply committed team of professionals giving their all to protect their neighbors and their community. The wind may have had the upper hand on that terrible day, but they never gave up. The wildland fire personnel we have here on the Coconino National Forest are among the most highly trained, skilled and experienced you will find anywhere in the country. We are fortunate to have them as part of our community. They put their lives on the line and give it their all every single day.
"When the details of our response are released, there may still be questions, and I suspect much second guessing. I understand that. This community has been through so much. Through it all and in the months to come, I commit to you that we will represent the facts as transparently and as openly as possible. We too live in this community and will always do our best on behalf of those we serve.”
From Acting Special Agent in Charge Brian Webb
“The Tunnel Fire is currently being investigated by the USFS and we can’t comment on open investigations to ensure the integrity of the investigation. It is the goal of the USFS to conduct thorough, professional and complete investigations. Premature release of information about an investigation damages the integrity of the investigation and could irreparably damage the government’s ability to prosecute a case, either criminally or civilly.
"The purpose of a wildfire investigation is to determine where the fire originated and what caused the fire. These investigations are very complex and technical in nature, and it takes time to conduct a thorough investigation, assessing the available clues and determining the origin, cause and progression of the fire. Additionally, there are also details that are common to other crimes, such as gathering evidence for analysis and interviewing witness. One must follow the evidence to its logical conclusion, and this requires a significant investment in time and that can vary from case to case.
"We understand that the time needed to complete an investigation can be frustrating, especially to those that may have suffered traumatic loss from this wildfire, but an accurate, thorough and professional investigation is necessary to determine, as accurately as possible, the facts surrounding the fire. We would ask that the public be patient while we complete our investigations.
"Once an investigation is completed, more details and information can be released, but while the investigation is open, we are limited in what we can discuss/release to protect the integrity of the investigation.”
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/tunnel-fire-at-43-containment-forest-service-issues-statements-on-investigation/article_7f66651a-c73f-11ec-a660-df70987011cb.html
| 2022-04-29T03:05:47
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/tunnel-fire-at-43-containment-forest-service-issues-statements-on-investigation/article_7f66651a-c73f-11ec-a660-df70987011cb.html
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Looking for a third straight Big Sky Conference Tournament championship and a third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Northern Arizona women's tennis will begin its title defense on Friday in Phoenix.
The Lumberjacks enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed following a 7-1 conference record that earned the team a share of the Big Sky Conference regular-season title. Finishing their eight-match schedule with a combined score of 42-14, the Lumberjacks led the conference in total points.
Northern Arizona will play the highest remaining seed following Thursday's quarterfinal round.
Lumberjacks sophomore Gina Dittmann enters the bracket with the conference's best singles record at 14-2, all coming at the No. 1 singles spot. Dittmann also paired with Ava Neyestani for the Big Sky's best doubles record at 10-0. Sofia Markova's 12-4 mark in her first collegiate season ranked second to Dittmann in the conference, while Mimi Bland's 7-3 record was fourth in win percentage. Bland and Annabel Davis also finished fourth in the conference at No. 1 in doubles.
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Men's tennis
The Lumberjacks are headed to the semifinals of the Big Sky Championships after a 4-1 victory over the Sacramento State Hornets Thursday in Phoenix.
Northern Arizona went 1-2 in doubles play after losses at the No. 1 and 3 positions. Alex Groves and Dominik Buzonics earned a doubles win at the No. 2 position in a 6-2 victory.
The Lumberjacks bounced back in singles play, winning four straight to clinch the match in the quarterfinal round.
Facundo Tumosa swept his match in two sets at court two, winning 6-0, 6-2. Tumosa earned the Lumberjacks' first point of the day while improving his overall singles record this season to 10-12.
Groves pushed his individual win streak to four matches with a 6-1, 6-1 sweep at the No. 5 position.
Freshman Dani Torres, appearing in his first postseason match for the Lumberjacks, recorded a 6-4, 6-2 victory, bringing the Lumberjacks within one point to clinch. Torres now holds an overall record in singles of 11-6.
Maciej Ziomber clinched the winner at the No. 4 position in a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) match for the Lumberjacks. With the match win, Ziomber improved his overall singles record to 18-6.
The Lumberjacks will now take on the No. 2-seeded Montana State Bobcats in Friday's semifinal.
"We're super excited. We played a super close match that we probably should have won and closed out at their place, so we're very excited to take revenge on the neutral site," Lumberjacks coach Maciej Bogusz said.
Women's golf
After leading the golf team to the 2022 Big Sky Championship, head coach Brad Bedortha was a unanimous selection as the league's coach of the year in a vote by his conference peers.
It is Bedortha's fourth Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year honor as he wraps up his 14th full season at the helm of the program.
Bedortha, previously coach of the year in 2009, 2013 and 2015, guided Northern Arizona to its ninth all-time conference title and fourth under his leadership last week. Earning the conference's auto-bid to the NCAA Regionals, the Lumberjacks will be making their fourth regional appearance under Bedortha from May 9 to 11 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Big Sky Championship was just the latest highlight on an incredible season for the golf team as the Lumberjacks currently hold a 298.21 scoring average, which would rank as a single-season school record.
The team also has logged three of the five lowest 54-hole tournament scores this season, highlighted by a school-record tying 7-over-par 871 at the Red Rocks Invitational last month.
In addition to single-round scoring average and par or better rounds, this year's Lumberjacks are also in line to set school records in par-4 scoring (4.2377) and par-5 scoring (5.0518). Northern Arizona is also just one birdie shy of tying the single-season school record of 306.
In all, Bedortha coached three different golfers to individual tournament wins this season, including senior Elle Kocourkova at the Red Rocks Invitational. This marks the first time Northern Arizona had three different tournament medalists in a single season since 2013-14.
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/nau-roundup-womens-tennis-reaches-big-sky-semifinals/article_f820a4d6-c72e-11ec-a09d-db8dd236572f.html
| 2022-04-29T03:05:53
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/nau-roundup-womens-tennis-reaches-big-sky-semifinals/article_f820a4d6-c72e-11ec-a09d-db8dd236572f.html
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The average price of gasoline in Midland increased by 10 cents this week. That was five times the average increase across the state, according to AAA Texas in its weekly report.
Gas stations in Midland and Odessa made up for the lack of an increase last week by raising the price more than any other larger metropolitan areas in the state. The price in Odessa increased by 12 cents.
Both Odessa and Midland reclaimed their respective positions among the three larger metropolitan areas with the highest prices in the state. El Paso remained No. 1 with an average of $3.94. Odessa was second at $3.90, and Midland was third at $3.89. Last week, Midland was tied for fifth. Odessa was tied for ninth.
The spread in Midland and Odessa also jumped much higher than the state average. Last week, Midland was within 2 cents of the state average (one of the lower spreads in years), and the average in Odessa was actually 1 cent lower. This week, Midland was 10 cents higher, and Odessa was 11 cents higher than the $3.79 average across Texas.
Across the region, the lowest average ($3.68) was found in Lubbock, where the price increased 4 cents this week. Other averages included $3.70 in Amarillo (an increase of 7 cents), $3.72 in San Angelo (a decrease of 4 cents) and $3.75 in Abilene (a decrease of 4 cents).
The metropolitan area with the lowest average in Texas was Corpus Christi ($3.63).
“As millions of Texans are planning to hit the road for a vacation this summer, retail gas prices remain $1.21 higher, on average, compared to a year ago,” said AAA Texas spokesperson Daniel Armbruster in the organization’s weekly report.
The price in Midland is $1.02 cents more than one year ago – the smallest increase over the past 365 days.
High gas prices
This week
El Paso $3.94
Odessa $3.90
Midland $3.89
Dallas $3.88
Fort Worth-Arlington $3.87
Texas $3.79
National $4.14
Last week
El Paso $3.99
Fort Worth-Arlington $3.82
Dallas $3.82
College Station-Bryan $3.82
Midland $3.79
Texarkana $3.79
Galveston-Texas City $3.79
Abilene $3.79
Texas $3.77
National $4.12
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https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/Gas-price-increase-in-Midland-was-second-largest-17133692.php
| 2022-04-29T03:12:10
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https://www.mrt.com/news/local/article/Gas-price-increase-in-Midland-was-second-largest-17133692.php
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A retired New York City police officer charged with assaulting a police officer during the U.S. Capitol riot testified Thursday at his trial that he was trying to defend himself against a “rogue cop" who punched him in the face.
Thomas Webster, who took the witness stand on the third day of his federal trial, said it felt like he was hit with a hammer or a freight train when Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun reached out with an open left hand and struck the right side of Webster's face.
“It was painful, and I was seeing stars,” Webster said. “It was a hard hit, and all I wanted to do was defend myself.”
Rathbun, one of dozens of officers injured at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, testified Wednesday that he didn’t punch or pick a fight with Webster.
A grand jury indicted Webster on six counts, including a charge that he assaulted Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, a metal flag pole. He isn’t accused of entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The trial is scheduled to resume Friday with more testimony from Webster, who was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a U.S. Marine Corps flag on a metal pole when he approached the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Video from Rathbun's body camera shows that the officer touched Webster's chest and shoved his face after the New York man slammed a bike rack at him. Rathbun said he was trying to move Webster back from a security perimeter that he and other officers were struggling to maintain behind a row of metal bike racks.
After Rathbun made contact with his face, Webster swung a metal flag pole at the officer in a downward chopping motion, striking a bike rack in front of the officer. After Rathbun grabbed the broken pole, Webster charged at the officer and tackled him to the ground.
Webster, 56, said he believed Rathbun was about to come after him and recalled thinking, “He’s gone rogue.”
“He’s acting in a manner unlike other police officers, and I’m concerned for my safety,” he said.
Rathbun testified that he started choking when Webster grabbed his gas mask, pressing the chin strap against the officer’s throat.
“That’s not a position that anyone wants to be in,” Rathbun said.
Webster said he grabbed Rathbun by the gas mask because he wanted the officer to see his hands.
Webster’s jury trial is the fourth for a Capitol riot defendant and the sixth overall. The first three Capitol riot defendants to get a jury trial were convicted of all charges in their respective indictments.
Webster’s trial is the first among dozens of cases in which Capitol riot defendants are charged with assaulting police.
Two other defendants testified at their trials. Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man who was convicted by a jury of obstructing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory, said he was following orders from then-President Donald Trump. A judge hearing testimony without a jury acquitted Matthew Martin, a New Mexico man who said outnumbered police officers allowed him and others to enter the Capitol through the Rotunda doors.
Webster’s lawyer told jurors during the trial’s opening statements on Tuesday that Rathbun “started this whole thing” by punching Webster. Webster said Rathbun made a hand motion that he perceived as an invitation to fight.
“It was shocking to see that,” Webster said. “I've never witnessed a cop doing something like that.”
Webster said he became upset when he saw others in the crowd who were injured, including a woman with blood on her face, and approached the line of police officers to learn more. Rathbun’s body camera captured Webster shouting profanities and insults at the officer before they made any physical contact.
“I was voicing my First Amendment right,” Webster said.
Webster said he went to the Capitol after hearing Trump's speech to “petition" Congress to “relook” at the results of the 2020 presidential election but not to disrupt the joint session for certifying the Electoral College vote.
“It was a unique moment in history,” he said.
During her cross-examination of Webster, Justice Department prosecutor Katherine Nielsen showed him video images of Webster swinging the flag pole in Rathbun's direction, charging at him and then on top of him after tackling him. She asked Webster if he saw fear in his face in any of those images.
“It's anger, isn't it?” she asked.
“Yes, because I got hit," he replied.
Rathbun reported a hand injury from a separate encounter with a rioter inside the Capitol’s Rotunda. He didn’t report any injuries caused by Webster, but jurors saw photos of leg bruises that Rathbun attributed to his confrontation with the retired officer.
Webster, who lives near Goshen, New York, retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service. His department service included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s private security detail. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 before joining the NYPD in 1991.
More than 780 people have been charged with riot-related federal crimes. The Justice Department says over 245 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/retired-nypd-officer-on-trial-in-capitol-riot-case-blames-rogue-cop/3668715/
| 2022-04-29T03:26:18
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/retired-nypd-officer-on-trial-in-capitol-riot-case-blames-rogue-cop/3668715/
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SEASIDE, Ore. — From a distance, the coastal city of Seaside is a beautiful place to live and visit. On the ground, it faces many of the same problems as bigger cities, including homelessness and affordable housing.
For more than a year, Seaside leaders have been working on ways to manage its homeless crisis. This week, they voted to approve an ordinance setting up a system for homeless camping in vehicles and tents, with different rules for public and private property.
As it stands, there are unsanctioned camps throughout the city, the biggest and most obvious being at 12th Avenue and Necanicum Drive. It's a city-owned lot with roughly 20 cars, vans, campers and RVs. It's been there for more than a year, just three doors down from Russ Mead's home.
“It went from this is the idyllic place where we decided to retire, to literally we're living in a slum," Mead said as he looked over the camp. "I mean, if you look up the meaning of a slum, this is it."
People and problems do come and go from the location, although some long-term campers said they've tried to be good neighbors.
“I just pretty much take care of people that need help, you know, do what I can. Somebody’s hungry, I make them a sandwich,” said Robert Ireland.
Ireland is the unofficial mayor of the camp. The ordinance, as approved, will not allow something this big.
“It's not really fair,” said Ireland. “I mean I see both sides of it — people who've put a half-million dollars into their house don't want to look at a bunch of tents and trailers, but you know if there was a better lot we would go to it.”
The city has chosen a half dozen public streets in Seaside, some of which are more removed from houses than others, where temporary permits up to three weeks will be required, vehicles must be registered and camping is only allowed from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
“With the city initiative, a lot of us can't afford to do a daily move,” said Jason Seymour. Seymour has lived in Seaside for 20 years, and he works at the local Goodwill. He is only recently homeless, staying in the camp for the past three months.
"I lost my other half, so I don't have the second income and stability to get into an apartment again, although I am saving for that,” said Seymour.
A core problem in Seaside is a lack of affordable housing. The vacation town is full of expensive homes and short-term rentals.
Colleen Brady lives and works in Seaside, cleaning vacation rentals that she says rent for $400 to $500 per night. The homeless camp on Necanicum bothers her.
“I'm very frustrated. I feel sorry for them. I understand they have a thing, but there's got to be another alternative than this,” said Brady.
The frustration got intense at times at the Seaside City Council meeting this week. Councilmembers heard an earful, a majority of it from people against setting rules that allow regulated camping in the city.
"We will have more hard drugs like heroin and meth, more unregistered RVs on our streets and more tents back in the Mill Pond area than ever before," said Bruce Rosebrock of Seaside, during the public comment period before the vote.
Of course, the camping is already going on. Two months ago, Mayor Jay Barber and City Councilor Tita Montero spoke with KGW about the city's year-long effort to come up with solutions, which involved multiple community forums, workshops and other community outreach activities.
At that time, there was one solution already in place: a new warming shelter that serves as a homeless resource center year-round, run by local nonprofits.
Montero led much of the work to develop a vision and plan to address homelessness. Ironically, she was one of two "no" votes for the ordinance, which she felt not all councilors fully understood. She also expressed frustration that the council was approving an ordinance that needed more work and changes.
“I'm going to ask that if there are things that we need to fix in this amendment, that we fix it as fast as we put this ordinance through," Montero said during the meeting. "I am very angry about this."
The city councilor later released a statement saying in part, “I will now work with my fellow councilors amending the ordinance to solidify meaning, define intent and improve the ordinance for the benefit of all who are living in Seaside.”
Montero was at the Necanicum and 12th camp the next day, explaining to people where things stood, including their need to move, likely in about a month.
That includes Richard Sanders, recently unemployed and disabled. He said he sold his car so he could buy a van for himself and his dog to live in. Now he's part of the Seaside homeless community.
“I say us, it feels weird saying us, because there's not an us, we're people,” said Sanders with a sigh.
Like everyone, Sanders has his own story, and this is a tough chapter. He is frustrated.
“But you know what, deal with it, people. Either you want to step up and be part of the solution or you're part of the problem really, that's what it is,” said Sanders.
In Seaside and other communities, the homeless crisis is a crisis for all concerned.
"It's not what I want, it's not what anybody wants, and it shouldn't be what the folks here want," said Mead. “Nobody wants to live in a place with no power and no water, no sewage; they want something different. We all want something different. This is wrong and it is failing.”
Some councilors voted to approve with the understanding that more work amending the ordinance is needed to improve it — but they argued the current version is a start, which gives law enforcement guidelines to enforce homeless camping rules in the city.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/seaside-ordinance-homeless-camping/283-6db6482c-6daa-43b0-89b7-07fb981a9f03
| 2022-04-29T03:31:45
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/seaside-ordinance-homeless-camping/283-6db6482c-6daa-43b0-89b7-07fb981a9f03
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VANCOUVER, Wash. — Fires at homeless camps in Vancouver are on the rise, putting a strain on first responders.
Many of the fires are being lit near the former Joe’s Crab Shack along the Columbia River just east of Interstate 5, and it’s affecting nearby businesses.
“With the homeless population going up, I just feel like it’s something that’s been happening more,” said Audri Renteria, a manger at Who Song & Larry’s. She has seen fires at these camps near the restaurant and reported them to 911.
“When it comes to the restaurant, we have big gas lines and the last thing we need is for all of our people here to be in danger,” she said.
Renteria said storage sheds behind the restaurant were also set on fire.
“That was literally right adjacent to a cage of propanes for our heaters,” she said.
Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli believes the uptick in fires is a direct response to people trying to keep warm. However, those responsible tend to leave the camps before investigators arrive.
“It’s just been problematic to find individuals that are lighting these types of fires in our city,” said Scarpelli.
Many of the fires have been in a tunnel near a wooden pier next to Joe’s Crab Shack. The city put up a metal gate, but people have broken through it and continued lighting fires.
“It’s really dangerous to first responders to get down into that area. It’s extremely steep the river’s high. It’s just really dangerous,” Scarpelli said.
She added that as the summer approaches and the land becomes dry, firefighters worry the fires could spread.
“It becomes very dangerous to have these kinds of unauthorized fires in our community," Scarpelli said.
“It’s unfortunate that we are experiencing an uptick in these fires, but the public can still expect us to respond and keep the community safe,” added Laura Shepard, communications director for the city of Vancouver.
The fire marshal is asking the public to call the Vancouver Fire Department’s nonemergency number if any small fires are spotted at homeless camps.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/vancouver-homeless-camp-fires/283-183f517b-032c-45df-900a-970a4a969639
| 2022-04-29T03:31:51
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/vancouver-homeless-camp-fires/283-183f517b-032c-45df-900a-970a4a969639
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PORTLAND, Ore — Multnomah County is pitching landlords on a program to house the homeless — with a guarantee that rent will be paid.
The new program, called "Move In Multnomah," houses people in vacant homes and apartments and covers their rent for an entire year at market rate. The county also covers the security deposit and any additional damage beyond what the deposit would cover.
Advocates of a "housing first" policy argue housing people is where services must start, then other issues that might keep people from staying in housing can be addressed. People who are homeless often have a hard time getting into a home because of an already competitive rental market, past evictions, criminal convictions or job issues, so the county hopes this can help establish a good rental history that people can carry forward.
The funding comes from the Supportive Housing Services fund. It's already been done at a smaller scale, and landlords who have participated have mostly positive things to say.
"When we were approached, it came from the tenant himself saying, 'I'm part of the Urban League, I have a case manager and they gonna take care of everything, you don't have to worry.' It's like hmm, really, we don't have to worry about anything? We were pretty skeptical," said Violet Larry, a property owner, during a media availability to discuss the project. "It's been the best partnership that we could've had. The case management experience that they provide and the services that are provided to the family, who are the tenants, has been amazing."
The county is accepting applications now. Property owners can apply online by June 30 if they have a vacant unit or property.
In March, advocates challenged the city of Portland to house 3,000 people by the end of the year in homes that already exist. Multnomah County said this is not a response to that — the effort was already underway.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/multnomah-county-landlord-homeless-housing/283-dc7c011e-603d-4feb-b85e-e628e11aa284
| 2022-04-29T03:31:57
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/multnomah-county-landlord-homeless-housing/283-dc7c011e-603d-4feb-b85e-e628e11aa284
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FORT MYERS, Fla. — Bringing people to the Fort Myers riverfront is the goal as city leaders hope to transform the Yacht Basin.
Thursday, the council spent the day listening to proposals from five developer firms bidding to take on the project.
The plans presented to the council range from adding small docks and parking along the waterfront – to a full redesign with shops, restaurants, and room for apartments on the mainland and mega yachts in the river.
A variety of renderings were presented to the council which shows the time phases some companies plan to build, in addition to how they envision the docks and boat slips can be expanded.
In these renderings by F3 Marina, the firm is looking to add a public market-style center in the Yacht Basin for shops and events, the firm also presented to the council about adding apartment residential space. The renderings also show that the docks would be redesigned.
The following renderings come from the development firm Suntex Marinas. The company plans for additional landscaping throughout the property shown in the conceptual site plan. Additional walkways around the waterfront would be added for people to explore. The firm also wants to convert the current buildings on site to activity centers, retail space, and more for people who visit the site.
Development firm Safe Harbor showed their plans to also include more green spaces and facility improvements. Their conceptual plans include redone management offices, and office and restaurant space along Edwards Avenue. They also plan for significant upgrades to the docks and slips with public boat rental and access for people wanting to kayak or paddleboard.
Four of the contending bidders work with marinas all around the county and used many of those ideas to expound upon how they see Fort Myers can grow.
Two of the companies working to get the bid have partnerships with Margaritaville which already plans to build a downtown hotel along West First Street in downtown Fort Myers.
Local development company Fort Myers Marina Management presented its plans to expand the docks and create parking for people downtown. The firm did stress they want to leave many of the existing boating slips residents are currently in. The company is already working on the Lufton Island project and partnered with the coming Margaritaville project. Their renderings also showboating and dock expansion to Lufton island. They hope to have electric boats to take people from the Yacht Basin to the island and over to the Compass by Margaritaville.
The fifth development firm that presented before the council was Safe Harbor Development. The firm hopes to work directly with and indicate a Margaritaville tiki-style restaurant that would be added to the end of the walkway at Yacht Basin. The firm presented that additional dockings and fuel stations would be added to the end of the already existing marina.
Fort Myers residents are excited to see big improvements to downtown as the city grows.
“I would love to see more recreational kinds of things,” said Deborah Rosenberg who lives near downtown and comes to the area frequently.
“I think that’s long and coming,” said Betty Leathers who works for a downtown real estate group.
However, there are controversies surrounding the revitalization project – particularly when you ask about the Yacht Basin and its residents.
“Although we do have to take into consideration our long-term residents down here too,” said Leathers.
“If you’re talking downtown revitalization it has to be multi-inclusive,” stated Rosenberg who also hopes to see cheaper living accommodations added to the projects.
The city has emphasized that costs need to remain around the market rate for residents of the area to stay where they have lived for years. Though the council admitted, even without upgrades, costs will continue to rise.
Builders said they would be pricing slips and potential living spaces at market rates.
“This thing is being rushed through,” said Bill Westberry, a resident of the Fort Myers Yacht Basin.
Bill is also afraid of what this could do to the environment.
“Rebuild and maintain the facility properly. Don’t try to replace it. don’t disturb the sludge at the bottom of the river,” said Westberry.
The project could take several years to complete, after working with residents, finding a developer, and building.
Some Fort Myers council members want to see a water and environmental survey done before anyone can build.
Council concluded the meeting delaying voting on the final two candidates for the bid to their May 16 council meeting.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/28/developers-pitch-possible-ideas-to-transform-fort-myers-yacht-basin/
| 2022-04-29T03:32:38
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/28/developers-pitch-possible-ideas-to-transform-fort-myers-yacht-basin/
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FORT MYERS, Fla. (WBBH) – A 16-year-old girl is alive after her boyfriend jumped in front of her as bullets were fired Sunday evening.
De’Mari Jackson was hanging out with his girlfriend, who did not want to be identified. The two were in a grassy field off Franklin Street in the Dunbar neighborhood of Fort Myers.
After dating on and off for two years, the couple recently rekindled their relationship.
“Funny. Smart. Very cute,” Jackson’s girlfriend told NBC-2’s, Gage Goulding. “He’ll make you laugh like if you’re sad, he’ll cheer you up.”
While they were together Sunday evening, a fight broke out across the street.
“We didn’t have anything to do with that fight,” she said.
Moments later, they found themselves at the center of a shooting. The man with the gun, 19-year-old Syncere Trice, walked right passed them before he pulled the trigger.
“Why didn’t you warn us that this is going to happen,” she said of Trice.
He fired multiple shots in their direction. Jackson, who goes by the nickname “Bubbles,” did the most courageous thing anybody could do.
RELATED STORY: Suspect accused of shooting & killing Fort Myers teen arrested by FMPD
“Bubbles had jumped in front of me, pushed me, and I was confused as to why he was pushing me. He pushed me again, told me to run and I ran to the front and he had collapsed.”
He was shot, bleeding, and barely breathing.
“Took my sweater off, put his head in my lap, and covered up the wound until the cops got there.”
As they say, those minutes turned into the final memory she’ll ever have of her boyfriend.
“He did try to speak to me, but nothing came out his mouth,” she said. “I told him I love you and you need to stay with us. People care about you and then I gave him a kiss.”
Gage: “What does that moment mean to you?”
Jackson’s Girlfriend: “A lot.”
Gage: “With everything going on around you, what does that moment mean to you?”
Jackson’s Girlfriend: “A lot, because I just lost my best friend.”
Jackson won’t be just remembered as smart, funny, and cheerful. In her eyes, he’s a hero.
Gage: “Do you feel Ike him doing that saved your life?”
Jackson’s Girlfriend: “Yeah, it does. I feel like that. He saved my life.”
Jackson was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital where he later died.
Police arrested Trice and charged him with second-degree murder.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/28/teen-selflessly-jumps-in-front-of-bullet-to-save-his-girlfriend-in-fort-myers-shooting/
| 2022-04-29T03:32:44
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/28/teen-selflessly-jumps-in-front-of-bullet-to-save-his-girlfriend-in-fort-myers-shooting/
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YUBA CITY, Calif. — Yuba City says, starting June 1, residents will be put on a mandatory 20% water conservation stage and asked to use less water.
"The transition and outreach will begin May 1, 2022, and enforcement will begin June 1, 2022," the city said in a news release. "This is a direct response to the current water supply shortage occurring with the ongoing drought and the recent issuance of a state executive order calling for 20% water conservation compared to 2020 usage."
According to the city, this water conservation stage will impose the following water violations on June 1, 2022, for some of the following:
- Excessive watering resulting in gutter flooding
- Using a hose without a shutoff nozzle
- Not repairing leaks in a timely manner
- Washing down hard surfaces such as sidewalks and driveways
You can visit the city's Facebook page for more information, click here.
The city says a Water Conservation Guide is included on residents' utility bills for the month of April, which provides information and resources.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/water-conservation-stage-yuba-city/103-1163d04b-07ff-4615-83ee-dc0e4a3bbccd
| 2022-04-29T04:01:10
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/water-conservation-stage-yuba-city/103-1163d04b-07ff-4615-83ee-dc0e4a3bbccd
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AUBURN, Calif. — A high school teacher was placed on administrative leave in Auburn following an anonymous tip.
The tip was received by Placer High School regarding one of their teachers, and it sparked an investigation into the concern, according to the Placer Union High School District.
The district placed the teacher on administrative leave.
"During this time, Placer High School will support and accommodate the students affected by the staff member’s absence. PHS and the District take every concern, complaint or allegation seriously and will take all measures necessary to ensure that our students are educated in a safe and nurturing environment," the Placer Union High School told ABC10 in a statement.
No additional information regarding the concern is available at this time.
The district is encouraging students who might have experienced conduct that violates district policies to connect with site administration.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/placer-union-high-school-teacher-administrative-leave/103-d5aa431e-5ce6-4709-a041-2ecc78031a02
| 2022-04-29T04:01:16
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/placer-union-high-school-teacher-administrative-leave/103-d5aa431e-5ce6-4709-a041-2ecc78031a02
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PLACERVILLE, Calif. — Family members say a suspected drunk driver took the life of a woman who 'lived life, laughed hard, and loved deep.'
"She was the life of the party, always had a smile on her face. She was funny, kind, caring, loved her family and friends so much. They were her life," said Wolfgang Hooper, Lori Hooper's son.
Lori Hooper, 60, died in what Placerville police are calling a DUI crash. She was one of two people on a motorcycle traveling along Highway 50 when a Jeep Cherokee crashed into them.
Hooper was found on the roadway and pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the motorcycle was flown to the hospital. 47-year-old Aaron Folmsbee, the driver of the Jeep, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Wolfgang said his last memory of his mother was at an Easter Party.
"She loved to host the holidays and parties at her house, have family, friends and especially the grandkids up there to spoil them every chance she could," Wolfgang said.
He said that his mother lived by the motto "Live, Laugh, Love," and it's something that he wants people to remember about her the most. Wolfgang said he was close with his mother and had a special relationship with her
"We had a blast together," he said. "She made me laugh so hard, sometimes to where I couldn’t breathe."
Wolfgang said his mother was the matriarch of the family and will be remembered by her loved ones.
"Life is forever changed. Her legacy lives on with her family, children, and grandchildren," he said. "We will all hold her and the memories in our hearts forever."
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/placerville-suspected-dui-crash/103-c42df4c6-3e66-4a7d-b133-dc373932ca2f
| 2022-04-29T04:01:22
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/placerville-suspected-dui-crash/103-c42df4c6-3e66-4a7d-b133-dc373932ca2f
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Help wanted. The job: putting one of the nation’s most far-reaching salary disclosure laws into practice. Location: New York City.
Just four months ago, city lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to require many ads for jobs in the nation’s most populous city to include salary ranges, in the name of giving job applicants — particularly women and people of color — a better shot at fair pay.
But on the cusp of implementing the measure, lawmakers voted Thursday to postpone it for five months after employers waved red flags, though businesses didn't get some other changes they wanted.
The debate marked a prominent test for a burgeoning slate of U.S. “pay transparency” laws. And the answer seems simple to Brooklyn restaurant server Elizabeth Stone.
“I believe I deserve to know how much I can make as a waitress,” she said.
Stone has scoured job ads that are mum about pay, leaving her wondering whether to move on from an employer she likes but wishes paid more, and feeling like she has no leverage to push for a raise.
“You’re put in a really challenging position of not wanting to upset your employer and not wanting to scare away an opportunity, but also wanting to fight for what you know is what you deserve,” said Stone, 23, a member of restaurant workers’ advocacy group ROC United.
Over the last four years, at least seven states from California to Connecticut and at least two cities beyond New York — Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio — started demanding employers disclose salary information to job-seekers in some circumstances. In many cases, that means upon request and/or after an interview, and there are exemptions for small businesses.
Colorado broke new ground with a 2019 law requiring a pay range in all job postings.
New York City’s new law is similar but applies only to employers with four or more workers. That amounts to about 1/3 of employers but roughly 90% of workers in the city, according to state Labor Department statistics.
The law says any job notice — from an online ad to an internal company bulletin board — must give the minimum and maximum pay the employer “in good faith believes” it will pay. There’s no limit on how wide the range can be, nor a prohibition on deviating from it if the “good faith” plan changes.
The laws are propelled by a gradually shrinking but stubborn discrepancy: The median pay for full-time female workers was about 83% what men made in 2021, according to federal data.
Women make less than their male colleagues in nearly all fields, with a few exceptions in areas like social work done in health care settings, federal statistics show.
Pay-transparency requirements are “one of the most powerful tools that we have to change those gaps,” said Beverly Neufeld, the president of PowHer New York, an economic equality advocacy group. Workers get a level playing field, she argues, and businesses save time by getting applicants amenable to the salary on offer.
Indeed, many employers already advertise what they pay. Others say they have good reasons not to.
Political consultant Amelia Adams said she strives to make her four-employee business a good place to work, offering health benefits, opportunities to work directly with clients and the best pay she can. But she often doesn’t advertise salaries for fear of putting off job-seekers before even getting a chance to talk.
“To publicly put salaries of small, minority-and-women-owned businesses gives a stigma that we are not competitive," said Adams, based in New York City.
Nonprofit organization consultant Yolanda F. Johnson fielded similar concerns after a professional group she founded, Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy, began last fall to require pay information in its job board posts.
Johnson argues the solution is fundraising and other work to build up budgets, rather than obscuring salaries.
“If you think people are going to pass you by,” she said, “there are lots of different things to have in place to be a successful nonprofit where, in turn, you can pay people equitably.”
While small companies and nonprofits worry they'll lose applicants, some big corporations are uneasy about posting New York City salaries for jobs that could be done from lower-cost places. Some also fear a flood of resignations or demands for raises once current employees see what new hires can get.
“You have your existing population saying, ‘Well, if this is the range, why do I fall on the lower side or the medium side? … (And) now I can see, as an employee of X firm, what an employee of Y firm is making,’” notes Ian Carleton Schaefer, a New York employment lawyer who represents sports, entertainment, technology and other companies.
He counsels clients to prepare for the new law by ensuring their current pay structure is fair, and giving raises if it isn’t. Regardless, some sought-after employers could decide to stop advertising jobs and rely instead on unsolicited resumes and other recruiting methods, or could become choosier about which positions they post and where, Schaefer said.
After Colorado’s law took effect last year, some big companies posted jobs for workers anywhere but Colorado. The state Labor and Employment Department didn’t respond to inquiries about the law's effects.
New York's Democrat-dominated City Council voted Thursday, 43-8, to tweak its legislation to exempt jobs carried out entirely elsewhere and shift the effective date from May 15 to Nov. 1. But lawmakers had rebuffed other changes sought by business interests, such as exempting general “help wanted” signs and businesses with under 15 employees.
Sponsor Nantasha Williams said the retooled legislation “meets the needs of everyone.” One of the measure's opponents, Council Member Kalman Yeger, called it “an unconstitutional compelling of speech.” Both are Democrats; Yeger also ran as a Republican and Conservative last year.
While salary transparency is getting lawmakers' attention, such laws go only so far, notes Sian Beilock, the president of all-women’s Barnard College.
“Moving towards gender parity, in terms of the workplace, is a really important goal,” but it’s important to consider promotions, management responsibilities and other aspects, she said. “I worry that focusing on salary misses a larger point.”
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/in-nyc-ads-for-jobs-will-soon-have-to-say-what-they-pay-upfront/3668736/
| 2022-04-29T04:22:49
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/in-nyc-ads-for-jobs-will-soon-have-to-say-what-they-pay-upfront/3668736/
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Editor’s note: This story contains explicit language.
Lenny Pozner doesn’t understand why people are surprised to learn he used to be a regular listener of Alex Jones’ show.
Pozner’s 6-year-old son, Noah, was one of the 26 children and adults who were killed during the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Soon after the tragedy, Jones began using his Austin-based media juggernaut to spread bogus claims that the shooting was a staged government conspiracy made up of crisis actors and fake personas.
Still, for Pozner — one of the Sandy Hook parents involved in a series of defamation lawsuits that have turned into a fierce legal reckoning for Jones — the fact that he used to tune into the right-wing conspiracist’s broadcasts during long car drives is less a twist of fate and more a reflection of something obvious and unremarkable: Jones has reach.
“People repeat that as if it's a big deal. But what I've noticed is that a lot of people pretend they don't know who Alex Jones is,” he said. “That's bullshit. Everybody knows who Alex Jones is.”
At the height of his influence in 2018, Jones boasted an audience of about 1.4 million daily visits to his websites and social media accounts, according to The New York Times. And from 2015-18, Jones’ Infowars store raked in more than $50 million annually, HuffPost reported.
But while Jones built his brand and fortune on a keen and brazen use of misinformation, he has been unable to distance himself from his Sandy Hook falsehoods and his role in a rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Jones recently sought immunity from federal prosecutors investigating the Capitol riot and has been subpoenaed by the U.S. House committee investigating the attack.
In the past year, Jones has lost all the defamation lawsuits filed by 10 families of Sandy Hook victims, including Pozner’s. Juries in the cases still have to decide how much Jones must pay the victims, but on April 17, three of Jones’ companies — Infowars, Prison Planet TV and IW Health — filed for bankruptcy. The next day, Jones told his listeners he was “totally maxed out” financially.
While the Chapter 11 filings may be part of Jones’ legal strategy to obstruct court proceedings — he used them to delay his Austin jury trial, and Sandy Hook parents pushed to dismiss them last week — they’re also the latest development in Jones’ downswing from his spot at the top of far-right media. Along with a sweeping ban on social media, the loss of a fawning president and looming legal penalties, Jones’ troubles have weakened his once massive reach and influence. Close observers of his operations say the fate of the state’s most infamous misinformation peddler is more uncertain than ever.
Neither Jones nor his company Infowars responded to multiple requests for comment for this story.
The “Walter Cronkite” of misinformation
Jones has used Infowars — his primary media company that airs shows he claims are syndicated on radio stations across the U.S. — to share his conspiracy theories with his millions of followers. According to Jones, the U.S. government has meddled with water supplies and the weather, the COVID-19 pandemic was planned, and Bill Gates is a master eugenicist working to control world populations.
During the pandemic, Jones sold products like “Nano Silver” toothpaste and “Superblue Silver Immune Gargle” via his Infowars store, claiming they would fight COVID-19. He also sells doomsday prepper materials and dietary supplements, which he presents as antidotes to the false threats he drums up on his show.
His show usually features loud, energetic rants and appeals to save the country.
“Alex Jones is unique; he’s entertaining,” Pozner said. “A lot of people mistrust their government. People want a fresh perspective outside of the corporate media's version of news.”
Jones got his start advancing bogus theories on Austin Community Access Television and local radio in the early 1990s. From those pulpits, he spread falsehoods like claiming that the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco was a government conspiracy, that government authorities carried out the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and that authorities in Austin used “black helicopters” to surveil the public.
A graduate of Austin’s Anderson High School and an Austin Community College dropout, Jones was removed from his local talk radio spot in 1999 after executives said his fringe views were unsavory for advertisers.
That year, Jones founded Infowars.com. In the early years of the platform, Jones claimed the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and helped produce a feature-length film purporting to expose the tragedy as a government plot.
About a decade and a half later, Jones had attracted millions of viewers, was grossing millions in annual revenue and had captured Donald Trump’s attention.
Rachel Moran, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public who studies how disinformation and misinformation spread, said conspiracy theorists like Jones are able to build wide audiences in part because they provide their followers with a sense of community.
Jones “is very good at building a community of people who think the same things as him and providing them with what they want,” she said. “I think it's easy for us when we don't like a figure to demonize them and pretend they are not good at what they do. Actually, Alex Jones is very good at what he does.”
Moran said Jones is masterful when it comes to harnessing skepticism and deftly toes the line between information and misinformation. He often frames his bogus theories in a way that makes his viewers believe he’s engaging in healthy questioning.
“One of the things that I always hear from people who work in my field is they lament the lack of trusted news figures,” Moran said. “They always say, ‘I wish we had Walter Cronkite during these times, and then people would trust the information.’ It's not that we don't have trusted figures. It's that in the internet age, we have trusted figures like Alex Jones.”
From Sandy Hook to Trump
Trump received support from Jones during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Former Trump adviser and Republican strategist Roger Stone was a paid Infowars host in 2015, and Stone connected Jones with Trump for an Infowars interview in December that year in which the soon-to-be president lauded Jones.
“Your reputation is amazing,” Trump told Jones on his show.
Jones likely played an outsized role in Trump’s election, according to Elizabeth Williamson, author of “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth.” The book investigates how the shooting warped into an attack on the truth from Jones and online conspiracy theorists.
Williamson said Jones was able to foresee how disaffected individuals who were also highly distrustful of the government could propel Trump to a primary victory.
“He became something of a kingmaker in the race, and with that came a really high profile that he didn't understand completely,” Williamson said. “I think he's reaping the results of that.”
All the while, Jones continued to advance conspiracy theories and misinformation to a growing audience.
Since the day of the Sandy Hook shooting, Jones has spread bogus claims about the massacre. Like many of his other conspiracy theories, Jones falsely claimed that the government was behind the shooting. But this time the lies were different.
In one 2015 show, Jones told his listeners, “Sandy Hook is synthetic, completely fake, with actors, in my view, manufactured.” In other episodes, he mocked Sandy Hook parents weeping over the deaths of their children. Jones even shared addresses, maps and personal information associated with the families of Sandy Hook victims, including revealing information about Pozner.
Only weeks after the 2012 shooting, Pozner remembers reaching out to Infowars by email to ask the outlet to stop labeling the shooting as a government hoax to take away Americans’ guns.
“I called them out on it very early on, and I was very polite about it,” Pozner said. “I asked them to be more responsible with this particular tragedy that affects me personally. And of course, they responded and replied and said, ‘No, no, we’re not denying the tragedy,’ and totally lied, and continued to do their thing.”
Jones' Sandy Hook lies circulated online on platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and soon after, Infowars followers began harassing Pozner and other victims’ parents.
Pozner said he has had to move about a dozen times since the shooting to evade Jones' followers. In 2017, Infowars listener and Sandy Hook conspiracist Lucy Richards was sentenced to five months in prison for sending death threats to Pozner. Today, Pozner lives in hiding and goes to multiple post office boxes to receive his mail. Despite his efforts, individuals occasionally call and file false police reports on Pozner in attempts to get him in trouble with local law enforcement.
Jones' previous falsehoods “are not harmless theories, but they did not single out individual vulnerable people the way he did with Sandy Hook. That was really crossing a rubicon,” Williamson said.
In April 2018, after facing years of harassment from Jones’ fans, Pozner; Noah’s mother, Veronique De La Rosa; and Neil Heslin, the father of 6-year-old victim Jesse Lewis, filed defamation lawsuits against Jones in Austin. A lawsuit from eight other families soon followed.
Legal troubles
Jones has attempted to slow or obstruct legal proceedings in the Sandy Hook defamation suits by refusing to follow court orders to turn over documents, filing late settlement offers and, in one instance, claiming that a medical problem that included vertigo prevented him from appearing in court. On April 15, Jones and his companies were ordered to pay more than $1 million in fines for his refusal to hand over pretrial information.
In September, a Travis County judge found Jones liable for defamation in lawsuits filed by two families of Sandy Hook victims. About one month later, Jones again lost in separate suits filed by the families of eight other victims. In both instances, the court found Jones liable by default for his unwillingness to cooperate with court orders.
Jones' legal troubles also include a federal investigation into his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Jones has suggested that inquiry could damage him more than the Sandy Hook defamation suits.
Jones, who has denied without evidence President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 elections, helped obtain at least $650,000 from Julie Fancelli, an heiress to the Publix grocery chain and Infowars fan, to pay for a pro-Trump rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. Of that money, $200,000 was deposited into one of Jones' business accounts, according to the U.S. House’s committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
On his Infowars broadcast that day, Jones told his supporters, “This is the most important call to action on domestic soil since Paul Revere and his ride in 1776.” And at the Capitol, Jones used a bullhorn to excite crowds by chanting, “Stop the steal!”
He also has strong ties to individuals arrested in the attack on the Capitol, including Joe Biggs, a former Infowars staffer and a leader of the far-right group Proud Boys.
In late January this year, Jones told Infowars listeners he was questioned in front of the House committee and said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent “almost 100 times.”
Booted by social media
Williamson said the way Jones’ falsehoods propagate and turn into harassment in the real world speaks to his reach and influence.
“He is a salesman,” Williamson said. “And when you have millions of people watching, it only takes a small fraction of those individuals to turn it into something that really travels and disrupts people's lives.”
In 2014, Pozner founded the HONR Network, an organization that works to defend victims of tragedy from online harassment.
The group has lobbied for the removal of hundreds of thousands of pieces of harmful content on social media. It also played a role in removing Jones from many online platforms.
In July 2018, Pozner and De La Rosa wrote an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling on him to protect victims of tragedies online.
“We are unable to properly grieve for our baby or move on with our lives because you, arguably the most powerful man on the planet, have deemed that the attacks on us are immaterial, that providing assistance in removing threats is too cumbersome, and that our lives are less important than providing a safe haven for hate,” Noah’s parents wrote.
A month later, Jones' content was removed from Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify.
Jones’ Infowars.com saw a drop in web traffic after the bans, though the number of visitors he receives is back to early 2020 levels, an analysis for The Texas Tribune performed by digital intelligence platform SimilarWeb shows.
Pozner said his organization has also seen a significant decrease in the harassment of victims online after social media companies changed their policies to include victims of tragedies as a protected group. The platforms now seek to prevent online harassment of victims of mass casualty events and limit the use of their names and likenesses, Pozner said.
But appealing to technology companies may not do much to stop conspiracy theories from spreading, Moran said.
While social media companies have changed policies and banned harmful content like Jones’ to address the spread of misinformation, the platforms’ profit model fundamentally relies on user engagement — and conspiracy theories, Moran said, are uniquely engaging.
“You would go into a rabbit hole just reading about them because they're interesting, and that's the bread and butter of social media,” she said.
Instead of targeting social media companies, the use of legal remedies to show how misinformation actually harms people's lives may be the best bet for holding those like Jones accountable, Moran said.
“A lot of our conversation around the spread of misinformation has been on the platform side: What can and should Facebook and Instagram and Twitter be doing?” she said. “Actually, there's a lot more legal frameworks that we have in place that haven't necessarily been tested as avenues to remedy misinformation when it has actively harmed people in real life.”
An audience still dedicated
How much damage the Sandy Hook lawsuits could do to Jones remains to be seen. He’s up against plaintiffs with a highly sympathetic story who are determined to hamstring his ability to spread misinformation. The lawsuits have drawn comparisons to the case that brought down Gawker Media, in which billionaire Peter Thiel funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit for invasion of privacy, earning Hogan $140 million in damages and essentially forcing the company to shut down.
But while Jones may be facing more difficulties today than at any point in his career, he has been known to use his lowest moments to rake in more money from supporters.
After his ban from social media, Jones presented himself as a martyr silenced by slanted technology companies for telling the truth. As the Sandy Hook defamation lawsuits have developed, Jones has directed fans to donate to a legal defense fund. And after filing for bankruptcy earlier this month, Jones hosted an “Emergency Blowout Sale” on his website.
Despite his diminished reach and prolonged legal battles, Jones' audience remains loyal, Williamson said.
The SimilarWeb analysis shows that since 2019, monthly web traffic to Jones’ Infowarsstore.com has soared from about 427,000 visitors in 2019 to nearly 834,000 in March. During the height of the pandemic, the store attracted even more viewers, with over 1 million visits in November 2020.
“He has a dedicated audience, and they support him not only by buying Infowars merchandise, but by actually donating to him,” Williamson said.
Pozner wonders if he would have been spared from the years of relentless harassment that followed Noah’s murder if Jones had never amassed such a following, if social media didn’t exist or if the two had not experienced a simultaneous surge in popularity.
“We would have had more private lives,” Pozner said. “It was an intersection of a terrible tragedy and the expansion of the internet.”
Disclosure: Apple, Facebook and The New York Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This story comes from our KHOU 11 News partners at The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans - and engages with them - about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/how-sandy-hook-lies-and-the-jan-6-inquiry-threaten-to-undo-alex-jones/285-0bcee036-fb4e-45d5-add7-99b03463026f
| 2022-04-29T05:07:50
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/how-sandy-hook-lies-and-the-jan-6-inquiry-threaten-to-undo-alex-jones/285-0bcee036-fb4e-45d5-add7-99b03463026f
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Several vehicles parked inside a New Jersey municipal parking garage were found splattered with blood in a scene almost out of a slasher film, but the biggest question remains unanswered: Where did all the blood come from?
The hood of one woman's silver Honda was sprayed with blood, and even more could be found on a white Mercedes parked next to it in the North Arlington municipal parking garage on Ridge Road. The woman who owns the Honda said no one told her what happened, and that her car had been parked in the same spot since 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"I just want to take my car to the car wash right now," she said.
Police who arrived on the scene Thursday morning found several cars in the garage had varying amounts of blood on them, but even after hours and hours of combing the area, they told NBC New York they still did not know whose blood it was or what happened.
There was no visible damage to the front end of the white SUV, which was dusted for finger prints as well. Police said there were no reports in town of any pedestrians or animals being struck by a vehicle, making the bloody that much more of a mystery.
There were apparently no cameras and no witnesses to whatever happened overnight that left the cars splattered, and a pool of blood on the sidewalk in the middle of a busy stretch of road.
By midday, police and sheriff's officers gathered what evidence they could, and the town's fire department hosed down the sidewalk and floor of the garage. It was reopened to pedestrians soon after.
News
There are apartments above of the storefronts on the street, but police said no one has come forward to say if they saw or heard anything. With the amount of blood seen on the cars and ground, it was clear that someone may have lost quite a bit of it, assuming it is from one person (or a person at all).
Anyone with information about what may have happened is asked to contact North Arlington police.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/mystery-surrounds-blood-found-splattered-on-cars-inside-nj-parking-garage/3668695/
| 2022-04-29T05:54:06
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/mystery-surrounds-blood-found-splattered-on-cars-inside-nj-parking-garage/3668695/
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NEWBERG, Ore. — A deadly fire that destroyed a 33,000-square-food building in Newberg earlier this month was ruled as arson Thursday, according to Newberg-Dundee police.
The person suspected of lighting the fire, 46-year-old Ricardo Cornejo Garcia, died in the flames, police said, adding that he was believed to have been in a mental health crisis, intoxicated or a combination of both when the fire happened.
On April 10 around 2 a.m., first responders received a call from a man who said he was having a medical issue. He claimed to be at the "garden center" at the Fred Meyer in Newberg, then made unusual statements about “vampires” being after him, police said.
He eventually told the dispatcher he was "going to start a fire.”
Officers did not find anyone at the Fred Meyer and instead saw smoke coming from the DCI International building across the street to the west. DCI International is a family-owned company that manufactures dental supplies.
Police said the building was quickly overcome with flames, prohibiting search efforts from first responders. The search was further delayed for several days "due to the extreme hazards left behind at the collapsed structure," police said.
On April 18, police located Garcia's remains among the rubble of the burned building. His cause of death was determined to be smoke inhalation.
"It is believed that Garcia, while in mental health crisis, may have perceived that he was at the Fred Meyer Garden Center, prompting him to give the wrong location during his initial call," police said in a news release.
Police said he then "forced his way into the DCI building" and started the fire. The building was a total loss.
Police said Garcia had been wanted and initially provided an alias to the 911 dispatcher when he called.
"This case can only be summarized as an unfortunate tragedy, stemming from the underlying behavioral health issues affecting so many Oregonians every day," police said. "Our thoughts go out to the family of Mr. Garcia and to all the people negatively impacted at the DCI company."
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/arson-fire-newbeg-dci-international/283-687ded9a-f557-4a2e-86c8-17fd7769cc26
| 2022-04-29T07:12:29
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/arson-fire-newbeg-dci-international/283-687ded9a-f557-4a2e-86c8-17fd7769cc26
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It was the start of a long and painful goodbye in Brooklyn on Thursday, as crowds spilled out the door and around the block from a Marine Park funeral home to pay their respects to fallen firefighter Timothy Klein.
It was a sea of support for a man who lived up to the title of New York's Bravest. Klein died in the line of duty Sunday when the second floor ceiling of a Brooklyn house collapsed.
The 31-year-old served the department for over six years, following alongside his father and several other family members working for the department. He was the second FDNY member from Ladder Company 170 killed in the line of duty in just over three years.
Steven Pollard, 30, died Jan. 2019, helping victims of a car crash on the Belt Parkway after he fell more than 50 feet off the Mill Basin overpass.
Fellow firefighters and others gathered and showed up late into the night Thursday, some sharing hugs as they honored their fallen brother.
"Everything you hear about Tim Klein is, he was the best firefighter, the best son, the best brother, the kind of guy everyone relied on, leaves a hole in our hearts and his family," said Acting FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
Members of the FDNY saluted Klein's family as they walked into the funeral home Thursday afternoon. New York City Mayor Eric Adams was among those who paid their respects for a man remembered as a hero.
"I know how happy he was to be in the FDNY in general," said friend and colleague Robert Kittelberger, who was overcome with emotion as he remembered the touching eulogy Klein gave just three years ago for Pollard.
At Pollard's funeral, Klein described him as the "kind of man who would have a lasting impact on not only his Canarsie family, but with everyone he came in contact with."
"When he was writing the eulogy, he came to me asking for help," Kittleberger said.
The funeral for Klein is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. at his home parish in Queens, at Saint Francis de Sales Church in Belle Harbor.
It will come five days after hundreds of FDNY personnel stood shoulder to shoulder outside of Brookdale Hospital as Klein's body was removed from the medical center. Klein was killed while responding to a house fire in Canarsie on Avenue N shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday.
FDNY officials said he was inside the structure with other firefighters when the structure became too unstable and they were called back to evacuate. Before Klein and the others could make it out, part of the second-floor ceiling collapsed, leaving him trapped.
Klein was appointed to the FDNY on Dec., 28, 2015, according to the department, and joined Ladder Company 170 in Canarsie after graduating the Fire Academy.
Klein, of Queens, is survived by his parents and three sisters.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/sea-of-firefighters-pay-last-respects-at-wake-for-fallen-fdny-member-timothy-klein/3668833/
| 2022-04-29T07:25:24
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TUPELO • The number of homeless people living in Tupelo jumped over the past year, a dramatic jump in the number of people living in shelters and on the streets.
February's Point-in-Time (PIT) count, an annual one-day census of the city's homeless population, counted 93 homeless individuals in Tupelo, representing an approximately 190% increase from the previous year.
The results were revealed during the recent April meeting of the city's Homeless Task Force. City officials will use this number to strategize how best to address the issue of homelessness in Tupelo.
In 2021, homeless advocates and volunteers counted just 49 individuals living on the streets or in shelters. That was the first year the numbers had increased since the city of Tupelo began its partnership with Mississippi United To End Homelessness (MUTEH).
In 2020, there were 45 individuals, down from 62 individuals in 2019 and 78 individuals in 2018.
In 2017, prior to the task force's formation, Prior to the task force’s formation, Tupelo saw 57 homeless individuals in 2017, 69 individuals in 2016 and 64 individuals in 2015.
Of the 93 individuals identified in 2022, 21 were unsheltered, meaning literally living on the street; 18 were located at SAFE, Inc. and 54 were staying at the Salvation Army.
According to task force officials, the biggest difference between this year's numbers and previous counts came from the Salvation Army's shelter, which increased its occupancy over the past year. In 2021, the Salvation Army sheltered 29 people, 54% fewer individuals than the current count.
The Salvation Army's occupancy now hovers between 55 and 60 individuals.
Hannah Maharrey, who chairs the Homeless Task Force, said the increased shelter size has proved to be an invaluable resource in fighting homelessness in Tupelo.
“With 60 individuals, it’s hard to determine how many would have been homeless without that intervention,” Maharrey said during the task force meeting.
Despite the higher number of homeless individuals, members of MUTEH said they will continue working towards the long-term goal of achieving an effective end to homelessness. A priority is to lower unsheltered numbers. Prior to the pandemic, Tupelo decreased to less than 10 people unsheltered.
Having to take COVID-19 safety precautions slowed down, but didn’t stop, MUTEH’s housing efforts. Now, they hope to reach pre-COVID numbers and move people out of homelessness as quickly as possible. MUTEH is also in communication with the Salvation Army captains about the sheltered population.
Of the 21 unsheltered people on Feb. 22, the day of the count, MUTEH and advocates were able to shelter six people within 24 hours. Of those, two were reunited with family via rapid resolution, two went to the shelter, and another two were placed in housing the next day.
Within the Salvation Army’s population, about 11 have been prioritized by MUTEH as the most vulnerable. That typically targets veterans and families with small children. MUTEH will try to resolve the majority of sheltered homeless individuals with family resolving.
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https://www.djournal.com/news/local/tupelo-homeless-count-shows-growth-in-sheltered-population/article_1e0dfdaa-d34f-588f-a00b-682700601b1a.html
| 2022-04-29T09:12:47
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https://www.djournal.com/news/local/tupelo-homeless-count-shows-growth-in-sheltered-population/article_1e0dfdaa-d34f-588f-a00b-682700601b1a.html
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2022 Giving Challenge raises $16 million for Sarasota-Manatee nonprofits
After a year of priming the community with messages of their missions, area nonprofits pulled in about $16 million in donations this week during the one-day 2022 Giving Challenge hosted by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.
Donations raised during the 24-hour online fundraising event will benefit almost 700 nonprofit organizations in Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto counties – causes that range from food stability and human services to the environment, animal welfare and cultural institutions.
“I am bursting with pride at how this community has come together to support our nonprofit partners,” said Roxie Jerde, president and CEO of the Community Foundation, at its “reveal” celebration minutes after the close of the donation deadline at noon Wednesday.
Philanthropy:Community Foundation of Sarasota County gears up for 2022 Giving Challenge
More:Season of Sharing ends with unprecedented community support
“This doesn’t happen in a day,” Jerde added about the coordination and messaging efforts the last year by nonprofits. The funds are not restricted and can be spent where the nonprofits determine the greatest need – be it in personnel, supplies, or programming for their clients.
“Think of the thousands of people who will benefit from the millions of dollars that will flood into our community shortly,” Jerde said.
The nearly $16 million comes from more than 46,000 donors and includes dollar-for-dollar matching donations from The Patterson Foundation for every gift received between $25 and $100.
The Patterson Foundation has been a key partner in the Giving Challenge, which is also supported by the Manatee Community Foundation, the Charlotte Community Foundation and the William G. & Marie Selby Foundation.
Ahead of this year, the Giving Challenge had raised a total of $59 million since its inception in 2012, with $24 million of that provided by The Patterson Foundation in matching donations and incentives.
From the Giving Challenge's first year, when it raised $2.4 million, donation amounts have trended upwards – $11.7 million in 2018; an astounding $19 million in 2020, just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic; and then almost $16 million this year.
At the “reveal” celebration after the results were announced, Debra Jacobs, president and CEO of The Patterson Foundation, said she was struck by the creativity of the nonprofits this year in getting out the stories of their missions through community events, videos and social media leading up to this week's 24-hour online fundraiser.
The results, Jacobs said, show not only the “generosity gene” of the community but also the power of collaboration.
“You can do it alone if you want to,” Jacobs said of fundraising, “but if you do it together with others the voice of the mission is amplified.”
Early Childhood:Sarasota's Barancik Foundation to focus on early childhood learning
Housing:As rents go up and evictions increase, Sarasota's seniors struggle to find places to live
While nonprofits that address food security, animal welfare causes and human services often rank among the highest-garnering recipients of donations in campaigns, this year also saw an uptick in the number of environmental nonprofits near the top, said Mischa Kirby, the Community Foundation’s vice president of strategy and communications.
Past campaigns have been built on the support of small donations – with the vast majority of gifts coming in at $100 or less.
But big givers make an impact, too.
Capitalizing on the matching commitment of The Patterson Foundation, retired Sarasota residents and long-time philanthropists Joe and Mary Kay Henson donated $100 to every single one of the 669 nonprofit agencies participating in the Giving Challenge – for almost $70,000 – an amount then doubled by Patterson.
“As a giver, there is no way you could possibly vet 700 agencies,” Joe Henson said. But thanks to the coordination and hosting of the event by the Community Foundation, donors could feel confident that they were giving to well-qualified agencies, he said, while The Patterson Foundation made it attractive as a two-for-one gift.
Another motivation, added Mary Kay Henson, was the staggering hardship in the community amid a severe economic and housing crisis for many families.
“People are struggling with rent, they’re struggling with food, they’re struggling with fuel,” she said. “It’s a scary time. Those of us fortunate to be in a position to help need to help.”
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2022/04/29/sarasota-manatee-nonprofits-raise-16-million-during-giving-challenge/9538561002/
| 2022-04-29T10:10:02
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https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2022/04/29/sarasota-manatee-nonprofits-raise-16-million-during-giving-challenge/9538561002/
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Greenville planning commission kills Bruce Lake project following residents' opposition
After more than an hour of heated discussion, the Greenville County Planning Commission voted 5-4 this week to kill plans for a project that would've brought townhouses to the shore a small lake outside of Greenville.
The 52-townhome project was planned to be alongside Bruce Lake, a six-acre lake built in Bruce Heights for flood control off Poinsett Highway just south of Furman University.
Nearly 100 residents who showed up in protest were spilling out of the Greenville County Square conference room Wednesday night. Only three got to speak in their allotted public-comment timeframe of 10 minutes.
Most of the concern stemmed from fears of lake pollution and water quality as townhome plans showed the lake being used as a detention pond. There was also concern about adding to traffic on Poinsett Highway.
Richard Wright, who lives along half of the lake and has been leading the opposition to the project, spoke about the need to protect wildlife on the lake and develop responsibly.
Initial report:Greenville neighbors fight townhouse development on lake, fear it could harm environment
"There are beaver, otter, osprey, rare ducks, heron," Wright told the commission. "Bruce Lake is a migratory corridor, and it needs to be protected."
Rebecca Carper, who also lives near the lake, also spoke in opposition to the project.
"I'm not here to oppose growth and progress (in Greenville)," Carper said, "but I also want this to remain a place where people can flourish here."
The dam along Bruce Lake is in "unsatisfactory" condition, according to a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control study from 2018. That means if it were to fail, it would be a significant hazard to property, roads and key infrastructure, according to DHEC.
Jay Martin, Arbor Land Design engineer who is spearheading the project, promised to make dam repairs before going forward with the project.
New business on Poinsett Highway:Taproom, Feed & Seed and facial and body salon
Martin said he believed the project was being tried in the "court of public opinion."
"The proposed development meets all ordinances and all requirements," Martin said. "The court of public opinion does not represent the facts."
More Greenville County news:Greenville County considers 'right-to-life' ordinance supporting an abortion ban in SC
Despite Martin promising to make dam repairs, the entire Greenville County Planning Commission was ultimately not convinced, voting 5-4 to nix the subdivision application.
Genna Contino covers Greenville County and housing for The Greenville News. Contact Genna at gcontino@gannett.com or on Twitter @GennaContino. Subscribe to The Greenville News at greenvillenews.com/subscribe.
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https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/greenville-county-planning-commission-kills-bruce-lake-project-amid-opposition/9559797002/
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https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/greenville-county-planning-commission-kills-bruce-lake-project-amid-opposition/9559797002/
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'Oh the places you'll go': Greenville and Spartanburg among the top moving destinations
According to a report from PODS, a moving and storage company, the Greenville-Spartanburg area ranks as one of the top moving destinations in the nation.
Though some may say it's because of southern hospitality, there are a few standout reasons for potential residents wanting to relocate to the Upstate.
The Greenville-Spartanburg area has a significantly lower cost of living compared to other cities on the list including Nashville, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia. It is home to many state parks such as Paris Mountain in Greenville and Croft State Park in Spartanburg.
For subscribers:Downtown Greenville bucks office trends as vacancy drops and prices climb
Spartanburg's future:From complete trail system to better gateways, what Spartanburg could look like in 2027
Food & Dining:Details about the new restaurant filling the old Liberty Taproom space
Spartanburg:How the $2 million Mary Black Rail Trail expansion will transform downtown Spartanburg
The number one moving destination is Sarasota. Finding a place in the top 15 cities for the second year in a row, the area ranked 11 in 2021 and 14 in 2022.
The top 15 cities include:
- Sarasota, FL
- Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
- Nashville, TN
- Tampa Bay, FL
- Ocala, FL
- Myrtle Beach, SC/Wilmington, NC
- Knoxville, TN
- Atlanta, GA
- Orlando, FL
- Phoenix, AZ
- Jacksonville, FL
- Houston, TX
- San Antonio, TX
- Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
- Melbourne, FL
Alexis Hamilton is a Beaufort, SC native covering higher education in the Upstate. Reach her at 727-514-5734 or ahamilton@gannett.com.
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https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/moving-greenville-spartanburg-rank-among-top-destinations-pods-south-carolina-population-growth/9543223002/
| 2022-04-29T10:45:23
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https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/moving-greenville-spartanburg-rank-among-top-destinations-pods-south-carolina-population-growth/9543223002/
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MCKINNEY, Texas — Angela Poen was completely oblivious.
She had no idea, until it came up at a Bible study, that, every day, thousands of people in Collin County go hungry.
“We started talking about food insecurity,” Poen said.
Even worse, there was no place they could go for a meal.
“And I remember when I said, ‘well, we’ll just raise the money and build it,’” Poen said. “And I just felt this shift. All of a sudden it was like, that’s what we’re supposed to do.”
So, that’s what they did.
What started in 2014 as an idea among Bible study friends is set to open its doors in the coming weeks.
It’s called Community Garden Kitchen. It’s in McKinney, and Poen, president of the kitchen, is adamant that it is not just another soup kitchen.
To reduce the stigma that sometimes comes with a free meal, her mission is to make it feel like a restaurant.
With a full-time chef and a volunteer waitstaff, diners will order from a menu and be served everything but the check, no questions asked.
Poen calls it dining with dignity.
“We just feel like, by serving people, it will maybe make their day, which may not have been very good, just a little bit better,” she said.
A garden sponsored by Globe Life is behind the building. The fresh produce will be used for meals and will also offer guests a chance to learn how to grow their own food.
Guests will also have access to other social services and opportunities that could go a long way in eliminating hunger throughout the community.
“I definitely think we are going to reduce food insecurity,” Poen said.
When Poen’s Bible study friends learned hunger was a problem, they could’ve offered thoughts and prayers. But instead, they offered the one thing guaranteed to help: doing something about it.
“We pray about it and we study and we read, but at some point in time, you got to get out of the boat,” Poen said.
Because to walk on water, you need to have courage to take the first step.
For more information on Community Garden Kitchen, visit https://communitygardenkitchen.org/.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/after-seeing-problem-north-texans-take-action-feed-community/287-fb00c507-7967-4239-a621-383829cbc9bb
| 2022-04-29T10:49:24
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/after-seeing-problem-north-texans-take-action-feed-community/287-fb00c507-7967-4239-a621-383829cbc9bb
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BESSEMER, Ala. (WIAT) — The 11th Annual Bob Sykes BBQ & Blues Festival is happening on April 30.
Van Sykes, a second generation pitmaster and owner of Bob Sykes BBQ, joined CBS 42 News to discuss the festival and what you can expect.
Watch the full interview in the video player above.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/11th-annual-bob-sykes-bbq-blues-festival-happening-saturday/
| 2022-04-29T11:14:57
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/11th-annual-bob-sykes-bbq-blues-festival-happening-saturday/
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FORT MYERS, Fla. – Five people were injured in a crash on Fowler Street near Maple Avenue overnight Thursday. One of the five people is currently in critical condition, authorities said.
The crash happened around midnight Thursday when two cars collided head-on, according to the Fort Myers Police Department.
Tyrone Davis who witnessed the crash said he rushed to the scene to help pull people from the damaged cars.
Police are continuing to investigate the crash.
This is a developing story.
No further details were immediately available.
Count on NBC2 to bring you the latest information as it is released.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/five-hurt-in-crash-on-fowler-street-in-fort-myers/
| 2022-04-29T11:15:30
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/five-hurt-in-crash-on-fowler-street-in-fort-myers/
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Health First plans, Melbourne proposal, Credit cards and mother's day - Week in Review
Rob Landers
Florida Today
Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com
Looking for more information on the stories covered in today's News in 90 Seconds segment?
You can find the stories here:
New details on Health First's planned Merritt Island hospital, 'wellness village'
Miami developer proposes to build 'little downtown,' up to 4,766 homes in Melbourne
'Food costs have gone up.' Some restaurants add credit card fees if you don't pay with cash
Looking to celebrate Mother's Day? These Space Coast restaurants have you covered
Rob Landers is a veteran multimedia journalist for the USA Today Network of Florida. Contact Landers at 321-242-3627 or rlanders@gannett.com. Twitter: @ByRobLanders
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/health-first-plans-melbourne-proposal-credit-cards-and-mothers-day/9570889002/
| 2022-04-29T11:20:41
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/health-first-plans-melbourne-proposal-credit-cards-and-mothers-day/9570889002/
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Ocean View: How did this flourishing small Delaware beach town get its name
At last, plans for the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal had been finalized, and farther down the coast, the people of Ocean View were ecstatic.
On Dec. 11, 1903, the Milford Chronicle reported; “The importance of the canal cannot be overestimated. It will make, when completed, a continuous inland and safe waterway, from Rehoboth Bay to Cape Hatteras.
"The people along the route of the proposed canal are enthusiastic over the project. It will do much towards opening up that portion of the country. In addition to the advantages rendered to trade and commerce it will do much to aid in the draining of the lands adjacent to the canal. These lands at present are practically worthless.”
In 1833, a small cluster of two or three houses, an old log school house and a store operated by William S. Hall was awarded a post office, which was named appropriately enough, Hall’s Store.
Some years later, the Milford Chronicle reported in 1903 that, “Mr. William Hall, was the first postmaster to serve in this part of Baltimore Hundred, and it was he who gave the town the name of Ocean View.”
Three decades later, a history of the town published in the Milford Chronicle contended, “The small village was known as Hall’s Store, until after the war (Civil War). It was changed to Ocean View by Captain Henry Burton, who addressed his letters while being in a distant harbor, to Ocean View, care of Hall’s Store.”
Others claimed that the name originated because the Atlantic Ocean could be seen from the second floor of houses in the town. Another version of this story maintains that the name derived from the time that a boy climbed a tree and announced that he could see the ocean.
Still others maintained it was all a public relations ploy, and that the name was selected to entice vacationers to the town.
Whatever the origin of the name, Ocean View, the town’s residents lamented the lack of access to adequate transportation.
In 1903, the Milford Chronicle reported, “At the present day we have a very flourishing little town, but the one great drawback is the distance from railroad connections. Under present conditions we must drive 10 miles to reach the nearest railroad station, Dagsboro.
"In the summer a small steamboat plies between this town and Rehoboth and receives good patronage, but this thriving part of Delaware has no other means of travel to the business centers of the state.”
In the 19th century, communities such as Ocean View, that were not located on a railroad line, looked for an alternative form of transportation that would allow them to compete with towns served by trains.
More: A $29 fried lobster tail doughnut sandwich? Delaware's newest beach brewery has it.
More: Why Sussex County's young workforce feels 'handcuffed' by lack of affordable housing
The people of Ocean View decided that a canal that linked Indian River and Assawoman bays would bring the town a significant portion of the coastal trade. The proposed canal was designed to accommodate the small boats and barges that served the settlements and landings scattered along the western shore of Rehoboth and Indian River bays.
In the 1890s, a workforce of immigrant laborers (many from Italy) was hired, and work was begun on the canal. Using mostly hand tools, the workers were able to dig the waterway within a remarkably short time.
After the canal was completed, it began to bring some new business to Ocean View, but it was not enough to create a major building boom.
Many believed that the Assawoman Canal needed to be connected to more distant towns, and in 1903, plans were announced to complete a canal network that would extend from Lewes to Cape Hatteras.
Unfortunately, before the canal network was finished, the first horseless carriages came rumbling across southern Delaware roads. Within a few short years, cars carrying vacationers and trucks carrying local produce rendered canals obsolete.
Principal sources:
Milford Chronicle, Dec. 11, 1903.
Milford Chronicle, Jan. 31, 1936.
Evening Journal, March 7, 1899.
Carter, Dick. The History of Sussex County. Rehoboth Beach: Community News Corporation, 1976, p. 45.
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/delaware/2022/04/29/ocean-view-how-did-flourishing-small-beach-town-get-its-name/7441748001/
| 2022-04-29T12:02:54
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/delaware/2022/04/29/ocean-view-how-did-flourishing-small-beach-town-get-its-name/7441748001/
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A New York City schoolteacher is facing multiple criminal charges after allegedly choking a 12-year-old student, police said Friday.
Chester Hingle, 45, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and criminal obstruction of breathing. He was arrested Thursday.
According to the NYPD, the incident happened at I.S. 217 in the Bronx. Hingle allegedly choked the child for approximately 5 seconds.
It was not immediately clear what precipitated the incident.
The student was subsequently taken to Lincoln Hospital, where they were treated and released.
Copyright NBC New York
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-teacher-arrested-for-choking-12-year-old-student/3668983/
| 2022-04-29T12:02:54
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-teacher-arrested-for-choking-12-year-old-student/3668983/
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Ocean Pines angler lands new Maryland white perch record
An Ocean Pines angler has netted a new Maryland fishing record.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources confirmed Robert “Bob” Hudson of Ocean Pines landed a new state record for white perch in the state’s Atlantic division with a 1.85-pound fish caught in the Isle of Wight Bay near Ocean City.
Hudson and a friend intended to go clamming, but saw some active fish in the bay, per a DNR release.
With no rod on board, the duo headed back to shore to find gear. With a beginner light spinning rod and a “Roy Rig” – locally popular lure that is basically a rubber shad body rigged on a lead head – Hudson returned to the water and after two casts, caught the record white perch.
“Look at the size of that,” Hudson said after reeling in the white perch. “We never see (white perch) in the middle of the bay.”
Hudson’s record catch was weighed on a certified scale at Crabs to Go by Sarah Stephan and officially confirmed as a white perch – Morone americana – by a DNR biologist.
The catch surpassed the previous Maryland state record held by Ryan Timmons with a 1.7-pound white perch caught in 2016.
More: At White Marlin Open, angler breaks Maryland swordfish record set just two weeks before
More: Maryland shrimp? Warming waters could bring seafood bonanza to Eastern Shore
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2022/04/29/ocean-pines-angler-lands-new-maryland-white-perch-record/9574023002/
| 2022-04-29T12:02:56
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2022/04/29/ocean-pines-angler-lands-new-maryland-white-perch-record/9574023002/
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Baltimore Ravens take Notre Dame's Kyle Hamilton with No. 14 overall pick in 2022 NFL Draft
The Baltimore Ravens have had some top tier talent suit up for them on the defensive side of the ball since the franchise was founded in 1996. And with their first pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Baltimore selected one of the top defensive backs prospects this year.
With the No. 14 overall pick in the NFL Draft, the Baltimore Ravens selected safety Kyle Hamilton out of Notre Dame.
Hamilton was the consensus top safety prospect coming into the draft this year as he was named an All-American in his final season with the Fighting Irish. Now, Hamilton will join a Ravens team that has prided itself on their defensive prowess since the franchise's beginning days.
Kyle Hamilton:Kyle Hamilton: Three things to know about the Ravens' No. 14 overall pick
Baltimore Ravens draft pick tracker:Round-by-round selections and analysis
Trade:Ravens send Marquise Brown to Cardinals for No. 23 overall pick
With the Ravens also trading back into the first round and grabbing the No. 23 pick from Arizona in exchange for Hollywood Brown and No. 100, Baltimore will now look to grab two first round talents Thursday night.
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/sports/local/2022/04/28/baltimore-ravens-select-kyle-hamilton-no-14-overall-pick-draft/7443413001/
| 2022-04-29T12:03:05
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/sports/local/2022/04/28/baltimore-ravens-select-kyle-hamilton-no-14-overall-pick-draft/7443413001/
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NFL Draft trade: Ravens send Marquise Brown to Cardinals for No. 23 overall pick
The Ravens came into the draft with 10 picks, and shortly after they used their first round draft pick on safety Kyle Hamilton, the Ravens traded back into the first round, while giving up one of their top receivers to do so.
The Baltimore Ravens traded receiver Marquise Brown and the No. 100 overall pick in the draft to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for the No. 23 overall pick.
Brown has been one of the top pass catchers for the Ravens since being drafted in 2019. Last year, Brown caught 91 passes for 1,008 yards and 6 touchdowns. Now he will be sent on his way to Arizona in exchange for a first round pick.
Now, the Ravens will look to add more first round talent to their roster after picking up Kyle Hamilton earlier in the night.
Baltimore Ravens draft pick tracker:Round-by-round selections and analysis
More:Baltimore Ravens take Notre Dame's Kyle Hamilton with No. 14 overall pick in 2022 NFL Draft
Kyle Hamilton:3 things to know about Baltimore Ravens No. 14 pick in 2022 NFL Draft
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/sports/local/2022/04/28/baltimore-ravens-trade-marquise-brown-arizona-cardinals-2022-nfl-draft/9579742002/
| 2022-04-29T12:03:14
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/sports/local/2022/04/28/baltimore-ravens-trade-marquise-brown-arizona-cardinals-2022-nfl-draft/9579742002/
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Kyle Hamilton: 3 things to know about Baltimore Ravens No. 14 pick in 2022 NFL Draft
The Baltimore Ravens selected Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton with the No. 14 overall pick in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Baltimore Ravens draft pick tracker:Round-by-round selections and analysis
More:Baltimore Ravens take Notre Dame's Kyle Hamilton with No. 14 overall pick in 2022 NFL Draft
Trade:Ravens send Marquise Brown to Cardinals for No. 23 overall pick
Here are three things to know about Hamilton:
1. Safety wasn’t his first position
Hamilton was a quarterback as a freshman at Marist School near Atlanta, but he broke his right wrist forcing him to switch to defense. It worked out well, as he became the starting safety at Marist for the next three years where he also became a star wide receiver. But he was recruited as one of the top safeties in the nation and chose Notre Dame over Georgai.
His father, Derek, was drafted by the Nets in 1988 and played professional basketball overseas — Hamilton was born on the Greek island of Crete — and Hamilton who played high school basketball nearly left Notre Dame after getting a basketball scholarship offer from Tulsa. But he stayed and developed into the top safety in the country.
2. His greatest strength
Hamilton was a First-Team All-American in each of his final two seasons at Notre Dame, mixing his excelling coverage abilities — he had eight interceptions and 24 passes defended in three college seasons — with his ability to make plays near the line of scrimmage.
“I can play either safety spot, I think that’s what makes me unique,” Hamilton told NFL Network at his Pro Day in March. “I like to say I play bigger than I am sometimes and I play smaller than I am sometimes. And I feel like I can carry myself really well in both areas and ... honestly at the end of the day what separates me is my ability to apply the film room to the actual field, and eliminate plays that can’t happen and make things easier for myself.”
3. Questions after the pre-draft process
Hamilton missed the final half of the 2021 season because of a right-knee injury. And the pre-draft process could have gone better for him. He had disappointing 40-yard dash times at the NFL Combine (4.59) and at his pro day (4.70).
But Hamilton still entered the draft as the best safety by a wide margin, mainly because of his elite track record at Notre Dame and his wide range of skills which should make him a good fit in any defensive scheme.
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/sports/local/2022/04/28/kyle-hamilton-baltimore-ravens-nfl-draft-2022-pick-bio-notre-dame-safety/7443393001/
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https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/sports/local/2022/04/28/kyle-hamilton-baltimore-ravens-nfl-draft-2022-pick-bio-notre-dame-safety/7443393001/
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There’s no escaping the tech industry when you live in San Francisco, but ever since the beginning of the pandemic, it can feel as if the tech industry itself is trying to escape the city by the bay.
The theme of the past couple of years in Silicon Valley has largely been one of exodus, which continued this year with companies like Slack and Robinhood pivoting to remote work policies. The familiar perks that come with those offices are also slowly being put into question, with Meta doing away with laundry service and the architect behind Google’s campus speaking out about the dangers of its all-inclusive nature.
Crypto has also dominated news cycles, from startups utilizing the technology for novel uses like air monitoring to local companies running confounding Super Bowl ads. Streaming services have become obsessed with startup horror stories. CEOs have not exactly been on their best behavior, major computing companies have been besieged by hackers and perhaps most notably, Elon Musk has leveled up from Twitter troll to Twitter king.
Here are all of SFGATE’s best tech stories of 2022 so far, which we’ll be updating throughout the year.
Elon Musk talks Twitter takeover in extended interview at TED2022 Vancouver
“In a 45-minute interview at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Elon Musk had a lot to say.
“Whereas the mercurial tech entrepreneur most often speaks in short tweets, today he spoke with TED host Chris Anderson about everything from sleeping on the floor of the Fremont Tesla factory to how he hopes to save democracy with a hostile takeover of Twitter.” — Dan Gentile, read more
San Francisco VC firm required job applicants to take online IQ test
“The owner of a San Francisco-based venture capital firm apologized after his company faced a social media backlash for requiring job applicants to take an online IQ test.
“Aneel Ranadive, the founder of Soma Capital and the son of Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, posted the mea culpa on Twitter after screenshots of a Soma job application with the IQ test requirement circulated online.” — Joshua Bote, read more
Major Silicon Valley chip manufacturer Nvidia hit by ‘malicious’ cyber attack
“A major Silicon Valley microchip manufacturer has been hit by a cyber attack which one insider told the Telegraph, which first broke the news, ‘completely compromised’ the tech firm’s internal systems.
“Nvidia, headquartered in Santa Clara, was first affected Wednesday, when its email system and developer resources went down following what the Telegraph reported to be a malicious network intrusion.
“Since then, it appears that parts of Nvidia’s email system has returned, the Telegraph reported, but the company has yet to reveal any specifics about the cyber attack. It is unclear if any customers are affected.” — Joshua Bote, read more
No bar in San Francisco has a Mark Zuckerberg anecdote as good as Phone Booth’s
“The list of famous people who have [been to Phone Booth] is long and eclectic. I mean sure, we all expect John Waters to have drank at the Phone Booth (he’s done so twice), but so have Chloe Sevigny, Michael Fassbender, Spike Jonze, Michael Stipe, Andy Samberg, Hope Sandoval and many more.
“‘So, Mark Zuckerberg has been here,’ [the owner] Steve tells me during my third drink, ‘which was a fiasco.’” — Stuart Schuffman, read more
Better.com CEO Vishal Garg to be reinstated after mass Zoom layoff controversy
“Vishal Garg, the contentious founder of the digital mortgage lending service Better.com, has been reinstated as CEO following his brutal mass layoff of about 900 employees right before the holidays last year via Zoom.
“In a letter sent to employees Tuesday evening obtained by SFGATE, Garg confirmed his return ‘to work full-time at Better’ and apologized to staff for his indiscretion.” — Joshua Bote, read more
Major Bay Area-based tech company calls employees back to office
“Google told employees Wednesday that its voluntary-work-from-home period, which has been in place for two years ago, will end April 4, a company spokesperson told SFGATE.
“Employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and some of its other offices in the U.S., U.K. and Asia Pacific will be required to come to work in person three times a week. Employees can have two days of remote work.
“‘We plan to use the month of March to help employees transition to their new routines and then aim to be fully functional in our hybrid working approach by April 4,’ Google said.” — Amy Graff, read more
Meta employee upset as Facebook parent company ends laundry perk
“An engineer for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, with a self-reported total compensation — or TC, which includes salary, stock options and other benefits — of $850,000 took to the anonymous job forum Blind to complain about the perks, or lack thereof, that awaited their return to the office.
“Aside from complaints about restrictions on free dinners, downturns in the market leading to a $200,000 reduction in his TC and cut ‘childcare reimbursements,’ the poster lamented the loss of laundry services provided by Meta.” — Joshua Bote, read more
The man behind Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters says fancy tech offices are ‘dangerous’
“Celebrated architect Clive Wilkinson, in an interview with NPR, decried the pervasiveness of the all-inclusive tech office — despite having helped build Googleplex, arguably the definitive tech campus.
“He argues that offering workers everything they need in a singular site blurs the line between work and non-work, a line that has been obliterated during the course of the pandemic. It also stifles creativity.
“‘Work-life balance cannot be achieved by spending all your life on a work campus,’ Wilkinson told NPR. ‘It’s not real. It’s not really engaging with the world in the way most people do.’” — Joshua Bote, read more
Epic Games acquires Oakland-based Bandcamp and music fans are quite worried
“The Oakland-based company [Bandcamp], which also operated a physical record shop and performance space on Broadway pre-pandemic, has one of the few artist-friendly distribution models in the industry. Although you can stream tracks for free, the site tries to steer the listener toward purchasing music, either digitally or as physical media, with an average of 82% of the net revenue going directly to artists.
“So the music industry internet let out a collective gasp when it was announced Wednesday morning that Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, Gears of War and Unreal, has acquired Bandcamp. The deal was announced by Bandcamp CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond in a blog post that was short on details but stressed a shared vision with Epic of building ‘the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world.’” — Dan Gentile, read more
Slack to sublease 200,000 square feet of office space in move to ‘digital-first’ work
“The corporate messaging platform service Slack is no longer the holder of one of the largest office space leases in San Francisco, reported the San Francisco Business Times on Wednesday.
“The tech company is subleasing its space on 45 Fremont St., which spans more than 200,000 square feet, just three years after it moved into the space around the time of its IPO. The San Francisco Business Times ranked the lease the fifth largest of 2019.
“Its main headquarters are still open.” — Joshua Bote, read more
Controversial Silicon Valley company Robinhood to allow nearly all employees to work remotely
“Another Silicon Valley tech company is joining the ranks of Dropbox and Adobe in pivoting almost entirely into remote work.
“Robinhood, the Menlo Park-based stock management app most notorious for its place in the GameStop short selling frenzy of last year, announced Wednesday in a blog post that it would ‘be staying primarily remote’ going forward.
“‘Our teams have done amazing work and built a strong workplace community during these uncertain and challenging times, and we’re excited to continue to offer them the flexibility they’ve asked for by staying primarily remote,’ the company said.” — Joshua Bote, read more
Showtime’s Uber series ‘Super Pumped’ shows the horrors of Silicon Valley
“Unless you’ve been living under a yellow-checkered rock lined with cracked black vinyl and a credit card machine that mysteriously doesn’t work, you’ve likely heard of Uber.
“The ride-hailing company that disrupted the taxi industry has become a household name. Its rise and many falls was recounted in a 594 page best-seller by New York Times journalist (and San Francisco resident) Mike Isaac, which lends its title to Showtime’s new startup drama ‘Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber.’” — Dan Gentile, read more
Theranos swag floods eBay following Holmes’ guilty verdict
“At long last, the verdict in Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos trial is in. The infamous Silicon Valley huckster was found guilty of two counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud (she was acquitted on a handful of other charges) and now faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.
“As you can imagine, Twitter was ablaze with its typical deluge of hot takes and observations, but it wasn’t the only over-active corner of the internet following the trial verdict.
“Over on eBay, a microeconomy of Theranos-branded swag exploded in the wake of the jury’s announcement (special shout out to Washington Post tech culture reporter Nitasha Tiku for tipping the trend on Twitter).” — Brian Boyle, read more
Salesforce opens ranch in the California redwoods for employees to connect in person
“As the COVID-19 pandemic finally wanes, Salesforce is luring its employees away from Zoom and back to in-person meetings with an alluring ‘workspace’: a tranquil resort-like ranch with an infinity-edge hot tub and guided nature walks in the California redwoods.
“The San Francisco-based cloud computing pioneer announced Thursday that employees will begin to visit the new Trailblazer Ranch in Scotts Valley in March for onboarding, trainings, skills building, talent development and generally to connect with colleagues in person.” — Amy Graff, read more
Apple joins other Bay Area tech giants in responding to Russian invasion of Ukraine
“Across the globe, national governments and corporations have made sharp rebukes of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. In the Bay Area, tech companies have also taken measures to sanction Russia and ensure their platforms aren’t being used as strategic tools of war. Here’s how each of these major companies has responded.” — Dan Gentile, read more
Here’s what happened if you scanned the QR code in Coinbase’s strange Super Bowl commercial
“Every Super Bowl is defined by its commercials, and this year, one of the clips that had everyone talking was predictably related to cryptocurrency exchange.
“Coinbase’s 60-second spot was simple. A color-changing QR code bounced around the black screen like a DVD screensaver (you know, the ones you’d watch for 15 minutes while you waited for the logo to hit one of the corners of the screen because it was so oddly satisfying?)” — Amanda Bartlett, read more
This startup pays Bay Area residents to monitor their air quality — in crypto
“Every summer as wildfire season approaches, everyone in the Bay Area becomes very aware of the air we breathe. We obsessively refresh websites like PurpleAir to tell whether it’s safe to open windows and compete to buy air filtering systems before they sell out.
“Running an air filter may give peace of mind, but it’s hard to tell whether they’re just scratching a hypochondriac itch. One company, called Planetwatch, aims to help people find out — and earn cryptocurrency in the process.” — Dan Gentile, read more
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https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/sf-tech-news-2022-17131166.php
| 2022-04-29T12:33:32
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https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/sf-tech-news-2022-17131166.php
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In a new challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial border security crackdown, a lawsuit filed Wednesday is asking a federal court to shut down Texas’ system of arresting migrants en masse along the Texas-Mexico border and to make the state pay more than $5 million to men who were illegally imprisoned under the system.
The video above is from related reporting.
The lawsuit comes nearly a year after Abbott first ordered Texas police to arrest men suspected of illegally crossing the border on misdemeanor trespassing charges. The practice skirts constitutional restrictions that bar states from enforcing federal immigration law, and the lawsuit claims it discriminatorily targets mostly Black and Latino migrant men, usurps federal authority and is carried out in a way that violates the detainees’ rights.
“Under the guise of state criminal trespass law but with the explicit, stated goal of punishing migrants based on their immigration status, Texas officials are targeting migrants,” the filing stated. “Hundreds of those arrested have waited in jail for weeks or months without a lawyer, or without charges, or without bond, or without a legitimate detention hold or without a court date.”
Abbott’s trespassing initiative has drawn numerous state and local court challenges since it began in July, but this appears to be the first time attorneys are opposing it in federal court and seeking compensation for migrants swept into the governor’s “catch-and-jail” system. State and federal Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups have also called on the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene in the Republican governor’s operation, but the federal administration has not acted.
The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Austin by three private attorneys on behalf of 15 individual migrants and is asking for a class certification to include everyone arrested under Abbott’s trespassing initiative. The migrants are suing Abbott; the directors of the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; Kinney County, a rural border county that accounts for the large majority of trespassing arrests; and its sheriff.
The complaint asks the court to find that the operation violates federal law and order the state to stop the arrests. It also argues each migrant illegally detained so far should be given $18,000 for each day they were imprisoned beyond what is allowed by state law. The attorneys said it is a typical amount awarded by courts in cases of over-detention. They estimated the total cost would be around $5,400,000.
Previously, state district judges have found that hundreds of men were detained illegally after trespassing arrests, locked in prison for more than a month without any charges filed against them in violation of state law. Lawyers have argued the practice is still occurring. Wednesday’s filing also alleges men have been held for days or weeks after they post bond, their charge is dropped or their sentence is complete.
Neither Abbott’s office nor the Kinney County sheriff immediately responded to questions about the lawsuit Thursday morning. DPS and TDCJ said they would not comment on pending litigation. But a prison system spokesperson said the agency is “complying with time frames for release” of migrants. Abbott has previously defended the trespassing initiative as “fully constitutional” and a way to counter a sharp rise in illegal immigration that he blames on President Joe Biden.
Abbott launched his multibillion-dollar Operation Lone Star last March, billing it as a way to combat drug trafficking and human smuggling. The governor has often touted drug seizures and arrests of people accused of violence, but a major component of the operation is arresting suspected migrants for allegedly trespassing.
Through February, more than 2,800 men were arrested only for allegedly trespassing on private property — accounting for the largest share of arrests under the operation. The large majority of trespassing arrests have occurred in only two border counties where DPS troopers got consent from some local landowners to arrest men on their property.
State police have arrested both asylum-seekers who approached law enforcement and men trying to cross the border undetected for the crime of being on private property without permission. Police are directed to only arrest men traveling alone on such charges, turning families, women and children to immigration authorities instead.
After their arrests, thousands of men have been jailed in one of two state prisons retooled to hold Abbott’s migrant inmates. And since a large majority of the arrests have occurred in Kinney County, which has few courthouse resources, detained men who can’t post bond are often imprisoned months before they can appear in court in a videoconference to enter a plea. The maximum amount of jail time for trespassing in Texas is one year.
Hundreds of arrests are also being challenged in state district court after a judge in Austin deemed one migrant’s trespassing arrest unconstitutional because it was made as part of a state effort to usurp the federal government’s job of enforcing immigration laws. The larger case is on pause while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals weighs arguments from Kinney County that claim the Austin judge has no authority to rule on its arrest and detention practices.
This story comes from our KHOU 11 News partners at The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans - and engages with them - about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/new-federal-lawsuit-seeks-to-halt-texas-border-trespassing-arrests-give-more-than-5-million-to-illegally-detained-migrants/285-1f28fe94-7bfd-4183-9c7c-ad8169bade5b
| 2022-04-29T12:59:38
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/new-federal-lawsuit-seeks-to-halt-texas-border-trespassing-arrests-give-more-than-5-million-to-illegally-detained-migrants/285-1f28fe94-7bfd-4183-9c7c-ad8169bade5b
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Thousands of mourners are expected to fill a Queens church later Friday to remember Timothy Klein, the 31-year-old FDNY firefighter from a family of firefighters who died in a ceiling collapse while battling a house blaze this week.
Klein died in the line of duty Sunday when the second-floor ceiling of the Brooklyn house collapsed. He was the second FDNY member from Ladder Company 170 killed in the line of duty in just over three years.
Klein served the department for more than six years, following in the footsteps of his father and several other relatives who chose to fight fires. His funeral is being held at the Church of St. Francis DeSales, a Roman Catholic parish in Belle Harbor.
Thursday was the start of a long and painful goodbye in Brooklyn for the firefighter, as crowds spilled out the door and around the block from a Marine Park funeral home to remember Klein at his wake. It was a sea of support for the Breezy Point-raised man who lived up to the title of New York's Bravest.
Fellow firefighters and others gathered and showed up late into the night Thursday, some sharing hugs as they honored their fallen brother.
"Everything you hear about Tim Klein is, he was the best firefighter, the best son, the best brother, the kind of guy everyone relied on, leaves a hole in our hearts and his family," said Acting FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
Members of the FDNY saluted Klein's family as they walked into the funeral home Thursday afternoon. New York City Mayor Eric Adams was among those who paid their respects for a man remembered as a hero.
Friday's funeral comes five days after hundreds of FDNY personnel stood shoulder to shoulder outside of Brookdale Hospital as Klein's body was removed from the medical center. The 31-year-old was killed while responding to a house fire in Canarsie on Avenue N shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday.
FDNY officials said he was inside the structure with other firefighters when the structure became too unstable and they were called back to evacuate. Before Klein and the others could make it out, part of the second-floor ceiling collapsed, leaving him trapped.
Klein was appointed to the FDNY on Dec., 28, 2015, according to the department, and joined Ladder Company 170 in Canarsie after graduating the Fire Academy.
Klein is survived by his parents and three sisters.
The last firefighter to die in the line of duty was Steven Pollard. The 30-year-old died on Jan. 2019. He was helping victims of a car crash on the Belt Parkway when he fell more than 50 feet off the Mill Basin overpass.
Klein spoke at Pollard's funeral that year. The two were assigned to the same company in Canarsie.
“Tim made an impression on everybody he worked with, junior men who he trained and senior men who he impressed,” Lieutenant Robert Kittelberger of Ladder Company 170 said at Klein’s wake Thursday.
“He was a very big part of our firehouse; he was very dependable at a fire,” Kittelberger said. “This has been heartbreaking for us. We are going to stick together and get through the next couple of days and take care of each other.”
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/thousands-to-mourn-fallen-fdny-firefighter-timothy-klein-31-at-funeral/3668935/
| 2022-04-29T13:35:52
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/thousands-to-mourn-fallen-fdny-firefighter-timothy-klein-31-at-funeral/3668935/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Some of Portland’s top culinary minds are on a mission to stop childhood hunger.
Five of Portland’s best chefs are joining forces this weekend for a walkaround tasting event benefitting the No Kid Hungry campaign.
Kohr Harlan checked out the FINEX Cast Iron Cookware factory in Northwest Portland to learn more about the event.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/kohr-explores-portland-chefs-aim-to-stop-childhood-hunger/
| 2022-04-29T13:40:33
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/kohr-explores-portland-chefs-aim-to-stop-childhood-hunger/
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Birmingham Police are asking for the public’s help finding a missing 26-year-old.
According to police, Gregory Williams was last seen at a home on 74th Place North wearing a black shirt with cartoon characters on it and blue or green pants.
Williams is autistic and is non-verbal. Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham Police at 205-297-8413.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/birmingham-police-searching-for-missing-26-year-old/
| 2022-04-29T14:01:59
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/birmingham-police-searching-for-missing-26-year-old/
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CAPE CORAL, Fla. – If you have any unused, expired or unwanted prescriptions or medications, there is a way to safely get rid of them Saturday in Cape Coral.
It’s prescription drug take-back day hosted by the Cape Coral Police Department in partnership with the Drug Enforcement Administration
According to the DEA, drug overdoses are on the rise — up 16 percent compared to last year — with nearly 290 lives lost daily.
Saturday’s event is at Cape Coral Police Department Headquarters on Central Park Boulevard. The event is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Cape police say it’s best to get rid of any prescription drugs the right way — whether they’re expired or you’re no longer in need of them.
Officers will collect tablets, capsules, patches and other solid forms of prescription drugs.
They won’t accept liquids or syringes.
The goal is to eliminate opioids and other medicines from homes, where they are vulnerable to misuse, theft or abuse by family members and visitors, including children and teens.
Cape police say it’ll take just a few minutes to look around your home, especially in spaces you don’t constantly check.
“They may not look in a cabinet every day, a junk drawer that people may have access to that they don’t think about all the time,” said Brandon Sancho, PAO with the Cape Coral Police Department. “At least check those things. See if you have anything that could be harmful to any residents, visitors, anything like that.”
You can remain anonymous when dropping these items off, police said.
The address of the police department is 1100 Cultural Park Blvd.
You can bring in your prescriptions/medications that you no longer need and dispose of them properly.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/cape-coral-police-to-host-prescription-take-back-day-saturday/
| 2022-04-29T14:28:48
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/cape-coral-police-to-host-prescription-take-back-day-saturday/
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LEE COUNTY, Fla. – The “Donated Not Wasted” food campaign has come to an end in Lee County.
The CEO of Harry Chapin Food Bank said this year’s campaign collected almost 10,000 pounds of food. This was double the previous record of 5,000 pounds.
“We’re still seeing a significant need. As everybody I think knows, need went way up during the pandemic and it is still running well above probably 50% above where it was before the pandemic happened,” said CEO Richard Leber.
Below is a list of locations and their collection amounts throughout the campaign:
- Bonita Springs Public Library – 779 pounds
- Cape Coral Lee Co Public Library – 1,222 pounds
- Captiva Memorial library -4 pounds
- Dunbar Jupiter Hammon Public Library – 79 pounds
- East County Regional Library – 396 pounds
- Fort Myers Regional Library – 273 pounds
- Lakes Regional Library – 1.399 pounds
- North Fort Myers Public Library – 774 pounds
- Northwest Regional Library – 719 pounds
- Pine Island Public Library – 64 pounds
- Riverdale Branch Library – 550 pounds
- South County Regional Library – 856 pounds
- Estero Community Rec center – 603 pounds
- Wa-ke Hatchee Rec Center – 70 pounds
- Veterans Park Rec Center – 305 pounds
- Six-mile Slough – 204 pounds
- North Fort Myers Rec Center – 1,067 pounds
- Topaz Court – 111 pounds
- Sanibel Library – 203 pounds
The event gathered a total of 9,678 pounds, officials said.
Heading into the summer months, Leber said the need for food is here to stay.
“People accumulated debts and they need assistance so then we got inflation like crazy and rent and food prices and fuel that are affecting a lot of working families in SWFL right now,” said Leber.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/lee-county-food-bank-collects-nearly-10k-pounds-of-food-during-donated-not-wasted-campaign/
| 2022-04-29T14:28:54
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/lee-county-food-bank-collects-nearly-10k-pounds-of-food-during-donated-not-wasted-campaign/
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CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. – A Port Charlotte man was killed after running off the road on County Road 769 (Kings Highway) near Midway Boulevard Thursday night, officials said.
The 69-year-old was driving north on King’s Highway when he veered left off the roadway, entered a median and crashed into a traffic sign around 8:30 p.m., according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The man was later pronounced dead.
Troopers said no other vehicles were involved in the crash and the man was wearing a seatbelt.
No further details were immediately available.
FHP is continuing to investigate the crash.
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/port-charlotte-man-killed-in-crash/
| 2022-04-29T14:29:00
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/port-charlotte-man-killed-in-crash/
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NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Springtime in Arkansas brings many things – blooming plants, warmer weather, and even animals too.
It's something that some in North Little Rock are already seeing. Unfortunately, these specific animals are quite large--they're bears--and officials urge you to keep your distance if you come across one.
"Stay away from it and admire it. There's a lot of wildlife in it. That's the great thing about Arkansas," Keith Stephens, Chief of Communication for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said.
For Stephens, this is a moment of déjà vu as it seems to be a yearly occurrence.
"It's not uncommon at all, it happens every single year in Arkansas," he said.
He's talking about young bears leaving their dens looking for food.
"Right about now is when the kids [bears] are getting pushed out of the house [den] by the mother," Stephens said. "So we started getting a lot of calls about seeing bears in neighborhoods and things like that."
Those bears are starting to emerge now, even right here in some central Arkansas neighborhoods.
In the Park Hill neighborhood in North Little Rock, the Gardner family saw a bear walk right past the side of their house – capturing it all on their Ring doorbell camera.
"We're encroaching on their space. They were here first," Stephens said. "As the city grows and grows outward then we're gonna have these problems from time to time."
Stephens said he's unsure why the bear was in the neighborhood, especially with it being so close to a busy road like JFK Blvd.
With that in mind, he said there are things that some people do that can unintentionally attract them.
"It's pretty typical, somebody will see a bear rummaging through their trash cans in their backyard looking for food," he said.
That's when the issues can start, but Stephens emphasized that bears are much more scared of us than we are of them.
He also explains that if they associate homes with free food – like open trash cans and pet food – then they'll stick around.
"You don't have to worry about them, we've never had an attack here in Arkansas or anything like that," Stephens said.
If you were to run into a bear, there's some things to keep in mind. Stephens said to back up, make some noise, and throw something like a rock if you need to.
Stephens said it's not an attempt to hurt the animals, but to make sure they know they're not welcome.
"We don't want them to like getting trapped and be around. We want them to realize that being around humans is a bad thing," Stephens said. "So we're kind of rough with them and make sure that they don't want to come back."
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansas-family-bear-ring-doorbell-camera/91-52d42097-b016-49c4-aad0-64f7d19c30b6
| 2022-04-29T14:38:03
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansas-family-bear-ring-doorbell-camera/91-52d42097-b016-49c4-aad0-64f7d19c30b6
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ALBANY – The Dougherty Circuit Bar Association will hold two events next week: a voter rights panel and record restriction clinic.
A voter rights panel discussion will be held Wednesday at Albany State University's West Campus on Gillionville Road, Building J, Room 171 from 9 a.m. until noon, and on Thursday from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., there will be a record restriction clinic at the Northwest Library Event Center, located at 2507 Dawson Road.
Panelists for the voter rights panel discussion include Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Florida State University College of Law Professor Michael T. Morley, and Andre Fields, a panelist for Fair Fight. This event is sponsored by the Dougherty Circuit Bar Association, the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and Albany State University.
The record restriction clinic is open to all constituents of Georgia’s Second Congressional District, which includes the Baker, Bibb (portion not included in 8th district), Calhoun, Chattahoochee, Clay, Crawford, Crisp, Decatur, Dooly, Dougherty, Early, Grady, Lee, Macon, Marion, Miller, Mitchell, Muscogee (portion not included in 3rd district), Peach, Quitman, Randolph, Schley, Seminole, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taylor, Terrell and Webster counties.
To take full advantage of the assistance offered at the records restriction clinic, individuals must complete a Criminal Background Check Consent Form at the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office and pay the necessary fees attached to the background check. Upon receiving the criminal history, participants must obtain a copy of their convictions from the county clerk's office where they were charged.
All retrieved documents must be submitted to Attorney Elizabeth Gibson located in the Dougherty County District Attorney’s Office at 225 Pine Ave., Room 108, in the Judicial Building. Once all documents are submitted, the individual may attend the May 5 clinic any time between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
The records restriction clinic is sponsored by the A2J Committee, the Albany Police Department, Albany Second Chance, Dougherty Circuit Bar Association, Dougherty County Board of Commissioners, Dougherty County District Attorney’s Office, Dougherty County Law Library, Dougherty County Police Department, Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office, GABWA, Georgia Justice Project, Georgia Legal Services Program, and Goodwill of Albany.
For information on pre-registration for the records restriction clinic, individuals can email Tabitha.Ponder@georgiacourts.gov or Latoinna.Lawrence@georgicourts.gov. Both events are free and open to the public.
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/dougherty-circuit-bar-association-to-host-records-restriction-clinic/article_42610b28-c7be-11ec-9953-d38a4a951b08.html
| 2022-04-29T15:02:26
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https://www.albanyherald.com/local/dougherty-circuit-bar-association-to-host-records-restriction-clinic/article_42610b28-c7be-11ec-9953-d38a4a951b08.html
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Crews restoring 1928 Alexander Memorial on Monroe County Courthouse lawn
After a delay during the COVID-19 pandemic, restoration work on the Alexander Memorial now is underway downtown.
The 35-foot memorial on the southeast corner of the Monroe County Courthouse lawn is named after Bloomington native and Civil War veteran Capt. William M. Alexander. Built in 1928, the square's oldest monument was designed to honor all soldiers and sailors from Monroe County who have served in wars. It had deteriorated significantly over the years, likely sped up by the use of an improper cleaning solution in the 1980s.
Previous coverage on downtown memorial:Veterans memorial restoration finally moving forward: 'A window of history'
Primary election help:Early voting in primaries winding down; poll workers needed for Election Day Tuesday
Fresh limestone panels have been carved to duplicate and replace the worn originals, which will be stored. The scenes include soldiers riding on horseback and pioneers in an agricultural landscape. Work also includes gently cleaning the other portions of the structure and repointing mortar joints.
Who will pay for the restoration project?
The project has received funding from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology and the Monroe County Council, along with donations from veteran organizations and other local groups and residents. Several area limestone milling and quarry companies have donated resources and services.
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https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/alexander-memorial-downtown-bloomington-monroe-county-courthouse-lawn/9552973002/
| 2022-04-29T15:03:35
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SAN ANTONIO — Paula Reed finally got her hug.
“It was heaven,” she said in an exclusive interview with ABC’s Good Morning America.
Reed’s son, Trevor, was released Wednesday after more than 980 days in a Russian prison.
But when he landed in San Antonio early Thursday morning, fears over Trevor Reed’s fragile health prevented mom and dad from hugging their son.
The hugs finally happened late Thursday when Trevor Reed was released from isolation inside Brooke Army Medical Center, which is the headquarters of a special program that reintegrates military members or civilians who’ve been imprisoned overseas.
Trevor Reed’s medical condition is not quite clear, Paula Reed told GMA. He’s undergoing multiple tests and the Reeds expect to have more clarity about his physical health in the next few days.
Watch the Good Morning America interview below:
But his sister said his spirits are bright.
“He’s telling stories, flirting with the nursing staff,” Taylor Reed told GMA, laughing. “It’s just friendly flirting. He’s just happy to be around other people again.”
Trevor Reed’s father, Joey, added, “I think he’s just happy to see females.”
Doctors warned the Reeds it is not uncommon for newly-freed captives to avoid spending time with family while adjusting, but Paula Reed told ABC News that’s not the case with Trevor.
Their first visit was scheduled to last only a few minutes, but the Reed family stayed with Trevor for about two hours. Paula Reed said her son has enjoyed a steak dinner. He told his mom protein was a rarity while he was in prison.
Joey Reed said they believe President Joe Biden’s decision to agree to a prisoner swap with Russia might have saved Trevor’s life.
“We can’t thank him enough,” Joey Reed said.
Other Americans remain imprisoned in Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, who is also a veteran Marine like Trevor.
Paula Reed said one of the first things Trevor told them was that he felt terrible that Whelan wasn’t released alongside him. Trevor pledged that once he is well enough to do it, he will advocate for Whelan to come home right away, Paula said.
Paula Reed told GMA Trevor will have a long road to recuperate, but "we think he's going to be fine."
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/trevor-reed-first-24-hours-home-gma/287-dd927959-673e-4fcf-a1c4-1bccbdedee4e
| 2022-04-29T15:05:27
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SAN DIEGO — A 94-year-old woman honored her late husband on Thursday by taking off into the sky with a Dream Flight.
Dolores Canti took a ride in an early aviation-era biplane in Oceanside and CBS 8's cameras were there for the thrilling ride.
The dream flight was initially delayed due to weather. But eventually, Canti was able to liftoff without a hitch.
"It was windy, but not as windy and cold as I thought," said Canti. "I think when you're up there, you're so excited you forget about everything else and just enjoy it."
Just after 10 a.m. on Thursday, Canti's plane was able to take off into the sky, honoring her late husband.
WATCH: 94-year-old takes 'Dream Flight' to honor late husband | Full flight
At the age of 94, Canti flew 1000 feet in the air for 20 minutes in an open-air cockpit. The biplane is a fully restored World War II era plane.
Canti's husband served in World War II and lived life of public service as a judge.
Thursday's Dream Flight also provided flights to other senior veterans from the Lacosta Glen retirement community.
Dream Flights provides flights to veterans to provide them with memories of their time in the service. According to their website, Dream Flights aims to honor veterans and their families with the adventure of a lifetime. The group uses donations, community support to provide veterans with the ultimate aviation experience.
WATCH RELATED: USS Midway Museum honors Vietnam War veterans (Mar. 2022).
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/94-year-old-takes-flight-to-honor-husband/509-12cd5c4b-31b5-40e9-b181-a885ddabe036
| 2022-04-29T15:16:23
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/94-year-old-takes-flight-to-honor-husband/509-12cd5c4b-31b5-40e9-b181-a885ddabe036
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SAN DIEGO — It’s looking more likely California will be raising its gas tax.
Governor Gavin Newsom proposed pausing California’s gas tax increase amid this year's soaring gas prices. California's current gas tax is about 51 cents per gallon.
It's set to go up another 3 cents on July 1, if lawmakers don't act by May 1 deadline.
“Any increase in gas prices is not going to be welcome to California drivers however, there is a surplus in the state budget, so there is some room for the legislature to give some relief to drivers,” said Marie Montgomery, a spokesperson for the Auto Club of Southern California.
Lawmakers are considering sending $200 checks to each taxpayer who makes less than $125,000 per year.
Meanwhile the Governor wants to send up to $800 to car owners.
"While these proposals are being considered, we do think it's important to make sure funding for transportation, roads, bridges and transportation is not reduced,” said Anlleyn Venegas, a spokesperson for AAA.
After a bill was signed into law in 2017, the gas tax goes up each year because of inflation.
San Diego's average price per gallon was $5.74 on Thursday, according to AAA. An oil and gas analyst doesn’t expect gas prices to come down for months.
"It looks like these traders are speculating it's going to go on a while and whether it does is anybody's guess,” said Trey Cowan, an oil and gas analyst for Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “It appears we're going to have high prices for at least the next six months or so."
Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) sent the following statement to CBS 8 regarding the gas tax:
“As we’ve said before, suspending the gas tax would reduce critical funds available for road repair and improvement projects. The Better for Families Rebate that the Legislature has proposed would provide the most meaningful relief to the most California families. We are continuing to work through the budget process to get financial help to Californians as quickly as possible.”
Without action from lawmakers, California’s gas tax increase is set to take effect July 1 and will put the tax around 54 cents per gallon.
WATCH RELATED: Gas prices taking toll on non-profits and driving away volunteers (April 2022)
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/californias-gas-tax-likely-increase/509-aadd745d-c921-49bc-9287-0e5f23fabb59
| 2022-04-29T15:16:29
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SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office called on people twice to push state leaders and the governor to keep the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) funded.
The call to action came from two video news releases about child pornography arrests, which included the arrest of Demetrius Carl Davis, who is accused of grooming more than 80 children around the world into producing child pornography.
In part, the video highlighted how the internet has made it easier for abusers to reach vulnerable children, and that ICAC, which investigates these types of heinous crimes, is in danger of being disbanded, according to the sheriff's office.
"I could not be more concerned. If there is one team I would not want to see disbanded, it is that one. It is that important," Sgt. Rod Grassmann, spokesperson for the sheriff's office, said.
H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the California Department of Finance, said the money was only set to be around for a limited time at $5 million per year for three years.
"Consistent with the terms of that appropriation, the current fiscal year (FY 2021-22) represents the third and final year of that three-year, limited term appropriation," Palmer told ABC10.
But there are still calls to get that funding back in the budget. Efforts are underway, along with some political mudslinging, in the race for Sacramento County Sherriff.
Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), who spearheaded funding for ICAC, and Undersheriff Jim Barnes are both running for Sacramento County Sheriff.
"Every year, I fought back with governors — Governor Brown and the current governor — to get the funding restored," Cooper said.
Cooper, a former commander for the Sacramento ICAC task force, said he is still pushing for increased funding. In a letter dated March 2022, he requested the budget committee earmark $10 million dollars for ICAC.
Read the letters submitted over the years below.
Cooper said he has issues with his opponent's appearance in the sheriffs office's produced YouTube video. In the video, Barnes says "funding is imperative to help ICAC personnel bring these abusers to justice."
Cooper and state officials told ABC10 the sheriff's office hasn't formally submitted requests for ICAC funding.
"It bothers me that, as a commander, I saw those images for three years, and I worked with those detectives while they were making those arrests. And for Jim Barnes to come in now and say 'Hey, it's a big deal' - the production, the whole YouTube video, it's just self-serving," Cooper said.
ABC10 requested comment from both the sheriff's office and the campaign team for Barnes. Sheriff Scott Jones fired back at the assemblyman's comments, providing the following statement to ABC10.
"If you are suggesting that the only way that critical functions of our public safety mission should be funded is if we 'advocate' for them with the legislature suggests that those same legislators see no inherent value in these functions on their own," Jones said. "For Assemblymember Cooper to suddenly change his course this year, and conspire with his cronies to artificially endanger funding so he can thereafter come in as the hero and restore it simply for his own political gain is not only juvenile, it endangers the very children he feigns to want to protect. The protection of our most vulnerable is too critical to be politicized and it is disgusting that Mr. Cooper would attempt to do so."
Barnes' campaign did not immediately respond to ABC10's inquiry.
Meanwhile, the governor's office had no comment on the budget line item.
However, Gov. Gavin Newsom is in a budget-revision process until May 14. The legislature can even add to the budget by June 15.
WATCH ALSO:
Sacramento County man accused of luring 80 children into producing explicit content | Ext. Interview
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/icac-task-force-funding/103-712e273e-24ff-4084-81cf-7c6374a47c92
| 2022-04-29T15:16:35
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/icac-task-force-funding/103-712e273e-24ff-4084-81cf-7c6374a47c92
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — KOIN 6 News and Portland’s CW are holding a day of giving to support the Oregon Humane Society on Wednesday.
All day long on Wednesday, May 4, we’ll be putting a spotlight on the organization’s important work. And there’s going to be some special guests!
Laura Klink with the OHS joined AM Extra to share what you can expect.
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https://www.koin.com/local/day-of-giving-to-support-oregon-humane-society/
| 2022-04-29T15:46:39
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https://www.koin.com/local/day-of-giving-to-support-oregon-humane-society/
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Summer is coming quickly and with it marks the return of the Portland Farmers Market!
This year the event is celebrating 30 years with new vendors across all five marketplaces.
Executive director Katy Kolker shared more details on the market on AM Extra.
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https://www.koin.com/local/gearing-up-for-new-vendors-at-portland-farmers-market/
| 2022-04-29T15:46:43
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The largest plus-size consignment event in North America Curvy Chic Closet is holding its semi-annual sales event.
About two-thirds of women are size 14 and up. Despite plus-sized clothing being about a $20 billion worldwide market, it’s still relatively underserved by the fashion industry.
Kohr Harlan explored the event in Hillsboro where curvy women can indulge in a new wardrobe, in a comfortable setting.
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https://www.koin.com/local/largest-plus-size-consignment-event-kicks-off-semi-annual-sale/
| 2022-04-29T15:46:45
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https://www.koin.com/local/largest-plus-size-consignment-event-kicks-off-semi-annual-sale/
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State awards sixth and final license for medical marijuana dispensary in Pawtucket
PROVIDENCE — The state Office of Cannabis Regulation on Friday awarded its sixth and final new medical marijuana dispensary license to Mother Earth Wellness Ltd., which plans to open a retail business at 125 Esten Ave., in Pawtucket.
That’s where company owner and director Joseph Pakuris operates one of his other businesses, Kitchen and Countertop Center of New England.
The official and brief announcement – occurring over a Zoom meeting – lacked the drama that marked last October’s lottery selection for five other new dispensary licenses.
Then, 23 different companies vied for those regional licenses. The awarding of a license for Zone 6 -- stretching from Pawtucket, through the East Bay, to Tiverton – was delayed after one applicant challenged its disqualification from the lottery.
By Friday Mother Earth Wellness was the final qualified applicant for Zone 6 and therefore no lottery was needed.
More news:Westerly lab sues DEA over 'foot dragging' on pharmaceutical licensing for marijuana
It now has nine months to meet all necessary requirements for operation, including all fire and security regulations and, of course, winning approval from local zoning authorities.
Rhode Island currently has three medical marijuana dispensaries in operation. All operating dispensaries would likely get first crack at selling recreational marijuana if lawmakers and the governor can reach agreement this legislative session on such an adult use program.
When will marijuana be legal in Rhode Island?: Here's why the answer might be 2022
Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/medical-marijuana-license-awarded-mother-earth-wellness-pawtucket-ri-cannabis/9584682002/
| 2022-04-29T16:21:58
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/medical-marijuana-license-awarded-mother-earth-wellness-pawtucket-ri-cannabis/9584682002/
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RI man should have sent $570K to IRS instead of luxury home, 'Russian Brides' dating site
PROVIDENCE — A Rhode Island businessman was sentenced to prison Thursday after he pocketed $570,000 in employment taxes and spent more than $200,000 of that money on a "Russian Brides" online dating site, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Rhode Island.
Steven M. Allard, 60, of North Scituate, owner and operator of BR Steel Corporation in Burrillville and Greystone Iron Corporation in Smithfield, also used $93,000 for rent payments for a "luxury home" in Scituate, U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha said in a news release.
The case marks the third time Allard has been convicted and sentenced in federal court, according to Cunha.
On Sept. 20, Allard admitted in court that from at least 2017 through 2018, he failed to turn over to the IRS more than $570,000 in federal employment taxes and FICA payments withheld from his employees, according to Cunha.
Digging deeper:U.S. Attorney's Office asked for a second time to investigate NK handling of a coach facing allegation
Allard instead used the money to pay for personal expenditures, including the Scituate rental and the purchase of more than $216,000 in “credits” to the online dating website, RussianBrides.com, Cunha said.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. on Thursday sentenced Allard to 33 months in federal prison to be followed by three years of federal supervised release. McConnell also ordered Allard to pay $625,186.29 restitution to the IRS.
More:Suspect in Little Compton assault killed in shooting involving RI State Police, US marshals
In 2009, Allard pleaded guilty to tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud and was sentenced to 30 months in prison, according to Cunha. In that case, Allard admitted that from March 2005 to July 2006, he diverted for his own use $1.6 million due the IRS; and that he made false statements about real-estate holdings in a bankruptcy filing in 2005.
Before that, Allard was found guilty by a jury of accepting kickbacks from public employees and was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison, Cunha said.
jperry@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7614
On Twitter: @jgregoryperry
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/rhode-island-business-owner-tax-fraud-russian-brides-website-luxury-home-sentencing/9583501002/
| 2022-04-29T16:22:04
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West Warwick landscaper digs for answers from town after years-long property fight
WEST WARWICK — After six years and a win at the state Supreme Court in a property dispute, the owner of a landscaping company is still looking for answers from town leaders about why he had to wage a lengthy and expensive fight that he says could have been avoided.
John Read, owner of Read's Landscape Construction, has asked the council to take a deeper dive into the town’s part in the case. He believes the town’s longtime solicitor, Timothy Williamson, should be fired.
“I want to hold them accountable,” Read said this week. “I’ve got nothing to gain: nothing to win or lose. My case is over. The townspeople need an explanation — and they probably need some money back from Williamson — because this should never have gone anywhere with the town.”
Town Councilman Mark Bourget, who was elected last year in a special election, is also trying to get answers. Bourget has been reviewing Williamson’s documents related to the case since last fall and plans to make a report to the council in the next month or two.
“I’m just really curious to know if the town did anything wrong in this,” Bourget told The Hummel Report last week. “And if the town did anything wrong, how do we correct it, and how do we make sure no taxpayer goes through something like this again?”
Previous coverage:Landscapers fought 5 years to access their land in West Warwick. Now the Supreme Court has ruled in their favor
Land-use dispute dates back to 2016
Read’s case, which began in 2016, was first detailed in a Hummel Report investigation, published in the Providence Sunday Journal in August 2019. Read has spent $126,000 in legal fees, and the meter is still running: He has a trial next month in his effort to obtain damages.
The town paid Williamson $30,000 to litigate the case before Read dropped the town as one of the defendants 15 months after filing suit, saying it was becoming too costly for him.
The case centered on a one-acre piece of land off Industrial Lane owned by 4N Properties, a company owned in part by former state Rep. Jared Nunes. A right-of-way along the side of the property that Read said was clear in the town’s land records — and that he needed for access to the property — became the subject of controversy as Nunes later said that would not be part of the deal.
Hummel Report:Central Coventry Fire District says it'll cease operations by June without cash from state
It gave Read a first-hand look into local government, as he attended meetings where he was often met with silence when questioning Town Council members. When he couldn’t get answers, Read filed public records requests that helped fuel a successful legal battle and turned up other issues town leaders have been forced to fix.
In 2017, Read filed a lawsuit against the Town of West Warwick and 4N Properties. Before filing the suit he asked the town to correct the situation and avoid a legal battle.
Hummel Report:A pivot on police discipline in Rhode Island? How officers' bill of rights might change
Read, in a subsequent lawsuit, said the sellers “illegally altered the deed.” But they said the town carried responsibility for not enforcing the plan that had been approved by its own Planning Board. The town planner, who had emailed Read early on saying they should have access to the right-of-way, later contradicted himself in a deposition. When pressed by Read’s attorney, Williamson repeatedly instructed the planner not to answer.
Read and his attorney asserted that Williamson was trying to run up his legal fees. His lawyer, Joelle Rocha, wrote Williamson in the fall of 2018: “It is obvious the Town of West Warwick is litigating this case for and on behalf of 4N Properties. While 4N has yet to propound even a single discovery request, the Town of West Warwick has undertaken discovery efforts unrelated to the claims against it, all which benefit the co-defendant.”
Hummel Report:You can't get there from here: 2 stalled RI bridge projects leave drivers in detour hell
Strong support for solicitor on Town Council
Williamson told The Hummel Report this week: “The town of West Warwick hires me to be their town solicitor. I was involved in the litigation with [the Reads]. They filed their complaint sometime in September of 2017. The town was dismissed with prejudice sometime in January of 2019. I will stand by the work I did on behalf of my client that got a satisfied result.”
Williamson signed a contract in 2018 that pays him $90,000 a year in base pay for the majority of the work he does for the town, but the agreement says he can bill for “litigated matters” such as Read’s lawsuit. Williamson serves at the pleasure of the council and has the support of the majority of the council, including its president.
“Not everybody likes lawyers, especially when they’re fighting against them,” Council President David Gosselin said, adding that he is sympathetic to Read’s situation.
Hummel Report:Deadbeat contractor leaves Coventry couple in limbo
“I feel for them. They spent a lot of money," he said. "I don’t want to see anybody endure those costs, but in the end they came after the town and released the town. If you feel West Warwick was wrong, why did you release us from the case?”
Councilman Jason K. Messier voiced the strongest support for Williamson.
“I understand why people don’t like him, but he’s done a good job for the town,” said Messier, noting that Williamson can be abrasive at times. “When I hire a lawyer, I want a bulldog in the courtroom. And I want somebody that’s going to do the job. He’s always done right by me and done right by the town, but I understand why somebody who is against him in the courtroom would not be a fan of him.”
Read said that when he approached Williamson early in the case, the solicitor said there was nothing he could do and if Read was not satisfied that he could take the town to court.
At a council meeting in March, Read handed each council member a packet of documents, including paperwork from his case. He had asked to be put on the agenda for “possible omissions and errors of Town Solicitor Timothy Williamson.” He was met with silence.
What's next in John Read's legal battle?
Despite prevailing at the state Supreme Court last summer, Read’s case is not over yet. He is going to trial next month seeking damages (including legal fees) from 4N Properties. He said he has not been able to begin construction on a 40-by-80-foot building because his money has been tied up with the case.
The Hummel Report is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that relies, in part, on donations. For more information, go to HummelReport.org. Reach Jim at Jim@HummelReport.org.
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/west-warwick-ri-landscaper-demands-accountability-after-long-costly-land-dispute/9570951002/
| 2022-04-29T16:22:10
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Timken Co. adds Slovakian company specializing in parts for robotic machinery
JACKSON TWP. – Timken Co. said it will purchase Spinea, a Slovakian company that makes parts used in robotic equipment.
Terms of the deal weren't released. Timken said it hopes to close the purchase in the coming weeks, and will use cash on hand and borrow to cover the purchase.
It's expected that Spinea's sales will be about $40 million for 2022.
More:Timken Co. revenue surpasses $4 billion, growth expected to continue in 2022
More:Timken acquires Michigan company to expand position supplying linear motion equipment
Richard G. Kyle, president and chief executive officer, said Spinea is well-established in robotics, which will help Timken improve its position in a growing market.
"Spinea brings an exciting new product line with differentiated technology and state-of-the-art manufacturing to Timken," Kyle said in a press release announcing the deal. "We plan to leverage our global capabilities to scale the business and introduce Spinea's next-generation solutions to customers around the world."
Specifically, Spinea makes highly engineered cycloidal reduction gears and actuators. The company's products are used in high-precision automation and robotics equipment in the factory automation sector.
Timken has been adding companies such as Spinea in recent years to diversify and expand its power transmission products and services business. This includes the addition of Rollon and Cone Drive, businesses that deliver technology used in robotics and automation.
Spinea complements Cone Drive's precision gearing business and further advances the company's product offering and commitment to customer-centric innovation, Timken officials said in the press release. Spinea will further scale Timken's position in automation, which was the company's second-largest market after renewable energy in 2021.
Founded in 1994, Spinea is privately owned and operated. The company is based in Presov, Slovakia.
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https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/timken-co-adds-slovakian-company-spinea-specializing-robotic-parts/9583290002/
| 2022-04-29T16:24:49
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https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/timken-co-adds-slovakian-company-spinea-specializing-robotic-parts/9583290002/
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(STACKER) – Food insecurity is a widespread problem in the United States, with people experiencing food insecurity in every single county in the nation. The nonprofit Feeding America describes food insecurity as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.”
Food insecurity hits children particularly hard. The USDA estimates that more than 5.3 million children lived in food-insecure households in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic put further strain on households already experiencing food hardship, with Feeding America estimating that 13 million children may experience food insecurity in 2021—that’s one in six children. Not having consistent access to enough food can affect cognitive abilities, overall health, moods, and attention spans—not to mention the psychological effects of living with scarcity.
Stacker compiled a list of counties in Alabama with the highest rate of food insecure children using data from Feeding America. Counties are ranked by highest percent of children with food insecurity as of 2019.
1 / 50Dailynetworks // Wikimedia Commons
#50. Colbert County
– Child food insecurity rate: 19.9%
— Number of food insecure children: 2,300
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 86.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 14.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.5%
2 / 50Calvin Beale // Wikimedia Commons
#49. Coffee County
– Child food insecurity rate: 20.0%
— Number of food insecure children: 2,450
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 80.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 20.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.7%
3 / 50Canva
#48. Marshall County
– Child food insecurity rate: 20.0%
— Number of food insecure children: 4,780
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 100.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 0.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 17.1%
4 / 50M Floyd // Flickr
#47. Jefferson County
– Child food insecurity rate: 20.0%
— Number of food insecure children: 30,170
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 65.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 35.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 14.4%
5 / 50Rivers Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#46. Crenshaw County
– Child food insecurity rate: 20.2%
— Number of food insecure children: 630
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 92.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 8.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.5%
6 / 50JNix // Shutterstock
#45. Clay County
– Child food insecurity rate: 20.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 570
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 100.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 0.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.5%
7 / 50Springfieldohio // Wikimedia Commons
#44. Jackson County
– Child food insecurity rate: 20.6%
— Number of food insecure children: 2,270
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 100.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 0.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.1%
8 / 50Canva
#43. Lawrence County
– Child food insecurity rate: 21.2%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,520
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 93.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 7.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 17.7%
9 / 50Rudi Weikard // Wikimedia Commons
#42. Franklin County
– Child food insecurity rate: 21.2%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,670
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 100.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 0.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.3%
10 / 50Rivers A. Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#41. Randolph County
– Child food insecurity rate: 21.7%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,060
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 87.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 13.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.5%
11 / 50Rivers Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#40. Cleburne County
– Child food insecurity rate: 21.8%
— Number of food insecure children: 740
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 98.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 2.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.2%
12 / 50Canva
#39. Bibb County
– Child food insecurity rate: 21.8%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,010
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 89.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 11.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.3%
13 / 50Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress // Wikimedia Commons
#38. Houston County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.0%
— Number of food insecure children: 5,360
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 78.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 22.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.4%
14 / 50Rudi Weikard // Wikimedia Commons
#37. Marion County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.2%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,390
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 90.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 10.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 19.2%
15 / 50Rivers Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#36. Chambers County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.3%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,570
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 82.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 18.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.4%
16 / 50Rivers A. Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#35. Coosa County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 400
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 73.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 27.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.0%
17 / 50Prestinian // Wikimedia Commons
#34. Etowah County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 4,960
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 87.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 13.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.8%
18 / 50Altairisfar // Wikicommons
#33. Mobile County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 21,890
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 71.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 29.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.8%
#32. Winston County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.5%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,110
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 100.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 0.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.7%
20 / 50Canva
#31. Walker County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.6%
— Number of food insecure children: 3,220
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 99.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 1.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.6%
21 / 50Rivers Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#30. Calhoun County
– Child food insecurity rate: 22.6%
— Number of food insecure children: 5,630
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 84.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 17.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 17.2%
22 / 50Michael Rivera // Wikimedia Commons
#29. Dale County
– Child food insecurity rate: 23.2%
— Number of food insecure children: 2,640
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 88.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 12.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 17.8%
23 / 50Chris Pruitt // Wikimedia Commons
#28. Covington County
– Child food insecurity rate: 23.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,910
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 85.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 16.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.1%
24 / 50Rivers Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#27. Talladega County
– Child food insecurity rate: 23.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 4,040
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 80.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 20.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.8%
25 / 50Canva
#26. Fayette County
– Child food insecurity rate: 23.6%
— Number of food insecure children: 820
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 92.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 8.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.8%
26 / 50Rivers Langley SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#25. Russell County
– Child food insecurity rate: 23.6%
— Number of food insecure children: 3,350
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 68.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 32.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.8%
27 / 50Kreeder13 // Wikimedia Commons
#24. Pike County
– Child food insecurity rate: 23.7%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,530
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 75.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 25.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.9%
28 / 50Chris Pruitt // wikicommons
#23. Montgomery County
– Child food insecurity rate: 24.0%
— Number of food insecure children: 12,810
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 58.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 42.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.0%
29 / 50Canva
#22. Escambia County
– Child food insecurity rate: 24.2%
— Number of food insecure children: 2,000
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 85.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 16.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 17.7%
30 / 50Rivers A. Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#21. Tallapoosa County
– Child food insecurity rate: 24.2%
— Number of food insecure children: 2,050
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 88.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 12.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.4%
31 / 50Myself – Nathon Morris // Wikimedia Commons
#20. Lamar County
– Child food insecurity rate: 24.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 740
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 96.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 4.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.7%
32 / 50Wmr36104 // Wikimedia Commons
#19. Geneva County
– Child food insecurity rate: 24.6%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,430
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 86.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 14.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 19.8%
33 / 50Altairisfar // Wikimedia Commons
#18. Clarke County
– Child food insecurity rate: 25.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,340
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 66.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 34.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.6%
34 / 50Chris Pruitt // Wikimedia Commons
#17. Butler County
– Child food insecurity rate: 25.6%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,140
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 76.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 24.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.5%
35 / 50Chris Pruitt // Wikimedia Commons
#16. Conecuh County
– Child food insecurity rate: 25.9%
— Number of food insecure children: 680
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 85.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 15.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.0%
36 / 50Carol M. Highsmith // Wikimedia Commons
#15. Monroe County
– Child food insecurity rate: 26.3%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,250
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 65.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 36.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 19.9%
37 / 50Canva
#14. Marengo County
– Child food insecurity rate: 26.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,160
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 64.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 36.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 17.3%
38 / 50Idawriter // Wikimedia Commons
#13. Washington County
– Child food insecurity rate: 27.2%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,030
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 89.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 11.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.4%
39 / 50Carol M. Highsmith // Wikimedia Commons
#12. Hale County
– Child food insecurity rate: 28.5%
— Number of food insecure children: 980
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 73.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 27.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 16.9%
40 / 50Public Domain
#11. Pickens County
– Child food insecurity rate: 28.7%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,160
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 66.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 34.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 17.8%
41 / 50Mccallk69 // Shutterstock
#10. Macon County
– Child food insecurity rate: 29.8%
— Number of food insecure children: 970
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 49.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 51.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.4%
42 / 50RuralSWAlabama (Billy Milstead) // Wikimedia Commons
#9. Choctaw County
– Child food insecurity rate: 30.1%
— Number of food insecure children: 780
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 72.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 28.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 18.9%
43 / 50Canva
#8. Bullock County
– Child food insecurity rate: 31.7%
— Number of food insecure children: 670
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 51.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 49.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 15.7%
44 / 50Rivers Langley; SaveRivers // Wikimedia Commons
#7. Barbour County
– Child food insecurity rate: 32.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 1,720
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 72.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 28.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 20.7%
45 / 50Canva
#6. Sumter County
– Child food insecurity rate: 32.5%
— Number of food insecure children: 800
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 51.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 49.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 19.8%
46 / 50DXR // Wikimedia Commons
#5. Dallas County
– Child food insecurity rate: 33.3%
— Number of food insecure children: 3,140
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 60.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 40.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 19.0%
47 / 50Altairisfar // Wikimedia Commons
#4. Lowndes County
– Child food insecurity rate: 33.4%
— Number of food insecure children: 760
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 64.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 36.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 19.3%
48 / 50Canva
#3. Perry County
– Child food insecurity rate: 33.5%
— Number of food insecure children: 670
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 67.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 33.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 20.1%
49 / 50Canva
#2. Wilcox County
– Child food insecurity rate: 34.1%
— Number of food insecure children: 880
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 68.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 32.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 20.1%
50 / 50Canva
#1. Greene County
– Child food insecurity rate: 37.8%
— Number of food insecure children: 710
– Percentage of children in households with income below 185% FPL: 68.0%
– Percentage of children in households with income above 185% FPL: 32.0%
– Overall food insecurity rate: 22.2%
This article has been re-published in accordance with a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/counties-with-the-highest-rate-of-food-insecure-children-in-alabama/
| 2022-04-29T16:35:18
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Treatment options for people with stage 4 cancer are often limited, but UAB Hospital is the first in Alabama to offer a new treatment called heated chemotherapy.
On Thursday, Dr. Salila Hashmi of UAB’s division of surgical oncology joined the “CBS 42 Morning News” to speak with Andrea Lindenberg about the procedure.
Watch the full interview above.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/watch-uab-doctor-discusses-new-heated-chemotherapy-treatment/
| 2022-04-29T16:35:24
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/watch-uab-doctor-discusses-new-heated-chemotherapy-treatment/
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You've probably seen the Jurassic movies. And if you haven't, you've heard of them.
The most complete skeleton of the inspiration for Jurassic Park's iconic "Velociraptor" is going up for sale at Christie's New York, the legendary auction house announced Friday. But first, you'll have a chance to see it in person.
The piece is called "The Raptor" and will debut as part of Christie's New York Spring Marquee Week of sales. Excavated from Wolf Canyon in Montana, it has been in private hands since. The Raptor has been exhibited only once -- in Copenhagen at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, from June 2020 to December 2021.
The Raptor is a Deinonychus, a sophisticated carnivorous species discovered in the 1960s that can walk on two legs. The term was coined by paleontologist John Ostrom in 1969 and means "terrible claw," referencing the lethal sickle claw present on each foot.
With a handful of recorded specimens found and only two skeletons in museum collections, The Raptor being sold by Christie's is the most complete Deinonychus skeleton known to exist and the only privately owned specimen.
Yes, the Tyrannosaurus rex was a Deinonychus, but the Raptor came much earlier -- 50 million years before the Rex that would become the stuff of "Jurassic Park" -- and ruled the dinosaur kingdom. A smaller, more agile pack-hunting predator (as you know from the movies), than the Rex, the raptor was the most feared -- and smartest -- animal of its time, according to Christie's.
Raptors held that "terrible claw" off the ground when not in use to retain its sharpness and could pierce its prey with one mighty kick once it was in its long arms. Unlike most dinosaurs, the raptor’s method of attack was helped by its ability to use its arms and stretch its hand up to 9 inches in length while standing on its hind legs. This aggressive, upright stance was facilitated by a long tail that provided balance; it would otherwise be stretched horizontally when running and contributed to the raptor’s exceptional length measuring about 10 feet or 3 meters long.
Local
The Raptor will be on view at Christie's New York from Saturday, April 30, through Wednesday, May 11 and will be sold the night of Thursday, May 12.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/most-complete-velociraptor-skeleton-known-to-exist-going-up-for-sale-at-christies-nyc/3669225/
| 2022-04-29T17:07:51
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/most-complete-velociraptor-skeleton-known-to-exist-going-up-for-sale-at-christies-nyc/3669225/
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CALIFORNIA, USA — This story was originally published by CalMatters.
California air-quality officials have endorsed an updated blueprint for battling climate change, choosing a plan that aims to minimize job losses and costs while slashing greenhouse gases and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.
California has long been a global leader in addressing the climate crisis, enacting aggressive laws and policies to reduce its carbon footprint. But the state has recently come under fire from activists and some legislators for failing to act quickly enough and relying too much on carbon-trading programs.
The strategy that the staff of the state Air Resources Board plans to unveil in May requires a massive shift away from California’s reliance on fossil fuels and more emphasis on renewable energy sources. The plan, which aims for an 80% reduction of greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2050, would cost an estimated $18 billion in 2035 and $27 billion in 2045.
California’s climate change roadmap – called a scoping plan — was first adopted in 2008 and updated in 2013 and 2017. The air board is in the initial phases of its update. A public hearing is scheduled for June, while the board is expected to vote this fall.
The board’s staff last year released four options for discussion. At a workshop last week, air board officials said they will present the board with the option that has the least impact on the state’s economy rather than accelerating the pace of achieving carbon neutrality.
Two of the rejected scenarios would reach carbon neutrality ten years earlier, by 2035, but would cost six to seven times more — between $106 billion and $120 billion in 2035. (Carbon neutrality means the state removes as much planet-warming carbon from the atmosphere as it emits.)
Air board staff said their preferred option, known as Scenario 3, focuses on countering job losses in industries and promoting job growth as the state transitions to renewable energy. Scenarios 1 and 2 had the largest impacts on jobs and the most health benefits for people in heavily polluted areas. Scenario 4 had the least health benefits to communities and the third highest impact on cost and job loss.
“The faster you phase out of combustion you absolutely get huge health benefits and climate benefits – we all know that,” Rajinder Sahota, the board’s deputy executive officer of climate change and research, said during last week’s workshop with industry representatives and environmentalists. “But the longer timeframe gives us more time to actually build that infrastructure and build those energy sources.”
The preferred option has been criticized by both environmental justice advocates and the oil and gas industry.
“We’re gambling with the fate of humanity,” said Kyle Heiskala, a policy advocate at the San Diego-based Environmental Health Coalition. “There’s so much at stake here. We don’t have a lot of time to get this right. We need to start making reductions in climate emissions now.”
The oil industry counters that the air board’s plan is too reliant on the state’s zero-emission vehicle mandates and should focus more on measures that trade, remove and store carbon while still allowing continued use of fossil fuels.
The scoping plan update comes as the extreme effects of climate change continue to devastate the state, which has been pummeled by extreme heat, record-shattering wildfires and a worsening drought. Planet-warming emissions are creating dire consequences that scientists say will be irreversible if the world — including California — fails to meet ambitious carbon-reduction goals.
California is responsible for less than 1% of greenhouse gases emitted globally, but it has the fifth largest economy, so it’s in a position to help drive substantial change.
How much the California Air Resources Board should prioritize each strategy for reducing greenhouse gases remains a key tension point for environmental activists and industry leaders.
The staff’s preferred Scenario 3 relies more on carbon capture technologies than a more expensive option, estimated to cost $130 billion by 2035, that instead includes a near-complete phaseout of gasoline-powered vehicles. Officials said their chosen scenario will rely on carbon capture, but not as much as two other scenarios that cost more.
Carbon capture is the practice of collecting carbon dioxide emitted by smokestacks and injecting it into the ground for long-term storage so that it does not warm the planet.
Carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, triggering changes in temperatures, precipitation and other aspects of climate. The changing climate as well as other pollutants emitted by fossil fuels disproportionately affect low-income communities of color, according to a report from the University of Southern California. In California, the transportation sector accounts for about 40% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Each scenario includes measures to mandate zero-emission vehicles, encourage use of renewable biofuels and beef up investments in technologies to capture carbon and remove it from the atmosphere. Each also weighs how the phaseout of fossil fuels could affect job losses and health outcomes of residents living next to major polluters.
Environmental justice advocates wanted the board’s staff to recommend a scenario that included a complete phaseout of fossil fuels by 2045 without reliance on carbon capture and storage. That scenario should have included measures to end oil and gas extraction by 2035 and phase out oil refining by 2045. Instead, they say the agency’s chosen strategy is not prioritizing direct emission reductions.
A debate over California’s landmark carbon market — called cap and trade — continues to spark controversy as the state formulates its scoping plan. Adopted in 2013, the cap and trade system puts a price on pollution. The market allows companies to buy some credits, known as allowances, rather than meet its limits by emitting less pollutants from facilities such as oil refineries.
For years, environmental advocates have argued that relying on carbon markets and engineered carbon-removal solutions allows the fossil fuel industry to buy its way out of emitting less pollution.
Heiskala said by allowing emissions to continue at oil refineries and other sources of pollution, the air board’s plan sets the state back in achieving its goals and harms residents living in heavily polluted areas.
“It’s just backwards,” he said. “The world is looking to California. If this plan is adopted and it has all of this reliance on carbon capture and carbon dioxide removal, the world is going to see that it’s a viable strategy and it effectively just delays action on climate change even further by decades. We just don’t have that kind of time.”
The 2017 scoping plan projected that cap and trade would account for 38% of the state’s emissions reductions. Air board officials have repeatedly said this year’s updated plan will scale back the role of cap and trade. However, it is unclear the weight that cap and trade will have in the new plan.
Kevin Slagle, a spokesperson with the Western States Petroleum Association, an industry lobbying group, said oil and gas companies support the state’s move toward renewable energy sources. But he said a too-hasty transition could jeopardize the economy and residents who depend on the fossil fuel industry for jobs.
Instead, he said the air board should abandon all four options and develop a new one that relies more heavily on the carbon market, including cap and trade, to achieve carbon neutrality in the “most cost-effective manner.”
“We don’t think the scenarios right now are wide enough. They’re not looking at enough possible ways to reach our goals,” he said. “There’s a lot of significant issues that have to be studied and understood before you can really just bet on an all-electric future.”
About 152,000 Californians work in the oil and gas industry and an additional 366,000 others have careers whose jobs depend on the industry, according to a 2019 report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. The industry in California contributes $152 billion yearly to the economy, the report shows.
Air board officials project that the job losses would have a minimal impact on the state’s economy — about 80,000 fewer jobs in the fossil fuel industry in 2035 and 120,000 fewer in 2045. The state’s employment sector is still likely to grow from 23.5 million jobs in 2021 to 27.7 million jobs in 2045.
Daniel Sperling, a member of the Air Resources Board and founding director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, said the oil industry can avoid economic losses by transitioning to cleaner technologies and sources such as hydrogen, biofuels and carbon capture.
“They are a powerful economic force. They employ many people. They play a big role in California’s economy. That’s our challenge – to guide the industry in the least disruptive way to a low carbon future,” he said.
Catherine Garoupa White, a member of the state’s Environmental Justice Advisory Committee, which advises the board on the scoping plan, said the Air Resources Board “is so focused on economics that they’re just basically willing to continue to sacrifice environmental justice communities.”
Despite the pushback from environmentalists, Sperling said the proposed scenario is still a “very aggressive” strategy to reduce emissions.
“There’s never going to be a scenario that makes everyone happy,” he said. “At the end of the day, the scoping plan is just a plan – it’s not codifying any rules or any new laws. We need to move on to start thinking about exactly what actions we shall take in terms of incentives and regulations.”
WATCH RELATED: Salk Institute scientist study generic makeup of wetland plants to fight climate change (Mar 14, 2022)
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/california-prepares-controversial-new-climate-strategy/509-d7dd8071-9b51-45b8-91c7-251998195565
| 2022-04-29T17:11:58
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/california-prepares-controversial-new-climate-strategy/509-d7dd8071-9b51-45b8-91c7-251998195565
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CALIFORNIA, USA — This story was originally published by CalMatters.
More than a year after leaving office, former President Donald Trump still looms large over the Republican Party across the country. Seeking to maintain the fierce devotion of GOP voters as he eyes another presidential run in 2024, Trump continues to hold regular campaign rallies that draw thousands of attendees, while his endorsements are scrambling races from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Georgia as he attempts to play kingmaker in crucial primaries.
Not so much in California.
Even as Republican hopefuls in other states compete to prove which of them is most closely aligned to Trump and his agenda, his name is all but absent from campaigns for governor and other statewide offices in California, where he won less than a third of the vote in 2016 and only slightly more in 2020. False claims that he was robbed of a second term through election fraud no longer abound here.
In a handful of potentially competitive races, perhaps the GOP’s best opportunities to snap a losing streak for statewide office that stretches back to 2006, some major candidates are even distancing themselves from Trump and refusing to say whether they voted for the former president.
The strategy suggests their campaigns, before the June primary has even taken place, are already looking beyond the conservative base to appeal to a broader electorate in the November election. That might get a politician chased out of Texas for disloyalty, but it hasn’t caused much of a stir among California Republicans.
Several publicly ambivalent candidates won the state party endorsement at its convention in Anaheim last weekend, in one case over a more pointedly Trump-aligned competitor. The former president’s greatest displays of support were stray memorabilia for sale at vendor booths and a few shout-outs in candidate forums.
Jim Brulte, a former chairperson for the state party, said GOP candidates have no need to cling to Trump because they have a better message to sell to voters this year about the failures of Democratic President Joe Biden.
“If Democrats want to make this election about Donald Trump, I’m happy to have that argument,” he said. “When Donald Trump was president, we had lower oil prices, lower gas prices, we had relatively little or no inflation.”
That’s not to suggest that enthusiasm for Trump has somehow evaporated in California. Republicans, despite representing a shrinking minority of the electorate, still number more than 5 million across the state, and many of them adore the former president.
“We support President Trump, and we support everything that he stands for,” Randall Jordan, chairperson of the Tea Party California Caucus, said at the convention. “We’re hoping that either he runs again, or we have another strong candidate for 2024.”
Days after audio leaked of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield telling a group of Republican leaders that he would push Trump to resign following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, McCarthy appeared to be in minor damage control mode during his convention keynote address on Saturday evening, when he suggested that Trump should have won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Republicans hoping for victory in deep blue California nonetheless must strike a careful balance. Trump remains overwhelmingly unpopular across most of the state and Democrats have been able to capitalize on that toxic brand.
Assemblymember Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, a former leader of the Assembly Republican caucus who later left the party because of Trump, said GOP candidates who are distancing themselves from the former president without fully denouncing his attacks on the 2020 election are displaying political cowardice, not courage. Many of them reject Trumpism in private, he said, but won’t go that far in public because they fear losing conservative voters.
“It’s not enough to be quiet. Republicans have to outright reject that behavior,” Mayes said. “You’re playing politics with the fundamentals of our democracy.”
During the recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, conservative talk radio host Larry Elder galvanized Republican voters by railing against the governor’s coronavirus mandates and other liberal policies in the state. Then Newsom successfully flipped the approach on Elder, hammering him in ads and at campaign events as “the most Trump of the candidates” and “even more extreme than Trump.” Newsom ultimately defeated the recall by nearly the same massive margin as he won the governorship in 2018; Elder passed on a rematch this year.
Newsom seems eager to replicate the strategy. On a Zoom call with campaign volunteers Tuesday, he accused Brian Dahle, who received the Republican Party endorsement for governor and is his most likely challenger this fall, of supporting the Jan. 6 attack and refusing to publicly acknowledge that Biden won the presidency.
“This guy is Trump through and through,” Newsom said.
A state senator and seed farmer from rural Northern California, Dahle once spoke at a Trump rally in Redding in June 2016, declaring the region “Trump country.” This campaign, he is much more circumspect.
Dahle has politely expressed that he would support Trump if he is the Republican nominee for president again in 2024 and then quickly shifted to a critique of Newsom’s record. He has heavily touted his bipartisan credentials, telling CalMatters that he would be a better partner to Democratic lawmakers at the Capitol than Newsom has been.
Dahle shrugged off Newsom’s criticisms Tuesday, slamming the governor for trying to “distract, deflect, deny” as “every civic institution in California crumbles.” In a statement, he said there was an active investigation into Jan. 6 and “people who violated the law should be prosecuted, those who were exercising their free speech rights should be protected.”
But he notably did not affirm the 2020 election results, even after CalMatters pushed his team to clarify Dahle’s position on Trump’s conspiracy theory about widespread voting fraud. In a TV interview a day later, he said: “Joe Biden is our president, no doubt.”
Jenny Rae Le Roux, a Republican business owner who has raised more money than any candidate running against Newsom other than Dahle, does not appear to have made any public statements about Trump, though she recently announced that his former political director, Chris Carr, would serve as a senior adviser to her campaign.
Republicans in California can afford to be less deferential because the state is largely off Trump’s radar. He has endorsed in more than 140 races this year, according to the election tracking website Ballotpedia, but none in California.
So while the U.S. Senate campaign in Ohio, for example, has devolved into a slugfest over Trump’s endorsement, there is more room in California for a candidate like Shawn Collins, a Navy veteran and lawyer who finished third in the state party gubernatorial endorsement vote, ahead of Le Roux.
Collins told CalMatters that he did not vote for Trump — or Biden, whom he confirmed is the “legitimately elected president” — in 2020.
In an interview earlier this month, Collins said he “loved a lot of the things that Donald Trump was doing,” including signing a bill to reduce some federal criminal sentences that “was one of the most significant pieces of legislation for Black and brown people since the Civil Rights Act.” But he said Trump’s messaging on issues such as election fraud undermined his accomplishments and made it difficult to mark his name on the ballot.
“I left it blank,” Collins said. “I was just torn on it.”
Collins, who is Black, said he is running for governor to build a bigger tent for the Republican Party, with a message of family values, faith and fiscal conservatism that he believes will appeal to minority communities. He said he was most frustrated that the “California GOP has kind of hitched its wagon to the national message” at the expense of offering solutions to problems more relevant to Californians’ lives. Arguments over voter fraud, he added, are discouraging the conservative base from turning out for elections.
“We need to create our own brand of the GOP out here in California,” he said. “We’re not doing a very good job of offering an alternative.”
Republicans’ best shot at statewide office this year may be Lanhee Chen, who is running for controller pledging to act as an independent fiscal watchdog for the state and who has raised more money than any other Republican statewide candidate. A former political adviser to 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Chen has repeatedly declined to say whether he voted for Trump, including during an interview this month with CalMatters.
Chen condemned what happened on Jan. 6 as an “abomination” and an “attack on democracy,” said those involved “should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” and declared that Biden was “legitimately elected as the president of the United States. I don’t have any question or qualm about that.”
Still, he dodged several direct questions about his support for Trump, emphasizing his “capacity for independent thought” from his party. “I didn’t serve in his administration. I was not asked, nor did I seek to serve in this administration,” Chen said. “There is a[n] overwhelming interest in looking backwards rather than forwards. And I think the future of the state will not be defined by former President Trump.”
Despite that, Chen was warmly received at the state party convention. His candidate booth saw a constant flurry of activity throughout the weekend, which ended with delegates endorsing his candidacy.
Party activists also backed Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who identifies with the “hard middle” of the political spectrum, over Eric Early, a vocal Trump supporter who vows to investigate California elections, in the race for attorney general.
Conservatives hope that rising anxiety over crime could sweep Democratic incumbent Rob Bonta out of office, and Hochman has played his campaign extremely cautiously in a bid for crossover appeal, refusing to take a position on numerous controversial issues.
He, too, repeatedly declined to answer questions about whether he voted for Trump in an interview with CalMatters this month. Hochman said voter privacy is “one of your sacred fundamental rights” and whether he supported the former president did not matter because it would not affect how we would enforce the law as attorney general.
“When people use Trump…Trump is a placeholder for a series of actions, policies, and statements,” Hochman said. “Trump’s not on the ballot.”
CalMatters reporter Sameea Kamal contributed to this story.
WATCH RELATED: UCSD Study: GOP counties saw baby boom after Trump's election (Apr 27, 2022)
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/wheres-trump-a-his-name-is-nearly-absent-in-california/509-451162a1-b828-4961-bdf0-24af10acabb2
| 2022-04-29T17:12:04
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/wheres-trump-a-his-name-is-nearly-absent-in-california/509-451162a1-b828-4961-bdf0-24af10acabb2
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FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Amber Heard pushed to have details of her marriage with fellow actor Johnny Depp included in an op-ed piece that she wrote about domestic violence, even though her lawyers wanted those passages removed from the article, which is now the subject of a libel lawsuit, according to evidence introduced Thursday at the trial.
Jurors in the libel lawsuit Depp filed against Heard heard testimony Thursday from Terence Dougherty, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. It was the ACLU that drafted the article under Heard’s name, reflecting her role as an ACLU ambassador on gender violence issues.
Dougherty testified about the push-and-pull that occurred between first draft and publication of the op-ed piece in The Washington Post in December 2018 — strategically timed by both the ACLU and Heard to coincide with the release of “Aquaman,” a movie in which she played a prominent role.
Depp sued in Fairfax County Circuit Court after the article was published, in which Heard says that “two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” Depp’s lawyers say that’s a clear reference to abuse allegations she levied against Depp in 2016 that Depp says are untrue.
Dougherty testified that numerous ACLU lawyers reviewed the article at various stages, and asked Heard’s lawyers to review the piece as well to ensure it did not run afoul of a non-disclosure agreement she had with Depp in connection with the couple’s 2016 divorce.
During those discussions, Heard sent back an edited version approved by her lawyers that “specifically neutered much of the copy regarding her marriage,” according to an email from Jessica Weitz, an ACLU employee who coordinated with Heard.
According to the email, though, Heard was looking for a way to have a deleted passage restored to the article.
The various drafts of the articles were not shown to the jury so it’s not clear how many personal details were in the first draft and how much Heard’s lawyers had excised.
But the final version contains very little about Heard’s personal experiences. It doesn’t mention Depp at all. In addition to the passage about “a public figure representing domestic abuse,” in another passage she writes, “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”
Much of the article talks about legislative priorities for advocates of domestic abuse prevention. Other passages refer to parts of her personal life unrelated to Depp.
Dougherty testified that “the language that wound up in the final op-ed piece was very different from the original language” in the draft, Dougherty said. “It did not refer directly to Ms. Heard’s relationship with Johnny Depp.”
While the trial is supposed to be over whether Depp was defamed in the article, very little testimony in the first three weeks, leading up to Thursday, has related to the article itself or its contents. Heard’s lawyers predicted at the outset of the trial that it would become a mudslinging soap operathat would delve into messy details of Depp and Heard’s personal lives.
Heard’s lawyers, though, have said that even if the jury were to believe that she was never abused by Depp, Heard should still prevail in the lawsuit because the article is not about Depp, does not defame him, and Heard’s free-speech rights allow her to weigh in on matters of public importance like domestic violence.
Much of Dougherty’s testimony also centered on whether Heard has fulfilled a promise to donate $3.5 million — half of her $7 million divorce settlement with Depp — to the ACLU. Dougherty testified that the ACLU credits her with contributing $1.3 million so far and expected the money to come in over a 10-year period, but that she has made no contributions since 2018.
Jurors also heard briefly from Depp’s business manager, Ed White. White said he intervened in 2016 to resolve financial difficulties for Depp, including unpaid taxes and a cash crunch. When he blamed Heard for an excessive wine bill that featured multiple $500 bottles of Spanish Vega Sicilia wine, Heard’s lawyers responded with a barrage of questions over Depp’s spending excesses, including spending millions of dollars to shoot journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes out of a cannon.
Depp and Heard met during filming of “The Rum Diary,” an adaptation of a Thompson novel. Depp testified earlier that he and Thompson were friends, and that Depp actually found the lost “Rum Diary” manuscript when he was going through Thompson’s papers.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/amber-heards-lawyers-revised-article-johnny-depp-sued-over/
| 2022-04-29T17:56:38
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/amber-heards-lawyers-revised-article-johnny-depp-sued-over/
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HOUSTON (AP) — The experiences of panicked concertgoers who couldn’t breathe and had no clear path to escape a massive crowd surge at last year’s deadly Astroworld music festival in Houston are featured in a documentary set for release Friday.
But lawyers for Live Nation, which is being sued for its role as the festival’s promoter, say they’re concerned that publicity from the documentary, “Concert Crush: The Travis Scott Festival Tragedy,” could “taint the jury pool.” A gag order has been issued in the case, but Live Nation’s lawyers say an attorney who filed lawsuits related to the tragedy also co-produced the documentary.
Charlie Minn, the film’s director, said he believes he has made a balanced and fair film that tries to show the public what happened.
“My job is to make the most truthful, honest, sincere documentary from the victim’s point of view … We need to know about these stories to prevent it from happening again,” Minn told The Associated Press.
Around 500 lawsuits have been filed following the Nov. 5 concert headlined by Scott, a popular rapper. Ten people died and hundreds of others were injured during the massive crowd surge. Scott is also being sued.
The documentary, opening in 11 Texas cities including Austin, Dallas and Houston, includes interviews with several people who survived the crowd surge. The film also features cellphone video shot by concertgoers in which people can be heard repeatedly screaming for help.
“It’s hard to explain to friends and family what we saw and what we actually went through and I think (the documentary) will give a lot of people the opportunity, if you weren’t there, to understand,” said Frank Alvarez, who attended the concert but does not appear in the film.
The film highlights what concertgoers experienced and what led to the tragedy, said Minn, who has also made documentaries about the deadly 2018 shooting at a suburban Houston high school and violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The film suggests Scott could have done more to prevent the conditions that led to the casualties, but Minn said it isn’t a “hit piece toward Travis Scott.” He said it also questions whether others, including Live Nation and Houston police, could have done more to improve safety or respond more quickly to the danger. Minn said Scott, Live Nation and Houston police declined to be interviewed for the documentary. Houston police are investigating the disaster.
In a report released this month, a task force created by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott uncovered problems with permits for such events and called for “clearly outlined triggers” for stopping such a show.
Attorneys for Live Nation expressed their concerns in a letter this month to state District Judge Kristen Hawkins, who is handling all pretrial matters in the lawsuits.
“The involvement of plaintiffs’ lawyers in the film, and the publicity the filmmakers and producers are trying to generate for it raise significant issues about efforts to taint the jury pool,” Neal Manne and Kevin Yankowsky, two of Live Nation’s attorneys, wrote in the letter.
But the attorneys have not asked Hawkins to take any specific action regarding the documentary.
Manne and Yankowsky did not respond to emails seeking comment. Live Nation has said it’s “heartbroken” by what happened but has denied responsibility.
Scott’s attorneys said in an email Thursday that they don’t know if he has seen the documentary, and referred to the concerns raised by Live Nation when asked if they had any issues with it.
“Mr. Scott remains focused on his philanthropic work in his hometown of Houston and in lower-income communities of color across the country, both of which are longstanding efforts,” his attorneys said.
Cassandra Burke Robertson, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said she would be shocked if the judge would take any action regarding the documentary because of First Amendment concerns, even with the gag order.
“I think the public interest here in exploring what happened and avoiding similar tragedies in the future, that’s a really big interest. That is likely to outweigh the interests of the particular outcome of the particular lawsuit,” Robertson said.
Brent Coon, an attorney representing about 1,500 concertgoers who was interviewed in the documentary, said he doesn’t think the film would impact the ability to choose an impartial jury if the case goes to trial, which could be years away.
“I don’t think any lawyer in this case could fan the flames much to change … what the public’s perception of all this is going to be,” Coon said.
Robertson, who is not involved in the litigation, said the fact that one of the film’s co-producers, Rick Ramos, is representing concertgoers who have filed lawsuits could raise some ethical concerns. It was unclear how Ramos was benefitting financially from his involvement in the documentary.
Ramos declined to comment Thursday.
“I personally would not co-sponsor something like that during pending civil litigation. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It’s just something I wouldn’t do,” Coon said.
Minn said the questions asked about Ramos’ participation are valid but he never hid his involvement.
“People have to watch the film and judge it for what that is,” Minn said.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/astroworld-movie-set-for-release-despite-lawyers-concerns/
| 2022-04-29T17:56:45
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors began deliberations Thursday in a trial over former reality television star Blac Chyna’s lawsuit against Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, whom she alleges spread false stories of abuse to ruin her television career.
In her closing argument, Chyna’s attorney Lynne Ciani argued that it was unreasonable for the four women to have believed that her client violently attacked her former fiancé Rob Kardashian.
“Forget who they are; forget about how famous they are,” Ciani told the jury. “Was it reasonable for the defendants to believe that their son or brother’s version of the events that he had been brutally attacked?”
In emotional and often angry testimony, Rob Kardashian said during the trial that he feared for his life on the night of Dec. 14 and morning of Dec. 15, 2016, when Chyna twice pointed a gun at his head, pulled a phone-charging cable around his neck and repeatedly hit him with a metal rod while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
He testified that the violence left no visible injuries, nor did he report the attack to anyone, and his mother and sisters said the same when each took the stand.
“He didn’t have a mark on him,” Ciani said. “There was no call to the police, no trip to the hospital, not even a Band-Aid.”
Chyna is suing the four women for defamation and interference with contract, alleging they sought to get the couple’s “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” spinoff “Rob & Chyna,” canceled before its second season.
Kardashian attorney David G. Rhodes argued during his closing that the women had every reason to believe the accounts of the attack from Rob Kardashian and from Kris Jenner’s longtime boyfriend Corey Gamble, who arrived at the scene, broke up the dispute and was a key defense witness.
“Do you remember how Rob looked on the stand yesterday? His pain was real,” Rhodes said. “This is a real family. Yeah, they’re famous, but they’re real people. He got really badly hurt here.”
All four of the defendants were in the front row of the courtroom for closing arguments, as they were for most of the nine-day trial.
Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend, “Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson, sat in the back of the courtroom during closings and greeted her with a hug and a kiss in the hallway outside before they and the rest of the family were ushered by deputies into a private waiting area they’ve used throughout the trial.
In her testimony, Chyna said that an all-night celebration of the announcement their show was getting a second season turned into a bitter fight when Rob Kardashian took her phone looking for evidence of communications with other men, but it never got violent.
She testified that she had wrapped the phone-charging cord around his neck playfully, and picked up his always unloaded gun off the nightstand, as a joke. She admitted that in her anger she broke some things.
“There was damage to a gingerbread house; there was a damaged TV,” Ciani said. “And that’s where it stopped.”
Rhodes zeroed in on the gingerbread house in his argument, in which he cast Chyna as a publicity-seeker desperate for a piece of what the Kardashians have.
“Why would you attack a gingerbread house in your rage? What does it represent?” Rhodes said. “It represents everything about the Kardashian brand — it’s over the top, it’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s almost silly, and when she saw that gingerbread house she was venting her anger on everything she was not going to be.”
Rhodes argued that regardless of what happened between the couple, the show ended because their relationship ended, as all the executives overseeing the show testified during the trial.
“It wasn’t her show,” Rhodes said. “It’s not the ‘Chyna and Rob’ show, it’s not ‘Chyna’ show, it’s the ‘Rob KARDASHIAN and Chyna’ show. It was a show about a relationship. That’s at the center of the whole case.”
Ciani and Rhodes both focused in their closing arguments on Kris Jenner, whom the lawsuit alleges was the “ringleader” of the attempt to shun Chyna.
The jury will need to decide whether her text message to the lead producer of “Rob & Chyna” saying “Chyna beat the s(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk) out of Rob’s face” was defamation.
“She’s not talking to the police. She’s not talking to someone to try to get medical help for her son. She’s talking to the showrunner,” Ciani said. “She knew it was false.”
Rhodes asked jurors to consider why Jenner would believe the attack happened.
“Because the man she was in bed with at 7 a.m. goes over there, comes back and says ‘Rob just had the s(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk) beat out of him,’” Rhodes said. “She sees her son and he says the same thing.”
In the civil case, nine out of 12 jurors will need to agree on whether each of the Kardashian defendants either knowingly lied about Chyna abusing Rob Kardashian, or spread the word about it with reckless disregard for the truth. The same number will need to decide whether each illegally interfered with Chyna’s contract with the E! network, which aired both “Rob & Chyna” and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/closing-arguments-to-start-in-blac-chyna-kardashians-trial/
| 2022-04-29T17:56:52
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VANCOUVER, Wash. — Recent reports of kids using racial slurs at a local high school baseball game have really hit a nerve with community members. But for Benita Presley, a Black woman, mother of seven and grandmother of 15, it’s nothing new.
“It just makes me sad that we're in 2022 and we're still having this be an issue,” said Presley, a Portland resident who lived in Vancouver until recently.
Like many others, Presley is processing reports of racist behavior among the Camas High School junior varsity baseball team. Witnesses heard chanting and racial slurs from the team when they played Skyview on April 20.
Presley thinks of the Black athlete on Skyview's team who heard it all, and she thinks of her own kids and grandchildren. She said in recent years, three of them have been the targets of racist behavior while playing teams in Clark County.
“I stopped going to the games,” said Presley. “Because to hear the ‘N-word’ thrown around, to hear ‘monkey’ being thrown around — the parents of the kids saying it, sitting in the bleachers laughing and smiling and not telling their children not to say that — I got up and left.”
RELATED: Investigation finds Camas junior varsity baseball team players 'engaged in racist behavior' at game
In the most recent case with Camas, the district's week-long investigation found Camas players did engage in racist behavior. School officials said it clearly illustrates that a problem exists on their team. The district also canceled future JV games until the situation with Skyview and Camas JV baseball is resolved.
Presley has several ideas of how to address the issue of kids and racism, big picture. She said the first step is parents taking accountability.
“Your mindset and what you think and what you teach and what you tell your children is what they're going to hold on to,” said Presley. “So starting at a very young age, what you say and what you display in your household, is what they're going to go out in the community and emulate.”
But what if parents and other adults can’t bring themselves to do that? Presley shared another idea for a solution she thinks would help, rather than sugar-coating the problem.
“We need a ‘Racists Anonymous,’" said Presley. “Some people could come forward and say, ‘My name is so-and-so, and I'm a racist and I learned this behavior from somebody and I want to get better. I want to get well.’”
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/vancouver/grandma-responds-to-racism-in-high-school-sports/283-581c60dd-c274-4498-b673-8ff2f2246f85
| 2022-04-29T18:11:17
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/vancouver/grandma-responds-to-racism-in-high-school-sports/283-581c60dd-c274-4498-b673-8ff2f2246f85
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A man and a woman who were apparently walking on subway tracks in Manhattan were hit by a train and killed Friday, prompting an hours-long shutdown of the station and an intense police investigation, authorities said.
The initial call about the people hit by the train by the Broadway and West 145th Street station, which serves the 1 line, came in around 11:15 a.m.
Little about the two victims was immediately known, though authorities said they may have been homeless. The two have yet to be identified.
Officers say the deaths were an apparent accident.
The Broadway station reopened around 1:20 p.m., about three hours after the call. Police say their investigation is ongoing.
Friday's accident happened just more than a week after two other possibly homeless people were found dead on tracks in Brooklyn after being hit by a train.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/2-walking-on-manhattan-subway-tracks-die-after-being-hit-by-train-cops/3669369/
| 2022-04-29T18:12:33
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/2-walking-on-manhattan-subway-tracks-die-after-being-hit-by-train-cops/3669369/
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A New York pizzeria accused of underpaying workers for years has been ordered to pay $175,000 to nearly a dozen employees "cheated out of their pay," Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday.
At least 10 workers will receive a payout after an investigation by James' office found Gotham Pizza paid under the minimum wage, withheld overtime pay and tips at its three Manhattan locations between 2016 and 2019. The pizzeria sells slices in the Upper East Side, Yorkville and Chelsea.
The investigation found that the pizzeria's employees were being paid an hourly rate between $6 and $10, when their base pay should have been between $11 and $15, James said. The identified workers also didn't received their full tips or pay for working more than 40 works per week, her investigation uncovered.
“No matter how you slice it, fair pay is not a suggestion — it’s the law,” said James. “For years, Gotham Pizza took advantage of its hard-working employees by failing to pay them for their work.
The attorney general's press release said Gotham Pizza's failure to pay employees the minimum wage and appropriate overtime rates were in violation of the Minimum Wage Order and New York labor laws.
In addition to the $175,000 payout to the 10 workers, the pizzeria must comply with "spot interviews" between staff and the attorney general's office to confirm paychecks are going out in accordance with state law.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/manhattan-pizza-chain-broke-labor-laws-underpaid-workers-for-years-ny-ag/3669276/
| 2022-04-29T18:12:44
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/manhattan-pizza-chain-broke-labor-laws-underpaid-workers-for-years-ny-ag/3669276/
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19-year-old dead after losing control of car north of Cocoa
A Merritt Island teen was killed Thursday when his vehicle flipped and struck multiple objects north of Cocoa, according to highway patrol troopers.
Two 19-year-old Merritt Island men were traveling south on Cocoa Boulevard at about 3:02 p.m. Thursday in a 2006 Subaru Impreza when the driver lost control of the car for an unknown reason, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The car hit a paved median and overcorrected, moving into the westbound shoulder and hitting a curb. The car flipped, and the driver's side hit a palm tree and a fence near the intersection of Cocoa Boulevard and Cidco Road.
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The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, and the passenger was taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne with minor injuries, troopers said. Neither had been wearing seatbelts.
FHP did not identify the two men involved in the crash, citing Marsy’s Law, passed in 2018.
Introduced in memory of a young woman murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Marsy’s Law was created to offer crime victims a slate of rights, including protecting them and their families from harassment by their attackers.
Some law enforcement officials have interpreted the statute as applying to any victim, as well as to law enforcement officers being entitled to privacy and having their identity protected.
Finch Walker is a Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/thursday-afternoon-crash-kills-merritt-island-teen-north-cocoa/9584235002/
| 2022-04-29T18:22:30
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/thursday-afternoon-crash-kills-merritt-island-teen-north-cocoa/9584235002/
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It's lights out beachside starting Sunday as the turtles return to Brevard to nest
It's that time of year again: Time to mind the turtles and the birds, or both could face a disastrous nesting season.
Beachside light restrictions kick in Sunday, May 1, in which indoor and outdoor lights must not be visible from beach, through October.
And state wildlife biologists also warn beachgoers should watch out for nesting shorebirds along the dunes.
Nighttime lighting can lure hatchling sea turtles to crawl inland instead of seaward after emerging from their beach nests. As a result, the threatened and endangered turtles often die from dehydration, get run over or become prey for raccoons, crabs or ants.
So from Sunday through Oct. 31, all indoor and outdoor lights visible from the beach must be shielded, repositioned, replaced with special turtle-friendly amber bulbs or turned off from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Bright beach lights, flashlights, flash cameras, video recorders and other types of artificial lighting aren’t allowed either.
Disturbing a sea turtle, its nests or hatchlings also is illegal. Those who violate Brevard’s marine turtle lighting ordinance face fines of up to $500 and six months in county jail.
Most beachside cities have similar ordinances.
Sea turtle nesting season actually has been underway since March 1 from Brevard through Broward counties, with leatherback turtles the first to nest along the beaches. Coinciding with that date, some limits on coastal construction already have taken effect. But Sunday marks the start of the beach-lighting restrictions.
Florida law restricts activities such as beach renourishment and repairs to seawalls and other structures during sea turtle nesting season.
Officials will work with residents on lighting problems. Along with the nonprofit Sea Turtle Conservancy, Brevard County periodically has grant money available to help homeowners fix beach-lighting issues.
'Old school' naturalist leaves legacy of a national wildlife refuge
Audubon also has been reminding beachgoers that sea and shorebirds lay their eggs right on the sand. When frightened by humans or their dogs, the birds take flight, leaving their eggs and colonies behind.
The nonprofit says to heed posted areas, even if you don’t see any birds; carefully move away if birds "dive-bomb" you; don't leave trash or food behind that attracts predators; keep dogs on a leash, on board your boat or at home.
Shorebirds and seabirds typically nest directly on beaches but as shorelines grow increasingly crowded with people, less nesting space is available and birds increasingly use gravel rooftops to nest and raise chicks.
Florida protects most shorebirds and seabirds that nest on rooftops as "threatened" species, such as black skimmers and least terns. More than half of Florida’s least tern population relies upon rooftops for nesting, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Nesting season for shorebirds and seabirds in Florida happens between March and August. FWC recommends owners of buildings that have shorebirds nesting on rooftops conduct routine maintenance and nonemergency repairs outside of nesting season, between September and February.
"If unexpected repairs are required during the nesting season, building owners can work with the FWC’s regional shorebird biologists to determine if take could occur and how to apply if a permit is needed," FWC said Wednesday in a release.
Turtle nesting tips
How to ensure successful nesting of threatened and endangered sea turtles:
• Complete beach-repair work before nesting turtles arrive.
• Remove all equipment, beach furniture and other potential obstructions from the beach at night, when nesting females and hatchlings need to move unimpeded across the sand.
• Manage artificial light at night by turning off lights when not in use, closing curtains and shades, and shielding lights needed for human safety so no light is visible from the beach. For information about sea turtles or alternative lighting solutions, call 633-2016 ext. 52431.
• If you find a dead, sick, or injured sea turtle, call FWC’s 24-hour Wildlife Alert Number at 1-888-404-3922. Be prepared to answer the following questions: exact location of the animal? Is the turtle alive or dead? Approximate size of the turtle? Is the turtle marked with spray paint? (This may indicate that the turtle has been previously documented). Location of the closest access point to the turtle? If the turtle is alive, please be prepared to stay with it until help arrives.
• Read your city’s lighting ordinance: http://myfwc.com/conservation/you-conserve/lighting/ordinances/
Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer
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https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/environment/2022/04/29/floridas-sea-turtle-nesting-starts-sunday-so-lights-out-beachside/9583142002/
| 2022-04-29T18:22:36
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Historic transition: Darnell Weaver sworn in as 15th superintendent of RI State Police
PROVIDENCE — Col. Darnell S. Weaver, a longtime Rhode Island State Police trooper and top-level commander, took the agency's reins Friday morning at a ceremony in the rotunda of the State House.
Weaver, a Marine who reminded his own training supervisor of Hercules at the outset of his career, is the state's 15th superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, and the first person of color to hold the job.
Along with integrity, work ethic and other intangible qualities, Weaver has a particular skillset for building strong connections between police and the communities they serve, said Gov. Daniel J. McKee.
The announcement:Gov. McKee selects Darnell Weaver as first person of color to lead the RI State Police
The new colonel arrives at a moment in history that calls for that type of talent, he said.
"You have the skill and ability to do just that," said McKee.
At the podium, Weaver said he wanted the men and women of the state police and the Rhode Island population they serve to be the focal point Friday.
"My message is simple," he said. "I promise the residents of this state that this agency will continue to earn your respect every day, committing ourselves to enforcing the laws with fairness, transparency, equity, and professionalism that the Rhode Island State Police are known for."
Changing jobs:State Police Col. James Manni to step down to become South Kingstown town manager
The agency's outgoing commander, Col. James Manni, was Weaver's field training supervisor when he first became a trooper.
Manni said Friday that he thought Weaver looked like Hercules, which was a compliment to his physique.
Other attributes impressed Manni as he watched Weaver serve on the force for almost three decades, eventually commanding barracks and patrol districts and directing troopers' initial training at the academy.
Courts and crime:Suspect in Little Compton assault killed in shooting involving RI State Police, US marshals
Finally, Weaver served as the agency's deputy superintendent, its second-highest ranking officer, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel.
"I have 100% faith in Darnell Weaver to lead this agency," Manni said.
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/rhode-island-state-police-new-superintendent-darnell-s-weaver/9583746002/
| 2022-04-29T18:34:56
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/rhode-island-state-police-new-superintendent-darnell-s-weaver/9583746002/
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Starting in its fall 2023 semester, Northern Arizona University (NAU) will provide tuition-free college education for Arizona residents with a household income of $65,000 or lower.
The university announced its Access2Excellence (A2E) initiative Thursday, where students meeting the threshold will have tuition fully covered by scholarships and financial aid.
NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera said while Arizona’s economy is “booming,” the majority of new jobs growth is projected to create will require a college degree. The state of Arizona, meanwhile, is near the bottom of the country in postsecondary attainment, he cited while referring to an Arizona Board of Regents report that found a current ninth-grader in the state has a 17% chance of obtaining a college degree by 2029.
“Unless we do something dramatically different, the fortunes of the people of Arizona will not dramatically change and hence they can be shut out from this economic boom,” Cruz Rivera said.
He added: “If we really want to ensure that the people of Arizona can contribute to and benefit from the future economic development of the state, we need to really step it up in terms of making an affordable, high-quality education accessible to them.”
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The idea behind the initiative, he said, is to make the cost of college clearer to potential students.
“Right now we can speak endlessly about how affordable an NAU education is for low-income students, given the wide variety of financial aid that we provide, but it really requires students to actually apply to college, apply for financial aid, get admitted and get a letter back saying what their financial aid package looks like before they know for sure that they can aspire to afford higher education,” he said.
A2E instead guarantees that Arizona students under the income threshold will have their tuition fully covered by the financial aid package.
“That's a very powerful message that I think will resonate with those that are questioning perhaps the value of college and affordability of college and hopefully will broaden participation in higher education,” he said.
The $65,000 threshold is based on statistical modeling “to see how we could expand access to the program and still meet our enrollment targets and our revenue projections,” Cruz Rivera said. The university currently manages around $400 million in total financial aid, he added.
The threshold is also close to Arizona’s median income, meaning approximately half of households in the state fall below it.
The A2E initiative will begin in fall 2023 for first-year and transfer students at the university, including both Flagstaff and statewide campuses in part to ensure potential enrollment increases are distributed responsibly, Cruz Rivera said.
Figures will also be monitored over time to ensure they are sustainable. Based on modeling, the university’s projection is that enrollment will increase slightly in the first year, and will “require a few years before [it] really takes hold.”
NAU will also continue to provide financial aid to students in households with higher incomes, stating that “we want to make sure it’s affordable for everyone, any track. We’re committed to maintaining the lowest cost of attending school in the state.”
The university’s Pledge program will continue for existing students in 2023, Cruz Rivera said.
“For new students moving forward, we will institute a predictable tuition program that will allow families to understand what annual increases would be expected moving forward, and this is something that would be done through the ABOR processes that are in place for tuition setting. But the Pledge program will apply for all existing students,” he said.
Cruz Rivera said the initiative is a “building block” as NAU moves toward the vision set by its strategic roadmap, which he said is hoped to be finalized in the coming weeks.
Another recent example is the admissions pilot program announced in February.
“[A2E] is more closely related with some of the aspirations we have laid out in our strategic roadmap, around, for example, meeting students where they are,” he said. “...We will be very intentionally looking at how can we increase enrollment outside of Flagstaff at those sites in a way that will meet those communities’ needs more directly.
"By saying that program will cover the tuition costs in financial aid for all students, not only in Flagstaff but also statewide, now it's creating the conditions for us to really be more effective in attracting students that are priced out, and that in turn translates to our ability to better prepare them for the new jobs that are coming on board in the state.”
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/education/nau-announces-initiative-to-provide-free-tuition-to-low-income-arizona-residents/article_e8fecd56-c711-11ec-930b-a3aaa1fa1f35.html
| 2022-04-29T18:36:15
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/education/nau-announces-initiative-to-provide-free-tuition-to-low-income-arizona-residents/article_e8fecd56-c711-11ec-930b-a3aaa1fa1f35.html
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Northland Preparatory Academy’s (NPA) board was presented with the school’s Cognia accreditation at its April 25 meeting. The school completed an external evaluation to receive this accreditation.
“To be an accredited school is to signal to the universities that we send students to that we are who we say we are and that our students are who we say they are,” program coordinator Carol Willis said. “It gives us that important validation…it’s a cyclical experience to go through as a school.”
High schools are required to be accredited, with Cognia accreditation requiring a particular evaluation process where schools must meet a set of standards.
At NPA, the process began about a year ago, with a team of 12 faculty members collecting evidence and data in a report that they then submitted to an external review team of education professionals. The reviewers then interviewed various people involved in the school, including board members, parents, students and staff.
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“They’re another set of eyes,” said NPA superintendent Dave Lykins. “….[The evaluation] tells us things we’re doing well and it helps us identify some steps to keep us growing.”
For Willis, the process was a “deep dive” into testing data.
“That's always revelatory because you get a chance to really see how things are progressing and look for those changes,” she said.
Some positives the review found, Lykins said, were clear communication, high expectations for students and wide familiarity with the school’s mission of being “a well-rounded college prep experience through the academics, arts and athletics.” Also mentioned were diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts and the teacher mentoring program.
NPA received a letter of concern about its DEI from alumni in June 2020, Lykins said, prompting the school to set specific goals and create subcommittees of the existing DEI committee for PAR (policy, accountability and improvement) as well as commitment and training.
He mentioned a 21-day challenge staff training the school completed last year, where a trainer came and spoke to staff on topics like microaggressions and ways to handle a variety of situations. The teachers wrote SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals for each of their courses on how they could bring inclusive practices into their current curriculum, with the school’s governing board doing similar work at the departmental and schoolwide levels.
This was also connected to the mentoring program.
“All new staff that came on over the summer were assigned a mentor and they participated in the 21-day challenge so that when everybody got here the first day of school, we all had common terminology, common training and a starting point to where across the board, everyone could be aware of what we were attempting to do,” Lykins said.
Principal Jay Litwicki said the outside feedback helped gain perspective, which was especially important as they were finishing standardized testing and making plans for the next school year.
“It’s one thing for us to reflect on ourselves, try and see the things that we think we need to improve on. But to see that somebody from the outside that comes in, looks at us and assesses us sees common things lets us know that we’re on the right track,” he said. “....This is a time where everybody in education starts to reflect and plan on how we’re going to approach next year– the things we’re going to focus on, the goals that we want to have.”
The main goal he mentioned was also an area of improvement from the report: using data to evaluate and improve programs.
The school had begun the 2021-2022 school year with a data initiative, which Litwicki said he expected to continue.
Data from standardized tests and benchmark assessments is a way to “monitor growth,” he said. They’re also hoping in the long term to use this to analyze the connections between their sixth and twelfth grade students.
“What are we doing to help propel that kid longitudinally, not just within a year, but where did you join us and what was that portrait of you data-wise as a sixth grader and how is that reflected in your AP scores and the other data that we can pull and put together to create a better picture of what’s successful,” Willis said.
Another recommended improvement had to do with aligning curriculum across both grade levels and subject areas. For example, eighth grade history and English teachers at the same grade level would be in conversation about how their curricula might connect, as would eighth and ninth grade science teachers.
“Students will most likely feel that in the way the content is spiraling,” Willis said. “The things that they learned in sixth grade build so that seventh grade is more successful and eighth grade is more successful.”
After approval from the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI), the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI), the Cognia Global Commission met January 26 to review reports from several schools, including NPA.
The school will receive a final report from the review team and make a plan (over the summer) for the next three years, when they will be evaluated again. The accreditation lasts five years, after which the process will repeat.
“It’s really exciting because it’s an opportunity for us to be reflective as we put this whole thing together,” Lykins said. “Most of us know what we’re doing, but not everybody on the team knew everything about what everyone was doing, so it can be pretty powerful.”
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/education/northland-preparatory-academy-receives-cognia-accreditation/article_84f006d2-c72e-11ec-8be3-93275051f1ef.html
| 2022-04-29T18:36:21
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/education/northland-preparatory-academy-receives-cognia-accreditation/article_84f006d2-c72e-11ec-8be3-93275051f1ef.html
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Panthers senior Xavier Nakai poses with his parents during a signing ceremony at Coconino High School on Wednesday. Nakai signed to play college football at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California.
MIKE LAPSLEY, courtesy
Coconino junior Tyler Ragan (11) and senior Xavier Nakai (73) combine for a tackle against the Glendale Cardinals on Nov. 19 in Glendale.
Panthers senior Xavier Nakai poses with his parents during a signing ceremony at Coconino High School on Wednesday. Nakai signed to play college football at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California.
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/nakai-signs-to-college-of-the-canyons/article_43c6291a-c757-11ec-83af-dbf401a7a09f.html
| 2022-04-29T18:36:27
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/nakai-signs-to-college-of-the-canyons/article_43c6291a-c757-11ec-83af-dbf401a7a09f.html
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Having Wesley Kiptoo on your team is sort of like owning a sports car. You want to see just what it can do.
Kiptoo, a rookie who just recently joined NAZ Elite in mid-April, will run his first-ever half marathon Sunday, debuting at the distance in Pittsburgh.
“He wanted this," NAZ Elite coach Ben Rosario said.
Rosario was happy to help.
It will be the first time Kiptoo will race the distance and the road surface.
“He told us right away -- a month and a half ago or so -- that he wanted to run a half marathon this spring to get his feet wet and learn the distance," Rosario said Wednesday. "So the first thing we did was to pick the right one. I believe we picked the right one."
NAZ Elite also hopes it's the right race for Aliphine Tuliamuk to make her return to racing after a long hiatus.
Tuliamuk has not raced since August of 2021, when she dropped out of the Tokyo Olympic Games, the race in which she suffered a stress fracture injury that caused the long pause in racing. Moreover, she hasn't finished a race since placing sixth at the Peach Tree Road Race, which served as the 10K national title race, in early July of 2021.
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Rosario said there were some chances to bring Tuliamuk back into racing earlier in the spring. But, he said, he didn't want to push her back to the start line until she felt more "her true self" both physically and mentally.
“I would say that I didn’t feel she was going to be able to perform at a level that is close enough to her best," Rosario said, "and, I think, when you get to a certain stature in this sport, you don’t want to go out and compete when you are not at least close to your best. That’s just kind of sports. We wanted to wait until she could really show herself and race at a level that she’s used to. You want to develop good habits when it comes to racing, and if she’s not ready, oftentimes that leads to bad habits."
Tuliamuk has had success on the Pittsburgh course in the past, winning the half marathon in 2018 when the race served as the nation title event. She posted a time of 1:10:03 -- not too far of her PR at the distance of 1:09:49.
A dominant cross country runner during his college days, Kiptoo, too, might find the course a good fit.
Kiptoo was the runner-up in the 2021 cross country NCAA title race, clocking a 28:38.7 for the 10K run. He won the Big 12 Conference cross country championship race that same year, finishing that 8K course with a time of 23:32.3. Furthermore, he won the NJCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in 2019.
“He’s been kind of dominant at cross country, and the Pittsburgh course is almost a 13.1-mile cross country course, because it’s got ups and downs, it’s got a little of this and little of that," Rosario said.
But Kiptoo, who is still finishing up his college semester in Ames at Iowa State University, hasn't spent much time actually training on the road surface.
Kiptoo has been doing most of his workouts on dirt and track surfaces in preparation for taking on the extra miles. Rosario said, however, that he has had Kiptoo touch on half-marathon zones during training and had his athlete do some long repeats at the desired pace. They also mixed in some track work and some 5K work.
“So I think he has all the tools for a half marathon this Sunday for sure," Rosario said.
They'll just see how sore Kiptoo is after Sunday's race, and just how ready he is to take on the type of distances he signed up for.
“You can’t start winning races at the pro level unless you get your first one in somewhere along the line, so you've got to keep trying,” Rosario said.
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/naz-elite-this-week-tuliamuk-to-make-return-as-rookie-teammate-takes-on-half-marathon/article_53e88670-c749-11ec-acd1-cb80b5ad36cb.html
| 2022-04-29T18:36:33
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/naz-elite-this-week-tuliamuk-to-make-return-as-rookie-teammate-takes-on-half-marathon/article_53e88670-c749-11ec-acd1-cb80b5ad36cb.html
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A baby tree kangaroo that's just poking its nose out of its mother's pouch is the first of its species born at the Bronx Zoo since 2008, zoo officials announced Friday.
The birth of the Matschie’s tree kangaroo joey “is an exciting birth for the Bronx Zoo and a unique opportunity for people to observe one of nature’s most intriguing evolutionary adaptations,” zoo director Jim Breheny said in a news release.
The Matschie’s tree kangaroo is native to Papua New Guinea and is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It is arboreal and lives in mountain rainforests.
The species is much smaller than Australia's well-known red kangaroo. An adult male Matschie’s tree kangaroo weighs between 20 and 25 lb (9–11 kg). The joey is about the size of a human thumbnail at birth, zoo officials said. The tiny joey crawls through the mother’s fur to enter her pouch and emerges after about seven months.
“At this stage of development, the joey will spend a lot of time in his mom’s pouch with just its head sticking out," Breheny said. "As it matures it will begin to explore its environment and start spending short periods of time outside the pouch.”
Conservationists believe that fewer than 2,500 Matschie’s tree kangaroos remain in the wild. They are threatened by habitat destruction, hunting and other human activities.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/its-a-joey-bronx-zoo-announces-birth-of-rare-tree-kangaroo/3669342/
| 2022-04-29T18:38:31
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/its-a-joey-bronx-zoo-announces-birth-of-rare-tree-kangaroo/3669342/
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PHOENIX — An Oklahoma City couple was supposed to have a Vegas wedding, but when their flight was canceled they decided to get married high in the sky.
Pam Salda never imagined her wedding would involve so many strangers on a Southwest flight. But now, she and her husband Jeremy Salda wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It was just sweet and special, and everything just fell into place so effortlessly,” said Pam.
The couple met on Bumble the first summer of the pandemic.
“I met Jeremy on my first ever Bumble date and I knew he was the one. I knew,” said Pam.
From there the Oklahoma City couple’s love grew. They got engaged a year and a half later in Cancun.
They plan on having their wedding in Cabo in May but had to get a U.S. wedding certificate to make it official.
When TSA dropped the mask mandate, they decided it was a perfect opportunity to fly to Vegas that weekend and get hitched.
“We were just going to pop out there. You know, spend a couple of days coming back. Not tell anyone to be a fun getaway. And boy did it go a little bit differently,” said Pam.
The couple came to the airport with their wedding clothes on to make it to Vegas as soon as they got off the plane. But the flight got canceled during a Texas layover, making their timely arrival to Vegas unlikely.
A fellow passenger with tickets on the canceled flight happened to be an ordained minister. He agreed to do the ceremony. From there, the three rushed to the airport to make the next flight to Vegas. But because of the Phoenix layover, it became clear they weren’t going to make their wedding ceremony in time.
"Pam goes, 'I don't think we're gonna make it. But, you know, we may just decide to do it right here on the plane.' And he's [the pilot] like, 'Really?' And she's like, 'Yeah, and he's like, okay, let's do it,'" said Jeremy.
So the two said “I do” as they crossed Arizona instead, making for a memorable moment for everyone involved.
“One of the passengers had this little 6x9 spiral notebook. And she ripped out the pages that she had written in and says, here's your guestbook,” said Jeremy.
They eventually made it to Vegas. Now they have an even better story to tell.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: Pareja se casa en pleno vuelo a Phoenix después de que varias cancelaciones arruinaran sus planes de boda
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/couple-gets-married-on-flight-to-phoenix-after-cancellations-ruin-vegas-wedding-plans/75-79da45ee-ece5-4bd8-b307-82fbcb8fa9e7
| 2022-04-29T18:54:44
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/couple-gets-married-on-flight-to-phoenix-after-cancellations-ruin-vegas-wedding-plans/75-79da45ee-ece5-4bd8-b307-82fbcb8fa9e7
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DALLAS — Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman will be in Northeast Dallas Friday night, serving drinks to customers and Cowboys fans alike.
The Super Bowl winner and Hall-of-Famer will be serving beers at Bar Louie at The Shops at Park Lane Friday at 5 p.m. to celebrate his Eight Elite Light Lager beer. This coincides with launch events for his product.
Bar Louie is asking customers to get there early to grab a seat and enjoy happy hour, which starts at 4 p.m.
Aikman's team says his beer has a very slight sweetness with a slight fruitiness to it as well.
The 55-year-old former Cowboys quarterback first announced in January 2022 his new beer, which he calls a low-calorie, light beer aimed at the health-conscious consumer. He said he assembled a team with the goal of creating a beer that didn’t force drinkers to jeopardize their otherwise healthy living decisions.
When the beer was officially released in February, Aikman also went to Austin to help debut his product by serving the first pints at Lavaca Street Bar in The Domain NORTHSIDE.
According to the official website, Eight Elite Light Lager is made from organic grains and antioxidant-rich hops while boasting a mere 90 calories and 2.6 carbs per 12-oz. serving. Can pictures on the site also note that the beer has a 4% ABV and is made up of 100% organic grains.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/troy-aikman-serving-beers-in-dallas/287-af05bcb2-2e5d-4b17-9abc-e295e04312d2
| 2022-04-29T18:54:50
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/troy-aikman-serving-beers-in-dallas/287-af05bcb2-2e5d-4b17-9abc-e295e04312d2
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14 researchers recognized for achievements at LSU Health Shreveport
LSU Health Shreveport hosted its fourth annual research celebration Thursday evening.
"You know, honestly and truthfully, we don't recognize people enough at this institution," Dr. David Lewis, Interim Chancellor said. "Chris started this about four years ago and it's well overdue."
This celebration honored researchers and community supporters for all their efforts in creating innovative ways to serve not only the community but the world through research.
"LSU Health Shreveport is really making a huge impact not only in the region but across the nation," Dr. Chris Kevil, Vice Chancellor for Research said.
This celebration was established four years ago to highlight the researchers at LSU Health Shreveport. Kevil said, "we weren't quite sure that everybody knew the kind of impact that it was making. So, we thought it was really important to collect that information, make it to where everybody can understand what is going on."
This year two new awards were added to the list creating an inaugural debut Thursday evening. These awards recognized rising stars as well as researchers who have achieved excellence in scholarly activity.
"The research rising star is a new award that we have, because we have many new faculty coming to us. Many of them are at the level of instructor and assistant professor, that's the next generation, that's the future of what this institution is going to be," Kevil said. "We thought it's really important to identify what those people are doing at such an early stage in their career, because not only does that let people know who they are, it lets them know how important they are to us."
14 researchers were recognized in five different award categories this year.
Excellence in Extramural Funding
- Dr. Karen Stokes
- Dr. Wayne Orr
- Dr. Lynn Harrison
Excellence in Translational Research
- Dr. Sushil Jain
Excellence in Innovation
- Dr. Ricardo Costa
- Dr. Giovanni Solitro
Research Rising Star
- Dr. Art Yurdagul, Jr.
- Dr. Oren Rom
Excellence in Scholarly Activity
- Dr. Yuping Wang
- Dr. Andrew Yurochko
- Dr. Chris Kevil
- Dr. Alan Kaye
- Dr. Sushil Jain
- Dr. Shile Huang
"We believe that it's important to recognize the research and the researchers that are ongoing, and we look forward to working with the community and announcing other developments and exciting opportunities in the future," Kevil said.
LSU Health Shreveport also recognized two community champions who have donated over $1.5 million dollars to the Shreveport campus.
Roy O. Martin III and Kathy Kilpatrick Martin, donated $3.5 million to the three LSU campuses. $500,000 was specifically gifted to LSU Health Shreveport's new Medical Education Building and has been directed to the new center of emerging viral threats.
Dewey Corley was recognized for his commitment of $1.2 million to establish the first endowment for the Center of Excellence for the emerging viral threats. This gift will provide fundamental support to the center, enhancing the capabilities of researchers at LSU Health Shreveport to address public health need in North Louisiana.
"There is a whole lot of blue skies ahead," Kevil said.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/14-researchers-recognized-achievements-lsu-health-shreveport/9583827002/
| 2022-04-29T19:04:52
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https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/14-researchers-recognized-achievements-lsu-health-shreveport/9583827002/
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CALIFORNIA, USA — The first time April Acosta applied for cash assistance 18 years ago, the Baldwin Park mother of a 2-year-old thought it would help pull her out of a cycle of dead-end desk jobs.
She signed up for CalWorks, the state’s cash aid program for low-income adults with children, hoping she could enroll in community college, get a degree and leave the medical referral office where she had developed carpal tunnel syndrome.
Instead of pointing her toward school, a Los Angeles County case worker handed her a list of places to get a new job and said that if she didn’t land one, her CalWorks benefits would be cut.
She continued taking jobs, off and on, that would have met the program’s requirements, but they didn’t help her get ahead. They were a patchwork of “lower-end,” often temporary office jobs, answering phones and filing papers. Now at 51 she says she has rarely made much above minimum wage.
“It felt like being forced,” she said about that first encounter with CalWorks. “It was like trying to get me to work more than anything else. It wasn’t a career.”
For a quarter of a century, the “work first” welfare model that Acosta and many other people experience has defined California’s cash assistance program. Work requirements were the pillar of the 1996 federal welfare reforms that President Bill Clinton signed into law and that states have been pushed to enforce ever since.
But advocates for the poor and many policy experts have long criticized the federal rules as rigid, punitive and born out of racist tropes about Black single mothers abusing welfare. They say it sometimes hurts those it’s supposed to help.
Some state officials and advocates are trying to change that, but there are challenges.
“The current program is really just focused on: can you get people into jobs as much as possible. Everything else is secondary,” said Esi Hutchful, policy analyst at the California Budget and Policy Center, which advocates for low-income Californians.
California’s welfare rules
Nationwide, the number of families receiving cash aid has plunged from a peak of 5 million in 1994 to roughly a fifth of that today. Incentivized by the 1996 federal law, many states enacted policies that slashed enrollment.
California has been more generous than the rest of the country. Today people in the Golden State make up nearly a third of all cash aid recipients nationwide. The federal government gives California $3.7 billion a year for what is called the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which the state operates as CalWorks.
Last year more than 606,000 Californians received cash aid, about 461,000 of them children. For single-parent households, the typical recipient family receives aid for 23 months, state data show.
The average number of families receiving cash assistance has fallen dramatically since the 1990s. From 1996 to 2021, the monthly caseload decreased by 82% nationwide and 73% in California.
The state has tried to loosen work restrictions over the years, as similar efforts at the federal level have stalled.
California created its own set of more flexible rules, letting low-income parents sidestep some federal work requirements in favor of a wider range of educational opportunities or services to address such obstacles as mental health issues, domestic violence or other circumstances that can keep people from being able to hold down stable jobs.
The state plans to measure success by how families’ lives improve, not just how many work hours recipients log. It could look at recipients’ educational attainment or improvements in family and child wellbeing, officials said.
“We recognize together the flaws embedded in just having this (work) metric,” said Kim Johnson, director of the state’s Department of Social Services earlier this month. “We would recognize that work and employment are one component of many in terms of the success of CalWorks.”
But federal rules could hinder efforts to transform the program. Focusing on other priorities means focusing less on work requirements, which states still are liable to enforce.
California’s 58 counties administer CalWorks. If they fail to usher in enough recipients to jobs, the federal government can levy financial penalties against the state, which would share half that cost with the counties.
“The counties’ share of the penalty has been an incredibly inhibiting element, impeding the work into which we have already invested so much time, effort and goodwill,” said Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, a Fresno Democrat, during a legislative hearing this month. He said he is interested in writing language into the state budget that would shield county departments from such financial penalties.
Meeting a target
For states and counties, the Clinton-era version of welfare in place today revolves around a single metric known as the work participation rate.
It calls for at least 50% of recipient families to have an adult working at least 30 hours a week at a job or attending a vocational training program, with some exceptions. Families risk having their benefits cut if they don’t meet the requirement.
Proponents of the work requirements — Republicans and Democrats — said in the 1990s that those receiving government aid should be expected to work. They said it would promote financial independence and reduce the number of families cycling on and off aid.
At first it seemed to be working. In the first five years after reforms kicked in, welfare caseloads and child poverty fell. Employment among single mothers — the heads of household in most recipient families — rose.
But in recent decades, according to the Congressional Research Service, caseloads have continued to fall while child poverty has climbed, and single mothers’ employment has dropped.
Stricter program requirements, according to one 2019 study, did not increase participants’ earnings. Another 2019 study found those subject to the requirements were the most likely to cycle in and out of the welfare system.
Some anti-poverty advocates say the work rules don’t account for barriers to employment that a family in crisis may be facing, such as mental illness or domestic violence — which a fifth of CalWorks recipients have faced, according to the California Budget and Policy Center.
Also four in 10 of recipient heads of households don’t have a high school diploma.
The requirements were implemented “under the idea that people are poor because they want to be poor or they aren’t working hard enough,” Hutchful said.
“A lot of people are experiencing mental health crises or domestic violence or substance use and are not really in a position to be able to just come to a program for assistance and be told, ‘In the next 30 days you need to go get a job, never mind what your actual life situation is like.’”
States usually only meet the federal rates through “gimmicks,” said Michael Herald, director of policy advocacy for the Western Center on Law and Poverty. Some were able to lower their targets by reducing their welfare rolls. California boosted its rate by giving many working food assistance recipients an additional $10 a month out of its welfare funds.
Acosta said the pressure on her to get training or a job were not helpful.
“Every time I had to deal with the CalWorks department, it was always fear,” she said. “They’re gonna tell me I have to do this, I’m gonna get sanctioned for this, I’m gonna get cut. It was really nerve-wracking, and it’s not somewhere I want to be, ever.”
More flexible rules
In 2012 California sought to make changes.
A state law passed that year allowing CalWorks recipients to spend up to 24 of their months on cash aid on a more flexible set of tasks outside the federal work requirements, including a wider range of educational options and some employment “barrier reduction” activities such as mental health care.
Recipients raising very young children also had their weekly required work activity hours lowered.
In May, the more flexible state activities will be allowed for a recipient’s entire time on cash aid. Also this year, the state’s lifetime limit on an adult receiving cash aid is scheduled to increase to 60 months, from 48.
Other changes are in the pipeline.
Newsom’s administration wants to pay previous CalWorks recipients millions of dollars it has intercepted in child support payments as a form of “recoupment” for the cash aid.
Lawmakers also are considering looser restrictions on activities allowed for program participants and requiring exemptions for recipients escaping domestic violence.
The 2012 law’s impact is still being measured. The Rand Corp. is studying whether it has led to increased employment or wages among recipients.
In the meantime, Acosta has been able to receive aid while finally being able to pursue higher education. She and her 17-year-old son receive about $700 a month.
Recently she enrolled at Rio Hondo College to pursue an associate’s degree in business administration. This time her schooling counts toward her CalWorks hours.
“I don’t want to be stuck here again,” she said about receiving welfare. “I could have gone to college a long time ago if they had let me do what I had to do.”
‘Our jobs are on the line’
Some county welfare workers say it’s not so easy moving away from longstanding federal rules.
A Rand report in 2020 said county workers were initially conflicted about the state’s flexible rules and the rigid federal ones, often opting to push recipients to comply with the stricter federal rules.
The federal target work rate, one caseworker said in the report, “is what affects funding and what affects our programs. Our jobs are on the line.”
In some counties, caseworkers felt they would get negative performance evaluations if their clients didn’t contribute to the federal target rate, the report said.
Breanne Holland, who leads a department at American River College in Sacramento that helps students who receive CalWorks benefits, said a student’s case recently was reviewed and his county social worker pressured him to spend a month meeting federal work requirements rather than the state ones. He ended up dropping out of a class.
“It negatively impacted that student’s academic journey,” Holland said.
Since the pandemic, California has sought waivers from the federal government to temporarily allow officials to avoid penalties for not meeting the work requirement.
And Arambula, who chairs a budget subcommittee on health and human services, said in a hearing he may want to permanently shield county departments from such penalties.
A group of advocates convened by the state to recommend changes to CalWorks argues that it’s worth the risk.
“While the penalty is hanging out there, it’s difficult if not impossible to go all in” on program changes, said Cathy Senderling-McDonald, director of the County Welfare Directors Association.
It’s not clear if the Newsom administration would back that change. When asked for comment, Theresa Mier, spokeswoman of the California Department of Social Services, noted that the proposal came from advocates, not the department.
During the hearing, state Department of Finance analyst Jenean Docter pointed to other changes in the welfare system, including additional case management hours and racial equity training for caseworkers.
But the work rate, she said, remains an “inherent feature” of the federal welfare program that is still a shared liability between the state and the counties.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/will-ca-sidestep-federal-work-first-welfare-rules/509-31d22aae-1aab-4001-a54b-acaeecf8e5d6
| 2022-04-29T19:04:52
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/will-ca-sidestep-federal-work-first-welfare-rules/509-31d22aae-1aab-4001-a54b-acaeecf8e5d6
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom released his Extreme Heat Action Plan to build up California's resilience to the increasing heat. Along with advancing an $800 million package in last year's budget for protecting California communities from heat, Newsom said he put forward $37.6 billion toward fighting climate change.
“Extreme heat driven by climate change endangers the lives and livelihoods of Californians in every corner of our state, and threatens our vital natural systems,” he said in a press release.
The Extreme Heat Action Plan's progress will be tracked through the California Climate Adaptation Strategy’s annual reporting process to advance California’s all-of-government approach to climate adaptation. Funding for the comprehensive plan will be allocated to the state's 2022-23 budget.
Additional measures to combat rising heat in California include:
- $2.2 billion from the state's Public Utilities Commission to the Energy Saving Assistance program through 2026 for low income families to have running air conditioning and ventilation.
- $200 million for microgrid development in vulnerable California communities to ensure power stays on during critical heat waves.
- $200,000 per year to support 400 cooling centers across the state (within the large electric utilities' jurisdiction).
- $48.5 million from the Wildlife Conservation Board to restore urban streams as part of the state's nature-based solutions for cooling public and private spaces.
- $2 million from the High-Speed Rail Authority for urban tree planting within vulnerable communities.
The governor's administration announced an "all-of-government approach" to combat extreme heat in four ways:
- Building public awareness and notification. Newsom said an awareness and notification system regarding advisories and services during extreme heat conditions would benefit vulnerable people. The most impacted groups include unhoused residents, outdoor workers, old and young people and others with pre-existing health conditions.
- Strengthening community services and response. The governor's administration said they want the state to support local climate adaption and implementation planning, along with establishing heat illness prevention standards for local workers.
- Increasing resilience of the built environment. Though this initiative, Newsom wants to protect critical energy, transportation and other infrastructures affected by extreme heat. Relevant regulations, and cooling technologies then come into play.
- Utilizing nature-based solutions. This would include providing strategic shade and further regulating temperatures inside of buildings and surfaces during extreme heat events.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/extreme-heat-action-gov-newsom-pledges-376b-fighting-climate-change/103-5329d1d6-6eab-4b80-bf81-fc54678a2460
| 2022-04-29T19:04:58
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/extreme-heat-action-gov-newsom-pledges-376b-fighting-climate-change/103-5329d1d6-6eab-4b80-bf81-fc54678a2460
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OCEANSIDE, Calif. — An off-duty San Diego Police Department officer was treated for minor injuries after being struck by a vehicle while removing tires from Interstate 5 on Friday morning.
The incident was first reported at 6 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.
CHP Officer Hunter Gerber said a semi-truck, driven by a 47-year-old Granada Hills resident, was traveling southbound on Interstate 5 near state Route 76 when two of its tires dislodged and rolled into the southbound traffic lanes on Interstate 5.
The tires caused a traffic back-up and the unidentified SDPD officer, who was in her personal vehicle, pulled over and attempted to remove them from the road, Gerber said.
A 22-year-old man driving a BMW in the fourth southbound lane collided with the officer, Gerber said.
Law enforcement remained on scene until 8:30 a.m. Gerber said that alcohol or drugs are not suspected in the collision, which remains under investigation.
The officer had her personal dog in her car at the time of the accident and it was allowed to load into the ambulance and go to the hospital alongside the officer.
It was unclear if the BMW driver, a Rancho Santa Margarita resident, was cited or at what speed he was driving.
Anyone with information on the collision is encouraged to call the CHP Oceanside office at 760-643-3400.
WATCH RELATED: CHP officer recovering after I-8 freeway shooting, suspect due in court
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/off-duty-sdpd-officer-struck-by-vehicle/509-ac634892-746c-4c73-bca9-513f24088525
| 2022-04-29T19:05:04
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/off-duty-sdpd-officer-struck-by-vehicle/509-ac634892-746c-4c73-bca9-513f24088525
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PORTLAND, Oregon — April will end as one of the wettest on record for Oregon as a spring storm brought the most snow ever recorded at Portland International Airport in the month of April.
The most recent three month outlook from the Climate Prediction Center has the region drying out over the coming months. After record breaking hot temperatures last summer, many are wondering — what will this summer look like?
The short answer is: that's still unclear.
La Niña sticks around
We're currently in the midst of La Niña, a climate pattern characterized by unusually cold temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Its opposite, El Niño, is characterized by warm temperatures. These climate patterns can influence the weather experienced on land.
Episodes of El Niño or La Niña typically last between nine to 12 months, but can sometimes last for years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA released an outlook this week stating La Niña is favored to continue through at least the summer. NOAA reported a 59% chance La Niña will stay through August and a 50-55% chance it may stick around through the fall.
La Niña impacts on the Northwest
La Niña's impacts on our Northwest winters are somewhat predictable. In broad generalities we tend to be cooler and wetter than our 30-year averages in monthly temperature and precipitation — and on the whole, that's what has happened this year.
Summer impacts are far less clear.
"There is a lot of variability and, indeed the climate prediction center right now is forecasting for our three month outlook, an equal chance of warmer than average and cooler than average,” said Chris Burling, forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Northeast Portland.
Our current La Niña started in late 2020. In summer of 2021, June brought three consecutive days of all-time record heat, topping out at a blistering 116 degrees on June 28.
The region also registered two dozen 90-degree days last year — almost double the 30-year average.
Rewind a few years to 2017 and 2018. Coming out of a weak La Niña, PDX registered its hottest summer on record with 31 days at or above 90 degrees.
On the contrast, going back a little further, the summers of 2011 and 2012 were also La Niña summers, and those were considered cool and late arriving. In 2011, the region didn’t register its first 90 degree day until August 20.
What to expect this summer
NOAA is predicting a hot summer just about everywhere except the Great Lakes region. Some of the hottest temperatures are predicted in the four-corner states: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
It's nearly a given the Northwest will dry out. On average, July and August tally just 1.05" of rain for those 62 days. It's not uncommon to register far less.
"It certainly helps to have a wetter and cooler start in terms of fire weather season and the snow pack and the cascades," said Burling.
Officials from the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) said if this wet spring continues, fire season likely won't start until June, which is later than some recent years.
"The last couple of years, we've been starting fire season earlier and that's just because we've seen that dry weather in the spring and we didn't get as much rain last year and the year before," said Natalie Weber, a public information officer for ODF. " We've been fortunate to see systems come through and more rain this year."
Fire season typically starts anywhere from mid-May to early June. Last year, it officially started on May 12.
Perhaps we'll keep our Northwest sky free of smoke a little longer this year, thought that may be a tall order. A large chunk of central and southern Oregon are still suffering through extended extreme drought.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a drought emergency in four more counties this week, bringing the total to 11 counties. They are Deschutes, Grant, Lake and Malheur, Crook, Gilliam, Harney, Jackson, Jefferson, Klamath and Morrow counties.
All the counties with a declared drought emergency are east of the Cascade Mountains.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/la-nina-impact-oregon-summer-weather/283-b75a0df3-6b27-4210-a4b3-cebfa8279882
| 2022-04-29T20:07:48
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/la-nina-impact-oregon-summer-weather/283-b75a0df3-6b27-4210-a4b3-cebfa8279882
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BEAVERTON, Ore. — Michael Trotter, the Washington County Sheriff's deputy who was critically injured early Wednesday morning when a car full of teenagers ran a red light and crashed into his patrol car on Tualatin Valley Highway in Beaverton, is expected to survive but faces a long road to recovery.
All five teenagers in the car were students at Southridge High School in Beaverton. Two of the students, Matthew Amaya and Juan Pacheco Aguilera, died in the crash. Three others were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. They have not been identified.
RELATED: 'He was everything I had': Families mourn the loss of two Southridge students in Wednesday crash
The deputy's wife, Heather Trotter, talked to KGW on Thursday outside of the hospital where her husband is receiving treatment. She recounted the moment that her husband's colleagues from the sheriff's office knocked on her door Wednesday morning after the crash.
"I was like 'Oh my god, is he alive?'" Heather Trotter said. "[They said] 'Yeah, no, yes — but we don't know his condition,' And I was like 'Oh my god, thank you ... OK, breathe.' Then I made it up the stairs, tried to receive the information that I was given and we left the house promptly and came here."
During a Wednesday press conference, Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett described Trotter's condition as critical but stable and said he faces a "long road to recovery." Garrett said Trotter has been with the Washington County Sheriff's Office since 2013 and has been a full-time patrol deputy since 2015.
On Thursday, Heather Trotter shared more information about the extent of her husband's injuries. "His pelvis is destroyed," she said. "He had internal bleeding. ... It's a fairly low prognosis that he will get full function in his left leg."
At the same time, the families and friends of five teenagers are also dealing with the devastation. Abel Navarro, Amaya's cousin, told KGW he heard the tragic news from his uncle Wednesday morning.
"You're not supposed to go before your parents," he said. "That's hurting me, my dad, my uncle. It's hurting everybody."
A relative of Aguilera told KGW she would forever miss him.
"He was just a really kind person," she said. "He was motivated to do better, he was trying to graduate early. He just always made sure everyone was OK. He put everyone before himself."
As the reality of the damage becomes clear, Heather Trotter said the community support and pride for her husband's work keeps her going.
"I don't know that I can say thank you enough," she said. "The big thing is that Mike's alive. That's what makes me fine."
In the aftermath of the crash, at least two GoFundMe pages have been established for the victims. Aguilera's sister posted one in hopes that the community can support them with funeral expenses, and it's raised more than $14,000 of a $10,000 goal. Another page supporting Trotter's recovery has raised more than $81,000 of an extended $100,000 goal.
The Washington County Crash Analysis and Reconstruction Team (CART) is investigating the crash. Anyone with information is asked to call (503) 629-0111.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/washington-county/wife-injured-deputy-mike-trotter-speaks/283-695a95a1-e1bb-4a82-aa7f-f613659515f0
| 2022-04-29T20:07:54
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/washington-county/wife-injured-deputy-mike-trotter-speaks/283-695a95a1-e1bb-4a82-aa7f-f613659515f0
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Authorities are responding to a high school in Rockland County where school district officials say three students were reportedly stabbed in the parking lot.
The incident appeared to start as an argument not long after Spring Valley High School dismissed students for the day, a spokesperson for the East Ramapo Central School District said. The high school lets out right before 2 p.m.
At least three students were "injured with lacerations from a knife," after the argument turned violent, the spokesperson said. All three were taken to nearby hospitals; one of the students had serious wounds.
School resource officers and security separated the students and took a student into custody, the spokesperson added.
No other details were immediately available.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/multiple-students-stabbed-at-high-school-in-rockland-county-officials-say/3669465/
| 2022-04-29T20:09:59
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/multiple-students-stabbed-at-high-school-in-rockland-county-officials-say/3669465/
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Push is on to raise Medicaid reimbursements, support better wages in health care
PROVIDENCE – During a nearly five-hour hearing Thursday evening, clients, legislators, advocates and leaders of unions, health centers, hospitals, nursing homes and social-service organizations testified in favor of a cluster of Senate bills that together would implement long-overdue increases in Medicaid reimbursements and adopt other measures aimed at improving access and the quality of health care services for needy Rhode Island babies, children and adults.
The picture they presented was of a system long neglected by the state and in deepening crisis.
"We were once in top-10 in the country and now we're in the bottom 10 and slowly sinking into the quicksand. The system is broken and broken badly. We need to fix it," said former state Sen. John J. Tassoni Jr., now the vice president of operations for the Substance Use Mental Health Leadership Council of RI.
"I now have waiting lists where I never had waiting lists before," said Daniel J. Kubas-Meyer, president and CEO of Thrive, which is headquartered in Warwick. "Right now we are in a crisis situation."
"It is unconscionable to have people waiting for services for months or in some cases for our children being denied services. We just cannot tolerate that as a state," said Maureen Maigret, chair of the Long Term Care Coordinating Council, in a reference to the difficulties youngsters and elders experience in finding behavioral health services.
'Find the levers of power within the system'
Patrick Crowley, secretary and treasurer of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, spoke of how persistently low Medicaid reimbursement rates have made it difficult for nonprofit organizations to attract and retain employees when many of them, already struggling to meet payroll, cannot afford to pay competitive wages.
"It is harder and harder and harder to attract people into this work," Crowley said. "Not just because of the long hours, not just because of the personal sacrifices that members make on a daily basis, but because [health care jobs] don't pay well enough. And it's about time that we find the levers of power within the system to change that and the reimbursement rates."
Two bills sponsored by state Sen. Louis P. DiPalma, who with Rep. Julie A. Casimiro is spearheading the campaign for change, would raise those rates. Both bills have been signed by all 38 of Rhode Island's state senators, an unusual example of bipartisan support of major proposed legislation.
Thursday's hearing drew a crowd that packed the Senate Lounge, where testimony was heard, spilled into a corridor and filled two other rooms at the State House.
Christina Battista, who lives with a disability and is employed by the nonprofit Skills for Rhode Island's Future, spoke of the personal-care assistants, paid through Medicaid, who help her live a fulfilling life. The thought of worker shortages leaving her or others without them is disturbing, Battista said.
"Imagine not being able to start your day because your personal-care assistant doesn't show up for work. Imagine one day that you may need a personal-care assistant because you unfortunately cannot dress yourself, feed yourself or do any activity of daily living independently," Battista said.
The long fight for better wages
"We have been fighting for so long to have better wages for our personal-care assistants and support staff for those that help individuals with disabilities ... My personal-care assistants are my family, my friends. And without them, I wouldn't be able to be here before all of you today."
"The state's nonprofit behavioral health and social services infrastructure is in the worst condition it has been since the 1980s," said Ben Lessing, president and CEO of northern Rhode Island-based Community Care Alliance.
"One of the consequences of the depletion of the nonprofit sector is that we have now unprecedented numbers of children that are being boarded in hospital emergency rooms because there are basically no services in the community. And the waiting lists for inpatient care for children's behavioral-health services are off the charts.
"In addition to that," Lessing said, "what we're hearing is that kids are stuck now in hospitals and can't get out because there are no follow-up services both in terms of child psychiatry as well as other clinical and case-management services and so forth."
"We need to get this over the goal line," said DiPalma. "We need to get this done."
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/push-rhode-island-raise-medicaid-reimbursements/9570292002/
| 2022-04-29T20:34:04
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/push-rhode-island-raise-medicaid-reimbursements/9570292002/
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FORT WORTH, Texas — Attorneys for fired former Fort Worth Officer Aaron Dean, who is accused in the October 2019 shooting death of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson, are seeking to delay the start of his trial next month.
Dean’s attorneys told District Judge David Hagerman in a hearing Friday morning that Jim Lane, the lead defense attorney, is having serious health issues. Lane was not present during Friday’s hearing.
During the hearing, the judge told the attorneys to have their written motion for continuance filed by the close of business Monday. Attorneys for Dean have also sought to move the trial out of Tarrant County and a motion for change of venue is scheduled to be heard Monday.
Dean is charged with murder.
On the night Jefferson was killed, a neighbor had called the police requesting a welfare check after he saw the door open at Jefferson’s Fort Worth home.
Jefferson was playing video games with her then-8-year-old nephew when Dean walked into the backyard. She grabbed her gun and had gotten up to look out the window when she was shot, police records show. Jefferson died at the scene.
An arrest warrant stated three times that Dean did not announce he was a police officer when he walked around the house. Dean declined to give a statement to Fort Worth investigators.
Dean resigned before he could be fired, Fort Worth Police Department officials have said.
As it currently stands, jury selection is slated to begin May 9, with the trial itself starting May 16.
If the delay is granted, it would be the third time that his trial has been rescheduled. It had previously been scheduled for November and then January.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/ex-fort-worth-officer-aaron-deans-delay-in-trial/287-5d6fd991-b1fc-4afa-b6b4-17ccb3fe5bdf
| 2022-04-29T20:42:52
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/ex-fort-worth-officer-aaron-deans-delay-in-trial/287-5d6fd991-b1fc-4afa-b6b4-17ccb3fe5bdf
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PHOENIX — An Oklahoma City couple was supposed to have a Vegas wedding, but when their flight was canceled they decided to get married high in the sky.
Pam Salda never imagined her wedding would involve so many strangers on a Southwest flight. But now, she and her husband Jeremy Salda wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It was just sweet and special, and everything just fell into place so effortlessly,” said Pam.
The couple met on Bumble the first summer of the pandemic.
“I met Jeremy on my first ever Bumble date and I knew he was the one. I knew,” said Pam.
From there the Oklahoma City couple’s love grew. They got engaged a year and a half later in Cancun.
They plan on having their wedding in Cabo in May but had to get a U.S. wedding certificate to make it official.
When TSA dropped the mask mandate, they decided it was a perfect opportunity to fly to Vegas that weekend and get hitched.
“We were just going to pop out there. You know, spend a couple of days coming back. Not tell anyone to be a fun getaway. And boy did it go a little bit differently,” said Pam.
The couple came to the airport with their wedding clothes on to make it to Vegas as soon as they got off the plane. But the flight got canceled during a Texas layover, making their timely arrival to Vegas unlikely.
A fellow passenger with tickets on the canceled flight happened to be an ordained minister. He agreed to do the ceremony. From there, the three rushed to the airport to make the next flight to Vegas. But because of the Phoenix layover, it became clear they weren’t going to make their wedding ceremony in time.
"Pam goes, 'I don't think we're gonna make it. But, you know, we may just decide to do it right here on the plane.' And he's [the pilot] like, 'Really?' And she's like, 'Yeah, and he's like, okay, let's do it,'" said Jeremy.
So the two said “I do” as they crossed Arizona instead, making for a memorable moment for everyone involved.
“One of the passengers had this little 6x9 spiral notebook. And she ripped out the pages that she had written in and says, here's your guestbook,” said Jeremy.
They eventually made it to Vegas. Now they have an even better story to tell.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: Pareja se casa en pleno vuelo a Phoenix después de que varias cancelaciones arruinaran sus planes de boda
Up to Speed
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/couple-gets-married-on-flight-to-phoenix-after-cancellations-ruin-vegas-wedding-plans/75-79da45ee-ece5-4bd8-b307-82fbcb8fa9e7
| 2022-04-29T20:52:02
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Downtown Sacramento is bringing back its weekly seasonal Certified Farmers’ Market along Capitol Mall beginning Wednesday, May 4.
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the market features at least 25 vendors every Wednesday through Sept. 28, at 6th Street & Capitol Mall. Visitors can enjoy fresh produce, flower bouquets and “Al Fresco” hot lunch options from popular local food vendors with food made from locally sourced goods. This includes food trucks, popular restaurants and rotating food vendors over the next 22 weeks.
Certified Farmers’ Market also plans to accommodate a priority pick-up hour for chefs between 9 and 10 a.m. The program directly connects farmers to chefs and gives first access to restaurants and businesses who wish to secure fresh, local produce.
Visit Downtown Sacramento’s website or social media pages for more information on parking, vendors and more.
RELATED:
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Meet Hong Tran, one of the owners of Mak & Grille | Interview
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/certified-farmers-market-downtown-sacramento/103-3052b137-a679-4d80-ad81-066f1922d0b2
| 2022-04-29T20:52:08
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STOCKTON, Calif. — A new Amazon Facility opened its doors in Stockton on Friday.
The new facility is one of four Amazon facilities in California and the second in Stockton. However, this facility is slightly different from the rest as it is an "Inbound Cross Dock center." There are only a handful of these types of facilities across the United States.
The ultimate goal of this new facility is to get orders out to customers faster — ensuring their one-day shipping promise – by supplementing the work of nearby fulfillment centers. Amazon says the new facility will bring thousands of high-paying jobs to Stockton.
The new site in Stockton officially launched in October and over the last four months, they have hired more than 2,000 employees. In the coming weeks and months, they plan to hire at least 500 more employees. Around the holidays, they plan on hiring even more employees, putting more Stockton-area residents back to work.
“In the coming days, there are going to be a lot of opportunities for employees and individuals in the community to join us," Ram Rajagopal, Amazon SCK4's General Manager, said. "I’d say it’s a great opportunity, especially given the wages, the benefits, and more importantly the career development opportunities and the career choice program."
With so many employees racing daily under one roof to meet Amazon's one-day shipping promise, the general manager says he is making safety a top priority for the facility.
Rajagopal said the facility will require rigorous safety training on the first day of work, provide safety shoes to each worker, have a bathroom available within a minute walk from every work station, and have a wellness center on-site to treat any in-house injuries.
“In Amazon and SCK4, we obsess over customer safety," Rajagopal said. "When we launched this building, we launched this to be the employer of choice in Stockton, obsessing over people’s safety, having a very diverse alignment and focusing on talent development.”
To continue to serve the community as one of the biggest employers in the Stockton area, the facility has partnered with the Stockton Emergency Food Bank to give back monetary donations and volunteer work.
The minimum wage at Stockton's new Amazon facility starts at $17.55. You can apply to work at the new facility HERE.
Watch more from ABC10: How Stockton pastors connected to kids after school stabbing
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/stockton/amazon-facility-stockton-opens-hiring-employees/103-333623d4-4aff-48af-976e-2d671b57c93f
| 2022-04-29T20:52:14
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Primary Election 2022: Former councilor Solomon up against Eugene Ward 4 incumbent Yeh
Eugene City Councilor Jennifer Yeh will be going up against former Councilor Jennifer Solomon in the primary race to represent Ward 4. The ward is located in northeast Eugene, north of the Willamette River and east of Gilham and Oakway roads. Here is a bit about both:
Jennifer Solomon
Jennifer Solomon, a former Eugene city councilor, said she wants to return to be a voice for community members who don't feel like their opinions are currently represented in the council.
"This council listens to the people who show up, but most of the time those people don’t represent the majority," Solomon wrote in an email to The Register-Guard. "To that end, I will actively solicit opinions and advice and questions from citizens, especially those in Ward 4."
Issues and projects Solomon said she's most interested in are address homelessness and housing affordability, securing voter approval for the city's Community Safety Initiative payroll tax, and helping grow job opportunities and business in the community.
Homelessness is a topic Solomon said she thinks has not been on the council's agenda enough recently, and said she wants to amplify the work of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce by promoting business owners' ideas in council meetings.
"I am personally really concerned about our homeless issue and want to be part of solutions — that's plural because there isn't one solution," Solomon said. "I don't feel like this issue is on council's agenda very much anymore. It should be. The Chamber of Commerce is doing some great work in this area. They've assembled a group of business owners who want to be part of the solutions, too. I hope to advance their proposals at council."
Solomon lives in Eugene with her husband and has two sons who attend OSU. She works as the director of philanthropy at Relief Nursery, an organization she said works to strengthen families and keep children safe. Solomon previously represented the Bethel Danebo area from 2002 to 2010 on the City Council.
Jennifer Yeh
The incumbent, Jennifer Yeh, has represented Ward 4 since 2017, and said she wants to continue to advocate for the issues and people who first elected her to the position. After moving back to Eugene in 2007, Yeh said joining her local neighborhood association and serving on the board, including years as its chair, were important to teach her "how much potential our city has and how valuable our neighbors are."
Those issues she wanted to take to city government include making community engagement equitable and inclusive, supporting affordable housing, investing in public safety and forwarding the city's climate goals.
Completed projects Yeh is most proud of include serving on the city's Community Safety Revenue Team, which recommended the Community Safety Payroll Tax, and work on development and obtaining funding for developing Striker Field, which is in Ward 4. That tax boosted funding for the city's fire and EMS department, services for youth, courts, police and more.
Now and in the next term, Yeh's top priority is increasing the city's supply of housing and especially lower-cost housing, she said.
"We have made good use of current funding sources and added to that with the creation of our own Housing Trust Fund, and this focus needs to continue," Yeh said. "I will continue to collaborate with our community on ways we can encourage and incentivize housing people can afford both to rent and to purchase."
Yeh is the incoming, co-executive director of the Lane County Historical Society, starting in July. Yeh moved to Eugene nearly 30 years ago as a student at the University of Oregon, where she met her husband, before moving away for a few years. Having two half-Asian children, Yeh said it was important to her to live in a community that values diversity and inclusion, "something we believe Eugene strives for."
Louis Krauss covers breaking news for The Register-Guard. Contact him at lkrauss@registerguard.com, and follow him on Twitter @LouisKraussNews.
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https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/politics/elections/local/2022/04/29/eugene-city-council-ward-4-incumbent-yeh-faces-former-councilor-solomon/65352543007/
| 2022-04-29T21:17:31
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New York will hold its congressional and state Senate primaries on Aug. 23, a state judge ordered Friday.
Steuben County Judge Patrick McAllister said that special master Jonathan Cervas will finish drawing up new maps by May 20.
In the meantime, state and local election officials will prepare to once again hold separate primaries in June and August.
New York is set to hold gubernatorial and state Assembly primaries in June, unless lawmakers decide to delay.
New York’s highest court rejected Wednesday new congressional and state senate maps that had widely been seen as favoring Democrats.
The majority decision largely agreed with Republican voters who argued the district boundaries were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
The ruling also dashed Democrats’ national redistricting hopes, which leaned heavily on their ability to gerrymander New York state to maximize the number of seats they could win in the U.S. House of Representatives.
News
A state board of elections spokesperson said Thursday the state is asking the U.S. Justice Department to see if a federal court might need to review any change to the date of the primary.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/ny-to-move-some-primaries-to-august-after-court-tosses-maps/3669609/
| 2022-04-29T21:18:02
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FORT MYERS, Fla. — While airlines are fighting to fill pilots in cockpits, a new training school is opening in Southwest Florida to get students off the ground through an accelerated program.
ATP Flight School opened its new 19,000 square-foot training center at Page Field in Fort Myers on Thursday. The new facility is part of the school’s network of 70 locations nationwide that train pilots.
Over the next ten years, airlines are looking to fill over 14,500 aviator jobs nationally to avoid major delays and flight cancelations, especially as Americans are looking to travel frequently after the pandemic.
ATP’s program aims to take students with zero flight training to flight instructor status in as little as seven months. The school then partners with major and regional airlines to get pilots on direct paths to join when they reach 1500 hours of flight time.
The Fort Myers flight school is partnering with Spirit Airlines’ new Spirit Direct Program. The airline has been a big part of the RSW flight log for nearly 30 years.
“We’re hiring a lot of pilots, we’re hiring over 120 pilots a month right now,” said Ryan Rodosta, Senior Director of Flight Operations with Spirit Airlines.
“You learn skills it’s like we’re a trade school essentially, right,” said Peter Solari, ATP Fort Myers’ head flight instructor.
Solari now instructs future pilots after passing ATP’s courses himself in just nine months.
“So I’m in talks with one of our partners right now. So I’m just building those hours. I’m about halfway through,” he said. “We have the opportunity to kind of create the culture and make aviation great.”
Spirit Airlines displayed their newest Airbus A320neo at Thursday’s event at ATP. This is the type of plane the school is training pilots to eventually fly as a first officer when they reach 1500 hours of flying. The whole process can take about two years, according to Rodosta.
“Follow your dreams. This is a passion-driven industry,” said Rodosta.
Learn more about ATP Flight School and their partnering airlines at ATPflightschool.com
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https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/04/29/southwest-floridas-newest-flight-school-fighting-back-on-pilot-shortage/
| 2022-04-29T22:17:55
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HOUSTON — The experiences of panicked concertgoers who couldn’t breathe and had no clear path to escape a massive crowd surge at last year’s deadly Astroworld music festival in Houston are featured in a documentary released Friday.
The video above is from previous reporting.
But lawyers for Live Nation, which is being sued for its role as the festival’s promoter, say they’re concerned that publicity from the documentary, “Concert Crush: The Travis Scott Festival Tragedy,” could “taint the jury pool.” A gag order has been issued in the case, but Live Nation’s lawyers say an attorney who filed lawsuits related to the tragedy also co-produced the documentary. A spokesperson for Scott, who is also being sued, was also critical.
Charlie Minn, the film’s director, said he believes he has made a balanced and fair film that tries to show the public what happened.
“My job is to make the most truthful, honest, sincere documentary from the victim’s point of view ... We need to know about these stories to prevent it from happening again,” Minn told The Associated Press.
Around 500 lawsuits have been filed following the Nov. 5 concert headlined by Scott, a popular rapper. Ten people died and hundreds of others were injured during the massive crowd surge.
The documentary, showing in 11 Texas cities including Austin, Dallas and Houston, includes interviews with several people who survived the crowd surge. It also features cellphone video shot by concertgoers in which people can be heard repeatedly screaming for help.
“It’s hard to explain to friends and family what we saw and what we actually went through and I think (the documentary) will give a lot of people the opportunity, if you weren’t there, to understand,” said Frank Alvarez, who attended the concert but does not appear in the film.
The film highlights what concertgoers experienced and what led to the tragedy, said Minn, who has also made documentaries about the deadly 2018 shooting at a suburban Houston high school and violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
RELATED: Harris County fire marshal responds to Texas Concert Safety report related to Astroworld Festival
The film suggests Scott could have done more to prevent the conditions that led to the casualties, but Minn said it isn’t a “hit piece toward Travis Scott.” He said it also questions whether others, including Live Nation and Houston police, could have done more to improve safety or respond more quickly to the danger. Minn said Scott, Live Nation and Houston police declined to be interviewed for the documentary. Houston police are investigating the disaster.
In a report released this month, a task force created by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott uncovered problems with permits for such events and called for “clearly outlined triggers” for stopping such a show.
Attorneys for Live Nation expressed their concerns in a letter this month to state District Judge Kristen Hawkins, who is handling all pretrial matters in the lawsuits.
“The involvement of plaintiffs’ lawyers in the film, and the publicity the filmmakers and producers are trying to generate for it raise significant issues about efforts to taint the jury pool,” Neal Manne and Kevin Yankowsky, two of Live Nation’s attorneys, wrote in the letter.
But the attorneys have not asked Hawkins to take any specific action regarding the documentary.
Manne and Yankowsky did not respond to emails seeking comment. Live Nation has said it’s “heartbroken” by what happened but has denied responsibility.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Scott faulted the documentary’s conclusions “that falsely blame Mr. Scott for the heartbreaking tragedy that occurred.” The statement also criticized the involvement in the film of attorneys who have filed lawsuits in the case and said the film’s goal was “swaying future juries and public opinion.” The spokesperson did not know if Scott has seen the documentary.
“Mr. Scott remains focused on his philanthropic work in his hometown of Houston and in lower-income communities of color across the country, both of which are longstanding efforts,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Cassandra Burke Robertson, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said she would be shocked if the judge would take any action regarding the documentary because of First Amendment concerns, even with the gag order.
“I think the public interest here in exploring what happened and avoiding similar tragedies in the future, that’s a really big interest. That is likely to outweigh the interests of the particular outcome of the particular lawsuit,” Robertson said.
Brent Coon, an attorney representing about 1,500 concertgoers who was interviewed in the documentary, said he doesn’t think the film would impact the ability to choose an impartial jury if the case goes to trial, which could be years away.
“I don’t think any lawyer in this case could fan the flames much to change ... what the public’s perception of all this is going to be,” Coon said.
Robertson, who is not involved in the litigation, said the fact that one of the film’s co-producers, Rick Ramos, is representing concertgoers who have filed lawsuits could raise some ethical concerns. It was unclear how Ramos was benefitting financially from his involvement in the documentary.
Ramos declined to comment Thursday.
“I personally would not co-sponsor something like that during pending civil litigation. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It’s just something I wouldn’t do,” Coon said.
Minn said the questions asked about Ramos’ participation are valid but he never hid his involvement.
“People have to watch the film and judge it for what that is,” Minn said.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/astroworld-movie-set-for-release-despite-lawyers-concerns/285-44671cf4-f6e8-4ded-b5ec-3fac0aee411a
| 2022-04-29T22:27:26
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AUSTIN, Texas — On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Speaker Dade Phelan, Senate Finance Committee Chair Joan Huffman, and House Appropriations Committee Chair Dr. Greg Bonnen approved the transfer of $495.3 million to continue Operation Lone Star and other operations at other state agencies.
The funds will go toward the deployment of the Texas National Guard as well as addressing border security needs. Future funding will also be evaluated, the governor's office said in a press release.
"Texas will not sit on the sidelines as President Biden continues turning a blind eye to the crisis at our southern border," said Gov. Abbott. "Texans’ safety and security is our top priority, and we will continue fighting to keep our communities safe. This additional funding ensures the Lone Star State is fully equipped to provide Texans the border security strategy they demand and deserve."
Gov. Abbott's office added that the governor has taken the following actions at the border:
- Securing $4 billion in funding for Texas' border security efforts
- Launching Operation Lone Star and deploying thousands of National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers
- Arresting and jailing illegal migrants trespassing or committing other state crimes in Texas
- Allocating resources that include acquiring 1,700 unused steel panels to build the border wall in Texas
- Signing a law to make it easier to prosecute smugglers bringing people into Texas
- Signing 15 laws cracking down on human trafficking in Texas
- Signing a law enhancing penalties for the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl
- Issuing a disaster declaration for the border crisis
- Issuing an executive order preventing non-governmental entities from transporting illegal immigrants
- Taking legal action to enforce the Remain in Mexico policy
- Taking aggressive action to secure the border as President Biden ends Title 42 expulsions, including busing migrants to Washington, D.C.
- Signing memoranda of understanding between the State of Texas and the States of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas to enhance border security measures that will prevent illegal immigration from Mexico to Texas
Texas politicians and law enforcement have expressed different conclusions regarding the efficacy of the governor's program. Now more than a year into Operation Lone Star, authorities are still dealing with a high number of migrants at the border.
RELATED OPERATION LONE STAR HEADLINES:
- Texas politicians, law enforcement leaders have different conclusions on efficiency of Gov. Abbott’s border crackdown
- Gov. Abbott discusses border security efforts at meeting with Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition
- Texas This Week: 'We're essentially mall security,' James Barragán discusses conditions for service members in Operation Lone Star
- Gov. Greg Abbott replaces Texas military leader who has overseen heavily criticized border mission
- Future of Operation Lone Star remains uncertain
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/more-funding-approved-for-texas-operation-lone-star/269-f6953781-d9d7-4305-a1d9-c8ca9504c670
| 2022-04-29T22:27:32
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two men have pleaded guilty for their role in an organized retail theft ring that stole about $1 million from stores across California, officials said Friday.
Authorities said Anton Salaam, Marion Paul Tilley and two other suspects stole high-end jewelry from multiple JCPenney and Sam’s Clubs stores in nine counties between September 2020 and February 2021. They then sold or exchanged the items.
The thefts were different from the “flash mob style smash-and-grab” robberies captured on video in California and other states last year, Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
The suspects in this case broke into the stores when they were closed and stole from the jewelry sections.
“Organized retail crime looks like a lot of things,” Bonta said. He announced a similar widespread takedown last month.
The prosecutions came as some critics, including state lawmakers of both political parties, said the state should do more to combat retail theft. But a state Assembly committee this week defeated a bill supported by retailers that would have toughened a 2014 ballot measure that lowered penalties for thefts and other crimes.
Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats and both running for re-election this year, have said the state should better enforce existing laws. Bonta on Friday launched a new way for witnesses to report thefts online.
Newsom signed a law in 2018 that required the California Highway Patrol, working with the state Department of Justice, to create an Organized Retail Crime Task Force. The highway patrol said the task force has since participated in 1,031 investigations resulting in 449 arrests and the recovery of more than $21 million worth of merchandise.
In the most recent case, investigators recovered stolen jewelry from the suspects’ homes. Salaam and Tilley were sentenced to 16 months in prison after pleading guilty to organized retail theft.
The locations of the thefts ranged from Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area to San Bernardino and Santa Clarita counties near Los Angeles. Also targeted were stores across the Central Valley, including those in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Placer, Sacramento and Tulare counties.
The other two suspects also face organized retail theft charges. One is awaiting arraignment in July on that charge and an additional charge of child endangerment for allegedly having an illegal assault weapon in the presence of her 9-year-old child.
The other suspect remains hospitalized for severe injuries following a crash while he being taken into custody by Bullhead, Arizona, police in January 2021. A $50,000 warrant has been issued for his arrest upon his release from treatment.
ABC10: Watch, Download, Read
Watch more from ABC10: $185K worth of stolen items found in Bay Area retail theft bust and more | Jan. 18, 2022
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/two-men-plead-guilty-retail-theft-ring-sacramento-california/103-0120cd07-d130-4c1c-9daf-b9644283bf9a
| 2022-04-29T22:32:55
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Puppy love: Warwick PD's new compassion dog is already having an impact, handler says
The Warwick Police Department's newest officer wriggled through her swearing-in ceremony. She also needed help from Sgt. William Castaldi, who carried her and tried holding up her right paw.
"Do you solemnly swear that you will obey and defend the Constitution of the United States ... truthfully and faithfully discharge all duties ...," Mayor Frank J. Picozzi asked.
With no affirmative bark, just more wriggling from the pup, Castaldi waited a beat, then answered on her behalf. "She does," he said.
"Welcome aboard," Picozzi said, petting the puppy's neck and head as the crowd applauded.
A beacon of HOPE amid RI's opioid crisis:Police, addiction specialists team up
The Warwick Police Department's new compassion dog, Charley, already seems like a celebrity. She has a Facebook page, her own "Charley's Blackberry Jam," has made the rounds on local television and is featured on a special Warwick police shoulder patch.
"I probably get a little more attention now, and I will say it's not because of me," says Castaldi, her handler.
Historic transition: Darnell Weaver sworn in as 15th superintendent of RI State Police
The black Labrador retriever has been on the job for less than a month and hasn't yet had training, but Castaldi says, "She's already made an impact."
Through community fundraising, the Police Department bought Charley for $3,000 in early April. Unlike traditional police dogs that find drugs or missing people, Charley, it is hoped, will help people, both outside and inside the Police Department, find compassion and comfort.
Castaldi got the idea a few years ago when he was serving as a resource officer at Toll Gate High School. Occasionally, the department's canine officers would bring their dogs for a visit. The dogs were always a hit with the kids, who would "want to pet and hug them," Castaldi says. They generated "the kind of positive engagement and interaction I was looking for."
Castaldi started wondering if a dog could fill such a role full-time, serving as a liaison to the community, bridging gaps and easing stress. Over the years, he says, the idea came to fruition with the input of Castaldi's family, the backing of the department and the help of the community, which has supported the effort through fundraisers.
A member of the department's community-services division, Castaldi plans to take Charley on regular visits to places such as schools and nursing homes, but for now, the main task is socializing her. Even within the walls of the police station, she helps officers do their jobs, Castaldi says. He says she's a great stress reducer as officers stop to pet her, play with her or take her out for a walk.
"I think the therapeutic power of the dog is the dog itself," says Castaldi, who has two other dogs and a cat at home.
She couldn't stop one man's jump.:Now she's fighting to add suicide barriers to RI bridges
Charley is living with those other pets, as well as with Castaldi, his wife, Joelle, and sons, Beck, 14, and Kace, 8. (Daughter Sydnee, 22, recently moved out.) In time, Charley might be brought to incidents, where she could help comfort victims or witnesses.
"She is basically a 24-hour service, like our other canines," Castaldi says.
Department members are already having fun with Charley. Introducing the pup via a Facebook post, Castaldi, Capt. Robert Hart and Sgt. Matthew Moretti appeared in a video with a "Jaws" theme.
Introduced by the words, "Something big is coming to Warwick this summer," the video shows Castaldi and Moretti sitting in a small office when Hart walks in and asks Castaldi, "Can you start shredding that paper again?"
A new Buddy in Providence:How Amy Russo's rescue dog is repaying her with friendship
Castaldi gripes, mumbling that Moretti should have to shred the paper, but he eventually gets up and walks out with a box of paper. Seconds later, he returns, slowly backing into the office with his eyes open wide and an awed expression on his face.
"I think we're gonna need a bigger office," he says.
The three then walk out and peer down the hall. What are they looking at? The video cuts to another scene. With the camera shooting from the floor and the "Jaws" theme playing, it shows Charley ambling toward them in a not-so-straight line.
Kidding aside, Castaldi says he thinks Charley will accomplish wonderful things.
jperry@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7614
On Twitter: @jgregoryperry
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/29/warwick-ri-police-department-compassion-comfort-dog-k-9-charley-handler-william-castaldi/9582484002/
| 2022-04-29T22:35:19
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A judge concluded Friday that there was enough evidence to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, but she also gave Maxwell a legal victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the same crime and she can only be sentenced for one.
U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan said in her written ruling that the jury’s guilty verdicts were “readily supported” by extensive witness testimony and documentary evidence at a one-month trial that concluded in December.
Lawyers for Maxwell had asked her to reject the verdict on multiple grounds, including insufficient evidence.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to 2004.
Nathan said that she'll only sentence Maxwell in late June on three of the five counts she was convicted on after concluding that two conspiracy counts were duplicates of the third.
“This legal conclusion in no way calls into question the factual findings made by the jury. Rather, it underscores that the jury unanimously found — three times over — that the Defendant is guilty of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and traffic underage girls for sexual abuse,” Nathan wrote.
The reduction of counts from five to three was not expected to have much effect on the sentencing, when Maxwell could face a sentence ranging from several years to decades in prison.
News
Lawyers for Maxwell did not return messages requesting comment. Prosecutors declined comment.
Earlier this month, the judge refused to toss out Maxwell's conviction after a juror disclosed to other jurors during jury deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a child even though he had not revealed that fact in response to questions about prior sex abuse posed in a written questionnaire.
The juror had said he “skimmed way too fast” through the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the wrong answer to a question about sex abuse.
In refusing to toss the verdict, Nathan said the juror’s failure to disclose his prior sexual abuse during the jury selection process was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate.
The judge also concluded the juror “harbored no bias toward the defendant and could serve as a fair and impartial juror.”
Maxwell, arrested in July 2020, has remained incarcerated. Epstein was 66 when he took his own life in a federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/judge-upholds-ghislaine-maxwells-sex-trafficking-conviction/3669699/
| 2022-04-29T22:50:24
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The City of Fayetteville is making changes to the downtown parking to improve the payment process for residents and visitors.
The Downtown Business District will now have new and modernized payment methods. The 250 on-street parking meters have been replaced with “smart” meters. Residents will now have the option to pay via credit card, ParkMobile app, or with traditional coins.
The smart meters are equipped with sensor technology that identifies the exact moment a car is parked in a space. City officials say the sensors will allow grace periods, during which parking rates will not be required for downtown customers during shorter parking sessions.
“The sensors allow for a friendlier approach to parking enforcement,” said Justin Clay, parking management director for the City. “Also, it gives the ability to relay real-time parking availability via the mobile app.”
On-street meters are either short-term with a two-hour limit, or long-term with no time limit.
Here is the updated parking map.
Parking is still free around the Downtown Square and Gardens for no more than two hours in a four-hour period.
The five city-owned parking lots downtown had 275 single-space coin meters. They now feature pay stations for each lot that use a pay-by-license plate method.
The City says this transition allows the same grace period as the on-street sensors and allows City staff to enforce permits by license plate, removing the need and costs associated with physical permits.
Clays says accessibility will be improved by the removal of single-space meters along sidewalks that are adjacent to parking lots with the new meters.
The new equipment costs were covered with Resolution 6475 in 2021 that changed the on-street parking rates from 25 cents per hour to 50 cents per hour and surface lot rates from 15 cents per hour to 25 cents per hour.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/city-fayetteville-upgrades-downtown-payment-smart-meters/527-e0220640-481e-4859-bb1b-52b7e624af24
| 2022-04-29T23:46:10
| 0
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/city-fayetteville-upgrades-downtown-payment-smart-meters/527-e0220640-481e-4859-bb1b-52b7e624af24
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LAVACA, Ark. — Lavaca Police Chief Chris Toon says five middle school students have warrants for their arrests for a racial-bullying incident on a bus captured on video.
The video shows students on a Lavaca Middle School bus laughing and chanting "Rosa Parks" and "BLM" (Black Lives Matter) to a 13-year-old Black classmate.
"This was malicious. It's horrible. I mean, I just bawled when I saw that video," said the victim's mother. "I just could not believe it. It is so hurtful. I don’t understand how people could think that is anywhere close to ok.”
Lavaca Public Schools released the following message after the video sparked outrage online:
“Lavaca School District became aware of an incident on a school bus that occurred on February 22, 2022. Lavaca School District officials opened an investigation in the incident and after concluding the investigation determined that violations of the school district’s bullying policy occurred.”
After concluding their investigation in February, Lavaca Public Schools determined that the students violated the school district's bullying policy.
Five Lavaca students now have warrants for their arrest following a police investigation.
Police Chief Chris Toon says two of the students face harassment charges, and three have harassment and terroristic threatening charges.
The names of the students will not be released due to their ages.
The victim's mother says the student has since transferred schools.
DOWNLOAD THE 5NEWS APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE 5NEWS APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KFSM in the Channel Store.
For Fire TV, search for "KFSM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com.
|
https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/warrants-issued-lavaca-students-arrests-raciast-bullying-school-bus/527-c0515b17-dcbf-43a8-8eba-84a8368b6a4d
| 2022-04-29T23:46:17
| 1
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/warrants-issued-lavaca-students-arrests-raciast-bullying-school-bus/527-c0515b17-dcbf-43a8-8eba-84a8368b6a4d
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